It was a dark and stormy night, and the elfin army was massed, standing at attention in the middle of a clearing of the forest. At the head of this army of about two hundred archers and three hundred swordsman were two figures with armor alike yet unalike the other soldiers. One was a tall-standing, young-looking elf woman holding a broadsword to her front with both hands casually on the handle, the blade in the ground. She was wearing a shiny crown of silver and gold on her head, and her long white hair was done in one thick braid at her back that reached down to the base of her spine. Her armor was somewhat heavy, finely made, and was of good shiny steel lined with gold that covered most of her body. What didn t cover her body revealed a dress underneath that was made of either silk or something like it. Standing next to her was a slightly shorter and younger woman who had features like the other. Her armor was a little skimpier, but of the same material. Steel bracers around her forearms as well as somewhat long steel boots gave her limbs some protection. The rest was a chest plate and an Averis chain skirt that went down to her knees, Averis being a special metal made entirely by elves. The skirt has individual scaled plates of its own, and both the chest plate and skirt together exposed her midsection. On her head was a tiara. All of the armor was fit perfectly to her small but muscular, tone frame. Her hair was blond and short, barely reaching her elegant shoulders and was combed back. She stood there beside the older woman with two elegantly curved shortswords held backward in each hand. The army stood in wait on top of a hill overlooking a dark fort a half a mile away surrounded by numerous monsters of many types and configurations but all an ugly, twisted human form. The two women in front stood there for the longest time saying nothing and not moving an inch. All that could be heard was the sound of thunder and the rain hitting their armor. Just then, the silence was broken by the eldest woman in front. She said, Neiren. The younger woman turned to her in response. I want you to do something for me. The younger woman looked at her with deep concern.

A deeply personal and never-before-told account of one of America's darkest days, from the bestselling author of The Admirals and MacArthur at War. The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 remains one of the most traumatic events in American history. America's battleship fleet was crippled, thousands of lives were lost, and the United States was propelled into a world war. Few realize that aboard the iconic, ill-fated USS Arizona were an incredible seventy-nine blood relatives. Tragically, in an era when family members serving together was an accepted, even encouraged, practice, sixty-three of the Arizona's 1,177 dead turned out to be brothers. In Brothers Down, acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman returns to that critical week of December, masterfully guiding us on an unforgettable journey of sacrifice and heroism, all told through the lives of these brothers and their fateful experience on the Arizona. Weaving in the heartbreaking stories of the parents, wives, and sweethearts who wrote to and worried about these men, Borneman draws from a treasure trove of unpublished source material to bring to vivid life the minor decisions that became a matter of life or death when the bombs began to fall. More than just an account of familial bonds and national heartbreak, what emerges promises to define a turning point in American military history.

An alpha male vampire must save a scientist and her psychic daughter in this paranormal romantic suspense novel by a New York Times–bestselling author. Marry Me Cara Paulsen does not give up easily. A scientist and a single mother, she's used to fighting for what she wants, keeping a cool head, and doing whatever it takes to protect her daughter Janie. But "whatever it takes" has never before included a shotgun wedding to a dangerous-looking stranger with an attitude problem… Or Else Sure, the mysterious Talen says that he's there to protect Cara and Janie. He also says that he's a three-hundred-year-old vampire. Of course, the way he touches her, Cara might actually believe he's had that long to practice…. “Rebecca Zanetti has created a page-turner of a book, with a heroine willing to fight for the ones she loves and a hero who will literally take your breath—just before he steals your heart.”—Kate Douglas, New York Times–bestselling author “Steamy scenes and some genuinely warm moments.”—Publishers Weekly