Books

aybe it's time for a plot twist . . . Emily Walker hates anyone disrupting her carefully curated life, especially her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett - the exact opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer. But now Jack's back in town after a failed engagement and he's here to stay . . . as both her colleague and her neighbour. Jack is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. Until, that is, he realises he's now neighbours with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons. With their red-hot animosity at an all-time high, Emily makes a mistake that could reveal her secret literary identity. Frustratingly, she needs Jack's help to make it right. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?

The Blood Court has only ever had one king. But now it has a queen … Saeris Fane is beginning to realize just how much her life has changed with her extraordinary new powers … but if she doesn’t act quickly to figure out how to close off the gateway to her magic before the power becomes too volatile, she may destroy everyone and everything she’s ever loved.

????️ Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate. ????️ In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water. Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember. But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone. When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently re-opens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares... but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed. The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him . . . or her. Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home. Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the details . . .

woman who wields magical tarot cards lands herself in a false engagement with the headmaster of a mysterious academy in this first installment of an enthralling fantasy romance series from the bestselling author of A "Deal with the Elf King".

Hallie When I was eleven, my family moved next door to his. When I was thirteen, he was my first crush. When I was sixteen, we fell for each other. And when I was nineteen, we broke each other's hearts. Six years later, I've landed an internship with a big-name interior designer in a new city. Unfortunately, that city just so happens to be the one he plays hockey for. I thought Chicago was big enough to avoid him, until I get the surprise of a lifetime and unknowingly move in right next door. Even worse? The renovation project I'm assigned to in hopes of turning that internship into my full-time dream job... It's his house. But how am I supposed to update his bachelor pad into a family home when we can't even stand to be in the same room? I may have loved Rio DeLuca once, but I'm not that same girl anymore. Rio I never thought I'd be the only single one left in my friend group. But after years of trying to find love, I've concluded it may not exist for me anymore. That is until I accidentally hire Hallie Hart to renovate my house and our jaded history has me rewinding memories I've kept secret for years. You see, there's something that my friends don't know. That connection I've been looking for since I moved to Chicago, that one person some search their entire lives to find... I had already found her when I was twelve years old. And now the only girl I've ever loved is moving into the house next door. Again.

Scottie Price just started a new job, and it's a real sausage fest. She's the only woman on a team filled with Brads and Chads. Expecting a bachelor pad atmosphere, she is quickly corrected when she finds out everyone is happily married. In an effort to impress her boss, Scottie mentions her non-existent husband in a company meeting. But eagle-eyed Chad points out her lack of wedding ring. Panicked, Scottie creates a story about her unhappy marriage. Unfortunately for Scottie, her boss has a solution - a one-on-one session with the best marriage counsellor in the Northeast, who happens to be her boss's husband. With no way out of her lie, Scottie agrees to see him. Frantic, she calls in help from her best friend who sets her up with his brother, an improv-obsessed millionaire. Enter Wilder Wells. More than happy to take on the job, he teaches Scottie the main rule of always say yes. But the rule backfires during the session when Wilder signs them up for an eight-day summer marriage camp with all of Scottie's co-workers where she'll have to share a cabin with her way-too-handsome fake husband.

We are losing ourselves. We're chasing the wrong things, asking the wrong questions, and polluting our minds. It's time to stop, it's time to resist and it's time to rethink the fundamental social blueprint that our lives are built upon. 'As an 18-year-old, Black, broke, lonely, insecure, university drop-out from a bankrupt family, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to be a "Happy Sexy Millionaire" by the age of 25. By 25 I was a multi-millionaire having created a business worth over $300m dollars. Ironically, in achieving everything I set out to, I learnt that I was wrong about almost everything . . . The world had lied to me. It lied to me about how you attain fulfilment, love and success, why those things matter, and what those words actually mean.' In this book, Steven Bartlett dismantles the most popular, unaddressed lies about happiness that we've been led to believe. He exposes the source of these lies, examines the incentives that fuel them and replaces them with a practical set of scientifically proven and unconventional ideas that will help you to live a truly fulfilled life, a life full of the love you seek and the success you deserve.

From leading global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and the minds behind the New York Times bestseller CEO Excellence comes a compact, insight-packed guide to navigating the distinct phases of leadership that every CEO must pass through on their way to mastery. In the high-stakes world of corporate leadership, becoming a Fortune 500 CEO is an Everest-like ascent—with only the savviest managing to avoid falling off the mountain. In A CEO for All Seasons you’ll find an essential climbing route that will take you through every stage. Featured in this tip-dense guide is wisdom from some of the world’s most iconic leaders, including Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, Chevron’s Mike Wirth, Merck’s Ken Frazier, NASDAQ’s Adena Friedman, ASML’s Peter Wennink, and Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman. Unique in applying a number of sophisticated metrics to isolate the world’s top 200 CEOs, reduce them to a representative sample, and then reap their wisdom, the McKinsey team, in A CEO for All Seasons, spotlights the specific stage-based hurdles that CEOs face. From preparing for the role (stepping up) to leading with impact (starting strong) to sustaining momentum (staying ahead) to fortifying a lasting legacy (sending it forward), the book leaves no segment of the journey unmapped. Along the way, it offers proven strategies for maintaining forward progress and, crucially, alerts readers to common blind spots, as revealed by a detailed survey of thousands of executives. Whether you’re an aspiring leader or a new-to-the-job CEO—or even a board member wanting to better steward your company’s performance—this is the compact, hands-on guide you’ve needed. Its compendium of pressure-tested tips is a must-have game changer for leaders at all levels.

What is the secret to success? Black Box Thinking. Ten years on from its original publication, Black Box Thinking remains a game-changing manifesto for success. In this special anniversary edition - featuring brand new material from Matthew Syed - his bold thesis that failure, far from being something to fear, is the secret to innovation and improvement feels more urgent than ever. Packed with gripping case studies, eye-opening research, and stories from elite sport, cutting-edge medicine, aviation, business, and beyond, Syed shows how the most progressive individuals and organizations treat mistakes not as threats, but as tools for growth. This is a book for anyone striving to do better. It will change how you think about failure - and show you how to turn it into success. 'Highly persuasive' DAILY MAIL 'It highlights the need for a growth mindset in life' RICHARD BRANSON 'A book that dares us to do better' HOWARD JACOBSON

Aspiring leaders are hungry to learn all that they can about how to be a more effective leader. And certainly there are tools and best practices young leaders should know and add to their toolkit. But - as Steve Mostyn, one of the world's leading innovators in executive leadership, has learned over the past decades of teaching this cohort - two equally useful activities for the aspiring leader are reflection and experimentation. In his new book WHY GREAT LEADERS ASK GREAT QUESTIONS, Mostyn has crafted an elegant collection of the seven provocative questions aspiring leaders should ask themselves in order to spur that reflection and experimentation. These are some of the most important questions Mostyn poses to each cohort of the Oxford Executive Leadership program's students, honed by the past answers and engagement of thousands of students. The book is simple in conception, profound in execution. In seven accessible chapters, with exercises, research, and examples, the reader will engage with these questions: How do I reflect? How do I spend my time? Where does my power come from? How do I grow my network? How do I make change happen around here? How do I manage my energy? How do I grow more leaders? Inspired in part by Mostyn's work on the Oxford Executive Leadership Programme - an accelerated international leadership development program with over 5,000 alumni around the world - and in part by his numerous workshop sessions where he challenges and supports leaders through his unique questions, the premise of the book is well-tested with aspiring and practicing leaders and is proven to spark both reflection and growth. These seven questions are drawn from the author's deep experience with the needs of rising young executives. Readers will engage with provocative exercises, highly accessible overviews of applicable research, and examples from fellow mid-career executives.