Showing results by narrator "Dan Calley" in All Categories

Gambling captures as nothing else the drama of the "long eighteenth century" between the age of religious wars and the age of revolutions. The society that was confronted with games of chance pursued as commercial ventures also came to grips with unprecedented social mobility, floated by new wealth from new sources created fortunes from trade in sugar, cotton, ivory, silk, tea, or enslaved human beings. The Gambling Century focuses like no previous work on those who enabled, facilitated, and profited from gambling, as well as on efforts to regulate or outlaw it.

"He’s not a wolf." Devastated by the death of his best friend, Zio is a soldier with one thing on his mind: revenge. Consumed by a conflict that’s raged as long as he’s been alive, he’s had little time or inclination to learn the legends of the shifter world he was raised in. And he certainly doesn’t have time to deal with a shifter of a different kind, even if it’s for the good of the war effort. For the good of his pack. The fact that he’s already crossed paths with the new face in his unit is almost irrelevant. Almost.

When Dashiell Slater uses his fists to stop a vicious assault, the last thing he expects is to be offered a job as reward for being a Good Samaritan. Out of work and short of cash, all he has to do is chauffeur Billy around. It’s easy money, so saying yes should be a no-brainer. And if the offer’s not quite legal, so what? Dashiell’s smart and savvy and knows how the world works. But there are strings attached, and Dashiell doesn’t want to get entangled.

Three days. Three questions. Three answers. Running away isn't an option any more for Will Chambers. Despite being a linguistic tutor and having every conversational tool at his disposal, all Will wants to do is fade into the background, become lost in the echo of wild heath and harbor. But now someone wants to put his mind on full display, force Will to find his voice - answer three questions, over three days. All Will has to do is provide three...simple...answers.

I hurt thinking of what may have happened to you. I hurt knowing that wherever you are, you're unable to get back to us. I hurt knowing that I've failed in finding you. I hurt knowing I'm either crazy believing that you're out there somewhere, and I hurt thinking you aren't. Our little Lexington is six months old and cutting her first tooth. She's healthy and happy, and every day, she looks more and more like you.

You can lock your door, but can you lock your heart? Finding the courage to end his relationship with his manipulative and vicious boyfriend, Jamie Wheeler turns to his close friend Ed Corrigan to help him get his life back on track. Jamie and Ed have been inseparable for years, and all it would take is a small step to cross the divide from friends to lovers. It would be the biggest mistake they could make. Jamie seeks the security of a settled long-term relationship, but Ed vows never to put his heart on the line again after a devastating betrayal.

The Rynax brothers had gone legit after Asti Rynax's service in Druth Intelligence had shattered his nerves, and marriage and fatherhood convinced Verci Rynax to leave his life of thievery. They settled back in their old neighborhood in West Maradaine and bought themselves a shop, eager for a simple, honest life. Then the Holver Alley Fire incinerated their plans. With no home, no shop, and no honest income—and saddled with a looming debt—they fall back on their old skills and old friends.

For a diehard music fan, a dirty, smoky gig is Vice Squad Detective Danny Jones’ idea of heaven. While watching one of the most popular bands in Northern England, the sight of gorgeous rock star Finn McGovern changes his life forever. Beneath the tattoos and leather jacket, Finn is kind and sweet, but when he confesses a dark secret to Danny, it tests their fledgling bond. Danny digs deep to accept Finn, but before long, a terrifying trail of death threatens to tear them apart before they’ve even got started.

London, 1679 - A year has passed since the attempt to murder King Charles II, but London is still a viper's nest of rumored Catholic conspiracies, and of plots against them in turn. When Harry Hunt—estranged from his mentor Robert Hooke—is summoned to the remote and windswept marshes of Norfolk, he is at first relieved to get away from the place. But in Norfolk, he finds that some Royal workers shoring up a riverbank have made a grim discovery—the skeleton of a dwarf.

When Kaori Sansa’s father dies, he is forced to return home to claim the throne as the rightful heir of the country of Kazure. In the aftermath of his father’s death, he learns that the country he loves is riddled with corruption, and is hovering on the brink of war. Will he be able to hold the kingdom together despite the odds that are stacked against it and, somehow, unlock the buried powers of Shinja, the Sacred Beast of Kazure?

In the aftermath of Jack Harrison’s release from the psychiatric unit, Gray Raoul’s innate “born this bastard way” instinct is to brutally repay the one responsible for financing Jack and Jan’s torturous psychological reconditioning. But that person is a professional player in their own right, one who knows exactly how to manipulate everyone in Gray’s life. To help negotiate this delicate situation, Gray seeks to contract Trace and his ex-Diadem Dom, Gabriel Hunter.

Cedric de Breos was an average son from an average farmer’s family before he was chosen—by royal decree—to befriend Alain Tomolia, the solemn and enigmatic crown prince of Dunn. As Cedric dutifully pursues their strange friendship, he begins to suspect that Alain is haunted by a dark secret, one which has its roots sunk deep in the crown prince’s past.

The country of Kazure bows under the shadow of war as the Shindori lords from the east continue to wage their holy crusade. Kaori Sansa, the High Lord of Kazure, is desperately searching for a way to defend his people while he struggles to determine which of the lords in his own country can be trusted to see the war through. Meanwhile, Hunter confronts his inner demons as the horrors of his past come back to haunt him, and he comes face to face with the criminal organization that enslaved him as a child.

After having thwarted some of the forces responsible for ruining their lives, reformed thieves Asti and Verci Rynax and the rest of the Holver Alley Crew had mostly settled back into sedate lives as upright citizens of Maradaine. But when they are suddenly arrested in mysterious circumstances, they find themselves in Quarrygate Prison, which tests the limits of their cunning and skill. While Verci struggles to keep their friends alive and safe in the prison, Asti gets pulled into a mysterious scheme in the underbelly of the prison.

Brett Masters’ biggest secrets are being exposed and there is nothing he can do to stop it. He’s been hiding his feelings and desires for so long, it felt natural. After a night he won’t forget for quite a while, Brett finds himself heading for what seems to be the night of passion he’s been dreaming of for longer than he cares to remember. Brett takes this leap of faith with his best friend, Stephen, after each reveal their hidden feelings for the other.

Across an empty laneway in Paris, through my hotel window, he saw me first. I stopped undressing . . . but only for a moment. The next night, he was waiting for me. He sat there in his expensive suit and watched. No participation. My only acknowledgement was the look of lust in his eyes. It continued until the night before I left, when I found a card under my door. No words. Just a number. So, I texted him. I'd never done anything like it before. It felt so dirty and wrong, but at the same time, I felt alive.

It has been over a year since Kaori took the throne, and he and Hunter are at last ready to become married under Kazurian law. However, a brutal attack against Hunter just days before the wedding suggests that not all of Kazure is in favor of the alliance. Kaori goes on a desperate quest to save Hunter's life even as a new enemy arises, slaughtering the priests and priestesses inside the Summer Temple for unknown reasons. Finding a solution to these mysteries will decide whether or not Hunter manages to survive, and if Kaori will be able to continue as the High Lord of Kazure at all.

Jack Harrison has the evidence there in his hands - the DVD and notepad off D.C. Sanders that proves Gray supposedly played a part in tearing him and Jan brutally apart. But with Jack locked away in his own mind and lost to his blackouts and self-harming in the Masters’ Circle’s psychiatric unit, the past brings to light the origins of a new beast, one who only comes out to play when Jack needs to hide - a psychopath who has, perhaps, tasted and tested Gray to the full.

Shai discovers he is a pathfinder and is desperate to find a genetically suitable partner to prevent his extrasensory talents from running amok. Unfortunately those talents make him a target for the brutal crime lords and other violent denizens, who inhabit the city of Nhil-Rhar. Shai needs to learn how to use his pathfinder senses - no matter how much they terrify him - before he's trapped in a partnership that will enslave him for the rest of his life.

Carrying a tattoo on your skin no longer just comes with a risk of infection. Get the composition right, and you have the latest mind-control drug on the market. It’s the sex-traders’ dream...or worst nightmare, depending on the concentrated dose of the ink and just who’s wearing it. For Kiyen, the ink means he’s able to strip raw the minds of the best and worst of society. He’s one of MI7’s top killers, and never more driven to select and take down a target.