Satan S Sweethearts

The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). This year's editor, selected by SFWA's anthology Committee (chaired by Mike Resnick), is Canadian science fiction and fantasy writer and editor Julie Czerneda. This year's Nebula Award winners are Naomi Novik, Nnedi Okorafor, Sarah Pinsker, and Alyssa Wong, with Fran Wilde winning the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book. Also included in this volume are works by N. K. Jemisin and Ann Leckie.

After a run-in with her new boss costs junior doctor Roksana Bartosz her job, her friend Sofia has the perfect solution—a short break in Virginia to take her mind off the problem. Little does Roxy know that Sofia and Emmy Black are intent on playing matchmaker in the craziest way possible. Gideon Renard avoids relationships, especially with girls as fragile as Roxy. Taking a new job in Washington, DC seems like the perfect way to put space between them. But his friends have other ideas, and in between hunting down three missing assassins, resisting the temptation to strangle his ex, and fighting the demons of his past, he has a big decision to make. Can he walk away from Roxy for the second time? Platinum is a standalone romantic thriller in the Blackwood Elements series - no cliffhanger! Keywords: Contemporary, Doctor, Billionaire, Spy, Friends to lovers, Mystery, Private investigator, Protector, Security, Strong woman, Thriller, Terrorism, Security, Humor, Female protagonist, Crime, Found family

Lawyers. Stefanie Amor’s had enough of them to last a lifetime. One left her heartbroken, the other left her in bed and did a runner. But as the witness in a murder case, she’s got no choice but to cooperate with defence attorney Oliver Rhodes, a great white shark who gets his kicks from chewing up lesser mortals and spitting out their sorry remains. Oliver has two passions in life: money and winning. Stefanie’s a shiny new toy he’s not supposed to have, pretty to look at but so easy to break. Playtime’s fun, but what happens when the game isn’t a game anymore? Meanwhile, in England, a run-in with her new boss costs junior doctor Roksana Bartosz her job. But her friend Sofia has the perfect solution—a short break in Virginia to take her mind off the problem. Little does Roxy know that Sofia and Emmy Black are intent on playing matchmaker in the craziest way possible. Gideon Renard avoids relationships, especially with girls as fragile as Roxy. Taking a new job in Washington, DC seems like the perfect way to put space between them. But his friends have other ideas, and in between hunting down three missing assassins, resisting the temptation to strangle his ex, and fighting the demons of his past, he has a big decision to make. Can he walk away from Roxy for the second time? With Imogen Blair’s future happiness at stake, Stefanie and Roxy assist with a plan to land her the man of her dreams, pastry chef Jean-Luc Fortier. But you know what they say about the course of true love? It never runs smooth. With Malachi Banks—special ops commando turned reluctant sidekick—strong-armed into helping her, Imogen’s determined to win her man. But will the prize be worth it? This Blackwood collection contains three full-length novels in one volume - no cliffhangers!

Satan has returned to Earth for a sightseeing visit in the form of the American billionaire Henry Wondergood. Accompanied by his faithful demon butler Toppi they head for Rome, but are sidetracked by an unforeseen accident and end up at the home of the inscrutable Thomas Magnus and his divine daughter Maria. As Satan begins to discover the meaning of being a man, the satanic aspects of mankind become ever more apparent to him. Leonid Andreyev was a Russian author active in the beginning of the twentieth century, famous mostly for his plays and short fiction, and often portrayed as Russia’s equivalent to Edgar Allan Poe. Satan’s Diary was his last work, completed just a few days before his death in 1919. This edition was translated by his previous collaborator Herman Bernstein and published in 1920.

Satan’s Playground chronicles the rise and fall of the tumultuous and lucrative gambling industry that developed just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in the early twentieth century. As prohibitions against liquor, horse racing, gambling, and prostitution swept the United States, the vice industry flourished in and around Tijuana, to the extent that reformers came to call the town “Satan’s Playground,” unintentionally increasing its licentious allure. The area was dominated by Agua Caliente, a large, elegant gaming resort opened by four entrepreneurial Border Barons (three Americans and one Mexican) in 1928. Diplomats, royalty, film stars, sports celebrities, politicians, patricians, and nouveau-riche capitalists flocked to Agua Caliente’s luxurious complex of casinos, hotels, cabarets, and sports extravaganzas, and to its world-renowned thoroughbred racetrack. Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Louis B. Mayer, the Marx Brothers, Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and the boxer Jack Dempsey were among the regular visitors. So were mobsters such as Bugsy Siegel, who later cited Agua Caliente as his inspiration for building the first such resort on what became the Las Vegas Strip. Less than a year after Agua Caliente opened, gangsters held up its money-car in transit to a bank in San Diego, killing the courier and a guard and stealing the company money pouch. Paul J. Vanderwood weaves the story of this heist gone wrong, the search for the killers, and their sensational trial into the overall history of the often-chaotic development of Agua Caliente, Tijuana, and Southern California. Drawing on newspaper accounts, police files, court records, personal memoirs, oral histories, and “true detective” magazines, he presents a fascinating portrait of vice and society in the Jazz Age, and he makes a significant contribution to the history of the U.S.-Mexico border.