V. J. Chambers

Gritty. Provocative. Bloody. Blond. from USA Today bestselling author V. J. Chambers Ever since blond detective Ivy Stern got herself kicked off the police force, she's been slumming it as a private detective, mostly chasing cheating husbands. In some ways, it's better this way. She's free to do as she pleases, and there's no one throwing around phrases like "sex addiction" or "conduct unbecoming an officer." Ivy never figured her sex life was anyone's business anyway. When a distraught brother shows up in her office, claiming his sister has been murdered, Ivy's all over the case. The only thing Ivy's better at than sex is solving murder cases. And this one is intriguing. There's no evidence that the victim has been killed, but she's gone, leaving everything behind from her cell phone to her credit cards. Everything except her bed sheets. And that's not even mentioning the victim's cheating ex-boyfriend, her drug habit, and her ties to the Irish mob.

A new year in Helicon, and Nora Sparrow is determined that this one will be a drama-free. She's intent on doing nothing but having fun, creating, and enjoying herself. Unfortunately, drama strikes right away with an explosion at the Winter Ball. The assumed perpetrator is a muse named Lute Thundercloud, although he claims he didn't do it. Sawyer Snow believes Lute. In fact, Sawyer can't stop thinking about Lute. He loves Nora, and he doesn't want to hurt her, but he is torn-shaken by this new attraction. And before he can even quite come to grips with his feelings, he realizes that all the girls in Helicon have suddenly fallen madly in love with a skinny fourteen-year-old named Colin Oak-who also happens to be the same guy who accused Lute of causing the explosion. It's becoming obvious that something's not quite right in Helicon...

Abigail London has always trusted the elders in her strict polygamous community to decide who she would marry. After all, they've got a direct line to God, or so she's always been taught. But when she is caught holding hands with Jesse Wallace, the elders bring down punishment swiftly and severely. They banish Jesse from the community, telling him never to return. They assign Abby to an older man, who already has three wives. They tell her that submitting to her new spiritual head will curb her willful nature. Abby wants to please God by forgetting Jesse and doing as she's told. But she can't shake the feeling that this is somehow... wrong. And she's beginning to doubt the wisdom of the elders. Separated, Jesse and Abby struggle alone-him to find his way in a secular world he doesn't understand, and her to accept her place and submit obediently. But eventually, they both realize they must embrace a more difficult struggle: to find each other again.

When Sloane Drake learns her best friend Leigh has gone missing in Boston, she expects the worst. She and the rest of the ex-assassins go after Leigh to discover her whereabouts. No one's seen her, not even Axel Whitman, the arrogant rich boy who used to be Leigh's best friend. Sloane has always stuck to the shadows. She's not flashy, she doesn't take charge, and no one notices her. But when everyone else disappears as well, she's left on her own. She's got to find where the others have been taken, and she's got to rescue them. Axel wants to help. He's a careless playboy who owns a burlesque gentleman's club and usually spends his nights snorting cocaine or screwing anything in a skirt. Helping Sloane is dangerous and exciting, and he can't get enough of it. Furthermore, he can't get enough of Sloane herself. Sloane knows that Axel is getting in the way of her mission. He distracts her with trivialities when she should be focusing on freeing her friends. But being with Axel makes her feel like she's been pulled from the shadows into the light. She's never been so... noticed. **Recommended for mature readers due to explicit sexual situations, coarse language, and violence.**

Nora Sparrow wants to feel safe now that her crazed ex-boyfriend Owen has been exiled from Helicon, the land of the muses. She wants nothing more than to sculpt, dance, and play, the way a muse should. But her fear of Owen casts a shadow over everything. She can't even commit to a relationship, because she fears being smothered and controlled. Everyone else thinks the threatening message in the snow was a joke. They think Nora's anxious mind conjured up the bouquet of dead flowers in her tent. But Nora knows that Owen is still after her. Nothing will stand in the way of his obsessive desire to possess her. Not even exile.

Nora Sparrow couldn't be more at home in Helicon, the whimsical land of the muses, where she belongs. She is in love with Sawyer Snow, and she's never been happier. But Maddie Salt, their best friend, is hurt and angry about the newly formed relationship between Sawyer and Nora. She can't help but feel left out, and she wants nothing more to do with them. Agler Thorn finds himself jealous of Nora's new romance. When he's given authority over the tweens in Helicon, he makes it his business to try to keep Sawyer and Nora apart. A bewildering sickness is creeping over the land, striking down muses, leaving them weak and unable to create. It seems obvious that it's the work of Owen, but the muses can't find him. He's out of reach, and they can't fight him. Through all of this, Nora clings to Sawyer, the only perfect, stable thing in her life. She loves him, and she wants to make love to him. But after she and Sawyer are intimate with each other, everything changes...

When true crime writer Samson Black gets a message from Lola Ward saying she wants him to write a book about her, he seizes the opportunity. This is his chance to resurrect his career and discover what really happened eleven years ago, when Nicholas Todd kicked off his tri-state rampage by stabbing twelve-year-old Lola's parents to death. At the time, Lola claimed Todd was a stranger who'd broken into her house and kidnapped her. Todd, however, insisted that he and Lola had a forbidden love affair, and that Lola begged him to murder her parents so they could be together. Now, Lola's all grown up-brash, sure of herself, and unsettlingly alluring. Though she says she wants to open up about her past, she makes Sam work for every piece of information he gets. Nothing makes sense. He doesn't know if she helped kill her parents. He doesn't even understand why she wants him to write this book. But then Nicholas Todd escapes from jail and wants revenge against Lola. Still unsure about her involvement in her parents' murders, Sam must determine whether he faces a bigger threat from the killer outside or the woman standing next to him.

Cori Donovan is dead. When she was alive, she was a bundle of opposites. She was a freshman college honors student. She wrote poetry and plays. And she sold ecstasy on the side. She slept around. Molly Colligan moves into Cori's old room, starting the spring semester at a new school, hoping to escape from the dark secrets of her past. But it seems that darkness follows her. Cori may be gone, but her absence seems to saturate everything in Molly's new life. Before long, Molly finds herself using the same drugs that Cori used, hanging out with same people Cori hung out with, kissing the same boys that Cori kissed, and ultimately in trouble with the same dangerous people that Cori knew. Levi Reed, Cori's drug dealing partner, wanted to use Cori's connections to get close to the mysterious Professor X, the biggest ecstasy cook this side of the Atlantic. Now that Cori's gone, he figures Molly's the next best thing. Using her gets tougher when he realizes he just might care about her. But he has his own past and his own secrets, and he can't get involved with a girl like Molly. However, they're both twisted up in Cori's past now, and to get free, they must untangle her secrets-without getting caught on the snags of their own.