Absolutism in Renaissance Milan shows how authority above the law, once the preserve of pope and emperor, was claimed by the ruling Milanese dynasties, the Visconti and the Sforza, and why this privilege was finally abandoned by Francesco II Sforza (d. 1535), the last duke. As new rulers, the Visconti and the Sforza had had to impose their regime by rewarding supporters at the expense of opponents. That process required absolute power, also known as 'plenitude of power', meaning t...

In the vibrant heart of Miami, a city where wealth and beauty collide, Shane Williams – a billionaire CEO with a playboy reputation – encounters a woman who makes his heart beat in ways money can't buy. Lara, strong-willed and fiercely independent, has been battling the demons of her past, paying off a debt she didn't ask for with a resolve as unyielding as the ocean waves.When their paths cross at a lavish wedding, Shane sees Lara, not as the collateral she's been made to feel lik...

1950s Morocco: murder, magic and divided loyalties...Hamou Badi is born in a mountain village with the magical signs of the zouhry on his hands. The zouhry is a figure of legend, capable of finding all manner of treasure. But instead of finding treasure, young Hamou finds a body.Haunted by this unsolved murder, Hamou goes on to train as a police officer in Casablanca. Yet the city is trapped in a nationalist uprising, and Hamou is soon torn...

Sarah Beauhall has more on her plate than most twenty-somethings: day job as a blacksmith, night job as a props manager for low-budget movies, and her free time is spent fighting in a medieval re-enactment group.The lead actor breaks Sarah's favorite one-of-a-kind sword, and to avoid reshooting scenes, Sarah agrees to repair the blade. One of the extras, who claims to be a dwarf, offers to help. And that's when things start to get weird. Could the sword really be magic, as the "dwar...

Three stories from New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter, starring shapeshifting skinwalker Jane Yellowrock.In Snafu, a young Jane shows up for her internship with a securities firm. But before she even gets her foot in the door, she’s accosted by two street toughs and is forced to draw on her new-found Beast-magic to defend herself…In Black Water, Jane encounters a dire situation involving an escaped prisoner and endange...

The New York Times bestsellerJane Yellowrock is a shape-shifting skinwalker who always takes care of her own—no matter the cost....When Evan Trueblood blows into town looking for his wife, Molly, he’s convinced that she came to see her best friend, Jane. But it seems like the witch made it to New Orleans and then disappeared without a trace.Jane is ready to do whatever it takes to find her friend. ...

Black Like That is a collection of poems about my experience as a Black woman in America. It reviews what I have learned from living in this skin, on this land, and all the ancestry that has followed me to keep me covered. It is an invitation to my folk to find themselves in these stories and for those who cannot ascribe to these identities, I invite you to consider another perspective. Black Like That in all of its iterations is an offering from all the voices in mine that had no space to...

"I've lived a completely ordinary life, so much that I don't know how to write a transgender or queer or Appalachian story, because I don't feel like I've lived one. ... Though, in searching for ways to write myself in my stories, maybe I can find power in this ordinariness."Raised in southeast Ohio, Stacy Jane Grover would not describe her upbringing as "Appalachian." Appalachia existed farther afield—more rural, more country than the landscape of her hometown.Grover retur...

'She has many rare and charming qualities, but Sobriety is not one of them.'A selection of Austen's dark and hilarious early writings - featuring murder, drunkenness, perjury, theft, poisoning, women breaking out of prison, men forging wills and babies biting off their mothers' fingers...Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around th...

'Of what a mistake were you guilty in marrying a Man of his age! - just old enough to be formal, ungovernable and to have the Gout - too old to be agreable, and too young to die.'The scheming and unscrupulous Lady Susan is unlike any Austen heroine you've met in this fascinating early novella.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range an...

Rachel Lovik is a busy, high ranking woman with a husband who's a teacher and makes a lot less. She tries her best to live her life happily but she can't shake the feeling that something is missing. While at work, she's been trying to get promoted to Senior Director, and at home, she's growing more and more frustrated by her husband's lack of masculinity and his inability to pleasure her in bed.Rachel's assistant lets her know that they have a new intern who'll be traveling with he...

Finalist for the Society of Midland Authors Richard Frisbie Award for Adult NonfictionIn A Blacklist Education, a mysterious file of family papers triggers a journey through the dark days of political purges in the 1950s. Jane S. Smith tells the story of the anticommunist witch hunt that sent shockwaves through New York City’s public schools as more than a thousand teachers were targeted by Board of Education investigators. Her father was one of them—a fac...