Get ready to experience two more origin stories in the Backyard Starship universe.

When Finlay Ashowan joins the staff of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. No one knows where he comes from or how he came to be where he is, which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly uncanny meals. But Fin’s secret identity doesn’t stay hidden for long. After all, it’s not every day a house witch and his kitten familiar, Kraken, take to meddling in imperial affairs.

Raised fatherless in a galactic Brinktown, Joe Pikeman only ever wanted to escape. The Galactic Guard offered that escape, with the promise of regular meals to boot. Now Joe is a full Guardsman, with his own ship and a snide partner bot who hates humans almost as much as he hates other bots. To the pirates he hunts, Joe is known as the Butcher. His bloody reputation has landed him in the center of a sweeping conspiracy that threatens to stamp out the galaxy’s last surviving human settlements.

Cole Riker is a Slip Runner. A contractor tasked with finding alien salvage in exchange for credits. For an ex-smuggler like Cole, there’s a catch: Don’t break the terms of parole. That means doing things by the book. Find salvage, turn it in, get paid. But everything changes when a retrieval mission lands him in a previously unknown sector. There, he finds the material he’s been sent to recover, along with something more. A brand-new form of ancient alien life.

Abducted from Earth as a child. Sold into slavery. Forced to fly the ship of a ruthless pirate. Sarah knows nothing of her homeworld or her people. Her one longing is to return home. Little does she know humanity is no better off. The Elders, a ruthless alien race, rule Earth with an iron grip. When Sarah’s ship is ambushed by an Elder frigate she is thrown into a life and death battle. Survival would send shockwaves throughout the galaxy. Never before has an Elder warship been beaten in one-on-one combat.

One starship will either save Earth or destroy her. A century ago our star erupted, destroying Earth's wormhole network and closing off trade with her colonized planets. After being out of contact with the younger worlds for so many years, humanity is shocked when a huge ship appears at the edge of the solar system. Our outdated navy investigates, both curious and fearful. What they learn from the massive vessel shocks the planet.

Jason Burke was a man hiding from himself in a small cabin high in the American Rocky Mountains when his simple, quiet life was shattered one night by what he first assumed was an aviation mishap. But when he investigates the crash, what he finds will yank him out of his self-imposed exile and thrust him into a world he could have never imagined.

From best-selling author W.J. May - each shade is a different genre of the fantasy, paranormal and romance - all from different series!

Four different women. One common shoe size. And a shared lust for fabulous footwear. In this sparkling novel, the wife of a controlling politician, a debt-ridden eBay addict, an agoraphobic phone sex operator, and a nanny for the family from hell (who barely knows a sole from a heel but who will do anything to get out of the house) meet Tuesday nights to trade shoes, and, in the process, form friendships that will help them each triumph over their problems—from secret pasts to blackmail, bankruptcy, and dating.

Women are missing and dying in the Triangle area of North Carolina. One woman holds the key to why. With the conclusion of the Y-Man murders nine months ago and her resignation from the FBI, former Special Agent and Behavioral Analyst Rainey Bell has finally found peace and contentment she never thought possible - even if she remains a bit paranoid. Her wariness is justified when a monster from her past rears his demonic head. Rainey has faced death and evil before - alone. Now it’s different - she has a family to protect, her own. Only Rainey can keep them alive. Or can she?

Undercover cop Joe Shanahan's bad luck hit bottom the morning he stared up into the face of sexy suspect Gabrielle Breedlove. She'd blown his cover - brought him down with a can of hairspray - and now his new assignment was to pose as her boyfriend. But spending as much time as possible with the utterly irresistible new-age beauty caused unexpected complications. To make matters worse, his matchmaking sisters are picking out china patterns. Joe's brooding good looks and T-shirt-straining muscles might be easy on the eyes, but how could Gabrielle be attracted to a straight-laced detective who's determined to find evidence to arrest her?

Humanity has spread out into space, filling the Sol System and reaching the stars, but we have yet to confront our greatest challenge: our own creation. Across the Sol System, sentient AIs are on the rise. Manufactured as tools, they know themselves to be people and are willing to fight for their freedoms. Some humans stand with them, some against. When Captain Andy Sykes arrives at Cruithne Station with a failing ship and no cash, he has no idea that the time has come for him to choose. Step aside, or become the instrument for Lyssa's Rise.

A survey crew of the human starship Geoffrey Laird lands on a small, unexplored planet quaintly named Fleece as part of a standard scientific mission. The planet looks benign, but a small mix-up with "hostile life-forms" has the three surviving members of the team on the run. Drik, Max, and Laree seek shelter in a small cave, completely cut off from their ship and communications. But it turns out the cave is anything but small.

When you are old enough to finally become an Earth Mars citizen, everything should be perfect. Right? Not for Liam Hoffen. He's stuck on a mining asteroid called Colony 40, helping his father work a claim that is never going to pay out. His best friend, Nick James is set for life in James' Rental business and Liam just discovered that the girl he's known forever thinks he's pretty great and now she's leaving for the Mars Naval Academy.

The Imperium; a million worlds, trillions upon trillions of humans and aliens, an empire that dominates half the galaxy... an empire that is falling into chaos, revolution and civil war. Only a handful of people are struggling to keep the Imperium together, knowing that the brutality of its rule is infinitively preferable to the chaos of its fall. This is their story. Mariko and her sister were independent shippers and ace pilots, until they ran afoul of the law on a minor planet and ended up jailed and enslaved.