"Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives the opportunity to attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn't dampen her excitement. Then Roza drops a bombshell: participants must all complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author...

Every generation, seven families select a champion to compete in a tournament to the death for control of high magick--the most powerful resource in the world--but this year, a salacious tell-all book draws reporters, tourists, and government agents to Ilvernath to watch the bloody curse unfold and some of the champions are determined to thwart their destinies and rewrite their stories.

A career-ending injury destroys track star Agnes Chan's hopes of a college scholarship, putting her on a journey through the underbelly of Malaysian stand-up comedy, and directly into the path of her archnemesis, the ridiculously wealthy and disgustingly handsome Royce Taslim.

Rebellious and outspoken Edel Beauregard enters the Beauty Trials--a deadly competition to find the next Queen of Orleans.

When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.

"Winnie Wednesday, an outcast from the Luminaries, is determined to restore her family's good name by taking the deadly hunter trials on her sixteenth birthday, but when she turns to her former best friend Jay Friday for help, they discover a danger lurking in the forest no one in Hemlock Falls is prepared for"--

"Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. For those confident enough in their ability to jump between bodies, competitors across San-Er fight to the death to win unimaginable riches. Princess Calla Tuoleimi lurks in hiding. Five years ago, a massacre killed her parents and left the palace of Er empty ... and she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa's forces...

Events at the palace force Eadlyn to make an important--and impossible--choice, knowing that her Selection might not lead her to the fairytale ending her parents found.

"Virginia is for lovers--and Storyton Hall is its best vacation spot for lovers of books. The big event this summer at Jane Steward's resort is A Bookish Cook-Off. It's a blend of the literary and the culinary--but someone's headed for the mortuary... Six chefs are preparing to compete in an outdoor tent at Storyton Hall for prizes that will boost their careers--but is there someone who can't stand the heat? It looks that way when one of the contestants...

In the midst of a cook-off at a posh spa in Mississippi, southern PI Sarah Booth Delaney gets embroiled in a juicy murder when the beauty contest/cook-off's top contender gets poisoned.