A new adventure begins on Harmony… With its opulent casinos and hotels, the desert city of Illusion Town is totally unique—and will take you on a thrill ride you’ll never forget. Hannah West isn’t the first woman to wake up in Illusion Town married to a man she barely knows, but she has no memory of the ceremony at all. For that matter, neither does Elias Coppersmith, her new husband. All either can remember is that they were on the run… With Hannah’s dubious background and shaky para-psych profile, she could have done much worse. The cooly competent mining heir arouses her curiosity—as well as other parts of her mind and body. And even her dust bunny likes him. But a honeymoon spent retracing their footsteps leads Hannah and Elias into the twisting underground catacombs, where secrets from both their pasts will come to light—and where the energy of their clashing auras will grow hot enough to burn…

Welcome to Illusion Town on the colony world of Harmony—like Las Vegas on Earth, but way more weird. Living in this new, alien world doesn’t stop the settlers from trying to re-create what they’ve left behind. Case in point—weddings are still the highlight of any social calendar. But it’s the after-party that turns disastrous for Lucy Bell. Kidnapped and drugged as she leaves the party, she manages to escape—only to find herself lost in the mysterious, alien underground maze of glowing green tunnels beneath Illusion Town. She’s been surviving on determination and cold pizza, scavenged for her by a special dust bunny, when help finally shows up. Gabriel Jones is the Ghost Hunter sent to rescue her, but escaping the underground ruins isn’t the end of her troubles—it’s only the beginning. With no rational reason for her abduction, and her sole witness gone on another assignment for the Guild, whispers start circulating that Lucy made it all up. Soon her life unravels until she has nothing left but her pride. The last thing she expects is for Gabriel Jones to come back to town for her. The Lucy that Gabriel finds is not the same woman he rescued, the one who looked at him as if he were her hero. This Lucy is sharp, angry, and more than a little cynical—instead of awe, she treats him with extreme caution. But a killer is still hunting her, and there aren’t a lot of options when it comes to heroes. Despite her wariness, Gabriel is also the one person who believes Lucy—after all, he was there. He’s determined to help clear her reputation, no matter what it takes. And as the new Guild Boss, his word is law, even in the lawlessness of Illusion Town.

People I love are vanishing one by one… and so are my memories of them. Every day here at Shadowhurst is a dream, but not the kind you think. In this Goddess-forsaken town, things come to die. But as the only one who can remember those who’ve disappeared, I should do something. That would be a lot easier if my magic wasn’t on the fritz. If I don’t at least try, it will be bye-bye for everyone in Shadowhurst. With absolutely no plan and more fear than I’ll ever admit to having, I’m diving in the deep end. Hold on tight, it’s going to be a bumpy ride… The Shadowhurst Mysteries are back with this fourth installment in the series. The book features a tough heroine, heart-wrenching love drama, angry supernaturals and coven magic you won't be able to get enough of! If you like witchy stories full of twists and turns, you'll love A.N.Sage's new urban fantasy series!

Chekhov is the most restrained of the great Russian writers, and the purest. In his tales and plays, as in life, there are no second chances. All too human, his characters eternally watch the parade passing by, preferring fancy to action: the sisters never get to Moscow, the cherry orchard is cut down, a graybeard roue like Astrov does a half-drunken jig no more dreams of the gay life for him. In Chekhov, fate is time, and missed opportunities bury everyone. Chekhov may, as he himself remarked, have lived without passion, but never without honesty.

The theory of deliberative democracy promotes the creation of systems of governance in which citizens actively exchange ideas, engage in debate, and create laws that are responsive to their interests and aspirations. While deliberative processes are being adopted in an increasing number of cases, decision-making power remains mostly in the hands of traditional elites. In Democratic Illusion, Genevieve Fuji Johnson examines four representative examples: participatory budgeting in the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, Deliberative Polling by Nova Scotia Power Incorporated, a national consultation process by the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization, and public consultations embedded in the development of official languages policies in Nunavut. In each case, measures that appeared to empower the public failed to challenge the status quo approach to either formulating or implementing policy. Illuminating a critical gap between deliberative democratic theory and its applications, this timely and important study shows what needs to be done to ensure deliberative processes offer more than the illusion of democracy.