Booker Prize 2024 Longlist

Eira Thornwind has spent four years hiding the most dangerous secret in the shifter world—her wolf, Veyla, awakened at fourteen, two years earlier than any shifter in recorded history. Ancient, powerful, and carrying memories that don’t belong to this age, Veyla marks Eira as a prize any alpha would wage war to claim. Only her parents and a pair of trusted elders know the truth, and they intend to keep it that way. Now, with Eira’s eighteenth birthday approaching—the age when shifters can finally sense their fated mate—the annual Summit of the High Packs arrives on Crescent Fang land. Politics, competition, and centuries-old grudges simmer beneath the surface. Among the visiting delegations is Kalen Draven, the newly risen Alpha of the Ironshade Pack. Ruthless. Respected. Scarred by a past that forged him into a weapon. He expects manipulation, strategy, and power plays. He does not expect the Alpha’s daughter to strike him like a bolt of silver fire. Eira wants nothing to do with him. She doesn’t trust the cold Alpha with predator’s eyes, and she certainly doesn’t trust the way her ancient wolf stirs whenever he enters a room. Their packs are enemies. Their futures are already tangled with responsibility. But fate has its own design. Something old stirs beneath their feet. And a bond forged in silver flames may be the only thing that can save—or destroy—the shifter world. A slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers shifter romance filled with prophecy, danger, forbidden power, and a connection neither of them is ready for.

"This game of yours is barbaric. How dare you make me play it?" Karen's anger rose again as she realized it was his own fault for being sore, tired, and bleeding. She could have died if it had not been for that asshole guy. "I suggest you take your finger out, Karen, and speak to me in a more respectful manner," Xavier warned. She finally lowered her hand, but she wouldn't back down. What he had done was unacceptable. "Why did you leave me to fight those werewolves if all that senseless bloodshed was to find a mate? I'm a hybrid, half-wolf! Obviously I shouldn't be there," she said angrily. "I have my reasons," he replied lightly. "Damn it!" she grabbed his fur again to make sure. ****************************************************** Karenina Mason, a headstrong and independent young woman, is not just an ordinary human-she is a rare hybrid with a powerful lineage. Unknowingly, she becomes entangled in a perilous game of political intrigue, where the coveted prize is to become the mate of the enigmatic and all-powerful Alpha of Westwood. Karenina resists this unwanted destiny, but fate seems insistent on thrusting her into this union. In her vulnerable state, Karenina finds herself surrounded by adversaries, and her once-trusted friends remain beyond her reach. Forced to rely on Xavier Westwood, a mysterious and captivating figure with his own hidden agenda, Karenina is drawn into a world of danger and desire. As they navigate the treacherous path together, an intense attraction grows between them, unraveling long-concealed secrets that should have remained locked away-secrets that may unleash powers too volatile to control.

“If you leave this palace tonight, you become prey” Lyra Vale got rejected by her fated mate like yesterday’s trash, hauled into enemy land, and turned into the single most lethal prize a blood-soaked kingdom has ever drooled over. In Dravenhold they don’t chain prisoners. They drape them in silk that costs more than most packs see in a lifetime and call them queen. Kael Draven, the Enemy King, had every reason to slit her throat the second she hit his dirt. Instead he put his mouth to her ear and claimed her protection. Claimed her. Now the whole damn continent whispers the same filthy truth: her blood can make kings. Or drown them. The past won’t stay buried. Rowan, the Alpha who ripped her heart out to “save his people,” creeps back through the shadows with one desperate, cocky demand: come back to me. Stay here and she becomes Kael’s living blade, soaked in power and whatever else he decides to take from her body. Leave, and she lights the match that turns every pack into smoking graves. One man wants her soul to rule with. The other already shattered it and still thinks he deserves the pieces. Lyra’s done being the girl who waits to be chosen. In a world where power gets ripped out of throats, not politely handed over… she isn’t prey anymore. She’s the f*cking throne. And she’s deciding who bleeds for the right to sit on it.

I thought losing my cheating husband was the worst day of my life. I was wrong. My name is Maya Winters, and I spent six years trying to make Damien Cross love me. Six years being the perfect wife to a billionaire who looked at me like I was invisible. Then he brought home his secret daughter and her mother, handed me divorce papers, and destroyed what was left of my stupid heart. Two weeks later, I lost our baby—the one he never knew about until it was too late. I thought my life was over. Turns out, it actually was. Now I'm trapped in something called THE SURVIVAL GAME with twelve other dead people, including my ex-husband. We have to survive forty days of deadly children's games. Red Light Green Light. Hide and Seek. Simple games with one terrible rule: lose and you die for real. But that's not even the worst part. One of us is a spy working for the Game Master. One of us is making sure people die. And I have no idea who to trust—especially not Damien, who keeps looking at me like he actually cares now that we're both fighting for our lives. The prize for winning? One wish for anything I want. Money. Power. Revenge. Or even a second chance at the love that destroyed me. Forty days. Thirteen players. Only one winner. Game on. Warning: This story contains mature themes, violence, and intense situations. Recommended for readers 18+.

I thought divorce would free me from Roland Voss, the man who turned our marriage into a gilded prison. But walking away from a Voss isn’t freedom. It’s war. The press calls me a gold-digger. His lawyers call me a liability. And Roland? He just smirks across his mahogany desk and murmurs, “You’ll never escape me, Aliyah. Not while you carry my name.” I swore I’d never shatter again until I met him. Dominic Voss. Roland’s younger brother. The man I shouldn’t even look at, let alone want. He sees the cracks in me no one else bothers to notice. When the world turns its back, Dominic leans close and whispers, “Let me protect you. Even if it means going against my own blood.” Every stolen glance is treason. Every brush of his hand sets me on fire. And when Victor Hale, a rival billionaire with teeth sharper than Roland’s, circles closer, I realize I’ve become the prize in a game where men like them never lose. But I’m not the same woman Roland once broke. This time, I’m willing to risk everything, scandal, ruin, even the wrath of the dynasty that branded me theirs to choose the man who makes me feel alive. The question is… Will my freedom cost me my heart? Or will loving Dominic ignite a war that none of us survive?

My roommate had a peculiar knack for pestering everyone into liking her posts on social media, all so she could collect enough likes to claim some prize or another. It was her way of life—nagging, nudging, and guilting us into clicking that little thumbs-up. One time, the campus beauty queen liked my roommate's ad for a facial mask. Not long after, she was in a horrific car accident. The vehicle caught fire, and her face suffered severe burns, leaving her disfigured beyond recognition. Meanwhile, my roommate seemed to undergo a miraculous transformation, her complexion turning porcelain fair and flawless as though she'd been kissed by the heavens. Then there was the academic prodigy, a shoe-in for graduate school, who liked her tutoring service post. Shortly after, he was exposed for academic fraud, and his once-brilliant reputation was reduced to ashes. Strangely enough, my roommate's research paper suddenly won an award, catapulting her to fame and fortune. And me? I fell into her trap too. I liked her rental agency ad, and before I knew it, my world crumbled. A scandal erupted, revealing that I was the result of a mix-up at birth. It turned out she was the long-lost child of wealth and privilege—a hidden gem cast into the rough, now reclaimed by her rightful family. As for me, I was packed off to the countryside village she had escaped from and forced into a brutal marriage with an old man. My life became a living hell, and eventually, I died there, broken and forgotten. But fate wasn't done with me yet. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day my roommate begged me to like her post in exchange for yet another prize.

A struggling Internet entrepreneur, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, a wife of an impressionable state senator, and a famous voice over actress find themselves caught in a web of espionage and intrigue that threatens their lives and those of everyone they know. When the undercover agents first approached Melanie Tyler and Kathleen O=Brian the night of their 30th high school reunion, the women could never have imagined that their innocent game of playing spies from a 60=s television show would become a real life confrontation with one of the most insidious criminal minds of their generation. Melanie "Mel" Tyler and Kathleen "Katie" Conner have been best friends since kindergarten. As teenagers, their favorite television show was The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The girls even had a hidden room where they kept files on various schoolmates. But after graduating from high school, everyone in the graduating class went their separate ways. Mel's voice-over talent landed her a high-paying job in Los Angeles while Katie married her high school sweetheart, James O'Brien, now the youngest member of the Minnesota State Senate. Mel and Katie find it difficult to believe that they are about to attend Abbeyville High School's thirtieth reunion. Seeing most of their former classmates should be fun, but there are a few that the ladies hoped would not attend. Unfortunately, the three worst do make an appearance. Charles Haussman and Eric Kramer were bullies back in school and they have not forgotten how the ladies once bested them. Then there is Wyatt Gaynes, the jock that Melanie had a crush on - along with many other female students. A novel of romance and adventure for Baby Boomers, fans of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and anyone who has ever attended their high school reunion!

Dr. Sabrina Kane built a medical empire with her brilliance. By thirty-two, she was the youngest recipient of the Helix Vanguard Prize and the scientific force behind Kane Biomedical’s most revolutionary breakthroughs. She healed the impossible. She rewrote genetic fate. The world admired her. Her husband took the credit. Adrian Kane was the face of the empire Sabrina’s mind created—until admiration turned into rivalry and ambition turned into betrayal. When divorce papers arrive without warning, Sabrina loses more than a marriage. She loses her position, her reputation, and the life she thought she understood. But the real devastation begins in the maternity ward. Behind closed doors, a decision is made—one that protects a CEO, shields a scandal, and rewrites a birth record before sunrise. When Sabrina wakes from delivery, something feels wrong. The answers she’s given don’t quite fit. The child in her arms needs her desperately… yet whispers of doubt begin to circle. By the time the truth claws its way to the surface, Sabrina is branded unstable, arrested, and pushed out of the very institute she built. Then Victor Laurent enters the picture. A Powerful and an untouched billionaire investor with his own ghosts and a child whose life hangs by a thread. He needs the best doctor in the world. He needs Sabrina. Working under his roof, fighting to save a dying child, Sabrina begins to sense that fate has woven their lives together long before they ever met. As corporate secrets unravel and paternity questions threaten to destroy empires, one truth becomes clear: Someone stole more than her marriage. They stole her future. And this time, Dr. Sabrina Kane is not going to lose.⸻

King Lucien Draven rules the United Packs with cold iron strength. He has crushed every rebellion and refused every mating alliance. Lycan law demands a king produce heirs with a royal female or face challenge to his throne. Male omegas are disposable tributes, never equals. Then Caelan Ashford arrives as tribute from a fading noble pack. The quiet, scarred omega expects death in the royal palace. Instead, his scent ignites the ancient mate bond the instant their eyes meet. The pull is raw, immediate, and utterly forbidden. Lucien fights the bond with ruthless control. He confines Caelan to the lower halls, assigns him to brutal training, and buries desire beneath duty. But every stolen glance and accidental brush erodes his restraint. The bond grows stronger, darker, impossible to ignore. Caelan hides a deadly secret: royal blood from the dynasty Lucien’s ancestors destroyed. His silver collar dulls his true scent, yet it cannot hide him from the king or from Prince Rowan Draven, Lucien’s charismatic and dangerous younger brother. Rowan sees Caelan as both prize and weapon. He offers protection and power in exchange for loyalty, circling like a predator while court intrigue thickens with assassination plots and rising rebellion. Torn between throne and heart, Lucien must decide how much he will risk for his forbidden mate. Caelan, trapped between two lethal alphas, navigates betrayal, awakening power, and a bond that could destroy the kingdom or remake it. In a slow-burning dance of denial and surrender, where every touch courts war and every refusal cuts deeper, one forbidden connection threatens an empire and two wounded souls who were never meant to find each other.

I am Elias Vance, and my life is a well-oiled lie. I don’t build empires; I dismantle them. For years, I’ve served the shadowy organization known only as The Syndicate, trained to be their most effective weapon—a corporate ghost who infiltrates, exploits, and destroys. My latest target is Thorne Corp, a multi-billion-dollar tech conglomerate, and the man at its helm: Julian Thorne. Julian is everything I despise on principle: cold, impossibly wealthy, and guarded by a fortress of privilege. He is also the key to The Syndicate’s grand prize, and my mission is simple: get close, expose his vulnerabilities, and trigger a catastrophic failure that leaves Thorne Corp in ashes. The plan was airtight until I saw the cracks in his perfect facade. The closer I get, the more I realize the aloof CEO is carrying a burden heavier than his fortune—a legacy steeped in secrets and a profound, aching loneliness that mirrors my own. Every late night in his office, every accidental touch, every shared secret drags me deeper into the man I’m supposed to hate. The line between my duty and my desire doesn't just blur; it dissolves entirely. Now, The Syndicate is closing in, demanding the destruction I promised. I have access codes, damning information, and a clear shot to finish the mission. But completing it means condemning Julian and myself to a future where trust is impossible. To save him, I have to betray my masters. To save myself, I have to risk everything I know. In this game of corporate war, I am the obsidian proxy, caught between two powerful forces, and my only way out is a choice that will either end a dynasty or cost me my life.