Tequila and time loops are a helluva way to spend Christmas...

Traveling to my hometown wasn't part of the plan-not after losing my mom and swearing to never look back. But as an undercover FBI agent, I don't choose my assignments.

All I have to do is blend in at the local cineplex, get the job done, and leave. Easier said than done when the theater's darkly charming manager keeps distracting me with his whiskey-fire eyes and mysterious smile.

My first day? A disaster. I got attacked by Christmas gnomes, burned the popcorn, and got caught staring at the manager's... let's just say it wasn't my finest moment. If I'm not careful, our undeniable chemistry is going to land me on the naughty list.

That's how I ended up at Train Wreck Tavern, drowning my embarrassment in margaritas with a saucy old lady claiming to be *Mrs. Claus*. I thought she was joking until one bite of her magical cookie landed me in a nightmare-or maybe a second chance?

Now I'm stuck in a Christmas time loop, reliving the same day. The worst part? I'm pretty sure the handsome theater manager has his own secrets.

Between cracking the case, avoiding holiday disasters-and heartache-I have to break the spell... or endure Christmas forever.

THE CONFIDENT STYLIST is EVERYTHING you'll ever need for hair styling success all in the one spot, and it's the book Sharon Blain's fans worldwide have been waiting for!

Why? Because it's 50-plus years of her incredible styling experiences all distilled into one comprehensive styling bible - whether you're a passionate professional stylist, make-up artist, or just love creating magic with your own hair, think of this essential guide as your fast track to exceptional skills.

Filled with both instructional pictures and breathtaking imagery, this is no ordinary guide - THE CONFIDENT STYLIST contains all the gems you've been searching for - and you won't find them quite like this anywhere else.

Sharon covers every fundamental topic, from unpacking the styling foundations, to demystifying the impact of face, body and hair characteristics, the best-in-class tools and products, the science and theory behind exceptional curls, blow-dries, waves and thermal setting, how fashion and history influences hair today, PLUS how she goes about creating her award-winning photographic collections!

Change the course of your styling success as Sharon reveals her top secrets, most asked for magic hacks, and step-by-step techniques - it's the ultimate path to creative inspiration that you'll refer to forever.

Ready? Join Sharon in these passion-filled pages and be THE CONFIDENT STYLIST...

Who will live, who will die, and can anyone survive in The Flower Bed? Can a person ever escape their past? Is love the balm for the soul? Is each person a unique flower, or are we just imitating those who bloomed before us? Are we prisoners of our inner demons?

The Flower Bed takes you on a fictional journey of survival through the harsh realities of human life - its corruption, malignancy, and finite nature - while also venturing into the darkest, most despairing corners of the human mind. Take the journey into a world of prejudice, greed, crime, love, despair, drugs, and redemption.

The Flower Bed will challenge your intellect, stir your passions, engage your emotions, and leave you with lingering questions long after you've completed your journey through its pages.

Imagine if you simply couldn't forget anything-every experience, thought, dream, and feeling since the beginning of your life.

This is the reality for those with HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory), a rare condition discovered in 2006.

The condition has downsides - difficulty letting go of past hurts and insomnia due to an overactive mind. Due to its rarity, no specific therapies for the challenges associated with HSAM have been developed.

However, remembering one's entire existence brings a unique realization; that life and the passage of time are a mysterious puzzle for everyone.

Rebecca Sharrock is one of the few formally diagnosed with HSAM. Her book, My Life is a Puzzle, is a chronological account of her experiences from birth to age thirty.

Join her on this fascinating journey of growth, discoveries, and adventures.

Betrayal. Murder. Revenge. Just another day in medieval Italy. The year is 1377. Angelo Anchioni has served in the Hospitaller Order for fourteen years. Determination, diligence and skill have made him a squire, but he remains unaware of the evil that those closest to him have within them. Returning home after a long absence, he finds his beloved family has been savagely murdered by the fickle decree of Bernab Visconti, the lord of Milan and one of the most powerful men in Europe. Enraged, Anchioni sets out on a reckless quest through the deadly and dangerous landscape of 14th century Italy. As Anchioni and his fellow squire, Stuart Heton, become embroiled in the simmering feud between Visconti and the ruthless English mercenary, Sir John Hawkwood, the young men discover they are ill-equipped to survive for long in a land torn asunder by conflict. Anchioni must pursue vengeance and thus forfeit all he holds dear, or he must become a willing pawn in a violent struggle that may very well redefine the balance of power throughout Christendom.

How did a boy from the South Dakota prairies end up as a tropical oceanographer?

When he was young, Gregg roamed the hills on horseback, hunting for fossils and rattlesnake dens, dreaming of adventure in faraway lands.

Fuelled by a boundless thirst for knowledge (and exotic food), always open to the call of serendipity, Gregg abandoned a budding career in music to go in pursuit of ....

MUD.

Why mud? Layers of sediment in lakes and oceans reveal the sequence of everything that has settled through the water, from pesticides to bomb fallout.

This history helps us to understand man-made impacts on the natural world. Unravelling these stories took Gregg to the ends of the earth: drilling through

lake ice in the high Arctic, dangling precariously over the ship's rail in the Coral Sea, or wading up to his hips in Fly River mud. It was exciting, often dangerous work. He loved it.

Devoted family man, accomplished musician, respected scientist: Gregg found his adventures. This is his story.

Trade should be the foundation of Australia's relationship with China rather than an argument over loyalty to the United States. Under nationalist Xi Jinping, China may not maintain positive ties with Australia if it continues to align with America during President Trump's second term, leading to trade embargos and cyber-attacks. Australia is unprepared to stand up to this type of escalation.

This book presents a strategy for countering grey zone escalation by inviting trade instead of argument, supported by uncomfortable consequences for non-acceptance.

Australia's Powerful Owl symbolises this strategy. With acute night vision and hearing, it is an apex predator that flies low and hard to defend its domain and can capture prey ten times its weight.

The book proposes an Australian middle power strategy inspired by the Powerful Owl.

It emphasises situational awareness, stealth, and the ability to detect, observe, and deter. If deterrence fails, the strategy preempts and de-escalates tensions to restore a trading relationship. If that doesn't work, it advocates for capabilities to enhance Australia's persuasiveness to trade and not argue by ten.

Three months of summer. Two rival attorneys. One high stakes case.

As a top divorce attorney, Heidi Krupp knows exactly how much love can cost. She knows the billable hours, but she also knows that relationships come with consequences and hearts don't always break clean. She decided long ago that her twenties were better spent winning cases and climbing the career ladder than taking a risk on romance. When her law firm dangles a promotion in front of her, she feels that it's all finally going to pay off.

Now, the only thing standing between Heidi and her dream of partnership is:

1) the impending divorce of a legendary record studio mogul;

2) the custody of a scraggly yellow-eyed cat; and

3) Quentin Maxwell.

Quentin is classically handsome, entirely too confident, and - as a completely unwelcome twist of fate - suddenly vying for the same promotion. The grandson of a named partner, he probably thinks he's as entitled to this position as that silver spoon he was born wielding. It's no surprise that the only thing Heidi wants as much as this job is to professionally vanquish him.

As Heidi works to keep her case notes close and her enemy closer, she begins to wonder... how close is too close when it comes to her playfully witty, surprisingly loyal, and entirely off-limits co-worker Quentin Maxwell? And with her heart and her career on the line, will she finally find herself ready to risk everything for love?

455 Squadron RAAF was the sole Australian strike squadron in RAF Coastal Command, and flew the formidable Bristol Beaufighter, armed with 20 mm cannon, bombs and rockets. A salvo of eight of these rockets could smash through a large merchant ship and send it to the bottom. As part of the devastating strike wings of Coastal Command, 455 Squadron attacked German shipping off Holland and Denmark, and in Norwegian fiords. Here some of the fiercest battles were fought, the strike squadrons diving into concentrated automatic flak, among defending Focke-Wulfs and over merciless freezing waters. The deep fiords, with precipitous rocky sides, were unforgiving; precise flying was necessary for survival. 455 Squadron, 'the Viking Boys', mastered some of the most demanding and perilous operational flying of the war. This history describes the men who flew, the ground crews who gave unstinting support, and includes full appendices of personnel, aircraft on strength and operations. 'The type of work carried out by this Squadron is akin to that of the Viking - short sharp swoops across the sea by a compact, well armed force... The spirit of the Australians is like that of the Vikings, adventurous and free.' 455 Squadron Commanding Officer, Jack Davenport

The river of Howard Debenham's life rounded many bends and delivered experiences that ranged widely from dangerous and ugly to exhilarating, humbling and humorous.

From a sometimes testing childhood in country hometown Australia, he joined the still fledgling Department of External Affairs in 1961.

His life in Australia's Foreign Service took him through eleven overseas postings in nine countries - India twice, South Korea, Japan twice, Israel, Italy, Yugoslavia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the USA.

He was Consul-General in Bangkok and Tokyo, Minister/Counsellor and Consul-General in Washington DC, High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and State Director for Queensland.

His recollections provide a candid, refreshing, and at times irreverent, insight into life in Australia's Foreign Service.

The Stalker Next Door - The amazing true story of lust, fixation, courage and survival To her, he was just the boy next door. To him she was something more. They were never lovers. They were never friends. They were never anything more than neighbours. But one day that would all change. If this story were not true it would be unbelievable. This is the story of Joan Eigner, a devoted wife and loving mother, and her struggle to survive twenty-four years of torment at the hands of a cruel and remorseless stalker. This is also a story of courage, endurance and strength of character. It details the sufferance that victims of crime often experience in their quest for justice. Informed by insightful and poignant interviews with Joan, her family members, police officers and lawyers, Eigner and Gullifer take us on Joan's harrowing journey to justice.

Les Knight, a young man from Camberwell, Victoria was like many who joined to serve his country during the Second World War. But unlike many others his skill as a Lancaster pilot enabled him to successfully breach the Eder Dam in the now infamous Dambusters Raid. At the age of 22 Les was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and became a national hero.

But his war service continued and four months after the Dambusters Raid his aircraft was badly damaged. On this occasion Les' skill and bravery were again on display as he held the stricken plane steady to allow his seven crewmates to be able to bale out.

Then, as he searched for a place to ditch the aircraft, he steered clear of a Dutch village in order to avoid any civilian injuries. The aircraft hit the ground hard, cartwheeled and Les was killed.

Five of the seven crew members were able to evade being captured by the Germans and with the help of underground movements were returned to England. The other two were captured and detained in POW camps until war's end. All seven returned home to continue their lives, marry and have children. Their lives are Les' legacy.

This is the remarkable story of one brave Australian who answered his country's calling and who demonstrated courage far beyond expectation. His gravestone carries the inscription 'Let us be Worthy'. The village of Den Ham have never forgotten the bravery of this young Australian pilot. His grave has always been immaculately kept.

Different schools of economics have pushed their theories on the origins and functions of money with the fevered eagerness of religious fanatics. To the average person, not much of what any of them say makes sense. That is because it doesn't. All schools of money have based their theories on flawed perceptions, best guesses and an academic casualness that makes tea-leaf reading look like a disciplined science. 'Dawn of Gold' unravels the confused tangle of knotted theories and produces for the first time the radically different, but real story of money. 'Dawn of Gold' is Money 101. It needs to be bought, read and understood by every student of not just money, but life.

In 1961 the British army struggled with volunteer recruitment after the abolition of
National Service. Recruiting teams were sent to three remaining colonies and found an
excellent source of volunteers in Fiji. Two hundred men and twelve women from across
Fiji's racial divide enlisted and subsequently served with distinction throughout 'the fringes
of empire', bolstering NATO, in Northern Ireland and the Falklands conflict.

About a third of the men served for 22 years or more, marrying British and other nationals
and many chose not to return to Fiji. Some of those who returned played significant roles in
the 1987 election with a few supporting subsequent military interventions.

The author interviewed the surviving '212' wherever they settled. Brigadier Ian Thorpe, the
last New Zealander to command the Royal Fiji Military Forces, first served with Fijians
in the Malayan Emergency and later established an officer training school for the RFMF,
provided the foreword.

The second book by local author Jess Love, Sometimes, explores the feelings of kids who's military parents have been deployed overseas. A more in depth sequel to children's book Soon, Sometimes also delves into the aspects of re-intergration into a family after being separated.

Jess hopes to encourage a normality of the feelings surrounding a military deployment and ensure that kids don't feel alone in their emotions.

Based on her own experiences, Jess has written and illustrated an authentic view on the subject that is easy for kids to connect to, and an eye opening for their parents.

After the success of Jeff Hatwell's previous military history book, No Ordinary Determination, he has completed another carefully-researched title, written in his characteristic clear and readable style.

Brave Days: The Fourth Australian Division in the Great War is the first full history of the Fourth Division. The book presents a detailed narrative telling the Division's story from its formation after Gallipoli right through to a period rarely covered in Australian military history - the final weeks of the 1914-18 war and the first weeks of peace.

The book ties together the history of not only the Division's infantry, but also of the artillerymen, machine gunners, engineers, medical personnel and headquarters staff, showing how the various elements worked together through adversity to achieve the triumphs of 1918. Brave Days is both an essential reference and a compelling story of heroism and tragedy on the Western Front.

455 Squadron RAAF was the sole Australian strike squadron in RAF Coastal Command, and flew the formidable Bristol Beaufighter, armed with 20 mm cannon, bombs and rockets. A salvo of eight of these rockets could smash through a large merchant ship and send it to the bottom. As part of the devastating strike wings of Coastal Command, 455 Squadron attacked German shipping off Holland and Denmark, and in Norwegian fiords. Here some of the fiercest battles were fought, the strike squadrons diving into concentrated automatic flak, among defending Focke-Wulfs and over merciless freezing waters. The deep fiords, with precipitous rocky sides, were unforgiving; precise flying was necessary for survival. 455 Squadron, 'the Viking Boys', mastered some of the most demanding and perilous operational flying of the war. This history describes the men who flew, the ground crews who gave unstinting support, and includes full appendices of personnel, aircraft on strength and operations. 'The type of work carried out by this Squadron is akin to that of the Viking - short sharp swoops across the sea by a compact, well armed force... The spirit of the Australians is like that of the Vikings, adventurous and free.' 455 Squadron Commanding Officer, Jack Davenport

Echoes in the Wind is a contemporary novel about the trials of an Australian Army serviceman after returning from operations in the Middle East.

Scars are inevitable in life and war. Echoes in the Wind is a story of scars, and how one man's life was shaped by their marks.

Wylie Gibbs relates truly fascinating vignettes from his fifty years as a surgeon in Australia, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Fiji.

One incident relates to his treatment of the late Prime Minister Harold Holt, forty-eight hours before his disappearance. His discussion of this episode, illuminated by his close relationship with Mr Holt, must throw further light upon this enduring mystery. Mr Gibbs also highlights the astounding advances in medicine that have been made in his lifetime and traces his own career as student, intern, flying doctor and consultant surgeon, with a brief interlude as Member of Parliament.

Of special interest are his treatments of three members of 'royalty' a native Torres Strait 'king', the second-in-line to the Saudi throne and another member of Saudi royalty.

The Last Man Standing tells the story of Cadet Thomas Sneyk's passage through the officer training institutions of the Australian Defence Force. Told through the eyes of Cadet Sneyk in narrative form, you are bounced from event to event in a series of episodes spanning his cadet career.

Bastardisation, drugs, lying, cheating, rape, dealing with the contradictory demands imposed on him by the academic and military staff and his own inadequacies, all create hurdles for Cadet Sneyk to overcome if he is to achieve the ultimate prize of graduation.