I've been outside much of this holiday enjoying the weather. The highlight was probably helping with a dormouse survey in our local woods.

And now we've got that cuteness overload out of the way, here are the books you want...

Clevon Demarco, a genetically modified human, has a cocksure attitude and the combat skills to back it up. With his unparalleled skills, he makes his living as a ruthless gunrunner on a shady space station near the edges of the quadrant. Stronger, faster, and wittier than most sad sacks, no one even comes close to Demarco’s abilities—until he crosses paths with the captain of the notorious Star Marque, Endellion Voight.
Captain Voight arrests Demarco and offers him a choice: go to a prison planet for his crimes, or join her starship, the Star Marque, working as mercenaries for the superhumans. But she didn't pick him at random. She has a plan to become a planet governor; a title no human has held since the superhumans won the war. It doesn’t matter the cost—assassinations, extortion, blackmail—she’s determined to claw her way to the top.
All Captain Voight needs is Demarco’s help to carry out her machinations, and she’ll give him everything he’s ever wanted in return.

First Officer Lucas Odin has a secret: he's terrified of combat.
Ever since he was a kid he wanted to be in the Fleet, and after years of hard work, he climbed the ranks at the academy and now his dream has finally come true.
Then the pirates come.
Now the ship’s been shot up, their weapons stolen, their mission hijacked—oh, and Lucas is in charge.

Mari Yosoto has been keeping a dark and dangerous secret from everyone for the past three years. No one would believe her anyway, her ex-fiancé had seen to that. Instead of wallowing in misery, she stays busy, shuttling cargo to the Moon and back, enjoying the easy work and time alone. An old EarthCorps acquaintance asks for her help, and Mari can’t say no, even if it means working with the ex’s former best friend.
Although Trevor Nash took the missing person’s job to help his former commanding officer, deep down he needed to see Mari again. After trying and failing to find out what happened to her, Trevor makes the best of an odd situation, hoping he can remind Mari of their budding friendship and finally get some answers. When the mission goes sideways and they find the not-so-missing girl, a centuries-old conspiracy theory comes to light and the only thing more unfathomable is learning Mari’s secret.
Together with their newly formed ragtag team, Mari and Trevor team up and undertake a mission unlike anything either of them has faced before with life-altering and possibly deadly consequences.

Sgt Seavers of the Orphan Corps is having a run of bad luck. First, he gets in a fight with three marines while on a space station. Second, he wins that fight. And now, after learning he was being considered for officer candidate training, he is informed of his penance.
Can Seavers handle a resentful platoon of Marines? Can he do it while delivering medical aid to a suspicious colony of terraformers?
To get back his chance at officer candidate training, he’ll do his best. Or die trying.

In 2241 the dominant superpower on Earth, the USAN, successfully concludes the fourth world war. The nation breathes a sigh of relief and looks forward to the resumption of elections.
Across the solar system the leading industrialist in the USAN’s small colony on Mars is thinking about independence. When the Martian population votes in favour Mars secedes from the union.
It seems to be a fait accompli until it’s suggested that a massive dropship carrying spacecraft, Ephialtes, built to patrol the Earth, could be refitted for interplanetary spaceflight. Maybe the USAN could use its military might to persuade the colonists to reconsider.
With an enormous instrument war of heading toward them the Martians resolve to defend their independence. Limited resources force them to rely on wit and ingenuity as they prepare their defences. Can they prevail against the mighty Ephialtes?

A brutal attack.
A deadly alliance.
An alien conspiracy.
A galactic invasion.
As the prophesy unfolds, Jon Pike discovers that everything is not as it seems. With his life and the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, can Jon Pike survive long enough to vanquish his enemies? Or will a new dark age descend, yet again, on what's left of humanity?

Mykonian fleet Operative Rafe Hastings has spent several tours around Belia trying to keep weapons traffickers from tearing the local space habitats apart. He’s eager to go home when an informant passes him dire news about an infamous cartel boss named Lilith. Not only has she acquired nuclear weapons, but she has somehow gained permission from the mysterious robotic overlords of inhabited space - the Wardens - to use them.
The battleship Tsunami is dispatched to investigate Rafe’s discovery and veteran operations Officer Sean Merrick soon finds himself caught in a conspiracy involving feuding Wardens. With allies dying all around him, his only hope for survival turns out to be a junior combat nurse named Sarah Riley who has scarcely fired a gun before.
As Rafe, Sean, and Sarah battle Lilith, they’ll be forced to rely on the unexpected to save the people they love. But with the Wardens constantly changing the rules, could it be that no matter who wins the war, everyone loses?

Nathan Stout was born to save the world.
Cloned from the genes of heroes past, tossed aside when the Army abandoned the program, Nate has seized his own destiny. He forms Broken Arrow Mercenary Force and leads a team of hired guns piloting cutting-edge mechs in a last-ditch effort to restore a United States he never knew.
America is under siege by the Russians and Chinese, its major cities devastated by nuclear terrorism. The Army has retreated, the politicians have abandoned the east coast and the only thing standing in the way of total devastation is a handful of mercenaries.
But unseen forces are guiding the battles he fights, steering him toward a fate he never imagined, determined to end his dream of a reunited America. Can Broken Arrow Mercenary Force survive the machinations of the Merchants of War?

In a futuristic New Chicago where justice is meted out via a barbaric system called Absolution, you can either level up or check out.
Nobody knows this better than Marisol, a super-powered tracker whose job involves hunting down “Runners,” people who’ve been paid bounties to become suspects in crimes committed by the wealthy.
On the verge of becoming the city’s premier Hunter, she stumbles upon a young Runner who holds the key to a conspiracy that could topple New Chicago’s dictator–and threatens everything she’s ever believed in.

Kimberly Trayne is in hiding. Accidentally-but-sort-of-on-purpose flash-freezing the son of a drug kingpin tends to require it. Unfortunately the transition from international computer-hacking badass to night manager at Taco Bell has left her life… wanting. The virtual combat realm of Warhawk lets her take out her frustrations with a sniper rifle, and with gun, she travels.
Then the impossible happens. A complete stranger knocks on her virtual door, accidentally thrusting her into the spotlight where private security firms, the FBI, the Bolivian mafia, and her mom can find her.
Stuff always happens, they say.
It usually happens to her.

Kalum Walker lives in the shadow of his athletic older brother. Scrawny and prone to panic attacks, he's a far cry from the superheroes he doodles in his notebook. When his brother steals his meds to help calm his game time nerves, he doesn’t put up a fight. After all, the fate of his family rides on his brother's performance. But without his pills, Kalum’s blackouts begin getting worse… and a disturbing voice inside his head starts urging him into some dangerous situations.
When a blackout-related encounter with bullies puts him in a hospital bed, he starts to notice mysterious bruises all over his body. As he learns of a masked crusader serving up a new kind of justice outside the Corporation compound, he realizes the vigilante bears a striking resemblance to his superheroic sketches. Locked in a battle with the voice inside his head, Kalum must solve the mystery of the infamous Steel Falcon and save his brother before he loses control for good.