Drew Royce was a lot of things he didn't want to be. A murderer, rapist and ex-Windstalker. His humanity was poorly spent; and all he has after his taste of the supernatural is a battered and ignored soul. The weight of his actions visit him each night as proof he must still be alive. But now, even as an abducted criminal, kept ward by an evolved Nephilim race and used as a weapon against their enemy, he still has to defeat the beast who stole his humanity - himself.
In Mrs. McClellan's eighth-grade homeroom, Bart Wagram sizes up potential teammates for the coming season through a mood as dark as the inside of his battered locker in the field house. For the second time, he flunked a grade - this time eighth. So his teammates from last year have moved on to high school, leaving Bart, a man-boy at age 15, to play with a bunch of 12- and 13-year-old kids who were in seventh grade last year.
Bart's mood darkens further. He can't complain to anyone. His parents are divorced and his father, a preacher, is never at home anyway. He misses his mother desperately and hates his step-mother. And he has a hole in his heart the size of California.
On the same row of desks, a couple of seats in front of him sits Franklin Gibson. Bart despises Franklin Gibson. The son of a banker and an overly protective mother, Franklin played little league football as a kid. But by seventh grade he weighed too much to be on a little league team. So he played with the mill village kids last year. And he got his ass kicked every day. What Bart doesn't know is that Franklin has his own demons. He's fed up with the humiliating cracks about his weight, he's fed up with being accused of getting special treatment because of his family, and he's really sick of being afraid of Bart Wagram's abuse.
Throw Bart and Franklin onto the same team, then mix in the exhaustion of two-a-day practices in late summer. Stir in a dose of rivalry, a generous portion of surging testosterone and the chance for their team to go undefeated for the first time in a generation. Combine with vicious hits, foul mouths, and more dirty plays than you can count and you've got Life on the Line: Football Rage and Redemption, a story about hatred and revenge, of loss and longing, and, ultimately, redemption and love and new beginnings.
There are dark secrets hidden behind closed doors in the small Washington State town of Hoquiam, and the neighborhood has been content to keep those secrets hidden.
It's the summer of 1945 and seven-year-old Nora Lee Sutter hasn't spoken in days. A spirit has asked her to deliver a terrifying message. The warning is ignored and the tragic events that follow push the quiet girl further into isolation. The only one who can get through to her is her friend, Joanne 'Jo' Waterman. Jo's large boisterous family provides Nora with a much needed safe haven from her own dismal world.
As Nora and Jo navigate their teenage years into young adulthood, their friendship becomes a beguiling seduction. However, no amount of distraction will stop the restless spirits from circling in on Nora. They've been blotted out and forgotten and they will not move on until they've been heard . . .
It's the summer of 1949, between junior high and senior high, and Sonny Madeski's big thing in life is baseball. Not for love of the game but for love of himself. He's after fame and glory. His batting average as an eighth grader was .753, so he needs a new challenge. His worst enemy, Tommy "the felon" Fallon, is delighted to supply that challenge. He dares Sonny to abandon his current team, the Loyal Angels, and go up to the Cardinals in the high school league. Sonny suspects that Tommy is up to no good, but it's a dare that no glory hound could refuse. How will Sonny react, though, after striking out six times in a row because the pitchers are all 17 and the ball is so fast he can't even see it? He'll give up, of course, and return to the Loyal Angels in shame and humiliation, just as Tommy knew he would. No he won't, not this boy. Instead, he'll reinvent himself as "the brat." That's what everybody will call him, and for good reason. He'll be truly obnoxious, even to his parents, his uncle, his religious advisor, his best friend, his girlfriend, and his teammates. But he'll also be getting on base and scoring, thanks to his foot speed, his bratty antics at the plate, and his capering on the base paths, all of which annoy and befuddle the opposing players. In other words, he'll set aside his dreams of heroism and home runs, and lower himself to "small ball" or "tiny ball," or just "brat ball." Is it possible to attain glory and fame without swinging the bat? Well, if you're Sonny "the brat" Madeski, it just might be.
Seventeen-year-old Alex Cardin is falsely convicted of a felony. It is six years after President Gray's Prison Reform Act of 2026. Prisons have been shut down across the United States, and all felons must serve life sentences on isolated prison islands where escape is impossible, and rules of civility are obsolete. Alex is banished to Dregs Island and must rely on his sharp intuition, as nobody can be trusted. To survive, he must defeat the ruthless ruler of the island who was a legendary serial killer back on the mainland. Alex is forced to make decisions along the way that weigh survival against humankind and family against friendship.
Harken back to the Golden Age of Piracy, an exceedingly brief but highly memorable epoch. Launched at the beginning of the 1700's, this unforgettable twinkling in time spawned such notorious and celebrated reprobates as Blackbeard, Calico Jack and Black Bart to name but a few.
Glamorized and sensationalized by novels and the silver screen to an unrealistic and surreal level, these nautical hooligans have been cast in the roles of noble, gallant, misguided or misunderstood daredevils and protagonists. These erroneous portrayals could not be any further from the truth. In reality, pirates were notorious criminals and despicable cowards responsible for wonton acts of savagery, barbarity and bloodthirstiness.
Bilge Rat Pirate Adventurer paints a vastly different and much more realistic picture of the harsh and brutal world of pirates. Expunged are the orchestrated swashbuckling duels amongst rivals, the storied histrionics of saving damsels from unspeakable defilement, the Hollywood-created fantasy of innocents walking the plank to their eternal doom and the ridiculous folly of these fiends actually burying hard-fought booty on some deserted atoll. Rather, this unique and action-packed series depicts a realistic and genuine account of life amongst these sea vultures, while providing a highly powerful and entertaining reading experience.
The series centers on a young lad and his lifelong trials and tribulations. Orphaned as a youth, our hero is forced to flee his beloved homeland due to the evil machinations of a despicable bully. Highly educated by a cleric uncle and fluent in a slew of foreign languages, the youth is forced to quickly adapt to the rigorous and unmerciful life as a sailor. By fate's grace, the burgeoning tar has been gifted with a special ability to duplicate all manner of sounds and voices, which enables him to outwit contemptible adversaries and avoid mortal dangers throughout his travels.
This raw recruit is sea-seasoned by a host of highly memorable, charismatic and fascinating rascals and rogues. At the same time, our hero is tormented and bedeviled by an abundance of malignant, malicious and lethal enemies. Only his well-honed quick thinking and cunning can keep him out of harms way.
The star-crossed adventurer is eventually captured and forced into a life of piracy by a mangy and noxious band of sea wolves. Caught up in a world of nautical psychopaths, miscreants and scalawags, the series paints a realistic account of everyday life aboard a pirate ship, along with documenting a myriad of insidious and malevolent depredations wrought by these sea devils.
This refreshing and novel series also introduces an appalling pirate scourge--The Black Tarantula. This pirate demon is nothing more than evil personified. He is a lethal threat to all humanity as he treats his numerous victims with utmost malice, torment and hideous annihilation. This diabolical archfiend takes a particular interest in our young hero and spends considerable effort persecuting and vexing his well being and livelihood.
Chocked full of rollicking and captivating sea tales and sailor's yarns, this novel and exciting series is a must read for every pirate aficionado!
When the paths of Zoe Asfah and Miles Blake accidentally cross one quiet, summer afternoon, they feel this inexplicable attraction. Is it fate? Maybe. But if so, they soon discover that fate also has its dark side. The way these two young, beleaguered souls confront what life throws at them defines the focus of this heart wrenching novel filled with laughter, love, mystery, and sorrow.
The lyrical tale of a boy, a girl, their island, and how they saved it.
Wide as the Wind is the first novel to deal with the stunning, tragic history of Easter Island (Vaitéa). It could be described as quest fiction for all ages in the line of Tolkien's The Hobbit, but it is set in the real world, not Middle-earth. Wide as the Wind portrays Polynesian voyages across the Pacific Ocean in canoes with no metal parts or instruments: the greatest adventure in human prehistory, as bold as modern space voyages (National Geographic).
When Vaitéa is ravaged by war, hunger and destruction, it falls upon Miru, the fifteen-year-old son of a tribal warrior, to sail to a distant island to find the seeds and shoots of trees that could reforest their homeland. If he decides to undertake the voyage, he must leave behind Kenetéa, a young woman from an enemy tribe with whom he has fallen deeply in love. And if Miru and his crew survive the storms, sharks and marauding ships that await them on a journey over uncharted ocean, an even greater mission would lie ahead. They must show their people that devotion to the earth and sea can be as strong as war and hatred. Wide as the Wind is both a stirring novel of adventure and a prophetic tale for our times.
Nyx Estrella is a princess from Gexalatia, a world on the other side of a portal. Unfortunately, she has no idea. Sent to Lucky, Texas, when she was a baby to protect her from the evil King Paraximus, her biggest concerns are grades and seeing her friends. She has no idea that she possesses magical abilities and that her reality is about to become really strange. Jet Lamia is a war prisoner, sent from Gexalatia by the queen, Liana Estrella, to bring Nyx back home to the kingdom of Ymber. The portal only opens on the winter solstice, so Jet finds himself trapped on Earth, trying to blend in. Fortunately, he has help in the form of the queen’s chosen assistant, Seth Alvar. But playing well with others has never been one of Jet’s talents. It is a race against the clock to tell Nyx her true identity and try to train her, while also keeping her alive. Nyx and Jet struggle to defeat the assassins sent to kill them both, while trying not to kill each other. Can this duo put their differences aside and return to Gexalatia?
When hunky, eighteen-year-old Travis Kurth lures his sister Bekka to assist him and his friends in an online game, he has no idea that all their lives are about to change… forever. Ripped from reality by an elemental force of nature, the party of five soon wake in a beautiful, but dangerous, new world called Orian. Bekka, who is suffering from a genetic disease, the same malady that killed their mother, finds herself in complete remission, but there’s little time to celebrate as one, then another of their party falls prey to this unforgiving land.
Rescued from death by a battalion of human soldiers under the leadership of Vallas Onisquase, Crown Prince of Adosarath, Bekka discovers that in Orian refuge comes at a steep price. The arrogant, dangerously handsome Vallas, beguiled by Bekka’s beauty, sets in motion a plan to make her his own, but the royal entourage falls under attack by a blood-thirsty humanoid faction called Vadarcs.
Abducted, Bekka finds herself deep in Vadarc territory with no chance of rescue. Leashed like an animal, abused, humiliated and placed on an auction block, she is purchased by blood and gold to become the property of Randar Ataurik, a humanoid, tusked, barbarian, Vadarc prince. Vallas who is obsessed with his newly betrothed, demands her return but Randar, in the long held tradition of Vadarcs, has bound her by blood.
As the winds of war sweep the land, Bekka finds herself in a deadly triangle. Embellished is the first book in an epic, paranormal romance.
Trattora is the adopted daughter of the Chieftain on a primitive frontier planet. Velkan is an indentured serf who has never known a day of freedom. Forced to flee a terrifying invasion by Galactic Pirates, they are thrown together on a ramshackle mining vessel that harbors more than one dark secret. Fate and chemistry combine when the pair’s matching birth bracelets lead them to a shocking discovery. Stakes rise when they uncover the classified Expulsion Project, and the devastating sacrifice their birth families made. Determined to save them from liquidation, Trattora and Velkan plunge headlong into a frantic race against time and space to take down the genocidal Artificial Intelligence that now rules their home planet. But will they navigate the treacherous dealings of the seedy Galactic underworld in time to rescue the families who loved them enough to let them go?
Girl of Fire is the first novel in The Expulsion Project, a sci-fi, dystopian thriller trilogy with a whisper of romance, a heavy dose of adventure, and action galore. If you are a Firefly or Dark Matter fan, or in Divergent withdrawal, this is the book mashup for you!
Benny, fifteen, is solitary by circumstance more than choice: he counts each move to a new town as “a life.” He’s on Life Number Seven. His last! He plans to run away from his paranoid mother, who’s been on the run since the disappearance of his father when he was three. Benny has no memory of it, except for weird dreams of a firestorm and a hideous dragon. After a fight with his mother, Benny packs his bags. Boom! The house explodes, catapulting Benny into a world he never imagined existed.
The trail leads him to a gated Neoclassical building in the woods and to six teens he vaguely remembers: Kami is deaf, Amir is blind, Zuma is overweight, Layla is gorgeous but lazy, Chaz is in a wheelchair and Raj is as angry as the purple dagger-shaped birthmark running down the side of her face. These unlikely heroes share a common thread: Benny lost his father and they lost their mothers on the same day. The only clue to the mystery is Benny’s grandfather, Domenico H. Adez, a strange and dangerous man. “In my last years at Harcourt, I can’t remember reading one single fantasy MG or YA that was half as interesting as the world you have created. . . It really was a cool discovery that you had linked these modern-day misfits to Greek mythology and Greek history! So brilliant! Between the fight scenes and the stories and people and creatures of Greek mythology coming to life, it was truly a roller-coaster adventure. And the ending—now THAT is how you leave us wanting for more!” --Editor, Evil Speaks
Eve has no idea she's the oldest soul on earth, with a pre-wired connection to every other soul on the planet and that the boy she's mysteriously drawn to, named Roman, has been her soul mate, her love of nearly three hundred lifetimes--until he tells her.
But what Roman doesn't mention is that the new genetic test called Animus will soon expose what she is to the whole world and that he's being tasked with the impossible; steering her, into the open arms of another, a boy named Jude. She'll learn that Jude's the only brand new soul on earth; the one who's come to change the world, and that the future of humanity rests in their intertwined destiny.
Reckless, desperate, and distraught, Noa Sullivan leaps into a collapsing Portal in the explosive finale of Shattered Blue --the jaw-dropping, award-winning first installment in The Light Trilogy --in wild hope of rescuing her little sister Sasha. Now Noa and the Fae brothers who love her--Callum and Judah Forsythe--must find a way to survive not only across worlds but between them, in places so treacherous and deceptive their own minds are twisted against them. As the three fight to survive their passage, they battle not only enemies but themselves, and their darkest, most difficult secrets.
Surviving, however, is only the beginning: Noa needs to find Sasha. That means becoming a warrior herself, one just as fierce as the magical brothers battling for her love. Across broken cities, underground labyrinths, rushing floods and endless skies; in the face of legions of armies, horrifying tyrants, and the most deceitful of friends, can Mortal Noa rescue her sister--and understand her own heart--in time to escape the most deadly of magic realms?
In a time and world long ago forgotten, there existed an enchanted workshop. Within its walls, a magical creature called a 'Maker' busily created the next of his kin. Upon completion, the creator was whisked away to join the rest of the Maker community. Meanwhile, their progeny was left alone to create the next Maker in a never-ending cycle of creation. That was, until the day an offbeat Maker named Ario was unable to complete 'The Making' and broke their sacred chain of existence. Wracked with guilt, Ario embarked on a quest to right his wrong, but what he discovered was far more monstrous and miraculous than anyone ever imagined.
From the award-winning author of WhipEye Chronicles comes the new epic fantasy series, Divided Draghons--an action-packed thriller with mystery, romance, and battles set in a world as beautiful, dangerous, and mysterious as the three heroic women--Famere, Jennelle, and Camette--who must fight for their people's survival and the men they love.
The debut fantasy book from Geoffrey Saign, Wyshea Shadows, is a new addition to the great epic fantasy tradition of Dean Murray, Marc Secchia, and Ava Richardson.
Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.
Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.
Sixteen years ago, a plague wiped out nearly all of humanity. The Company’s vaccine stopped the virus’s spread, but society was irrevocably changed. Those remaining live behind impenetrable city walls, taking daily doses of virus suppressant and relying on The Company for continued protection. They don’t realize that everything they’ve been told is a lie…
Clover Donovan didn’t set out to start a revolution—quiet, autistic, and brilliant, she’s always followed the rules. But that was before they forced her into service for the Time Mariners. Before they condemned her brother to death, compelling him to flee the city to survive. Before she discovered terrifying secrets about The Company.
Clover and the Freaks, her ragtag resistance group, are doing their best to spread the rebellion and stay under The Company’s radar. But when their hideout is discovered, they are forced, once again, to run. Only this time, The Company has special plans for Clover, plans that could risk her life and stop the uprising in its tracks…
In 1964, Paul Carpetti discovers Jack Kerouac's On the Road while on a school trip to New York and begins to question the life he faces after high school. Then he meets a volatile, charismatic Kerouac devotee determined to hit the road himself. When the boys learn that Kerouac is living in St. Petersburg, Florida, they go looking for answers.
