Fifteenth century Venice is a safe haven for the masterless dregs of the vampire world, a city where they can live without the fear of retribution for violating another’s territory. Still, there are plenty of ways for a young vampire to die in the glittering city, a lesson that prince turned pauper Mircea Basarab must learn quickly. But there are opportunities, too—in the service of a secretive courtesan, in the bed of a beautiful senator, and in the hunt for an ancient assassin. As a vendetta older than Venice itself comes to a climax, Mircea struggles to evade the dangers of his current life, to come to terms with his past, and to uncover the truth hidden behind a city of masks…

Achim is eleven years old when he moves from the orphanage to the house by the sea. Here everything is strange and new. But one day he discovers an unusual door that leads to a circular room with walls made of rough stone. The light coming through the window is hazy, as if the room is under water. It is a magic room—which he calls “The Adopted Room”—belonging to another world. And on a bed in the room sits a boy who is waiting to take Achim with him into the realm of the powerful Nameless One. Achim learns that the boy, Arnim, is the long-dead son of Achim’s new parents. When he died in a car accident at the age of four, Arnim was supposed to have become a bird and flown free to the land of the dead, which can be seen through the window of The Adopted Room. But the Nameless One has somehow locked Arnim inside, so he cannot leave. Achim, however, finds he can turn into a bird, slip through the window, and fly across the strange land. And thus begins a journey in which Achim must fight the Nameless One and free Arnim so he can finally leave his parents and they can let go of their grief. Antonia Michaelis’s fresh voice helps to address the delicate issues of death, grief, and mourning, portraying them as an essential part of life. The Secret Room is full of humor and adventure, but also brings to light these difficult life issues in a way that young readers can understand. The first in a trilogy, with its sequel, The Secret of the Twelfth Continent, to follow next spring, this captivating mid-grade novel is sure to become a favorite series with young readers.

The Black Stallion is the fastest horse in America and he and his jockey, Alec Ramsay, are training for a big race. Suddenly there comes a new challenger: Flame! An unproven racer, the Island Stallion can run like the wind and his jockey, Steve Duncan, knows that Flame will give the Black the race of his life. But what neither Steve nor Alec know, is that these two stallions have met before, and they hate each other. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Warning: This is not a story about fate or destiny. This is a story about pain, sorrow, and suffering. This is an impulsive whirlwind romance between two lovers that are not meant to be together. Theirs is not a world with sunshine and roses. Instead, their love blossoms in a secret world full of crime, violence, and death. Their story is about what can be born from nightmares. Danielle “Danny” West is the daughter of Deuce West, President of the Hell’s Horsemen Motorcycle Club. A sweet and beautiful girl, she loses her way, searching for things that are always out of her reach. Erik “Ripper” Jacobs is the Sergeant of Arms in the Hell’s Horsemen. Once a man who always had a smile on his face, his life takes a turn for the worst when a tragedy befalls him, leaving him scarred and broken. During a midsummer night, Danny and Ripper’s paths cross, forever changing their lives. Hastily, their lust turns to love until another tragedy forces them apart. On a journey that is marred with ugliness and chaos, Danny and Ripper must discover if their unforeseen connection can find the beauty in their world. This is Danny and Ripper’s story. Everything has beauty. Even the ugly. Especially the ugly. Because without ugly, there would be no beauty.

"Just remember," Yoshio said quietly to his grandsons. "Every day of your lives, you must always be sure what you're fighting for." It is Tokyo in 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms, two orphaned brothers are growing up with their loving grandparents, who inspire them to dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. The older boy, Hiroshi, shows unusual skill at the national obsession of sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of creating hard-carved masks for actors in the Noh theater. Across town, a renowned sumo master, Sho Tanaka, lives with his wife and their two young daughters: the delicate, daydreaming Aki and her independent sister, Haru. Life seems full of promise as Kenji begins an informal apprenticeship with the most famous mask-maker in Japan and Hiroshi receives a coveted invitation to train with Tanaka. But then Pearl Harbor changes everything. As the ripples of war spread to both families' quiet neighborhoods, all of the generations must put their dreams on hold---and then find their way in a new Japan. In an exquisitely moving story that spans almost thirty years, Gail Tsukiyama draws us irresistibly into the world of the brothers and the women who love them. It is a world of tradition and change, of heartbreaking loss and surprising hope, and of the impact of events beyond their control on ordinary, decent men and women. Above all, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is a masterpiece about love and family from a glorious storyteller at the height of her powers.

Floral Beach wasn't much of a town: six streets long and three deep, its only notable feature a strip of sand fronting the Pacific. It was on that sandy beach seventeen years ago that the strangled body of Jean Timberlake had been found. The people of floral Beach didn't pay a whole lot of mind to past history, especially when Bailey Fowler, the self-confessed killer, had been properly processed and convicted. They weren't even unduly concerned when, a year after the murder, Fowler walked away from the men's prison at San Luis Obispo, never to be seen again. After all, everyone knew Jean had been a wild kid. "Like mother, like daughter," some said--though never within hearing of Shana Timberlake, who, whatever her faults, still mourned her murdered child. And then, by sheer fluke, the cops stumbled on Bailey Fowler. And a case seventeen years dead came murderously to life again. For Royce Fowler, old and sick with not much time left, his son's reappearance was the chance to heal an old wound. For Kinsey Millhone, the case was a long shot, but she agreed to take it on. She couldn't know then it would lead her to probe the passions buried just below the surface of family relations, where old wounds fester and the most cherished emotions become warped until they fuse into deadly, soul-destroying time bombs.

The Book of Proper Names is set in contemporary Paris, its main character an orphan named Plectrude. Before the child's birth her nineteen-year-old mother shoots and kills her nineteen-year-old (and somewhat feckless) father because she hates the names he's devised for their child--she fears they will doom their unborn child to mediocrity. The mother confesses openly to what she has done, and why. She is arrested and thrown into prison, where she gives birth to the child, names her, to everyone's bafflement, Plectrude--an obscure saint, and an albatross of a name--and then hangs herself. The novel therefore begins on the borderline between tragedy and absurdity, but as Plectrude grows--raised by a loving, indulgent, and eccentric aunt--it becomes a deeply moving and simultaneously chilling portrait of girlhood. Plectrude's great gift turns out to be for ballet, and she throws herself into dance as if her life depended upon it. Few novels have shown us the implacable and unforgiving world of ballet with more intuitive sympathy, yet also with a keen-eyed assessment of the true price of artistic perfection.. Inevitably, the doom hovering over Plectrude's life from birth returns to haunt her, and in the end she learns to survive in the only way she knows how--by committing an act of deadly self-preservation her mother would have perhaps understood best. The Book of Proper Names is vintage Amelie Nothomb--alternatively mordant and poignant, a portrait of adolescence that is fierce and funny at the same time. There is nothing mediocre either about Nothomb nor her creations.

It's been eighty-six years since the Red Sox won a World Series. Eighty-six years cursed. Twelve-year-old Oscar Egg be-lieves he is cursed, just like the Red Sox. His real parents didn't want him, and now his adopted mom has dumped him off to live with his strange, sickly dad. But there's something Oscar doesn't know. The Boston Red Sox really are cursed, and not just because they sold Babe Ruth in 1919. Someone deliberately jinxed the team, and the secret to breaking the Curse lies deep below Fenway Park, with Oscar's dad and the Cursed Creatures, a group that has been doomed to live out their miserable lives below Fenway until the Curse is broken. Oscar knows he can be the one to break the Curse, allowing the Red Sox to finally win the World Series and setting the Cursed Creatures free. But some of the creatures are angry. Some don't want the Curse broken. Some want Oscar, and the Red Sox, to fail and remain cursed forever.

I’m fucked. Royally. She tempted me—screwed with my head—and gained the upper hand. She’s the enemy. I can’t forget that. My weakness jeopardized my company. The Feisty Princess of Manhattan will not win this war. No matter how fantastic her lips felt around my cock. *Book two in a three part erotic romance series. Super naughty new series From NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Michelle A. Valentine (Rock the Heart, Phenomenal X, Demon at My Door). *

This rarefied novel adopts the form of the interior monologue characteristic of Lispector's (1925-1977) oeuvre. A woman sits by the open window of her Brazilian beachfront studio, writing a long letter to someone no more specific than "you." She parries with language (which is "only words which live off sound") and is wholly consumed with problems of epistemology: "I want to die with life." A painter, she struggles as well to recreate the world around her: "On certain nights, instead of black, the sky seems to be an intense indigo blue, a color I've painted on glass." When she listens to music, she says, "I rest my hand lightly on the turntable and my hand vibrates, spreading waves through my whole body." While the narrator's self-consciousness ("And if I say 'I,' it's because I don't dare say 'you,' or 'we,' or 'a person.' I'm limited to the humble act of self-personalization through reducing myself, but I am the 'you-are.' ") and diction ("the ultimate substratum in the domain of reality") may strike some readers as academic, others will appreciate the challenges of Lispector's philosophical investigations. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lily isn't home ALONE - but she sort of wishes she was; looking after her three younger siblings is a lot of responsibility. When Mum goes off on holiday with her new boyfriend and her stepdad fails to show up, Lily is determined to keep the family together and show they can cope without any grown-ups. But taking care of 6-year-old twins, her 3-year-old sister and the family's flat feels overwhelming and Lily is worried that school or social services might discover their situation and break up the family. What could be better than to take all the little ones for a camping adventure in the park? Plenty of space to run about, no carpet to vacuum, and surely no chance anyone will guess they're there . . .

"Gleason mixes historical mysteries with current events and exciting technology—creating a fast-paced story that takes you on an action-packed ride!”  —New York Times bestselling author Jana DeLeon  In the tradition of Clive Cussler comes the first novel in an exciting series of thrilling adventure, high-stakes international threats, and lost treasures....  Moscow, 1560: A lost Byzantine library...last seen in the possession of Russia's Ivan the Terrible...  Siberia, 1942: A World War II female fighter pilot crashes in the mountains of Siberia and is taken away by a small, mysterious tribe...  United States, 2007: Four simultaneous earthquakes erupt across the United States in areas without fault lines....  Marina Alexander lives for adventure. She pilots small planes in order to participate in search and rescue missions with her dog, deep in the most dangerous caves on earth.  She also studies antiquities at the University of Michigan, and is just about to depart on the most important trip of her career when she is swept into an adventure of high-stakes, international intrigue--for little does she know, she has a connection to a dangerous group of eco-terrorists that will bring her face to face with them--and leave her with a terrible choice.  From the deep, dangerous caves of mid-Pennsylvania to the southern shore of Lake Superior, to the desolate mountains of Siberia and the slick urban oil center of Riyadh, Siberian Treasure will take readers on a fast-paced, thrilling ride.  "...there's nothing better than a book by [C.M.] Gleason!" --Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Micro-Man is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Forrest J. Ackerman is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Forrest J. Ackerman then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

If there is one thing eighteen-year-old Aurora Sky wants, it's to get off the iceberg she calls home. Being kissed before she graduates wouldn't hurt either. Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Government agents step in and save Aurora's life in exchange for her services as a vampire hunter. In Alaska. Basically she's a glorified chew toy. All thanks to her rare blood type, which sends a vampire into temporary paralysis right before she has to finish the job. . . by hand. Now Aurora's only friends are groupies of the undead and the only boy she can think about may very well be a vampire. (Mature YA, new adult series that becomes progressively more mature. Underage drinking, sexual situations, mild language and blood sucking. )

With more than 700 five-star ratings on Goodreads! When the government enacts Project ELE to preserve the human race after a devastating epidemic, survivors like Willow must adapt to new lives in shelters. But soon, Willow and her friends acquire unusual abilities that have far-reaching consequences. The ELE Series is a now complete Young Adult Science Fiction Romance series.With more than 700 five-star ratings on Goodreads! When the government enacts Project ELE to preserve the human race after a devastating epidemic, survivors like Willow must adapt to new lives in shelters. But soon, Willow and her friends acquire unusual abilities that have far-reaching consequences. The ELE Series is a now complete Young Adult Science Fiction Romance series that will appeal to fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Gender Game by Bella Forrest, Red Queen by Victory Aveyard, and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.In an effort to save the human race, the government has implemented Project ELE. Now, the only chance for survival is to seek refuge in underground shelters controlled by the government. Willow Mosby is among the select few allowed to enter the underground bunker to wait out the end of the world. Forced to pick up the broken pieces of her life after being separated from her family, she throws herself into a new life of work and school. When she meets Alec, her young and attractive boss, Willow finds herself falling for the one guy who should be off limits. Alec makes her feel like this crazy new world may just be worth living. But when an afternoon date results in a shocking discovery, she's forced to face an unspeakable truth that puts the lives of her and her friends in jeopardy.

Labyrinth Michaels never once thought that she'd find love in the arms of her best friend. But, Daregan Ferris just might be the man of her dreams.Natasha leaves for an Accounting degree on a scholarship. She gets her degree and returns home to care for her dying mother. And when she dies, Natasha goes to Bulawayo to get a job. She gets a job, because Sipeyiye loved her. And then she is obsessed with Sipeyiye. The next thing she adopts a kid straight from the street, but why? That is before she realized she has contacted the virus. But unlike her mother, Natasha refuses to die? And she’d survive somehow. Where’ll she find her hope? Abortion, adoption, love…And is this the solution to the all problem that the earth is facing on the present day? Too many people. In other words, is there a Life after Death for the planet Earth?

How many survived the zombie apocalypse?Where do the living hide in a city of the dead? Who controls the streets of London? B Smith is setting out to explore...

During a visit to Planet 505-D, the crew of the Humboldt starts acting strange―shirking duties and responsibilities. The chief engineer objects, but Captain Marie Penski and the rest of the crew tire of his act. Until they get a most unexpected visit from Muryah Abernathy, reported lost on an earlier expedition. Ten years earlier!Soon, the crew falls under her spell...with deadly consequences.During the final visit to Planet 505-D before human colonization begins, the crew of the Humboldt starts acting strange―shirking their duties and responsibilities. The chief engineer, Devin Calloway, wants no part of it, but Captain Marie Penski and the rest of the crew become tired of his attitude. Until the day they get a most unexpected visit from Muryah Abernathy, a woman reported lost on the original mission to 505-D —ten years earlier. Soon, the crewmembers are under her spell, ignoring even their own safety… with deadly consequences.Bonus Content: This 140-page novella (approx. 74,000 words) includes a sixteen chapter excerpt from Hunters, a new horror and contemporary fantasy novel involving modern-day vampires and the human hunters determined to exterminate them once and for all.

After a potion gone wrong, Mia Brooks is a witch hiding from werewolves she didn’t know existed. When her brother’s best friend comes home from deployment for the holidays, the emotions she’s suppressed boil to the surface. Not only does Ethan’s view of the supernatural shift when they’re attacked by a werewolf, but his feelings for Mia intensify to the point where he can no longer hide them.THE WITCH WHO CRIED WOLF - A Cry Wolf NovellaNew Adult Paranormal RomanceBe careful what you wish for…A potion gone wrong: Mia Brooks is a reluctant witch, with powers that she tries to hold in check. But when her magic gets mixed up, supernatural forces are unleashed and suddenly she’s being pursued by werewolves—that she didn’t even realize existed…Hidden emotions: Ethan Parker, Mia’s brother’s best friend, is home from deployment for the holidays. Mia’s not only hiding from werewolves, she’s trying to keep her feelings for Ethan secret; it would be a disaster if he knew she’s been nursing a long-time crush…The power of love: things take a terrifying turn when Mia and Ethan are attacked by a werewolf. Ethan is amazed when Mia reveals her paranormal prowess as she tries to shield them from danger. But can she really protect them from the darkness that lurks? And how can he tell her that, for ages, he’s been denying what he really wants? Mia...

Callan Matthews is a master at burying pain and emotions. Her husband Clay mistakenly thinks he knows everything there is to know about this woman he loves. Callan’s secret, once revealed, could create a chasm too deep for either of them to cross.Strong-willed, successful and determined, Callan Matthews is the queen of organization, detail, and planning. Clay, her fun-loving husband of 13 years, refers to her as Ms. Business. Unfortunately, unbridled chaos runs amuck in the deep, dark places of her heart as she struggles to keep herself together. She contemplates how she ended up at a place in her life where Clay is tugging at the last few threads keeping her from completely unraveling. It isn't his ghastly snoring, his inability to pick up after himself or the tonal quality his belching repertoire is gaining on a daily basis that is pushing her toward the edge of a breakdown. It is a secret Callan refuses to reveal.Easy-going cowboy Clay Matthews is a respected college professor, a favorite among family and friends, and completely baffled by his wife. He thought he knew everything there was to know about this woman. Suddenly, she's turned into a mystifying female he barely understands. Clay would give just about anything to recapture the feelings they used to share, but Callan seems to want no part of it. Just when he decides to get to the root of the problem no matter the outcome, he discovers his wife has harbored a secret nearly too painful to bear.Will their love be strong enough to withstand a revelation that will rock the foundation of their marriage?