A supernatural hit. Resurrected in a nightmare dystopia world called The Demon's Playground. His only friends are a fangless vampire forced to wear dentures, a werewolf that only manages to turn into a schnauzer, and a confused succubus that cannot tempt men. When the chaos starts, what could be more fun?When someone orders a supernatural hit on Jack Pittman, he is suddenly thrust into a dystopian nightmare world populated by B grade monster movie characters where nothing is ever as it seems. Jack teams up with an unlikely set of superheroes, including a fangless vampire forced to wear dentures, a werewolf that only turns into a schnauzer, and a confused succubus that can't seduce men. If he wants to survive, Jack must answer a series of crucial questions: How can he keep his friends safe? Who wants him dead? And why is a demon and his infernal Homeowners Association after him?

It is a race against time when Jaden’s old government nemesis Vice President Robinson finds out he has returned to Earth. Robinson puts Jaden on a terrorist list and uses all the government’s resources to kill him.What to expect? Jaden looking for family members. Jaden remote controlling into the pilots brains of a doomed 737.Jaden breaking into a federal prison using: Gravity shockwaves, Atomic solar recharges, 100% of his brain, Nanotime and Atom rippers.It is a race against time when Jaden’s old government nemesis Vice President Robinson finds out he has returned to Earth. Robinson puts Jaden on a terrorist list and uses all the government’s resources to kill him.Vice President Robinson keeps President S. Paylin in complete ignorance on the impending alien attack. Robinson believes Jaden is the conspirator and is causing the strange disorders in humans. Robinson begins his own conspiracy to be the next president of the United States.Love and romance follows the chapters as the silent attack on humans begins.* Chapter 21 in this book is rated pg-13, (This chapter contains sexual references and romance scenes).

A man who's always seen the world through an artistic lens, where boat railings are covered in vermilion paint under cotton candy clouds, would like nothing more than to get validation from the son who's always thought his father was crazy. What if he isn't crazy at all? What if faeries are real? Sometimes fathers and sons have lenses that will never be focused the same.A man who's always seen the world through an artistic lens, where boat railings are covered in vermilion paint under cotton candy clouds, would like nothing more than to get validation from the son who's always thought his father was crazy. What if he isn't crazy at all? What if faeries are real? What if pixies did steal his shoes? Sometimes fathers and sons have lenses that will never be focused the same. Golden Meadows explores the notion of defining reality. Who establishes the rules, and when is it okay to live outside the parameters of normality? It is the third book in the Read Write Ponder series, a collection of short stories constructed to engage readers, writers, and educators. Each novelette-sized book is comprised of a single short story, writing prompts to encourage creative writing, discussion questions for thoughtful analysis of characters and theme, and a letter from the author about her inspiration for the story and the techniques she used to write it.

Two fantasy short stories involving dragons. There are also trolls, dwarves and gnomes.This volume contains two short fantasy stories.The Torik Chronicles - 4 warriors are sent on a special mission by the Prince and heir apparent of Archandia. It seems a dragon has scared the workers and this has impacted the production of peppercorn. Before they even arrive they are attacked by trolls!Marwyn the Great & the Insignificant Journey - A down and out dwarf is begged by gnomes (the only ones lower than him on the social scale) to save their friend from a dragon!

The dachsy hero in this story is Jasmine, but if you asked her, she would say her dad, Hans is the real hero. Hans immigrated from Norway, got an excellent education and landed a job with NASA on the team that put the first man on the moon. This fictional story in a historical setting will warm your heart.When we've chosen the wrongly decision and have fallen off the horse. We must pick ourselves up and get back on the horse not literally speaking.A.G.Douglas proudly presents to you a short story called, ‘The Parable of One Winged Butterfly.’ I have found the butterfly to be a fascinating insect which has inspired children around the world. The natural world will play a crucial part in lives of the butterflies. The natural world provides extraordinary beauty and resources at our doorsteps. The downside of the natural world is that it brings destruction and mayhem too. This parable of the one winged butterfly confronts the downside of the natural world in a courageous manner with the strength of the Lord.

London 1696. War. Treason. Espionage. Financial chaos. Speculation. Sarah Goodricke writes plays. It pays the rent. It keeps her in tobacco and laudanum. She has a play to finish. Then she gets caught up in a hanging procession to Tyburn. She agrees to perform a last service for one of the convicts. It goes wrong. It goes terribly wrong.Please note: This is an unrevised and unfinished fragment of a novel by Richard Blake.London 1696War. Treason. Espionage. Financial chaos. Speculation.Sarah Goodricke writes plays. It pays the rent. It keeps her in tobacco and laudanum. She has a play to finish.Then she gets caught up in a hanging procession to Tyburn. She agrees to perform a last service for one of the convicts.It goes wrong. It goes terribly wrong.Sarah runs. Sarah thinks she is safe. But can she hide in a city filled with plotters, all desperate to lay hands on the packet of letters she has carried away from Tyburn?This unfinished fragment of a novel by Richard Blake is offered free in e-book format as a sample of his finished works. Do not be disappointed if it leaves you in suspense.One day, someone may pay him to finish it....

The Neon Bible tells the story of David, a young boy growing up in a small Southern town in the 1940s. David's voice is perfectly calibrated, disarmingly funny, sad, shrewd, gathering force from page to page with an emotional directness that never lapses into sentimentality. Through it we share his awkward, painful, universally recognizable encounter with first love, we participate in boy evangelist Bobbie Lee Taylor's revival, we meet the pious, bigoted townspeople. From the opening lines of The Neon Bible, David is fully alive, naive yet sharply observant, drawing us into his world through the sure artistry of John Kennedy Toole. John Kennedy Toole, who won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his best-selling comic masterpiece A Confederacy of Dunces, wrote The Neon Bible for a literary contest at the age of sixteen. The manuscript languished in a drawer and became the subject of a legal battle among Toole's heirs. It was only in 1989, thirty-five years after it was written and twenty years after Toole's suicide at thirty-one, that this amazingly accomplished and evocative novel was freed for publication.

Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day… Because as Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do. Usually, it’s something awful. He doesn’t know the half of it… Mab has just traded Harry’s skills to pay off one of her debts. And now he must help a group of supernatural villains—led by one of Harry’s most dreaded and despised enemies, Nicodemus Archleone—to break into the highest-security vault in town, so that they can then access the highest-security vault in the Nevernever. It's a smash and grab job to recover the literal Holy Grail from the vaults of the greatest treasure hoard in the supernatural world—which belongs to the one and only Hades, Lord of the freaking Underworld and generally unpleasant character. Worse, Dresden suspects that there is another game afoot that no one is talking about. And he's dead certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry. Dresden's always been tricky, but he's going to have to up his backstabbing game to survive this mess—assuming his own allies don’t end up killing him before his enemies get the chance…

Part Dr. Who, part Blade Runner, and part A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this genre-busting fantasy from the author of Incarceron asks: If you had the chance to change the past, would you do it? In book two of the critically acclaimed Obsidian Mirror series, New York Times bestselling author Catherine Fisher, called “the first lady of British fantasy” by the London Times, once again shows us that she is a master of world-building and surprising plot-twists. Jake, Sarah, and Oberon Venn continue their fight for control of the Obsidian Mirror, and whoever wins will either save a life, change the past, or rescue the future. But the Mirror has plans of its own.

Published in the bicentenary year of Frederick Douglass’s birth and in a Black Lives Matter era, this edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass presents new research into his life as an activist and an author. A revolutionary reformer who traveled in Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales as well as the US, Douglass published many foreign-language editions of his Narrative. While there have been many Douglasses over the decades and even centuries, the Frederick Douglass we need now is no iconic, mythic, or legendary self-made man but a fallible, mortal, and human individual: a husband, father, brother, and son. His rallying cry inspires today’s activism: “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!” Recognizing that Douglass was bought and sold on the northern abolitionist podium no less than on the southern auction block, this edition introduces readers to Douglass’s multiple declarations of independence. The Narrative appears alongside his private correspondence as well as the early speeches and writings in which he did justice to the “grim horrors of slavery.” This volume also traces Douglass’s activism and authorship in the context of the reformist work of his wife, Anna Murray, and of his daughters and sons.

“Christina Dodd is everything I'm looking for in an author.” —Teresa Medeiros “Christina Dodd is a joy to read.” —Laura Kinsale “Treat yourself to a fabulous book—anything by Christina Dodd.” —Jill Barnett A classic from the incomparable New York Times bestselling, RITA Award-winning  author Christina Dodd, Treasure of the Sun is a shining example of why this magnificent storyteller is one of today’s top names in historical romance. An epic, sweeping tale of lovers from two vastly different worlds drawn together by danger and desire, Dodd’s Treasure of the Sun brilliantly combines passion and adventure in a breathtaking love story as irresistible as it is unforgettable.

Before Bobby Pendragon. Before Saint Dane. Before the war . . . Every territory of Halla has a Traveler. They lived for years--some even for decades--before learning of their true destiny. What was life like for Bobby Pendragon's fellow Travelers before they joined him in the fight to save every time and place that has ever existed? What led up to their becoming the guardians of Halla? The answers are here! In this first of three thrilling Pendragon prequels, read about Vo Spader's death-defying adventures in the underwater world of Cloral, Gunny Van Dyke's race to find a murderer in 1930's Manhattan on First Earth, and the tough challenges Kasha faced on Eelong well before Bobby Pendragon arrived . . .

"THEY THINK KING IS EVIL, BUT HE'S GOT NOTHING ON ME." -Mack MY NAME IS MACK. And if I play my cards right, I will soon be dead. Permanently. Not even my powerful twin brother will be able to resurrect me. A good thing. Because a man like me has no business living. Not when I have killed. Not when I have betrayed everyone I have ever cared for. Not when I know I'm destined to do it again. This is why I have come looking for her--the only one capable of ending me once and for all. But will she think I'm just another insane patient? Or will she believe the truth? I am thousands of years old, my heart too dark to be salvaged. And my name isn't really Mack. ~~~ MY NAME IS TEDDI, short for Theodora. My entire life has been a canvas of grays, whites, and black. I can't feel, I can't understand joy, I've never truly lived. Until now. His name is Mack, and though he believes he's cursed, my degree in psychology tells me otherwise. Besides, someone who's capable of bringing so much light into my life can't be anything but good. But I can save him. If he'll let me.

For generations, the firstborn children of the rulers of the planets Rutan and Senali have been exchanged at the age of seven. This was meant to promote peace and understanding between the societies. Now it has led them to the brink of war. Leed, the heir to the Rutan throne, does not want to return to his home planet. His father will stop at nothing to get him back. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi must prevent this rift from turning to bloodshed. It is their hardest challenge yet.

When Caroline Trent is kidnapped by Blake Ravenscroft, she doesn't even try to elude this dangerously handsome agent of the crown. After all, she's been running from unwanted marriage proposals. Yes, Blake believes she's a notorious spy named Carlotta De Leon, but for six weeks until her twenty-first birthday, when she'll gain control of her fortune, hiding out in the titillating company of a mysterious captor is awfully convenient -- and maybe just a little romantic, too. Blake Ravenscroft's mission is to bring "Carlotta" to justice, not to fall in love. His heart has been hardened by years of intrigue, but this little temptress proves oddly disarming and thoroughly kissable. And suddenly the unthinkable becomes possible -- that this mismatched Couple might be destined for love.

May all your chickens come home to roost. If they had only known what trouble lay ahead, maybe, just maybe the Morgan children and their friend Deeter wouldn’t have agreed to mind No-Name, the world’s ugliest chicken. Maybe they could have avoided camping out with it; confronting its archenemy, the fox; grappling with its abductors. But then again, maybe the whole madhouse caper was inevitable. Summer vacation has arrived. The kids can think of nothing but Starlight Park and its rides. The Screaming Cyclone, Red Devil, Mad Hornet. The fact that their parents won’t take them poses the greatest dilemma of their young lives. That is, until Cornelia makes a deal with Dad. In return for their help in keeping Mom’s one-of-a-kind birthday present hidden for a week, Dad will grant their wish. By the end of a week’s chicken duty, young readers will agree. The Morgans and Deeter have earned their trip to Starlight Park!

This is where it all started! Eight-year-old Alice McKinley wants pierced ears, really long hair, a pet, and, most of all, a mother. Oh, and some friends would be nice. As the new girl in third grade, Alice doesn't know a single person in Takoma Park, Maryland, except for her next-door neighbor Donald Sheavers, who not only is a boy, but also seems to be a little bit peculiar! Desperate to meet people, Alice learns that making friends is harder than it seems when she runs into a group of girls whom she nicknames "the Terrible Triplets" after they make it very clear that they do not want to get to know Alice. On top of all this, Alice also has to keep an eye on Donald's recently divorced mom, who seems to have her eye on Alice's dad! This is the first of three prequels to Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's beloved Alice series. Now younger girls can get to meet the girl everyone wants to be best friends with, and older girls will enjoy finding out how Alice came to be the Alice they know and love.

The Forever Trilogy hasn't ended yet...now it's time for Connor & Ellery's son to tell his story... I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Collin Black, and I’m the future CEO of Black Enterprises. At twenty-two years old, I’m living the American dream, or at least my version of it. I’m rich, fit, sexy, and no matter where I go, women are always throwing themselves at me. I love to party, and when I do, it can sometimes lead to trouble. Women. What can I say? One woman broke my heart which led me to close myself off so it could never happen again. I’ve become one of New York’s most eligible bachelors and bad boy. I leave a trail of broken hearts wherever I go. Until her. This is my journey of going through the ups and downs of life as I climb the corporate ladder, heal a broken heart, and discover that there’s more life than what I thought. She. Changed. Everything.

Boy has always been relegated to the outskirts of his small village. With a large hump on his back, a mysterious past, and a tendency to talk to animals, he is often mocked and abused by the other kids in his town. Until the arrival of a shadowy pilgrim named Secondus. Impressed with Boy’s climbing and jumping abilities, Secondus engages Boy as his servant, pulling him into an expedition across Europe to gather the seven precious relics of Saint Peter. Boy quickly realizes this journey is not an innocent one. They are stealing the relics, and gaining dangerous enemies in the process. But Boy is determined to see this pilgrimage through until the end—for what if St. Peter can make Boy’s hump go away? This compelling, action-packed tale is full of bravery and daring, stars a terrific cast of secondary characters, and features an unlikely multigenerational friendship at its heart. Memorable and haunting, Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s epic medieval adventure is just right for readers of Sara Pennypacker’s Pax, Adam Gidwitz’s The Inquisitor’s Tale, and Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Echo. Features a map and black-and-white art throughout.

She thinks he's an arrogant playboy. He thinks she's an uptight prude. But he's about to make her an offer she can't refuse. Nicola Price used to have it all – a great career, the perfect boyfriend, an excessive shoe collection and an apartment in one of San Francisco’s best neighborhoods. But when she gets knocked up and her asshat boyfriend leaves her high and dry, Nicola’s perfectly crafted world comes tumbling down. And stays that way. Now, Nicola is the proud single mom to a five-year old daughter and living a giant lie. She can barely afford their ghetto apartment and all the men she dates run when they hear she comes with a child. She’s struggling and scared – and nowhere near where she thought she’d be at age thirty-one. Her saving grace comes in the form of a tall, handsome and wealthy Scotsman Bram McGregor, the older brother of her friend Linden. Bram understands a thing or two about pride, so when tragic circumstances place Nicola at rock bottom, he offers them a place to live in the apartment complex he owns. It’s pretty much the perfect deal, so as long as she doesn’t mind living beside Bram, a man that, despite his generosity, seems to antagonize her at every turn. But nothing in life is free and as Nicola gets her feet back on the ground, she discovers that the enigmatic playboy may end up costing her more than she thought. She might just lose her heart. Those McGregor brothers are nothing but trouble...

In 1952 two young lovers meet, in secret, at the beautiful Southern C ross theatre in the very heart of London's West End. Their relationship is made up of clandestine meetings and stolen moments because there is someone who will make them suffer if he discovers she is no longer 'his'. But life in the theatre doesn't always go according to plan and tragedy and heartache are waiting in the wings for all the players . . . Almost seventy years later, a new production of When the Curtain Falls arrives at the theatre, bringing with it Oscar Bright and Olive Green and their budding romance. Very soon, though, strange things begin to happen and they learn about the ghost that's haunted the theatre since 1952, a ghost who can only be seen on one night of the year. Except the ghost is appearing more often and seems hell bent on sabotaging Oscar and Olive. The young couple realise they need to right that wrong from years gone by, but can they save themselves before history repeats itself and tragedy strikes once more?