The Mystery of the Wild Ponies

      Gertrude Chandler Warner
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The Aldens have promised Grandfather a vacation from mysteries during their island visit. But the promise proves hard to keep when things start to go missing. Then an old fisherman tells Benny of the island’s ghost horse, and late that very night Benny sees a mysterious stallion galloping down the beach. Could the ghost horse have something to do with the disappearances?

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    Sweet Hush

      Deborah Smith
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Her Harvard-student son just eloped with the First Daughter. CNN is parked on the road to her apple orchards. Secret Service agents have commandeered her country kitchen. The irate First Parents are threatening to have her taxes audited. The President's handsome, tough, ex-military nephew is setting up camp in her guest room. Hush McGillan's quiet Appalachian world of heirloom apples, country festivals, and carefully guarded family secrets has just been flipped like one of her famous Sweet Hush Apple Turnovers. What do you do when your brand-new-in-laws are the First Family, and they don't like you any more than you like them? And what happens next when you find yourself falling in love with the man they sent to unearth all your secrets? From the White House to the apple house, from humor to tears and sorrow to laughter, get ready to fall in love with Sweet Hush.

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    Needing The Memories (The Rocker...Novella #1)

      Terri Anne Browning
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Happy Ever After doesn’t end at the Epilogue. The Epilogue is really only the beginning. For us, it’s meant sharing every high, every low, and loving each other even more when we come out the other side still standing. He’s everything I’ve always wanted. My best friend. My lover. My husband… My Demon. And I’m his Angel. Our life hasn’t always been perfect, but to me as long as I get to wake up to Angel in my arms every morning and get to tuck our girls into bed at the end of each day I’ll be the happiest man in the world. Nothing can come between us, nothing can tear us apart. Only…I have one regret. One that is still a black void in my head. Every year it’s the same. The regret. The self-loathing for the man I was back then. The anger that I’d taken something from the woman who has given herself to me so freely and being unable to remember a single second of it. This year it’s worse for me. It’s slowly driving me crazy. Maybe it’s time to hit rewind and give us both a do over for that night. Maybe what I really need is a memory to replace that empty blackness that is trying to swallow me whole. PLUSBonus The Rocker…Series companion in the back.**

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    The Holly Joliday

      Megan McDonald
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Judy Moody is making a list and checking it twice, but all her brother, Stink, wants this year is snow. It hasn't snowed on Christmas in Virginia in more than a hundred years, however, so what are the chances that that will change? Enter the new mailman, Mr. Jack Frost, who not only looks like a jolly old elf but also seems to know a lot about weather patterns, has a fondness for the cold, and works looooooong hours during the holiday season. Plus it's the best time of the year, when strange packages and lots of surprises are swirling around, so isn't it possible that Stink might get his wish? Fans who curl up with this new Moody comedy can be sure that their bellies will shake like a bowl full of jelly.

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    Leather Maiden

      Joe R. Lansdale
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Abrash amalgam of terrifying suspense, raw humor, and intriguing mystery that unfolds in the vividly rendered shadowy lowlands of East Texas.After a harrowing stint in the Iraq war, Cason Statler returns home to the small East Texas town of Camp Rapture, where he drinks too much, stalks his ex-wife, and takes a job at the local paper, only to uncover notes on a cold case murder. With nothing left to live for and his own brother connected to the victim, he makes it his mission to solve the crime. Soon he is drawn into a murderous web of blackmail and deceit. To makematters worse, his deranged buddy Booger comes to town to lend a helping hand.From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Hell Fire

      Karin Fossum
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A gruesome tableau awaits Inspector Konrad Sejer in the oppressive summer heat: a woman and a young boy lay dead in a pool of blood near a dank camper. The details of the deaths of Bonnie Hayden and her five-year-old son Simon are mysterious. There is no sign of robbery or assault. Who would brutally stab a defenseless woman and her child? Sejer and his fellow investigator Jakob Skarre begin a hunt for the killer that will eventually lead them to a heartbreaking conclusion. In a parallel storyline, masterfully fused, Fossum tells the story of Mass Malthe and her troubled son Eddie as they navigate a relationship that some would call too close. Eddie constantly thinks about his unknown father — someone his mother would rather forget. When long-held secrets are revealed, it turns out that Mass and Bonnie share more in common than Eddie could have ever guessed.

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    Tangled

      Carolyn Mackler
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Maybe I'll decide I have a life story, too, and I'll reveal some of it. The good girl, the jock, the beautiful one, and the geek. Tangle them together, and the unexpected happens. Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all in Paradise. When they meet, they have no idea how they will all connect—or that their chance encounters will transform each of their lives. The secrets we keep, the risks we take, and the things we do for love: Four months after it all begins in Paradise, none of them will ever be the same. From School Library JournalGrade 8 Up—Four teenagers, Jena, Skye, Owen, and Dakota, come together and cross paths during a vacation in the Caribbean. A quarter of the book is devoted to each teen's perspective. Jena tells about her feelings of inferiority when around beautiful Skye, the daughter of her mother's best friend. Skye wants to figure out the truth about her father and the suicidal depression that turns her away from auditioning for even one more film. Dakota drinks, is sexually pushy with girls, and deals with his girlfriend's death in a car accident when she was with another guy. Owen, Dakota's younger brother, hides his insecurity behind the safety of his blog and general computer nerdiness. All four lives become "tangled" together while at the resort and after they reach home, and the way the tangles twist and unfold allows these teens to discover their true selves and find personal satisfaction. Mackler expertly creates believable characters, plots, and settings. The teens are good people who have obstacles to overcome and problems to face. Whether realizing it directly or not, they help one another because of their chance relationships. As powerfully depicted as in Emily Wing Smith's The Way He Lived (Flux, 2008), the various viewpoints weave together to create a compelling and cohesive whole. Themes of understanding, respecting others, and the power of good communication are carefully and effectively woven throughout a story that begs for discussion.—Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, Fort Collins, CO Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistMackler, whose previous titles include the Printz Honor Book The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things (2003), introduces another cast of memorable, authentic young characters in her latest heartfelt novel. Four teens share the narration of the cleverly constructed story, which begins at a five-star Caribbean resort, where two mothers have thrown together their very different teen daughters. Jena, a Westchester County high-schooler, is her own worst critic. She worries about her weight, powders her zits until her face resembles “a funnel cake,” and marvels at her companion, Skye, a gorgeous, wealthy young actress in Manhattan. Jena spots lanky computer geek Owen, but she ends up fooling around with his brother, Dakota, a beer-swilling jock who dumps her when Skye shows interest. The often-hilarious story, which takes place over a four-month period, builds in poignant layers as each character narrates in a fresh, frank voice that defies stereotype. Although the teens’ tech-heavy communication is utterly contemporary, their insecurities, desires, and questions about family, self-worth, and first love are timeless. Grades 9-12. --Gillian Engberg

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    Broken April

      Ismail Kadare
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Two destinies intersect in Broken April. The first is that of Gjor, a young mountaineer who (much against his will) has just killed a man in order to avenge the death of his older brother, and who expects to be killed himself in keeping with the provisions of the Code that regulates life in the highlands. The second is that of a young couple on their honeymoon who have come to study the age-old customs of the place, including the blood feud.While the story is set in the early twentieth century, life on the high plateaus of Albania takes life back to the Dark Ages. The bloody shirt of the latest victim is hung up by the bereaved for all to see—until the avenger in turn kills his man with a rifle shot. For the young bride, the shock of this unending cycle of obligatory murder is devastating. The horror becomes personified when she catches a glimpse of Gjor as he wanders about the countryside, waiting for the truce of thirty days to end, and life with it. That momentary vision of the hapless murderer provokes in her a violent act of revulsion and contrition. Her life will be marked by it always.**

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    The Dawn Star

      Catherine Asaro
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With no teacher to guide her, no mentor to discourage her from the impossible, Mel Dawnfield pushed her magic to its limits -- and surpassed them. Only to find that her powers aren't enough to halt burgeoning rebellion within her husband's fledgling realm -- or a plot devised to strike at the very heart of Mel's family. The lines have been drawn. Mel's mage strength has become greater than any power ever known, but dare she forge her spells into weapons to protect her people, her husband? For her magic might transform the brutality of war into the birth pangs of a peaceful empire...unless it proves the death blow to her world.

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    WAY OF THE SHADOWS

      Cynthia Eden
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The woman who doesn't remember is the one he can't forget!Fifteen years ago, Noelle Evers was kidnapped. Two days later, her abductor was dead, leaving her with no memory of what happened. Now an FBI profiler, she uses her past trauma to get inside the minds of killers. But she can't read her new partner. EOD agent Thomas Anthony is controlled. Dangerous. And hauntingly familiar. Thomas has been covertly watching Noelle's back. He wanted to tell her the truth, but couldn't blow his cover. Their latest mission just revealed a link to her past. With desire ramping up between them--and a predator hunting Noelle--it's time for Thomas to step out of the shadows. Or lose his second chance to save the woman he loves.

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    The Great Treehouse War

      Lisa Graff
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Kids vs. parents! An epic treehouse sleepover! An awesome group of friends! An exciting new book from National Book Award finalist Lisa Graff.Winnie's last day of fourth grade ended with a pretty life-changing surprise. That was the day Winnie's parents got divorced, the day they decided that Winnie would live three days a week with each of them and spend Wednesdays by herself in a treehouse smack between their houses, to divide her time perfectly evenly between them. It was the day Winnie's seed of frustration with her parents was planted, a seed that grew and grew until it felt like it was as big as a tree itself. By the end of fifth grade, Winnie decides that the only way to change things is to barricade herself in her treehouse until her parents come to their senses—and her friends decide to join her. It's kids versus grown-ups, and no one wants to back down first. But with ten kids in one treehouse, all with their own demands, Winnie discovers that...

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    The Stolen Lake

      Joan Aiken
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Dido Twite, heroine of Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket, is on her wildest adventure yet. On her way back to London aboard the Thrush, Dido and crew are summoned to the aid of the tyrannical queen of New Cumbria. Her island is an infernal place where birds carry off men and fish eat human flesh. The queen is greatly distressed because a neighbouring king has stolen her lake. Dido faces fire, flood, wild beasts and, ultimately, threat of execution in order to get the lake back. Is she equal to the challenge? A rich mixture of legend, fantasy, humour and pure snowballing adventure.

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    I.O.U

      Nancy Pickard
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The layered plot of the latest in the excellent Jenny Cain series (SAY NO TO MURDER) finds the Port Frederick, Mass., sleuth probing the cause of her recently deceased mother's insanity. Cain discovers that her mother's mental collapse many years before coincided with the bankruptcy of the family business. The closing of Cain Clams created considerable unemployment locally and countless enemies for the Cains--one such foe may now be trying to prevent the amateur detective from delving further into her family's past and the town's secrets. As she tracks down public mysteries, Cain unearths painful personal issues; an attempt on her life, construed as an effort at suicide, forces her to deal with the legacy of her mother's madness. Pickard masterfully resolves both plot lines in this affecting, provocative novel centering around the mystery at the heart of mother-daughter relationships.

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    Warbound: Book Three of the Grimnoir Chronicles

      Larry Correia
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New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author. Gritty urban fantasy set in an alternate noir 1930s. A tough P.I. battles an interdimensional monster that wants to suck magic power out of the world. Sequel to Hard Magic and Spellbound.  Book Three in the Grimnoir Chronicles.Gritty urban fantasy adventure set in an alternate noir 1930s, Book Three in the Grimnoir chronicles.Only a handful of people in the world know that mankind’s magic comes from a living creature, and it is a refugee from another universe. The Power showed up here in the 1850s because it was running from something. Now it is 1933, and the Power’s hiding place has been discovered by a killer. It is a predator that eats magic and leaves destroyed worlds in its wake. Earth is next. Former private eye, Jake Sullivan, knows the score. The problem is hardly anyone believes him. The world’s most capable Active, Faye Vierra, could back him up, but she is hiding from the forces that think she is too dangerous to let live. So Jake has put together a ragtag crew of airship pirates and Grimnoir knights, and set out on a suicide mission to stop the predator before it is too late.  About the Urban Fantasy of Larry Correia:“[A] no-holds-barred all-out page turner that is part science fiction, part horror, and an absolute blast to read.”—Bookreporter.com“If you love monsters and action, you’ll love this book. If you love guns, you’ll love this book. If you love fantasy, and especially horror fantasy, you’ll love this book.”—Knotclan.com“A gun person who likes science fiction—or, heck, anyone who likes science fiction—will enjoy [these books]…The plotting is excellent, and Correia makes you care about the characters…I read both books without putting them down except for work…so whaddaya waitin’ for? Go and buy some…for yourself and for stocking stuffers.”—Massad Ayoob“This lighthearted, testosterone-soaked sequel to 2009's Monster Hunter International will delight fans of action horror with elaborate weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, disgusting monsters, and an endless stream of blood and body parts.”—Publishers Weekly on Monster Hunter VendettaAbout the AuthorLarry Correia is an award-winning competitive shooter, a movie-prop-gun master and, yes, an accountant by day–but an urban noir adventure master by night. He is the creator of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling Monster Hunter series as well as urban fantasy hardboiled adventure saga, the Grimnoir Chronicles. Correia is very tall, very bald, and lives in Utah with his wife and family.

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    Breaking Danger

      Lisa Marie Rice
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Only one man and one woman can stop the world from burning in this thrilling final volume in Lisa Marie Rice's sexy Ghost Ops series, in which an elite super-secret military team must face down doomsday and protect the gifted women they love.Haven, a community of misfits and geniuses, is one of the few safe places remaining in a world on fire. Run by the Ghost Ops team, three dangerous, fearless, soldiers who were once betrayed and disgraced will fiercely protect their country and the women they adore from a deadly plague that has turned people into violent monsters.Beautiful brilliant Dr. Sophie Daniels is trapped in her home with the only antidote to the plague. Former Ghost Ops elite operative Jon Ryan is sent on a suicide rescue mission, brutally fighting his way to her side. Together they must cross treacherous terrain before they can return to Haven. But for them to succeed, Sophie must trust this tormented soul and place her life, and her heart, in...

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    Cold Blooded

      Lisa Jackson
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His Vengeance Will Be Repeated... A woman's slashed, incinerated corpse is found in a seedy New Orleans apartment. Her killer is certain there were no witnesses, unaware that his every move was seen by a beautiful stranger—from her bed in a bayou cottage on the outskirts of town. . .And Repeated... Weeks later, another violent vision shatters Olivia Bechet's sleep. Convinced a serial killer is stalking the city, Olivia turns to the authorities. But jaded detective Rick Bentz doesn't believe her—even when a second body turns up, slain in exactly the same bizarre, ritualistic manner Olivia described. . .And Repeated. . .As New Orleans panics in the icy grip of a merciless killer, Olivia is frustrated by Bentz's skepticism—and captivated by her attraction to him. But soon her dreams are invaded by images of another murder. One that has yet to be committed. This time, Olivia recognizes not only the victim's face—but the...

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    The Books of the Raksura: The Complete Raksura Series

      Martha Wells
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The complete Books of the Raksura trilogy, by Martha Wells. Containing The Cloud Roads (2011), The Serpent Sea (2012), The Siren Depths (2012). The Cloud Roads ** - Moon has spent his life hiding what he is--a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged >creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again discovered and cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... The Serpent Sea - Moon, once a solitary wanderer, has become consort to Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud court. Together, they travel with their people on a pair of flying ships in hopes of finding a new home for their colony. The Siren Depths - Now a rival court has laid claim to Moon, and Jade may or may not be willing to fight for him. Beset by doubts, Moon must travel in the company of strangers to a distant realm where he will finally face the forgotten secrets of his past, even as an old enemy returns with a vengeance.ReviewThe Cloud Roads has wildly original worldbuilding, diverse and engaging characters, and a thrilling adventure plot. It's that rarest of fantasies: fresh and surprising, with a story that doesn't go where ten thousand others have gone before. I can't wait for my next chance to visit the Three Worlds! - N.K. Jemisin, author of *The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms*About the AuthorMartha Wells is the author of more than a dozen fantasy novels, including The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, The Gate of Gods, The Element of Fire, The Cloud Roads, Emilie and the Hollow World, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer.

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    The First Day of the Rest of My Life

      Cathy Lamb
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In this deeply moving and wonderfully insightful novel, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb explores what can happen when one woman decides to reclaim her past-and her future-no matter where they lead...Madeline O'Shea tells people what to do with their lives. A renowned life coach, she inspires thousands of women through her thriving practice-exuding enviable confidence along with her stylish suits and sleek hair. But her confidence, just like her fashionable demeanor, is all a front.For decades, Madeline has lived in fear of her traumatic past becoming public. Now a reporter is reinvestigating the notorious crime that put Madeline's mother behind bars, threatening to destroy her elaborate façade. Only Madeline's sister, Annie, and their frail grandparents know about her childhood—but lately Madeline has reason to wonder if her grandparents also have a history they've been keeping from her.As the demons of the past swirl around her, a tough, handsome judge with a gentle...

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