This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An exclusive preview chapter from Jean M. Auel’s The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover March 29, 2011 • An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series • A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series The Valley of Horses is the second in the great Earth's Children® series. In The Valley of Horses, Jean Auel uses her thorough understanding of human nature and her powerful gift of storytelling to continue the saga of Ayla and to once again, with exquisite and accurate detail, re-create the world as it truly might have been.

Ava has watched her parents, Caleb and Maggie, live the perfect fairy tale, the perfect love story, played out in front of her eyes her entire life. Her family is love, life, and happiness. The Jacobsons are everything a family should be and Ava is loved and well taken care of. But the one thing that’s missing from her life is the one thing she’s waited for every day, the one thing her kind knows will make them complete, the one thing they thought was gone and lost forever. Her significant. Seth has lived with the Watsons his entire life. They’re the only family he knows, but he knows that there are things they keep from him. He knows that they lie and they do unspeakable evil, things from when he was a child that he can barely remember that cling to the edges of his memory. He barely remembers his real mother and all he knows is what he’s told. He doesn’t know what to trust. He wants to believe that the Watsons love and care for him, have his best interest at heart, but isn’t so sure of that anymore when he finally—after a lifetime of waiting for her—meets his soulmate, and the Watson’s first act is to try to take her away from him. The Virtuoso worlds collide, hearts are exposed, humans are endangered, and the lives of Seth and Ava are changed forever. They’ll have to love without judgment or reservation, they’ll have to be wise and accepting beyond their years, they’ll have to forgive for things before they’ve even happened, they’ll have to trust without seeing, have faith without knowing, and they’ll have to light their own way in the dark when everyone else is blind to show them the way. And more than anything else… they’ll fight like hell to keep each other.

*With The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson changed the face of fantasy fiction forever. In The Mirror of Her Dreams, the astonishing first novel in the two-volume Mordant’s Need series, Donaldson shows us a world of wondrous beauty and seductive illusion, where mirrors hold the deadliest of magics and nothing is what it seems. . . . ***The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled life—until the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees. Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.

In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth. Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. Now, as crusading armies gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take a tremendous sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.

They are the Sentinels. Three races descended from ancient guardians of mankind, each possessing unique abilities in their battle to protect humanity against their eternal foes: the Synestryn. Now a warrior must protect a strong-minded woman from an incredible evil. . . A beautiful, independent Theronai, Rory Rainey knows that her attempts to be a warrior are futile—unless she can stop the demonic visions that torment her. Determined to be free, Rory sets out to find the mysterious guardian who can cure her, before she loses her sight—or her life. But Rory’s journey brings its own dangers when she is attacked by a pack of Synestryn sent by the demon lord Raygh. Cornered and desperate, Rory narrowly escapes with the help of a sword-wielding stranger. Cain knows that Rory needs his protection to survive, just as he knows that her power is compatible with his own. And when Rory binds herself to Cain, the warrior knows he will do anything to keep her safe from the threat of the demon lord that pursues her. . .

Keane is a perfectly ordinary fourteen year old orphan...except for his abnormal, glowing hands, his unexplained dreams frequented by a scary, black dragon, the bullies at his school that just won't leave him alone, and a crippling crush on the new girl. Lucky, then, that he's completely unaware of his connection to the fearful race of supernaturals called the Terralytes rising to claim the Earth.This is not a story about Book of Dark.This is the story of a Majjikon who lost his memory.This is the story of a boy named Keane...Keane Davies is an ordinary fourteen year old orphan, normal in every way. Except that he sometimes awakens in the middle of the night to find his hands glowing bright green.He doesn't understand why he dreams of a scary, black dragon and an enchanted forest, or why his best friend won't let him use his strange new powers against the bullies at school and their needlessly violent methods of "conflict resolution". And things aren't helped any when he starts to develop a crush on the new girl at John Atkins High, inadvertently making her a target for the terrifying bullies.It's a good thing, then, that he remains quite unaware of his innate connection to the fearsome band of supernatural beings who call themselves Terralytes, and who are on the rise against the Council of Majjikons and the High Realm in their quest to claim the Earth in the name of their Order.Will Keane ever learn to use his powers? Will the dark dragon and the mystical forest in his dreams ever make sense? And will he ever find the mettle to face up to his high school tormentors?"Always Stand Up" is the first of thirty-six installments which comprise the Book of Dark Series. Find out more at www.BookOfDark.com.

Grimbledung and Drimblerod- are just trying to get along in life when their worlds collide.Drimblerod runs a moderately reputable second-hand wand shop that does pretty well at moving inventory. Grimbledung runs a disreputable second-hand wand wagon that he moves regularly to avoid the authorities. Together, they get involved in invasions, city-wide fires, and a little bit of love here and there.They were the Best of Gnomes, They were the Worst of Gnomes.Well, one each, really. Grimbledung and Drimblerod- are just trying to get along in life when their worlds collide. Drimblerod runs a moderately reputable second-hand wand shop that does pretty well at moving inventory. Grimbledung runs a disreputable second-hand wand wagon that he moves regularly to avoid the authorities.Drimblerod thinks he has found the perfect partner- someone he can trust (he's a fellow Gnome, after all) and that will keep away pesky non-buying window shoppers. Little does he realize that his new-found partner suffers from Pixie Madness! And not the good kind.As Grimbledung gets used to his new life of respectable shop ownership, the pair end up befriending Nulu Bentknees the Trolless across the street, Pozzuoli Consigliore the Dwarf next door, and even the town constable- Akita Finnish (a Werewolf who would rather bask in the sun than do anything else).Along with Big Julie, the headmistress of the school of magic down the road, this diverse group learns to deal with Grimbledung's antics as they try to refocus his outlandish get rich schemes and unpredictable outbursts into something more productive. Or at least more quiet! Or at maybe even get him to pay for some of his drinks. And perhaps not start a brawl every time he goes to a bar.Things start to heat up for the gang when Grimbledung manages to annoy the entire Great Halfling Empire. Well, not the whole Great Halfling Empire but at least the Halfling soldiers in town. It takes until late in Book 2 for the ENTIRE empire to get annoyed with him. He is just one Gnome, after all. With an impending invasion, everyone is on their toes. It doesn't help that Grimbledung is stepping on them!We'd like to say that "Everything works out in the end" but "Raging Inferno!" is probably more accurate.Book 6, "It's the Election, Stupid" is now out. Grimbledung tries his hand at managing a campaign.

Danger waits on both sides of the grave. Half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her vampire husband Bones have fought for their lives, as well as for their relationship. But just when they've triumphed over the latest battle, Cat's new and unexpected abilities threaten to upset a long-standing balance . . . With the mysterious disappearance of vampires, rumors abound that a species war is brewing. A zealot is inciting tensions between the vampires and ghouls, and if these two powerful groups clash, innocent mortals could become collateral damage. Now Cat and Bones are forced to seek help from a dangerous "ally"—the ghoul queen of New Orleans herself. But the price of her assistance may prove more treacherous than even the threat of a supernatural war . . . to say nothing of the repercussions Cat never imagined.

"In the latest Novel of the Elder Races, two mates find themselves on different paths, torn between their duty to the Wyr and the passion that binds them..."" " Before she met Dragos, half-human/half-Wyr Pia Giovanni was alone and on the run. Now she's mated, pregnant and heading south to repair the Wyrs' frayed relationship with the Elves. Being separated from Dragos is painful, but for the good of the Wyr demesne they need to figure out how to be partners--in more places than just the bedroom. In New York to preside over the Sentinel Games, Dragos is worried about his mate, but knows that finding two replacement sentinels is essential to show the rest of the Elder Races just how strong and brutal the Wyr demesne can be. But as the Games heat up, Pia's negotiations with the Elves take a turn for the dangerous, straining her bond with Dragos and threatening everything they hold dear...

Smart, bookish Belle, a captive in the Beast’s castle, has become accustomed to her new home and has befriended its inhabitants. When she comes upon Nevermore, an enchanted book unlike anything else she has seen in the castle, Belle finds herself pulled into its pages and transported to a world of glamour and intrigue. The adventures Belle has always imagined, the dreams she was forced to give up when she became a prisoner, seem within reach again. The charming and mysterious characters Belle meets within the pages of Nevermore offer her glamorous conversation, a life of dazzling Parisian luxury, and even a reunion she never thought possible. Here Belle can have everything she has ever wished for. But what about her friends in the Beast’s castle? Can Belle trust her new companions inside the pages of Nevermore? Is Nevermore’s world even real? Belle must uncover the truth about the book, before she loses herself in it forever.

The small island of Sark in the English Channel is the last feudal government in Europe. By law, no motor vehicles run on the road, and no lights burn at night. Only the lord of the island may keep hounds.Into the strange, high house of Wrongerwood wanders Hal Landfall, penniless graduate student at Magdalen College, looking for his missing friend Manfred Hathaway, who has just inherited the lordship, the house, and the island. What he finds instead is the lovely, green-eyed Laurel, a beautiful girl from Cornwall who is Manfred's wife-to-be. There is said to be a haunted chamber in the house, erected by Merlin in ancient days, where a man who enters remembers his true and forgotten self. When Hal and Laurel step in, they remember, with fear and wonder, a terrible truth they must forget again when they step outside. John C. Wright is one of the living grandmasters of science fiction and the author of THE GOLDEN AGE, AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, and CITY BEYOND TIME: TALES OF THE FALL OF METACHRONOPOLIS, to name just three of his exceptional books. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, and in 2015, he was nominated for a record 5 Hugo Awards.

HELL ON WHEELS After failing as a magician's assistant, a photographer, and most recently, a bride, Miranda Puckett takes a position as a driver for Beeline, Half-Moon Hollow's premiere vampire concierge service. Miranda's assignment? Driving Collin Sutherland, the world's most fastidious vampire from Washington to Kentucky, so he can deliver a mysterious black case to Council official Ophelia Lambert. Collin, a paranoid, aristocratic vampire with a debilitating fear of flying, refuses to let the case out of his sight. Miranda needs this time on the road to decide whether to permanently cut her ties with the fiance that had an "emotional affair" with a childhood pal, but Collin’s neatnik tendencies are driving her around the bend. The man acts as if leaving a fast food wrapped on the passenger seat is reason for a full-on CDC de-contamination scrub-down of the car. All she can do is promise to stop intentionally doing the things that make his stiff upper lip twitch with irritation. As more and more mishaps occur on the road trip from hell, Miranda and Collin work together to meet his delivery deadline. Hotel rooms are destroyed. Beloved cars are defiled. And somewhere along the line, client-driver hostilities become snarky flirtation. Will Collin and Miranda make it to the Hollow in one piece? And if they do, will Miranda leave old, safe relationships behind for something new and well, just plain weird?

When Lorelei first sees sparks coming from her hands, she worries it's all in her mind. She tells her best friend who seems more interested in separating her from Patrick, a classmate she can't keep off her mind. After being nearly killed by a succubus, Lorelei learns she and her closest friends are Gifted, or sorcerers, and it's up to her to unite the factions of Others to slay the Succubus QueenLorelei Abrahms knew she’d never be famous. She’d never change the world. Lorelei’s just an introverted college student losing faith in her dreams as her life plods onward with no meaning. That is, until she discovers she has strange powers and someone wants her dead. When Lorelei first sees the sparks coming from her hands, she worries it is all in her mind. She tells her best friend Heath, but he seems more interested in separating her from Patrick, a classmate she cannot keep off her mind. After being nearly killed by Thea, a succubus disguised as a college student, Lorelei learns she and her closest friends are Gifted, or sorcerers, and Patrick and his family are Sang, also known as vampires, though no one uses the common terms. Somehow, she must control her new powers and unite the Gifted, the Sang, and the Dark, the Gifted’s opposing faction of sorcerers, to defeat Thea. Unfortunately, Thea is much more than just a succubus and no faction is safe on its own.

Richard Adams, the author of *Watership Down*, creates a lyrical and engrossing tale, a remarkable journey into the hearts and minds of two canine heroes, Snitter and Rowf. After being horribly mistreated at a government animal research facility, Snitter and Rowf escape into the isolation, and terror, of the wilderness. Aided only by a fox they call ''the Tod,'' the two dogs must struggle to survive in their new environment. When the starving dogs attack some sheep, they are labeled ferocious man-eating monsters, setting off a great dog hunt that is later intensified by the fear that the dogs could be carriers of the bubonic plague.