The Tale of Two Sisters

      Shannon Hale
     The Tale of Two Sisters

In Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends, Apple White and Raven Queen faced off in a hexciting battle between destiny and choice. Here is the story within their story: The Tale of Two Sisters, the spellbinding tale found in the basement of Ever After High. Get the full fairytelling in this exclusive short story by Newbery Honor author Shannon Hale!

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    Starbright

      Rachel Higginson
     Starbright

Stella is a Star, sent by a Council of Elders to live on Earth and protect the planet from the Darkness, a terrifying evil that would suck the good from every living thing and leave the planet empty and desolate. She has until her twenty-fifth birthday before the Protectorship becomes hers and Earth is left solely her responsibility. Stella’s fate goes on fast forward as she struggles to balance the rest of high school with the duties of protecting humanity from the deadliest kind of evil. With her parents and Seth, the boy intended to be her Counterpart, by her side she faces down demons and fallen angels in an effort to protect the last inhabited planet in the universe. But evil is not her only enemy. She also fights her future as she tries to decide if she’s willing to give up her human relationships, especially that of her best friend Tristan, in order to save humanity.

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    Blue Noon

      Scott Westerfeld
     Blue Noon

The darklings will hunt once again. The secret hour when time freezes arrives every night at midnight in Bixby, Oklahoma. It's a dangerous time, when five teenagers are the only humans awake and dark creatures crawl out of the shadows, but at least the midnight hour is regular and predictable. Until suddenly, the blue time comes . . . in the middle of the day. The noise of school stops. Cheerleaders are frozen in midair, teachers brought to a standstill. Everything is the haunted blue color of the midnight hour. The Midnighters can't understand what's happening, but as they scramble for answers, they discover that the walls between the secret hour and real time are crumbling. Soon the dark creatures will have a chance to feed after centuries of waiting, unless these five teenagers can find a way to stop them. A desperate race against time, a mind-blowing mystery of paranormal logic, a tale of ancient evil and spine-chilling sacrifice: blue noon is the exhilarating third volume in the Midnighters series by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld.

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    Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow

      Holly Hook
     Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow

14-year-old Rita Morse is the kind of girl that the teen-hating Shadow Regime hates. She won't put up with crap that isn’t fair. After she toilet-papers a video game store in retaliation for a ban on teens, the Regime, an army of immortals secretly trying to oppress teens all over the world, adds her to their list of threats. That’s not good, because the Regime’s enemies always disappear.Fourteen year-old Rita Morse is the kind of girl that the teen-hating Shadow Regime hates. She won't put up with crap that isn’t fair. Like the ban on teens her own cousin, Jerry, put up at his video game store. After she toilet-papers the place to get back at him, the Regime, an army of immortals working to oppress teens all over the world, adds her to their list of threats. That’s not good. Turns out that banning kids from stores is the least of their evil.Because the Regime’s enemies always disappear.Now Rita’s in the biggest trouble of her life. She’s being stalked by shadow people. Threatened. Even nearly kidnapped. The Regime's not the only danger: they control countless humans around the world--including her cousin. There’s nowhere to turn.Rita must learn the Shadow Regime’s reason for their war on teens—and her—or she won't make it through her first week of high school.

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    New Wave Detectives 01: Punk Rock Theatre

      Brian McLellan
     New Wave Detectives 01: Punk Rock Theatre

James Jordan never expected his past to come back to him like this. Now he's in danger, dodging horrors and nightmares that he thought he'd left behind. And the one person who could help him might have vanished forever...For James, a night of punk rock and witchcraft is just the beginning.New Wave Detectives is a 10 part series. Punk Rock Theatre is episode one.As night falls on Midsummer's Eve, Elliot joins the noteworthy of Neppon society as they gather for the city's gala ball. All does not go as smoothly as planned however, as the first hints of a plot against the Roscans casts its shadow across our stage.*The city of Neppon drifts through the shallows, where the walls circling the mortal realm are thin. Here the daemons gather out of the surrounding night, drawn by its promise of candle flame warmth.As the election for the city's mayoral office approaches, one man stands head and shoulders above the other candidates. His reputation is as a bastion for all that is good and honest, in a world beset from all sides by horrors. But Jaret Roscan carries a secret. A secret that could bring ruin to his political career, and chaos to his beloved city.One person carries the key to his salvation. The question is, will they come forward in his hour of need?Harlem's Deck; a story in instalments. Keep your hand close to your chest...*Read this if you enjoy the work of Joe Abercrombie or Scott Lynch, or love watching Tru Blood or Battlestar Galactica.

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    The Claim to Royal Blood

      AM Kirkby
     The Claim to Royal Blood

A contest is announced! The winner gets a fairy kingdom all his (or possibly her) own.Timon hopes he'll be the lucky one, and takes his friend Hamnet along. He has to prove his claim to royal blood - through combat, through ordeals, through multiple choice tests. Is he going to make the final cut?A story with a little twist in its fairy tail.This story happily stretches the imagination. Kids love it. Age 4 and over.

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    Pattern Sense

      F.T. McKinstry
     Pattern Sense

If a mouse in the middle of the night can’t bring out a woman's hidden powers, nothing can. Driven by the nocturnal activities of said mouse, a knitter discovers a strange power in the stitches of her latest knitting project. But when her heart is broken, she learns that love is more powerful than even the strengths and pitfalls of the earth’s own magic.If a mouse in the middle of the night can’t bring out a woman's hidden powers, nothing can. Driven by the nocturnal activities of said mouse, a knitter discovers a strange power in the stitches of her latest knitting project. But when her heart is broken, she learns that love is more powerful than even the strengths and pitfalls of the earth’s own magic.This story is included in the collection Wizards, Woods and Gods.

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    The Mad King

      Jovee Winters
     The Mad King

A new world in chaos, and a legendary love that never was… Hatter and Alice. Alice and Hatter. Two parts making up one whole. Their love was legend, until a curse came and ripped them apart forever. Rewriting their past, present, and future. But a couple of powerful fairy godmothers and one taciturn god are determined that curse or no, the lives of two of Kingdom’s most famous inhabitants will be set to rights. Only problem is, one of them has just died and time is now running out for the other. Can Kingdom ever be restored again? Only time will tell…

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    Time of the Great Freeze

      Robert Silverberg
     Time of the Great Freeze

Dr. Barnes grasped the microphone so tightly his knuckles whitened..."London, this is New York...It's hundreds of years since the last contact between London and New York!" "I hear you, New York. Have you been to the surface yet?" "Not yet. But we're going to go! We hope to visit you, London! To cross the Atlantic!" For centuries, men had lived miles beneath the ground in order to survive the great Ice Block that had submerged the earth. In an attempt to resume human contact, Jim Barnes, his father and several other daring men emerge from a subterranean New York to cross the frozen Atlantic. Coping bravely with problems of food and shelter, the fury of snowstorm and the attacks of wild beasts, and the strange, savage men who roam the Earth's ice crust, they finally reach London, only to find an angry and distrustful mob. Jim's pivotal role in establishing trust and unity is revealed in a suspenseful and thrilling climax.

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    The Dragel's Song II

      Chera Carmichael
     The Dragel's Song II

Neilson Hewitt thought claws, wings and running into Benjamin Carson couldn't make his life any worse than it already was. Then his fangs came in and the new Magical Arts teacher hates him and he meets a young stranger wandering through Noir Academy at the end of the day. How screwed up can his life get before it starts to improve?Neilson Hewitt thought dragel claws and wings, running into Benjamin Carson, and losing his magic couldn't make his life any worse than it already was. Then there were fangs--and the new Magical Arts teacher that hates him and a mystery stranger wandering through Noir Academy and he can still only eat fruit. How screwed up can everything get before it starts to improve?

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    Tea For Two

      Cheri Chesley
     Tea For Two

He finds her intriguing, she finds him dangerous. Can Shannah protect a long held family secret from the persistence of her handsome employer?The world of Eeryan is not unlike our own—kingdoms and principalities with rich histories of love, hate, vengeance, war, peace, epic battles, and natural disasters. There are diverse kingdoms to discover and vast land masses to traverse, as well as a Great Sea that essentially holds it all together.In the land of Brundidge, so far across the Sea from kingdoms like Demarde and Fayterra as to be almost unheard of, there is no remaining magic. There is, however, a just king and stately queen, the right amount of heirs, and a love story that will warm your heart.

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    The Greylands: Volume I

      Susan Skylark
     The Greylands: Volume I

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet, William Shakespeare A land of shadows, of mystery, of obfuscated Truth. Welcome to the Greylands, that strange world, within the bounds of Time, peopled by mortal men. We cannot see truly, only as through a glass, darkly. Discover a collection of stories inspired by such imaginings.A land of shadows, of mystery, of obfuscated Truth. Welcome to the Greylands, that strange world, within the bounds of Time, peopled by mortal men. We cannot see truly, only as through a glass, darkly. There are things that move and have their being completely beyond our ability to perceive them. There are things beyond our mortal ability to comprehend. There are hints and glimmers hidden within the body of revealed Truth, but there is much we do not know, cannot yet understand, and could never dare dream. These stories are mere fancy, with a seed of Truth at their core. They play with the ideas of mortality and Eternity, Time and things beyond it, and of course the epic battle of Good against Evil. Each stands alone, and though there are common themes, threads, names, and concepts, each story is an entity unto itself and should not be seen as occurring in the same world or mistaken for installments of a series. These are random musings, not Gospel Truth, and should not be taken as such. Joy, hope, and encouragement are hopefully a byproduct, but certainly not sound Theology. If you would know more of the true world beyond these Greylands, one must be a careful student of the Scriptures, not of silly stories such as these.

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