What would you do if you found an ancient pair of witch’s slippers in the old cottage you were staying at? Janet, who loves Lee (who loves Maxine), tries them on. Maxine, who loves Greg (who prefers Janet), tries them on. Then they find a book of potions. Then they find that the house has decided it isn’t going to let them go. Witch one will the slippers choose?Witch one will they choose?What would you do if you found an ancient pair of witch’s slippers in the old cottage you were staying at?Janet, who loves Lee (who loves Maxine), tries them on.Maxine, who loves Greg (who prefers Janet), tries them on.Then they find a book of potions.Then they find that the house has decided it isn’t going to let them go.Witch one will the slippers choose?

The world's troubles make Mrs. Queen hum. But when her son threatens to separate her from her grandson unless she gains control of her behavior, Mrs. Queen vows to master her nervous habit of humming. The world's wars and famines, storms and earthquakes, fail to cooperate with Mrs. Queen, and the sweet woman must decide if chasing away her hum is worth placing her neighbors in peril.Fear constricts Mrs. Queen’s life. Anxiety turns her to stone. And all of Mrs. Queen’s worry overflows into the hum forever spilling from the trembling woman. Recognizing how the nervous habit has consumed his mother, Maven refuses to let his son David visit his grandmother until Mrs. Queen promises to follow the prescribed steps required to regain control over her trepidation. Mrs. Queen forces herself to cease fretting over her diet. She volunteers throughout her community to again socialize with her peers. She even tosses her emergency radio into the silence of her closet. Yet the woman's environment seems to unravel all the more furiously with each of Mrs. Queen’s efforts, until the world itself shakes in an attempt to make Mrs. Queen return to her humming.

Trinka’s journey begins when she fails to predict the future and flunks out of school... but how could she have known the twists and turns her path would take? Along the way, Trinka finds herself helped and hindered by talismans, and discovers the secrets that have fractured her family. But will she find the strength, courage, and confidence to do what no one has ever believed she could?Trinka lives in a lofty world called Ellipsis... until she flunks out of her fantastical school. She is sent away to join her father on a watery world where she won't need talent. But when she decides to get there by stowing away on the airships, run by the mysterious dream merchants, she ends up on a journey she never could have imagined.As she crosses into unfamiliar places full of unexpected adventures, Trinka finds herself both helped and hindered by an ever-growing collection of talismans-strange objects and strange creatures given to her by the people she encounters on her journey. Along the way, Trinka discovers the secrets that have fractured her family and scattered them across the four realms. But will she find the strength, courage, and confidence to do what no one (especially her) has ever believed she could?

Car'Al has had to deal with his difference of ideals with his rock troll tribe all his life. The conflict comes to head in this story of conflict, will, and determination.Daniel's mother Kelli, has married Duncan Osborne , a high school football coach who has taken an interest in his overly indulged new stepson. Daniel despises his new "shit-for-brains" stepfather, mentally accusing him of abuse.One night Daniel awakens to someone in his room and is propelled into a fast pace sexual paranormal escapade, accelerating him into puberty. His friend Jimmy comes to spend a few days with him and they soon get caught up in the most confusing adventure either one of them could have imagined.Some Sexual Content and Mild Violence. NC 17 .ALSO author of THE SEVENTH CHAKRA ..

From the bestselling author of Thursday Next — a brilliant new novel about a world where social order and destiny are dictated by the colors you can see Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color—but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means. Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion. Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey, which is low-caste in this color-centric world. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk. Stunningly imaginative, very funny, tightly plotted, and with sly satirical digs at our own society, this novel is for those who loved Thursday Next but want to be transported somewhere equally wild, only darker; a world where the black and white of moral standpoints have been reduced to shades of grey.

Four acclaimed novels by “a born storyteller,” the New York Times–bestselling author of The Rules of Magic and The Dovekeepers (Entertainment Weekly). One of today’s most beloved authors of lyrical fiction with a touch of magic, Alice Hoffman boasts a body of work that has been praised by readers and critics from the very beginning. This collection includes her first novel, plus three more of her outstanding tales. Property Of: Hoffman’s debut about teenage girls in mascara and leather and their attraction to local toughs is “a remarkably envisioned novel, almost mythic in its cadences” (The New York Times). The Drowning Season intertwines the stories of two women named Esther: a granddaughter, who yearns to escape the Long Island shore and the coldness of the family matriarch; and her grandmother, who fled her abusive parents in Russia decades before. This novel “casts the spell of all great fairy tales. It takes daily life and transforms it into myth as we watch” (Chicago Sun-Times). Fortune’s Daughter: A New York Times Notable Book, this luminous novel of a restless young traveler and a fortune-teller with a secret is a tribute to the profound mysteries of motherhood and childbirth from a writer who, in the words of Amy Tan, “takes seemingly ordinary lives and lets us see and feel extraordinary things.” At Risk is a New York Times bestseller that “will leave few dry eyes” (Library Journal). In 1980s America, a family copes with their daughter’s terrifying AIDS diagnosis.

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells and corridors, but metal forests, dilapidated cities, and wilderness. It has been sealed for centuries, and only one man has ever escaped. Finn has always been a prisoner here. Although he has no memory of his childhood, he is sure he came from Outside. His link to the Outside, his chance to break free, is Claudia, the warden's daughter, herself determined to escape an arranged marriage. They are up against impossible odds, but one thing looms above all: Incarceron itself is alive . . . Book Details: Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2/8/2011 Pages: 464 Reading Level: Age 12 and Up

The first ever collection of Michael Marshall Smith's award-winning short stories. The first piece of fiction Smith ever wrote -- a short story called The Man Who Drew Cats -- won the World Fantasy award. It's included here along with many others, some unpublished, which show the incredible versatility of one of the most exciting writers working in Britain today. The collection is stuffed with surreal, disturbing gems including: 'When God Lived in Kentish Town' Someone comes up to you when you're quietly eating your stir-fried rice in a great Chinese take away, and tells you: 'I've found God'. You try to ignore them, right? But what if they have, and what if He works in a drab old electrical store on Kentish Town Road and he's not getting many customers? 'Diet Hell' Some people will do anything to fit into their old jeans. 'Save As...' What if you could back up your life? Save it up to a certain point and return to it when things went horribly wrong? 'Everybody Goes' An idyllic childhood day from a long, hot summer. The kind you want to last for ever. All good things must come to an end, mustn't they?

After a slight misunderstanding involving a horrible governess, oatmeal, and a jar of tadpoles, siblings Tobias and Charlotte Eggars find themselves abandoned by their father at the gates of a creepy reform school. Evil mysteries are afoot at Witherwood, where the grounds are patrolled by vicious creatures after dark and kids are locked in their rooms. Charlotte and Tobias soon realize that they are in terrible danger—especially because the head of Witherwood has perfected the art of mind control. If only their amnesiac father would recover and remember that he has two missing children. If only Tobias and Charlotte could solve the dark mystery and free the kids at Witherwood—and ultimately save themselves.

The evil has returned, more powerful and bloodthirsty than ever. A new hero rises to this challenge, a 16-year-old named Misaki, who possesses an extraordinary amount of power. Along with her second-in-command, Kaito, she must lead the Resistance to battle – but will they be victorious against the forces of malevolence that threaten to annihilate the world itself – or will they fall?A hundred years ago, a mage used all her power to seal the demon that lay within the ancient cross to save the world from its evil, destroying herself in the process. Now the evil has returned, more powerful and bloodthirsty than ever. A new hero rises to this challenge, a 16-year-old named Misaki, who possesses an extraordinary amount of power. Along with her second-in-command, Kaito, she must lead the Resistance to battle – but will they be victorious against the forces of malevolence that threaten to annihilate the world itself – or will they fall, like every other hero has done before?

If you had asked me a week ago who I was, I would’ve told you I am Ilyana Marie Meyers. But this is today and today my name is Ilyana Oksana Malakhova. I was adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine when I was 3 years old. I have no memories of who I really am or who I even was at that time. Today, I would tell you that I am one of, if not the last surviving Nephilim.If you had asked me a week ago who I was, I would’ve told you I am Ilyana Marie Meyers. Today is my eighteenth Birthday. I am the only daughter of Robert Meyers, a Jewish car salesman from New Jersey and Nancy Meyers, an Italian lawyer from Manhattan. I would tell you that I have a smaller version of my Fathers hooked nose, my Mothers tan skin, courtesy of the long Florida summers and a tall frame, the hazel eyes of my Grandmother and dark brown curls that are all my own. I would tell you that I am a B average student, when I sing, it resembles feral cats fighting. My best friend is my German Shepard Sasha. My room is always a mess, I make incredible homemade pasta and my main goal in life is to go to school and get a useless anthropology degree and purposefully get stranded on a tropical island with a tall, dark and handsome stranger that likes to read, write, sleep in and occasionally sunbathe. But this is today and today my name is Ilyana Oksana Malakhova. I was adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine when I was 3 years old. I have no memories of who I really am or who I even was at that time. But I have been told that I was left in the dumpster of a gas station as a newborn, found by the owner and turned over to a tiny orphanage with too many children and not enough food or clothes. I was almost adopted numerous times by my first Birthday, but every time someone came for me they backed out. On my third Birthday a stranger came into the orphanage and told the workers to find any way they can to kill me, they told the workers that I was a bad omen, a danger to the world. They were terrified, one even tried to kill me in my sleep, but a single nurse took pity on me and immediately transferred me to an orphanage in Eastern Russia, a week later I was adopted by the people I call Mom and Dad. It wasn’t until a week ago that I learned the story of who I was - or who I am.Today, I would tell you that my parents are dead, my school demolished and the friends I never even came close to having are missing. Today, I would tell you that I may be insane, but the stranger in Ukraine may have been right about me. Today, I would tell you that I am one of, if not the last surviving Nephilim: the child of a human and an angel.

A young girl, who is about to discover her destiny, turns sixteen years old right after the death of her parents. Depressed and alone, she unveils her fate, which she may not want any part of. This comes when her Guardian reveals that her blood is not human, but of an ancient race. She is a Pureblood Oceain, a protector of the oceans, the last of her kind, and her name is Holidee.A young girl, who is about to discover her destiny, turns sixteen years old right after the death of her parents. She is taken in by her unknown godmother, who is awkwardly dating her science teacher. Depressed and alone, she unveils her fate, which she may not want any part of. Holidee is told that she is of an ancient race of people from the ocean, who have special skills to help and protect the ocean from humans and natural disasters. When Crix, her godmother’s boyfriend, reveals his true identity as her Guardian and father’s best friend, she begins to doubt everything she had known in her life. Friendless and still grieving her parents’ death, Holidee sets out for the beach with her Guardian. She finds that she was oblivious to her parents' lives, her abilities, and most of her world. She discovers new friends in odd places and unravels the mysteries around her birth. This comes when her Guardian reveals that her blood is not human, but of an ancient race. She is a Pureblood Oceain, a protector of the oceans and all their inhabitants, and the last of her kind. Will she be able to endure the burdens of being an outcast? Can she strengthen her race and bring them out of the depths of solitude? Will she succeed in her destiny? Can a girl lead her people and become the Pureblood she was born to be?

“I didn’t discover the plot to murder me until it was too late. I never saw it coming.” –Regina Roth“I didn’t discover the plot to murder me until it was too late. I never saw it coming.” –Regina RothSince she was a child, fifteen year old Regina Roth has been the victim of disturbing reoccurring nightmares of a house, and a murder. In the summer of her sixteenth birthday Regina leaves her posh life in New York for her mother’s hometown in Texas to bury her mysterious grandmother. Life takes a tumultuous turn for Regina the moment she arrives in Lee. Regina discovers the small town of Lee is literally the scene of her nightmares. Haunted by a vengeful ghost and the lies told by her parents, Regina has no choice but to accept her new life in Lee. After a shocking incident leaves her shaken with fright, Regina is forced to discover the secret behind her dreams. With the help of Linguistics professor, Dr. William Greer, Regina uncovers the horrifying answer.Regina is a terrifying tale of the horrors that lie inside our loved ones and the lengths they go to hide their secrets. And a plan created long ago by an evil family is finally set into motion.

Pirates, Bots and Ghost ships, oh my! Captain Anker and his lovable band of misfits have found a legendary Star liner that was lost hundreds of years ago during the golden era of space exploration. Only one thing stands between them and riches, well make that two things and maybe an insane Artificial Intelligence thrown into the mix. Now with more pop culture and a corgi thrown in!The defiance, a small fast cargo ship in which Captain Anker runs his galactic salvage business. Anker and the crew are on their way back from some time off when they discover an abandoned lost space liner from the golden age of space exploration. The Golden sun is huge and beautiful an example of the opulence of early space exploration.This will not be an easy job though, something is just not right on board the golden sun.

Karina's world is turned upside down when she meets the sexy and mysterious Xavier. Something powerful and sensual is unlocked from inside.With Xavier's help, Karina discovers she is a Tuatha De Danann, but his insistence on making her believe troubles Karina. Can she be saved before it is too late?Karina's world is turned upside down when she meets the sexy and mysterious Xavier. Something powerful and sensual is unlocked from inside her that she cannot explain and seems to have little control over.With Xavier's help, Karina discovers she is a Tuatha De Danann, celtic faeries long thought to have been eradicated. Xavier's insistence on making her believe troubles Karina, what dangerous secret is he keeping from her? Can her ex partner Ian save her before it's too late?This novella contains violence, and sexual situations which may not be recommended for readers under fifteen.