Fire exploded right in front of Holly as the Shellpoint Inn went up in a flash. The young veterinarian raised her cloak to protect her face and quickly ducked into the alley at her back. The flames roared past, but the intense heat still scorched her exposed skin; the acrid tang of her frizzing hair filled the winter morning air. The small dragon perched on Holly’s shoulder cooed; it loved fire.Fire exploded right in front of Holly as the Shellpoint Inn went up in a flash. The young veterinarian raised her cloak to protect her face and quickly ducked into the alley at her back. The flames roared past, but the intense heat still scorched her exposed skin; the acrid tang of her frizzing hair filled the winter morning air. The small dragon perched on Holly’s shoulder cooed; it loved fire.It seemed as though the whole town was burning now. Holly smudged tears from her eyes and dashed toward the far end of the alley, a single thought screaming in her mind as she ran: How did we ever let it come to this?Stephen D. Sullivan has written dozens of novels and stories in the fantasy, SF, adventure, horror, and detective genres. Very few of them are intentionally allegorical. www.stephendsullivan.com

Captain Perrin Shin and teacher Mahrree Peto have to unravel the secrets of the Guarders who attack their village. It's not as if the new Administrators are helping much. In fact, one might think Chairman Mal was behind it all. But that would mean the world was literally out to get them, and why would two inconsequential people in Edge be of interest to the Chairman of the world?Captain Perrin Shin, assigned to village Edge of the World, is out to do more than command the new fort. He’s determined to uncover the mystery of the Guarders: where they live, why they attack, and what they want. Suspiciously, none of their behavior has ever made sense. Mahrree Peto, a teacher in Edge, is also growing suspicious. Of the Administrators who promise to eradicate the Guarders, and of the arrogant captain they sent to protect Edge. It’s hard to know who to trust. The most powerful man in the world is also fascinated by trust, and precisely what it takes to destroy it. He’s looking for research subjects, and up in Edge a brash captain and a nosy teacher have caught his attention. Let the experiment begin. Part fantasy, part adventure, part humor, part romance, part mystery all equates to a wholly entertaining and unique family saga. Think you know who to trust? Think you know the color of the sky? Probably not . . .

A story of magic and witchcraft, parallel worlds, adventures and romance... Follow Luna into a world of dragons and hippogryphs, elves and dryads, powerful wizards and dangerous sorcerers. Do you dare to accompany her on her trip to Eilean?When Luna goes to spend the summer with her aunt Emma, she discovers that her aunt is a witch with real powers, a descendant of a long line of witches that goes back for centuries.Emma confesses that for weeks she has felt somebody trying to get into her mind to read her thoughts. Despite having used her most powerful spells against this being, she has not managed to get rid of it.A story of magic and witchcraft, parallel worlds, adventures and romance... Follow Luna into a world of dragons and hippogryphs, elves and dryads, powerful wizards and dangerous sorcerers. Do you dare to accompany her on her trip to Eilean?

When Ethan Allen was first drawn into the world of The Elementals, he had no idea of the importance he played in their existence, now how different he truly was. Thrown in the middle of a civil war, a vital key to the stability and freedom of his kind, he fights not only for his survival, but for the survival of a world that has been seeking peace for thousands of years.Call them dysfunctional, crazy, rednecks or trash - they're the only family I've got. I'd wager that the reader also knows all too well people just like them, and for that and many other things, we can be thankful.

A cursed line of Minotaurs has kept Ayla’s people enslaved for 200 years. With nothing left to live for and a death sentence in her womb, Ayla trades her soul to a dark goddess for a chance to break the curse that keeps her people in chains. Armed with only her faith, Ayla leads a revolution against an army of half-beasts led by the immortal son of the Goddess Herself.Haylo is an Elf, but she has been raised as a human. She has never known a different life, though she knows there are Elves and that she is one of them. The family that has surrounded her with their love and care is not of her blood. She never questioned her origins. To her those about her were her family. Her mother. Her father. Her grandmother. Angel is Amy’s daughter and is unable to have a child. To Amy it is the worse thing that can happen to a woman, especially to one who lives only to hold a child in her arms as her own. Amy has seen many women who share her daughter’s fate, she has often helped them in their quest, for she is a healer and is often called to help others as they deliver their babes into the world. Not all mothers survived the ordeal of childbirth. Amy always found the orphaned children homes. Elizara is an Elven woman who has borne twins, though she is too ill to realize this. Thinking the Elf too ill to survive Amy takes one of the babies to give to her daughter to have as her own. This is their story.

Trained from birth in swordplay and combat, a young knight named Siris has journeyed to the Dark Citadel with a single purpose: fight through the army of Titans to face the tyrannical God King in one-on-one combat. This was his father’s sacred mission, and his father’s before him, going back countless generations in an effort to free their people from enslavement. But when Siris somehow succeeds where all those from his bloodline previously have failed, he finds himself cast into a much larger world, filled with warriors and thieves, ancient feuds and shifting alliances, Deathless immortals and would-be kings. His quest for freedom will take him on an epic journey in search of the mythical figure known as the Worker of Secrets—the one being in the world who can unravel the secrets of the Infinity Blade. Based on the bestselling video game from ChAIR Entertainment and Epic Games, this all-new adventure from acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson digs deeper into the fantastical world of Infinity Blade, a world of mystery and intrigue where magic and technology are indistinguishable, and even life and death are not what they seem.

When Prince Jen volunteers to search for the legendary court of T'ien-kuo, a mysterious old man chooses six gifts for him to bear in homage: a saddle, a sword, a paint box, a bowl, a kite, and a flute. Puzzled by the gifts but full of high spirits and pride, Jen sets off, but stumbles almost immediately into a series of misfortunes. Only with the help of his faithful servant, Mafoo, and valiant flute-girl, Voyaging Moon, and only after a breathtakingly exciting string of adventures can Jen discover the real meaning of the gifts and face his true destiny.

"David Gemmell tells a tale of very real adventure, the stuff of true epic fantasy." --R.A. Salvatore, New York Times Bestselling author While the Earth quaked, a deadly power burst forth from ancient Atlantis. For the gate of time had been torn open, freeing a cataclysmic evil. Only the last guardian, Jon Shannow, the legendary pistoleer, could shut the deadly portal. But to accomplish this he would have to find the shining Sword of God, said to be floating among the clouds in the perilous lands beyond the wall, where beasts walked like men and worship a dark goddess.  As Shannow embarked on his impossible quest, demons gathered in wait. And--somewhere--a golden-haired woman was dreaming of blood . . .   From the Paperback edition.

Switching seamlessly between the chaos and bloodshed of 1940s India and the multicultural mélange of twenty-first-century Britain, Glen Duncan's sublime new novel finds love in both. Ross Monroe is a boxing railwayman with a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes. Kate Lyle is a headstrong young woman desperate to escape a sexually predatory household. Both are Anglo-Indians, members of a race that helped turn the wheels of Empire for years. But Empire days are numbered, and as India sheds its colonial skin, the young lovers must face their own tryst with destiny. In twenty-first-century England, Owen Monroe is writing this story of his parents' lives in an effort to avoid the problems in his own: lost love, relentless libido, dreams of death, and a world full of headlines he can't understand and doesn't want to. But keeping past and present apart isn't as easy as it seems, and before long Owen is deep in the one story he never wanted to tell.... Epic in its scope yet never losing sight of the telling, gorgeous detail, The Bloodstone Papers is an extraordinarily rich and beautiful read that manages to ask the big questions without fuss and to accept that the big answers aren't always what we want to hear.

Olivia Black does not feel safe. Nightmares plague her sleep and haunt her days. If she has to endure one more minute stuck in a safe house in rainy Portland, she's going to lose it. When Mike Palmer sneaks off to find her sister Kaylee without her, it's the last straw. She has to do something. Then Palmer's hackers find the Dome on a satellite feed: dark, abandoned and smack in the middle of the Oregon desert three hundred miles from where it started. If they can reach it before anyone else, they can crack the computer systems and access every piece of information on PSS the CAMFers and The Hold have ever collected. But in order to do that, Olivia must return to the origin of her fears in a race against all the forces that have ever pitted themselves against her. She must unravel decades of deceit to reveal the true origins of Psyche Sans Soma to the world at last.

Bestselling author Christopher Golden brings his epic, innovative trilogy, the Veil, to an astonishing conclusion as the mythic realm of heroes and monsters becomes the site of humanity’s last—and greatest—showdown.In the world of the legendary, every myth and folktale is real. That is what Oliver Bascombe learned on the other side of the Veil, where humanity's legends have hidden away for centuries. But even legends have legends, and Oliver has learned of a prophecy that many believe he and his sister, Collette, have come to the Two Kingdoms to fulfill. Before they can discover the truth, the Bascombe siblings must help to stop an apocalyptic war that threatens to destroy the Two Kingdoms, unravel a conspiracy, and prevent a powerful sorcerer from severing the world of humans from the realm of the legendary forever.But first Oliver will have to plot an escape from an impregnable palace dungeon where he and his allies have been imprisoned . . . for regicide.As old heroes and friends ally themselves for one last battle, even older enemies stand arrayed against them. Is humanity ready to face its legends head-on? For Oliver Bascombe, the price may be dearer than even he could ever imagine.

A delicious new novel of the The Vampire Files -- in which our undead detective finds himself caught in the middle of a Chicago gangland war!Take a bite out of the newest Vampire Files!A delicious new novel of the The Vampire files--in which our undead detective finds himself caught in the middle of a Chicago gangland war!"Excellent . . . The story shifts easily between comedy and mystery . . . clever and refreshing!"--Booklist"Entertaining . . . Echoes of Hammett and Chandler abound, but the novel succeeds in its own right."--Publishers Weekley"Fun . . . plenty of action [and] quirky characters."--Locus A brilliant blend of mystery, horror, comedy, and historical fiction

Four friends. Four elements. A world in the balance. When Daja is exiled by her people, the Traders, she embarks on an epic adventure which will forge her fate in fire. While at Gold Ridge castle to the north of Winding Circle, Daja and the three other mages-in-training who have become her friends develop their unique magical talents as they try to prevent a devastating forest fire from consuming everything in its path.

A ROMANTIC YOGA MYSTERY INFUSED BY NATUREMorgan has become settled in her quiet life in Sutton, Massachusetts. Her peaceful morning yoga routine is assisted by her cat, Juliet. In the evening she guides her kayak across the placid surface of Lake Singletary. Everything is in its place.When Morgan stumbles across a dead body in the shadowy depths of Sutton Woods, her stability is knocked askew.A ROMANTIC YOGA MYSTERY INFUSED BY NATUREMorgan has become settled in her quiet life in Sutton, Massachusetts. Her peaceful morning yoga routine is assisted by her cat, Juliet. In the evening she guides her kayak across the placid surface of Lake Singletary. Everything is in its place.When Morgan stumbles across a dead body in the shadowy depths of Sutton Woods, her stability is knocked askew. Jason, the ranger who comes to her aid, provides a steady rock of support. The death seems at first an accident, but Morgan knows in her heart that a delicate strut of life has fallen out of balance. As Morgan and Jason delve into the mystery, still waters are stirred. Danger billows from the depths of Purgatory Chasm, from the twisted histories that stretch back decades. Can they unravel the tangled skeins before the past catches up with them?All author's proceeds of this series benefit battered women's shelters.Aspen Allegations is the first novel in the award-winning Sutton Massachusetts Mystery series. It is followed by Birch Blackguards.All novels in the Sutton Massachusetts Mystery series are written in a boots-on-the-ground, chapter-a-day format. On November 1st, author Lisa Shea went to the Sutton woods, hiked through them, and then that evening she wrote up the actual sights and sounds of that visit. That was Chapter One. The same process held true for each subsequent day and location. By November 30th the book was laid out. Each book captures a moment in time; as a whole the series shows the progression of events, news, and nature in Sutton over the years.Lisa has lived in Sutton for nearly two decades and strives to craft stories which transport readers to her beautiful town. She offers a glimpse into Sutton's combination of centuries-old history and a modern, sliced-through-by-a-busy-highway existence. Lisa visits the actual locations mentioned in the story, experiences the atmosphere, and then infuses those rich colors, trilling bird-songs, and pungent fragrances into her story in a richly descriptive manner reminiscent of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Then toss in an ample seasoning of local culinary delights, and this is the world of the Sutton Massachusetts Mystery Series!