A mysterious house harbors an unimaginable secret. . . . It’s wartime, and the Carver family decides to leave the capital where they live and move to a small coastal village where they’ve recently bought a home. But from the minute they cross the threshold, strange things begin to happen. In that mysterious house there still lurks the spirit of Jacob, the previous owners’ son, who died by drowning. With the help of their new friend Roland, Max and Alicia Carver begin to explore the suspicious circumstances of that death and discover the existence of a mysterious being called The Prince of Mist—a diabolical character who has returned from the shadows to collect on a debt from the past. Soon the three friends find themselves caught up in an adventure of sunken ships and an enchanted stone garden, which will change their lives forever.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry Holliday arrives on the Texas frontier hoping that the dry air and sunshine of the West will restore him to health. Soon, with few job prospects, Doc Holliday is gambling professionally with his partner, Mária Katarina Harony, a high-strung, classically educated Hungarian whore. In search of high-stakes poker, the couple hits the saloons of Dodge City. And that is where the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and a fearless lawman named Wyatt Earp begins— before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral links their names forever in American frontier mythology—when neither man wanted fame or deserved notoriety. Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more. RandomHouseReadersCircle.com

A young woman discovers she has tremendous psychic power The baby’s name is Mary, and her father is immortal. For thousands of years he has orchestrated a selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race capable of controlling others through thought. Most of his attempts have resulted in volatile mutations, but Mary—whom he has raised in the rough part of a Southern California town—is the closest he has come to perfection. If he doesn’t handle her carefully, this greatest experiment will be his last. As Mary comes of age, she begins to grow aware of her psychic powers. And when she learns of her father’s plans for her, she refuses to acquiesce. She challenges him to a psychic war, battling to free her people and set a new course for mankind. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.

The entire school's talking about the gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck. Everyone except Kaylee Cavanaugh. After all, Kaylee's no ordinary high-school junior. She's a banshee—she screams when someone dies. But the next scream might be for Kaylee. Yeah—it's a shock to her, too. So to distract herself, Kaylee's going to save every girl in school. Because that hot new teacher is really an incubus who feeds on the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend's needy ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren't quite human, either. But Kaylee's borrowed lifeline is nearing its end. And those who care about her will do anything to save her life. Anything.

More Grimm tales await in the harrowing, hilarious companion to a beloved new classic Take caution ahead— Oversize plant life, eerie amphibious royalty, and fear-inducing creatures abound. Lest you enter with dread. Follow Jack and Jill as they enter startling new landscapes that may (or may not) be scary, bloody, terrifying, and altogether true. Step lively, dear reader . . . Happily ever after isn’t cutting it anymore. In this companion novel to Adam Gidwitz’s widely acclaimed, award-winning debut, A Tale Dark & Grimm, Jack and Jill explore a new set of tales from the Brothers Grimm and others, including Jack and the Beanstalk and The Frog Prince.

The League of Princes returns in the hilariously epic conclusion to the hit series that began with Christopher Healy's The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, which the Los Angeles Times called "one of the more clever, hilariously successful incarnations of the current literary rage to rip apart and rewrite fairy tales." Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You think you know those guys pretty well by now, don't you? Well, think again. Posters plastered across the thirteen kingdoms are saying that Briar Rose has been murdered—and the four Princes Charming are the prime suspects. Now they're on the run in a desperate attempt to clear their names. Along the way, however, they discover that Briar's murder is just one part of a nefarious plot to take control of all thirteen kingdoms—a plot that will lead to the doorstep of an eerily familiar fortress for a final showdown with an eerily familiar enemy.

Trickster gambles away his entire livelihood, including his wife and daughter. His wanderings to pay his debt lead him to the gods’ realm and into conflict with the fearsome Lightning Wolf.An aspiring young author finds the love of her life at a local cafe, but after getting caught up in chasing him, her day goes awry.

From national bestselling author Lisa Shearin comes a new chapter in "one of the best fantasy series currently on the market. " (Night Owl Reviews) My name is Raine Benares—and it sucks to be me right now. I’m a seeker who found the Saghred, a soul-stealing stone that gave me unlimited powers I never wanted. Now I’ve lost the rock—and the magic it gave me—to a goblin dark mage whose main goals are my death and world domination. This is more than incentive enough for a little trip to the goblin capital of Regor with a small band of good friends, not-so-good friends, and one outright enemy. Don’t ask.   All we need to do is destroy the Saghred, kill the mage, and put a renegade goblin prince on the throne. Did I mention I’ll be doing that with no magic?

Miller has a long history with fire, one he cannot forget as he was disfigured by it. So when the crippled, flying Sasha crashes into his home from exhaustion and burns the whole place down with his unchecked magic, he does the only thing he can think of: he runs into the raging flames and saves the unconscious creature.A light yet thought provoking sci-fi adventure. "Dwarg" is a "Whisp" from a non-physical world, who is on a mission to stop Humans sending rockets into the Aura. He becomes an entity of a young and dying Aggie who accepts him. Dwarg infuses her with health, wisdom and maturity. With her aunt, they go on an adventure to France to solve a puzzle of a painting by Vincent van Gogh and learn more of his life and the story of his ear. Dwarg realizes that there are alien viruses landing on the planet and infecting Humans in different ways. Aggie, his host, is from the Abenaki nation and Dwarg is fascinated by the rituals of that culture. Aggie graduates from the University of Oklahoma at age 11 and participates in an exclusive experiment utilizing the LHC (which she cleverly used to sent Dwarg back to his own non-physical world).

Archie was plucked from the obscurity of a chemist shop to lead a life of service in a palace. His noble but immature owner is an orphaned princess with immediate problems she can't manage and a future that holds many surprises including a realisation that objects like Archie have lives and loves of their own.Archie, still an innocent in the ways of humans, was plucked from the obscurity of a chemist shop by a regal hand just out for a little retail therapy, to lead a life of service in a palace. He was chosen to serve a noble but immature owner, Crystal who is an orphaned princess with immediate problems she can't manage and a future that holds many surprises, including a realisation that objects like Archie, a hot water bottle, have lives and loves of their own. Hot water bottles are meant to have a beautiful cover and one is especially chosen and made for Archie. She is Terri who becomes the love of his life and part of the plethora of living objects that populate the palace and know everything that happens, even if the humans who live and work there don't. But before Crystal comes to know that in Archie's world there are rewards for those that know about the wider reality and disappointments for those that don't, she has to make her way through the awkwardness of being an immature nineteen and the dangers of being led astray by a punk servant with advancement on her mind. Jade, one of the Queen's more risky attempts at social interaction, is ambitious and has an agenda in which Crystal is to play a major part. Jade's plots are uncovered and the steps Crystal's Grandmother the Queen subsequently takes to not only keep Crystal safe from Jade and her own immaturity break some rules themselves and lead to some unfortunate consequences for Jade. But Jade never gives up and with some ingenuity creates some surprises for the Palace. Crystal's indiscretions are a potential scandal and grist to the mill of the tabloids so the Queen does what's required as Crystal rails against her Grandmother's plans for her. Crystal also has her first love affair with an apparently suitable young man from a fine family but where Crystal is concerned nothing is as it seems and there are surprises in store as her lover Richard Holland reveals more than he should and causes Crystal and the Palace a great deal of trouble. When Crystal travels to New Zealand on her gap year accidents just seem to befall her at every turn. The shifting dynamic of the object/human relationship leads to changes of attitude on both sides as Crystal grows up and into a role she was not born to. Without Archie and Terri who do their best for their difficult owner and the presence of Jeff, a handsome royal protection officer with a past in under cover work that may come back to haunt him, likes older women and his motor bike. He doesn't care about Crystal one way or the other and will do what it takes to fulfil his duty to be her minder while she resents his very existence. Without Jeff and his ability to deal with the crises Crystal creates, Crystal and the Crown may be lost.

She will make his bloodline suffer.Bridget Sinclair was a Chosen One, a true witch who had done well to escape the fiery fate that awaited her. When the Witchfinders capture her, Matthew Hopkins has finally discovered the one thing he had spent a lifetime searching for.Bridget Sinclair was a Chosen One, a true witch who had done well to escape the fiery fate that awaited her. When the Witchfinders capture her, Matthew Hopkins has finally discovered the one thing he had spent a lifetime searching for. A witch granted unholy powers. As Bridget fights to save herself from the stake, will she be able to charm the Witchfinder into loving her or will she succumb to the fires meant to send her to Hell?No matter the outcome, Bridget swears an oath to the very Goddess who created her. Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, will suffer long after her time on earth is done.

This is a personal compilation of prose and poetry I have written.In this third novel in the Jack and Lynn Preston series, Lynn struggles to deal with the murder of her husband and granddaughter. Their political crusades are over as she searches for something to overcome her depression; something that uses the computer hacking skills Jack taught her. Jack’s friend invites her to join his detective agency as an online investigator and undercover operative. Soon she discovers the satisfaction of getting revenge for victims of abuse and financial fraud by hacking into the offender’s personal accounts to get them in legal and financial trouble. All is well until a menace from her past shows up; someone out for her own revenge. But Lynn has help - Jack’s spirit who talks to her. Revenge, Inc. has all the suspense, action, romance, and humor you have come to expect from this author.

Bad girl gone good! Good girl in peril! Six months after events transpiring in The Temptation of John Haynes, former She-demon E’steem is now on the side of the angels. Further down the down the straight and narrow path, she’s attacked by D’lilah a young ambitious she-demon out to move up the ladder in the Hierarchy of Hell. And the only way she can do that is by killing E’steem.it is about the first job I had at 20 years old and it goes on to describe some of the things I did and learned as I went on to over six years at that job. it is witty and has some good times in there as well as the small, but sobering affect of the ups and down of the job. I focus more on the good things for the most part because there was some fun things I have done while working for a dry cleaners in my neighborhood and beyond. I truly felt that job was the job that gave me freedom in ways no one could ever know as I had went onto other things afterwards.

Destiny is a word that implies the future is already written. Yet Destiny often has roadblocks to make a traveler decide which way to turn. Destiny can be a trickster also, hiding the right path in a dream. Dreams, sleep's dessert, normally fleeting and then forgotten. Forgotten. No, Destiny's design is not always clear and sometimes it takes a child's gift to light the way.We have conclusive proof in this issue that the May issue was more than just a fluke because we have yet another month's worth of fantastic science fiction and fantasy stories to deliver. This issue has some great surprises, too. While some seem to fit into traditional genres, such as alien invasion, fairy grove visitation, and haunting ghosts, there are also a few that defy description. For instance, what genre covers a botanist who finds more than he bargains for while searching for Ghost Orchids? There's a story that seems to be a general dystopia until you realize it's dealing with the most dystopic medium of all: reality television. And of course, how do you classify a story where the language changes as the story progresses?Now perhaps you can see why we're so proud of these stories.Of course, being the narcissistic sociopaths (say that ten times while drunk) that we are, we couldn't just let the fiction writers have all the fun, so you'll also see a few writing tips from me and the Editor-in Chief, Mike Cluff, near the end of this issue. They involve vehicular manslaughter and malicious fairy hit squads, so at least they should be interesting.Fiction Vortex publishes science fiction and fantasy short stories from writers around the world. All stories in this issue appeared on the FictionVortex.com site during the month of June 2013.

“Teddy Bear”, Is the fifth story in a series At the Crossroads. Events presented here are not necessarily true, but almost possible. Everything depends on the imagination of the reader. Those, who do not believe in anything, will not like this book and it is directed not to them. But someone who has at least partially awakened imagination, can understand what is going on without asking questions.“Teddy Bear”, Is the fifth story in a series At the Crossroads. Events presented here are not necessarily true, but almost possible. Everything depends on the imagination of the reader. Those, who do not believe in anything, will not like this book and it is directed not to them.But someone who has at least partially awakened imagination, can understand what is going on without asking questions. Such readers I appreciate the most and to them At the Crossroad is dedicated.Stories will appear free of charge, every month or so, until the end of the book. I cordially greet all readers.Author