We are all so very desperate,Desperate for money,Desperate for all the things We think we need to have.Our desperation is our desolation.What will be when it all ceases to last?Average college student, Patrick Wright, discovers a cave and receives an ancient scroll after which his life will never be the same. He is chosen to be Shadow Star, the final member of the Star People. He is trained in the ways of the Star People while trying to keep up with his college course work. His teacher and mentor with his new talents must return home. The challenges of his new responsibilities make life, as a Shadow Star and as a college student, difficult. He finds a new girlfriend who just maybe the solution to more issues than he first realizes.After a pivotal dream, Patrick knows his life has changed forever and he might not survive the challenge of being Shadow Star.An intergalactic war has begun with Shadow Star as a key player. Patrick must choose as Shadow Star to make the decisions which could determine the future of the universe.Come along with Patrick as Shadow Star and discover the strength which lives deep inside each one of us.

Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times bestselling author of American Wife and Prep, returns with a mesmerizing novel of family and identity, loyalty and deception, and the delicate line between truth and belief. From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar “senses”—innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them. Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that another, more devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. Equally troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister and to face truths about herself she’s long tried to deny. Funny, haunting, and thought-provoking, Sisterland is a beautifully written novel of the obligation we have toward others, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. With her deep empathy, keen wisdom, and unerring talent for finding the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives, Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the most exceptional voices in literary fiction today.

[Siren Classic: Erotic Contemporary Paranormal Romance, HEA] The land remembers… Built on a cursed patch of land, George Simpson's house of horrors ruined many lives. Author Steve Corey rents it as a surprise in a desperate attempt to salvage what's left of his marriage. Samantha Corey thought getting Steve sober in the early days of their marriage would be the hard part, but she's reached the end of her rope and is ready to leave. It doesn't help that her thoughts have turned to Matt Barry, Steve's best friend—and her old love. Now, Samantha needs Matt more than ever as Steve's behavior deteriorates. She wonders if her husband's sick, drinking again, or if her own sanity's in question. The house has a dark agenda. Even though she's ready to divorce Steve, she's not ready to relinquish his soul to the ancient evil enveloping him. Can she and Matt pull him from Out of the Darkness? Note: This book has been extensively expanded. It was previously published with another publisher and was a 2010 EPIC winner. A Siren Erotic Romance

While playing alone in her backyard one afternoon, seven-year-old Celia suddenly disappears while her father Christopher is inside giving a tour of their historic house and her mother Janet is at an orchestra rehearsal. Utterly shattered, Christopher, a writer of fantasy and science fiction, withdraws from everyone around him, especially his wife, losing himself in his writing by conjuring up worlds where Celia still exists—as a child, as a teenager, as a young single mother—and revealing in his stories not only his own point of view but also those of Janet, the policeman in charge of the case, and the townspeople affected by the tragedy, ultimately culminating in a portrait of a small town changed forever*. *The Truth About Celia is a profound meditation on grief and loss and how we carry on in its aftermath. From the Trade Paperback edition.

With his uncanny grasp of the magic hovering at the edge of everyday life, "Charles de Lint shows that, far from being escapism, contemporary fantasy can be the deep mythic literature of our time." (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) Perhaps this is why the Modern Library 100 Best Books of the Century on-line list contained more books by him than by any other writer. ~~~ Set in Newford, a quintessential North American city that might exist anywhere or nowhere, de Lint's stories wander amid the tenements and the music clubs, the waterfront and the alleyways, where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Here, ghosts loiter under street lamps, gemmins live in abandoned cars, and goblins traverse the tunnels below. ~~~ You'll meet folks like Jilly Coppercorn, a painter who sees wonder on these mean streets; Christy Riddell, writer and collector of urban folk tales and odd stories; his brother Geordie, a street fiddler who calls up enchantment with his music; and many others, like the boy who saves feral bicycles, the girl who stumbles into "the city of bridges," an origami fortune teller, a serial killer of people's dreams, "bone woman," and a conjure man. ~~~ With The Newford Stories, de Lint weaves before you a mesmerizing tapestry of stark realism, fond hope, and illimitable dreams.

This is not the time for the fight to end. Now is when the fight will begin. This is the time to regain what has been lost.AleraQueen of a fallen kingdom, secretly in love with the enemy.ShaselleDaughter of a murdered father, rebel with a cause.One lives behind the former Hytanican palace walls and walks the razor's edge to keep the fragile peace in her beloved homeland. The other slips through the war-torn streets, seeking retribution for her family's tragedy, following whispers of insurgency.Both face choices that will separate them from those they cannot help but love. As their stories intertwine, a conspiracy ignites that may end in slavery or death--or lead to freedom anew, if only each can face what must be sacrificed.

Jenna and Ryder are far from friends—until a storm stirs up their passion in this contemporary southern romance from New York Times bestselling author Kristi Cook. In Magnolia Branch, Mississippi, The Cafferty and Marsden families are practically royalty. Neighbors since the Civil War, the families have shared vacations, holidays, backyard barbecues, and the overwhelming desire to unite their two clans by marriage. So when the families finally have a baby boy and girl at the same time, the perfect opportunity seems to have arrived. Except Jemma Cafferty and Ryder Marsden have no intention of giving in to their parents' wishes. They're only seventeen—oh, and also? They hate each other. Jemma can't stand Ryder's nauseating golden-boy persona, and Ryder would prefer it if stubborn-headed Jemma didn't exist. And their communication is not exactly effective: even a casual hello turns into a yelling match. But when a violent Mississippi...

Todd Strasser's acclaimed account of school violence that Kirkus Reviews calls "vivid, distressing, and all too real."For as long as they can remember, Brendan and Gary have been mercilessly teased and harassed by the jocks who rule Middletown High. But not anymore. Stealing a small arsenal of guns from a neighbor, they take their classmates hostage at a school dance. In the panic of this desperate situation, it soon becomes clear that only one thing matters to Bendan and Gary: revenge.

An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks he's a fool. In Alan Bennett's new play, staff room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it; about education and its purpose. The History Boys premièred at the National in May 2004. 'Nothing could diminish the incendiary achievement of this subtle, deep-wrought and immensely funny play about the value and meaning of education .. In short, a superb, life-enhancing play.' Guardian

After all we’ve been through, things are finally good between us. So good, I think I’m falling for Rhett, and I hope he’s falling for me. Once my enemy, he could now be my forever. But I’m still keeping a big secret from him. One that threatens to destroy us… Jensen has stopped running away from me. She’s realized that we’re actually meant for each other. I need her, and I think she needs me too. Yet there are still secrets between us—will she hate me when she finds out the truth? All the lies, all the secrets come to an explosive finale in the last book in the Damaged Hearts series!

"For teenager Betty Thornton, life becomes grim when her father uproots their family and moves them to a remote Vermont farm. To Chester Thornton, however, his choice represents the best way to tame his daughter's rebellious spirit before the sweet girl he remembers disappears forever. Once isolated from her social circle of friends, Betty makes a drastic decision of her own - to elope with the boyfriend she left behind, Dudley Weston. Anything beats the mundane months ahead of her on the farm! But Betty's ida of a thrilling escape and a blissful marriage quickly fade into a scene straight from a nightmare. Now whirling deeper into a situation where one decision may cost more than she ever imagined, can Betty trust a passing stranger to lead her back home?--P. 4 of cover.

Available for the first time in English, here is an unforgettable portrayal by a master novelist of the physical and psychological devastation wrought in the homeland by Hitler's war.Late April, 1945. The war is over, yet Dr Doll, a loner and 'moderate pessimist', lives in constant fear. By night, he is haunted by nightmarish images of the bombsite in which he is trapped—he, and the rest of Germany. More than anything, he wishes to vanquish the demon of collective guilt, but he is unable to right any wrongs, especially in his position as mayor of a small town in north-east Germany that has been occupied by the Red Army.Dr Doll flees for Berlin, where he finds escape in a morphine addiction: each dose is a 'small death'. He tries to make his way in the chaos of a city torn apart by war, accompanied by his young wife, who shares his addiction. Fighting to save two lives, he tentatively begins to believe in a better future...