All Books
Synopsis: When orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson in the spring of 1865, they’re struggling to survive on their family’s drought-ravaged Kansas farm. So when Jackson offers an escape—a 2000-mile journey across the roughest country in the world—Aiden knows it’s their only choice.
They say there are a hundred ways to die on the Oregon Trail, and the long wagon journey is broken only by catastrophe: wolf attacks, rattlesnakes, deadly river crossings, Indians, and the looming threat of smallpox, “the devil’s paint.” Through it all, Aiden and Maddy and a hundred fellow travelers move forward with a growing hope, and the promise of a new life in the Washington Territory. But one question haunts them: who will survive the journey?
In an adventure-filled and historically accurate new novel, Victoria McKernan captures both the peril and the stunning beauty of the frontier West. Shackleton’s Stowaway (“Truly thrilling” according to The Washington Post) was Victoria McKernan’s first novel for young adults. She lives in Washington, D.C..
They say there are a hundred ways to die on the Oregon Trail, and the long wagon journey is broken only by catastrophe: wolf attacks, rattlesnakes, deadly river crossings, Indians, and the looming threat of smallpox, “the devil’s paint.” Through it all, Aiden and Maddy and a hundred fellow travelers move forward with a growing hope, and the promise of a new life in the Washington Territory. But one question haunts them: who will survive the journey?
In an adventure-filled and historically accurate new novel, Victoria McKernan captures both the peril and the stunning beauty of the frontier West. Shackleton’s Stowaway (“Truly thrilling” according to The Washington Post) was Victoria McKernan’s first novel for young adults. She lives in Washington, D.C..
Publication Date: 01/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis: Thorik Dain takes a vow to save Ericc from being sacrificed to end a prophecy. However, in doing so he finds Ericc has revenge on his mind for the murder of his father. Thorik chases Ericc across Australis to prevent him from attacking his father's killer. The same man who is planning to Sacrifice Ericc once he comes out of hiding.
Publication Date: 01/09/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis: While studying abroad during their junior year of high school, friends Alex, Zack, and PJ take full advantage of all the glamorous events and parties taking place in their host families' apartments and on the city streets, but when their personal secrets are revealed, the revelers face challenging predicaments as the lies start to fade away.
Publication Date: 01/08/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Chick Lit
Synopsis: What would happen if an author went back to the darker themes of the original fairy tales for his plots, and then crossed the Disney princesses with Charlie's Angels? What's delivered is The Stepsister Scheme?a whole new take on what happened to Cinderella and her prince after the wedding. And with Jim C. Hines penning the tale readers can bet it won't be "and they lived happily ever after."
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis: Returning to the Guild of Sagecraft bearing texts allegedly written by vampires during the time of the Forgotten History and Great War, Wynn Hygeorht is disturbed when the Guild seizes the documents, several pages vanish, and the sages carrying them are murdered and, believing that the Noble Dead are responsible, launches a personal campaign to reveal the truth.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Synopsis: In the long-anticipated sequel to the Hugo Award-winning Cyteen, Ariane Emory PR, the genetic clone of scientist Ariane Emory, launches a personal investigation into the murder of her progenitor, searching for a killer against the backdrop of a turbulent interstellar society in which she struggles to avoid the same fate as the original Ariane.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Synopsis: Waitress Wanda Nell Culpepper is barely hitched to her new husband, Jack, before the couple starts digging into an unsolved murder from thirty-one years ago. But a new death puts this cold case on the front burner.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis: A fun new mystery series from the author of Gone with the Witch.
The right dress can be magic; the wrong one?murder! From the national bestselling author of Sensation?s Witch series comes the new Vintage Magic mystery series, featuring Madeira Cutler. While opening her own vintage clothing shop, Maddie must clear her family?s name when her sister?s wedding festivities hit a snag: murder.
The right dress can be magic; the wrong one?murder! From the national bestselling author of Sensation?s Witch series comes the new Vintage Magic mystery series, featuring Madeira Cutler. While opening her own vintage clothing shop, Maddie must clear her family?s name when her sister?s wedding festivities hit a snag: murder.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
Synopsis: Bob Howard, geekish demonology hacker extraordinaire for "The Laundry," must stop ruthless billionaire Ellis Billington from unleashing an eldritch horror, codenamed "Jennifer Morgue," from the ocean's depths for the purpose of ruling the world...
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Unassigned
Synopsis: Introducing sleuth Pepper Martin...
And now, in her fourth hip, quirky mystery, she?s all ours.
Pepper Martin, heiress-turnedcemetery- tour-guide, often has her hands full with two hotties and the ghosts who won?t let her rest?or work, or shop?in peace.
Now the specter of a young woman in a lab coat wants Pepper?s help. Before the woman died, she worked with a sexy, mysterious doctor who coincidentally once saved Pepper?s life?and who the woman claims is now in danger. But Pepper doesn?t know that there?s more to the story, including a devious doctor?and an obsessive, crazy love.
And now, in her fourth hip, quirky mystery, she?s all ours.
Pepper Martin, heiress-turnedcemetery- tour-guide, often has her hands full with two hotties and the ghosts who won?t let her rest?or work, or shop?in peace.
Now the specter of a young woman in a lab coat wants Pepper?s help. Before the woman died, she worked with a sexy, mysterious doctor who coincidentally once saved Pepper?s life?and who the woman claims is now in danger. But Pepper doesn?t know that there?s more to the story, including a devious doctor?and an obsessive, crazy love.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
Synopsis: The legendary Renaissance man and amateur sleuth is back in this exciting follow-up to The Queen's Gambit. As court engineer to the Duke of Milan, Leonardo da Vinci turns his superior mind to a variety of pursuits-from painting to solving the occasional murder. After the deaths of two female servants, Leonardo asks his apprentice, Dino, to go undercover disguised as a woman in the service of the Duke's ward, Contessa Caterina. This should be easy enough, given that "Dino" is in reality Delfina, a young woman masquerading as a boy to serve as Leonardo's apprentice. Delfina is soon torn between her loyalty to Leonardo and her growing feelings for Gregorio, the handsome captain of the Duke's guard. But if what the Contessa's tarot cards foretold is correct, Delfina might be destined to lose her heart...and perhaps her life.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
Synopsis: Fifteen original stories about our fear of and fascination with artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has captured the imaginations of writers, readers, and scientists alike, from Karl Capek?s R.U.R. to Isaac Asimov?s Three Laws of Robotics, from Robby the Robot to The Terminator and The Bicentennial Man, and?of course?Arthur C. Clarke?s Hal 9000.
Now some of the most innovative thinkers in science fiction offer an intriguing variety of tales featuring the many forms of AI, from frightening to funny. These authors confront one of contemporary mankind?s deepest concerns?what do we do when the machines we created evolve beyond us?
Artificial intelligence has captured the imaginations of writers, readers, and scientists alike, from Karl Capek?s R.U.R. to Isaac Asimov?s Three Laws of Robotics, from Robby the Robot to The Terminator and The Bicentennial Man, and?of course?Arthur C. Clarke?s Hal 9000.
Now some of the most innovative thinkers in science fiction offer an intriguing variety of tales featuring the many forms of AI, from frightening to funny. These authors confront one of contemporary mankind?s deepest concerns?what do we do when the machines we created evolve beyond us?
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Synopsis: In the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans coexist in (relatively) bloodless harmony. Then comes Bishop, the master vampire who threatens to abolish all order, revive the forces of the evil dead, and let chaos rule. But Bishop isn’t the only threat.
Violent black cyclone clouds hover, promising a storm of devastating proportions as student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against elements both natural and unnatural.
Watch a Windows Media trailer for this book.
Violent black cyclone clouds hover, promising a storm of devastating proportions as student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against elements both natural and unnatural.
Watch a Windows Media trailer for this book.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Paranormal
Synopsis: From the acclaimed author of Bad Girls comes a “dark, break-neck paced journey through wartime England, full of twists and turns you’ll never see coming” (Christopher Golden, author of Soulless) as a teenage girl discovers that evil comes in many forms when she and a group of friends run away from boarding school in this stunning novel of suspense and survival.
Maggie Leigh just wants to be a normal teenager, but when German bombs tear apart London during World War II, her ultra-religious mother sees the destruction as divine punishment. She sends Maggie to a remote boarding school in coastal Wales, supposedly to keep her safe, but also to keep her in line. The school is creepy, the headmistress is a lunatic, and the students range from spoiled rich girls to speechless trauma victims. But when a tragic accident happens on the beach, Maggie and three friends are forced to flee the school, plunging into the nightmarish world of Europe during wartime. Now every decision Maggie makes is fraught with danger, and living to see another day depends on how quickly she can think and act...and how far she's willing to go.
Maggie Leigh just wants to be a normal teenager, but when German bombs tear apart London during World War II, her ultra-religious mother sees the destruction as divine punishment. She sends Maggie to a remote boarding school in coastal Wales, supposedly to keep her safe, but also to keep her in line. The school is creepy, the headmistress is a lunatic, and the students range from spoiled rich girls to speechless trauma victims. But when a tragic accident happens on the beach, Maggie and three friends are forced to flee the school, plunging into the nightmarish world of Europe during wartime. Now every decision Maggie makes is fraught with danger, and living to see another day depends on how quickly she can think and act...and how far she's willing to go.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis: Just another success from the New York Times bestselling author
God's own enforcer, the righteous engine of destruction known as the Walking Man, has come to the Nightside. His sole purpose is the elimination of the wicked and the guilty, which means no one will be left in the Nightside once he gets started. So the Authorities have hired P.I. John Taylor to stop him. Legend has it that he can't be killed. Taylor is very much hoping that the legend isn't true.
God's own enforcer, the righteous engine of destruction known as the Walking Man, has come to the Nightside. His sole purpose is the elimination of the wicked and the guilty, which means no one will be left in the Nightside once he gets started. So the Authorities have hired P.I. John Taylor to stop him. Legend has it that he can't be killed. Taylor is very much hoping that the legend isn't true.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis: The final book in the gripping and gritty fantasy Throne of Amenkor trilogy, the story of an unlikely heroine in a city devastated and altered by the mysterious White Fire
The city of Amenkor has stood for well over a thousand years as a premier trading center. Ruled by the Mistress of the Skewed Throne, Amenkor has weathered attacks by invaders and the madness, drought, famine, and disease brought by the mysterious White Fire.
But now―betrayed from within and barely surviving a devastating attack by the mysterious Chorl―Amenkor reels on the brink of ruin. In Amenkor's time of greatest need, Varis―raised in the slums of the city, and trained not only to survive but to kill at need―has unwillingly become the ruler of the city―the new Mistress of the Skewed Throne.
Untrained, unprepared, and not certain who she can trust, Varis takes the Throne at one of the most perilous points in Amenkor's long history, and is forced to draw on all of Amenkor's limited resources, both ordinary and magical, when the Chorl invade. And perhaps the price Varis pays is too high, as the very heart and soul of Amenkor's power―the Skewed Throne―is destroyed during the final desperate confrontation with the invaders.
Now, with the threat of the Chorl's return still hanging over them, Varis has no choice but to turn to Amenkor's sometime ally, the city of Venitte, home to the only other throne that is a repository of magical power.
Yet Varis and the people of Amenkor are not the only ones looking toward Venitte. The Chorl invaders are on the march, and whether Venitte will fare any better against the Chorl than Amenkor remains to be seen.
The city of Amenkor has stood for well over a thousand years as a premier trading center. Ruled by the Mistress of the Skewed Throne, Amenkor has weathered attacks by invaders and the madness, drought, famine, and disease brought by the mysterious White Fire.
But now―betrayed from within and barely surviving a devastating attack by the mysterious Chorl―Amenkor reels on the brink of ruin. In Amenkor's time of greatest need, Varis―raised in the slums of the city, and trained not only to survive but to kill at need―has unwillingly become the ruler of the city―the new Mistress of the Skewed Throne.
Untrained, unprepared, and not certain who she can trust, Varis takes the Throne at one of the most perilous points in Amenkor's long history, and is forced to draw on all of Amenkor's limited resources, both ordinary and magical, when the Chorl invade. And perhaps the price Varis pays is too high, as the very heart and soul of Amenkor's power―the Skewed Throne―is destroyed during the final desperate confrontation with the invaders.
Now, with the threat of the Chorl's return still hanging over them, Varis has no choice but to turn to Amenkor's sometime ally, the city of Venitte, home to the only other throne that is a repository of magical power.
Yet Varis and the people of Amenkor are not the only ones looking toward Venitte. The Chorl invaders are on the march, and whether Venitte will fare any better against the Chorl than Amenkor remains to be seen.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy