Sometimes playing to lose is the only way to survive the game of Houses.Trapped in an arranged marriage to lower-caste Jannik and trying to make the best of her fall from grace, Felicita is immersed in the machinations of powerful families. MallenIve is worlds apart from Felicita’s native Pelimburg, and her family name and standing will not help her here. Haunted by her past and those who died because of her, she attempts to regain her status as the scion of a once-great house.If MallenIve’s leaders have their way, Jannik will soon have no more rights than an animal, and a union that once seemed to offer a solution to Felicita’s problems is now a liability. Felicita’s feelings are conflicted and it is all too easy to fall into the prejudiced mindset of the higher castes … until faceless corpses begin turning up on the rubbish tips, and Felicita might be the only hope Jannik’s people have. Views: 27
The thrilling romance of young Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler continues in the sizzling sequel to the New York Times bestselling Alex & Eliza: A Love Story1781. Albany, New York.As the war for American independence rages on, Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler begin their new life as a married couple. Still, Alex is as determined as ever to prove his mettle and secure his legacy . . . even if that means leaving his beloved Eliza behind to join the front lines at the Battle of Yorktown. But when the war unexpectedly arrives on Eliza's doorstep, she must fight for a better future—for their fledgling country and for her marriage.Yet even after the Revolution comes to its historic close, Alex and Eliza's happily-ever-after is threatened. Eliza struggles to build a home in the hustle and bustle of New York City just as Alex's burgeoning law practice brings him up against his greatest rival—the... Views: 27
AN UNSPOKEN LOVE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE WHO WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR EACH OTHER, BUT WON’T ADMIT IT. Things are not looking good for Samantha Fox and her ‘partner’, the gorgeous former playboy, Brian Morton. Their new gym is not attracting customers, thanks to a crushing campaign from a rival gym. Having sunk all his money into Sam’s dream, Brian is almost destitute. Views: 27
Death by Trial and Error is a psychological legal fantasy and suspense short in which a wife plots revenge against her unfaithful husband with an ending you will never see coming! A real page-turner and domestic drama, where the mind can take you to a place you never wanted to go. Views: 27
There's a little bit of magic in every box.™Scottish Play Doe—aka Scott—is used to being a little different. Sometimes he hallucinates things no one else can see. Mermaids. Unicorns. A talking rabbit-man in tweed pants.But then one of these hallucinations tries to steal Scott's backpack, and he comes face-to-face with an honest-to-goodness leprechaun named Mick who's on the run from, of all things, the Goodco Cereal Company.With the help of their friends Erno and Emily, Scott and Mick uncover Goodco's sinister plans—and take the first steps in saving the world from the evil cereal company.Amazon.com Review Jon Scieszka Interviews Adam Rex Jon Scieszka is the National Ambassador for Children’s Literature emeritus and the bestselling author of more than 25 books for kids, including The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math Curse, Robot Zot!, and the Time Warp Trio series. Jon founded Guys Read to encourage a passion for reading among young boys, with the philosophy that boys love to read most when they are reading things they love. Jon Scieszka: Cold Cereal is the only novel I have ever read that combines Celtic folklore, cryptozoology, Arthurian legends, codes and puzzles, Freemasonry, dragon biology, TV cereal commercials, Shakespeare, and a rough outline for the musical version of Huckleberry Finn. How did that happen? Adam Rex: Honestly? After my last novel (Fat Vampire) I wanted to get back to writing for a middle-grade audience, and I had, like, six or seven possible novels already started to some degree or another. And I began to notice some connective tissue between a few of them. My idea about the twins who are test subjects in a sinister experiment had an evil breakfast cereal company in it. The one about the kid who catches a leprechaun trying to steal his backpack in a bus station restroom had a character who’s at home both in ancient folklore and cereal commercials. The one about the modern-day pop-star knight who has to slay a dragon and the one about a time-traveling Merlin had European folklore connections, too. So I started mashing them all together and found they complemented each other better than they had any right to. And then I added a musical Huck Finn. Scieszka: In writing so extensively about leprechauns and clurichauns, unicorns and unicats, goblins and pookas and other assorted Fair Folk… don’t you worry that you might have revealed too much? About both Queen Titania’s court and your middle-school reading history?Rex: Ha! (Cough.) Yes. My middle-school reading history was pretty dire, actually, as practically everything I read outside of school was some officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons novel. Which is to say: I read a lot of fantasy, but I didn't even read any good fantasy. To this day I still haven't read The Lord of the Rings, which is, of course, the basis for everything I liked in middle school until I discovered comic books.And the really stupid thing is: seventh-grade me probably would have resented a lot of what I try to get away with in Cold Cereal. “That’s not what goblins are like,” I would have said. “There’s no such thing as a unicat.” But I think I would have read it anyway for the humor because I was also big in Douglas Adams at the time. And still am. Scieszka: Two two-part questions: What is the best or worst cereal commercial you’ve ever seen? And why? What is your most favorite or most hated breakfast cereal? And why?Rex: As a kid I actually wasn’t allowed any of the kind of “sugar cereals” that the Goodco Cereal Company makes in my book. Which is probably why the commercials made such an impression on me. I was like Lancelot, offered a glimpse of the Sangrail but not allowed to enter into its presence. You see what I did there? Tied together breakfast cereal and the Arthurian legends? That’s what’s called “staying on point.”I think the worst commercial I ever saw was an eighties spot for Apple Jacks. A group of girls are sitting around talking about how great Apple Jacks are, as girls do, and the main girl’s dad butts in and asks why the girls like them if they don’t even taste like apples. The girls look at one another, stumped and flustered, until the daughter blurts out, “We just do, okay?” “Okay.” Dad shrugs and leaves. And when he’s out of earshot, the main girl tells her friends, “He’s old,” and they all giggle. Even as a kid I knew this commercial failed on every level.My favorite cereal commercial was anytime there was a crazy mix-up at the Crunchberry factory. Scieszka: The brother and sister spats and tricks between Erno and Emily and Scott and Polly are so real that I have to ask: Do you have an annoying younger, older, or twin sister?Rex: I was the annoying younger brother. But we got along better than most. I also have a sister who's twelve years younger—too young to have been a source of any conflict in my life. If anything, I wanted my younger sister to tag along on my outings—I got more attention from teenage girls when she did.I think I developed my sense of sibling rivalry from watching my childhood best friend’s family. They fought so much they even had their own family-only derogatory term for each other: “buh.” “You’re being a buh,” they’d tell a brother or sister who was judged at that moment to be difficult or annoying. It’s an excellent word and one I hope to teach to my own children someday. Scieszka: The briefly described musical of Huckleberry Finn sounds perfectly awful. Can you share any more details about Oh Huck! with us?Rex: Well, as the book says, the play’s narrator is a talking raft (Riff-Raft), and it features a rapping scarecrow. I also imagine it to be the sort of Julie Taymor–inspired production where the Mississippi is represented by a hundred dancers in leotards doing the worm or whatever. And in our supposedly post-racial society, Jim is played by Nathan Lane. But that’s all I can say about it. Scieszka: What more can you tell us about the next two books in this promised “Magically Delicious New Trilogy”?Rex: In book two, Unlucky Charms, my heroes will travel to England, attempt to expose the queen as two goblins in a queen suit, travel to the enchanted isles of Pretannica to plead for humanity from Queen Titania herself, and possibly slay a dragon while they’re there. Along the way they’ll accidentally ingest the Salmon of Knowledge; learn the true history of Arthur, King of the Britons; and if I have time, face the unspeakable terror of the Ronopolisk. Probably not that last thing.Review“Totally original and wholly brilliant. Adam Rex must be stopped.” (Eoin Colfer, bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series )“With an off-the-wall sensibility that fans of the author’s True Meaning of Smekday will recognize with delight, Rex brings together unconventional allies to be hunted by agents of the huge Goodco Cereal Company.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )“Rex takes his magically delicious premise seriously, finding the thin line between absurdity and comedy, while giving this story more gravitas and depth than might be expected.” (Publishers Weekly )“The story is filled with wildly imaginative elements and clever wisecracks, but the humor is couched within a rich, complex plot that’s filled with engaging characters and concepts. Readers who enjoy fantasies that are equal parts hilarious and exciting will eagerly await the next two in the series.” (School Library Journal (starred review) )“An expansive cast of colorful characters (including Merle Lynn, an accountant) keep the surprises coming. Reader interest and suspension of disbelief never flag in this humorous, consistently entertaining, well-spun yarn.” (The Horn Book )“Rex supports his centrifugal imagination with tight storytelling, effervescent characterization, and strong imagery and metaphor. . . . will leave readers anxious for the sequel.” (ALA Booklist )“The divinely demented Adam Rex strikes again! Cold Cereal is exciting, strange, and deliciously different. His deft mixing of myth with modernity is flat-out fabulous.” (Bruce Coville, author of My Teacher Is an Alien )“Warning—this book contains the following ingredients in dangerously high quantities: wild fantasy, dynamic action, great satire and silly jokes. It’s as addictive as one of Goodco’s sinister breakfast products—and a whole lot better for you. I loved it. Second helpings, please!” (Jonathan Stroud, bestselling author of the Bartimaeus Trilogy ) Views: 27
It’s not easy being a badass Zombie killer. But somebody’s got to do it. Page Parker survived the Zombie infection when she was a child, but can she survive it the second time around? After risking her life to save others, Page wakes in a new place with new rules. Luke is not the man she expected him to be and his Underground of Colony survivors aren’t anything she expected either. Tensions between her family and Luke’s people run tight, while the Parkers decide their next move in their effort to take down Matthias. But nobody is more on edge than Miller Allen. After nearly losing Page, he’s more overprotective and possessive than ever. Not sure if she’s fully recovered from the infection or not, Page has to face a council that wants her dead and soothe her family’s frayed nerves at the same time. And hopefully keep Miller and Luke from killing each other. With Zombies to hunt and wars to wage, in this apocalypse, there’s no rest for the Parkers. Love and Decay: Revolution is a Dystopian Romance Novella Series about Zombies, the end of the world and finding someone to share it with. Every episode is approximately 20,000 words long and released monthly. Look for Love and Decay: Revolution, Episode Ten coming May 12th, 2017. ** Views: 27
All Murphy wants is a home and a loving family. After escaping from his brutal and merciless owner, he is taken in by a young girl named Sally. She and her mother have just arrived in Nome, Alaska, intent on joining the other gold seekers and making a new life there, free from their wealthy but oppressive family in Seattle.Yet even with Murphy at their side, Sally and Mama find living in the mining town harsh and forbidding. When it seems they may have to give up and return to Seattle, Sally and Murphy decide to strike out on their own, hoping to find gold and make a permanent home. But dangers await them - not only blizzards and grizzly bears, but also Murphy's original owner, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, whether it is an ill-gotten fortune or a valuable dog. Views: 27
College BoundI grunted from the weight of the suitcase as I heaved it out of the back of the van. What had I packed again? I didn't remember it being this heavy when I loaded it into the twin's car only seven hours ago.Seven long and painful hours. I forced a smile as Esther and Estelle stepped up onto the curb, matching prim skirts and twin sets as much their uniform as their very comfortable looking shoes.They didn't smile back, but through my connection to them from the family magic, I was sure their flat expressions had nothing to do with how they felt about me.Well. Pretty sure.Summer is over, and Syd is finally off to Harvard to take her witch training, leaving things back in Wilding Springs in her grandmother's crazy but capable hands. The rush of excitement about her new beginning is quickly doused when Syd stumbles on a secret club taking advantage of normal students, including her friend Simon. An unhappy roommate, troubles with Quaid and... Views: 27
Past to present... PAST: It all starts with a glimpse into the past of Falling Down, when Jesse meets Lucy, and everything you've wondered about Cage. Let's see how they got to where they are right now. PRESENT: It's time to prepare to go back out on tour. Let's meet the Blush Baby and get everyone settled in for what looks to be like a kick ass finish to the BFD tour.** Views: 27
