Seventeen-year-old Lisa Brown loved going to church. Oh sure, sometimes she'd rather sleep in, but she liked the calming and empowering strength of her faith. Sundays revitalized her spirit when she thanked God for the wonderful things in her life like her loving family and her amazing girlfriend, Samantha Rose. One day she hoped to marry Sam, have a house and yard, and have babies together. One day.
But then it happened. That fateful Sunday when the guest preacher stepped behind the pulpit and spoke four words that would change Lisa's world forever.
"Homosexuality is a sin," he said.
Had she heard him right? When her mother put a hand on her forearm, she knew she had. Every muscle in her body tensed, and she forgot to breathe.
What was happening?
The church she'd been baptized in, grown up in, and wanted to get married in had, in one instant, turned against her.
Still not quite believing what she'd heard, she mumbled, "Ignorance is a sin, Reverend." Never one to back down from a challenge, she scanned the congregation but didn't find a single soul who looked upset by his statement. Many were even nodding in agreement. She muttered under her breath, "Game on, people. Game on." Views: 372
God is dead. Lincoln Marshall knows who killed Him...It's been a month since apocalypse destroyed the world as Lincoln Marshall once knew it. The new world is populated by deadly faeries, wild shapeshifters, and humans without a god. Lincoln's sins can never be absolved now that God is dead. There's nothing left for him but the bottom of a whiskey bottle.Until Cesar Hawke comes seeking help. The undersecretary of the new Office of Preternatural Affairs has manifested uncontrollable magical powers. The only cure lies beyond the frontier of the untamed faerie worlds -- a land that no mortal man can survive. He needs Lincoln to escort him to the Winter Queen through hostile territory riddled by killer unicorns, doppelgangers, and false prophets. No big deal.Lincoln Marshall once conquered Hell. He's certain he can conquer the Middle Worlds too -- and if he can't, he's happy to die trying. Views: 372
She disappeared without a trace seven years ago, now he’s about to discover the secrets she’s guarded with her life…
Téa Bello took advantage of a bad situation to gain her freedom, but her escape allowed another man to suffer. Her sins haunt her; chase her from Mexico to Italy where she’s been hiding in plain sight working at a food bank to help the homeless. Atoning for her transgressions, however, does nothing to ease the pain of the past, and leads her into a web of crime when her identity is revealed.
She’s the key to his sister’s happiness, and there’s nothing he won’t do to expose the truth…
Daniel ‘Khaos’ Artino has been his sister’s keeper since their parents were killed, and now the past threatens her future happiness. Determined to find out what happened five years ago that caused her fiancé to be kicked out of the Secret Service, Khaos vows to find the one witness who can clear the man's name—a woman everyone else says doesn’t exist. Khaos tracks her miraculous escape from the hotel room, where a prostitute died and the wrong man was blamed for her death, to Rome. But now that he’s found the witness he sought, he’s fallen in love with the woman she is and suddenly unmasking Téa is too big a risk to take.
But the truth will only lead to heartache…unless Khaos and Téa takedown the mob and allow their love to defeat the tragedies of the past.
Views: 372
Dicey Tillerman has big dreams. She's started a boatbuilding business, and she's determined to prove she can succeed on her own. So at first she resists the offer of help from Cisco, the mysterious stranger who turns up at her shop.
But running a business doesn't leave much time for the people Dicey treasures-- her grandmother, her younger siblings, and her boyfriend. When the trust Dicey puts in Cisco turns out to be misplaced, it seems as if Dicey could lose everything -- has she discovered too late what really matters to her? Views: 372
"Somewhere in the world I have a tiara in a little box. It is not safe for me to wear it... It is not safe for me even to tell anyone who I really am. But I know—I have always known."
Cecilia knows that she is not just another peasant girl; she is actually the true princess, in hiding until the evil forces that killed her parents are vanquished. A commoner named Desmia is on the throne as a decoy.
As she gets older, Cecilia finds it harder to study statesmanship and palace protocol secretly at night and then pretend that she has nothing on her mind other than scrubbing the gruel stains out of her best apron by day.
Cecilia knows that it is time to take charge. Along with her best friend, Harper, she flees to the capital city, determined to reclaim her throne and face the danger head on.
When Harper and Cecilia reach the famed Palace of Mirrors, they discover complications: Princess Desmia believes an entirely different version of the story.
Acclaimed author Margaret Peterson Haddix returns to the charmed world of Just Ella, where a princess-in-hiding and a pretender to the throne discover that nothing is as it appears. Views: 372
The Mancusis don't have any kids...but they sure have a lot of pets! So when they're desperate for a sitter, whom do they call? The Baby-sitters Club!
Kristy's insulted. BSC members don't pet-sit. But Jessi's always liked animals, and she talks Kristy into letting her have the job.
With snakes on the loose and sick hamsters, Jessi has plenty of pet-sitting troubles. And the Baby-sitters aren't making life any easier for her when they get into a big fight.
Will Jessi be able to handle her pet-sitting job when things are going wrong with the baby-sitters, too? Views: 371
Karen becomes Pizza Queen and gets to wear a crown, be on a billboard, and star in a Pizza Express commercial. Views: 371
Everything feels off—especially me. I've returned to Katmere Academy, but I'm haunted by fragments of days I have no recollection of living and struggling to understand who, or what, I really am. Just when I start to feel safe again, Hudson is back with a vengeance. He insists there are secrets I don't know about, threatening to drive a wedge between Jaxon and me forever. But far worse enemies are at our doorstep. The Circle is caught in a power play and the Vampire Court is trying to drag me out of my world and into theirs. The only thing Hudson and Jaxon agree on is that leaving Katmere would mean my certain death. And not only am I fighting for my life, but now everyone else's is at stake—unless we can defeat an unspeakable evil. All I know is that saving the people I love is going to require sacrifice. Maybe more than I'm able to give. The Crave series is best enjoyed in order.Reading Order:Book #1 CraveBook #2 Crush Views: 371
At twenty-three, Calista Beckett is trying to overcome her early fame and fortune. The former savior of the world on Starlight is now a freshman at college--miles away from L.A. and her former existence. She sees it as her start to a new life, a normal life, one where she won't make the same mistakes she made before--a brush with heroin addiction and losing her freedom to her controlling mother, thanks to a court order.
Eric Stone played her older brother, Byron, on Starlight. But she's been in love with him pretty much since they kissed--her first kiss--while auditioning. When Eric shows up on campus out of the blue asking her to return to California for a role, Calista's struck immediately by two things: first, in spite of everything that's happened, she still feels something dangerous for him, and second, she's absolutely determined not to let him ruin her life again.
Only Eric's not giving up so easily. Views: 371
Each of these exciting stories, told in the voice of one of the 11-year-old volunteers at the Wild at Heart Animal Clinic, offers a first-hand account of animal emergencies and rescues. This series is sure to win the hearts of readers who are wild about animals!Dr. Mac's cat is missing! Sunita leads a search party to look for him and discovers a large colony of wild cats living by the railroad tracks. There she also meets a group of angry neighbors who want to get rid of the cats for good. Can Sunita save them before animal control takes them away? Views: 371
A girl trapped in the afterlife is compelled to visit her old boyfriend each Halloween. This visit will be different.Marshall, a former gang member and new father is struggling to make ends meet with the love of his life Sarah. After he's fired from his a job an opportunity to make some extra money surfaces, the only problem is that it involve's stealing money from a Mars exploration program. When the plan goes awry and things take a turn for the worst Marshall gets into trouble with the law. Marshall's mistake will trigger a series of events that will lead to a big decision, a decision of freedom or confinement, a decision that could change his life as well as the people he loves forever. Views: 371
A boy is abandoned in the woods of medieval England. A year passes--a year of terror and hunger, of sleeping in trees and foraging for food, of outrunning packs of wild dogs--until one day a falconer captures and tames the boy as he would any passager, a young bird caught in the wild and trained. The falconer adopts the boy and teaches him all of the things he’s forgotten, including the boy’s true name--and the legacy of magic that will be his when he comes of age. Views: 371
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Anne Tyler's *The Beginner's Goodbye.*
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
BALTIMORE WOMAN DISAPPEARS DURING FAMILY VACATION, declares the headline. Forty-year-old Delia Grinstead is last seen strolling down the Delaware shore, wearing nothing more than a bathing suit and carrying a beach tote with five hundred dollars tucked inside. To her husband and three almost-grown children, she has vanished without trace or reason. But for Delia, who feels like a tiny gnat buzzing around her family's edges, "walking away from it all" is not a premeditated act, but an impulse that will lead her into a new, exciting, and unimagined life . . . .
"TYLER DETAILS DELIA'S ADVENTURE WITH GREAT SKILL . . . As so often in her earlier fiction--Celestial Navigation, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, and her nine other novels--[she] creates distinct characters caught in poignantly funny situations. . . .Tyler writes with a clarity that makes the commonplace seem fresh and the pathetic touching."
--The New York Times
"UTTERLY COMPELLING. . .WONDERFULLY SATISFYING. . .Ladder of Years is virtually flawless."
--Chicago Tribune
"A 'PAGE-TURNER' IN THE BEST SENSE . . . One wants to lightly caress the pages of the story because one cares for Ms. Tyler's touchingly flawed characters. . . . Both madcap and genteel, Anne Tyler knows as well as anyone that 'human beings lead many lives.' Casually, delightfully, Ladder of Years will tell you just how we humans manage this trick."
--The Baltimore Sun Views: 371
