The Family Down the Road
[name_f]Catherine[/name_f] has lived in the same house all eleven years of her life, and all eleven of those years she’s heard whispers about the empty house outside the wood. You know, stereotypical haunted house stories meant to scare children or to goad teenagers into accepting stupid dares. The sort of thing everyone pretends to ignore in larger groups, but discusses in harsh whispers at the dinner table whenever the latest story begins to circulate.
Except [name_f]Catherine[/name_f] doesn’t see it. She sees the house, of course, but she doesn’t see an empty one. As long as she’s been around, the family inside has run errands and taken care of their garden and gone to school along with everyone else in town. Everyone knows them. Yet everyone seems to forget them the moment they’re not around anymore. [name_f]Catherine[/name_f] is the exception to this rule. She remembers. And when her family plans to move across the country, she knows she has very little time to discover what’s going on. Her best friend lives in that house, the best friend everyone else forgets the moment their backs are turned, and [name_f]Catherine[/name_f] needs to know how to help her. Are they ghosts? Cursed? [name_f]Lea[/name_f] doesn’t know either, and if her parents and grandfather do they’re not willing to admit it.
Alongside a more hesitant [name_f]Lea[/name_f], [name_f]Catherine[/name_f] begins her investigation around town and collects the history of [name_f]Lea[/name_f]’s family from eyewitness accounts and newspaper articles. With the help of a librarian, a concerned elderly neighbor, and a peculiar sparrow, [name_f]Catherine[/name_f] and [name_f]Lea[/name_f] just might be able to figure this out.
It started out as an innocent omission of facts of little consequence. Or at least that was what [name_f]Clarity[/name_f] Somerset thought in the beginning. Quickly she learned that that was not the case. Now she found herself as the key witness to a mysterious unsolved crime that was sweeping the attention of the entire nation. As it turns out, she was the last person to see THE [name_u]Everett[/name_u] Muller alive and she might hold the keys to the secrets that explain his disappearance… if only she could remember that night. But even if she did remember the facts of that night, would she say anything at all? That is the question that haunts [name_f]Clarity[/name_f] every day. As every day brings her closer to the truth, it also brings her closer to [name_m]Gervais[/name_m] Hopkins, the maddeningly attractive central detective on [name_u]Everett[/name_u] Muller’s case. The intense physical attraction she feels for [name_m]Gervais[/name_m] is confusing her, and she isn’t convinced that his fierce intent on solving this case is benign.
Honey from Stones
[name_m]Don[/name_m]’t make promises you can’t keep.
In a world where even the most innocent or silly of words are binding (if the hearer so chooses them to be), this is the first lesson every commoner learns. [name_f]Brynn[/name_f] agrees that’s the safest way to live. But as a young orphan in the brutal outskirts of her province, she learned a different lesson first - the mundane is not safe, not for her. If she’s to become the person her noble parents wanted her to be before their downfall, the person who will force the memories in her mind to quiet, she must claw her way to the top using more than just basic survival skills. She needs to play a far more dangerous game. Years after she successfully bargains her way into a position at the palace, [name_f]Brynn[/name_f] stumbles into a conspiracy to overthrow the royal family and in an instant forms her own plan. But to access the resources she needs, she’ll have to bind herself to both sides of the conflict. She’ll have to promise them both things anyone else would call impossible. She’ll have to follow through on every promise she makes. Luckily, words are easy to bend.
LilyMae never dreamed she would end up in poverty, sitting beneath streetlights, begging. Or maybe she did dream it. [name_u]Ever[/name_u] since [name_m]King[/name_m] [name_m]Julius[/name_m] took over her father’s kingdom, real life had been just as muggy as dreams - while she was living it. Memory failed her, and things changed before her eyes. Buildings seemed to collapse on top of her, drowning out all clarity of the present. She needed to fix this - and fast. But how, when she couldn’t even avoid the puddles as she walked? And then she met [name_m]Will[/name_m]. Human? No… or yes. LilyMae could never tell. More often than not, he was a worm. Either way, he was willing to help, and it was a good thing. She was certain her time was running out.
A long time ago, the powerful Dark Rulers controlled all. Using their dangerous magic, they ruled all of Edanbard through fear. Any and all who broke their strict laws would be forced to watch their town be devoured by a toxic curse, leaving behind only purple puddles deadly to the touch.
Eventually, all of Edanbard was destroyed by this curse, and the Dark Rulers retreated. Edanbard was rebuilt, but nobody could figure out how to remove the puddles. All of [name_u]Calder[/name_u]’s life, she has simply been told: Avoid the puddles.
[name_u]Calder[/name_u] disagrees.
When she was younger, she met a woman called [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f]. She said that [name_u]Calder[/name_u] was a Dark Ruler, possessed by their Dark [name_u]Magic[/name_u], and that the puddles could help her understand her powers. [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] claims to control a good kind of magic, and that the puddles are the key to switch [name_u]Calder[/name_u]’s magic. [name_u]Calder[/name_u]’s sister [name_f]Esme[/name_f] has also been struggling with a strange power, one which seems to be the good magic that [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] claims to use. [name_f]Esme[/name_f] has battled a dangerous disease since birth, and whenever [name_u]Calder[/name_u]’s powers grow, [name_f]Esme[/name_f]’s health worsens. Soon, [name_u]Calder[/name_u] realizes the awful truth: [name_f]Esme[/name_f] is only alive because she’s been using magic, the same magic that the sisters share, and if [name_u]Calder[/name_u] doesn’t switch to good magic, and fast, [name_f]Esme[/name_f] will die. [name_u]Calder[/name_u]’s knows that her best friend [name_f]Evie[/name_f]’s parents study the ancient Dark Rulers, but [name_f]Evie[/name_f], like all of Edanbard, believes that all magic is evil and will not help. [name_u]Calder[/name_u] and [name_f]Esme[/name_f]’s only hope is the puddles, and [name_u]Calder[/name_u] must find a way to switch her powers if [name_f]Esme[/name_f] is to survive.
Thiago was born to be a pirate. The son of famed pirate and vigilante [name_m]Black[/name_m] [name_u]Sam[/name_u] [name_u]Bellamy[/name_u], he has been raised under the harsh and unforgiving cloth of the forbidden seas. But when his father disappears on his final journey to the Americas, [name_m]Thiago[/name_m] must leave his inherited vocation behind and join his mother in Spain. There, the boy falls into a world far more thrilling and dangerous than any he had experienced in the open ocean, a world of [name_u]Robin[/name_u] Hood assassins hell-bent on destroying the corruption of Spanish court. As [name_m]Thiago[/name_m] grows more accustomed to his new life, at the same time he feels a yearning for his father’s unfinished business: the fabled Cape Cod fortune.
Such a cool title, now I really want to hear what the actual story is about!
Next Title: [name_u]Red[/name_u]-Dust [name_m]Mountain[/name_m]
They tell you the stories about rose-colored glasses and pretty girls, about innocence you can’t remember. What they don’t tell you is that there’s no in between. Nothing between being innocent and dirty. Either you wear the glasses or risk getting red dust kicked in your face.
Marie is one of the former. She wears her rose glasses, going about her life like nothing’s wrong. Nothing is, that she knows about, anyway. And then, her father dies. Suddenly, she’s faced with a mountain of red dust, waiting for an overlarge foot to kick it all in her face.
Nobody listens to the innocent. Or is it that the innocent push them away, until it’s too late?
Five generations of the DeRosa family have produced “BC bud” both illegally and now legally in the remote mountains of eastern British [name_f]Columbia[/name_f]. [name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_f]Jane[/name_f] is the last living DeRosa set to inherit this lucrative and controversial empire. As her grandfather [name_m]Tomaso[/name_m] lays dying, with no other living relative to consult, and having exhausted all other “professional” alternatives, [name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_f]Jane[/name_f] reluctantly agrees to be his last nurse. She has always hated her grandfather. Hated what he stood for. Hated what he believed in. Hated what he did. What he did to HER. But the familial cord pulls tight and like it or not, the DeRosa blood pulses in her veins. As she packs up her life from the bustling, modern, Montreal scene and moves back to the isolated, bucolic place of her youth, [name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_f]Jane[/name_f] feels she has stepped back a century in time. That is when she finds the journal. [name_m]Tomaso[/name_m] WANTED her to find it. She knew that. He had been cryptically hinting of it’s contents and whereabouts since she arrived. But she did not want any part of his history, his life. She just wanted to do her moral duty until he passed and then inherit what was rightfully hers and move on. But she did find it. And the journal changed everything. [name_u]Four[/name_u] generations of DeRosa women. This was THEIR journal. These were THEIR words. This was her blood, her heritage, her family. Like it or not, [name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_f]Jane[/name_f] was sucked in, and as she read the journal she realized she was truly beginning to finally find herself.
Deep in what was once known as [name_u]Brazil[/name_u], where the climate is wet and the afternoons hot, Begonias Be-Gone-Ya gets its best business. The domed huts of the southern rainforest are attacked by the mutated begonia, the rosy flower with a deadly secret. [name_f]Every[/name_f] morning, [name_f]Cassia[/name_f] stands at her window and watches the team do their work. She thinks they ought to just use machetes to cut down the giant flowers, but Begonias Be-Gone-Ya prides itself on precision. The team pulls out syringes from a blue airtruck and carefully extracts the poisonous sap from the flowers. [name_f]Cassia[/name_f] sits on the windowsill, craning her neck to see while staying out of sight. After they’re done, the team packs up and starts to leave. But not before [name_f]Cassia[/name_f] sees the driver, a neat man in a tailored suit, take a syringe from the team and drip the contents into his mouth.
Next title: [name_u]Love[/name_u], [name_u]Baby[/name_u]
Farrah never had a normal family. Bouncing from foster home to foster home, all she has of her mother is some letters with the signature ‘[name_u]Love[/name_u], [name_u]Baby[/name_u]’ who she assumes is her lost or dead mother. Some of them are addressed to her but others have a different name, a man’s name. They aren’t clear on what happened to her mother or her father but as she starts to search for clues, she’s suddenly wrapped up in a whole new, intriguing world with people who seem to be hiding something under their happy exteriors. Who was this [name_u]Baby[/name_u]? Was it really her mom? And who is this mysterious [name_m]Caspian[/name_m] offering to help her find her parents.
Next title: Nothing Is Sweeter Than [name_f]Honey[/name_f]
Honey [name_m]Williams[/name_m] was adored from the moment she was born: she was showered with gifts, dressed in only the finest, softest clothes, and given free reign over the household. That is, until she received that fateful letter while at a private tutoring lesson. Both her parents died in a terrible crash; all their remaining money and belongings were donated to charity, with the only mention of their daughter being the final line of the will: To our beloved daughter we leave her old candy jar. Nothing is sweeter than [name_f]Honey[/name_f].
On her own for the first time ever, [name_f]Honey[/name_f] is forced to find her way in the world. Meanwhile, she seems to find a new letter hidden in her candy jar every day, letters that begin to suggest that the death of her parents might not have been an accident. On her quest to decipher the meaning of these messages, [name_f]Honey[/name_f] discovers family secrets she could not have dreamed up in a million years.
Next title: When the Clouds Came to [name_f]Earth[/name_f]
When the clouds came to [name_f]Earth[/name_f], the sun disappeared.
When the clouds came to [name_f]Earth[/name_f], the streets were bathed in darkness.
When the clouds came to [name_f]Earth[/name_f], nobody ran.
When the clouds came to [name_f]Earth[/name_f], not a soul was safe.
When the clouds came to [name_f]Earth[/name_f], she found the place where the clouds used to be.
[name_f]Tetsu[/name_f], a girl in Jisouthbon, has grown up listening to the stories of Kolandlia, a land across the sea. Her parents say it is full of treasure. The most valuable treasures are two jewels that can control the tides. [name_f]Tetsu[/name_f]’s family wants the Jisouthbonese emperor to invade Kolandlia. However, others are more focused on the Kolandlian rebels that the emperor has declared war on. The emperor dies in a battle, and the rebels win. Everyone is looking toward [name_u]Raiden[/name_u], the emperor’s son, to finish what his father started and declare war on Kolandlia. [name_f]Tetsu[/name_f] has the fortune to meet [name_u]Raiden[/name_u], and she convinces him to escape to Kolandlia and raid it. The two successfully steal the two jewels; however, when [name_f]Tetsu[/name_f] meets [name_f]Sena[/name_f], the recently crowned child queen of Kolandlia, she learns of [name_f]Sena[/name_f]’s troubles and begins to question her decision to steal the jewels. She must either side with Jisouthbon and [name_u]Raiden[/name_u] and steal the jewels as planned, or side with Kolandlia and [name_f]Sena[/name_f], kill [name_u]Raiden[/name_u], and seize the position of empress. The fate of both lands is in her hands, and it’s up to [name_f]Tetsu[/name_f] to decide which people will survive.
Shadow Clocks
[name_f]Em[/name_f] has grown up surrounded by clocks. Not clocks that tell the exact hour or the minute or anything that normal clocks tell - clocks that tell the future up to twelve hours before the event. Once a clock’s predicted event comes to pass, the inscription at the top changes to something else and the clock’s hands positions themselves wherever appropriate. [name_f]Em[/name_f]’s family has one unspoken rule. They do not discuss the clocks. [name_u]Ever[/name_u]. Not with each other, not with anyone else. [name_f]Em[/name_f] knows the clocks come from somewhere, that there must be some reason her mother and older brother keep them around. But they seem content to leave her in ignorance.
[name_f]Em[/name_f] follows their unspoken rule. Until she walks into her kitchen one morning to find a new inscription. The [name_f]Empress[/name_f] is Murdered
There are four hours left.
And the empress is [name_f]Em[/name_f]’s aunt.
With her family’s motives unknown, [name_f]Em[/name_f] must decide whether to trust that they know best or to save her aunt. That is, if one even can thwart the clocks’ predictions.
When a simple decision leads [name_f]Em[/name_f] to discover a plot spanning centuries and universes, she realizes the empress and her fate are only the beginning of her concerns.
Next title: I Tried This Time, [name_f]Promise[/name_f]
I Tried This Time, Promise
[name_f]Miranda[/name_f] tried. She really did. She promises. But is that enough for her twin brother [name_m]Randolph[/name_m]? He doesn’t know whether to believe his sister or not. Why does she lie? Why does she steal random things around town? And most importantly, why can’t she control herself? Or is she lying about that too…
Ella was the first fairy born in a century. Everyone expected her to revive the praised rule of the late fairy queen [name_f]Tiana[/name_f]; however, she instead ran off to live with the elves and married the king of the elves, [name_u]Avery[/name_u]. She learned the sacred magic of the elves; however, she cannot control these strange new powers and destroys things whenever she tries to use them. People call her [name_f]Aella[/name_f], the whirlwind.
[name_f]Aella[/name_f] blames the queen of Eblicland, [name_f]Aubree[/name_f]—who is rumored to come from the elves— to be causing the trouble with her powers. However, [name_f]Aubree[/name_f] accuses [name_f]Aella[/name_f] of being a fraud— is she really the only fairy? Is she even a fairy at all? [name_f]Aella[/name_f] is forced to admit that [name_f]Parisa[/name_f], the enigmatic countess in the next kingdom, and [name_u]Peri[/name_u], the weird woman who never comes down from the [name_m]Vine[/name_m] Cottage atop Mount Guisnoafair, could be fairies. The most mysterious thing of all is that [name_f]Aella[/name_f] was born from the ocean. Who are her parents? The only leads [name_f]Aella[/name_f] has on her past, her powers, and her parents are the legend of [name_f]Alara[/name_f], the water fairy said to reside in the bottom of the ocean, and the indecipherable symbols engraved in [name_f]Tiana[/name_f]’s tomb.
Everyone’s heard of a license to kill, but nobody talks about a license to die. [name_m]Ivan[/name_m] doesn’t blame them. After all, murder for a good cause is glamorous and exciting. When the government offered a steady income, a furnished estate, and a good standing in society for eighteen-year-old [name_m]Ivan[/name_m], he didn’t think twice. Twenty years is a long time, he thought. Longer than most in his circumstances, the officer said. But now [name_m]Ivan[/name_m] is thirty-eight, and he’s been dodging the agency’s calls for months. They want him for one night only. One mission. That’s all. His family gets the calls too, and tells him that’s the deal he made, to go on a dangerous mission once in his life. But they don’t know. [name_m]Ivan[/name_m] can’t tell them what his license is really for. [name_m]Ivan[/name_m] can’t tell them this night is guaranteed to be his last. [name_m]Ivan[/name_m] can’t tell them that he made his deal, yes, but he made it with the devil.
Ella [name_u]Carter[/name_u] disappeared three months ago.
There was just one witness, who didn’t think anyone would ever believe him if he told them what he saw.
So he didn’t.
[name_m]Nathan[/name_m] [name_u]Anderson[/name_u] disappeared six weeks ago.
There were witness, who didn’t think anyone would ever believe them if they told people what they saw.
So they didn’t.
When [name_u]Ryan[/name_u] [name_m]Matthews[/name_m] and the [name_m]Roswell[/name_m] twins meet and learn that they witnessed almost identical crimes, they agree to investigate together.
And they know that nobody is to be trusted, if they know what they saw.
Yes. It’s just them.