Showing results by narrator "Shiromi Arserio" in All Categories

Bitsy is no one’s ideal princess. She’s heard it all: that it’s a shame she’s so plain, so lacking in grace. That the best thing for her to do is simply wait (and wait some more) and hope some prince will grant her a happy ending. Then Bitsy pricks her finger on a spindle and falls down, down, down. Into a world where cutthroats and con artists are more common than curtsies. Where no one ages and everyone is beautiful. Where an inscrutable evil rests at its core.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable, but their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is breath-taking, but it has a dark past: in 1974 it was rented by a notorious rockstar, who was joined by up-and-coming musician Pierce Sheldon and his girlfriend, Mari. By the end of the holiday Pierce is dead, and Mari goes on to write one of the greatest horror novels of all time.

Only Rae knows the extent of the corruption at the heart of the kingdom of Menaiya, from the noble lord who betrayed her, to the Circle of Mages whose wards protect the slavers from discovery. Injured and imprisoned on a slave ship, Rae's options are quickly running out. When a desperate escape attempt goes terribly wrong, she finds herself indebted to a terrifying Fae sorceress. Now Rae will not rest until she has rescued her fellow prisoners and freed her land from the darkness that has taken hold.

Claire Harvey is no ordinary 16-year-old. She never gets sick, she never gets hungry, and she never grows old. Little Max is the only one who knows why Claire is like she is, and he’s not telling. When not tutoring Max in arithmetic, Claire entertains him with the minor hauntings of the old house on Hollow Street. Her favorite tale chills him to the bone, but isn’t that the whole point of a good ghost story? As the lonely decades pass, Max strives to find an end to Claire's suffering. But the US Department of Paranormal Affairs has their own agenda.

Young fire elemental Solvei struggles with the terror of returning to the underground passage. She must complete this months-long trip if she wants to save the pact nations from a surprise invasion by an enemy they didn't know they had. However, her fear of being trapped has grown out of control. The very idea of taking that journey again fills her with dread . . . but it's the only path forward.

1948: Change has come to every corner of the globe - and Rosie Stanton, returning home to Northern Queensland after serving the war effort in Brisbane, plans to rescue her family’s foundering sugarcane farm with her unstoppable can-do spirit. Coming up against her father’s old-world views, a farm worker undermining her success, and constant reminders of Rosie’s brothers lost in the war, Rosie realizes she wants more from life and love - but at what cost? Italian immigrant Tomas Conti arrives at a neighboring farm, and sparks fly as Rosie draws close to this enigmatic newcomer.

From his fortress lair, the Gray Man, possibly the most powerful user of the vibrational energy called rohw the world of Gythe has seen in centuries, is gathering troops and increasing his strength. The only obstacles to his total domination are the order of Zouyim monks, themselves masters of the rohw, and the women who call themselves Sapsyra Shin Elah, the finest warriors in the world.

From acclaimed author Phoebe North comes a riveting, unexpected, and beautiful contemporary novel about a girl whose brother mysteriously disappears, the family and friends he leaves behind, and the stories - real and imagined - that they tell themselves to fill the empty space.

Sixteen-year-old Samar - aka Sam - is an Indian American teenager whose mom has kept her away from her old-fashioned family. It’s never bothered Sam, who is busy with school, friends, and a demanding boyfriend. But things change after 9/11. A guy in a turban shows up at Sam’s house - and turns out to be her uncle.

June, 1942 - Libya. Free French Officer Susan Travers was one of the few women on the front lines in Africa during World War Two. After the Germans surrounded the military camp of Bir Hakeim, a shocking order was issued. The French troops were going to break out in the middle of the night - crossing through dangerous minefields and enemy territory - to reach their British allies. And Officer Travers would be leading the charge.

The one thing Mrs. Bennett most dearly wants is to see her five daughters settled. When wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley moves in to nearby Netherfield Hall and takes an interest in her eldest daughter, Jane, her dream is almost within her grasp. Yet problems arise when Bingley’s friend, the prideful Mr. Darcy, meddles in their relationship, earning him the disdain of Jane’s sister, Elizabeth. However, Mr. Darcy can’t help finding a match in the intelligent, free-spirited Lizzy Bennett, despite her country manners.

When James Blake discovers his wife murdered in their London home, he is determined to find her killer. As the prime suspect, he flees England and sets out on a journey that takes him to Florence and Venice and into a dark underworld of corruption, a trail that will lead him to the killer - and the shocking truth behind the mystery.

When Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beach in Australia, she began to wonder how the lives of whales might shed light on the condition of our seas. How do whales experience environmental change? Has our connection to these fabled animals been transformed by technology? What future awaits us, and them? And what does it mean to write about nature in the midst of an ecological crisis? In Fathoms, Giggs blends natural history, philosophy and science to explore these questions with clarity and hope.

Tom is a successful author, but he’s struggling to finish his novel. His main distraction is an online admirer, Evie, who simply won’t leave him alone. Evie is smart, well read, and unstable. She lives with her father, and her social-media friendships are not only her escape - they’re everything she has. When she’s hit with a restraining order, her world is turned upside down, and Tom is free to live his life again, to concentrate on writing. But things aren’t really adding up.

A Sin Eater’s duty is a necessary evil: she hears the confessions of the dying, eats their sins as a funeral rite. Stained by these sins, she is shunned and silenced, doomed to live in exile at the edge of town. Recently orphaned May Owens is just 14, only concerned with where her next meal is coming from. When she’s arrested for stealing a loaf of bread and subsequently sentenced to become a Sin Eater, finding food is suddenly the last of her worries.

Princess Alyrra has never enjoyed the security or power of her rank. Between her family's cruelty and the court's contempt, she has spent her life in the shadows. Forced to marry a powerful foreign prince, Alyrra embarks on a journey to meet her betrothed with little hope for a better future. But powerful men have powerful enemies - and now so does Alyrra. Betrayed during a magical attack, her identity is switched with another woman's, giving Alyrra the first choice she's ever had: to start a new life for herself or fight for a prince she's never met.

Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story. Annelid and Leveret met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages.

Things That Helped is a memoir in essays, detailing the Australian writer Jessica Friedmann's recovery from postpartum depression. In each essay, she focuses on a separate totemic object - from pho to red lips to the musician Anohni - to tell a story that is both deeply personal and culturally resonant. Drawing on critical theory, popular culture, and her own experience, Friedmann's wide-ranging essays touch on class, race, gender, and sexuality, as well as motherhood, creativity, and mental illness.

A zombie horror told from the zombie's perspective, The End is one woman's account of the end of her life, her family, and everything. Like many single parents in their thirties, Zoe is overworked, overburdened, and low on company, and when the zombie apocalypse begins, she is forced to face the monster that has taken her over, the horrors he shows her, and her own murky past.

The Olanders embody a modern family in a globalized world. Jaya, the cultured daughter of an Indian diplomat and Keith, an ambitious banker from middle-class Philadelphia, meet in a London pub in 1988 and make a life together in suburban California. Their strong marriage is built on shared beliefs and love for their two children: headstrong teenager Karina and young son Prem, the light of their home.