Showing results by narrator "Khristine Hvam" in All Categories

Ever since the Quantum Bomb of 2015 things have been different; the dimensions have fused and suddenly our world is accessible to elves, demons, ghosts and elementals and their worlds are open to us. Things have been different for Special Agent Lila Black too: tortured and magic-scarred by elves, rebuilt by humans into a half-robot, part-AI, nuclear-fueled walking arsenal, and carrying the essence of a dead elfin necromancer in her chest, sometimes she has trouble figuring out who she is.

Brynn Haper's life has one steadying force - Rachel Maddow. She watches her daily, and after writing to Rachel for a school project - and actually getting a response - Brynn starts drafting emails to Rachel but never sending them. Brynn tells Rachel about breaking up with her first serious girlfriend, about her brother Nick's death, about her passive mother and even worse stepfather, about how she's stuck in remedial courses at school and is considering dropping out. Then Brynn is confronted with a moral dilemma.

Wondering at their weird new band teacher, the Bailey School kids are surprised when he comments that the classroom skeleton, Claude, can play music better than they can, and when everyone wonders who is playing the tuba, Eddie vows to find the truth.

My name is Rachel Sambrook, and I thought I understood the world...until I discovered the world is full of living, breathing monsters. When I teamed up with Lea, I thought we had stopped the experiments on vampire blood. All we did was open a can of wolves we had not expected. The clues we find take us halfway across the world and, to my irritation, leave us depending on two men. One, a werewolf who has his own set of secrets. And the other, a Cazador like Lea...only this one is human and more tempting than I’d like to admit.

Kayleigh needs money. That’s why she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she isn’t allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. It’s grueling work. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend all day watching horrors and hate on their screens, evaluating them with the platform’s ever-changing terms of service while a supervisor sits behind them, timing and scoring their assessments.

In 2015 the Quantum Bomb exploded. An accident at an atom-smasher has fractured reality and opened Earth - now called Otopia - to waves of immigration from other dimensions, home to demons, fairies, elves and elementals. It is now 2021 and Lila Black, a special operative condemned to live as a cyborg after losing her limbs on a dangerous mission, has been assigned as bodyguard to Zal, a charismatic elven rock star.

After a tragic accident at Blackbrook Academy kills one of their own, Orchid, Scarlett, Peacock, Mustard, and Plum are desperate to put the pieces back together and finish out the year. The Murder Crew may have earned their nickname, but the last of their secrets are still coming to light and threatening to destroy friendships, futures, and more.

In the tradition of Michael Lewis and Tom Wolfe, a fascinating and frightening behind-the-scenes look at the interconnected cultures of hackers, security specialists, and law enforcement. A cybersecurity professional turned journalist, Kate Fazzini illuminates the many lies companies and governments tell us about our security, the lies criminals tell to get ahead, and the lies security leaders tell to make us think they are better at their jobs than they are.

World changes come fast and furious, and in the backcountry it is no different. The practice of "packing-it-out" - adopted to protect high-use areas and fragile ecosystems - is here to stay. We are now often urged or even required to haul our poop home. To assist with all this responsible human waste disposal, Kathleen Meyer discusses the latest in product innovations, from classy high-tech to inexpensive do-it-yourself.

From award-winning YA author Alison Gervais comes a contemporary mystery about a teen writer determined to discover what happened to a missing classmate, who finds herself caught up with a pair of very familiar detectives named Watson and Holmes. All her awakening powers of observation will be put to the test as she finds that the thing she thought was holding her back just might be her greatest strength.

Someday a bird will poop on all of us. But that's okay. In a world of bad news, fake news, delays, disappointments, trash talk, and tweets, things are bound to get a little poopy. What matters is not how big the mess is - but how well you react to it. Someday a Bird Will Poop on You is a modern parable about life hitting us with something unexpected - and the perfect gift for anyone leaving home without an umbrella.

Welcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage. Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire.

Banished to Earth. Hunted by the queen's assassins. Forest must fight to find a way back to Regia. Lonely and brokenhearted, she waits for Syrus to break through her banishment. Syrus lives his days in anguish, trapped in a portal that goes nowhere. Separated by galaxies, Forest and Syrus' spiritual connection strains to the breaking point. As Regia's civil war ravages the land and the balance of power tips, the world will learn it's the Rune-dy pulling the strings.

There's a hot new pizza joint in Bailey City and Mrs. Jeepers brings the kids there for a special treat. The castle-shaped building and medieval-style costumes on the waiters are fun, but when a rumble from the kitchen shakes the restaurant's foundations, the kids get suspicious. George, the owner, says his cook is temperamental and the earth-shaking fits he has are nothing unusual, but the kids are pretty sure the owner is St. George the dragon slayer and that his cook is a captive dragon. Can the kids uncover the truth before the disgruntled cook becomes a real problem?

When Lena was a baby, Seer and gifted card reader Amma Treaudeau saw a terrifying future in the cards that sent her to Emmaline's door. When a powerful Dark Caster sets fire to Lena's house with baby Lena and her father trapped inside, Amma, Emmaline, and Macon vow to protect the child. Lena's grandmother and her uncle Macon whisk Lena away, protecting her and moving her to a new place at the first sign of trouble.

Seventeen-year-old Lea Saldana is a trained assassin. She was born into one of the nine clipper Families in the kingdom of Lovero who lawfully take lives for a price. As a member of the highest-ranking clan, loyalty to Family is valued above all, but that doesn't stop Lea from getting into a secret relationship with Val Da Via, a boy from a rival clan. Despite her better judgment, Lea has fallen in love with him, but she's confident she can anticipate any threat a mile away.

She was once a princess of Faerie, the seventh daughter of King Oberon. But 16-year-old Anita Palmer has no memory of the Faerie Realm; her true Faerie princess identity; her love, Edric; or her quest to save Faerie from a deadly plague that ravaged it. With the help of an unexpected ally, Anita must figure out a way to reawaken Tania, her Faerie self - but how? Now Anita - or is she Tania - doesn't know who, or what, to trust, including her own memories. With no time to spare, Anita must act. A thrilling final battle is soon to be waged that will affect not only her destiny but the fate of both Faerie and the Mortal World.

Tania is a princess of Faerie. And now she must return to the Mortal World. Once, Anita was an ordinary girl on the eve of her sixteenth birthday. Now she has assumed her true identity as Tania, the long-lost princess of the elegant Faerie court. She and her true love, Edric, must return to the Mortal World to seek her Faerie mother, Queen Titania, who disappeared hundreds of years ago searching for Tania. In London, Tania is torn between her mortal life and her new one. Dangers lurk, and Tania's two worlds soon collide in amazing and frightening ways.

Tania is a princess of the Faerie court. But the court now lies in ruins. Back from the Mortal World of modern London, Tania returns to Faerie with the long-lost Queen Titania. But when they cross between the worlds, they find only devastation. The evil Sorcerer King of Lyonesse is now free of his amber prison, and the Faerie court is falling into decay as he grows in power. Now it's up to Tania and her true love, Edric, to rescue King Oberon, their only hope of defeating the evil Sorcerer King. And Tania must prepare to fight.

After a soldier is left for dead, Eva Delgado's life begins to unravel. The truth of what happened remains a mystery, and the government will stop at nothing to keep it buried. Together with the unit's medic, Eva finds herself branded a terrorist and enemy of the state, hunted by two opposing governments. When the pair uncover a plot that could have ramifications for the whole galaxy, they know they have to act, but it will take all of their training, cunning and just a bit of luck to do what no one else has achieved. But what do you do when every secret begets another?