Showing results by narrator "Gail Shalan" in All Categories

At 8:53 pm, thousands of people watched as Jake Foster secured the state title for his basketball team with his signature fadeaway. But by the next morning, he's disappeared without a trace. Nobody has any idea where he is: not his best friend who knows him better than anyone else, not his ex-girlfriend who may still have feelings for him, not even his little brother who never expected Jake to abandon him. Was he abducted? Did he run away to try to take his game to the next level? Or is it something else, something darker—something they should have seen coming?

Like every other being in our world, fantastical creatures have been forced to adapt to the climate, industrial, and cultural changes of the modern era. Countless formerly common creatures including akeki and cave trolls have been driven out by urban sprawl and climate change while others, like ether sprites and brownies, have been able to thrive in abundance, creating homes in city environments.

It’s Pairing Day in Terrafamiliar! Marina has been waiting for this moment—anxiously—for as long as she can remember. Because today’s the day she gets to bond with her animal familiar for life, like every other ten-year-old in the land. Except after the ceremony ends, Marina doesn’t have one. And she’s not alone . . . four other girls also didn’t get their animal companions. The leaders of Terrafamiliar realize something special is happening: Marina and the other four girls—Kit, Ember, Pippa, and Hailey—are called Mythics.

Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she moves from town to town with her mother, caring for the ironwood groves that people rely upon for survival. When a dangerous blight threatens these magical trees, the Sixsmiths must journey to the city of Mistwood for answers.

Seventeen-year-old Helena “Nell” Cusack came to New York this summer looking for a story—a real story. She dreams of one day writing hard-hitting articles for the New York Chronicle, but so far she's only managed to land a job as a lowly society reporter. That is, until Alice Austen strolls into her life, an audacious street photographer who encourages Nell to shake up polite society…and maybe also take a chance on love.

While on the run from Rurales in Mexico, Lou Prophet stops at the familiar desert town of Chisos Springs. Except now it’s called Moon’s Well. And it appears that more than the name has changed. It’s being controlled by the scoundrel Mordecai Moon, who even charges people for water. Lou Prophet won’t stand for such shady business, but he’s never made an enemy like Mordecai...

A feminist anthology inspired by legendary Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl, featuring twenty-four new essays on the triumphs and heartbreaks of modern singlehood from acclaimed and bestselling authors, including Kristen Arnett, Morgan Parker, Evette Dionne, and Melissa Febos.

When recent NYC-transplant Liz Brinkley and her husband are invited to an exclusive soiree by their neighbor, Liz’s immediate thought is hell no. And yet she RSVPs anyway, trying to extend an olive branch to her withdrawing husband, who seems desperate to get in with the cliquey elite. They’ve barely made it through their first round of champagne when a “red alert” comes through their phones: strange atmospheric masses, reported to look like “glimmering clouds,” have been spreading through major U.S. cities and killing anyone they touch.

Fergus is back on Earth at last, trying to figure out how to live a normal life. However, it seems the universe has other plans for him. When his cousin sends him off to help out a friend, Fergus accidently stumbles across a piece of an ancient alien artifact that some very powerful people seem to think means the entire solar system is in danger. And since he's the one who found it, they’re certain it’s also his problem to deal with.

Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows. To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.

After Pairing Day didn’t go as planned for the Mythics—Marina, Hailey, Kit, Ember, and Pippa—they embrace their journey to find their Mythies and save Terrafamilar. Hailey has always known she was destined for adventure, and after watching Marina and Ember unite with their mythical animal familiars, she’s more than ready to embark on her quest.

Super organizer Ellie Avery could really use some Christmas cheer when Gabrielle Matheson, a grinchy professional rival, sets up shop in the same small Georgia town. But before the halls are even halfway decked with holly, someone uses Ellie's terrifically tasteless white elephant swap gift as...a murder weapon!

When they were 15, Willa, Luz, and Britton’s friendship was everything. When they were 16, they stood by each other no matter what. When they were 17, they went through the worst. And when they were 18, Willa ruined it all. Now, it’s the week of graduation, and Willa is left with only a memory box filled with symbols of the friendship she destroyed.

Fifteen-year-old Layla Freeman likes to pretend her life is fine. After all, her mother is about to celebrate thirty days sober, and yeah, they’ve moved into a homeless shelter, but it’s only temporary, right? Her mom will get better, and in the meantime, it’s important that no one at school finds out where she’s been living for the past month. Layla has worked hard to build her reputation as a girl who doesn’t care what others think of her, but the truth is she does care—deeply—and she’s tripping over her own lies, especially to her best friend, as she tries to pretend nothing’s wrong.

A daughter of rock ’n’ roll royalty has a secret crush. A lonely ticket-taker worries about his sister. An almost-famous songwriter nurses old wounds. A stage manager tires of being behind the scenes. A singer-songwriter struggles to untangle her feelings for her best friend and his girlfriend. In this live-out-loud anthology, the disparate protagonists of 16 stories are thrown together for one unforgettable event: their high school’s battle of the bands.

There is nothing extraordinary about Tucker O’Shay’s dreams. Go to college. Become president. Fall in love. And pretend like he has enough time to get it all done. Sixteen-year-old Sarah Miller doesn’t expect anything out of the ordinary when she begins her first day at the one-room-school house in her new hometown of Rocky Knob. But when she meets seventeen-year-old Tucker O’Shay she finds herself swept up in a friendship that changes the way she sees the world and a love that changes her life.

Ice-skater Mina is on a one-track path to Olympic gold and glory—that is, until she totally wipes out at her biggest competition, and is kinda-sorta-kidnapped by undead kids on roller skates. Sucked into the high stakes world of Paranormal Roller Derby, she finds herself "recruited" by a squad of vampires who need a human player to complete their team—just in time to save the league from losing it all.

When Ellie accidentally overhears that her family deli is most likely going to close, she does the only thing she can think of. She makes a wish on matzo ball soup. Eleven-year-old Ellie is feisty, determined, and a little bit anxious. She considers Lukshen Deli part of the family—after all, it’s been around for four generations, ever since her great-grandmother opened it.

Four girls from very different backgrounds are making their way to the mysterious Rosenholm Boarding School from different corners of the country. The one thing they have in common is the strange offer they have received to apply for a place at what will turn out to be a school for magic, deeply embedded in Nordic mythology, nature magic, and shamanism. The girls have been invited to apply for a reason that is as yet unknown to themselves, but already during the unorthodox application tests, it becomes apparent that a spirit is trying to establish contact with the girls.

Not to brag, but Brynn Whittaker is basically killing her senior year. She's got the looks, the grades, and a thriving "flirt coach" business that will help pay for her ultimate dream school: Stanford University. But when a highly incriminating video goes viral after the first rager of the year, Brynn finds herself at the center of a school-wide scandal of catastrophic proportions.