Showing results by narrator "Sophie Amoss" in All Categories

Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.

Centering us in Rome, but transporting us seamlessly into worlds as varied and exotic as they are emotionally real, these stories paint landscapes that are populated - vividly, hauntingly - by animals: from squawking, violent seagulls, to magical snakes, to a tiny dog on the side of a deserted road, to starlings circling the evening sky in exhilarating formation.

Back when Morgan Mallory was human, she dreamed of magic while drowning in self-destruction. Then she was transported to a fantastical new reality, and her dream turned into a waking nightmare. To survive against the monsters of the labyrinthine land of Pandaemonium, she became Maven Alice, a soul-devouring demon who kills with blade and spell. Now that she's tasted blood and escaped a fae king's trap, Alice has been pitted against six fearsome rivals in a contest in which the stakes are no less than life or death.

The old-fashioned struggle for fairness has finally been abandoned. It was a misguided endeavor. The world is divided into two groups, pats and quads. The pats may kill the quads as they like, and do. The quads have no recourse but to continue with their lives. The Divers’ Game is a thinly veiled description of our society, an extreme case that demonstrates a truth: we must change or our world will collapse. What is the effect of constant fear on a life, or on a culture?

The death of Donald Ray in a freak car accident becomes the catalyst for the release of passions, needs, and hurts. Clayton’s discovery of dead Donald Ray upends his longtime emotional numbness. Darlene, the seventeen-year-old widow, struggles to reconnect with her late husband while proving herself still alive. Soon Clayton and Darlene’s bond of loss and death works its magic, drawing them into an affair that brings the loneliness in Clayton’s marriage to a crisis. When Aurilla Cutter, Clayton’s mother-in-law, learns about the affair, her own memories are set loose.

Having earned her chef's hat, Lexi Stuart bids au revoir to her glamorous and deliciously satisfying pastry mentorship to find life unexpectedly complicated. She's now in charge of a high-end catering bakery, but there's a catch: she must make this lavish bakery a successful business in just a few short months. In over her head and at a loss for creative marketing ideas, Lexi can't compose the perfect recipe for success.

To Charles Fort, with Love is award-winning fantasist Caitlín R. Kiernan’s third collection of short fiction, a haunting parade of the terrible things which may lie beyond the boundaries of science, the minds which may exist beyond psychology, and the forbidden places which will never be located in any orthodox globe. A deceptively even dozen, this collection includes Kiernan’s celebrated stories “Onion” and “Andromeda Among the Stones”, as well as a number of more obscure pieces.

Nina is a struggling writer, a college dropout, a liar, and a cheater. More than anything she wants love. She deserves it. From the burned-out suburbs of Florida to the anonymous squalor of New York City, she eats through an incestuous cast of characters in search of it: her mother, a narcissistic lesbian living in a nudist polycule; Odessa, a single mom with even worse taste in men than Nina; Seth, an artist whose latest show is comprised of three Tupperware containers full of trash; Brian, whose roller-coaster affair with Nina is the most stable "relationship" in his life; and more.

Ten social media stars think they're about to join the cast of a hot new reality show. But the production crew never shows up, and the influencers find themselves stranded on a deserted Caribbean island with no contact with the outside world - except for messages from the mysterious 'Sponsor', who is threatening to expose their darkest secrets. When one of them winds up dead, things start to get more real than they bargained for.

Tiffany Templeton is tough. She dresses exclusively in black, buys leather jackets that are several sizes too big, and never backs down from a fight. She’s known in her tiny Montana town as Tough Tiff, and after her shoplifting arrest and a stint in a reform school, the nickname is here to stay. But when she comes back home, Tiffany may not be the same old Tough Tiff that everybody remembers. Her life is different now: Her mother keeps her on an even shorter leash than before, she meets with a probation officer once a month, and she’s still grieving her father’s recent death.

Olivia Reed needs a break. She doesn’t want to think about her name plastered on tabloids or be reminded of her recent meltdown on a Manhattan street. Her micromanaging publicist has just the thing in mind: a remote retreat in upstate New York—the House of Light. It’s not rehab; it’s a Spiritual Center, a site for seeking realignment and personal growth. There will be yoga and morning meditation, soft bamboo-blend fabrics and no shortage of crystals to cleanse her energy.

Dark, profane, and hilarious, yet ultimately humane, these ten stories are the latest and best of Robin McLean’s reports from the eternal battlefront that is the United States. Ranging across the continent, from Alaska to Missouri, from the flatlands to the mountains, each tale is a snapshot of the political, racial, and sexual undercurrents roiling contemporary life, and each finds a way into the nerves and blood that pulse beneath the question of how to live a decent life.

Last summer, Link Miller drowned on dry land in the woods, miles away from the nearest body of water. His death was ruled a strange accident, and in the months since, his friends and family have struggled to make sense of it. But Link's close friend Noemi Amato knows the truth: Link drowned in an impossible lake that only she can find. And what's more, someone claiming to be Link has been contacting her, warning Noemi to stay out of the forest.

When 15-year-old Xie moves from California to a rural Southern town to live with his father he makes just two friends, Jo and Leni, both budding environmental and animal activists. One night, the three friends decide to free captive mink from a local farm. But when Xie is the only one caught, his small world gets smaller: Kicked out of high school, he becomes increasingly connected with nature, spending his time in the birch woods behind his house, attending extremist activist meetings, and serving as a custodian for what others ignore, abuse, and discard.

Tamsin Lark didn't ask to be a Hollower. As a mortal with no magical talent, she was never meant to seek legendary relics from the ancient crypts of dark sorceresses. But after her thieving foster father disappeared without so much as a goodbye, it was the only way to keep herself—and her brother, Cabell—alive. Ten years later, rumours are swirling that her guardian vanished with a powerful ring from Arthurian legend, igniting Tamsin's hope of freeing Cabell from a curse that threatens them both. But they aren't the only ones who covet the ring.

London, 1881. There's something eerie about Manon—she's not like the other girls at the orphanage. Maybe it's her red eyes. Maybe it's her silence. Maybe it's the series of violent deaths that seem to follow her. What we do know: someone is hot on her tail. And there's a lot of money at stake in finding out where exactly she comes from—and what exactly she is. Concurrent to Manon's story are letters to Charles Darwin from Professor Humphrey, a scientist who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Is it true that natural selection left humans at the top of the pyramid?

The bears are back for revenge in the sequel to Night of the Living Ted...and they're far from cute and cuddly! Just when Lisa Marie and Vernon think they've seen the last of the evil teddy bear Grizz, he's back...for revenge! He has a new army of stuffed friends and a plan for world domination.... Can Lisa Marie and Vernon save the world again...and before bedtime?

With heroic deeds, family drama, pulse-pounding battles, and shape-shifting magic, it’s no wonder that mythology fascinates us all. Packed with facts, Amazing Immortals profiles over eighty of these fantastical beings.

Two years ago, Martha didn't know that Alan existed. Now, they're married - it was easy to say yes to someone so sweet. But when Martha thinks she sees Alan's mask slip, she starts to fear that the conferences he travels the country to attend might be a cover for something far more sinister. As her research unearths a string of dead women, she enlists the help of Lily Kintner, an old friend from grad school. What Martha doesn't know is that Lily has a dark side of her own . . .

One sexy fire captain. One Cajun chef. One combustible kitchen. When chef Colby Robicheaux returned home to New Orleans to save her family restaurant, the last person she expected to reconnect with was her brother's best friend and her childhood crush. As tempting as a sugar-coated beignet, Jason is one dish she can't afford to taste. Colby can't wait to leave the place where her distrust of love and commitment originated and go back to Vegas.