Showing results by narrator "Chris Patton" in All Categories

Xander Miyamoto should be feeling great. It's the beginning of summer vacation, his mother has returned from a long absence, and he has learned that he is Momotaro, a warrior with special powers. But instead of reveling in it all, Xander is plagued by questions and nightmares. To chase at least the nightmares away, Xander's grandmother gives him a special baku charm - but he must not to rely on it too much. If he does, the baku will take the dreams of everyone in the house away forever.

Kitty, Kieran, Lolly, and Aaron—the main characters of the previous two Pig Trilogy novels—would be expected to be living happily ever after at this point. But nothing is settled or as expected in Caldwell’s new tragicomedy (of the kind that only the Irish can compose): Disappeared characters rematerialize, romances that seemed dead burst back to ardent life, and even Taddy and Brid, Castel Kissane’s comely spirits, resolve themselves into much-longed-for conclusions.

For Denny Graubert, the chaotic summer of 1967 - when the screams of napalm bombs on the nightly news drowned the cheers of the All-Star game - brings the painful realization that childhood has passed. While engaging in his favorite domestic spying game, Denny unwittingly discovers the desperate measures his mother will take to save his autistic older brother, Fad, who is lost in the diagnostic Dark Ages of autism.

Enjoy a “second helping” from the obstreperous creature that romped so riotously through The Pig Did It with this sequel, The Pig Came to Dinner. All of the charming characters of the previous story are also present again....

The sequel to Vampire Junction finds Brian, PJ, and Terry ten years after the disappearance of vampire rock star Timmy Valentine, remembering the terrible night in Junction and fighting the Gods of Chaos who believe Timmy is still alive.

Tristan Morin is a vampire on a mission: to not fall in love with Karen Pierce. To do so would prove that humans and Brethren were meant to be physically and emotionally bound to each other - something he, as a full-blooded Brethren, refuses to believe. It would be so much easier if Karen wasn't beautiful. And if there wasn't something about her that draws him like a moth to a flame.

Knowing he's gay and acting on it were two separate notions to Flynn Brewer until he'd met Keith, his first boyfriend, in high school. Before then, being gay wasn't as real as the pain of living day-to-day. Flynn's fear of coming out to his religious best friend, Zach, in their conservative community destroyed his relationship with Keith, but Flynn rationalized his avoidance and bottled up the truth until it was regrettably too late.

This stunning novel of friendship, guilt, and madness tells the story of two friends torn apart by a terrible secret - and the dark adventure that neither of them ever meant to embark upon. It's been ten years since the "incident," and Adam has long decided he's better off without his former best friend, Thomas. Adam is working as a tutor, sleeping with the mother of a student, spending lonely nights looking up his ex-girlfriend on Facebook, and pretending that he has some more meaningful plan for an adult life.

Josh Levin is an aspiring screenwriter teaching ESL classes in Chicago. His laptop is full of ideas, but the only one to really take root is Zombie Wars. When Josh comes home to discover his landlord, an unhinged army vet, rifling through his dirty laundry, he decides to move in with his girlfriend, Kimmy. It's domestic bliss for a moment, but Josh becomes entangled with a student, a Bosnian woman named Ana, whose husband is jealous and violent. Disaster ensues, and as Josh's choices move from silly to profoundly absurd, The Making of Zombie Wars takes on real consequence.

Loss concerns a failed writer working as a handyman in an old Manhattan apartment building with a strange history and numerous oddball tenants, not all of whom may be what they seem. The penthouse is owned by a bestselling novelist and his wife, the nameless narrator's longtime unrequited love, who soon goes missing. Is she dead or somehow trapped within the endless corridors of a lair full of twisted memories and half-forgotten ambitions?

In the spring of 1989, three young people, born thousands of miles apart, each cut themselves adrift from their birthplaces and set out to discover what - or who - might anchor them in their lives. They each leave almost everything behind, carrying with them only a few artefacts of their lives so far - possessions that have proven so formative that they can't imagine surviving without them - but also the accumulated memories of their own lives and family histories.

A new student has entered The Alchemists Academy, and he brings with him an explosive power that threatens the Academy and the legend of Merlin. Wirt thought he was the only bad boy at the Academy, but he was wrong. Not only is Roland Black worse than Wirt, but a new teacher had replaced one of their beloved teachers, and she has more planned for Wirt and his friends than just lesson plans. Alana, his crush has grown prettier, and now he is rivals for her attention with not only Spencer, but newcomer Roland.

Sooner or later every child will ask, "Where do babies come from?" Answering this question has never been this easy or entertaining! Join a curious little boy who asks everyone from his babysitter to the mailman, getting all sorts of funny answers along the way, before his parents gently set him straight.

In Crude Deception, Book 2 of The Sentinels, our heroes return in an epic battle against a big oil monopoly. As America's dependence on fossil fuel takes hold in the post-World War Two climate of economic growth, seven major oil companies join forces to control the industry, amassing obscene profits, squeezing tax-payers, and manipulating supplies around the world. In a plotline eerily reminiscent of today’s political climate, the Sentinels fan out across several continents in an intricately plotted mission to bring Big Oil to its knees.

Rick Grosse has made his way in the world. With a well-connected partner-in-crime, he has elevated his basement business of Full Service Concierges to become the economic venture that takes Philadelphia by storm. In the height of its success, it seemed like Rick was untouchable; except that he is a man obsessed with his first love that "got away". To make matters worse, his business, which borders on the fringes of legality, is falling apart. He is forced to take action to save his world.

Brent is a tarot reader, a young man whose adopted family doesn't like tarot readers or gays or Swedes or anything else that Brent can bring to the discussion. One of his tarot readings is for a young Sioux man, and that's where Brent's old life stops. Brent finds a whole new life that is full of wonder and adventure, as he learns to read his own heart first. Viking meets Sioux - fireworks.

Wirt is used to being shuffled from foster home to foster home, adopting a devil-may-care attitude toward the world along the way. Now he's in a school he can't escape, learning to develop his latent magical abilities - for what use, he doesn’t know...to save his world or to destroy it.

Alexander takes a rip-roaring historical adventure! Through his imaginative journey, Alexander discovers how great men become heroes: the roughest rider can be surprisingly gentle, a strong leader is also the most peaceful, and sometimes, being brave about what makes you different will not only help you break records, but inspire others. So begins the day for Alexander, an imaginative little boy who explores the innovative men who influenced and shaped our world.

Wirt, Spencer, and Roland are thrown into the dangerous Quantum Games, and only one of them can move onto the Elite class.

Timothy Van Bender, Yale graduate and hedge fund manager in Palo Alto, lives a magical life: His business mints money; his wife, Katherine, is beautiful and charming; his young sexy secretary,Tricia, greets him each morning with a flirtatious smile. Then, one Tuesday, everything changes. Timothy wakes to learn that his hedge fund has lost $24 million on a bad bet against the yen. Timothy decides to double down and bet again. But the yen keeps climbing, and his business investors start asking questions. With his company on the brink of collapse, he gets a call from his wife, who phones to say good-bye....