To Bleed a Crystal Bloom


Book Description

"What a pretty flower to keep locked in a big, rocky tower." Nineteen years ago, I was plucked from the heart of a bloody massacre that spared nobody else. Small. Fragile. An enigma. Now ward to a powerful High Master who knows too much and says too little, I lead a simple life, never straying from the confines of an imaginary line I've drawn around the castle grounds. Stay within. Never leave. Out there, the monsters lurk. Inside, I'm safe...though at a cost far greater than the blood I drip into a goblet daily. Toxic, unreciprocated love for a man who's utterly unavailable. My savior. My protector. My almost executioner. I can't help but be enamored with the arcane man who holds the power to pull my roots from the ground. When voracious beasts spill across the land and threaten to fray the fabric of my tailored existence, the petals of reality will peel back to reveal an ugly truth. But in a castle puddled with secrets, none are greater than the one I've kept from myself. No tower is tall enough to protect me from the horror that tore my life to shreds. To Bleed a Crystal Bloom is a dark Rapunzel reimagining full of immersive imagery and breathtaking angst.




To Snap a Silver Stem


Book Description

I want him to hurt. To bleed. I want him to snap, just like he snapped me. Once upon a time, my world was small and sheltered. Everything changed the moment I stepped over my Safety Line, barrelling towards a coupling with a man I hardly know. He wants me. All of me. Dunked in a charged political pit, I must secure the ships needed to quell the spill of murderous beasts still flooding the continent. But one wrong move could spur the war I've worked so hard to avoid. I'll wear the dress and the cupla and the shoes. I'll do it all with a smile on my face. Because everyone's watching. He's watching-hunting a fissure in my frosty shield, trying to scrape back the layers and see my ugly insides. He's unyielding. Unguarded. Changed. Why is he looking now when I've got everything to hide? Secrets sprout, truths bloom, and more than one of us will snap. Crowned in the crippling weight of my mistakes, I must atone. Even if it costs me my life.Fear was my overlord. Now, it's my prisoner. To Snap a Silver Stem is the explosive sequel of To Bleed a Crystal Bloom, a dark Rapunzel reimagining full of immersive imagery and breathtaking angst.




The Love Hypothesis


Book Description

The Instant New York Times Bestseller and TikTok Sensation! As seen on THE VIEW! A BuzzFeed Best Summer Read of 2021 When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos. As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees. That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding...six-pack abs. Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.




American Son: A Novel


Book Description

A powerful novel about ethnically fluid California, and the corrosive relationship between two Filipino brothers. Told with a hard-edged purity that brings to mind Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson, American Son is the story of two Filipino brothers adrift in contemporary California. The older brother, Tomas, fashions himself into a Mexican gangster and breeds pricey attack dogs, which he trains in German and sells to Hollywood celebrities. The narrator is younger brother Gabe, who tries to avoid the tar pit of Tomas's waywardness, yet moves ever closer to embracing it. Their mother, who moved to America to escape the caste system of Manila and is now divorced from their American father, struggles to keep her sons in line while working two dead-end jobs. When Gabe runs away, he brings shame and unforeseen consequences to the family. Full of the ache of being caught in a violent and alienating world, American Son is a debut novel that captures the underbelly of the modern immigrant experience. A Los Angeles Times Best Book, New York Times Notable Book, and a Kiriyama Pacific Rim Prize Finalist




Bad Luck Bridesmaid


Book Description

Most Anticipated Romance of 2022 by Goodreads "A compulsively readable, witty, and humorous novel about the pursuit of a happily ever after...with oneself." - Tif Marcelo Whip-smart, heartfelt and joyful, Alison Rose Greenberg's Bad Luck Bridesmaid is a celebration of complicated women and a power-anthem to live your truth. Happy Ever After. On Her Own Terms. It’s official: Zoey Marks is the cursed bridesmaid that no engagement can survive. Ten years, three empire waist dresses, and ZERO brides have walked down the aisle. After strike three, Zoey is left wondering if her own ambivalence towards marriage has rubbed off on those she loves. And when her building distrust of matrimony culminates in turning down a proposal from her perfect All-American boyfriend, Rylan Harper III, she and Rylan are both left heartbroken, leaving Zoey to wonder: what is it exactly about tying the knot that makes her want to run in the opposite direction? Enter Hannah Green: Zoey’s best friend, who announces that she’s marrying a guy she just met (cue eye roll). At a castle. In gorgeous, romantic Ireland, where Rylan will be in attendance, and Zoey will be a bridesmaid. It’ll be fine. Okay, the woman definition of fine (NOT FINE). Determined to turn her luck around, Zoey accepts her role and vows to get Hannah down the aisle—all the while praying her best friend’s wedded bliss will allow her to embrace marriage and get Rylan back. But as the weekend goes on, Zoey is plagued with more questions than answers. Can you be a free spirit, yet still want a certain future? Can you have love and be loved on your terms? And how DO you wrangle a bossy falcon into doing your bidding? "Laugh-out-loud funny in places and heart-rending serious in others, Greenberg's debut is a unique romance strong on friendships and the importance of being true to oneself that also explores an alternate route to a different happily-ever-after. " —Booklist "An unconventional love story for independent women." —Kirkus Reviews




To Snap a Silver Stem


Book Description

I want him to hurt. To bleed. I want him to snap, just like he snapped me. Once upon a time, my world was small and sheltered. Everything changed the moment I stepped over my Safety Line, barreling towards a coupling with a man I hardly know. He wants me. All of me. Dunked in a charged political pit, I must secure the ships needed to quell the spill of murderous beasts still flooding the continent. But one wrong move could spur the war I've worked so hard to avoid. I'll wear the dress and the cupla and the shoes. I'll do it all with a smile on my face. Because everyone's watching. He's watching-hunting a fissure in my frosty shield, trying to scrape back the layers and see my ugly insides. He's unyielding. Unguarded. Changed. Why is he looking now when I've got everything to hide? Secrets sprout, truths bloom, and more than one of us will snap. Crowned in the crippling weight of my mistakes, I must atone. Even if it costs me my life. Fear was my overlord. Now, it's my prisoner. To Snap a Silver Stem is the explosive sequel of To Bleed a Crystal Bloom-a dark Rapunzel reimagining full of immersive imagery and breathtaking angst. A unique fantasy series perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout, guaranteed to grip you from the very first page.




Never Let Me Go


Book Description

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • The moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic from the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and Klara and the Sun—“a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist. “Brilliantly executed.” —Margaret Atwood “A page-turner and a heartbreaker.” —TIME “Masterly.” —Sunday Times As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.




Pygmy


Book Description

“Begins here first account of operative me, agent number 67 on arrival midwestern American airport greater _____ area. Flight _____. Date _____. Priority mission top success to complete. Code name: Operation Havoc.” Thus speaks Pygmy, one of a handful of young adults from a totalitarian state sent to the United States, disguised as exchange students, to live with typical American families and blend in, all the while planning an unspecified act of massive terrorism. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life through the eyes of this thoroughly indoctrinated little killer, who hates Americans with a passion, in this cunning double-edged satire of a xenophobia that might, in fact, be completely justified.




In Green's Jungles


Book Description

Gene Wolfe's In Green's Jungles is the second volume, after On Blue's Waters, of his ambitious SF trilogy, The Book of the Short Sun. It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest from his home on the planet Blue in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk. Now Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a complex question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex, shifting from place to place, present to past. Horn recalls visiting the Whorl, the enormous spacecraft in orbit that brought the settlers from Urth, and going thence to the planet Green, home of the blood-drinking alien inhumi. There, he led a band of mercenary soldiers, answered to the name of Rajan, and later became the ruler of a city state. He has also encountered the mysterious aliens, the Neighbors, who once inhabited both Blue and Green. He remembers a visit to Nessus, on Urth. At some point, he died. His personality now seemingly inhabits a different body, so that even his sons do not recognize him. And people mistake him for Silk, to whom he now bears a remarkable resemblance. In Green's Jungles is Wolfe's major new fiction, The Book of the Short Sun, building toward a strange and seductive climax. "Wolfe's narrative glows, rich and seductive as ever."--Kirkus Reviews At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Tear Me Apart


Book Description

The follow-up to her critically acclaimed Lie to Me, J.T. Ellison’s Tear Me Apart is the powerful story of a mother willing to do anything to protect her daughter even as their carefully constructed world unravels around them. One moment will change their lives forever… Competitive skier Mindy Wright is a superstar in the making until a spectacular downhill crash threatens not just her racing career but her life. During surgery, doctors discover she’s suffering from a severe form of leukemia, and a stem cell transplant is her only hope. But when her parents are tested, a frightening truth emerges. Mindy is not their daughter. Who knows the answers? The race to save Mindy’s life means unraveling years of lies. Was she accidentally switched at birth or is there something more sinister at play? The search for the truth will tear a family apart…and someone is going to deadly extremes to protect the family’s deepest secrets. With vivid movement through time, Tear Me Apart examines the impact layer after layer of lies and betrayal has on two families, the secrets they guard, and the desperate fight to hide the darkness within. Don’t miss It's One of Us, the next page-turning thriller from New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison!