Showing results by narrator "Luci Christian" in All Categories

In this dazzling debut, Carla Shalaby, a former elementary school teacher, explores the everyday lives of four young "troublemakers", challenging the ways we identify and understand so-called problem children. Time and again, we make seemingly endless efforts to moderate, punish, and even medicate our children, when we should instead be concerned with transforming the very nature of our institutions, systems, and structures, large and small.

Single dad and hockey star, Calder Weiss has put his love life on the back burner for the past five years, raising his daughter and keeping up with the demands of his profession. But all that changes the minute Rachel Perry runs into him in the most unlikely of places, right outside the men's bathroom. Vibrant and enchanting, she captures his attention, making it impossible for him to walk away without scoring her number. Their connection is immediate, their attraction palpable, and their relationship undeniable. But Rachel isn't the only girl in Calder's life.

Life as a teenager is never easy. But for Natalee Murray, things have just gotten way more difficult. Bored with life, she can't wait to graduate high school and get out of town, especially considering the famous band members from AD2 suddenly start attending her school, making her once-boring life absolutely insane.

Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one attacks her boyfriend - ruining any chance of him taking her to prom - Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient Cloisters the hunters have used for centuries. However, all is not what it seems at the Cloisters. Outside, unicorns wait to attack.

Seven years have passed since Kat left Athelia. Through the intervention of the goblin king's baby daughter, the book is re-opened and Kat is transported back to Story World. Upon learning she is given a second chance, Edward is determined not to let her go this time. His chance of succeeding, however, seems like nil. Kat doesn't remember anything of their past, she loathes life at court, and she's anxious to return to the modern world. Not to mention that there's a price to pay for tampering with the book again....

One girl. Two brothers. Who knew that the sleepy town of Seaside, Oregon, would eventually be the location of both our downfall and our redemption? Drugs, sex, lies, shame...it all led us to the Coast. It led us to her. And ever since we met her, our lives have never been the same. You may think you know what really happened - but you don't. After all, there's two sides to every story. This is ours.

A dangerous secret. A deadly skill. Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker - with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister, Tali, and the other Takers who become Healers, Nya's skill is flawed: she can't push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it into another person, a dangerous skill that she must keep hidden. If discovered, she could be used as a human weapon.

Kat has survived. She returns to Athelia as herself, Katherine Wilson. Edward, elated at learning she is alive, vows to bring her back to the palace. The obstacles, however, seem impossible to overcome. Marriage between a royal and a commoner is not recognized, not to mention that he is already legally bound to Katriona Bradshaw, who will do anything to keep her position as princess. And there's even more to worry about.

The underground mine fires ravaging Pennsylvania coal country have forced 11-year-old Brigid Howley and her family to seek refuge with her estranged grandparents, the formidable Gram and the black lung-stricken Gramp. Tragedy is no stranger to the Howleys, a proud Irish-American clan who takes strange pleasure in the "curse" laid upon them generations earlier by a priest who ran afoul of the Molly Maguires. The weight of this legacy rests heavily on a new generation, when Brigid, already struggling to keep her family together, makes a grisly discovery in a long-abandoned bootleg mine shaft.

A year has passed since the war against Jack's father freed the humans from their roles as blood slaves and servants to the vampire race. Having left the palace behind to ensure the outer towns are obeying the new laws, Jack struggles to come to terms with the grief and haunting memories that drove him from the palace in the first place. He's content to lose himself in the outer lands and the obscurity they offer him. That is until he encounters Hannah.

Whoever said singles were missing out by not finding true love and getting married before the age of 30 had never experienced the sheer pleasure of nightly romantic comedy viewings in their underwear while eating one of Licked's famous Crazy Cat Lady sundaes. Because life just doesn't get better than that. At least, it doesn't for Shayne Callahan. It didn't take more than a handful of broken hearts after college to solidify that she was better at pairing up those around her than herself.

Imagine a United States in which registries and detainment camps for Muslim-Americans are a reality. Fifteen-year-old Sarah-Mary Williams of Hannibal, Missouri, lives in this world, and though she has strong opinions on almost everything, she isn't concerned with the internments because she doesn't know any Muslims. She assumes that everything she reads and sees in the news is true and that these plans are better for everyone's safety.

Eden’s life has taken a turn she would never have imagined. She’s gone from soul eater to warrior, left behind a family she was ashamed of, and moved in with one she admires. She has a purpose, a future, and…she has Noah. Life should be good. But…the most fervent and powerful soul eaters are determined to take down the Ankh and Eden is the key to the destruction of the warrior race. Moreover, a shadowed enemy is still after Eden, and the mortal Warriors of Neith have chosen the worst time imaginable to start an uprising. With an enemy in every corner the problems before her are overwhelming.

Esen's back! And the dear little blob is in trouble, again. Things began so well. She and her human friend Paul Ragem are ready to celebrate the first anniversary of their greatest accomplishment, the All Species' Library of Linguistics and Culture, by welcoming his family back. He hopes. Having mourned his supposed death years ago, understandably, feelings are bent. Instead, they’ve unexpected guests, starting with an old acquaintance.

I breathed in and out for a few seconds as I waited at the end of the aisle. It felt like I was standing overlooking the edge of a cliff, and the minute I saw my future wife, I was going to freefall. The music started. Shit, I was seriously going to pass out. People stood; Demetri nodded his head and patted me on the back. And then I saw her. It was like seeing her for the first time all over again. Memories of meeting her that first day of school had me grinning from ear to ear.

The first book in Julie Czerneda's acclaimed Web Shifters series made the Nebula preliminary nomination list in 1998. Changing Vision continues the story of Esen, the last survivor of an alien race with the ability to assume the form of any creature. Now Esen must break her species' rule of non-interference - to keep interspecies tension from escalating into all-out war.

In the title story, a white aspiring professor is convinced she is being followed. No need to panic - she has a handgun stowed away in her purse, just in case. But when she turns to confront her black male shadow, the situation isn't what she expects. In "The Rescuer" a promising graduate student detours to inner-city Trenton, New Jersey, to save her brother from a downward spiral. But she soon finds out there may be more to his world than to hers.

Whitney has been in so many foster homes that she can give a complete rundown on the most common varieties of foster parents - from the look-on-the-bright-side types to those unfortunate examples of pure evil. But one thing she doesn't know much about is trees. This means heading for Foster Home number 12 (which is all the way at the top of the map of California, where there looks to be nothing but trees) has Whitney feeling a little nervous. She is pretty sure that the middle of nowhere is going to be just one more place where a hyper, loud-mouthed kid who is messy and small for her age won't be welcome for long.

As a struggling waitress and part-time college student, Rose Strickland's life is stalled in the slow lane. But when her close friend, Axton, disappears, Rose suddenly finds herself serving up more than hot coffee and flapjacks. Now she's hashing it out with sexy bad guys and scrambling to find clues in a race to save Axton before his time runs out. With her anime-loving bestie, her septuagenarian boss, and a pair of IT wise men along for the ride, Rose goes from zero to sixty and quickly learns when you're speeding down the fast lane, it's easy to crash and burn.

Dani was born with her heart on the wrong side of her body. In her 15 years of life, she’s had more doctor’s appointments, X-rays, and tests, and eaten more green hospital Jell-O than she cares to think about. Fourteen-year-old Amanda is a competitive gymnast, her body a small package of sleek muscles, in perfect health. The two girls don’t know each other, don’t go to the same school, don’t have any friends in common. But their lives are about to collide. Acclaimed author Jill Wolfson tackles this fascinating story with her trademark honesty and wit.