The Withering Palace

      Alexia Purdy
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Untold darkness rules the Unseelie realm of the Land of Faerie. Hidden in this vast area, Aveta, the future queen of the Unseelie Army, perfects her gifts over lifetimes. Learning that magic isn't the only way to manipulate the world around her, this naive girl grows into a woman of strength and cunning, ultimately becoming one of the most feared leaders in Faerie.

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    Soul's Mark 02 - Hunted

      Ashley Stoyanoff
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Book 2 of The Soul's Mark SeriesWhen Amelia Caldwell learned that she was marked by a vampire's soul, she did what any smart, self-preserving person would have done: tried to run. But thanks to the soulmate bond that tethered her mentally and emotionally to her vampire soulmate, Mitchell Lang, running was not an option and finding out she was a witch didn't make her life any easier.Now, Amelia has made peace with her new supernatural life and accepted her destiny with Mitchell, one of the most powerful vampires in the world. They are finally getting along but Amelia is sure he is hiding something--something big.Little does she know that this is just the calm before the storm. When Mitchell's former flame resurfaces and Eric's dreams become distorted visions of his soulmate, hostility and tension threatens to tear their world apart. Just when Amelia thinks life couldn't get any crazier, vampires and humans start turning up dead. The killer--something more sinister and haunting than your run of the mill psychopath--is heading straight for their front door.

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    Neighborhood Watch (v5.0)

      Cammie McGovern
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EDITORIAL REVIEW: **A riveting and frightening tale of false accusation from the author of *Eye Contact* ** Twelve years ago librarian Betsy Treading was convicted of murdering her neighbor, the bohemian loner Linda Sue. After DNA testing finally exonerates Betsy, she returns to her suburban community determined to salvage her life and find the true killer. As she begins to pick apart the web of secrets, lies, and love affairs uncovered in the wake of her trial, Betsy suspects that her tight-lipped neighbors may know something that she has denied even to herself. In *Neighborhood Watch*, Cammie McGovern captures the nail-biting electricity of the best literary thrillers and zeros in on the subterranean tension abuzz in a town whose dark secrets threaten to obliterate the glossy façade of a perfect life. It is also the story of a woman coming into her own, finding her strength, and taking control of her life. It asks readers, what sort of price would you pay for the sake of your reputation? Intricately woven, psychologically astute, and filled with complex and surprising characters, *Neighborhood Watch* marks a significant step in the career of this talented author.

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    Two Weeks with the Queen

      Morris Gleitzman
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Dear Your Majesty the Queen,I need to speak to you urgently about my brother Luke. He's got cancer and the doctors in Australia are being really slack. If I could borrow your top doctor for a few days I know he/she would fix things up in no time. Of course Mum and Dad would pay hi/her fares even if it meant selling the car of getting a loan. Please contact me at the above address urgently.Yours sincerely,Colin Mudford.PS: This is not a hoax. Ring the above number and Aunty Iris will tell you. Hang up if a man answers.If you want something done properly, Colin reckons, go straight to the top!After all, if the Queen can't help, who can?

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    Summer House with Swimming Pool

      Herman Koch
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The blistering, compulsively readable new novel from Herman Koch, author of the instant New York Times bestseller The Dinner.When a medical procedure goes horribly wrong and famous actor Ralph Meier winds up dead, Dr. Marc Schlosser needs to come up with some answers. After all, reputation is everything in this business. Personally, he's not exactly upset that Ralph is gone, but as a high profile doctor to the stars, Marc can't hide from the truth forever. It all started the previous summer. Marc, his wife, and their two beautiful teenage daughters agreed to spend a week at the Meier's extravagant summer home on the Mediterranean. Joined by Ralph and his striking wife Judith, her mother, and film director Stanley Forbes and his much younger girlfriend, the large group settles in for days of sunshine, wine tasting, and trips to the beach. But when a violent incident disrupts the idyll, darker motivations are revealed, and suddenly no one can...

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    The Curse of the Creeping Coffin

      R. L. Stine
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"Reader beware—you choose the scare! GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS! You're off to visit your grandmother, whose house backs up to a graveyard. At first the tombstones seem far away. But every day they move a little closer. Then you discover the headstones are disappearing. But the dead aren't gone — their ghosts are moving. Right into your grandmother's house! If you decide to stay, you must battle a warrior ghost. If you decide to run, one of the kid ghosts follows you home. Will you be haunted...for the rest of your life? The choice is yours in this scary GOOSEBUMPS adventure that's packed with over 20 super-spooky endings!"

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    The Silver Glove

      Suzy McKee Charnas
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Fourteen-year-old Valentine Marsh has always known about her grandmother's remarkable magic powers. Val hasn't let her belief in Granny Gran's sorcery affect her everyday life at home and school, until the day she receives a phone call and a magic silver glove from her grandmother that brings her two worlds together with a crash. A powerful wizard has come to Earth to steal human souls, and Gran has been chosen to defeat him. Val can't believe that the wizard is actually masquerading as smooth-talking Dr. Brightner, her new school psychologist. But when her mother becomes a pawn in his deadly scheme, Val finds the courage to join Gran's fight. Together, armed with magic and the illuminating power of love, they face Brightner's seductive and dangerous illusions. Guided by instinct and urged on by fear, Val uses the silver glove to aid her in her mission— a mission to save not only her family but even the world from the forces of doom.From Publishers WeeklyFans of The Bronze King shouldn't miss this sequel, but those new to the proposed trilogy won't be left out by beginning with this one. Some time after the events of the earlier novel, Valentine Marsh finds herself willy-nilly cutting school, disobeying her mother and trying to save the world again. The threat: sinister Dr. Brightner, who is installed as the new school psychologist the same day Val's magic Gran runs away from her nursing home. A renegade wizard, Brightner is after souls, and he's been trying to get Gran to his clinic for "research." Val is horrified to find that he is trying to seduce her mother, who has long denied Gran's magic and doesn't see the threat. This is a book to relish; told in Charnas's nearly perfect first-person narration, Val's engaging personality of savoir-faire and innocence is judiciously mixed with a flying carpet, a deliciously scary Indian woman and a wonderful final confrontation in Central Park. Ages 12-up. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalGrade 5-8 In this sequel to The Bronze King (Houghton, 1985) , 14-year-old Valentine discovers that her grand mother, who has magical powers, has gone into hiding to escape a powerful rogue wizard'' who is stealing human souls to use as soldiers in another world. When the wizard turns up as Dr. Brightner, the new psychologist at Val's school, and begins to date her di vorced mother, Val realizes that she alone can oppose him directly. This she does with the help of a magical glove given her by Gran. The various magical elements, including an Indian Restau rant named after the Goddess Kali and Brightner'sClaw,'' which takes vari ous sinister shapes, do not form a smooth whole. However, the recurring image of a skating rink, on which the assembled souls whirl mindlessly, forms an effective link between epi sodes of the plot, which moves at a good pace. Characterization is lightly but effectively sketched. Brightner's gaining of power over Val's mother by using her loneliness is well-drawn, as is Val's reaction to it. In fact, it is the realistic tensions of this situation which will appeal to readers most strongly. Charnas has done a good job of fitting her fantasy into the everyday world of a young teenage girl. Ruth S. Vose, San Francisco Public LibraryCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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    Guardian of the Dawn

      William King
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"The King of High Adventure," Starlog."Immediately convincing, classically brooding," The Cimmerian.com.To the world at large, he is a mercenary and assassin, a brutal killer with a deadly blade. In reality Kormak is a Guardian, one of a dying order sworn to protect humanity from the servants of the gathering darkness.In this chilling tale, Kormak seeks refuge for the night in an isolated peasant home only to find himself thrown into a terrifying confrontation with an ancient evil.A thrilling sword and sorcery short story in the proud tradition of Robert E Howard from the bestselling creator of Gotrek and Felix.

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    Salmonella men on Planet Porno: stories

      Yasutaka Tsutsui
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SUMMARY: This collection of marvelously off-kilter short stories – the American debut of acclaimed Japanese writer Yasutaka Tsutsui – portrays the consequences of a world where the fantastic and the mundane collide and throw the lives of ordinary men and women into disarray.In “The Dabba Dabba Tree” Tsutsui describes the hilarious side effects of a small conical tree that, when placed at the foot of one’s bed, creates erotic dreams that metamorphose into communal farce. In “Commuter Army”–a sly commentary on the ludicrousness of war–a weapons supplier whose rifles cease functioning after just one shot becomes an unwilling conscript in a war zone. “The World is Tilting” imagines a floating city that slowly begins to sink on one side, causing its citizens to reorient their daily lives to preserve a semblance of normality. In “Rumors About Me”, an ordinary office worker finds himself the subject of intense media scrutiny, his every action documented in the tabloids. And in the title story, we learn just how obscenely absurd the environment on Planet Porno can seem to a group of hapless research scientists.With a sharp eye towards the insanities of contemporary life, Yasutaka Tsutsui crafts in Salmonella Men on Planet Porno an irresistible mix of imagination, satiric fantasy, and truly madcap hilarity.

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    Journey to the Volcano Palace

      Tony Abbott
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A hidden door. A magical staircase. Discover the world of Droon! Eric, Julie, and Neal have a problem. The nasty Lord Sparr has stolen a magic jewel from their friend Princess Keeah. The princess really needs their help. The good news is the jewel is in Lord Sparr's secret palace. The bad news is the secret palace is in a volcano!

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