Europe

Materials from Europe

Life As It Comes

Sisters with nothing in common? That’s Mado and Patty.

Studious and responsible, 15-year-old Mado is the family brain. Patty, on the other hand, is a carefree 20-year-old party girl who lives on her own and has plenty of boyfriends. The two are following divergent paths . . . until their parents die in a car accident and a family court judge reluctantly appoints Patty as her sister’s guardian.

Now these two improbable siblings face the challenges of growing up together—but it’s Mado who quickly assumes the big sister’s role. And it’s not a role she particularly wants—especially after Patty announces that she’s several months pregnant. . . .

Anne-Laure Bondoux writes with insight, humor, and poignancy about the bonds between sisters—and the challenges of everyday life.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 2

The Last Apprentice: Curse Of The Bane (The Last Apprentice)

The Spook and his apprentice, Thomas Ward, rid the county of witches, ghosts, boggarts, and other creatures of the dark. And there’s some unfinished business to attend to in Priestown. Deep in the catacombs lurks a creature the Spook has never been able to defeat; a force so evil that the whole county is in danger. The Bane!

But the Bane is not their only enemy. The Quisitor arrives, intent on hunting down anyone who meddles with the dark. Thomas Ward and the Spook must prepare for the battle of their lives.

Babylonne

Exotic and exciting, this unflinching coming-of-age tale featuring a headstrong heroine weaves a vivid tapestry of life in the Middle Ages.Early thirteenth-century Languedoc is a place of valor, violence, and persecution. At age sixteen, Babylonne has survived six bloody sieges. She’s tough, resourceful, and — now that her strict aunt and abusive grandmother intend to marry her off to a senile old man —desperate. Disguised as a boy, Babylonne embarks on an action-packed adventure that amounts to a choice: trust the mysterious Catholic priest — a sworn enemy to her Cathar faith — who says he’s a friend of her dead father, Pagan. Or pursue a fairy-tale version of her future, one in which she’ll fight and likely die in a vicious war with the French. Though Babylonne never knew her irreverent father, fans of Catherine Jinks’s novels about Pagan Kidrouk will be sure to see the resemblance in his feisty daughter.

Black Rabbit Summer

Thoughtful Pete, tough Pauly, twins Eric and Nicole, strange Raymond: As kids they were tight; now they’ve grown up–and apart. They agree to get together one last time, but, twisted by personal histories and fueled by pharmaceuticals, old jealousies surface. The party’s soon over, and the group splinters off into the night. Into the noise and heat and chaos of the carnival. Days later, a girl goes missing. The prime suspect in her disappearance? One of their own, one of the old gang. Pete doesn’t know what to believe: Could one of his childhood friends really be a cold-blooded killer?

The Devil’s Breath

When fifteen-year-old Max Gordon’s environmentalist-adventurer father goes missing while working in Namibia and Max becomes the target of a would-be assassin at his school in England, he decides he must follow his father to Africa and find him before they both are killed.

Time’s Chariot

THE HIMALAYAS, 5000 BC:

Commissioner Daiho is dead, but there’s no question of foul play. The murder of a Home Timer is about as likely as unauthorized interference with the work of a Correspondent. . . .

Isfahan, Arabia, 1029:

Abu Ali was startled. He hadn’t heard the stranger enter. The Correspondent was even more alarmed—his enhanced senses would have picked up the arrival of any normal human. Then the stranger spoke, and it was the language of the Home Time. Seconds later, Correspondent RC/1029’s world went dark.

The Home Time, 2000 Years Later:

Field Operative Rico Garron is about to have a very bad day.

The Chimera’s Curse (Companions Quartet)

It’s a long hot summer. Temperatures are soaring and a strange creature has been spotted on Dartmoor. Connie Lionheart and her friends soon discover that the creature is a chimera. When it attacks Connie, leaving her gravely wounded, Col and Rat must rescue her from hospital: she needs treatment beyond the knowledge of mortals. But a weakened Connie is easy prey for the evil shapeshifter Kullervo. He believes that, finally, the time is ripe for him to seize her Universal power, gather his army of mythical beings, and wipe out humanity. The battle between him and Connie will be a fight to the death. And the prize will be the future of mankind.

Gate Of Days (The Book Of Time)

Sam Faulkner now knows his father is trapped in Vlad Tepes’s castle, but he can’t save him without the seven coins that will allow him to direct his travel to the right year in Time. So he sets off on a desperate journey through the ages to collect the coins — to the oracle at Delphi, Pompeii before Mt. Vesuvius — even Chicago in 1932, where he meets his seven-year-old grandfather. But things get wilder still when he finally finds his father, who is sick, dying, raving . . . and who insists they must rescue Sam’s dead mother from Time!

Samuel Blink and the Runaway Troll

Having been careful to heed his Aunt Eda’s warnings to not enter the dangerous Shadow Forest, twelve-year-old Samuel Blink finds himself in a difficult situation when Troll-Son runs away from his Shadow Forest home to come and live with Samuel, his human hero.

 

 

Daylight Runner

Asking questions in Ash Harbor can get you killed. Sol Wheat is asking a lot of questions . . . especially after his father vanishes and is accused of murder. Outside the huge domed city, an Ice Age has transformed Earth into an Arctic desert. But inside, the Machine, protected by the Clockworkers—a fearsome police organization—has become the source of the city’s energy and a way for industrial leaders to wield enormous power. When a rogue organization begins posting messages warning of the Machine’s impending failure, civil unrest grows. As Sol begins to uncover the city’s deepest secrets, the Clockworkers start targeting him. Now he’s on the run in Ash Harbor’s underground, where gangs rule and danger lurks in every corner. His life and the survival of Ash Harbor are both at risk. In Oisín McGann’s thrilling adventure, only the truth can help Sol Wheat escape the darkness.