Showing results by publisher "Hot Key Books" in Literature & Fiction

After the dramatic events of the last few weeks, Greer Macdonald is trying to concentrate on her A levels. Stuck for a play to direct for her drama exam, she gets help from an unexpected quarter...A priceless lost play, buried by time, is pushed under her door. It is Ben Jonson's The Isle of Dogs, a play considered so dangerous in Elizabethan times that every copy was burned...except one. As the students begin to rehearse, events become increasingly dark and strange and they lead Greer back to where she never thought she would return - Longcross Hall.

Sixteen-year-old Mehreen Miah's anxiety and depression, or 'Chaos', as she calls it, has taken over her life, to the point where she can't bear it any more. So she joins MementoMori, a website that matches people with partners and allocates them a date and method of death, 'the pact'. Mehreen is paired with Cara Saunders and Olivia Castleton, two strangers dealing with their own serious issues.

Without magic to protect Ashoka's borders, time is running out. The whole country is at risk from enemy territory Lyria, suspected to be experimenting with dangerous magic. And nobody feels the threat more so than Maharani Vira, who is desperate to prove herself a worthy leader. But finding the Ivory Key, her one hope of discovering a new source of magic, has only led to more mysteries to unravel. So when her own Council turns on her, Vira once again needs her siblings' help. If together they found the key, maybe together they can restore Ashoka to its former glory.

Henry Page, a hopeless romantic and film buff, is smitten as soon as Grace Town walks into his classroom. But Grace - who looks in need of a good bath, is dressed in guy's clothing and walks with a cane - is unlike any leading lady he's ever obsessed over. And when Henry and Grace are both offered positions as editors of their high school newspaper, the mystery of Grace begins to captivate him. Why does she visit a graveyard every afternoon? What secret does she keep locked away in her bedroom?

Three months after Aderyn's coronation, the court is celebrating the Solstice, but Aderyn is preoccupied by Lucien's continuing hostility. The celebrations are interrupted by the arrival of nobles who have escaped from the neighbouring country of Celonia - the flightless have risen up and overthrown their rulers. The world is changing. As people being to question whether Aderyn and Aron are strong enough to rule, there is an attempted assassination on Aderyn's life. Siegfried and Tallis have made their move - they have formed an army, declared war and will take the throne.

Aster. Violet. Tansy. Mallow. Clementine. Sold as children. Branded by cursed markings. Trapped in a life they never would have chosen. When Aster's sister, Clementine, accidentally murders a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice and revenge - in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by the land's most vicious and powerful forces, their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one girl to another.

Nikki's always had a difficult relationship with her mum. So when she finds herself homeless at the start of spring break, she decides to rage-quit Texas and give California a shot, to pursue her dream music career. Until her best friend and long-time crush, Malachai, discovers her plan, and convinces her to spend spring break with him, so he can show her all the reasons she should stay in Texas. But when Nikki's little sister goes missing their plans are interrupted, and Nikki is forced to face her feelings about both her mum and Mal.

Beautiful Sophie, with lips as red as blood, skin as pale as snow and hair as dark as night, is about to come of age and inherit her father's throne. But Sophie's stepmother wants rid of her - beautiful she may be, but too weak and foolish to reign. And Sophie believes her, as she believes all the things that have been said about her - all the poisonous words people use to keep girls like her from becoming too powerful, too strong.

Greer has just recovered from her terrifying experience during the S.T.A.G.S. play. Was she really put on trial by the sinister Dark Order of the Grand Stag? Or was it purely her overheated imagination? The imprint of an M for murderer that has appeared on her thumb, though, is puzzling but incomplete evidence.... Meanwhile Ty is staying on at Longcross Manor and Greer, Nel and Shafeen are increasingly worried for her safety. When Ty sends a cryptic message directing them to Cumberland Place, the de Warlencourts' palatial home in London, they decide to risk a visit.

Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others....

Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she's desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn't the kind of thing she had in mind. But there's something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs.

Esther isn't afraid of anything - because she avoids pretty much everything. Elevators are off limits, as are open spaces, crowds, family pets, birds, needles, haircuts, dolls and mirrors. But when Esther is pickpocketed by her cocky old classmate Jonah Walker, Esther and Jonah become surprising friends. Jonah sets a challenge: every week they must work their way through the world's 50 most common phobias. Skydiving, horse riding, beekeeping, public speaking, reptile houses - they plan to do it all.

Iraya Adair has spent her life in a cell. Heir of an overthrown and magically gifted dynasty, she was exiled from her home on the island nation of Aiyca when she was just a child. But every day brings her closer to freedom—and vengeance. Jazmyne Cariot grew up dressed in gold, with stolen magic at her fingertips. Daughter of the self-crowned doyenne, her existence is a threat to her mother's rule. But unlike her sister, Jazmyne has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother's power.

As a straight-A student and girlfriend of the school's star rower, Charlotte believes in what the school has to offer. Meanwhile, scholarship student Max is struggling. Until he's asked to join the rowing team offering him popularity - but at what cost? Then there's Quinn, a sixth-generation legacy student, who should be able to lay claim to the school in a way others can't. Who instead must watch the boy who assaulted her continue to play at the top of the school's food chain. Only in the dead of night does Q realize the solution to her suffering: Colin Pearce must die.

Vira is desperate to get out of her mother's shadow and establish her legacy as a revered queen of Ashoka. But with the country's only quarry running out of magic - a precious resource that has kept Ashoka safe from conflict - she can barely protect her citizens from the looming threat of war. And if her enemies discover this, they'll stop at nothing to seize the last of the magic.

Shafeen's father, Prince Aadhish, has had a heart attack and is close to death. Desperately worried, Shafeen and Greer race from Stags to Rajasthan. But Prince Aadhish is in a coma and unresponsive, and they begin to realise that the prince received a terrible shock, triggered by a decades-old guilty secret. But as Shafeen and Greer attempt to unlock the secret, they come to believe the answer lies with the de Warlencourt ancestor, Colonel Montgomery, founder of the T.I.G.E.R. shooting club.

Ivy has spent years looking for her birth mother, but when she finally finds her on Bardsey Island, she is shocked by what greets her. According to folklore, the cormorants that fly over the remote Welsh isle are the terrifying witches of Arthurian legend—and they are searching for Ivy. Her mum warned her not to come and to stay away from the lighthouse, but now it's too late. As the shadows draw closer, Ivy must look deep within herself if she wants to survive.

When Lara meets super-cute new boy Caiden, she begins to think that the way to his heart is to give herself a glow up. But her friends are not impressed. You should never glow up for a boy, only for yourself! As Lara and her friends embark on their project of empowerment and self-love, Lara shares all of her innermost thoughts with her online journal. How can she keep her hair under control when she's playing football? Why is she so fast on the pitch yet so uncoordinated off it? And how will she ever convince Caiden to take an interest in her?

Luca Laine Thomas lives in Parris, the beautiful island plagued by the unsolved deaths of young women—most significantly, Luca's best friend. All Luca wants is to heal from the traumatic loss and leave her feelings of guilt and helplessness behind. Then Luca comes home to find the police at her house. Her sister, Whitney, is dead. Luca and Naomi, the new girl next door, decide to take the investigation into their own hands, and along the way, their connection deepens.

Georgia gets straight As at school, has been placed first in 26 drone races and has a serious addiction to buying Japanese stationery. She plans to follow her older sister Sophie and become a doctor, but her worldview is shattered when tragedy strikes. Julius lives in Ondo, a Nigerian state where half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. But he isn't one of them. His uncle has been state governor for more than a decade and his mother is the power behind that throne.