Showing results by narrator "Emily Lawrence" in All Categories

The last time Salmaara and her companions were in Kalitoomba, the empress’s fanatical Forbidden Guard heard them. Ever since, the Guard have been searching the ancient city for any trace of intruders, intent on preserving their own twisted honor. Just two interlopers drew deadly attention; how will Princess Salmaara keep thousands from the eyes, ears, and ready blades of the murderous Guard?

Merle Hoffman has been at the forefront of the reproductive freedom movement since the 1970s. Three years before the Supreme Court legalized abortion, she helped to establish one of the United States’ first abortion centers in Flushing, Queens, and later went on to found Choices, one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive women’s medical facilities. Now, amidst the aftermath of the Dobbs Decision, Hoffman has carefully compiled her decades of analysis, research, and experience into a tour de force manifesto that sheds light on the catastrophic repercussions of overturning Roe.

Front door locked, kitchen door locked, living room windows closed. Nobody in the closet, nobody under the beds. Still, Maggie is worried. Ever since she started middle school, she sees injustice and danger everywhere—on the news, in her textbooks, in her own neighborhood. Even her best friend seems to be changing. Maggie believes it is up to her, and only her, to make everything all right. Can she come up with a plan to keep everyone safe?

Valora Rigmore understands pressure. As the Chosen One (resident telekinetic, superstar, and model girlfriend), her life revolves around it. According to an ancient prophesy, Valora is destined to fight Erys, a terrifying individual with the power to control monsters. Valora is worshipped at school, in the press, and by her parents, but as the battle with Erys looms near, the cracks in her perfect façade are beginning to show.

Vivian Lantz is cursed. Every year, terrible things happen on her first day of school. This year, Vivian has a plan to conquer eighth grade. But eighth grade? Turns out to start with her worst first day yet. Vivian can’t wait to put it all behind her. But instead of waking up to a brand-new day, Vivian somehow gets stuck reliving her catastrophic one.

Although she has read all about Vias the Destroyer’s dreaded liths, Salmaara has never seen one. In fact, she’s not even sure the nightmarish, mouthless creatures exist. She’s never been to Mauvias, land created by the goddess Vias the Destroyer, ruled by a ruthless immortal empress, a place where the very air is cursed with insatiable thirst, or to the ancient city Kalitoomba, a city of soaring glass towers ruled by a benevolent god-king. Salmaara lives a quiet life in her father’s pottery shop. Illun, the man she loves as her father, is keeping a secret. An important secret.

Salmaara has chosen to fight the empress. The empress who has nearly the entire known world under her domination. The empress who commands all of the world’s armies. The empress who is impossible to kill.

Carter Harper may have created an award-winning app and have a 3.93 grade point average, but her successes are overshadowed by brutal bullying, depression, and loneliness. Tired of being treated as the popular girls’ plaything, Carter thinks her only choice is to die by suicide. Abby Wallace is one of the most popular girls in school, subordinate only to Kelsey, her best friend with benefits. The ambitious poet destroys reputations without care to prove how cool, cruel, and strong she is, all while pushing down her past trauma and secret guilt.

It’s a pair of silver sequined sneakers that unexpectedly flips Emily’s comfortable, predictable world upside down. Or, more precisely, it’s the girl wearing them. The shoes belong to Rani, who moves into Emily’s apartment building—and her life—with absolutely no one but her dog Otto. (Her research scientist mother is away in Patagonia.) And that’s only the first rule that Emily watches Rani break without hesitation.

What Salmaara has done to Yezhr haunts her. Above all else, she believes in the freedom to choose, fights for it. But in a desperate moment on a mauviasen clifftop, she took that from her lithian captor.

ALONG THE BANKS OF THE BOGUE FALAYA RIVER, sits the abandoned St. Francis Seminary. Beneath a canopy of oaks, blocked from prying eyes, the teens of St. Benedict High gather here on Fridays. The rest of the week belongs to school and family—but weekends belong to the river. And the river belongs to Beau Devereaux.

Mary Ann Carpenter, the White Rabbit’s former housemaid, swapped her mop for a knight’s sword and is focused on her future. But when one of the Tweedle twins vanish—and the prime suspect is a mythic, monstrous crow—Mary Ann’s mission takes flight.