However, when her past comes calling, she finds herself forced into one last job. No one has entered Professor Dalhart's secluded mansion in almost a decade, at least not and returned to tell the tale. If Nyssa wants to ensure her freedom, she'll brave the booby trapped halls and mechanized maids. Nyssa has skills, but this house has more than its share of secrets. As she steps into the cobwebbed halls lined with dusty mirrors, she has to wonder. Is the House of Mirrors really abandoned?

    With the help of David Tushingham, he has adapted Salman Rushdie's classic children's novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories for the stage. Set in an exotic eastern landscape peopled by magicians and fantastic talking animals, Rushdie's novel inhabits the same imaginative space as Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Haroun sets out on an adventure to restore the poisoned source of the sea of stories. On the way he encounters many foes, intent on draining the sea of all its storytelling powers.

    He flees from the reiver slavers who are abducting the village’s NPCs, only to have an agonizing encounter with the wrong end of a ranger’s arrow. After trying and failing to log out of this painfully realistic game, Mark decides to take up his sword, embrace his new Warlock character class, and help the ranger rescue her people.The warlock and his hard-nosed ranger are soon joined by a macabre healer, an earth-shaking druid and a talking fortress. But as Mark takes the fight to the reivers, he uncovers an even deadlier threat. Dark magic is spreading into Garland from a long dead city, and the reiver leader has found a way to harness some of that corrupted power for himself.Level by level, spell by spell, Mark must become the warlock that Garland needs before it falls to the corrupted ambitions of a rising tyrant.If you love…Visceral combatLovecraftian monstersAncient ruinsSwords and sorceryCompletely original spells...then Warlock: Reign of Blood is for you!Warlock is Book 1 in the Chasms of Corruption duology.

    Striving to join the ranks of the elite fighters who defend against boarding pirates, Hanna sees no better future for herself than that of a fighter. But when Thorodd Stoneblood, her grandfather, is killed by a mysterious assassin, Hanna discovers that her own life is bound to a fate she couldn't have imagined. Faced with the understanding of an unknown past and a coven of power hungry witches who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Hanna struggles to overcome the adversities of a magical world she never knew existed. With the tide of danger rising around her and the driving need to uncover the truth of why blood was spilled at her door, Hanna discovers that it won't be enough to be a warrior. In order to survive, she will have to become something more… Can Hanna uncover the truth of a mysterious new enemy? Or will her legacy end in the same manner as the Stoneblood lines always do… in bloodshed? Hanna Halfblood is the first installment of an incredible YA Fantasy series that will lead you into a rich world of magic and wonder. If you like Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas you will love the whole Halfblood series by Robyn Wideman.

    When she woke up that morning, Caroline's biggest concern was passing her AP English test and dodging the mean girls who seemed to delight in picking on her. The one day she decided that enough was enough and skipped class, the usually deserted local history museum was invaded by a group of mercenary thieves who kidnap the only witness. Now, Caroline's locked in a basement prison cell with a guy who looks like he got on the wrong side of a biker gang and says he's a government agent and claims that Caroline is actually the only human in the entire building. Elves and mages Caroline knew about, but Darien Webb says he's not an elf, either, but something potentially much more dangerous. He's badly injured and she's just a senior in high school, but they're each other's best hope for getting out in one piece.

    There are between 6 and 10 lessons.Activities in this lesson include Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, True and False, Comprehension, Encyclopedia Skills Activity, Journal Activity, Vocabulary, Sequencing, Handwriting, Main Idea, Prediction, ComparisonLiterature Skills Activities including: Main Character, Main Setting, Main Problem, Possible Solutions, Character Traits, Character Interaction, Cause and Effect, Description, Pyramid of Importance, Villain vs. Hero.Creative Writing Activities including: Letter, Fairy Tale, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fable, Dream or Nightmare, Tall Tale, Memoir, Newberry Award, A Different Ending.Writing Skills Activities including: Description, Expository, Dialogue, Process, Point of View, Persuasion, Compare and Contrast, Sequel, Climax and Plot Analysis.Poetry Skills Activities including: Couplet, Triplet, Quinzain, Haiku, Cinquain, Tanka, Diamanté, Lantern and Shape Poem.Create a Newspaper Layout Activities including: Editorial, Travel, Advice Column, Comics, Society News, Sports, Obituary, Weddings, Book Review, Want Ads, Word Search.Poster Board Activities including: Collage, Theater Poster, Wanted Poster, Coat of Arms, Story Quilt, Chalk Art, Silhouette, Board Game Construction, Door Sign, Jeopardy.We also offer an extended version of this unit which comes in a PDF format and offers Lapbook instructions, Hands on Art and Creative Art activities. If you purchase this unit study and let us know by sending us proof of purchase, we will download the extended version of this full unit with the additional activities in PDF version to you for $1 more.

    1/2 of a Readers Digest Large Print Special Edition - the other novel is Rainwater by Sandra Brown

    He wanted to become a doctor. Help people. Save lives. But when his free-spirited sister Nora disappeared under suspicious and likely mystical circumstances, it threw a troll-sized wrench in Leo’s plans.The idea was simple. Drop out of med school. Make a deal with a gorgeous Fairy Queen. Accept the intoxicatingly powerful magical abilities she could bestow upon him. Use them to find Nora—and to put an end to anyone who had hurt her or stolen her away.The execution? A little sloppier. For a year now, Leo has been running a dubious magical medical practice while searching for clues as to Nora’s whereabouts—and only now has he stumbled on something promising. Word on the street is that a guild of wizards is meeting on the summer solstice, and Leo has caught wind that someone matching Nora’s description might be there.Just when Leo thinks he might have finally made the break in Nora’s disappearance that he’s needed for so long, something else is dumped into his lap. Someone in the city’s clubs spiking drinks with dark magic. Worse, across the Twin Cities, even more young women are going missing—and if Leo doesn’t find them, he’s not sure anyone will.

    After searching for his soulmate for nearly a century, and now that Amelia's here, Mitchell's not letting her go. As their newly formed soul's bond wreaks havoc with their emotions, Amelia unlocks her painful past, uncovering a powerful secret. Caught in the middle of a deadly game of revenge, she quickly learns YOU CANNOT RUN FROM DESTINY. Waking Dreams: Eric had a history, a life before Amelia Caldwell arrived on the scene. Yet there was something familiar about her, an attraction that was destined not to be fulfilled because she was marked for his father. One day he was a simple rancher, the next in a world beyond his wildest imagination--dreaming of a girl he knew he couldn't live without. The Soul's Mark: HUNTED: After a shaky start, Amelia and Mitchell are finally getting along. But the tranquillity is short-lived when an unexpected reunion with Mitchell's ex-girlfriend and Eric's mysterious dreams adds tension to their new life and threatens their blissful home. Danger becomes inevitable when vampires and humans turn up dead, and the killer is heading straight for their front door! The Soul's Mark: BROKEN: Willowberg doesn't take kindly to unexpected guests; the vampire hunters are no exception. When turmoil breaks out between the vampires and humans, Amelia must fight not only for her and her family's freedom, but also for the town's humans. Forced to face a fate decided by a power much closer to her than she ever imagined, will she find the strength to mend what has been broken? The Soul's Mark: CHANGED: Amelia and Mitchell have a predicament on their hands--Amelia is now a vampire, and Mitchell is a human with a very bad cold. All hell breaks loose when they encounter an unexpected resistance and an unexplained deadline from the spirits. Amelia soon realizes this is a fight she can't win alone and in order to save Mitchell, he needs to change--again--but will he survive?

    Causing problems with the law in her hometown, she’s faced with two options. Go to a correctional institution or get shipped off to witch boarding school, or as her mother prefers to call it, finishing school. Choosing the latter, Mercy’s mother, Linda, drives her daughter cross-country to the Paranormal Institute for Witches, situated high in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains in cozy, Aspen Falls, Pennsylvania.Upon arrival, Mercy is faced with cheerful smiles, friendly people, and a sticky sweet roommate who has turned their dorm room into an advertisement for the Pottery Barn. Mercy had hoped her fellow witches would be more like her, dark, dreary, and a little bit self-destructive.When the murder of a local teenager takes place on the first day of class, Sorceress Stone, headmistress of the college for wayward witches, takes the class on a consulting job to help the Aspen Falls Police Department solve the murder. Mercy and her mismatched classmates find themselves in the heart of the murder investigation and when the body of the murder victim suddenly goes missing, Mercy must put aside her feelings of resentment about her gift and put her paranormal abilities to good use.Son of a Witch – Book 2Mercy Habernackle has just gotten the surprise of a lifetime. She has a brother – and not just any brother, a dark, mysterious, and incredibly hot brother.Given up for adoption twenty-four years ago, Reign Alexander just wants to get to know his long lost sister, but things take a dangerous turn when on his first night in Aspen Falls, a woman ends up dead, in Reign’s bed!Desperate to prove her brother’s innocence and save her mother from heartache, Mercy enlists the help of the Witch Squad to find out who really killed Harper Bradshaw. But when Mercy discovers that her brother has been lying to her since he got to town, she must ask herself is her brother really as innocent as he begs her to believe?Witch Degrees of Separation – Book 3The first six weeks of witch college has been emotionally draining and physically exhausting for Mercy Habernackle. She’s had to adjust to a new environment and to a new group of friends, she’s solved several murders, saved her roommate from an abduction, found out she had a brother, AND her mother came to town. All she wants is a break.When her roommate suggests the Witch Squad take flying lessons as a way to unwind, Mercy is happy to cut loose.

    This secret valley stays in a perpetual state of Spring and hosts the thousands of Fae who live there. The Heart Tree's magic sustains the boundaries that protect them all and their lush forest, but the hoar witch has poisoned its roots. Queen Corydalis needs a certain shard to cast a beckoning so that the emerald eyed champion of lore might come and save them all, for he is the only one who can end the hoar witch, and if they hope to save the Heart Tree that deed has to be done. Join Thorn, Bristle, and Barb, the Pixie Queens fiercest, smartest and most loyal elves as they take a thrilling journey out of their protected world into true Overland, where danger hides around every corner and everything they ever loved is at stake. A note from the author about the timeline of this story: This tale starts at about the same time The Legend of Vanx Malic Book Two - Dragon Isle, does. It can be read at any time during the series, but will serve readers best if they read it before they read book four, That Frigid Fargin Witch, which is due for release Jan. 9th 2014. This story is not part of the main Vanx Malic tale, but the character Foxwise Posy-Thorn is destined to become relevant, if he can survive this ordeal. Thank you and enjoy, M. R. Mathias

    On Wet Crow’s Feather Island, a tiny speck in the Sea of Japan, lives Akagami Iria, the exiled daughter of a powerful family. Born into great wealth, she was a princess of the highest pedigree–until she was cut off by the leader of the Akagami Foundation. For the last five years, she’s lived on Feather Island with her maids. But she hasn’t been alone. She has invited the best minds Japan has to offer to come and stay with her.And so nineteen-year-old college student Ii-chan and his best friend, computer genius Kunagisa Tomo, find themselves as Iria’s guests at her elaborate mansion. Surrounded by fascinating women–a chef, a fortune-teller, a scholar, and an artist, not to mention his own friend Tomo–Ii-chan is feeling a little overmatched intellectually. But the sudden discovery of a grisly murder sends the island into shock. And Ii-chan discovers that he does possess a bit of genius: the ability to discover what is real and what is fake . . . who is who they claim to be–and who is a killer.

    But can this knighted spymaster survive when the tables turn? Renault has pledged his deadly skills and mortal life to the Brotherhood. Even centuries after King Arthur’s demise, when the Merlin orders him to lead a rescue mission, he armors up without hesitation. Yet this cunning warrior did not predict his assignment would be a vicious fight to the death. Aboard a speeding train with his men by his side, a shocking betrayal throws Renault off guard and jeopardizes the entire crusade. And with an old foe intent on claiming his head, he fears the forces of their combined enemies may finally outmatch his knights. Can Renault defeat a desperate assassin and save the captive, or will his legendary reputation come to a gory end? The Hound of Hell is the first book in the gripping Hound of Hell dark fantasy spin-off series within The Brotherhood of Merlin universe.

    Now, a secret revealed by his mother is shattering that dream. When Aidan learns that his father has given him the gift of magic, he must train to become the greatest sorcerer that ever lived. But will he be able to before an enemy who was thought to be long dead comes back to destroy everything and everyone Aidan loves?

    This power leaves him with newfound responsibilities, and problems, as he struggles to keep important promises to those around him and those long gone as the world around him begins a slow, painful descent into chaos and darkness as demons begin roaming the lands for the first time in an Age. Wes's power might just be able to make the difference and save everyone, but he's just one boy. Beyond demons and darkness, Wes has to come to terms with the fear that magic, especially his own immense new power invokes in the people of the Kingdom of Strata, as well as the class system that leaves the nobility towering over those they deem beneath themselves. Even if he manages to save the Kingdom, and those around him, will he still be a good person when all is said and done?