Determined to figure out why she has an element she shouldn’t have, her parents take her to a secluded island to keep her safe from anyone who might want to experiment on her. There she meets Noah, a boy who seems to know a lot about her elements. As he introduces her to a group of a new kind of elementals who are more powerful than anyone could have imagined, she doesn’t know if she can trust them, especially because the group’s leader, Jaiden, has an extremely dangerous ability. But when her parents get kidnapped by a mysterious man, she has no choice but to turn to Noah and Jaiden for help.

    Ella had sworn to watch over her father and care for him. But then her father had married anew. Her stepmother and two stepsisters took sharp delight in causing Ella grief from morn to eve. They bullied her, called her Cinderella, and treated her as little more than a slave in her own home. It took all of Ella's courage to swallow the insults and to honor her word. Now the crown prince had returned home from the battlefront, and a ball was announced to celebrate his arrival. All eligible young women from the entire kingdom were invited to attend. Ella had but one desire left. To see the king's gardens one last time before she fled home. It would be a final way to commemorate her beloved mother before considering her vow's terms to be complete. She had no idea what waited her on that arched stone bridge ... * * * Cinderella - A Retelling with Strength and Courage is Book 1 of a gently cliff-hangered short story series. The series honors the original intention of the Grimm Fairy Tales - to present women of strength and courage tackling challenges which seemed insurmountable. With each new book a new heroine is interwoven into the story. The series sequence leads up to a happily ever after ending. The series is clean romance and is suitable for teens and up. Half of all author's proceeds benefit battered women's shelters. I publish my books one at a time to get feedback and suggestions as I go. If you prefer to read your stories complete, you are welcome to wait until the sequence is complete and then buy the box set. Either way, you support the cause! I have been working on these stories for many years. As fairy tales are so integral to so many young girls' lives, it was critical for me to do my very best to present each heroine in a way which honored her strength and showcased her ability to stand on her own. I feel strongly that no woman should ever sit around waiting for a man to "rescue" them. They should not endure abusive behavior in the hopes that a man will change or magically become that prince. Be the change you wish to see in the world. I have a library of over 300 books running the gamut from medieval romance to cozy mystery, from mythology to fairy tale to Biblical retellings. Most of my series benefit battered women's shelters. Please contact me with any questions!

    But she also bore the birthmark that destined her to marry a Gatekeeper, the “superheroes” of their world. Some called her destiny a great privilege. She called it doomed to a cage with no key.Gatekeepers were born and raised to ensure time remained untainted and unchanged, but Brea saw them as overlords who looked down on her kind… on Seconds.Forced to marry Gatekeeper Jax Winters, Brea vows not to complete the ritual bonding with him until she can talk with council about how Seconds are treated. She plans to use her newfound status to help the plight of those born like her.But she never dreams of the twist her life will take, moving her into a higher position than she’d ever dreamed. Will she and Jax always be at odds, or will their hearts bond together as their souls already have? Will Brea change the future of Lexcon, or will she be forever doomed to live life in the dark?

    The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage. It’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat in the ancient tradition. Now that tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the females of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reinumon, a supreme fighter, is called by a mysterious stranger to battle it out in the arena. The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation of Ordoch in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.

    After committing a terrible crime, Evalyn Ibarra receives a ticket out of her prison sentence by participating in a top-secret experiment. Even with the risk of death, all she cares about is reclaiming the life she had before—her career, her art, and her love.Her cell bed is the last thing she remembers before waking to wilderness.There are others in these woods, criminals like her who volunteered for the experiment. Clues left behind at abandoned camps spell out their task: survive for thirty days.Evalyn’s best bet is to band with the others, but she’s not about to trust any of them, not when illusions of their gruesome crimes start manifesting in the forest like waking dreams.But when the illusions turn violent and begin to kill, she may not have a choice.

    A reformed succubus. LA’s supernatural underground will never be the same … UCLA sophomore François Lemieux had thought his biggest challenge would be scoring a summer internship. Everything changes, though, when a trio of vampires tries to run his car off the road. He’s saved by a mysterious, heavily armed girl named Cassie Chu, but his troubles are far from over. It turns out Cassie is a succubus who works for the Supernatural Intelligence Agency. She informs François that he’s a wizard who was hexed at birth to prevent him from casting spells. If that weren’t enough, evil forces in a magical underground he never knew existed are out for his blood. To survive, François partners up with the beautiful yet eccentric Cassie to learn the ins and outs of magic. He barely has a chance to study the basics when a prominent alchemist goes missing and a destructive power falls into the wrong hands. If François and Cassie can’t track down the alchemist in time, the new world he’s grown to love may soon come to a bitter end … True Magic is a fun, fast-paced new adult urban fantasy novel. If you like simmering chemistry, action-packed adventure, and fantasy worlds within a Hollywood setting, then you’ll love Colin Sims’ witty coming-of-age tale. Buy True Magic to uncover an imaginative new Hollywood today!

    She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics who carry her away, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. Then a second girl falls asleep, and then another, and panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. As the number of cases multiplies, classes are canceled, and stores begin to run out of supplies. A quarantine is established. The National Guard is summoned. Mei, an outsider in the cliquish hierarchy of dorm life, finds herself thrust together with an eccentric, idealistic classmate. Two visiting professors try to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. A father succumbs to the illness, leaving his daughters to fend for themselves. And at the hospital, a new life grows within a college girl, unbeknownst to her—even as she sleeps. A psychiatrist, summoned from Los Angeles, attempts to make sense of the illness as it spreads through the town. Those infected are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, more than has ever been recorded. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?