When Claudia Hodges-Bradley meets a fox, she knows it will be an extraordinary day. Not just any fox, this vixen is the magical familiar of the sorceress Morgana Shee. For years, Morgana has guarded the solitary gate between Earth and the Wildworld, a shimmering parallel universe where legends still live. She alone holds the secret of the mirrors that serve as the last surviving passage to enchantment. But Morgana has been betrayed and imprisoned in the Wildworld, and the fox is determined to recruit Claudia and her siblings for the rescue mission. Armed only with courage and determination, Alys, Charles, Jane and Claudia must save Morgana before the winter solstice, when evil sorcerer Cadel Forge plans to escape the Wildworld and conquer Earth. And with December 21stonly 2 weeks away, there is no time to lose…

In the war between the Daylight and the Midnight Covens, Caia knows she must make a choice. In their bid for victory in war, both Midnight and Daylight have committed atrocities, and Caia needs to gain a foothold of power in the upper echelons of the fight if she is to stop the extremists.Not only does she have Marita, the Head of the Daylight Coven, to contend with, but a mysterious vampyre who has orchestrated battles from the shadows of the war for many years. He is old. He is powerful. He is nigh un-killable and there is only one thing he wants: for Caia to end the war his way. When tragedy strikes, Caia must decide whether to answer to him and become the extremist she was trying to destroy, or defy the vampyre And bring them all down on her own terms.

A powerful and inspirational treatise, this study examines the heart as the seat of the soul and shows how, with a daily application of love, humanity can access its wisdom to find answers and create change. Drawn from research of indigenous tribes, ancient rituals, and Christian mystics, this resource teaches that heart consciousness--the idea of the heart as the ultimate truth of creation and the way in which people connect with each other--will enable harmony, peace, and satisfaction. Also illustrating that there is something crucially lacking in today’s society because of the disconnect to the heart, this important investigation encourages readers to be open to love, the fundamental physiological aspect through which true inner peace, normally lost in childhood, can be rediscovered.

Eighteen-year-old Piper lives with her controlling mother amid a Global Heating Crisis, but when she gets her first taste of freedom she discovers a universe of gods and monsters where her true identity, kept secret from her birth, could make all the difference in the world.

'Ascension' is a new kind of sci fi. It's dark, gothy cyberpunk, with a twist or two in the tail. Set in a tower with Heaven at the top and Hell at the bottom, Frakture is a humanoid creature able to swap limbs at will as she ascends towards the top. Her bizzare struggles are not dissimilar to those we face in our own lives, the question being when do you give up and settle for what you've got?

Winner of the American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Awards, Best Picture Book. Trickster Coyote is having his friends over for a festive solstice get-together in the woods when a little girl comes by unexpectedly. She leads the party-goers through the snowy woods to a shopping mall -- a place they have never seen before. Coyote gleefully shops with abandon, only to discover that fi lling your shopping cart with goodies is not quite the same thing as actually paying for them. The trickster is tricked and goes back to his cabin in the woods -- somewhat subdued -- though nothing can keep Coyote down for long. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.

David Brodsky uses form and source criticism to date Massekhet Kallah and the first two chapters of Kallah Rabbati - which form a commentary on Massekhet Kallah - to the mid-amoraic period (circa late third and early fifth centuries CE respectively), and to locate their redaction in Babylonia. This makes these two sources the only known rabbinic texts whose final redaction took place in Babylonia during the amoraic period, and establishes them as the closest extant relatives of the Babylonian Talmud. Parallels between these two sources and the Babylonian Talmud elucidate the nature of oral transmission and of the redactional processes of Babylonian rabbinic material during this critical period, and, thereby, of the Babylonian Talmud itself. In addition, the author deciphers Massekhet Kallah's peculiar asceticism: a concern with men's inappropriate use of or interactions with their wives, charity, vows, and even with the group's own transmitted traditions. Massekhet Kallah fears the physical and at times cosmic effects of such inappropriate behavior. Brodsky finds that these items were all deemed consecrated, removed from the realm of normal interaction. To have mundane interaction with them was a powerful and dangerous act. Brodsky explores the fascinating gender and theological implications of this unique asceticism.

When an earthquake shakes California, Alys, Janie, Charles and Claudia suspect it isn’t just a typical earthquake. A year and a half after their journey into the Wildworld, they believe that the Passage between their world, the Stillworld, and that parallel universe of legend and danger may no longer be stable. With their parents overseas and the great sorceress Morgana Shee traveling north to find the epicenter of the quake, the siblings are left on their own. But peril lurks around every corner. A magical attack sends the Hodges-Bradley kids’ on a journey that will test all of their skills, including Janie’s sorcery and Claudia’s ability to communicate with animals. Morgana’s archrival, Thia Pendriel, is waiting. With Heart of Valor, the Forgotten Gem she has stolen, Thia’s power is almost limitless—and she is ready to spring her trap.

In her now classic novel Outlander, Diana Gabaldon told the story of Claire Randall, an English ex-combat nurse who walks through a stone circle in the Scottish Highlands in 1946, and disappears . . . into 1743. The story unfolded from there in seven bestselling novels, and CNN has called it “a grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries].” Now the story continues in Written in My Own Heart’s Blood. 1778: France declares war on Great Britain, the British army leaves Philadelphia, and George Washington’s troops leave Valley Forge in pursuit. At this moment, Jamie Fraser returns from a presumed watery grave to discover that his best friend has married his wife, his illegitimate son has discovered (to his horror) who his father really is, and his beloved nephew, Ian, wants to marry a Quaker. Meanwhile, Jamie’s wife, Claire, and his sister, Jenny, are busy picking up the pieces. The Frasers can only be thankful that their daughter Brianna and her family are safe in twentieth-century Scotland. Or not. In fact, Brianna is searching for her own son, who was kidnapped by a man determined to learn her family’s secrets. Her husband, Roger, has ventured into the past in search of the missing boy . . . never suspecting that the object of his quest has not left the present. Now, with Roger out of the way, the kidnapper can focus on his true target: Brianna herself. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood is the brilliant next chapter in a masterpiece of the imagination unlike any other.

Seaton French and Dustin Marley strive to hold on to each other and preserve their bond of love against an array of terrifying enemies. Faced with devastating threats, Sea and Dusty struggle to unravel the conspiracy and expose the conspirators. While dire events unfold, shock and terror trigger Dusty’s personality shifts, and Sea must cope with his beloved’s multiple personalities. Dusty and Sea descend through dissociative psychological states as the conspiracies against them grow stranger and appear to make less and less sense. During their attempts to unravel the threads of the conspiracy, the lovers explore bizarre religions and secret societies that could have ominous consequences. In the end, Dusty and Sea discover the appalling source of their problems and learn that they must survive minute by minute in the grip of soul-shuddering conditions they are powerless to change while they seek redemption in the heart’s eternal desire.