There's no place like home. Especially if home is the infamous Isle of the Lost. Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay haven't exactly turned their villainous noses up at the comforts of Auradon after spending their childhoods banished on the Isle. After all, meeting princes and starring on the Tourney team aren't nearly as terrible as Mal and her friends once thought they would be. But when they receive a mysterious invitation to return to the Isle, Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay can't help feeling comfortable in their old hood—and their old ways. Not everything is how they left it, though, and when they discover a dark mystery at the Ise's core, they'll have to combine all of their talents in order to save the kingdom.
Ride with the tide! Deep beneath the waves, King Triton's powerful trident has passed through the magical barrier that surrounds the Isle of the Lost—keeping villains in and magic out. And when Mal's longtime rival Uma, daughter of Ursula, gets wind of this, she can't believe her luck. The tide has dragged in something good for a change, and Uma is determined to get her wicked hands on it. But first, she needs a pirate crew. A storm is brewing back in Auradon, and when Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay hear that the trident has been washed away, they realize they'll have to find it before anyone from the Isle does. Luckily, they seem to have a talent for locating missing magical objects. As Uma readies for the high seas alongside Harry, son of Captain Hook, Gil, son of Gaston, and the toughest rogues on the Isle of the Lost, the reformed villains of Auradon devise their own master plan. And with King Ben away on royal business, they won't have to play by all the rules. Using bad for good can't be totally evil, right? The thrilling, perilous race to the trident pits old friends—and current enemies—against each other with the future of Auradon on the line. Both teams might like to make waves, but only one will come out on top of this one.
For hundreds of years, humankind has resided in the land of Ederia, where political tensions and hostility are on the rise as Cassius Helladawn, the future king, wastes his days away by drinking and ignoring his royal expectancies. His brother, Vidicus, is far more capable of being king and secretly loathes Cassius. Faraway, to the east, lies Medearia, an ancient and forgotten land, filled with eerie races, powerful kingdoms, and a growing threat. When the signs of Medearia's existence are read, Cassius embarks on a dangerous journey to not only find the forgotten land but to discover what type of king he is capable of becoming, and what type of man he wishes to be. Cassius's destiny shall be unveiled to him, brotherhoods will be forged, and most certainly, blood will be shed. Rise of the Lost: Fall of Kings is a grim adult fantasy novel that is sure to enlighten its readers to the definitions of horror and suspense. It asks its readers to take a deeper look at themselves, to realize their potential, and to wonder how they can become more than what they already are.
Evil tree. Bad Apple? Twenty years ago, all the evil villains were banished from the kingdom of Auradon to the Isle of the Lost--a dark and dreary place protected by a force field that makes it impossible for them to leave. Stripped of their magical powers, the villains now live in total isolation, forgotten by the world. Mal learns from her mother, Maleficent, that the key to true darkness, the Dragon's Eye, is located inside her scepter in the forbidden fortress on the far side of the island. The eye is cursed, and whoever retrieves it will be knocked into a deep sleep for a thousand years. But Mal has a plan to capture it. She'll just need a little help from her "friends." In their quest for the Dragon's Eye, these four kids begin to realize that just because you come from an evil family tree, being good ain't so bad.
The first book in a new middle grade series that features the adventures of Disney’s most loveable roguish heroes as kids! “You know the great thing about beginnings? It means we’re only getting started.” ? Flynnigan Rider and the Hunt for the Red Pearl Twelve- year-old Eugene Fitzherbert needs a plan. It’s not that he doesn’t love his time in the orphanage that raised him?Miss Clare and the boys are his family. As is his best friend, Arnie, with whom he’s often in cahoots, acting out passages from his favorite Flynnigan Rider books, or pretending they’re Lance Archer, the iconic thief who takes from the rich to give to the poor. But Eugene knows that most orphans his age set off to make their own way, and the orphanage already doesn’t have the means to support them all. Besides, he wants to see the world with Arnie, and maybe, just maybe find his parents someday. So when a traveling circus comes to the kingdom promising a life of adventure, brotherhood, and riches, Eugene jumps at the chance to join them. He even convinces Arnie to come too. But soon it becomes clear that there’s more to this ragtag crew than meets the eye, and they may have a dubious plot in the works. It’ll take new heroes?namely, Flynn Rider and Lance Strongbow, to save the day. Filled with adventure and fun, the Lost Legends series explores the untold origins of Disney’s most infamous rogue boys.
For hundreds of years, humankind has resided in the land of Ederia, where political tensions and hostility are on the rise as Cassius Helladawn, the future king, wastes his days away by drinking and ignoring his royal expectancies. His brother, Vidicus, is far more capable of being king and secretly loathes Cassius. Faraway, to the east, lies Medearia, an ancient and forgotten land, filled with eerie races, powerful kingdoms, and a growing threat. When the signs of Medearia's existence are read, Cassius embarks on a dangerous journey to not only find the forgotten land but to discover what type of king he is capable of becoming, and what type of man he wishes to be. Cassius's destiny shall be unveiled to him, brotherhoods will be forged, and most certainly, blood will be shed. Rise of the Lost: Fall of Kings is a grim adult fantasy novel that is sure to enlighten its readers to the definitions of horror and suspense. It asks its readers to take a deeper look at themselves, to realize their potential, and to wonder how they can become more than what they already are.
Two generations ago, young men and women with only a high-school degree would have entered the plentiful industrial occupations which then sustained the middle-class ideal of a male-breadwinner family. Such jobs have all but vanished over the past forty years, and in their absence ever-growing numbers of young adults now hold precarious, low-paid jobs with few fringe benefits. Facing such insecure economic prospects, less-educated young adults are increasingly forgoing marriage and are having children within unstable cohabiting relationships. This has created a large marriage gap between them and their more affluent, college-educated peers. In Labor’s Love Lost, noted sociologist Andrew Cherlin offers a new historical assessment of the rise and fall of working-class families in America, demonstrating how momentous social and economic transformations have contributed to the collapse of this once-stable social class and what this seismic cultural shift means for the nation’s future. Drawing from more than a hundred years of census data, Cherlin documents how today’s marriage gap mirrors that of the Gilded Age of the late-nineteenth century, a time of high inequality much like our own. Cherlin demonstrates that the widespread prosperity of working-class families in the mid-twentieth century, when both income inequality and the marriage gap were low, is the true outlier in the history of the American family. In fact, changes in the economy, culture, and family formation in recent decades have been so great that Cherlin suggests that the working-class family pattern has largely disappeared. Labor's Love Lost shows that the primary problem of the fall of the working-class family from its mid-twentieth century peak is not that the male-breadwinner family has declined, but that nothing stable has replaced it. The breakdown of a stable family structure has serious consequences for low-income families, particularly for children, many of whom underperform in school, thereby reducing their future employment prospects and perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of economic disadvantage. To address this disparity, Cherlin recommends policies to foster educational opportunities for children and adolescents from disadvantaged families. He also stresses the need for labor market interventions, such as subsidizing low wages through tax credits and raising the minimum wage. Labor's Love Lost provides a compelling analysis of the historical dynamics and ramifications of the growing number of young adults disconnected from steady, decent-paying jobs and from marriage. Cherlin’s investigation of today’s “would-be working class” shines a much-needed spotlight on the struggling middle of our society in today’s new Gilded Age.
Sirin, Allie, and Joss have joined forces with the legendary silver dragon Lysander, the only creature capable of opening portals between the two worlds. But the powerful Lennix clan is following the children's every move and will stop at nothing to capture Lysander. After generations of plotting, the Lennixes -- and their bloodthirsty dragon allies, the Raptors -- are terrifyingly close to establishing a brutal dragon regime on Earth, just like they did centuries ago.Now, it's up to Allie, Joss, and Sirin to protect Lysander while searching for a secret source of lost dragon magic, the only force powerful enough to stop the Raptor. But when their search takes them to one of the largest cities on Earth, the new friends must decide what's more important: finding the missing treasure or guarding the most important secret in the world -- that dragons have returned to Earth . . . and not all of them have good intentions.
'A compelling and wry narrative of one of the most intellectually thrilling eras of British history' Guardian. ***************** SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020 England, 1651. Oliver Cromwell has defeated his royalist opponents in two civil wars, executed the Stuart king Charles I, laid waste to Ireland, and crushed the late king's son and his Scottish allies. He is master of Britain and Ireland. But Parliament, divided between moderates, republicans and Puritans of uncompromisingly millenarian hue, is faction-ridden and disputatious. By the end of 1653, Cromwell has become 'Lord Protector'. Seeking dragons for an elect Protestant nation to slay, he launches an ambitious 'Western Design' against Spain's empire in the New World. When an amphibious assault on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1655 proves a disaster, a shaken Cromwell is convinced that God is punishing England for its sinfulness. But the imposition of the rule of the Major-Generals – bureaucrats with a penchant for closing alehouses – backfires spectacularly. Sectarianism and fundamentalism run riot. Radicals and royalists join together in conspiracy. The only way out seems to be a return to a Parliament presided over by a king. But will Cromwell accept the crown? Paul Lay narrates in entertaining but always rigorous fashion the story of England's first and only experiment with republican government: he brings the febrile world of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate to life, providing vivid portraits of the extraordinary individuals who inhabited it and capturing its dissonant cacophony of political and religious voices. ***************** Reviews: 'Briskly paced and elegantly written, Providence Lost provides us with a first-class ticket to this Cromwellian world of achievement, paradox and contradiction. Few guides take us so directly, or so sympathetically, into the imaginative worlds of that tumultuous decade' John Adamson, The Times. 'Providence Lost is a learned, lucid, wry and compelling narrative of the 1650s as well as a sensitive portrayal of a man unravelled by providence' Jessie Childs, Guardian.
A human female born into a breeding manor never has a choice...I am a slave, but at least I am alive. When the man with wings and scales gave me a second choice--I took it. I'll do what I must to survive. I'll preside over their Draken Games--and choose a winner every night to share my bed. It's the price I have to pay for food in my belly, and a roof over my head. The dragon man who brought me here acts like he hates me, but I notice him always watching me. As if he's waiting for something. Traded from one prison to the next I have but one hope left--the Lost Siren. I must find her before the demon hordes come if these men--Drakens--have any chance of escaping their mountainous prison, and me along with them. Perfect for fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Lost Siren is the exhilarating introduction to the Rise of the Drakens series.This is a full length reverse harem/poly fantasy novel. Warning: there are dark themes and possible triggers.
