"I thought I knew who I was, but I was wrong." The Silver Swan - 1. A girl who is tarnished. Tainted. One who does not fit into the confinement of legend. The Silver Swan -2. Madison Montgomery. I was lied to. I was cheated. Resigned to pick up the scraps of empty memories and disarrayed thoughts, I left. After finally cutting the strings of manipulation, I resorted to do what I've done since I was a child, something my father drilled into my brain since I could handle my first rifle. Run. I'm a mere shadow of the girl they all knew. Lies and deceit change you. They alter your entire outlook on life. I'm Madison Montgomery, and I want to play a game. Here's what happens when I win. Riddle me this, Mads. What goes bump in the night, but is something you can't see with sight? You may run, and you may hide. If by happily ever after, you mean Bonnie & Clyde.
Riddle me this... "I am neither dead, nor alive, and I'm not something little Madison can hide. But you will be dead, by the time this is done... the timer starts now, and the games have just begun..." Madison Montgomery comes from money and power, but when someone close to her commits the ultimate crime, Madison must live with her tainted name for the rest of her life. When she begins Riverside Preparatory Academy, the private school her father has swept her into in The Hamptons, she hopes for a fresh start. What she wasn't hoping for was the pack of bad boys who run the school; ten, to be exact. When Madison gains the attention of their leader, Bishop Vincent Hayes, a whole new world that she didn't think existed is exposed to her. A whole world that starts and ends with The Elite Kings Club and these boys, are about to flip her world upside down. Secrets are overflowing and family lies are about to be exposed. Is there more to Madison Montgomery than even she knows? About this book: I need to admit something right now. The Silver Swan is f*cked. It might be the most insane story I've ever written with equally insane characters. Who knew? You know, when I started this book, it was supposed to be YA. I wanted to write a book that my sisters could read. A book that won't have people look at my mum like "damn... what sort of messed up shit happened to your kid?." The angst, the assholeness, the games, the f**kery, the WHAT THE F**KING F**K ARE YOU DOING !!!... I cannot even.... anyway, this is a warning (and the only one I'll give you). It's crazy. I don't compare my work to my others, but this book is f**ked. It will most likely stomp all the f**k over people's hard limits (and not give a sh*t while it's doing it) and will make you second guess all the morals you thought you had. This most definitely is not looking like a love story right now... more like a..... I don't even.... anyway, I apologise now. You asked for it..
He held a darkness that could never be touched. She carried a light that could never be seen. Not by anyone. Only by each other. Simply two halves of the same soul, Brantley and Saint were fused together with equal parts wrath and peace. Nothing could break through their bond. Nothing. Until now.
Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her sorcery to a Victorian gothic thriller — an enthralling, darkly comic tale that would do Dickens proud. The master puppeteer, Gaspare Grisini, is so expert at manipulating his stringed puppets that they appear alive. Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, is spellbound by Grisini’s act and invites him to entertain at her birthday party. Seeing his chance to make a fortune, Grisini accepts and makes a splendidly gaudy entrance with caravan, puppets, and his two orphaned assistants. Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are dazzled by the Wintermute home. Clara seems to have everything they lack — adoring parents, warmth, and plenty to eat. In fact, Clara’s life is shadowed by grief, guilt, and secrets. When Clara vanishes that night, suspicion of kidnapping falls upon the puppeteer and, by association, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall. As they seek to puzzle out Clara’s whereabouts, Lizzie and Parse uncover Grisini’s criminal past and wake up to his evil intentions. Fleeing London, they find themselves caught in a trap set by Grisini’s ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it’s too late. Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s Victorian gothic is a rich banquet of dark comedy, scorching magic, and the brilliant and bewitching storytelling that is her trademark.
Angst! Adrenaline! Sexy times! The Peer and the Puppet had me salivating for MORE! My favorite since Fear Me. -- Tijan, NYT Bestselling author THE PUPPET Borrow the bike. Win the race. Collect the cash. It should've been an easy job. Ran out of town with a broken leg and a lawsuit, my mother's latest flame swoops in like a knight in gilded armor. Blackwood Keep is a place I don't belong, and I'm not the only one who knows. To the boy across the hall, my savior's only son, I'm a stray looking for a bone. He's lord of the manor. King of the academy. And number one on my shit list. THE PEER I have no intentions of becoming a happy family with the social climber and her wild daughter. A bottle of Jameson and a cracked skull gets my problem shipped to reform school, but I didn't bank on her returning. Four's out to get even, and she almost had the perfect plan: expose the privileged kid moonlighting as a gangbanger. She's smart, but she'll have to be smarter. Sending her away won't be good enough this time. I'm going to have to tame the little troublemaker. To the girl across the hall, the one without a name, I'm nothing without my silver spoon. She's lady of the trailer park. Queen of the swamps. And my new favorite pastime. Alternate Cover Edition. The Peer and the Puppet is an interconnected standalone and book one of the When Rivals Play series. Content suitable for 18+.
A brutal and unflinching tale that takes many of its cues from both cinema and pulp horror, Wraiths of the Broken Land is like no Western you’ve ever seen or read. Desperate to reclaim two kidnapped sisters who were forced into prostitution, the Plugfords storm across the badlands and blast their way through Hell. This gritty, character-driven piece will have you by the throat from the very first page and drag you across sharp rocks for its unrelenting duration. Prepare yourself for a savage Western experience that combines elements of Horror, Noir and Asian ultra-violence. You’ve been warned. Praise from Kurt Russell, Joe R. Lansdale, Booklist, Jack Ketchum, and Ed Lee: "Zahler's a fabulous story teller whose style catapults his reader into the turn of the century West with a ferocious sense of authenticity." -Kurt Russell, star of Tombstone, Escape from New York, Dark Blue, and Death Proof "If you're looking for something similar to what you've read before, this ain't it. If you want something comforting and predictable, this damn sure ain't it. But if you want something with storytelling guts and a weird point of view, an unforgettable voice, then you want what I want, and that is this." -Joe R. Lansdale, author of The Bottoms, Mucho Mojo, and Savage Season" "[C]ompulsively readable.... Fans of Zahler's A Congregation of Jackals (2010) will be satisfied; think Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. [C]lever mayhem ... leads to a riveting climax." -Booklist "[A] classic Western that's been twisted into the shape of a snarling monster...." -Gabino Iglesias, Out Of The Gutter Online "It would be utterly insufficient to say that WRAITHS is the most diversified and expertly written western I've ever read."-Edward Lee, author of The Bighead and Gast. "WRAITHS always rings true, whether it's visiting the depths of despair, the fury of violence, or the fragile ties that bind us together for good or ill. It's a Western with heart and intelligence, always vivid, with characters you will detest or care about or both, powerfully written." -Jack Ketchum, author of Off Season and The Girl Next Door
"Love is savage, love is blind, love is something they may not find..."Once upon a time, there was a young girl who lived in a battered trailer, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. One day, she fell down The Elite Kings' rabbit hole. Sucked into a dark vortex of lies, hate, and deceit, and spat out by money, glitz, and power.There were things this little girl didn't know, things she was about to find out and secrets that have been kept from her. Those secrets were guarded by the boys that were about to smash her world open and tear it all apart...He may be a Malum, but she is a Stuprum, born into this world but neglected by the choice of her mother. Her eyes may not glisten with stars, but they roar with fire, and when she finally reaches her peak, it's that same fire that will burn. Them. All. Down. My name is Tillie Stuprum, and my story is not like the rest.Everything she thought she knew is a fabricated version of the truth. I'm Nate Riverside-Malum, the one your girl whispers about to her friends and whose initials are scratched down your back. Her story is not like the rest of them, because her story is dead.
Hail to the king, and watch him reign, this game was somewhat fun, until the finale came...Now we're here, with carnage and despair, and the only questions left to answer, are the ones that do not appear...A king loses a war, and a swan sheds her wings, chaos collides with peace, as the crows begin to sing...Enter if you dare, because I swear the end is near, but nothing is as it seems, and everything is so bare.So what the hell is going on at Riverside,I think, I think... everyone is about to die....
This report examines the use of these entities in nearly all cases of corruption. It builds upon case law, interviews with investigators, corporate registries and financial institutions and a 'mystery shopping' exercise to provide evidence of this criminal practice.
Puppet 5 Beginner's Guide, Third Edition is a practical guide that gets you up and running with the very latest features of Puppet 5. About This Book Develop skills to run Puppet 5 on single or multiple servers without hiccups Use Puppet to create and manage cloud resources such as Amazon EC2 instances Take full advantage of powerful new features of Puppet including loops, data types, Hiera integration, and container management Who This Book Is For Puppet 5 Beginner's Guide, Third Edition is designed for those who are new to Puppet, including system administrators and developers who are looking to manage computer server systems for configuration management. No prior programming or system administration experience is assumed. What You Will Learn Understand the latest Puppet 5 features Install and set up Puppet and discover the latest and most advanced features Configure, build, and run containers in production using Puppet's industry-leading Docker support Deploy configuration files and templates at super-fast speeds and manage user accounts and access control Automate your IT infrastructure Use the latest features in Puppet 5 onward and its official modules Manage clouds, containers, and orchestration Get to know the best practices to make Puppet more reliable and increase its performance In Detail Puppet 5 Beginner's Guide, Third Edition gets you up and running with the very latest features of Puppet 5, including Docker containers, Hiera data, and Amazon AWS cloud orchestration. Go from beginner to confident Puppet user with a series of clear, practical examples to help you manage every aspect of your server setup. Whether you're a developer, a system administrator, or you are simply curious about Puppet, you'll learn Puppet skills that you can put into practice right away. With practical steps giving you the key concepts you need, this book teaches you how to install packages and config files, create users, set up scheduled jobs, provision cloud instances, build containers, and so much more. Every example in this book deals with something real and practical that you're likely to need in your work, and you'll see the complete Puppet code that makes it happen, along with step-by-step instructions for what to type and what output you'll see. All the examples are available in a GitHub repo for you to download and adapt for your own server setup. Style and approach This tutorial is packed with quick step-by-step instructions that are immediately applicable for beginners. This is an easy-to-read guide, to learn Puppet from scratch, that explains simply and clearly all you need to know to use this essential IT power tool, while applying these solutions to real-world scenarios.
