On a magickal mountain with the power to change the weather, twin stars fall into the forest, and two kings are born. The Holly King and the Oak King live on the magickal mountain until a tremor leads them down the slope and into the human lands below. They discover a world in trouble without the right balance of sunlight. But the kings cannot agree on the best course, and a battle is sure to ensue.
Shrike, the Butcher of Blackthorn, is a legendary warrior of the fae realms. When he wins a tournament in the Court of the Silver Wheel, its queen names him her Oak King - a figurehead destined to die in a ritual duel to invoke the change of seasons. Shrike is determined to survive. Even if it means he must put his heart as well as his life into a mere mortal's hands. Wren Lofthouse, a London clerk, has long ago resigned himself to a life of tedium and given up his fanciful dreams. When a medieval-looking brute arrives at his office to murmur of destiny, he's inclined to think his old enemies are playing an elaborate prank. Still, he can't help feeling intrigued by the bizarre-yet-handsome stranger and his fantastical ramblings, whose presence stirs up emotions Wren has tried to lock away in the withered husk of his heart. As Shrike whisks Wren away to a world of Wild Hunts and arcane rites, Wren is freed from the repression of Victorian society. But both the fae and mortal realms prove treacherous to their growing bond. Wren and Shrike must fight side-by-side to see who will claim victory - Oak King or Holly King.
An award-winning journalist’s dramatic account of a shooting that shook a community to its core, with important implications for the future On the last evening of summer in 2013, five shots rang out in a part of northeast Denver known as the Holly. Long a destination for African American families fleeing the Jim Crow South, the area had become an “invisible city” within a historically white metropolis. While shootings there weren’t uncommon, the identity of the shooter that night came as a shock. Terrance Roberts was a revered anti-gang activist. His attempts to bring peace to his community had won the accolades of both his neighbors and the state’s most important power brokers. Why had he just fired a gun? In The Holly, the award-winning Denver-based journalist Julian Rubinstein reconstructs the events that left a local gang member paralyzed and Roberts facing the possibility of life in prison. Much more than a crime story, The Holly is a multigenerational saga of race and politics that runs from the civil rights movement to Black Lives Matter. With a cast that includes billionaires, elected officials, cops, developers, and street kids, the book explores the porous boundaries between a city’s elites and its most disadvantaged citizens. It also probes the fraught relationships between police, confidential informants, activists, gang members, and ex–gang members as they struggle to put their pasts behind them. In The Holly, we see how well-intentioned efforts to curb violence and improve neighborhoods can go badly awry, and we track the interactions of law enforcement with gang members who conceive of themselves as defenders of a neighborhood. When Roberts goes on trial, the city’s fault lines are fully exposed. In a time of national reckoning over race, policing, and the uses and abuses of power, Rubinstein offers a dramatic and humane illumination of what’s at stake.
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the #1 New York Times bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles and get ready for the series soon to be streaming on Disney+ with this eighth and final installment in the fantastical adventures featuring updated text. The Wyrm King was previously published under the series title Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles. Nick and Laurie thought their worries were behind them when they drove all the giants into the sea. But now, the Grace kids have come to tell them they may have more trouble coming their way! It turns out the giants control the population of Hydra, a dragon-like creature that is creating sinkholes all over Florida. But with the mermaids refusing to return the giants to the shore, the nixies still missing and the threat of a destroyed Florida drawing closer, the kids have to take matters in their own hands. Will Nick and Laurie be able to stop the destruction they unwittingly caused with the help of the Field Guide?
The enchanting and bloodthirsty sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Cruel Prince. You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself strong. After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished. When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.
PRE-ORDER THE CORN BRIDE, #5 IN THE THRILLING WARTIME FANTASY ADVENTURE SERIES - WITCHES OF WOODVILLE, COMING SPRING 2025. 'Fast-paced, entertainingly creepy, laugh-out-loud funny, and genuinely moving' Michelle Paver 'Full of magic and delight' Rowan Coleman ‘A rural Ben Aaronovitch!’ C. K. McDonnell The Holly King is coming, and you’re on his list . . . It's December 1940, and Christmas has come to Woodville. Faye Bright is looking forward to a good old knees-up after a year of supernatural mayhem and Luftwaffe air raids, but it seems glad tidings are in short supply. Already contending with food rationing and sky-high beer prices, the village is upended by the arrival of the Holly King, an ancient power bent on reclaiming his woodland domain. No mortal magic can stand in his way. As the winter solstice draws in and the villagers fall under the Holly King’s spell, Faye, Bertie and the witches race to prevent his sinister Feast of Fools from reaching its deadly conclusion. But when terrible truths threaten to tear them apart, can they confront the mistakes of the past to save the village from destruction? Or has Woodville seen its last Christmas? *** For fans of Lev Grossman and Terry Pratchett comes the fourth novel in this delightful series of war, mystery and a little bit of magic . . . Don't miss the other magical books in the WITCHES OF WOODVILLE series! #1 The Crow Folk #2 Babes in the Wood #3 The Ghost of Ivy Barn
Discover the dark and seductive realm of faerie in the first book of New York Times bestseller Holly Black’s critically acclaimed Modern Faerie Tales series, where one girl must save herself from the sinister magic of the fey courts, and protect her heart in the process. Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she drifts from place to place with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces them back to Kaye’s childhood home. But Kaye’s life takes another turn when she stumbles upon an injured faerie knight in the woods. Kaye has always been able to see faeries where others could not, and she chooses to save the strange young man instead of leaving him to die. But this fateful choice will have more dire consequences than she could ever predict, as Kaye soon finds herself the unwilling pawn in an ancient and violent power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms—a struggle that could very well mean her death.
Once a year, the town of Ravenscroft celebrates the winter solstice by watching the Oak King symbolically slay the Holly King to ensure the death of winter. To most people, it's a pagan ritual that has lost all meaning in the modern world, harmless fun during the week of Christmas. To the coven who founded the town, it's a magic so important they entrusted it to the two strongest witches in generations.Will Battle and Chester Sibley are opposites in every way, or so Ravenscroft residents insist. Quiet, polite Will is the town's beloved adopted son, popular and admired. Defiant, outspoken Chester is disliked and avoided despite being a direct descendant of the town's founders. It's no wonder Will is the embodiment of spring and life as the Oak King and Chester was given the cold, dark Season of Holly. No one in town seems to realize their nice, well-mannered Oak King has iron at his core and their fearsome Holly King only wants to make people happy. Perhaps that's also why not even the other witches suspect that Chester has been in love with Will for almost his entire life.That's how Chester wants it. He might dream of Will, but he's learned to keep his dreams to himself. The trouble is Will. For all that he smiles and nods, Will has started quietly rebelling against both the town and the coven. With only days until the winter solstice, he issues Chester a challenge--to finally ask for what he wants. If Chester tells the truth, he risks losing Will and upsetting the ritual that has made the town prosperous. But there is more between them than magic, no matter how powerful or ancient, and Chester would do anything for Will, even, just maybe, coming in from the cold.
Santa Claus’s daughter sets out to break a curse and free a magical kingdom—in this beloved New York Times bestseller. Though few mortals know his secret, Nicholas is more than a jolly red-suited man who visits children all over the world on Christmas Eve—he is also the king of Forever, Land of the Immortals. Each year he gets letters from millions of boys and girls, and helps make their Christmas wishes come true. But one year, a special little boy from New York City asks something Nicholas has never been asked before: “What do you wish for Christmas, Santa?” With that simple question, a magical story unfolds. Nicholas answers that his only wish is for a child. And soon the immortal people of the kingdom celebrate the arrival of Holly Claus, the princess of Forever and the first child to grace its ground. But their happiness is dashed when an evil sorcerer places a spell on the infant, turning her heart to ice and freezing her kingdom in time. Many years later, just in time for Christmas Eve, Holly travels to New York, intent upon saving Christmas and freeing the land of Forever. Holly will make this the most magical—and memorable—Christmas the world has ever seen. This ebook features a note from Brittney Ryan including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
