Sure, in storybooks orphans are rescued from drudgery when they discover they are a wizard or a warrior or a prophesied king. But this is real life, and Denizen Hardwick is just a kid without parents. Until on a particularly dark night the gates of Crosscaper Orphanage open to a car that almost growls with power. The car and the man in it retrieve Denizen with the promise of introducing him to a long-lost aunt. On the ride into the city they are attacked,...

There is nothing to be found in the pages of A Series of Unfortunate Events but misery and despair. You still have time to choose another international best-seller to read. But if you must know what unpleasantries befall the charming and clever Baudelaire children read on ... There are many pleasant things to read about, but The Miserable Mill contains none of them. Within its pages one will find a giant pincher machine, a bad casserole, a man with...

Alina is dead and her sister Mac has returned to Ireland, the country that expelled them, to hunt her sister's murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, she descends into an epic battle between humans and Fae immortals as the Sinsar Dubh turns on her, and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves. Mac's journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and make a choice that will either...

Nineteen-year-old orphan Signa Farrow confronts Death--and her own deathly powers--when she investigates the mysterious murder of a relative at the Thorn Grove estate.

Seven year old Sara Crewe learns of the tragic death of her father not long after she is left in the care of Miss Michin, headmistress of a boarding school. Now an orphan and stripped of her family fortune, Sara must survive the emotional trials of loss and the mental anguish of abuse at the hands of her new caretakers.

Still pursued by the evil Count Olaf, the Baudelaire orphans attempt to reach a very important VFD meeting, but first they must travel in a rattletrap submarine to the Gorgonian Grotto, a dangerous underwater cave, in search of the sugar bowl.

The Academia, once an elite proving ground for the rulers of the world, has been frozen for centuries. Now its strange slumber has ended, and a new Chancellor, an orange-eyed dragon, has reopened its lecture halls and readied its dorms. In order to thrive once more, however, the Academia needs fresh blood--new students with a passion and talent for learning. One such student, Robin, has the perfect recruit in mind: his friend Raven, an orphan who...

In a discontented kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince...

"Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There's Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can't save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his "prayer log". There's Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of...

Hired to teach four orphaned girls at remote, ramshackle Aldwick Castle, Miss Concordia Glade is pleased to find her pupils both eager and bright. Provided for by an unseen benefactor, they are surrounded at all times by hard-eyed guards in the guise of gardeners. During an investigation into a woman's death, private inquiry agent Ambrose Wells finds himself on the castle grounds -- and in the middle of chaos. The building is in flames. People are...