“Riveting. . . a testament to a misconceived war, and to the ease with which ordinary men, under certain conditions, can transform into monsters.”—New York Times Book Review This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment—a unit known as “the Black Heart Brigade.” Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq’s so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country’s most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon—1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion—descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War—the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost—one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives. Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century.

In book three of the Curse Workers series, “the perfect end to this gem of a trilogy” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), trust is a priceless commodity and the lines between right and wrong become dangerously blurred. Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the government is the right choice, even though he’s been raised to believe they are the enemy of all curse workers. But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and all new secrets coming to light, what’s right and what’s wrong become increasingly hard to tell apart. When the Feds ask him to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he starts to wonder if they really are the good guys, or if it’s all a con. And if it is, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—on love. Love is dangerous and trust is priceless in Holly Black’s “powerful, edgy, dark” fantasy series (Publishers Weekly).

"A reimagining of the origin story of Blackbeard the pirate and his forbidden love affair with a maid in his father's house"--

BLACK HEART'S END: Light Prevails in the Darkness of the Deadly Relationship By: Jamie Reynolds In this continuation of The Black Heart, we find Janie and Lolly each deciding on their own personal tactic in searching for information regarding the death of Lolly's mother, Mandy. Now, we see two young women drawn to separate and unknown territories as sources for their efforts. Each have their own motives and will have to use new and different methods to retrieve their desired information. Lolly is pulled to her mother's roots in Mexico, while Janie is pulled northward in California-where Mandy and her family had relocated and spent more than several years prior to the abrupt end to her young life. Both women are certain there will be more than a few who knew Mandy in either location, and someone may have a hint or definitive information regarding her death. Janie has also learned that Mandy's fiancé has been incarcerated as a suspect. In Janie's mind, she still believes there is a good reason that her black heart necklace, gifted from Alex, points to evidence of his guilt; however, her necklace is missing. BLACK HEART'S END revolves around Janie's and Lolly's painstaking travels and meetings with some who provide assistance and others who obstruct their path and approach with complications and danger. Will Janie and/or Lolly gain any perspectives and survive their personal treks...?

In this hilarious classic adventure, an innocent boy and his friends must stop a plot to topple the King of England. Simon, the foundling from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, arrives in London to meet an old friend and pursue the study of painting. Instead he finds himself unwittingly in the middle of a wicked crew’s fiendish caper to overthrow the good King James and the Duke and Duchess of Battersea. With the help of his friend Sophie and the resourceful waif Dido, Simon narrowly escapes a series of madcap close calls and dangerous run-ins. In a time and place where villains do nothing halfway, Simon is faced with wild wolves, poisoned pies, kidnapping, and a wrecked ship. This is a cleverly contrived tale of intrigue and misadventure. Perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl “It’s a marvel!” —The New Yorker “A wild yarn, not to be put down once it is started.” —Washington Post “A riot of wildly improbable adventures happening to absurd and loveable characters with Dickensian names in a time that never was . . . Heartrending, hair-raising, rib-tickling, and delightful.” —New York Times

A broken man, Khraen awakens alone and lost. His stone heart has been shattered, littered across the world. With each piece, he regains some small shard of the man he once was. He follows the trail, fragment by fragment, remembering his terrible past. There was a woman. There was a sword. There was an end to sorrow. Khraen walks the obsidian path.

A stunning novel about the transformative power of love, perfect for fans of 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness. There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution—Roman, a teenage boy who’s haunted by a family tragedy, is looking for a partner. Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together.