Ben Raines and his army won a war on two fronts, bringing law, peace and prosperity to the Southern United States of America. But SUSA's northern northern neighbor and erstwhile enemy, the United States, is still in chaos. And when a ferocious invader attacks the soft and crippled nation, Raines has no choice but to act! Courageous warlord Abdullah El Farrar has risen up from the humiliated regions of the oil-rich Near East—unleashing a stunning attack against the once proud northern United States. No One in the Southern United States is surprised that USA cannot defend its own land. But with northern citizens defecting by thousands to El Farrar's forces, Raines can see the handwriting on the wall: his brave armies must go to war—to save their enemy from itself.

When her sister is trapped in a parallel realm, Ivy turns to Adrian, the only person who believes her, but who, unbeknownst to her, is destined to betray her, and together they search for a powerful relic that can save her sister.

In a shattered world struggling to rebuild, its oil supply--the lifeblood of industry--is held hostage by terror-master El Farrar, a barbaric warlord of the Near East. Betrayed by the unholy UN treachery, Ben Raines and the forces of the Southern United States of America take on El Farrar, attacking him where he lives and setting the region ablaze from Baghdad to Teheran.

When your greatest dream is born from spite, will it make you truly happy? Indoctrinated from birth by his devout, God-fearing father, Felix discovered his magical abilities in a terrifying incident. Ever since that night, spite has festered within his heart, shaping his desire to become a powerful sorcerer. And much to his surprise, his dream may become reality as he receives a chance to study at the prestigious Dragora Institute of Magic in the Medeian Empire. There are secrets lurking in the shadows, however. An enigmatic masked man hangs just out of sight, stalking Felix and fueling the flames of his hatred. And now, as Felix grows closer to realizing his dreams than ever before, a new, darker destiny threatens to corrupt his ambitions. As Felix forges new relationships with fellow magi from all across the world, he comes to discover more about himself and what he wants out of life. With an infinite number of winding, crisscrossing paths ahead of him, which will he take, and where will that road lead? Who will he choose to be?

Able to generate electricity, Selena Somerset is admitted into Vanderwald Academy, a school for the gifted who possess a special ability known as a Ceres. There, she meets an alluring, yet distant student named Lucas Brayden who is burdened by a haunted past. Thrown together by the hands of fate, Selena grows closer to him and uncovers the pain he has been hiding.Selena soon discovers a hidden Ceres deeply rooted into her tangled past. As the descendant of an ancient power, she is carved into a destiny that questions her very existence. When a thief's sudden rampage terrorizes Celestria, Selena and her friends must figure out who the culprit is to bring him to justice. Friendship, love, and betrayal lay in wake for her as she is faced with the impossible decision to save the many or to save the only one who she has ever loved.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • No book before this one has rendered the story of cigarettes—mankind's most common self-destructive instrument and its most profitable consumer product—with such sweep and enlivening detail. "A great battleship of a book—formidable, majestic.”—The New York Times Book Review Here for the first time, in a story full of the complexities and contradictions of human nature, all the strands of the historical process—financial, social, psychological, medical, political, and legal—are woven together in a riveting narrative. The key characters are the top corporate executives, public health investigators, and antismoking activists who have clashed ever more stridently as Americans debate whether smoking should be closely regulated as a major health menace. We see tobacco spread rapidly from its aboriginal sources in the New World 500 years ago, as it becomes increasingly viewed by some as sinful and some as alluring, and by government as a windfall source of tax revenue. With the arrival of the cigarette in the late-nineteenth century, smoking changes from a luxury and occasional pastime to an everyday—to some, indispensable—habit, aided markedly by the exuberance of the tobacco huskers. This free-enterprise success saga grows shadowed, from the middle of this century, as science begins to understand the cigarette's toxicity. Ironically the more detailed and persuasive the findings by medical investigators, the more cigarette makers prosper by seeming to modify their product with filters and reduced dosages of tar and nicotine. We see the tobacco manufacturers come under intensifying assault as a rogue industry for knowingly and callously plying their hazardous wares while insisting that the health charges against them (a) remain unproven, and (b) are universally understood, so smokers indulge at their own risk. Among the eye-opening disclosures here: outrageous pseudo-scientific claims made for cigarettes throughout the '30s and '40s, and the story of how the tobacco industry and the National Cancer Institute spent millions to develop a "safer" cigarette that was never brought to market. Dealing with an emotional subject that has generated more heat than light, this book is a dispassionate tour de force that examines the nature of the companies' culpability, the complicity of society as a whole, and the shaky moral ground claimed by smokers who are now demanding recompense.

The kiss was just the beginning . . . The second book in Rhiannon Thomas’s epic retelling of Sleeping Beauty combines adventure, magic, and romance for a sweeping fantasy about one girl’s journey to fulfill her destiny. Aurora was supposed to be her kingdom’s savior. But when she was forced to decide between being loyal to the crown and loyal to her country, she set events in motion that branded her a traitor. Now, hunted by the king’s soldiers, Aurora’s only chance of freeing her kingdom from the king’s tyrannical rule is by learning to control her magic. But Aurora’s powers come at a price—one that forces her to leave the only home she’s ever known, one that demands she choose between the man she loves and the people she seeks to protect, and one that will cause her to unravel the mysteries surrounding the curse that was placed on her over a century before . . . and uncover the truth about her destiny.