I should’ve known better than to make a deal with a monster. When my ex-boyfriend puts a hit out on me, there's only one man I can run to for protection. Cristian Marchetti. The head of the Marchetti Mafia Family. My best friend's father. My last resort. But Cristian's protection doesn't come for free. What he wants might cost me my life. He's the mafia king, and I'm his sacrifice. And now, I must become his wife.

The crossover literary sensation...now in paperback! Through the lens of Kelly Link's vivid imagination, nothing is what it seems, and everything deserves a second look. From the multiple award- winning "The Faery Handbag," in which a teenager's grandmother carries an entire village (or is it a man-eating dog?) in her handbag, to the near-future of "The Surfer," whose narrator (a soccer-playing skeptic) waits with a planeload of refugees for the aliens to arrive, these ten stories are funny and full of unexpected insights and skewed perspectives on the world. Kelly Link's fans range from Michael Chabon to Peter Buck of R.E.M. to Holly Black of Spiderwick Chronicles fame. Now teens can have their world rocked too!

Just when I think things can't get any crazier... I found out why I can talk to animals and monsters. I met my father and I wasn't quite expecting his answers. But he does command several legions of demons and he's working on getting more to help us overthrow Demeter. We're going to need all the help we can get because I don't have enough of Hephaestus's powder to free every single monster in the pits from being trapped in their monster form by those collars. My monsters, the ones I've gotten to know, can change back to their human form now and they want their revenge on Demeter. They want to save their queen, Persephone. I wasn't expecting to be brought in on this, but I'm involved now. Even Hephaestus has snuck into the Underworld to help us. I guess all the unloved Gods and monsters are going to have to go up against a deranged Goddess with Olympus on her side. I'm not a monster or a God. I'm only half demon. But now that my father knows about me, we may have the help of Hell on our side. I didn't ask for this, but there's just something about these monsters that makes me want to help them. It doesn't hurt that they are all drop dead gorgeous and horrible flirts. I can even overlook that Pavlina and Tryphon like to eat people.

Hank Donner-Varian yearns for something beyond his perfect, but routine marriage. Forbidden fantasy beckons until a chance encounter with the enigmatic and devastatingly sexy Abbott Lowery turns curiosity into a dangerous obsession. Hank’s unaware of the sinister depths beneath Lowery's facade. When Hank's flirtation spirals into nightmare, he's thrust into a world of horror orchestrated by a man who once embodied his deepest desires. In a heart-pounding race against time, Beautiful Monster immerses readers in a gripping tale of passion, deception, and survival. Can Hank navigate the treacherous maze of obsession and deceit before it's too late? Or will the irresistible stranger prove to be Hank's downfall, plunging him into a nightmare from which escape is impossible?

My clients at my vet clinic have always called me an animal whisperer. I've never questioned it. Until I started hearing monsters too. A man came in right at closing with a sick dog. The dog told me why he was sick and I was able to treat him. I had no idea his owner would kidnap me. I had no idea his owner had an entire dungeon of monsters he wanted me to treat. I've met a minotaur, a mysterious kraken, a phoenix, and this really massive spider. I can hear them too. If monsters are real and I can talk to them, then what am I?

A free verse biography of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, featuring over 300 pages of black-and-white watercolor illustrations.

Scholastic Book Club Selection Alabama Camellia Award list, 2010-11, K-1 category A unique monster-under-the-bed story with the perfect balance of giggles and shivers, this picture book relies on the power of humor over fear, appeals to a child's love for creatures both alarming and absurd, and glorifies the scope of a child's imagination. One night, when Ethan checks under his bed for his monster, Gabe, he finds a note from him instead: "Gone fishing. Back in a week." Ethan knows that without Gabe's familiar nightly scares he doesn't stand a chance of getting to sleep, so Ethan interviews potential substitutes to see if they've got the right equipment for the job—pointy teeth, sharp claws, and a long tail—but none of them proves scary enough for Ethan. When Gabe returns sooner than expected from his fishing trip, Ethan is thrilled. It turns out that Gabe didn't enjoy fishing because the fish scared too easily.