The immersive finale of the Heartseeker duology--rich, commercial middle-grade fantasy about a girl who can see lies. Only Fallow can see lies--a cunning so powerful that the King insists on keeping her in the palace, tasked with helping him flush out traitors. When the King's counselor, Lamia, tells Only of her plan to oust the King and put his daughter on the throne, Only is eager to help. Though Only's cunning would be useful to any ruler, the Princess had promised to send Only home when she becomes Queen. But Only soon learns the truth is a complicated matter--especially when the fate of a country hangs in the balance. Now wound tight in a twisted plot, Only must set the record straight to stop the destruction of everything--and everyone--she holds dear. The stunning finale of Melinda Beatty's middle-grade duet is just as rich, imaginative, and full of adventure as the first installment.

The remarkable eighty-five-day journey of the first two women to canoe the 2,000-mile route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay Unrelenting winds, carnivorous polar bears, snake nests, sweltering heat, and constant hunger. Paddling from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, following the 2,000-mile route made famous by Eric Sevareid in his 1935 classic Canoeing with the Cree, Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho faced unexpected trials, some harrowing, some simply odd. But for the two friends—the first women to make this expedition—there was one timeless challenge: the occasional pitfalls that test character and friendship. Warren’s spellbinding account retraces the women’s journey from inspiration to Arctic waters, giving readers an insider view from the practicalities of planning a three-month canoe expedition to the successful accomplishment of the adventure of a lifetime. Along the route we meet the people who live and work on the waterways, including denizens of a resort who supply much-needed sustenance; a solitary resident in the wilderness who helps plug a leak; and the people of the Cree First Nation at Norway House, where the canoeists acquire a furry companion. Describing the tensions that erupt between the women (who at one point communicate with each other only by note) and the natural and human-made phenomena they encounter—from islands of trash to waterfalls and a wolf pack—Warren brings us into her experience, and we join these modern women (and their dog) as they recreate this historic trip, including the pleasures and perils, the sexism, the social and environmental implications, and the enduring wonder of the wilderness.

A vibrant fantasy-adventure debut about a girl who can see lies. You're a Fallow of the Orchard. You're as tough as a green apple in summer . . . Only Fallow was just six harvests old when she realized that not everyone sees lies. For Only, seeing lies is as beautiful as looking through a kaleidoscope, but telling them is as painful as gnawing on cut glass. Only's family warns her to keep her cunning hidden, but secrets are seldom content to stay secret. When word of Only's ability makes its way to the King, she's plucked from her home at the orchard and brought to the castle at Bellskeep. There she learns that the kingdom is plagued by traitors, and that her task is to help the King distinguish between friend and foe. But being able to see lies doesn't necessarily mean that others aren't able to disguise their dishonesty with cunnings of their own. In the duplicitous, power-hungry court, the truth is Only's greatest weapon . . . and her greatest weakness.

-These are poems of accrual, of sum and mathematically sung song. No detail is too small for Simoneau's gaze, which takes each nail and board and beam surrounding it into account with a carpenter's knack for shape, structure, precision. Through humor and elegiac storytelling, River Bound chronicles the ups and downs of blue-collar American life in Lowell, Massachusetts, and elsewhere-creating a simultaneously beautiful and apocalyptic vision of the future in which -the moon slides behind the empty mills / as we wait, watching for stars to come down.- -Dorianne Laux, author of The Book of Men -These powerful, diary-like meditations are a sort of psychic conditioning for the speaker-and there is a lot of conditioning to do: death of the father, death of the New England mill town-the only certainty, uncertainty. The lyricism is superb, and subtle, but lyric it is. What better place to discover song than in your own hometown? Brian Simoneau has done just that in River Bound. This is impressive, intense poetry.- -Arthur Smith, author of The Fortunate Era -Brian Simoneau is a rarity in his generation for the way he combines precision of feeling with an idiom that is taut, musical, and full of linguistic subtlety. Flashy verbal poets seem a little overheated, a little foolish, next to his intelligent restraint. His affection for his native ground-the old New England mill towns he grew up in-is dry-eyed, rueful, and hard-earned. His father's gas station, the mill workers of the 19th century, and the often hardscrabble life lived in these towns today inform but don't limit his vision of how -Life passes at the speed of grief.- He has written as fine a first book as you could hope to read.- -Tom Sleigh, author of Army Cats

Thirteen years ago, Jack Winter lay dying in a graveyard. Jack called upon a demon and traded his soul for his life... and now the demon is back to collect its due. But Jack has finally found something to live for. Her name is Pete Caldecott, and because of her, Jack's not going to Hell without a fight. Pete doesn't know about Jack's bargain, but she does know that something bigger and far more dangerous than Jack's demon is growing in the Black. Old gods are stirring and spirits are rising--and Jack doesn't stand a chance of stopping them without Pete's help.