★★★ The Coven Chronicles is part of a serial. All books end with cliffhangers! ★★★ When the Blood Moon Rises, Who Will Fall? It’s been days since the sanctuary showdown. Feral demons are still on the loose. The ones that have been caught are pushing Zaraltrac Prison past its limits. The Coven is still picking up the pieces of the former blue cloaks’ betrayal. And Thea...Thea is bored. She hasn’t been given an assignment yet, and it’s driving her crazy to be kept away from the action. That is until Second Chosen Winona waltzes into her presence once again, and she has more dirt on Thea than the Spellweaver ever thought possible. Now she is given the choice: life in prison for her crimes, or be tasked with finding a cure for the incurable Medusa’s Kiss. Winona isn’t leaving them high and dry, though. She has a lead, but this will send both Thea and Rafe, now accompanied by two strange, not-so-new companions, into parts of Aeristria many have not visited before. And what they discover will change their entire world as they know it. But that’s not all. The clock is ticking on what little life remains in Cressida, and the cure for Medusa’s Kiss can surely cure the dark magic urges surging through her veins...or can it? As Thea and Rafe race after legends in the Golden Sea Desert looking for answers, the Coven is preparing for an all out assault from the blood mages as the Blood Moon Festival draws nearer. Will Thea and Rafe make it back before the carnage kicks off, or will they find themselves in the heart of what could possibly be their last battle?

Accelerated Reader Quiz #109073. Level 6.6 "I tried to block the legend of the blood moon—that it signaled the death of someone close to you—from my mind." Harley Wallace has suffered through an incredible run of bad luck. His father died fighting in the Pacific during World War II, and his stepmother abandoned him. The Marines refused to take him, and now he is kicked off a bus in the middle of Nowhere, Florida, where he celebrates his fourteenth birthday as a prisoner in a hick jail. As if that weren't bad enough, Harley is placed in the custody of his unwelcoming old grandfather. As Harley and his grandfather struggle to establish a family relationship and make peace with the demons of the past, the murder of Grandfather Wallace's cowman and best friend leads them to suspect that an evil connected to the war may have taken root on the old man's sprawling cattle ranch. With German U-boats lurking in the placid waters of the Gulf, an old friend enlists Grandfather and Harley in a top-secret operation in the hammocks and palmettos of Florida's Big Bend region. When Grandfather Wallace mysteriously disappears, Harley and his new friend Beth are thrust into a web of danger that reaches far beyond Florida's Gulf Coast. Harley and Beth begin a hazardous quest, racing against the clock in a desperate effort to save the old man. Riding into the marshes under the harsh glow of a “blood moon," they discover peril, new friends, ruthless enemies, and the true meaning of family. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series

In the year 1880, an impoverished, half-English journalist named Eduardo Dawson, hitching from Mexico for the American border, meets three fellow travelers who could not be more different. The first is Phoebe Surgener, a wry, strong-willed American ranch lady of obvious wealth and influence. The second is Pleasant Honeyflower, a seedy, fast-talking phony preacher. The third is Marcela Sandoval, a magically beautiful Mexican shepherdess. After their meeting on the road, there follows a seemingly endless night that begins with friendly “get-to-know-you" chatter and evolves as they cross the desert under a great blood moon into episodes of passionate young love, depraved sexual violence, betrayal, and abandonment that will have unimaginable repercussions for years to come. As fate will have it, they all end up in Pleasant Valley, Arizona, and their chance encounter in the desert will turn out to be a harbinger of The Pleasant Valley War, the bloodiest land war in the history of the American West.

In Wolf Moon Blood Moon, Ed Falco considers love and the loss of love, what we have today and what we remember of yesterday, the promise of youth and the disappointments and pleasures of aging. By turns whimsical, meditative, and poignant, these poems examine the joys and sorrows of living. The first section offers a meditation on loss, as the author explores bereavements both personal and remote. From an elderly mother and her stroke-impaired son struggling to have a simple conversation, to a man coping with the breakup of his marriage, to strangers caught in the public tragedies of a flood or an act of mass violence, these are poems acknowledging that loss is inevitable, infused with grief, and borne with courage. The second section explores the turbulence, sensuality, and mysteries within a particular life. Speakers in these poems contemplate aging while on their way to see a Broadway play, recall a father’s violence and a mother’s selflessness, and explore the complexity of a world that seems impossible to comprehend. Together, the two sections suggest a poet looking back in contemplation.

The fifth Hal Challis investigation, set in southeast Australia It’s been a busy few days for Inspector Hal Challis. The school year has just ended, and with the sudden influx of rowdy teenagers on break, Waterloo has become a hotbed for petty crimes. But there are also more serious matters at hand. A well-connected chaplain at a prestigious school has been brutally beaten, and a local official has turned up dead. If Challis was having a hard time keeping up with the caseload before, it certainly hasn’t helped matters that he’s become romantically involved with his colleague Ellen Destry. Challis struggles to maintain a clear head as the crimes mount. Will their relationship derail all they’ve worked for?

Winner of the World Fantasy Award: New twists on classic fairy tales from Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Robin McKinley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and more. Long ago, when we were children, our dreams were inspired by the fairy tales we heard at our mothers’ and grandmothers’ knees—stories of princesses and princes and witches and wondrous enchantments, by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, and from the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights. But, as World Fantasy Award–winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling remind us, these stories were often tamed and sanitized versions. The originals were frequently darker—and in Silver Birch, Blood Moon, they turn darker still. Twenty-one modern Grimms and Andersens—masterful storytellers including Neil Gaiman, Nancy Kress, and Tanith Lee—now reinvent beloved bedtime stories for our time. The Sea Witch gets her say, relating the story of “The Little Mermaid” from her own point of view. “Thumbelina” becomes a tale of creeping horror, while a delightfully naughty spin is put on “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Author Caitlín R. Kiernan transports Snow White to a dark, gritty, industrial urban setting, and Patricia Briggs details “The Price” of dealing with a royal and unrepentantly evil Rumpelstiltskin. Rich, provocative, and unabashedly adult, each of these tales is a modern treasure, reminding us that wishes have consequences and not all genies have our best interests at heart.

Practice the Art of Watercolor with this Beginner’s Guide to Picturesque Mountains, Lakes, Sunrises and More From a striking Desert Sunset Silhouette to a majestic Icelandic Waterfall to an eye-catching Magical Snowy Forest, watercolor artist Kolbie Blume’s wilderness scenes are the perfect introduction to watercolor painting. Kolbie’s step-by-step instructions make it easy to paint stunning landscapes featuring all of the key elements of wilderness painting and teach you beginner-friendly techniques for colorful skies, mountains, trees, wildflowers, oceans, lakes, and more. Each chapter teaches progressively more advanced elements, allowing you to build upon your skills as you work through the projects. And the final chapter combines all of the elements in breathtaking scenes—like a Glassy Milky Way and an Aurora Glacier Lagoon—that you’ll be proud to hang on your wall or gift to a friend or family member. With all the tips, tricks, and techniques you need to master the basics of watercolor painting and instructions on how to paint every element of nature, this collection of wilderness landscapes is the go-to guide for both beginner painters and more experienced artists looking for new subjects to paint.