A thief in debt. A kingdom in crisis. Her arrest could change everything for both. Talented thief and wind-spinner Emerald has been stealing heirlooms to pay her apprentice debt to the master thief. But a chance run-in with her childhood crush, now one Knight Captain Owyn Tramaine, leads to her arrest and the revelation that she is, in fact, Lady Keira Azfarran—the eldest daughter of the noble Azfarran line. With her secret revealed and a new debt to pay to the Kingdom in penance for her crimes, Emerald must find a new way to achieve her dream of freedom. While serving as a royal maid, she is offered an opportunity to pay her debt faster by spying for the throne. But when Emerald discovers a plot against the Queen’s life, the future of the Kingdom is suddenly at stake. Battling her desire to run with her wish to be truly free, Emerald faces a bully from her past, confronts her conflicting emotions for Owyn, and endures the scorn of her family and the courts. But if the Queen’s life is taken, the Kingdom could descend into civil war, making these irritations the least of Emerald’s problems. Emerald must discover who is plotting against the Queen and why before time for both her and the kingdom runs out.

All three novels of the Ghost Protector Trilogy When you work for the King of Ghosts, you don't get a vacation. Contains: Ghost Of A Chance: When Jenny's father is murdered, the mantle of Ghost Protector passes to her. Too bad no one told her.Ghost Of A Smile: Jenny's gotten used to helping the dead but now she needs to help the living. Something is killing teenagers. Can Jenny stop it before it claims another victim?Ghost Of A Memory: Jenny's little brother Tommy's very essence is being drained. It's up to Jenny to use all of her power as Ghost Protector to save him. Can she stop an ancient evil before it consumes him?

Thomas Steinbeck has been praised by Publishers Weekly for his stylistic brilliance and “accomplished voice.” Now, his enthralling novel In the Shadow of the Cypress blends history and suspense with literary mastery and brings vivid realism to California’s rich heritage. In 1906, the Chinese in California lived in the shadows. Their alien customs, traditions, and language hid what they valued from their neighbors . . . and left them open to scorn and prejudice. Their communities were ruled—and divided—by the necessity of survival among the many would-be masters surrounding them, by struggles between powerful tongs, and by duty to their ancestors. Then, in the wake of natural disaster, fate brought to light artifacts of incredible value along the Monterey coast: an ancient Chinese jade seal and a plaque inscribed in a trio of languages lost to all but scholars of antiquity. At first, chance placed control of those treasures in the hands of outsiders—the wayward Irishman who’d discovered them and a marine scholar who was determined to explore their secrets. The path to the truth, however, would prove to be as tangled as the roots of the ancient cypress that had guarded these treasures for so long, for there are some secrets the Chinese were not ready to share. Whether by fate, by subtle design, or by some intricate combination of the two, the artifacts disappeared again . . . before it could be proved that they must have come there ages before Europeans ever touched the wild and beautiful California coast. Nearly a century would pass before an unconventional young American scientist unearths evidence of this great discovery and its mysterious disappearance. Taking up the challenge, he begins to assemble a new generation of explorers to resume theperilous search into the ocean’s depth . . . and theshadows of history. Armed with cutting-edge, moderntechnology, and drawing on connections to powerful families at home and abroad, this time Americans and Chinese will follow together the path of secrets that have long proved as elusive as the ancient treasures that held them. This striking debut novel by a masterful writer weaves together two fascinating eras into one remarkable tale. In the Shadow of the Cypress is an evocative, dramatic story that depicts California in all its multicultural variety, with a suspense that draws the reader inexorably on until the very last page.