Choose wisely! Alana wasn’t ready to forfeit her carefree life as a village maiden, but the Great Tree chose her to be its honored woodsinger. Now, she communes daily with the Tree, conveying its ancient wisdom to her people on the Headland of Slaughter. Alas, even the Tree fails to recognize the threat when Duke Coren arrives from the mainland. Soon, two innocent children are kidnapped, carried off to distant Smithcourt for reasons unknown. Alana wastes no time provisioning a rescue party, giving them a treasured woodstar so she can observe and guide their progress. But a trio of fishermen is no match for a wily inland noble—especially one capable of manipulating the captured twins’ emotions until they no longer want to be saved. What must Alana—and others—sacrifice to bring the children home? If you like fantasy novels with magic, mystical trees, kidnapping of innocents, children in danger, sword and sorcery, epic stories, sagas, power, intrigue, and betrayal, then this is the book for you! 011823mfm

When summer was over the faerie would come for the children. Cobbs is a threadbare mining town with secrets and sorrow to spare. The newly arrived Rutherfords choke on their own share of misery when their daughter Abigail suddenly vanishes. Desperate to find his sister, Jack has no one to turn to but Lucius, a mysterious former slave with a few secrets of his own. Together they plunge into the twisting, enchanted landscape of the wicked, the fey, and the grim. Jack will have to unlock the rules of wyrd magic and ancient relics to prevail, but there is far more at stake than either of them can imagine. An historically rich saga of spell-binding power that grabs the reader and won't let go.

To bring peace and order to a galaxy at war, Jacen Solo will sacrifice anything - or anyone. Now the moment of choice is at hand. Jacen must pass one final test before he can gain the awesome power of a true Sith Lord: he must bring about the death of someone he values dearly. Who will he choose?

An Apsaalooka (Crow) Indian girl has lived her life as a despised loner, overshadowed by her dead twin brother, who, it was prophesied at their birth, would become a "Great One" among his people. One night, she sets off on a forbidden journey to prove to her village, and her brother's spirit, that she is the one destined to become the true Great One. Her trek over the plains and into the mysterious region of modern-day Yellowstone National Park is a disaster, culminating in her eventual capture by a tribe of Pawnee. Strangely, these foreigners treat her with an unfamiliar respect, and the girl starts to let down her guard. But when it is suddenly revealed that she has been kept alive in order to be killed in a ritual harvest-season sacrifice, the girl is thrown back into her desperate battle for survival...in Diane Matcheck's The Sacrifice.

Dispatched on what was to be an easy assignment of attacking the Privoser Oil Refinery and associated railroad yards at Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, the 20th Squadron of the 2nd Bombardment Group saw the bloodiest day in their history. Not a single one of the 20th Squadron's B-17 bombers returned from the mission. In this book, the 90 airmen on that mission provide a remarkable personal window into the Allies' Combined Bomber Offensive at its height during World War II. Their stories encapsulate how the U.S. Army Air Force built, trained, and employed one of the mightiest war machines ever seen. These stories also illustrate, however, the terrible cost in lives demanded by that same machine.

The shocking and affecting memoir from a gold-star widow searching for the truth behind her Green Beret husband's death, this book bears witness to the true sacrifices made by military families. When Green Beret Bryan Black was killed in an ambush in Niger in 2017, his wife Michelle saw her worst nightmare become a reality. She was left alone with her grief and with two young sons to raise. But what followed Bryan's death was an even more difficult journey for the young widow. After receiving very few details about the attack that took her husband's life, it was up to Michelle to find answers. It became her mission to learn the truth about that day in Niger--and Sacrifice is the result of that mission. In this heartbreaking and revelatory memoir, Michelle uses exclusive interviews with the survivors of her husband's unit, research into the military leadership and accountability, and her own unique vantage point as a gold-star widow to tell a previously unknown story. Sacrifice is both an honest, emotional look inside a military marriage and a searing investigation of the people and decisions at the heart of the US military.

Born Again San Francisco Bay area stockbroker Taylor Helzer was young, handsome, and--to all outward appearances--normal. But that was before a three-day self-awareness seminar left him convinced he was a new Messiah. In the interest of funding his own church and "saving" America from Satan, Helzer began making and selling Ecstasy and convinced girlfriend Kerri Furman to pose for Playboy. She eventually left him, only to be replaced by naive, gullible Dawn Godman. Blood Bath Helzer, his younger brother Justin, and Dawn formed an unholy alliance called the Children of Thunder. They wanted to score big. The brothers abducted Taylor's former clients Ivan and Annette Stineman, inducing them to sign over checks totaling $100,000. The elderly couple was beaten and stabbed to death, then dismembered in a bathtub. Body Count Selina Bishop, 22, daughter of blues great Elvin Bishop, was ensnared in the money scam--before Justin Helzer killed her with a hammer. Bishop's mother was next, shot dead along with her boyfriend by Taylor. But despite the trio's careful disposal of the evidence in the Mokelumne River, the truth came to light when a bag of body parts floated to the surface. The trials that followed would reveal every grisly detail of one of the most bizarre murder sprees in California history--and bring a modern-day Manson to justice. . . 16 Pages Of Shocking Photos