How do you approach a green haired faerie with serious anger issues? Answer -- Very carefully.Fifteen year old Ben moves with his mother and abusive step-father to a sprawling East Coast estate inherited from a distant cousin. Creole, a half-breed faerie, mourns the loss of her father, the former Gatekeeper, the one responsible for preventing the discovery of her world by the world of man. When the two meet, the dominoes of fate begin to topple, one after another, leaving them to fulfill their destinies, or die trying.The Book of Em: The Last Gatekeeper, will make your heart weep, your soul soar, and restore your faith in the power of love.Including fifteen illustrations hand drawn by the wonderful Allecia Robb.

Two worlds. One queen determined to rule both. And one teen girl who stands in her way. Zanzibar MacKenzie knows she's a freak. She has EHS - electrical hypersensitivity - which leaves her trying to live a Stone Age life in the twenty-first century: no internet, no phone, no point really. On her seventeenth birthday she discovers the truth: she can't stand electricity because she's half-fae, and her mixed-blood makes her the only person on Earth able to control the gates that link the fae and human worlds. With the help of Thanriel, an angel charged with keeping the worlds in balance, and Cal, an exiled fae, Zan - the girl who can't flip a light switch - must now learn to control the elemental powers she never knew she had in order to defeat a queen bent on destruction.

The Code of the Vital Union was simple. It governed the body, the soul, and the spirit. The Vital Union held open rallies for nonbelievers whom they hoped would be "joined." You did not "join the Union"; the Union "joined" you.

James Byrne's The Gatekeeper introduces Dez Limerick in the most anticipated new thriller in years. A highly trained team of mercenaries launches a well-planned, coordinated attack on a well-guarded military contractor - but they didn't count on one thing, the right man being in the wrong place at the right time. Desmond Aloysius Limerick (“Dez” to all) is a retired mercenary, and enthusiastic amateur musician, currently in Southern California, enjoying the sun and sitting in on the occasional gig, when the hotel he's at falls under attack. A skilled team attempts to kidnap the Chief legal counsel of Triton Expeditors, a major military contractor – in fact, Petra Alexandris is the daughter of the CEO – but their meticulously-planned, seamlessly executed scheme runs into the figurative 'spanner-in-the-works,' Dez himself. After foiling the attack, and with nothing better to do, Dez agrees to help Alexandris with another problem she’s having – someone has embezzled more than a billion dollars from her company and left very few tracks behind. But Dez is a gatekeeper – one who opens doors and keeps them open – and this is just a door of another kind. And the door he opens leads to a dangerous conspiracy involving media manipulation, militias, an armed coup, and an attempt to fracture the United States themselves. There’s only one obstacle between the conspirators and success – and that is Dez, The Gatekeeper.

"Journalist Smith (A Necessary War) grants readers an unusual insider's view of F.D.R.'s political career by profiling his longtime private secretary. Marguerite 'Missy' LeHand, a young woman with a modest background, an agile intellect, a pleasant personality, and remarkable stenographer's skills, began working for F.D.R. in 1920, when he ran for vice president. Smith writes particularly well about F.D.R.'s struggle to bounce back from being struck with polio in 1921, explaining the disease and the origins of the Warm Springs, Ga., health spa that he frequented. LeHand was F.D.R.'s most constant companion during the 1920s, sparking rumors--convincingly dismissed by Smith--that they were lovers. The real core of the story is the White House years from 1933 until 1942, when LeHand helped create the vast New Deal bureaucracy. She decided who would see the president and when; today her title would be chief of staff. LeHand worked long hours but took time to enjoy the perks of the job, including a barrage of social invitations and fawning press coverage. Though Smith overstates her claim about LeHand's importance to F.D.R. and his work as president, she delivers a fascinating account of one woman's involvement in an important administration"--Publishersweekly.com.

"The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions--and inactions--have defined the course of our country. Since George Washington, presidents have depended on the advice of key confidants. But it wasn't until the twentieth century that the White House chief of staff became the second most powerful job in government. Unelected and unconfirmed, the chief serves at the whim of the president, hired and fired by him alone. He is the president's closest adviser and the person he depends on to execute his agenda. He decides who gets to see the president, negotiates with Congress, and--most crucially--enjoys unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. When the president makes a life-and-death decision, often the chief of staff is the only other person in the room. Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks. Through extensive, intimate interviews with all seventeen living chiefs and two former presidents, award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity, whose members have included Rahm Emanuel, Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta, and Donald Rumsfeld. In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, showing us how James Baker and Panetta skillfully managed the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, ensuring their reelections--and, conversely, how Jimmy Carter never understood the importance of a chief, crippling his ability to govern. From Watergate to Iran-Contra to the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the Iraq War, Whipple shows us how the chief of staff can make the difference between success and disaster. As an outsider president tries to govern after a bitterly divisive election, The Gatekeepers could not be more timely. Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, it is a compelling history that changes our perspective on the presidency."--Jacket flap.