Jason VanLord is on his way to happily ever after. His soon-to-be wife, the beautiful princess Mia, is waiting for him in the castle. However, Jason does not want to get married. Instead, he is after a life of adventure. With the help of the princess, he and his friends escape the castle and are soon on their way to finding an adventure. But things soon get hairy, and he is flung feet first into a quest. With time running out to save not only himself and his friends but the world, he has to travel to an island, the home of magic, and right the serious wrong that has befallen it.

DIVDeep in Radnor Forest, the magic of a captivating seeress is no match for unbridled, blazing desireDIV /divHer heart belongs to the five children she has raised, all of them orphans from the Welsh-English war. Her beauty as enchanting as her magic, the proud Wynne ab Gruffydd, Seeress of Radnor, would wage war to protect her children, regardless of the cost to herself. When Sir Cleve FitzWarin is dispatched to Wales to reclaim his liege lord’s orphaned offspring—and secure the handsome riches that come with his success—he meets Wynne head-on and quickly finds himself ensnared in her magical trap. But Cleve has ungodly powers of his own—powers that lay siege to Wynne’s heart and threaten her resolve. Girded for battle, they vow to vanquish each other, but will raw, consuming passion defeat them both?DIV /div /div

The first thorough assessment of the field of comparative religion in forty years, this groundbreaking volume surmounts the seemingly intractable division between postmodern scholars who reject the comparative endeavor and those who affirm it. The contributors demonstrate that a broader vision of religion, involving different scales of comparison for different purposes, is both justifiable and necessary. A Magic Still Dwells brings together leading historians of religions from a wide range of backgrounds and vantage points, and draws from traditions as diverse as Indo-European mythology, ancient Greek religion, Judaism, Buddhism, Ndembu ritual, and the spectrum of religions practiced in America. The contributors take seriously the postmodern critique, explain its impact on their work, uphold or reject various premises, and in several cases demonstrate new comparative approaches. Together, the essays represent a state-of-the-art assessment of current issues in the comparative study of religion.

With this influential book of essays, Jonathan Z. Smith has pointed the academic study of religion in a new theoretical direction, one neither theological nor willfully ideological. Making use of examples as apparently diverse and exotic as the Maori cults in nineteenth-century New Zealand and the events of Jonestown, Smith shows that religion must be construed as conventional, anthropological, historical, and as an exercise of imagination. In his analyses, religion emerges as the product of historically and geographically situated human ingenuity, cognition, and curiosity—simply put, as the result of human labor, one of the decisive but wholly ordinary ways human beings create the worlds in which they live and make sense of them. "These seven essays . . . display the critical intelligence, creativity, and sheer common sense that make Smith one of the most methodologically sophisticated and suggestive historians of religion writing today. . . . Smith scrutinizes the fundamental problems of taxonomy and comparison in religious studies, suggestively redescribes such basic categories as canon and ritual, and shows how frequently studied myths may more likely reflect situational incongruities than vaunted mimetic congruities. His final essay, on Jonestown, demonstrates the interpretive power of the historian of religion to render intelligible that in our own day which seems most bizarre."—Richard S. Sarason, Religious Studies Review

The exotic island of Madeira is the perfect escape for an Englishwoman fleeing an arranged marriage—until she’s taken captive by a vengeful pirate One of the wealthiest heiresses in England, Eliza Thoroughgood is the ideal catch for the right man. But the husband her parents have chosen for her is a paragon of masculinity and urbane wit, while Eliza is shy and bookish and detests the public eye. So she comes up with the perfect escape from the perfect bridegroom: She will accompany her young cousin, Aubrey, to the sultry island of Madeira, where he can recuperate from a riding injury. Eliza has never been to sea, and she’s in for the adventure of her life when she and Aubrey are taken hostage by a vengeful buccaneer. Cyprian Dare has waited his whole life to destroy the nobleman who abandoned his mother and made him a bastard. He doesn’t believe in fate or luck—until the Lady Haberton sails out of port, setting in motion his abduction of his half-brother Lord Haberton’s heir. But he hadn’t planned on the boy’s beautiful, fiercely protective cousin. Desire is the wild card as Eliza awakens emotions Cyprian has never allowed himself to feel before. Can a woman’s loving touch heal the heart of a man who lives only for revenge?

Enjoy this thrilling portal fantasy series by USA Today Bestselling urban fantasy author Sarah Biglow... Reclaiming her throne is only the beginning… Morgan le Fey may have returned to modern-day Camelot, but settling into her new role as heir apparent is anything but easy. A simple witch at heart, the scrutiny of her every move proves stifling. When the threat of war looms over her newfound home, Morgan leaps at the chance to act. Morgan’s magic leads her back to the streets of London on the hunt for the Holy Grail. Her return to the city also reunites her with her childhood friend and her first witch knight. Along the way, Morgan struggles to blend her old life with the destiny unfolding before her. Their search takes them from the Tower of London to ancient abbeys and through the city’s magical underbelly. The closer Morgan and her companions get to unearthing the Grail’s true location, the more danger lurks. Even if Morgan can lay hands on the mythical object, will she be able to control its power and keep it from falling into enemy hands? Or will her first quest end in tragedy? HER AMBER CHALICE is the second book in the Guardians of Arthurian-inspired Camelot portal fantasy series by USA Today Bestselling Author Sarah Biglow and is part of the Seasons of Magic universe. The Guardians of Camelot series is best enjoyed in order. You can begin Morgan's journey in book 1, Her Sapphire Blade.

Focusing on how spiritual initiation takes place in Western esoteric religious, literary, and artistic traditions from antiquity to the present, Restoring Paradise provides an introduction to Western esotericism, including early modern esoteric movements like alchemy, Christian theosophy, and Rosicrucianism. The author argues that European and American literature and art often entail a written transmission of spiritual knowledge in which writing itself works to transmute consciousness, to generate, provoke, or convey spiritual awakening. He focuses on several important figures whose work has not received the attention it deserves, including American writer and Imagist poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and British painter Cecil Collins, among others. While Arthur Versluis presents a new way of understanding Western esotericism in a contemporary light, above all he has crafted a book about knowing, and about how we come to know, and what "knowing" by way of literature and language actually means.