Showing results by narrator "Zach Villa" in All Categories

A new update arrives to the ultra-popular online game, Realm of Arkon. With Patch 17, the level of immersion experienced by players in their gaming capsules has made virtual reality indistinguishable from the real world. But every gamer's dream becomes a nightmare for Roman Kozhevnikov after he gets confined to Arkon against his will. And not just to Arkon, but to its deadliest zone - Demon Grounds. Playing - or rather living - as his character Krian, it's not just about survival for Roman.

I start my story with the day I first saw Jesse Pegler. That was when my whole life first started changing. Sixteen-year-old Opal Ringer is the daughter of Royal Ringer, the Pentecostal leader of a motley flock of down-on-their-luck believers. Jesse Pegler is the son of Brother Pegler. An "evangelist for Jesus", the elder Pegler is a flashy minister who appears regularly on television in his blue robes and gold tassels. Opal and Jesse meet at a faith healing at the Helping Hand Tabernacle church, where Opal's daddy preaches.

Inspired largely by the poet's experiences as a young man working in the Saskatchewan oilfields, Mathew Henderson's The Lease explores masculinity and the roles morality, violence, and hard labor play in it. Equal parts character study, cultural documentary, and coming-of-age narrative, Henderson's poems make it clear that however we may try to stay apart from them, the stubborn and often unflattering realities of masculine culture persist, not just in isolated, dangerous environments like this, but in our very idea of what work is.

The Knights of Solamnia were the greatest order of chivalry in the history of Krynn. All those who wish to become Solamnic Knights must first enter as squires of the Knights of the Crown, with whom they begin their training in the virtue of loyalty. This is the story of Sir Pirvan the Wayward, whose reluctant and inauspicious beginnings as Pirvan the Spell Thief bore few clues to his potential as a Knight of the Crown.

Violet Fairdale is in big trouble. Her home is gone, her beloved forest lies in ruins, the guy she gave her heart to has deserted her - and she doesn't remember any of it. The powerful Lord Draven is taking over, brainwashing guardians into fighting for him. No one is safe from the evil spreading throughout the fae world.

Guardian trainee Violet Fairdale is just weeks away from one of the most important occasions of her life: graduation. After messing up big time by bringing a human into the fae realm, Vi needs to step up her game and forget about Nate if she hopes to graduate as the top guardian of her year.

The flames of war spread through the Cursed Princedom to devastating effect. Bound by powerful centuries-old magic, the Great Essences yearn to regain their freedom. In the face of an impossible mission, Krian has no choice but to keep going while risking everything that's become dear to him. The only solution is to become stronger and forget the meaning of the word impossible. And so a plangent wolf's howl soars over the battlefield as a plate-clad cavalry rushes the enemy ranks....

Life works in mysterious ways. Four years ago, I became known as the girl with cancer. I refuse to cry. And I refuse to give in. A relationship with a man is the last thing I'm looking for right now, but one night with Parker changes everything. He is persistent, and he knows what he wants. He doesn't treat me like I'm fragile. But he doesn't know, and I'm not ready to tell him.

The Knights of Solamnia were the greatest order of chivalry in the history of Krynn. After a knight has achieved the Order of the Crown and the Order of the Sword, he must then begin his training in the virtues of wisdom and justice in order to achieve the Order of the Rose, the highest of all orders. This is the third tale of Sir Pirvan the Wayward, whose reluctant and inauspicious beginnings bore few clues to his potential as a knight of the highest order. In a time when others of Solamnia had become corrupt and self-serving, Sir Pirvan maintained the dignity of the Order.

Aidan desires only one thing: to rule. Arrogant, headstrong and driven by the element of Fire, he will stop at nothing to bring the evil Howls that destroyed Scotland to their knees. But Fire is a treacherous element, and the very magic that brought him to power could burn his world to ash. Especially with the blood of his fellow Hunters on his hands.

The greatest order of chivalry in the history of Krynn. After a knight has achieved the Order of the Crown, he must then begin his training in the virtues of courage and heroism in order to achieve the Order of the Sword. This is the second tale of Sir Pirvan the Wayward, whose reluctant and inauspicious beginnings bore few clues to his potential as a Knight of the Sword or as a Knight of the Crown, nor as a mentor for another similarly dubious prospect for Krynn's greatest order of chivalry.

Twenty-four-year-old Summer Johnson knows two things. The first is that due to a quickly worsening medical condition, she faces a risky surgery in three months' time that may or may not end in her death. The second is that she would like to fall in love before then.

I've found it's easy to share my body but not my soul. I need no one, yet I crave her. Self-assured and independent, she doesn't need me, but she wants me, and undeniably I want her too. At war with myself as I battle the secrets of my past, I don't know if I can allow her to see the darkest parts of me, the parts I've left untouched - undone. As she chips away at the walls I've built for years, I fear those secrets will hold me hostage from love forever.

Lindsay Christianson seemingly has it all, until one phone call changes everything and forces her to choose between her perfect life and her professional dreams. The choice seems clear when the opportunity to propel her career abruptly sends her across the country, leaving everything she loves behind. Navigating a new city with a broken heart and a job where her colleagues will do anything to sabotage her, the pressure quickly becomes too great.

During the wedding festivities of his king, Cyan Dag, a knight of Gloinmere, is sought out by a mysterious bard and told a terrifying tale: that the king has married a false queen - a lie cloaked in ancient and powerful sorcery. Spurred on by his steadfast honor and loyalty, Cyan departs on a dangerous quest to rescue the real queen from her tower prison, to prevent war, and to awaken magic in a land that has lost its way.

Despite his humble beginnings, Sir Pirvan has managed to ascend to the highest orders of the knights of Solamnia. Along the way, he has become known as the founder of an obscure group of knights whose own dubious pasts have helped to dub them the Wayward Knights. On the verge of a well-deserved retirement, Sir Pirvan once again answers the call of duty and the only allies he can rely on now are the Wayward Knights he himself recruited so many years ago.

In this second book of the Dark Souls series, fate curses the brothers, and they must navigate ancient deceits and potent forewarnings to save the ones they love. Can the two enemies become each other’s saviors? Or will the Circles fall and love fade?

We Are Unprepared is a novel about the next big storm, the one that changes our relationship to nature and each other...the superstorm that threatens to destroy a marriage, a rural Vermont town, and the Eastern Seaboard when it hits. But the destruction begins months earlier, when fear infects people's lives and spreads like a plague.

Kyle and Kelsey Kupecky couldn't have dreamed a better love story for themselves had it been scripted by a best-selling novelist like Kelsey's mom, Karen Kingsbury. In fact if you asked them, Kyle and Kelsey would name God as the author of their story. And they're glad they trusted him to write it for them. Unfortunately, too many girls hoping for their own happily ever afters have taken matters into their own hands, chasing after boys when they should be chasing after God.

I've always wanted a family of my own, but never dreamed I could have one. Now Parker's ready to make my dream our reality. But sometimes our dreams are haunted by our deepest fears. Fears of failure, having a child, and in our case...death. How do I help the person I love get over his fear when I'm still trying to overcome that same fear myself?