Showing results by narrator "Stewart Crank" in All Categories

Fae games will change you . . . but their love will ruin you. At least, that's what my mother told me. My mother had three rules: 1. Never make a bargain with a fairy. 2. Never enter the Waywoods on a hunting day. 3. Never give the High Fae princes a reason to notice you. But even when I followed all the rules, the royal fae still took my family from me. So in one night I broke all three rules, and brought the kingdom to their knees.

Our politics are broken; our world is melting; the next catastrophe looms. Enter James Parker, who for years now has been writing odes of appreciation on subjects from the seemingly minor ("Ode to Naps") to the unexpected ("Ode to Giving People Money") to the seemingly minor, unexpected, and hyperspecific ("Ode to Running in Movies"). Finally collecting Parker's beloved and much-lauded odes in one place, this volume demonstrates the profound power of the form.

The man who has been brought to Gemma's home to recover from wounds suffered at the hands of the English is not like any man she has ever known—cold and dark, as stormy as the windswept sea. But Gemma pretends to pays him no mind, waiting on her long-lost love to return. This man will leave, and with him the strange fascination she entertains to know more of him.

Scotland at the beginning of the fourteenth century is not a peaceful place. Ross Kildare and his depleted army are headed home after months away, fighting the English, gaining no ground. In their travels, they come upon a scene of unspeakable horror, which pierces the hearts of even these hardened and battle-weary warriors.

"It’s a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, it’ll be the hardest thing that’s been done in the Himalayas." Thus spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unscaled West Wall of Changabang - the Shining Mountain - in 1976. Bonington’s was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition.

In a post-apocalyptic world where all the women have died a group of men and boys survive. The story shall be told to preserve the past. History has gone back to its aural roots and the power of words is strong. Meet Nate, the storyteller, and the new secrets he brings back from the woods. William rules the group with youth and strength, but how long can that last? What about Uncle Ted, who spends so much time out in the woods? And what of mushrooms like heads, on the graves of women? Discover the Beauty.

Some children dream of running away to join the Night Market. I did so to escape a nightmare. Still, being forced into an overheated tent to read fortunes until sunrise has its trials—naturally. But when he visits me, I suffer for entirely different reasons. Stars above, Rhylen Lonan is the most beautiful faerie I've ever known. A Raven shifter with long black hair, dark purple eyes, and magic that stirs my own. Each Night Market, in exchange for a generous slice of cake and a delicious morsel of gossip, I read him three cards.

Having narrowly averted an (under)world war, Cat Crawfield wants nothing more than a little downtime with her vampire husband, Bones. Unfortunately, her gift from New Orleans’ voodoo queen just keeps on giving—leading to a personal favor that sends them into battle once again, this time against a villainous spirit.

On 30 January, 1981 Joe Tasker and Ade Burgess stood at 24,000 feet on the west ridge of Mount Everest. Below them were their companions, some exhausted, some crippled by illness, all virtually incapacitated. Further progress seemed impossible. Everest the Cruel Way is Joe Tasker's story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth - an attempt which pushed a group of Britain's finest mountaineers to their limits. The goal had been to climb Mount Everest at its hardest: via the infamous west ridge, without supplementary oxygen and in winter.

Alec MacBriar crashes into the cottage of a healer and drops his wounded captain onto the table, commanding that the woman save his friend. Katie Oliver is terrified of the giants in her small home, but has no choice but to comply, hoping only to tend the wounded man and send them on their way, praying they cause no trouble to her or her son.

Once a prisoner of the English, Nicholas MacRory cannot refuse so lucrative an offer: rescue the daughter of the powerful John de Graham and in return, the baron will invest his faithfulness, coin, and his considerable army in the Sottish cause. Nicholas doesn't count on resistance, or that the strong-willed lass will challenge the veracity of his claims, that he is there to take her home. And he certainly doesn't plan on being bitten by a fascination with the brave and breathtaking Alice.

It was a simple job. All I had to do was steal a ring from a mainland witch for the Thieves' Guild that owned me. Easy enough, right? The reward would bring me closer to earning my freedom. And stars above, I wanted off this floating luxury island. But then he showed up, a cocky thief from a rival guild, and ruined all my plans.

Meggie Hope thinks herself quite clever, though she's never once stepped foot outside her home, Muirfield Hall. She is, in fact, no match for the intoxicating charms of Gabriel Jamison, her own betrothed. She cannot ever wed him, of course. She is afflicted with a curse that says that any man who seeks her hand will meet death before he weds her, unless there is love. When suitors begin falling prey to the curse, and Meg's father won't listen to reason and betroths her yet again, this time to Gabriel Jamison, she runs away rather than be held responsible for another's demise.

Patch Brightwater and his friend Barver, the dracogriff, are trapped on a mysterious island full of monstrous beasts. Their shape-shifting friend, Wren, is being held prisoner by the Piper of Hamelyn, but she's working hard to escape. Clad in his suit of magical black armour and with dragons and a growing army on his side, the Piper of Hamelyn seems destined to bring chaos and destruction down on the world. Can anything stop him?

I guess trying to catch the bus with your laces undone isn’t such a smart decision after all… One fatal collision later, and I’m facing my judgment. As it turns out, I’ve been a lazy sob, and my short, uneventful life of playing games and getting up late wasn’t worth much. And so I don’t qualify to move on to the afterlife. I try to argue to the goddess in front of me that I do have skills, that it was hard work playing those simulation and management games. But she will not concede. In the end, I manage to get the benefit of the doubt, and a wager is made.

On the run from the horrid man to whom her father has betrothed her, Maggie Bryce is caught in a wild winter storm, forced to take refuge in a highland cave.

Underhill is my ruthless mother. Her realm is my deadly home. The brutal creatures here are both foe and friend. But the group of fae that just attacked me? They’re all foe. Dragged from my game of hide-and-seek with a dragon, and my home of twenty-one years, I’m thrust into a weak, ugly realm. Earth. Something is taking the fae children of the Irish court, and an Oracle has declared I must find them. Nope. Not my problem. Bye. Except a three-year-old girl they suspect is the next Queen of All Fae was taken too.

It was Daisy's birthday, and Adam had the perfect gift for his fiancée. A dozen red roses? Jewellery? A weekend in Paris? Nope.... A set of bathroom scales. Sadly, Adam's poor judgement goes way beyond god-awful gifts. He's been cursed by a lack of common sense. Now, he's about to make the worst decision of his life and stands to lose the love of his life. Enter Mungo Thunk: an odd little man who claims he can fix Adam's thinking once and for all. Can Adam really trust the mysterious stranger's bizarre brand of therapy, or will he come to rue the day he met Mungo Thunk?

After narrowly escaping death, police officer Robyn Penhaligon leaves behind her life in Boston in search of some answers. Starting with Mac Galbraith, the Scottish father who abandoned her to pursue his career in private security. To reconnect with Mac, Robyn will finally meet a man she's long resented. Lachlan Adair. Hostility instantly brews between Robyn and Lachlan. She thinks the head of the Adair family is high-handed and self-important.

For Regan Penhaligon, there's no better place to run to than the exclusive Ardnoch Estate in the remote Scottish Highlands. Her impulsive behavior has finally caught up with her and Regan's visit with her sister, Robyn, is an opportunity to hide from someone who has grown dangerously obsessed with her. Determined to make amends for her mistakes, Regan plans to repair her relationship with Robyn by staying close. And when an offer of help comes from Thane Adair, Regan gratefully accepts.