Showing results by narrator "Chelsea Stephens" in All Categories

Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years she’s been collecting a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she’s received. Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations. Only then will the beads disappear. Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer. He’s a man who can get you anything you want … at a price. And everyone knows that sooner or later he always collects. But for one client, he’s never asked for repayment. Not until now.

In Dreams of the Overworked, Christine M. Beckman and Melissa Mazmanian offer vivid sketches of daily life for nine families, capturing what it means to live, work, and parent in a world of impossible expectations, now amplified unlike ever before by smart devices. We are invited into homes and offices, where we recognize the crushing pressure of unraveling plans, and the healing warmth of being together. Moreover, we witness the constant planning that goes into a "good" day, often with the aid of phones and apps. 

For almost thirty years, Shirley Jackson Award–winning horror author Gemma Files has consistently served up tale after tale celebrating monstrosity in all its forms: the imperfect, the broken, the beautifully alien, and the sadly familiar. Her characters make their own choices and take their own chances, slipping from darkness into deeper darkness yet never losing their humanity—not even when they’re anything but.

Nineteen years ago, I was plucked from the heart of a bloody massacre that spared nobody else. Small. Fragile. An enigma. Now ward to a powerful High Master who knows too much and says too little, I lead a simple life, never straying from the confines of an imaginary line I've drawn around the castle grounds.

In the beginning, there was darkness. Before he met Callie, before he became the Bargainer, there was Desmond Flynn, the bastard son of a scribe. A boy born to a weak mother, cursed with little magic, and destined to marry a slave. But fate had something else in mind. From the barren caves of Arestys to the palace of Somnia to the streets of earth, this is how Desmond Flynn, a fairy who began with nothing, became the Emperor of Evening Stars.

One hundred and ten years ago, Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy, devised a very different method of educating children, based on her observations of how they naturally learn. In Montessori, Angeline Stoll Lillard shows that science has finally caught up with Maria Montessori. Lillard presents the research behind nine insights that are foundations of Montessori education, describing how each of these insights is applied in the Montessori classroom.  

The latest edition of Instagram for Business for Dummies puts you in the picture on how to showcase your product, craft your narrative, and gather insight into how your customers experience and react to your business. Presented in straightforward, practical language by three Instagram and marketing gurus, you'll swiftly go from setting up your account and profile to applying strategies for creating content that deliver super-engaged customers. 

In The Anunnaki Connection, Heather Lynn connects a diverse range of new and existing theories about the Anunnaki, offering a definitive guide to Mesopotamian gods while exploring what role they might have played in engineering mankind. The Anunnaki Connection traces the evolution of gods throughout the Ancient Near East, analyzing the religion, myth, art, and symbolism of the Sumerians, investigating: Who are the Anunnaki?

Siren Callypso Lillis still wears the physical reminders of her time as Karnon’s captive, even after reuniting with soulmate Desmond Flynn, the King of Night. Not only that, but mounting evidence suggests the Thief of Souls, the being responsible for the disappearance of countless fae warriors, is still out there. Invited to an annual Solstice celebration, Callie and Des journey to the Kingdom of Flora to continue their investigation. But under the bright lights and striking blooms of the realm, new complications arise, ones that no amount of bargaining can undo.

For Callypso Lillis, the fae magic that now runs through her veins is equal parts curse and good fortune. While it bonds her to Desmond Flynn, her soul mate and the King of Night, it also leaves her newly vulnerable to the Thief of Souls, who wants to break the Otherworld … and Callie along with it. But it’s not just the Thief whose shadow looms over the fae realms. Des’s father, the previous King of Night, has returned from the dead, and he wants revenge on the son who sent him to the grave in the first place.

When Amethyst Faye was six years old, she was almost stolen by a monster in the woods on the same night her mother mysteriously disappeared. Ten years, a half-dozen psychiatrists, and a slew of diagnoses haven’t made things any better; she is still plagued by nightmares, ridiculed at school, and misunderstood by everyone from her teachers to her counselor to her father. And lately she’s been sprouting thick green thorns out of her skin.

Reunited with Brian and Sydney, Jaden and Malia Kwan are now hunting down their nemesis, trying to stop him from killing off Salvatore's brethren. But before long, they discover that the clandestine organization, Majestic, has infiltrated the highest levels of the United States government in preparation for global conquest. Can Malia and Jaden stop them before it's too late?

The arrival of the Malor spacecraft proved, once and for all, that humanity is not alone in the universe...the path of destruction it left behind showed that aliens are not always friendly. Remaining on Earth, Sydney and Brian must now face the aftermath of the Malor invasion. When a mysterious stranger shows up on Sydney's doorstep in the middle of the night, she's drawn into an urgent mystery: There has been a massive increase in alien abductions around the globe, despite the breakdown of Malor technology - and someone powerful is trying to keep it quiet. 

Any conversation about effective teaching must begin with a consideration of how students learn. However, instructors may find a gap between resources that focus on the technical research on learning and those that provide practical classroom strategies. How Learning Works provides the bridge for such a gap. Distilling the research literature and translating the scientific approach into language relevant to a college or university teacher, this book introduces seven general principles of how students learn. 

Astoria Tempest has lived countless lives, but none that truly belonged to her. Cursed with immortality and the ability to return the dead, she's spent over a century fleeing grief, guilt, and the trail of second chances she never had the right to give. But when she bargains her husband's soul to save their daughter, the scales tip too far and Death comes to collect all she's stolen. Except Death isn't a shadow or a scythe. He's a man with cold eyes, a sharper tongue, and a ledger of names with hers at the top.

Problems just keep piling up for Nicolette ‘Nic’ Saracini. The biggest? Her best friend Will is getting married, which is fine except it means the end of an era. Since childhood the two have been inseparable, sharing the same tastes in music, movies, and, most importantly, women. The two have been wingmanning each other for the better part of a decade. From highschool prom, to frat parties in college, to smoky dive bars in adulthood, the two have been helping each other score for as long either of them can remember. But weddings have always been their favorite hunting ground.

Seconds from a meteoric career launch, cellist Courtney Starling suffers a frightening migraine attack during a key performance. While harmful rumors fly, she escapes to her happy place—her best friend’s Kansas bookshop. Courtney’s working incognito when a scream sends her leaping off a shelving ladder to find the woman who screamed cowering near the register.

Despite her success setting a self-supported Fastest Known Time record on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013, Heather “Anish” Anderson still had such deep-seated insecurities that she became convinced her feat had been a fluke. So two years later she set out again, this time hiking through mud, rocks, and mountain blazes to crush her constant self-doubt and seek the true source of her strength and purpose. The 2,189 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Maine to Georgia, did not make it easy.

A professional toxicologist and health writer offers an enlightening and accessible room-by-room guide to identifying and removing potentially toxic items, along with suggestions for safe, affordable alternatives. From the bedroom mattress and pillows to daily cleaning products for the kitchen...

Prince Anryn of Ammar has spent his life striving to please his father, the legendary Lightning King. He studies, fences, burns witches at the stake. But when assassins strike, he is left wounded and alone in the mountains, wondering if his father ordered his death. There he meets Maertyn Blackfire, a cursed witch who has lived too long. In Anryn he sees what no one else dares: a curse like his own, trapping a woman’s soul in a man’s body. Bound by survival, Maertyn vows to protect the prince on a quest to uncover the would-be killer.