Showing titles in Coming of Age

Tristan's Folly. An ageing fortress built over 50 years ago to repel the invading hordes of the Witch-King, Daleth, an invasion that never materialized - until now. Now the stronghold is a crumbling reflection of its former might, with a mere 1,500 men all that stand between Daleth's savage horde of a hundred thousand, and certain doom.

Globetrotting Libby Jacobs has lost her job but is looking forward to spending more time in her home village of Cranfield. She dreams of turning her chocolate-making hobby into something more permanent. There’s only one problem: Ethan Connolly. Despite being soul mates growing up, Libby hasn’t been close to Ethan since their disastrous date at the school prom. But now he’s back and he has just what Libby needs… a large kitchen! But can they even bear to be in the same room together?

Getting a life isn't always easy. And hanging on to it is even harder.... Jodi Taylor brings all her comic writing skills to this heartwarming tale of self-discovery. Known as The Nothing Girl because of her severe stutter and chronically low self-confidence, Jenny Dove is only just prevented from ending it all by the sudden appearance of Thomas, a mystical golden horse only she can see. Under his guidance Jenny unexpectedly acquires a husband - the charming and chaotic Russell Checkland.

Elphie is a girl like any other and no other. Nothing like her parents - one beautiful, the other pious - nor her saintly sister, Nessarose. Her skin is green, her mind is cunning. One day she will command this strange and wonderful world. For now, her journey is just beginning. The road ahead is full of lessons and heartbreak, the first bruising attempts at friendship - and tantalising whispers of magic. It will lead Elphie to the doors of Shiz University, and to the girl who will change her life forever.

It's always the husband...unless it's the best friend. Kate, Aubrey and Jenny are inseparable at college - friends who promised they'd always be there for each other. But 20 years later, their friendship is about to take a deadly turn. Kate married the gorgeous party boy, Aubrey married up, and Jenny married the boy next door, but when one of the friends dies in shocking circumstances, will everyone assume that it's always the husband? Or could it be the best friend?

This omnibus contains the first three novels of the Frith Chronicles, all of which are also sold separately: Knightmare Arcanist, Dread Pirate Arcanist, and Coliseum Arcanist. Volke Savan has always wanted to be an arcanist - someone who has bonded with a mystical creature and is capable of wielding magic. Phoenix arcanists can create fire and heal, hydra arcanists can create poison and recover from most injuries, and knightmare arcanists are masters of shadow and fear.

In the ruins of Caswell, Maine, Carter Bennett learned the truth of what had been right in front of him the entire time. And then it – he – was gone. Desperate for answers, Carter takes to the road, leaving family and the safety of his pack behind, all in the name of a man he only knows as a feral wolf. But therein lies the danger: wolves are pack animals, and the longer Carter is on his own, the more his mind slips toward the endless void of Omega insanity. But he pushes on, following the trail left by Gavin; the son of Robert Livingstone. The half-brother of Gordo Livingstone.

Willow is having quite the year. One moment she’s climbing the ladder of life achievements – the boyfriend, the grown-up house, the steady career – the next it’s 4pm and she’s swaddled in her duvet, wondering what went wrong. Blinking into the light of a day that looks completely unfamiliar, and alienated from her friends who are busy ‘moving forwards’, Willow has never felt more alone. But she’s in good company. Because when inspiration arrives from an unlikely source, Willow starts to rekindle a relationship she’s long neglected: the one with herself.

The first time Cassio meets his fiancée, she calls him “sir.” After losing his wife, Cassio is left to take care of two small children while trying to establish his rule over Philadelphia. Now he needs a mother for his children and someone who can warm his bed at night. But in a world as traditional as his, choosing your wife is duty not pleasure. Rules have to be followed, traditions heeded. That’s how he ends up with a woman - a girl - barely of age. She may not be what he and his children need, but she’s lovely and a sweet temptation he can’t resist.

A spellbinding and surreal coming-of-age story about a young boy living on the fringe with his family - who are secretly werewolves - and struggling to survive in a contemporary America that shuns them. He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his aunt Libby and uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixed blood, neither this nor that.

Jerra and his best mate Sean set off in a beaten-up old VW to go camping on the coast. Jerra's friends and family want to know when he will finish university, when he will find a girl. But they don't understand about Sean's mother, Jewel, or the bush or the fish with the pearl. They think he needs a job, but what Jerra is searching for is more elusive. Only the sea, and perhaps the old man who lives in a shack beside it, can help.

Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson - a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake - and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him.

All Ellie Robertson has wanted to be since childhood is a painter: after all, that’s the easiest way to speak without actually having to say anything. But now she’s turning thirty, has had a major career win, and is only just realising that she might have let some minor things slide. Like, for instance, working out how to love another human being. So Ellie decides to do what any normal person would do: paint a portrait of each of her exes, from the childhood crush to the woman she may or may not still be madly in love with.

Hapless Nate Hester yearns for the safety and affection of a group. He sets off on a hitchhiking trip to escape bad parenting and the Vietnam draft. Nate soon longs to be off the road. A drug dealer befriends him and introduces him to the Hells Angels. The Angels introduce him to the wonders of drug use and free sex, but the effects wane, and Nate leaps from mania to depression.

When Nina was just five years old, her family’s whole world was torn apart when her seventeen-year-old sister Tamara was found dead in the pool of their Cote d’Azur property. Nina’s evidence led to the conviction of their housekeeper’s daughter and occasional babysitter seventeen-year-old Josie for Tamara’s murder. But when new evidence emerges to suggest that Josie was innocent, Nina is forced to question the accuracy of her memories, her role in one of the most notorious cases of the past twenty years, and what actually happened to her sister on that hot summer day.

What would you do if you woke up 30 years older than you were yesterday? Brooklyn, 1982. Oona Lockhart and her boyfriend are about to ring in the New Year and Oona's 19th birthday. But seconds after the New Year begins, Oona is torn from her life and everyone she loves, finding herself in her 51-year-old body 33 years into the future. The life she had is gone, and all she is a letter from herself from the previous year to guide her. Each year on the stroke of midnight she finds herself resurfacing in a different year of her own adulthood.

Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing both her heritage and her growing love for her best friend Fran. Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Lonely and far from home, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher. Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo's nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in seedy bars. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light.

Seventeen-year-old June Scott has always dreamt of becoming a novelist. To write the greatest love story ever told. One that would fill hearts and souls with happiness and joy. However, June has never been in love and when she receives some devastating news, there doesn’t feel as if there’s much time left for her own beautiful love story. That’s until she meets Jesse Taylor who treats every day as if it could be his last. Which could be true. For them both. Together their worlds light up and a love so strong grows between them.

Some stories are universal. They play out across human history. And time is the river which will flow through them. It starts with a family, a family which will mutate. For now, it is a father, mother and two sons. One with his father’s violence in his blood. One who lives his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will change their fate. It is a beginning. Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of 2,000 years.

Best friends Eleanor and Fin are inseparable. They are convinced that it will always be this way. But to be sure, they make a pact to keep their lives intertwined. And of course, they'll get married if they're both 35 and single. Eleanor and Fin haven't spoken in 15 years. They live on different continents, but more than an ocean separates them. Everything has changed since the last time they met. So, when newly single Fin reappears, there's no way they can keep their promise. Is there?