Showing results by narrator "Michael Crouch" in All Categories

Seventeen-year-old Aidan Lockwood lives in the sleepy farming community of Temperance, Ohio - known for its cattle ranches and not much else. That is, until Jarrod, a friend he hasn't seen in five years, moves back to town and opens Aidan's eyes in startling ways: to Aidan's ability to see the spirit world; to the red-bearded specter of Death; to a family curse that has claimed the lives of the Lockwood men one by one...and to the new feelings he has developed for Jarrod.

In the heart of Soeria, where royal bloodlines carve the paths of destiny, Prince Darien Garros, the kingdom's beloved second son, faces the age-old clash between duty and desire. For years, Darien has dodged the court's expectations to find a suitable match, yearning instead for a love that values the man behind the crown. His longing seems answered in Tag Leara, whose charm and genuine affection ignite a hope Darien dared not admit. Yet, fate is a fickle master.

Forced to move into the palace, Jessa begins training as a Color Alchemist under the direction of the kingdom's most eligible bachelor, Prince Lucas. As an alchemist, Jessa must capture and harness the color of living things. Every color has a unique purpose except red. Red is the untapped magic no one can access - until Jessa.

It's been a year since the Catalog Killer terrorized the sleepy seaside town of Camera Cove, killing four people before disappearing without a trace. Like everyone else in town, 18-year-old Mac Bell is trying to put that horrible summer behind him - easier said than done since Mac's best friend Connor was the murderer's final victim.

Kylee is ensconsed in the Sky Castle, training with Mem Uku to master the Hollow Tongue and the Ghost Eagle. But political intrigue abounds and court drama seems to seep through the castle's stones like blood from a broken feather. Meanwhile, Brysen is still in the Six Villages, preparing for an attack by the Kartami. The Villages have become Uztar's first line of defense, and refugees are flooding in from the plains.

A lonely 12-year-old boy spends his days “stuck” at the deserted Hollow Pines Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina, with no recollection of his name, how long he’s been there, and no idea how to leave. Things never change much for the lost souls at Hollow Pines and time is strange when you’re dead.

Trembling in the wake of devastating treachery, can the Loxely sisters finally bring down the royals and all they stand for? Jessa and Sasha are finally united in the cause of saving their kingdom and bringing their family back together. The sisters will face their greatest tests yet. Jessa's wedding is coming up faster than she can stop it, but it's Sasha who is running out of time. Things aren't as they seem in the palace, and the one person who can save them is the one they swore to never trust again.

Grad student Will Dillard has largely buried memories of the summer he spent at a camp intended to "cure" homosexuality. But when he finds out a horror movie based on the camp is hitting theaters, he's forced to face his past - and his role in another camper's death. As he recounts the events surrounding his "failed rehabilitation", Will strikes out on an impromptu road trip back home to Mississippi, eventually returning to the abandoned campgrounds to solve the mysteries of that pivotal summer.

Nico, Opal, Tyler, Emma and Logan survived their worst fears come to life and saved their town from a monstrous figment invasion. Now they want to keep their heads down, enjoy Halloween and explore the secrets of their mysterious houseboat clubhouse. And also figure out their new Torchbearer responsibilities as keepers of the Darkdeep, an ancient whirlpool hidden in Still Cove that can make both dreams and nightmares into reality.

It's been more than a year since Simon and Blue turned their anonymous online flirtation into an IRL relationship and just a few months since Abby and Leah's unforgettable night at senior prom. Now the Creekwood High crew are first years at different colleges, navigating friendship and romance the way their story began - on email.

Thirteen-year-old Simon Renier has no idea when he boards the M.S. Orion with his cousin Forsyth Phair that their journey to Venezuela will be a dangerous one. His original plan - to return a family heirloom, a portrait of Simon Bolivar, to its rightful place - is sidetracked when cousin Forsyth is found murdered. When the portrait is stolen, all passengers and crew are suspects. Simon's newfound friends, Poly and Charles O'Keefe, and their scientist father help Simon try to find his painting, and his cousin's murderer. But will they succeed before they land?

All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can't remember anything since an accident robbed him of his memories a few weeks ago. And the world feels different - reality itself seems different. So when three of his classmates claim to be his friends and the only people who can tell him what's truly going on, he doesn't know what to believe or who he can trust. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident.

In the spring of 1970, Harvard psychologist Terry Canyon is introduced to Peter, a quiet kid from a wealthy family who has been suspended from ninth grade for stripping off his clothes in algebra class. When Terry asks Peter why he did it, the boy explains that he was trying to “shock myself awake”. It turns out that Peter believes he is a 65-year-old man who went to sleep in his home in New York in the year 2020 and woke up in his childhood bedroom 50 years earlier.

An eight-year-old trauma victim is enlisted as an underground courier, rushing frozen organs through the alleys of Eastern Europe. A young janitor transforms discarded objects into a fantastical, sprawling miniature city until a shocking discovery forces him to rethink his creation. A brazen child tells off a pack of schoolyard tormentors with the spirited invention of an 11th commandment. A wounded man drives eastward, through tears and grief, toward an unexpected transcendence.

Known to most as Lemony Snicket, the tormented narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Daniel Handler spends his days writing—for children and adults; film and television; and, on occasion, the accordion. Tracing his life in books from his first encounter with Baudelaire at a local library, And Then? And Then? What Else? offers a witty, poignant exploration of reading, writing and why we tell stories.

Raised by conservative parents, 18-year-old Meg Hennessey just found out her entire childhood was a lie. Instead of taking a gap year before college to find herself, she ends up traveling north to meet what’s left of the family she never knew existed. While there, she meets Micah Allen, a former pastor’s kid whose dad ended up in prison, leaving Micah with his own complicated relationship about the church. The clock is ticking on Pastor Allen’s probation hearing, and Micah, now 19, feels the pressure to forgive - even when he can’t possibly forget.

When Lucas and Jessa parted ways, everything fell apart. No matter how foolish, no matter what it takes, Jessa is determined to learn the truth. Is Lucas really dead? But the price of answers might be higher than the cost she’s willing to pay. Turns out, the stakes are higher than ever. Sasha knows that better than anybody. She’s stranded on the wrong side of the border, caught between two amazing men. It seems both of them hold a piece of her conflicted heart. But there’s a war waging, lives are on the line, and true love must wait.

When Lane Fielding fled her isolated Florida hometown after high school for the anonymity of New York City, she swore she'd never return. But 20 years later, newly divorced and with two daughters in tow, she finds herself tending bar at the local dive and living with her parents on the historic Fielding Plantation. Here, the past haunts her and the sinister crimes of her father make her as unwelcome in town as she was the day she left. Ostracized by the people she was taught to trust, Lane's unsteady truce with the town is rattled when her older daughter suddenly vanishes.

This is Noah Oakman → 16, Bowie believer, concise historian, disillusioned swimmer, son, brother, friend. Then Noah → gets hypnotized. Now Noah → sees changes - inexplicable scars, odd behaviors, rewritten histories - in all those around him. All except his Strange Fascinations....

The Infinite Future is a mind-bending novel that melds two addictive tales in one. In the first, we meet three broken people, joined by an obsession with a forgotten Brazilian science-fiction author named Salgado-MacKenzie. The motley trio sets off to discover his identity, and find his fabled masterpiece. In the second half, Wirkus gives us the lost masterpiece itself - the actual text of The Infinite Future, Salgado-MacKenzie's wonderfully weird magnum opus.