Burlington Public Library

"Vesper Wright is in hell. The night she gets fired from her unglamorous restaurant job, she comes home to find an envelope waiting on her doorstep. There's no return address, but she knows exactly who it's from--her estranged family. Inside the envelope is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper's cousin and childhood best friend Rosemary, the one person she regrets losing touch with. She's getting married at the family home. A home that, according...

DESCRIPTION In the city of Egunu, Nigeria, fifteen year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a somewhat cloistered life. Their father is a wealthy businessman, they live in a beautiful home, and attend private school. But, through Kambili's eyes, we see that their home life is anything but harmonious. Her father, a fanatically religious man has impossible expectations of his children and his wife, and if things don't go his way he becomes physically...

To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, "the last four things" represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The last four things represent eternal bliss-or endless destruction, permanent chaos, and infinite pain. Perhaps nowhere are the competing ideas of heaven and hell exhibited more clearly than in the dark and tormented soul of Thomas Cale. Betrayed by his beloved...

A retelling of Snow White and Rose Red in which teenage twins Ivory and Rosie battle evil religious extremists to save their loves and their circus family.

Sixteen-year-old Thomas Cale has grown up imprisoned at the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, a fortress run by a secretive sect of warrior monks. He is one of thousands of boys who train all day in hand-to-hand combat, in preparation for a coming holy war. As far as Cale knows, this is the only existence there is--until one day he discovers a door and opens it. Then Cale goes on a journey of danger and discovery, coming to realize that he alone has the...

"Jonathan Blake makes a living stealing antiquities -- stealing them back, that is. A field agent for the Argo Foundation, a company that makes it their business to preserve humanity's history by liberating stolen artifacts from thieves and looters, Blake is used to dangerous assignments. But when he is forced by the US government into a deadly mission involving a missing Napoleonic standard, he finds himself in over his head. Blake is pitted against...

Follows the adventures of sixteen-year-old Thomas, one of thousands of imprisoned youths being trained in combat by warrior monks who becomes aware of his secret destiny after a daring escape.

Imagine living in a world where depression is not regarded as a disease, but as Satan trying to steal your soul. Imagine turning to your priest. He counsels you to take the Cross and travel thousands of miles to the Holy Land to kill people so you can be free of Satan forever. Imagine you believe this so fervently that none of the rational arguments offered by your parents, your friends or your beloved persuade you otherwise. The journey costs everything...

Centuries ago, the human race fought its first great war against an alien race and lost. A tiny population of human beings fled to distant Safehold. Centuries later, their descendants have forgotten their history; for them, life has been an eternal Middle Ages, ruled by the Church of God Awaiting, whose secret purpose is to prevent the re-emergence of industrial civilization. But not all of Safehold's founders were on board with this plan. Those dissidents...