Against his will, Thaden was transported elsewhere in a big flash of light along with millions of other Humans from Earth, to a place where they would train to become Contenders in a whole new world. Unfortunately for him, something occurred during his transference into the “Training” program, and he was ejected from the whole training process and sent into the open mouth of an active volcano for bodily disposal. Through a miraculous and horrifying series of events, Thaden managed to survive, only to find himself alone in the middle of a dungeon with no clothes, no weapons, and no way to defend himself. Worst of all, the strange new Assimilation System automatically assigned a Class to him without his knowledge, which ended up sticking him with a Support-based Class that has absolutely no offensive capabilities. As an Assistant Healer, none of his spells did any damage and he couldn’t even pick up a weapon to defend himself if he wanted to! But all hope isn’t lost, as Thaden quickly learns something unique about himself that might just allow him to survive long enough to escape the dungeon. Sure, all his new magical spells might be focused on healing and protection, but what does it mean when he seemingly won’t ever run out of Mana…?
Nix Monroe has a plan. Infiltrate the Enigma app and lure out whoever his cousin was last speaking with before everything went to shit. Nix won’t stop until he finds answers, even if that means transferring to a different university and getting entangled with the infamous Demons of Foxglove Grove.
The modern world can get messy. Fortunately, Swiss artist Ursus Wehrli is a man of obsessive order, as he demonstrates with eye-catching surprise in The Art of Clean Up . Already a bestseller in Germany, this compulsive title has sold more than 100,000 copies in less than a year, and the fastidiously arranged images have garnered blog love from NPR, Brain Pickings, swissmiss, and more. Tapping into the desire for organization and the insanity of über-order, Wehrli humorously categorizes everyday objects and situations by color, size, and shape. He arranges alphabet soup into alphabetical order, sorts the night sky by star size, and aligns sunbathers' accoutrements—all captured in bright photographs sure to astonish even the pickiest of neat freaks.
Zorian Kazinski has all the time in the world to get stronger, and he plans on taking full advantage of it. A teenage mage of humble birth and slightly above-average skill, Zorian is attending his third year of education at Cyoria's magical academy. A driven and quiet young man, he is consumed by a desire to ensure his own future and free himself of the influence of his family, resenting the Kazinskis for favoring his brothers over him. Consequently, Zorian has no time for pointless distractions, much less other people's problems. As it happens, though, time is something he is about to get plenty of. On the eve of Cyoria's annual summer festival, Zorian is murdered, then abruptly brought back to the beginning of the month, just before he was about to take the train to school. Finding himself trapped in a time loop with no clear end or exit, he will have to look both within and without to unravel the mystery set before him. He does have to unravel it, too, because the loop clearly wasn’t made for his sake, and in a world of magic even a time traveler isn't safe from those who wish him ill. Fortunately for Zorian, repetition is the mother of learning…
Tea-Maven Theodosia Browning brews up trouble in the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs. Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party. Which means elevenses (sloe gin fizzes), gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede. But as gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor's lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death. His wife, Meredith, is beside herself with grief and begs Theodosia and Drayton to stay the night. But Theodosia awakens at 2:00A.M. to find smoke in her room and the house on fire. As the fire department screams in and the investigating sheriff returns, Meredith again pleads with Theodosia for help. As Theodosia investigates, fingers are pointed, secrets are uncovered, Reginald's daughter-in-law goes missing presumed drowned, and Meredith is determined to find answers via a seance. All the while Theodosia worries if she's made a mistake in inviting a prime suspect to her upscale Lavender Lady Tea.