Showing results by narrator "Beth Sarah" in All Categories

What drives someone to keep reaching for all that glitters, no matter the price? It’s easy to believe that more is better: more acclaim, more control, more wealth. But when dreams are fueled by greed, they can quickly twist into nightmares. These six propulsive short stories explore what happens when the true cost of ambition comes due.

Rachel has orchestrated the perfect plan to win back her husband’s attention. A bloody handprint. Signs of a struggle. And a disappearance staged by Rachel herself. He’ll follow the clues, rescue her, and feel needed again. But when Jake doesn’t come looking, Rachel realizes that their marriage has turned darker than she thought.

It is ever the nature of war to continue getting worse. The war Julietta remains stuck in is no exception. Though more and more threats start showing glimpses of themselves behind the scenes, Julietta can't deal with them while she's busy with boot camp. Even so-called superheroes need to learn how to shoot a rifle and work with a team, but the length and brutality of the war have not been kind to the training camps. Worse, after she graduates, Julietta will be thrust immediately into battle.

At fourteen, Penny Winters fell out of the closet and in love with her best friend, Misa Ito. But before they truly understood their feelings, Misa and her family were gone. Over a decade later, when Penny secures a job at a New York advertising agency, she has a second chance at first love when she's introduced to the lead account executive, Misa. But the road to happiness is riddled with potholes. Misa is still impossibly beautiful, but super cold. And Misa shows no recollection of Penny—the girl who once showed her how to skateboard, make daisy chain crowns, and shared every secret with.

Hot on the heels of her 2018 This Is Horror Award–winning short story collection Spectral Evidence, critically horror author Gemma Files compiles fifteen more of her most startling recent nightmares—a creepily seductive downward spiral of dark poetry and existential dread, entirely suitable to the slow apocalypse going on all around us. So take your mind off your troubles and send it somewhere the rules still operate, if only to punish those who violate them.

Hannah has a routine. Wake up, take a shower, go to school, go to work, come home, and pass out. It's a perfectly normal routine for a perfectly normal girl who does not have to remember how her limbs work every morning because of haunting nightmares of being a very different creature in a very different world. That's all she thinks they are—nightmares—until one night, they're all too lucid, and her body on Earth starts to change. Slowly, Hannah's humanity starts to slip away... but surely she can continue just sticking to the routine, right? It'll be fine. It has to be.

Sheryl Kyle isn't the trusting type. After all, her abusive late husband and her disapproving stepfather haven't given her much reason to feel otherwise. But when a rugged rancher named Mark seeks her out, she learns her stepfather is on his deathbed. And his dying wish is for her to return to Sweet Creek for one last chance to reconcile.

In 2025, the moon hatched and its child died. Things have since gotten worse. Some people have superpowers now, but so do the extradimensional invaders slowly wiping humanity out. By Julietta's eighteenth birthday, the war has been loss after loss for far longer than she's been alive, so she can't bring herself to be terribly shocked when the sky splits in half and weeps death. Surviving is the real surprise.

A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella with the slow build menace of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber—from a New York Times-bestselling author hailed by Chuck Wendig as "a storyteller working at the top of her class."

Living a life of grinding poverty in the General Laborer class, Alice's only hope was the System would someday notice her and reward her hard work. That day arrives when she discovers a System-seed, a one-time chance to change from the lowest to the highest of classes. Now, she is a rare minion-master in charge of an ever-growing horde of dragons. Dragons that will not stay small and cute forever. As each grows and multiplies, so does her power.

Out of the frying pan, and into the fire. Lilith’s life has been nothing if not eventful since she was decanted from her cloning tank. She’s encountered heroes and supervillains, survived attempts on her life, fought against supervillains, and moved to Paragon City. Unfortunately for her, superhumans like herself are prone to coincidences, even when villainous organizations aren’t targeting her. The invitation to attend a superhero convention is an innocuous start for her, one which allows her to attend with her lovers. Yet the plans of numerous groups are closing in.

A hilarious new middle grade novel from beloved and bestselling author Gordon Korman about what happens when the worst class of kids in school is paired with the worst teacher—perfect for fans of Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. A good choice for summer reading or anytime! The Unteachables are a...

Holly Ash is good actor. Just one downside: Most of the people she’s acting with have no idea they’re a part of her fiction. One that has been carefully constructed by the secretive company that Holly works for, known as D.O.P.L. Every assignment is a new role, a new name, a completely new self. Her newest role is “Margot” and her newest target: a boy her age named Will Aldrich.

For social worker Mallory Ward, working with at-risk youth is a calling. But when one of her clients is tragically killed, she finds herself at a crossroads. Despite long-held resentments toward her distant mother, Mallory retreats to her childhood home on the Rhode Island coast to contemplate her future. Instead, she’s confronted by her past, not only in the renewed tensions with her mother but in the unexpected appearance of a familiar face—and the wrenching losses that drove her away a decade ago.

Lilith wasn’t meant to be a person. Created by the supervillain Shadowmind, Lilith was intended to be little more than a replacement body. Yet a rare bout of curiosity led to Lilith being allowed to be born as an individual. With Shadowmind captured and imprisoned by heroes, Lilith is able to chart her own course as she attempts to build a life for herself. Yet her life isn’t fated to be easy or safe. With a death sentence hanging over her head and the cloud of Shadowmind’s reputation, Lilith is the target of heroes and villains alike.

Betrayed by those whom she trusted, Isalla was cast down from the heavens and into the heart of the hells. Bereft of her wings, the angel was rescued by Kanae, a demoness who challenges Isalla's belief of what demons should be.

Twin sisters Marisa and Clare Stockton were sixteen when Clare’s body was found in Virginia’s James River. No arrests were made. Fourteen years later, Marisa’s friends and dedicated career as a photographer help her to cope with the open wound of the past. But Marisa still feels the hurt—and the unsolved murder isn’t the only thing haunting her. A recent car crash has erased ten days of Marisa’s memories—a black hole leading up to the accident that’s left her disoriented.

Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job at New Creations—a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in Kill Devil. In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store—and attack her.

Sadie and Max fell in love while training to be classical pianists in music school, and they’ve been chasing their dreams together ever since. Now they’ve gotten engaged and are on the verge of a bright future—until an unexpected twist throws them out of harmony. When they’re both finalists in the prestigious Van Cage piano competition, they go from being each other’s biggest fans to fierce rivals. The winner will be launched into a meteoric career as a concert pianist, but only one can take first place.

Samantha Byrd is a klutz. An accident waiting to happen. And that makes her the least popular member of the girls' basketball team. But all of that is about to change. Sam's met someone who can grant her three wishes. Too bad Sam wasn't more careful when she asked for. Because her wishes are coming true. And they're turning her life into a living nightmare!