Related to: 'Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy 2)'

Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things. When Brimstone called, she always came. In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

From a writer of unparalleled imagination and emotional insight, three fantasy stories that all hinge on a single, life-changing kiss.Everyone dreams of getting the kiss of a lifetime... but what if that kiss carried some unexpected consequences? A girl who's always been in the shadows finds herself pursued by the unbelievably attractive new boy at school, who may or may not be the death of her. Another girl grows up mute because of a curse placed on her by a vindictive spirit, and later must decide whether to utter her first words to the boy she loves and risk killing everyone who hears her if the curse is real. And a third girl discovers that the real reason for her transient life with her mother has to do with belonging -  literally belonging -  to another world entirely, full of dreaded creatures who can transform into animals, and whose queen keeps little girls as personal pets until they grow to child-bearing age.

From the author of the astounding must-read novel DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, comes a vividly imaginative short story, SPICY LITTLE CURSES (from the award-winning short story collection LIPS TOUCH).

What is the worst thing that could happen to you on Valentine's Day? Getting stood up by your boyfriend?Having to spend the evening alone? Being drenched by an idiot driving a sportscar? When all three happen to Juliet on the same night, she reckons her love life can't get any worse. But it's actually about to get a lot more complicated...Because the identity of the driver of the sportscar is revealed to be her arch business rival. She knows she should stay away. Except it's not that easy. Handsome, sexy and utterly glamorous, Sykes is determined to sweep her off her feet and away from her boyfriend Will.But is it worth risking everything for? Are they really destined to be star-crossed lovers? Or is Romeo actually a little closer to home?Juliet is about to find out in Alexandra Potter's delightful romantic comedy about passion, truth and how the path to true love never did run smooth...

Memory Cougan, black and in her twenties, has a successful career and an adoring fiancé. But at her engagement party, she panics. Brought to London aged five, she has no recollection of Africa, or why she left. Leaving Adam behind, she returns to a place she no longer recognises - and to Max, the coffee planter who may have the answers. But Memory's journey of discovery is not hers alone to make. For Max, hardened by years in the bush, her arrival will reawaken memories of the most intense time in his life and of his beloved aeroplane, Hotel Juliet. For Elise, her adoptive mother, Memory's flight threatens to reveal the truth of what really happened in Africa all those years ago. And for Paul Cougan's sacrifice will finally be recognised. Moving from Britain to Africa over twenty years, Hotel Juliet combines pathos and tragedy with the possibility of glorious redemption to tell the poignant story of a passionate love triangle that resonates down to the present day.

The morning after the fight, Maureen Torres-Thompson picked up the baby and left.She ran her beautiful home in a gated community just outside LA like the disciplined mid-level corporate executive she had once been. She often thought that the only thing she could say with certainty she wanted, was to bring goodness and beauty to the life of her family. And now Scott was telling her they were broke. If they could no longer afford a gardener, it had seemed sensible to replace the high-maintenance la petite rainforest with an architecturally interesting cactus garden. Inevitably that had required some initial outlay. They had a fight. Scott left too.When Scott and Maureen finally return home, the children have gone. Shocked at their own behaviour and terrified by what people will think of them they do what any right-minded middle-class parents would do. They lie. And accuse the maid. As a national media circus explodes over the 'abduction', carefully constructed lives begin to fall apart. In a city divided between a wealthy privileged class and a rising immigrant population, every organization from the broken criminal justice system to the social services has a reason for wanting the story to end a certain way. A compelling portrait of our time, THE BARBARIAN NURSERIES questions how far we'll go to protect our ambitions, our liberty and our family.

On the high ground above the great city, Roy and Helen live in brittle affluence inside a weary marriage. Of their four children, three have long vanished into the sprawling, sluttish metropolis beneath: Marcus the dotcom entrepreneur, Shona the shocking Britart princess, and Danny - the one nobody will talk about.But the last child Zack itches to know more about his lost brother; and gets his chance when the smooth surfaces of family life are abruptly blown apart. Roy is sacked on his fiftieth birthday, stages an unconventional protest in the office doorway and rapidly finds himself a homeless exile in the city's darkest streets. It is Zack's chance to escape down the hill in turn, while his mother Helen makes a bizarre decision of her own.