L. a. Kelley

Artist Jessica Stone has a death sentence, an inoperable brain tumor. As her health declines, Jess is compelled to paint the captivating image of a mythical realm protected by a crystal called the Rose Stone. A mysterious crimson glow infuses the canvas, and Jess wakes in the Commonwealth of the Rose. She meets Griffin, a warrior engaged in a struggle with the malevolent darkling, who seeks to control the power of the Rose Stone. With Griffin's help, Jess evades the darkling's assassins. Then the hallucination vanishes, and she discovers her connection to the Rose Stone may run deeper than mere illusion. Torn between two worlds, Jess battles the darkling in one and a tumor in the other while struggling to determine her true reality. Is the Rose Stone a dream, a hallucination, or a summons to something greater?

Excitement brews in Crossroads for everyone but Callum Macgregor. The harvest festival coincides with a total eclipse, but a broken engagement leaves Cal with no desire for fun. Then a surprise visit from his old law partner, Isaac Bingham, drops a bombshell. Cal must attend the festival or the world faces unparalleled disaster. Why did accountant Meg Adler's career and romances fizzle? Jobless again, she receives a mysterious offer from a man named Bingham, but they must meet at the Crossroads Harvest Festival. Meg is leery, but it's not the end of the world if this doesn't pan out. Right? Ancient evil prowls the shadow of the eclipse, and the key to saving the present lies in the past. In a time-traveling adventure, Cal and Meg enter a mystic maze hot on the trail of two magic artifacts. Can they fulfill a dead man's mission and discover a new future with each other?

As the war between Freetraders and UEC ramps up, training begins for the new Shadow Fleet, but it's far from smooth sailing for Captain Jane Benedict and the crew of the Double Dare. Old resentments simmer beneath the surface threatening to drive a wedge between Freetrader forces. Meanwhile plans are made to reenter the boneyard and locate headquarters for the new Shadow Fleet, but scavenging a shifting debris field has its own set of challenges. Dangers from the past and new ones from the present threatened the safety of Jane and her friends leaving them with only one response...Hit'm hard, hit'm fast, and never surrender.

Magic isn't for sissies.WARNING: No good comes from this book. The story has magic, mayhem, theft, murder, sass talk, demons, animals committing felonies, gleeful revenge, and bad things happening to good people for no particular reason. It won't encourage good habits and probably fine tune bad ones. The only lesson learned is don't lie unless you know the rules.Teenager Peter Whistler lives at the Little Angels Home for Orphan Boys. Life in New Jersey is harsh in the Great Depression, but Peter has an exceptional ability to lie. He hones his talent, convinced it's the ticket to easy fortune. He certainly doesn't foresee the arrival of a murderous conjurer with mysterious designs on a little blind girl named Esther. Drawn into a nefarious plot to unleash a demon, Peter leads Esther and an enchanted terrier on a desperate escape to New Orleans and meets Amelie Marchand. Like all well-bred southern girls she's trained in deadly martial arts, but with a murderous stepmother, Amelie has troubles of her own. Peter and Amelie's one chance for survival is to head deep into the bayou and seek help from a mad shaman known as the Frog King. Welcome to an alternate 1930s where both jazz and magic fill New Orleans' air. Can a little luck, mystical lies, and a dash of Cajun crazy help Peter harness the power to kill an immortal demon? If not, the Depression will be a picnic by comparison when hell arrives on Earth.

Never enter the boneyard. Never follow the scream.All rimriders know the legend of the boneyard, an uncharted area of dead space. Any ship foolish enough to cross the boundary vanishes, leaving behind only the echo of an unearthly scream.****With the plasma net still in place at space station Deep Anchor, tensions between United Earth Corporation and Freetraders run high. As Jane continues her apprenticeship and prepares to take the master navigator's exam, the crew of the Solar Vortex makes a desperate attempt to run UEC's blockade before the space station goes dark. Will success bring hope to the Freetrader cause or lead to the loss of someone dear and bring Jane's world crashing down?

Teenager Jane Benedict is awakened by her father and ordered to memorize a mysterious code. Hours later, Mathias Benedict is dead and Jane and her brother, Will, are wards of United Earth Corporation. To evade the company's murderous clutches and uncover the meaning of her father's last message, Jane leads Will on a desperate escape across the galaxy aboard the Freetrader smuggler ship, Solar Vortex. Tangled in the crew's fight against UEC, Jane saves the life of young smuggler Maclan Sawyer and learns her father's code identifies a secret cargo shipment that can spell destruction for the entire Freetrader cause and the extinction of an alien race.Piracy, intrigue, romance, and a daring rebellion from Earth wait on the planet Rimrock. Will Jane answer the call to adventure and find new purpose on the galactic rim or will death for high treason be her fate?

Rimrider Adventures: Book 2New friendships forged, old enemies emerge, and Jane Benedict's life takes an unexpected turn.The celebration of the victory at Golgotha has barely ended. The Freetrader Council tasks Jane to find the leewits and convince them to build an alliance with the colonists to destroy United Earth Corporation's hold over Rimrock. With Gem at her side, Jane makes the difficult journey to their secret lair only to discover hidden dangers and a less-than-warm homecoming for Gem. Creating a pact with the alien race will be trickier than expected.Battling both perils in deep space and a horrific plot to crush the colonial rebellion on Rimrock, Jane and her friends dive into new adventures on the galactic rim.

San Francisco in 1885 is a dangerous place for investigative newspaper reporter Nell Bishop. She's uncovered a crime lord's corrupt empire and heads to the Arizona Territories to stop the plan to extend his evil dominion to the West. As a woman in man's world, she locked her heart to romantic distractions, but could Marshal Sam Tanner hold the key? Sam Tanner fought the visions sent by his Apache blood. They always foretold an inevitable death. Then he dreamed of the coyote with golden brown eyes who warned of a black shadow spreading evil across the territory. Had the spirits linked Sam's fate to the beautiful woman with the golden brown eyes who stepped off the stagecoach? Can Sam help Nell elude the mysterious dark riders who dog her trail or will the next vision mean death for both?

Police officer Nate Hammond led a well-ordered life in Coldwater Bay until a chance meeting with a girl from his past drags him into an extraordinary adventure. Libby Parish never intended to visit her hometown again. Is the strange obsession to return related to a mysterious comic book? Or someone she left behind? Sucked into an alternate comic book universe, Nate and Libby find themselves in Second Chance City, home of half-hearted superheroes and a villain with a grudge. Can they find a way home or will their second chance at happily ever after end in death?