Showing results by publisher "Tantor Audio" in Coming of Age

Narra Jal is one of the cursed, cast aside her whole life, considered unlucky. But with her mother's life on the line, she will return to the city where she was born to face the trials: a grueling, bloodthirsty series of challenges designed to weed out the weak, the greedy, and the foolish. Trials to select the next ruler of Tigang. Narra has nothing. No weapons. No training. No magic. No real chance of leaving with her life. Just her fierce grit and a refusal to accept the destiny she's been handed.

He's always there for her, and she knows they'd be the perfect couple-except that they're still in high school, and she's watched too many friends go through painful breakups. Besides, Penny has bigger things to worry about-like her mother, who desperately wants to have more children. After an endless string of miscarriages and failed adoptions, Penny's mother is ready to give up hope.

Hattie Larken doesn't know if she's ever been real in her life. A compulsive liar with a quick-witted response to everything, she's willing to skate through high school until she can graduate and escape it all: the monotony of this town, the guilt of everything that happened with her dad, and the debt that her mom's dealing with that she feels responsible for. But then Hattie finds out she's dying. Apparently, she was exposed to a parasite because of a mistake her mom's company made. And she's not the only one.

Ryann Bird dreams of traveling across the stars. But a career in space isn't an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park on the "wrong" side of town. So Ryann becomes her circumstances and settles for acting out and skipping school to hang out with her delinquent friends. One day, she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann's offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the girls are brought together despite themselves - and Ryann learns her secret.

Portugal, 1967. Sonia thinks she knows what her future holds. She'll become a poet, and together she and her artist boyfriend, Ze Miguel, will rise above the government restrictions that shape their lives. The restrictions on what Sonia can do and where she can go without a man's permission. The restrictions on what music she can enjoy, what books she can read, what questions she can ask.

Isabel, once known as Wasp, has become leader of the fearsome upstarts, the teen girl acolytes who are adjusting to a new way of life after the overthrow of the sadistic Catchkeep-priest. They live in an uneasy alliance with the town of Sweetwater - an alliance that will be tested to its limits by the dual threats of ruthless raiders from the Waste and a deadly force from the Before-time that awaits in long-hidden tunnels.

Claire is a 16-year-old fangirl obsessed with the show Demon Heart. Forest is an actor on Demon Heart who dreams of bigger roles. When the two meet at a local Comic-Con panel, it's a dream come true for Claire. Until the Q&A, that is, when Forest laughs off Claire's assertion that his character is gay. Claire is devastated. After all, every last word of her super-popular fanfic revolves around the romance between Forest's character and his male frenemy. She can't believe her hero turned out to be a closed-minded jerk.

It's only for a year. That's what sixteen-year-old Zel keeps telling herself after moving to Sydney for her dad's work. She'll just wait it out until she gets back to New York and Prim, her epic crush/best friend, and the unfinished subway project. Even if Prim hasn't spoken to her since that day on Coney Island. But Zel soon finds life in Sydney won't let her hide. There's her art teacher, who keeps forcing her to dig deeper. There's the band of sweet, strange misfits her cousin has forced her to join for a Drama project. And then there's the curiosity that is the always-late Stella.

After seven grueling years of captivity in the Garden—a burlesque troupe of slave girls—sixteen-year-old Rose finds an opportunity to escape during a performance for the emperor. But the hostage she randomly chose from the crowd to aid her isn't one of the emperor's men—not anymore. He's the former heir to the throne, who is now leading a rebellion against it. Rayce is a wanted man and dangerously charismatic, the worst person for Rose to get involved with, no matter what his smile promises.

Every school has them: the cool kids. The insiders. Gavin Meeks is one of them. He lives an easy life of parties, girls, snowboarding adventures, and whatever else comes his way. But when dark, dramatic Antoinette crash-lands at Evergreen High, the entire school feels the impact. Antoinette has seen things, been places, experienced deep tragedy firsthand. She's not just a rebel; she's a force of nature. Gavin, for one, is captivated and is soon pursuing interests he never knew he had.

After tragedy hit her family, Meg Matthews officially crossed the line from "good girl" to "bad girl." Motorcycle? Check. Graffiti? Check. The only thing Meg hadn't planned on was blackmail. Too bad now a certain infuriating boy holds Meg's future in his hands . . . When Luke Prescott—star pitcher and town golden boy—catches Meg vandalizing the school, she's given two choices: face the consequences or enter into a fake relationship with him to get his parents and his ex off his back.

Eighteen-year-old Kyla Bell dreams of one day being a professional musician . . . but gets little to no support from her parents. Still, she practices every day and performs locally, harboring her own secret hopes. One night, her dreams are answered in the form of sultry rocker Ruby Sky, the magnetic frontwoman of her favorite band, Glitter Tears. Ruby hears Kyla perform and asks her to join the band on keys for their upcoming tour.

Zoey Handler is ready to put an end to her decade-long rivalry with Gordon Meyers. They've traded top spot between valedictorian and salutatorian for years, but all that's over now. Right? But after a crazy graduation speech prank gets out of hand, suddenly their rivalry turns into all-out war. Time to make peace with a little friendly payback. Step one? Make him believe they're now friends. Step two? Show him the time of his life at an epic graduation party. Step three? Don't fall for his tricks. Step four? Absolutely, positively, do not kiss him again.

Anna Lucia Bell believes in luck: bad luck. Bad luck made her best friend stop talking to her. Bad luck caused her parents' divorce. Bad luck is forcing her mother, Miriam, to sell the family's beloved bookstore. And it is definitely bad luck that Anna seems to be the only person in the world Miriam is unable to recommend a life-changing book. When Anna finds out that she and her mom are spending two months in a New England seaside town called Rockport, she expects a summer plagued with bad luck too. But Rockport has surprises in store for Anna.

Xing Li is what some Chinese people call a banana—yellow on the outside and white on the inside. Although born and raised in London, she never feels like she fits in. When her mother dies, she moves with her older brother to live with venomous Grandma, strange Uncle Ho, and Hollywood actress Auntie Mei. Her only friend is Jay—a mixed raced Jamaican boy with a passion for classical music. Then Xing Li's life takes an even harsher turn: the school bullying escalates and her uncle requests she assist him in an unthinkable favor.

Corey Chaos, teen YouTube sensation, just needs a break from his hectic schedule. Ever since his musical talent was "discovered" by the right person at the right time, his life has been a steady stream of interviews, screaming fans, TV shows, screaming fans, Instagram lives, and did he mention the screaming fans? He'd give anything to be a normal teen again, even for five minutes. So, when his agent suggests staying at his pool house for a month to get away from the stress, Corey is on the next plane to snowy Twin River, Wisconsin.

Michaela Dunn, living on present day Cape Cod, dreams of getting into an art school, something her family just doesn't understand. When her stepfather refuses to fund a trip for a poetry workshop, Michaela finds the answer in a local contest searching for a poet to write the dedication plaque for a statue honoring Captain Benjamin Churchill, a whaler who died at sea 100 years ago. She struggles to understand why her town venerates Churchill, an almost mythical figure whose name adorns the school team and various tourist traps.

Pitcher Dylan Dennings has his future all mapped out: make the minors straight out of high school, work his way up the farm system, and get called up to the majors by the time he's twenty-three. The Plan has been his sole focus for years, and if making his dreams come true means instituting a strict "no girls" policy, so be it.

When Ivy's search for her mother draws her to a remote Welsh isle, she uncovers a dark secret about her past. An ancient and corrupt power is stalking Ivy, and her only chance of survival is to look deep within herself. For not every story in legend is true, and some evils are not what they seem.

Aster Layne believes in physics, not psychics. A tarot card reading on the Ocean City Boardwalk should have been a ridiculous, just-for-fun thing. It wasn't. Aster discovers she has a very unscientific gift—with a simple touch of the cards, she can change a person's fate. Reese Van Buren is cursed. Like the kind of old-school, centuries-old curse that runs in royal families. Every firstborn son is doomed to die on his eighteenth birthday—and Reese's is coming up fast. Bummer. He tries to distract himself from his inevitable death . . . only to find the one person who can save him.