Urban City

Sociologist Stephen Klineberg presents fascinating and groundbreaking research that shows how the city of Houston has emerged as a microcosm for America’s future - based on an unprecedented 38-year study of its changing economic, demographic, and cultural landscapes.

"Welcome to hell, ladies and gents, where the demons are monsters and so are the angels." In a city filled with angels and demons, the real monsters are harder to find. When Arija jumps through a portal, she finds herself in the most beautiful city she's ever seen. But looks can be deceiving. Has she found a paradise, or is it hell? Adal can't believe he let Arija go into the portal alone. When he goes in looking for her, he finds himself in a hellscape. With a demon around every corner, Adal must find his girlfriend before it's too late. But someone watches from the shadows.

Mystery. Love. Lies. It's been a year since Grace's world was ripped asunder. The Shadow Children are fighting a losing battle to rescue the halfborn from the Silent Homes, but when a routine mission takes a sinister turn, Grace and her friends are faced with an impossible decision - battle on alone and risk losing everything, or place their trust in the people who have hunted them for centuries. With allies by her side and enemies at her heels, Grace must negotiate her way through the secrets and lies that pave the roads of the Shadow City. The dark is closing in....

My name's Morgan Rook, supernatural detective, undercover agent, odd jobs man. I take out the nightmares, demons, and werewolves. Guys like us call them Nightkind. I had one final job. There's always one. This time a call to eliminate a cruel, rogue vampire, named Mr. Tudor. Simple, right? Sure. Until the bodies started piling up in a new wave of vicious occult killings leading scarily close to my own front door, sparking a series of deadly events that would make my years of fighting the Nightkind look like a cakewalk.

It's tough being a faery in New Orleans, a city fraught with vampires...especially when their very existence drains your life force. Willow Rhoswen, owner of The Fated Cupcake and part-time vampire hunter for the Void is having a rough week. Four years after her twin brother's mysterious death, Willow's life is threatened and the director saddles her with a new partner-her ex-boyfriend, David. To her horror, he's turned vamp, which causes her physical pain whenever she touches him

What does it mean to be truly human? When an orphaned kit fox named Tom is transformed by a witch’s spell into a 12-year-old boy, he’s given a deadline of summer’s end to become fully human. Befriended by fellow orphan Nora, he spends the summer enjoying normal human activities, always fearing that he won’t discover how to become fully human in time, and unaware that soon he and Nora will be fighting for their lives....

Fortunetellers. Demotivational speakers. Disillusioned shapeshifters. You never know quite who—or what—you'll run into in Psychic City, but that's what makes life interesting for a PsyOps agent.

"Warum hast du mich hergeholt?" "Weil wir einen Helden brauchen, der uns rettet. Weil ich einen Helden brauche..." Ich bin Andrew. Mitte zwanzig, Computernerd und mit meiner Nickelbrille und dem hageren Body bestimmt kein Supermodel. Auch kein Superheld, aber für diesen Zweck habe ich ja meine virtuellen Spiel-Charaktere. Mein Leben war ein ruhiger, gemütlicher Trott – bis zu dem Tag, als ich in ein verrücktes Paralleluniversum geriet. Ich rate euch eins: Lauft nie einem weißen Hasen hinterher.

Even the most powerful tracers can't track you if the magical trace you leave behind is too old. But I can track almost anything, even dead trace. That makes me a unicorn, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Loch Ness Monster all rolled into one. In a word, I am unique. A very special snowflake. And if anyone ever finds out, I'll be dead or a slave to one of the Tyet criminal factions. Riley Hollis has quietly traced kidnapped children and quietly tipped the cops to their whereabouts one too many times.

Magic City's future hangs on the roll of the dice, or the turn of a card. Will fortune favor Ruby Achera, or turn against her? All the threads of criminal activity in Magic City are weaving together to form a dangerous web. The anti-human movement and the Drow who leads it have found common cause with the troublemaker in the Council. The PDA is the wildcard. Will they help her or turn against her?

The Paranormal Defense Agency is after her. There's a mysterious figure whipping up anti-human sentiment in town. And, behind it all, an old nemesis plots and plans. Can Ruby Achera handle this triple-headed threat? The self-declared defender of Magic City has a lot on her plate. First it was just Gabriel "The Nightmare" Sloane, but now problems are coming from every direction. The PDA has put a false bounty out on the city's protectors, and now bounty hunters are in the mix. Do they know they're aiming at the wrong guy?

In the middle of Colette and Rome’s much-needed break from the problems of Mayfield, things take a dark turn. Though mating between humans and vampires isn’t supposed to be possible, Colette is about to learn that when it comes to Rome, even the oldest rules were made to be broken. When danger comes for them, crashing their fragile connection, Colette knows she must get to the bottom of who is behind these attacks, or she will never be able to rest again.

When the city she loves threatens to destroy itself in her absence, Colette knows she will have to return to the fight. Hiding in the woods seemed like the only option when threats of abduction could not be ignored any longer. But when the vampire mating bond begins to take unfortunate turns, Colette isn’t sure she will survive the changes. The only way to cure her is for Rome to come back and fix the bond he broke. But if he cannot forget his affection for Colette, their forbidden love just might be the thing that tears the city apart.

Joe Dylan ventures into the Bangkok City bars. The detective follows a trail leading to Demon Dreams, a Bangkok S&M joint run by a beautiful transsexual and her mentally deranged brother. Joe discovers a world of bizarre nocturnal acts and black magic rituals. It's a seedy Bangkok underworld that picks-up fallen women from the streets and throws them into an evil world of torture and murder.

When Rodney Mason, an ex-con drug dealer from Newark's rough South Ward, was shot and paralyzed, he vowed to turn his life around. A former high-school pitching ace with a 93-mph fastball, Mason decided to form a Little League team to help boys avoid the street life that had claimed his youth and mobility. Predictably, the players struggle but through the fists and tears, lopsided losses and rare victories, this bunch of misfits becomes a team, and in doing so gives the community something to root for.

One phone call. Two lives. Their darkest secrets. Lana needs to sell a holiday, fast. Stuck in Tenerife, in a dead end job, she never expected a response quite like Liam’s. Thousands of miles away a phone rings. Liam never intended to pick up - he’s too busy choosing the quickest way to die. But at least someone should know the truth before he goes, even if that someone is a stranger. As time runs out both are drawn to the other, expressing thoughts they never imagined they would share. When you’re about to die, will your secrets even matter?

Nichelle Tramble's first novel, The Dying Ground, was named a Best Book of 2001 by the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. In this follow-up work, Maceo returns home after drifting for two years. He finds his friends tangled up in a murder case, and he must act fast to save them.

For Veronica “Roni” Ryder, the journey to becoming leader of the Parallel Society has been tough. She has fought people and monsters, experienced magic and mayhem, traveled the Earth and universes beyond. But one creature, one vile monstrosity, has been her most daunting rival–Yal-hara.

When the vampires are tired of being tolerated instead of accepted, tensions between the two races begin to boil over. With her life at stake, Colette has to decide if staying in Mayfield is worth the toll it will take on her family and her heart. Escaping the violence of Mayfield seems to be the only option, but there is no telling if all she has fought for will be worth the sacrifice in the end. If the city cannot reclaim the best parts of itself, Colette is prepared to leave the city to its ruin, and turn her back on everyone she has fought to save.

Once upon a time, Elise Sutton had been a powerful witch and paranormal enforcer. Once she'd been madly in love with Fae lord Aidan Greene. But when Aidan had considered his duties more important than their relationship, the love affair ended badly. Shortly after, while on the hunt for a rogue demon, Elise was brutalized and almost killed. Months later, she gave birth to a baby girl. To protect her child, and her heart, Elise decided to live a nonmagical life - - until she meets Aidan again....