"Go! The gates are collapsing. You must take them now." The queen yells as the gate walls crumble. Sylvia takes the small baby boy from the Queen's hands. She looks at the Queen in quiet sorrow and then disappears into the Portal of Nations. Next comes Nuada. He gently cradles the baby girl in his hand, bowing to the Queen and now arriving blood-stained King before disappearing into the Portal of Nations. "What's going on out there?" The Queen asks, grasping her husband's hand. He shakes his head, a tear cascading down his cheek, "I am sorry, my Queen. The gates of Aycelan have fallen." The last of the gates give away and the army of Dyleguar advances on the King and Queen. The rest of the army of Aycelan are slain on the battlefield, littering the air with the smell of defeat. "Brother, I never thought I would able to overcome the army of Aycelan, but it seems as though I was mistaken," Lucius, the brother of the king, says riding in on a black ghost-like horse. "Take them to the prison house, under the castle of Aycelan," Lucius yells, pointing to the King and Queen. An Orc lifts the late rulers up, haphazardly swinging them over his shoulders. "Now, we should immediately rid Aycelan of it's filthy name and put Dyleguar in it's place. We have fought our way in, and now it is ours. Celebrate, my friends, because there is much to be done. Good day," Lucius walks off in the direction of the old rulers, his brother Ayron and his brother's wife Caeair.

Samantha wishes she were someone else. Anastasia, to be exact. Anastasia doesn't sit in the corner and read because she's too shy to talk to anyone. She doesn't keep trying and failing. Anastasia slays dragons. Of course, Anastasia is only a character in Samantha's story. That's what Sam does, she writes. She writes to keep the monsters at bay. She creates new worlds to escape into. And she writes to block out the cranky ramblings of her jilted father, who refuses to acknowledge the woman that ran out on them years ago. But Samantha finds herself thrown into a not so magical adventure when she discovers her long lost mother has been in town all along. She has questions that need answering, and a few arrow- accusations... she'd like to sling. But there are obstacles to storming the castle, her father for one. Either Samantha makes this her happily ever after, or it all ends in tears... Either way, the story is about to change.

Cara’s mother has disappeared. Her father isn’t talking about it. Her big brother Max is hiding behind his iPod, and her genius little brother Jackson is busy studying the creatures he collects from the beach. But when a watery specter begins to haunt the family’s Cape Cod home, Cara and her brothers realize that their scientist mother may not be who they thought she was—and that the world has much stranger, much older inhabitants than they had imagined. With help from Cara’s best friend Hayley, the three embark on a quest that will lead them from the Cape’s hidden, ancient places to a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. They’re soon on the front lines of an ancient battle between good and evil, with the terrifying “pouring man” close on their heels. One chapter will be posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until all 10 chapters are up. These will be followed by the second book in the series, The Shimmers in the Night. A Junior Library Guild Pick; Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011; Selected for the ABC Best Books for Children Catalog; Locus Notable Books.