New Releases by Lauren DeStefano

Journey to Never Land in the second book in the Disney Villains-focused Dark Ascension series, which shares the untold story of teenaged Captain Hook and his twin sister Marlene, penned by New York Times bestselling author Lauren DeStefano. Before Captain Hook became Never Land’s villain, there were two siblings seeking a home . . . James and Marlene have always felt out of place in their humdrum fishing village, longing to escape the quiet lives their parents envision for them. But when Marlene’s birthday wish transports them both to an unsettling, magical paradise called Never Land, they discover an unexpected alternative: the chance to stay forever with the charismatic Peter and his Lost Boys. As the twins delve into the island’s violent secrets, their actions reignite a conflict between the fractured Lost Boys—and for the first time in their lives, James and Marlene find themselves at odds. With a war brewing and their memories slipping away every minute they spend in Never Land, they must choose whether to stay or go. But even if the twins stand together, Never Land--and Peter--won’t allow them to leave so easily. How far are James and Marlene willing to go to chart their own destinies? And if the price for freedom is losing their true selves--and each other--is it worth the cost?

A sweet and charming picture book about fear, anxiety, and unicorns. The unicorn smells nice, but she is very rude. She never waits for an invitation to come over—she walks right in and tracks heart-shaped hoof-prints across the carpet. She sits in Elizabeth’s chair and makes a complete mess of the house. She even sleeps in Elizabeth’s bed. But the unicorn is no ordinary unicorn . . . In The Unicorn Came to Dinner, author Lauren DeStefano and illustrator Gaia Cornwall invite parents and their kids to talk about feelings—especially worries and anxiety—and ultimately about how to be yourself.

The second in an exciting fantasy duology about a princess cursed to turn any living thing she touches into gemstone from Lauren DeStefano, the bestselling author of the Chemical Garden series. Perfect for fans of Shannon Hale and Renée Ahdieh. Wil, the exiled princess of northern Arrod, must do what she never thought possible: return home to discover the origins of her own curse. But home is very different from how she left it—Wil’s unpredictable elder brother Baren is now king, leading a war against the Southern Isles. And with time running out, Wil must navigate the dangerous secrets within her family to find the truth. Nothing goes as planned, and suddenly Wil and her allies are fighting for their lives as the Southern king is out to ensure neither of his children will survive to take the throne. Traveling across cursed seas and treacherous kingdoms, Wil and Loom must make peace with their pasts if they hope to secure the future of their world. But when their plans lead them right back to evil marveler Pahn, and to Baren—who is more dangerous than ever—can Wil and her friends outsmart their enemies, this time for good?

* "A natural fit for Stranger Things fans." - Booklist, starred review From New York Times bestselling author Lauren DeStefano comes an atmospheric and spine-tingling story about four children who dream in tandem. Tucked deep in the woods and surrounded by a great iron fence lies Brassmere Academy for the Extraordinary, a school for orphans with strange and wonderful gifts. Twelve-year-old Plum has lived there for as long as she can remember. Each night, she ventures into her dreams alongside her three best friends, Vien, Gwendle, and Artem to fight monsters and journey on dangerous quests. But one night, Plum gets a mysterious warning that she and her friends are no longer safe. And the next morning, Artem is nowhere to be found. As Plum, Vien, and Gwendle search for their friend--in both the dreaming and waking worlds--they start to uncover alarming secrets about Brassmere and its intentions. Will they be able to find Artem before it''s too late, or will they be next to disappear?

The first in a new fantasy duology, The Glass Spare is a gorgeously told tale of love, loss, and deadly power from Lauren DeStefano, the bestselling author of the Chemical Garden series. Perfect for fans of Shannon Hale and Renee Ahdieh. Wilhelmina Heidle, the fourth child and only daughter of the king of the world’s wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father—whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war—Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance. Until one night Wil is attacked, and she discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone. At first Wil is horrified—but as she tests its limits, she’s drawn more and more to the strange and volatile ability. When it leads to tragedy, though, Wil is forced to face the destructive power within her and finally leave her home to seek the truth and a cure. But finding the key to her redemption puts her in the path of a cursed prince who has his own ideas for what to do with Wil’s power. With a world on the brink of war and a power of ultimate destruction, can Wil find a way to help the kingdom that’s turned its back on her, or will she betray her past and her family forever?

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren DeStefano comes a gorgeous tale of friendship found and fought for against a haunting danger. It''s just right for fans of Serafina and the Black Cloak. Lionel is a wild boy, who doesn''t much like to be around other people. He''d rather be a purring cat or a wolf stalking the woods. Marybeth is a nice girl. She doesn''t need to be told to comb her hair or brush her teeth, and she''s kind to everyone at the orphanage . . . Lionel most of all. Different though they are, Lionel and Marybeth are best friends in a world that has forgotten about them. So when a mysterious blue spirit possesses Marybeth-and starts to take control-they know they must stop it before the real Marybeth fades away forever.

When Emmaline Beaumont''s father started building the ghost machine, she didn''t expect it to bring her mother back from the dead. But by locking himself in the basement to toil away at his hopes, Monsieur Beaumont has become obsessed with the contraption and neglected the living, and Emmaline is tired of feeling forgotten. Nothing good has come from building the ghost machine, and Emmaline decides that the only way to bring her father back will be to make the ghost machine work...or destroy it forever.

With their floating city utopia threatened by the war on the ground and the greed of two kings, Morgan and the others from Internment must find a way to save the city from falling out of the sky or being obliterated altogether.

Includes a preview of another story entitled ''The peculiar night of the blue heart.''

After Morgan Stockhour and her friends escape Internment, she discovers that life on the ground is not safer, and that, perhaps, going over the edge has led her to madness.

Rise back up to the floating city of Internment in this original enovella, a dark look at life in the royal family after the events of Perfect Ruin. When King Furlow begins to treat Prince Azure as the heir apparent that he is, he takes him to see the “re-education camps” for wrong-thinkers. But as he enters the camps ,Azure discovers the dark underbelly of the kingdom—and the king himself. His view of his father can never be the same, but what about his view of himself?

Before Morgan, there was Daphne, the girl who asked too many questions and changed everything... This original enovella set in the world of The Internment Chronicles is a gripping prequel to Perfect Ruin. In this look back at Daphne, before her subversive paper led to her murder by order of the king, Daphne witnesses her seven-year-old sister Amy having a seizure-like event, a result of injuries sustained when she wandered too close to the Edge. Government doctors insist these seizures are punishment for Amy’s bad behavior, but Daphne disagrees. Obsessed with finding out what lured her sister out there to the Edge to begin with, Daphne leads Judas, her betrothed, a young man with his own secrets, on an expedition near the Edge to reconstruct her sister’s fateful event. But how close is too close?

Lauren DeStefano’s complete, breathtaking, dystopian romance series, The Chemical Garden Trilogy. This bundle includes Wither, Fever, and Sever.

Move over Brad Pitt. Take a hike George Clooney. On your way Prince Harry. Give us Mark Darcy, King Aragorn and Edward Cullen instead. Have you met your book boyfriend yet?

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Chemical Garden trilogy: On the floating city of Internment, you can be anything you dream. Unless you approach the edge.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Chemical Garden trilogy: On the floating city of Internment, you can be anything you dream. Unless you approach the edge. Children’s Literature says “shades of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984 inspire DeStefano’s sci-fi/murder mystery page-turner.” Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge of Internment, the floating city and her home, can lead to madness. Even though her older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. There’s too much for her on Internment: her parents, best friend Pen, and her betrothed, Basil. Her life is ordinary and safe, even if she sometimes does wonder about the ground and why it’s forbidden. Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially once she meets Judas. Betrothed to the victim, Judas is being blamed for the murder, but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find—or whom she will lose.

Time is running out for Rhine in the conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Chemical Garden Trilogy. With time ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed, and she takes refuge in his dilapidated house. However, the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them. Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and on the past her parents never had the chance to explain. In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.

The New York Times bestselling sequel to Wither reveals a world as captivating—and as treacherous—as the one Rhine left behind. Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but they’re still in danger. Outside, they find a world even more disquieting than the one they ran away from. Determined to get to Manhattan and find Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan, the two press forward, amid threats of being captured again…or worse. The road they are on is long and perilous—and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and men die at age twenty-five, time is precious. In this sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price—now that she has more to lose than ever.

Step into the Chemical Garden with an all-new eBook sampler! Discover the world author Lauren DeStefano created in Wither, a riveting dystopian thriller. In the not-so-distant future, fallout from genetic engineering causes all females to die at age twenty, and all males to die at twenty-five. Kidnapped from her home and torn from her twin brother Rowan, sixteen-year-old Rhine is forced into a polygamous marriage and taken to live in her husband’s mansion. She has everything she wants—except for freedom. But her plans to escape and return home are complicated by a devious father-in-law, as well as Rhine’s growing attraction to Gabriel, a servant who works on the estate. Read the first 100 pages of Wither and be captivated by Rhine’s journey. This eBook sampler includes an EXCLUSIVE, never-before-published short story by Lauren DeStefano! “The First Bride” reveals the events leading up to Wither, from the point of view of the bride that came before Rhine. Delve even deeper into Wither with a map of the wives’ floor, the Wither book trailer, and a video that takes you behind the scenes of the Fever cover shoot. You''ll also get a sneak peak of Fever, the second book in the Chemical Garden trilogy, before it goes on sale 2/21/12!

A stunning debut YA novel, destined to blow the dystopian genre wide open – The Handmaid’s Tale for a new generation.

The first book in an exciting new series by first time author Lauren DeStefano.