Most Popular Books by Robert Beatty

Serafina''s defeat of the Man in the Black Cloak has brought her out of the shadows and into the daylight realm of her home, Biltmore Estate. Every night she visits her mother in the forest, eager to learn the ways of the cat¬amount. But Serafina finds herself caught between her two worlds: she''s too wild for Biltmore''s beautifully dressed ladies and formal customs, and too human to fully join her kin. Late one night, Serafina encounters a strange and terrifying figure in the forest, and is attacked by the vicious wolfhounds that seem to be under his control. Even worse, she''s convinced that the stranger was not alone, that he has sent his accomplice into Biltmore in disguise. Someone is wreaking havoc at the estate. A mysterious series of attacks test Serafina''s role as Biltmore''s protector, culminating in a tragedy that tears Serafina''s best friend and only ally, Braeden Vanderbilt, from her side. Heartbroken, she flees. Deep in the forest, Serafina comes face-to-face with the evil infecting Biltmore—and discovers its reach is far greater than she''d ever imagined. All the humans and creatures of the Blue Ridge Mountains are in terrible danger. For Serafina to defeat this new evil before it engulfs her beloved home, she must search deep inside herself and embrace the destiny that has always awaited her.

In the highly-anticipated next installment of the Serafina series, Serafina must confront the darkest threat she''s ever encountered at Biltmore Estate. She knows she can face anything with her best friend and closest ally, Braeden Vanderbilt, by her side. But when a sinister force tears them apart, Serafina scrambles to uncover the mystery of her most formidable challenge yet...and about herself and the destiny that awaits her.

Samuel Martin is not afflicted with the wanderlust that teenage boys growing into young men in isolated areas in isolated times so often are. Samuel has no desire to break out of the isolation of the remote rural farm town he was born into and see the world. He wants nothing more than to be the third generation patriarch on the farm of his ancestors, living on the land he loves in company with the family he loves. He is just facing the problem of finding the one girl he wants to share his love and life with. He thinks he has found that girl in the form of the beautiful, enigmatic young prostitute girl who hides her early life and hides herself behind the flowery contrived name of Clarinda. The girl shares her body with him but never shares her real name. Neither does she share the love she is incapable of returning. Samuel loves the girl recklessly and beyond the point of caution. In the process he learns that loving recklessly and beyond caution can invert and disrupt your life the way following any passion recklessly can. He also learns that life is what happens to you when you had other plans.

Serafina and Braeden make an epic return in the hotly anticipated fourth installment of Robert Beatty''s #1 New York Times best-selling series. Serafina, the Guardian of Biltmore Estate, has won battle after battle against the dark forces encroaching on her home. Now, tranquility has returned to Biltmore. Serafina doesn’t trust it. She patrols the grounds night and day, hardly sleeping, uncertain of her place after her best friend Braeden Vanderbilt''s departure for boarding school in New York. When Mr. Vanderbilt, the kind master of Biltmore, asks Serafina to move upstairs into one of the house''s grandest rooms, she''s sure it''s to keep an eye on the guests who have arrived for the estate''s annual hunt. But as Serafina investigates, she becomes more and more unsettled by what Biltmore has become—a place haunted by nameless terrors where no dark corridor is safe. Even worse, she begins to doubt her own senses. Is Braeden really hundreds of miles away, or did he return to Biltmore for one strange night before vanishing? Is the bond between them truly broken or is it stronger than ever? Then Serafina witnesses a crime that turns her world upside down. How can all that once seemed good and worthy of protection now be evil? And how can she guard those around her when she can''t even be sure of the truth of her own heart? Serafina and the Seven Stars marks the return of a heroine like no other, as master storyteller Robert Beatty weaves his darkest, most astonishing tale yet.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Beatty comes a spooky, thrilling new series set in the magical world of Serafina. Move without a sound. Steal without a trace. Willa, a young nightspirit of the Great Smoky Mountains, is her clan''s best thief. She creeps into the homes of day-folk in the cover of darkness and takes what they won''t miss. It''s dangerous work—the day-folk kill whatever they do not understand. But when Willa''s curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in a day-folk man''s home, everything she thought she knew about her people—and their greatest enemy—is forever changed.

Robert Beatty''s best-selling gothic fantasy about an unforgettable heroine is now a mesmerizing graphic novel with rich, atmospheric illustrations. "The story drips with suspense, wrapping readers into the narrative just as easily as the man in the black cloak binds his young victims." —School Library Journal “Never go into the deep parts of the forest, for there are many dangers there, and they will ensnare your soul.” Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of Biltmore Estate.There’s plenty to explore in her grand home, although she must take care to never be seen. None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate’s maintenance man, have secretly lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember. But when children at the estate start disappearing, only Serafina knows who the culprit is:a terrifying man in a black cloak who stalks Biltmore’s corridors at night. Following her own harrowing escape, Serafina risks everything by joining forces with Braeden Vanderbilt, the young nephew of Biltmore’s owners. Braeden and Serafina must uncover the Man in the Black Cloak’s true identity…before all of the children vanish one by one. Readers who enjoy history and mystery and like their thrills and chills in visual form will delight in this graphic novel adaptation of a bestseller. Read the entire New York Times Best-selling series! Serafina and the Black Cloak (book 1) Serafina and the Twisted Staff (book 2) Serafina and the Splintered Heart (book 3) Serafina and the Seven Stars (book 4)

A hurricane changes the course of a river and the life of a lonely girl in this nature-based mystery-adventure by the best-selling author of the Serafina series and the Willa series Robert Beatty, a master at telling atmospheric tales of mystery and suspense set in the natural world, has crafted another ingenious, unputdownable story. Thirteen-year-old Sylvia Doe has lived at the Highground Home for Children nearly all her life. Whenever the administrators try to place her with a foster family, she runs away—back to Mason, Highground''s caretaker and her best friend. The only place she feels like she belongs is with him and the horses he has taught her to love. When a powerful storm causes the remote mountain valley where she lives to flood, Sylvia begins to encounter strange and wondrous things floating down the river. Glittering gemstones and wild animals that don''t belong—everything''s out of place. Then she spots an unconscious boy floating in the water. As she drags him onto the shore and their adventure together begins, Sylvia wonders who he is and where he came from. And why does she feel such a strong connection to this mysterious boy?

"Willa and her clan are the last of the Faeran, an ancient race of forest people who have lived in the Great Smoky Mountains for as long as the trees have grown there. But as crews of newly arrived humans start cutting down great swaths of the forest she loves, she is helpless to stop them. How can she fight the destroyers of the forest and their powerful machines? When Willa discovers a mysterious dark hollow filled with strange and beautiful creatures, she comes to realize that it contains a terrifying force that seems to be hunting humans. Is unleashing these dangerous spirits the key to stopping the loggers? Willa must find a way to save the people and animals she loves and take a stand against a consuming darkness that threatens to destroy her world."--

Mindfulness for a Happy Life is a beautiful guide to what insight meditation really is. Robert’s personable, funny, sweet, sad, and ultimately human and humane teachings are told in simple terms so that anybody, from the skeptic to the monk, can access the heart and truth of mindfulness practice. If you have never meditated and can’t understand why anyone would spend time on a cushion doing nothing, this is the book for you. You will find down-to-earth instructions that give you a direct experience of mindfulness as well as ways to measure the impact of your mindfulness practice. This book will inspire you to love life and to face everything that comes your way with grace, compassion, and wisdom. If you have meditated all your life, but not found awakening, this book is for you. This book will demystify and clarify the teachings of Buddhism so that you can better understand your own process. You will find instructions and stories that will change your practice. Instructions, exercises, and stories are used to give you an experience that can shift your perspective and transform your practice so that you access happiness through insight.

Floodgate Companion is Robert Beatty''s debut monograph, a cosmic and immersive collection of artwork from the renowned album cover artist.

Interest in the levels of international migration in the United Kingdom (UK) and in Northern Ireland (NI) has increased following the accession of eight Central and Eastern European countries (referred to as the "A8" countries) to the European Union in May 2004. This paper describes research undertaken by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) to assist measurement of the levels of international migration in Northern Ireland in the period 2004-5. Migration is the most difficult component of population change to measure, due to the absence of a direct measure, the impact of illegal migration, the presence of visitors/short-term migrant workers which can create differences between the official migration estimates and the perceived level of migration in an area. Whilst migration can be estimated using administrative and statistical systems, significant effort is required in understanding the nature and coverage of these systems. Moreover no estimate of migration within the current administrative and statistical infrastructure can be definitive. The remainder of this paper describes the sources available to measure international migration with summary statistics for Northern Ireland. Finally information is presented on the levels of migration included in the 2005 population estimate series and possible further research is discussed.