Flatiron Books

Buddy Mack has been caught in the middle of two worlds at war. As an English teacher at a South Side, Chicago, high school lauded for its football team, but at risk in every other way, he tries to instil a love of literature. While all of his students face challenges, he’s especially concerned with a trio of boys who test him to no end but are full of promise and heart: Zeke, the football star; Truth, the sweet-talking charmer; and Dontell, Buddy’s most promising student. At home, his wife, Chrissy, a successful corporate lawyer, is ready to upgrade to a big house on the North Side and start a family, but Buddy’s torn over the implications. And the closest person he has in his life to talk to is Chrissy’s little brother, Curtis, a corrupt Chicago cop. When the two worlds collide in a shocking moment that rocks the school, Buddy has to choose a side and fight for all he holds dear. Hard Times takes stock of what it means to be there for your people whether you want to or not and unflinchingly confronts the American Dream—a moving, engrossing, and necessary read.

There is a girl in a basement. The door has stopped opening. The light is gone. Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. But if the door opens at last, will it mean salvation, or only the beginning of her fight to surviv? udrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there’s always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town’s most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before.

The paperback box set (3 books) of the #1 New York Times bestselling Caraval series! All three books in the New York Times bestselling Caraval series are now available together in a beautiful paperback boxed set. Welcome, welcome to the world of Caraval--Stephanie Garber's sweeping tale of the unbreakable bond between two sisters and the game that is more than what it seems... In Caraval, Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt of invitation to Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, finally arrives. In Legendary, the Dragna sisters should be celebrating, but Tella isn't yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend's true name. In Finale, with lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Scarlett and Tella fight for their lives and for each other. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything. All games must come to an end.

"Lovers who surmount the odds have always been intense emotional fodder, but rarely have we seen a story like Birthday...true and raw, haunting and undeniable." --The New York Times Book Review Two best friends. A shared birthday. Six years... ERIC: There was the day we were born. There was the minute Morgan and I decided we were best friends for life. The years where we stuck by each other's side--as Morgan's mom died, as he moved across town, as I joined the football team, as my parents started fighting. But sometimes I worry that Morgan and I won't be best friends forever. That there'll be a day, a minute, a second, where it all falls apart and there's no turning back the clock. MORGAN: I know that every birthday should feel like a new beginning, but I'm trapped in this mixed-up body, in this wrong life, in Nowheresville, Tennessee, on repeat. With a dad who cares about his football team more than me, a mom I miss more than anything, and a best friend who can never know my biggest secret. Maybe one day I'll be ready to become the person I am inside. To become her. To tell the world. To tell Eric. But when? Six years of birthdays reveal Eric and Morgan's destiny as they come together, drift apart, fall in love, and discover who they're meant to be--and if they're meant to be together. From the award-winning author of If I Was Your Girl, Meredith Russo, comes a heart-wrenching and universal story of identity, first love, and fate. "Beautifully written, Birthday is an altogether singular contribution to the gradually growing body of transgender literature and, indeed, to mainstream literature, as well." --ALA Booklist, starred review