Böcker av Lauren Nicolle Taylor

"With gorgeous writing, an adorable romance, complex characters, and a dash of magic, Breaker and the Sun was an incredible novel, one that I'd highly recommend." - Biscotto BooksBreaker Van Winkle is a recently returned Vietnam vet, struggling with PTSD and the difficulties of readjusting to civilian life with his mother.Eighteen-year-old Sunny is a high-achieving Chinese-French immigrant who fled Vietnam during the war. Sunny is usually as cheerful as her name implies, but she has her struggles too. Haunted by violent memories of the bombing that killed her parents, and chafing under the rule of her eccentric grandmother, she finds solace deep in the Catskills, at a place she calls the Ugly Tree.When Breaker stumbles upon Sunny and the Ugly Tree, things start to change. They are drawn to each other, and feel called to the tree. As they spend more time together and their relationship deepens, they notice that their time at the tree is becoming twisted somehow. Sunny's mind yawns and her ambitions begin to slip away. Breaker feels safe and carefree, his memories finally burying themselves in the distant past.They are being lulled toward a tempting, peaceful sleep¿but there is a cost to this magical serenity, and it may be more than either of them can bear...A companion novel to Nora and Kettle, GOLD MEDAL WINNER Independent Book Awards

Sequel to Nora and Kettle, GOLD MEDAL WINNER Independent Book AwardsWe offer our wounds and scars. Understanding that is part of what makes us beautiful.Nora finally has her beloved sister Frankie back, but that's just the beginning of their struggles. She must now become Kite¿a stronger, more independent version of herself¿a king and a guardian.Kettle has Kite's heart. But something holds him back; a feeling that he doesn't deserve good things. It's a looming shadow that threatens to separate them. Kettle must accept that he is also Hiro: a Japanese American with every right to happiness and freedom.Hiro loves Kite¿but Kite won't wait forever for him to tell her. And now they're standing on icy ground. The leverage they had on Kite's abusive father has wavered, and life on the street is affecting Frankie's health. Snow is gathering at the station doors, and doubts are piling high...they must rely on each other, and believe in the magic that got them this far. If they don't, it's not just their future in jeopardy¿but the fates of all the street kids in their care¿all the Kings.

Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, you won't want to miss this epic finale to The Girl with the Hickory Heart.Weeks after the complete destruction of Black Sail City, Lye Li is haunted by the message that Luna and Ash have been captured by the emperor. With refugees swelling past the gates of the monastery and the impending threat of Shen returning, Lye cannot ignore that her duty is to the Char people as she is forced to decide whether to restore the Carvresses to the throne and leave Ash and Luna to be tortured in the palace, or rescue her brother and risk the Char being extinguished permanently.Beneath the rusted walls of the emperor's palace, Ash and Luna hold tightly to hope. Enduring torture and endless mind games, they cling to their love for each other to survive and the knowledge that they cannot leave the kidnapped Char children behind.All decisions, all journeys, will lead to the same place: The palace. To a fanciful emperor, controlled by a ruthless woman and a population beginning to doubt their ruler. Walls of stone separate families and friends.But if they can reach each other and join forces, they might just be able to change the world.

Ash still feels deeply connected to Luna, but as she loses herself in her grief, he must work with his sister Lye to fight against the ever-increasing power of the Chancellor. When Ash discovers his sister's betrayal and an unlikely connection to the Chancellor, he questions everything he knows, fighting to determine who to believe and what the real motives are behind those around him.With the ghost of a past loved one appearing when Lye needs advice, she realizes that even if she can't help Luna directly, she can aid Luna's people. She begins advising the general in battle, her borrowed insights changing the course of the war.When Ash, Lye, and Luna are joined by the Carvresses, who harbor a cataclysmic secret of their own, and finally understand the Chancellor's true nature, the three risk their lives, their powers, and everything they have to save each other and the land they've come to call home.Sequel to THE GIRL WITH THE HICKORY HEART.

Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in history not often referred töthe internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for having "one drop of Japanese blood in them"¿things are finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel, a job, and his gang of Lost Boys.Desperate to run away, the world outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naïve, eighteen-year-old Noräthe privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for things to change.For months, they've lived side by side, their paths crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window. In her honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees the chance to take to the window and fly away.Set in 1953, NORA AND KETTLE explores the collision of two teenagers facing extraordinary hardship. Their meeting is inevitable, devastating, and ultimately healing. Their stories, a collection of events, are each on their own harmless. But together, one after the other, they change the world.

For Luna, the price of peace in a time of war is a heart of hickory. But to have a hickory heart leaves no room for love. When the lives of her three brothers are tied to refugee siblings from the warring tribe, Luna must test the limits of her wooden heart, trust those she's been taught to hate, and now she's destined to destroy.In an island nation akin to a wooden Hong Kong, two Asian women from warring tribes: Lye, a powerful slave of the Emperor and Luna, a Char defying tradition, must put aside their pasts in order to move forward.