It was the first time I discovered that some girls actually sneak out of the house during slumber parties and meet up with boys. I would’ve never known if I hadn’t gone to the bathroom...

My heart is strong, I will not fail, I won’t be wronged, I will prevail.

I’m here. Start at the beginning.

My mom was sitting at the kitchen table. She’d set her coffee down, making a noise that made me look her way. I’d begun to notice her less and less often, like her colors were...

I really need to remember to block my thoughts.””Oh, come on,” he pulled me closer towards him. “Why are you so scared?””Because the second that I let this conversation happen, I’ll be letting my walls...

We bumped into other silent lines of kids going in the same direction. We looked like we were much younger and our lines were headed to the cafeteria or recess or the carpool line. Or...

Taking a deep breath that smelled of rain, she was poised to move when a hand clasped her elbow. Memories of another hand grabbing her sent panic shooting through her veins.She swung around.”Whoa. You okay?”...

I smiled at him. Not even Wyatt would have known how to be this honorable when talking about a girl that had hurt him.

Dear God, Meg, you’re glowing. Sit and tell me about this boy. He let you borrow his jacket? That’s so adorable.” Instead, I came off the high of that day by writing a letter to...

Flanked by his personal guardsmen, Emperor Gevalen walked toward me, never letting go of me with his eyes. It was thrilling and terrifying all at once.

He comes in through people. People who love us anyway. They jump right into the chaos with us and try to help us make sense of it. That’s what mercy is…it’s choosing to help, or...

What if the Devil doesn’t know he’s the Devil?

Hmmm. What you’re saying is that you’ve never been kissed?” He picked at a string on the blanket under us.

When I’m naked, I can see my heart beating.

Chaol,” he said, looking over his shoulder. Dorian’s eyes were frozen, his jaw clenched. “Treat her well.

I found I could only glance at him for tiny moments and then I had to look away. He was perfect enough to hurt my feelings for a long time, and I wanted to let...

Funny thing about the monster. The worse he treats you, the more you love him.

Leave my dad out of this.

With a damp palm, I turned the knob and cracked open the door. She was asleep in her freshly made bed. I can’t explain how relieved I felt for this simple mercy. She was here...

If she could explore and heal his injuries with her fingers, it would be another type of magic, her skin making contact with his. Putting her mind to it, Love would become familiar with his...

I’ll never be able to give you smart answers about why we suffer, but I can come into your world and try to be some kind of help to you.

You are both daring and unscrupulous, and you think fast. I have been looking for a person with those particular characteristics. Also I noticed you speak Babylonian.

I like her just fine, but you should watch yourself around her. Tennyson is given to obsession, and her obsessions tend to run toward trouble. It’s kind of a Wyoming thing to push the whole...

It wouldn’t be real love if there weren’t the possibility for another response to him. If we couldn’t choose not to love him, then our love would be empty. That’s why there’s evil in this...

She watches him for hours. She wants to be the sheets that cover his toes. She wants to be the ceiling separating him from the sky: above him, the first thing he sees before and...

You were that little girl.

…The queen’s mocking laughter cut in. “This is your treasure, Lord Sheftu?””Aye. The greatest treasure in Egypt—a maid whose loyalty cannot be bought. Whatever bargain we make, Daughter of the Sun, must include her freedom.

My brother died because someone was jealous.

But I understood, now, that we don’t live only for ourselves. We’re connected by millions of shared experiences and dreams and nightmares, all tied together with compassion. I learned that even when we’re going through...

How ’bout that?

Promise?” Well, that genie’s out of the bottle and there’s no stuffing her back in.

THE 52ND is a unique entry in the YA and Paranormal genres. With a diverse cast of characters, thrilling mythology, and a potential series ahead, Dela knocks it out of the park with THE 52ND.

If your going to be a jackass then do it outside of your home, as your home is supposed to be a place of love and safety, it’s your sanctuary from the outside world. The...

Every moment of our lives we make choices. Most we don’t even know we’re making, they’re so dull or routine or automatic. Some are beyond explanation—like my mom choosing Wyatt’s memory over Dad and me.

My romantic history since arriving on Novo has been non-existent, but I don’t know what, if anything, came before; thanks to the government’s cerebral pilfering.

His room was dark until he switched on his desk lamp. I sat on the floor next to his bed and watched him counting clothes and considering shoes. He seemed so boyish right then—like he...

Kammy could see the palace built into the cliff face. It was a majestic construction. Its white walls stretched up into a cluster of turrets and towers. Its façade was broken by gigantic windows that...

It wasn’t premeditated. It was what needed to be done. So I did it.

Most kids grow sullen and angry when they’re working through issues, but Thanet mustered up another kind of bull-headed strength. The kind that sees beyond circumstances to what really matters. How could anyone hurt a...

No wonder I want to be Robert Mitchum: big, strong, super-cool, with those Freon eyes of his. That’s who I was pretending to be a minute ago – Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past....

Trusty steed.

I finally understood why so much monkey business happened in the backs of buses. Put us in close proximity, with wheels spinning under us, and nothing to do but wait, we’re going to start thinking...

Fiction is the evidence that reality exists

Hearing my brother’s words coming out of Henry, this stranger in a strange town, made me feel wild with all the loss—wild and wired with no place to put those feelings.

On the best nights, he’d appear outside the bookstore window and wait for me to unlock the door. He usually hadn’t had time to shower between doing things with cattle and horses and coming to...

And we want to understand them better.

Jasper felt the sadness then. A strong sensation of being pulled underwater, of being helpless to do anything but sink. Further into the despair. Until it completely surrounded you. Until every breath you took was...

The ice cold fear I’d felt, not knowing if Wyatt was alive, pressed into the wall with other girls and surrounded by guys who were unspeakably brave, hit my body again in a wave. This...

I want my people to be protected, strong, and not to be driven into corners until they either become killers or are killed!

He carried her until he reached one of the hot springs around what became Chapin, and then he walked into the water with her and held her there for three days. He had about given...