'Sexy, surprising, and full of secrets' Stephanie Garber, #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Caraval series A heart is a dangerous thing to steal. AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER Cruel Prince meets A Court of Thorns and Roses in this sexy, action-packed fantasy about a girl who is caught between two treacherous faerie courts and their dangerously seductive princes. Brie would do anything before making a deal with the Fae; death is better than their vicious schemes. But when her sister is taken by the sadistic king of the Unseelie court, there is nothing Brie wouldn't do to get her back-including making a deal with the king himself to steal three magical relics from the rival Seelie court. Gaining unfettered access to the Seelie court is easier said than done. Brie's only choice is to pose as a potential bride for the Seelie Prince, Ronan-a prince who's not quite as wicked as she once thought. Unwilling to let her heart distract her, she accepts help from a band of Unseelie misfits with their own secret agenda. But as Brie spends time with their mysterious leader, Finn, she finds herself struggling to resist his seductive charm. Caught between two dangerous courts, Brie must decide who to trust with her loyalty . . . and with her heart. 'Beautifully broken and epic . . . A must read for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer L Armentrout' Carrie Ann Ryan, New York Times bestselling Author of the Elements of Five Series 'A sexy new take on fae fantasy . . . prepare to fall for your newest book boyfriend' Lisa Maxwell, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Magician 'An enchanting story of magic, adventure, and the lengths we will go to for the ones we love' Catherine Cowles, author of the Wrecked series

"You are familiar with the salt of the earth. But did you know there is an even finer, more delicate essence?"

Take wisdom and imagination, responsibility and beauty, and mix them together in arcane proportions to form a rich and peculiar brine. The resulting "water of life" is an emotional muddy liquid, filled with existential sediment swirling in the light of secret reality and reflecting prismatic colors of hope and wonder. If allowed to evaporate -- escape, flee, ascend into the ether and join the music of the spheres -- what remains is the quintessence; a precious concentrate that is elusive and volatile, neither fully solid nor so illusory as to be devoid of pithy substance. It is the "Salt of the Air."

In this debut collection from the critically acclaimed author of "Dreams of the Compass Rose" and "Lords of Rainbow," the nineteen stories are distillations of myth and philosophy, eroticism and ascetic purity. Dipping into an ancient multi-ethnic well, they are the stuff of fantasy -- of maidens and deities and senior retirees, of emperors and artists and con artists, of warriors and librarians, of beings without a name and things very fey indeed....

Don't be afraid of ingesting ethereal salt.

Open your mind and inhale.

"Cautionary, sensual stories of love, reversal and revenge upend fairy tale conventions in Nazarian's lush collection... Sumptuous detail, twisty plots and surprising endings lift these extravagant tales." --"Publishers Weekly"

"These are beautiful, haunting confections, reminiscent of Tanith Lee's erotically charged tales... Fine shades of emotion, mythic grandeur, crystalline prose, sharp revisionist intelligence: these are Vera Nazarian's hallmarks..." --Nick Gevers, "Locus"

Vera Nazarian immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story at the age of 17, and since then has published numerous works in anthologies and magazines, and has seen her fiction translated into eight languages.

She made her novelist debut with the critically acclaimed novel "Dreams of the Compass Rose ," followed by epic fantasy about a world without color, "Lords of Rainbow." Her novella "The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass" with an introduction by Charles de Lint made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2005. This first collection "Salt of the Air ," with an introduction by Gene Wolfe, contains the 2007 Nebula Award-nominated "The Story of Love." Recent work includes the 2008 Nebula Award-nominated, baroque novella "The Duke in His Castle ."

Ancient myth, moral fables, eclectic philosophy, and her Armenian and Russian ethnic heritage play a strong part in all her work, combining the essences of things and places long gone into a rich evocation of wonder.

In addition to being a writer and award-winning artist, she is also the publisher of Norilana Books.

Official website: www.veranazarian.com

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Each Fairy Book demands a preface from the Editor, and these introductions are inevitably both mono-tonous and unavailing. A sense of literary honesty compels the Editor to keep repeating that he is the Editor, and not the author of the Fairy Tales, just as a distinguished man of science is only the Editor, not the Author of Nature. Like nature, popular tales are too vast to be the creation of a single modern mind. The Editor's business is to hunt for collections of these stories told by peasant or savage grandmothers in many climes, from New Caledonia to Zululand; from the frozen snows of the Polar regions to Greece, or Spain, or Italy, or far Lochaber. When the tales are found they are adapted to the needs of British children by various hands, the Editor doing little beyond guarding the interests of propriety, and toning down to mild reproofs the tortures inflicted on wicked step-mothers, and other naughty characters.

Biblical research investigator Kemp Hastings sits quietly in the back of a classroom and absorbs the lecture from Dr. Darlene Gammay, her first public session since walking out of the university two weeks ago in a cloud of mystery. As the biblical scholar wraps up her lecture and watches Hastings approach her, Dr. Gammay has no idea that he is about to change her life forever.

Hastings has been tasked to authenticate a holy parchment recently found in the tomb of a Cistercian monk, hidden away for nearly five hundred years. After he engages help from Dr. Gammay, she inadvertently touches the ancient manuscript with her bare fingers, setting off a chain of holy, unnatural events that leads to the eventual discovery of a strange tattoo emblazoned across her shoulders. Now embroiled in an ancient mystery, the couple travels to Cairo to consult with a madcap museum curator who, unbeknownst to them, has already devised his own twisted plan.

In this intriguing biblical tale, chosen guardians of some of the most treasured items in the universe embark on an intrepid journey from a university classroom to Egypt and finally to Northern Scotland, where they are forced to battle underworld forces determined to remove one of them from existence forever.

An immersive, sultry, heart-pounding historical reimagining of the Robin Hood ballads, told through the piercing eyes of one of his spies.

Jane Crowe is an ordinary peasant girl who never dreamed she would work for the infamous Lord of the Greenwood. But when she’s forced out of her home, she has no choice but to turn to Robin Hood for help—and he makes her an irresistible offer. He needs a pair of eyes in the King’s Houses, and quiet, unassuming Jane—who has spent her whole life going unnoticed—will be the perfect spy.

At first, Jane’s work for Robin seems straightforward. She whispers to him about the nobles at King’s Houses and all their secrets, including the new Sheriff of Nottingham, who would like nothing more than to see Robin Hood’s head on a spike. But the more Jane is drawn into Robin’s world, the more she’s drawn to Robin himself—a man as charismatic as he is cunning, capable of plucking at her heart as easily as he notches an arrow. As Robin’s tricks grow increasingly dangerous, and shockingly violent, Jane starts to suspect that her hero cares more about his own legacy than helping the common people—and that despite his declarations of affection, he sees her as just another object to be stolen.

When Robin’s schemes implicate Jane in a brutal murder, she must decide: is she prize to be won, a pawn to be used and discarded—or is she an equal player in the game between nobles and thieves?