The Lovely Bones

In Black Salt, love is a sickness you can’t hide—a slow gnawing beneath the skin that leaves you hollowed, grayed, and eventually gone. No one stays long enough to see it through; they leave before the rot finishes its work. It’s what the town teaches you: when it starts, you run. You look away. You survive by pretending not to feel. But Atlas is tired of pretending. The halls of Black Salt High are full of kids pretending they don’t see each other’s bruised hearts, pretending their bones aren’t already whispering warnings. Still, he can’t forget the weight of a father who stayed—not out of love, but because he never felt it deep enough to decay. That truth lingers in Atlas like a second shadow. And then there’s Nova—the outsider with a storm in her bones. And Wren, all sharpness and fight. Milo, who cracks jokes to keep the silence at bay. Luce, who wears her thorns like jewelry. Together, they don’t know how to stop the rot. But they’re learning how to sit with it, how to name it, how to refuse the small, hollow deaths of pretending not to care. In a town where love is a death sentence, staying might be the bravest thing of all.

After his sister is brutally attacked and crippled investigating the rape of a thirteen-year-old, Richard Baimbridge rushes back to his hometown of Wilmington, NC, to assist in her recovery only to come face to face with his tormented past and a dark family secret. Serving as his sister's legs, he fights to stay above the flood of childhood trauma as he is drawn into the dark underside of this quiet coastal community where he becomes the primary suspect in the murders of Wilmington's young girls in this riveting suspense thriller that explores the special bond between a brother and sister. More than 500,000 copies sold worldwide. "Bill Benners is a fresh and welcomed new voice in crime fiction. My Sister's Keeper is a compelling and original psychological thriller. Awesome, powder-keg suspense!" --Andrew McAleer, Crimestalker Casebook/crimestalkers.com

My mother was the most renowned forensic artist, yet she refused to acknowledge me as her daughter. On my eighteenth birthday, I was kidnapped and called her for help. However, my mother replied impatiently, "Today is Angelina's birthday. Just die if you want attention that badly." Later, all the bones in my body were shattered and scattered everywhere. When my mother reconstructed my face from the bones, she lost her mind.

After betrayal from a friend that led to her death, Noah moved to Ravenshollow with her parents for a new start. She’s not just the new girl. She’s the youngest vampire. But nothing is simple in a town split between Fang and humans. With a body turning up, a boy who draws her in, and another who might burn the world to protect her, Noah must decide: What does she owe her humanity… and who can she trust with the monster she’s becoming?

Devane doesn't do family. She does territory. As the ruthless leader of a notorious biker gang, she's built her reputation on cold eyes and colder decisions. She takes what she wants and never looks back. Sentiment is weakness. Love is a liability. The only soft thing she's ever allowed herself is the tattoo on her wrist—a faded, ghostly handprint she never explains. A debt she can't repay. Clarisse is unravelling. A ballerina forged in pressure and perfection, she controls the one thing no one else can: her body. Every skipped meal is a small victory. Every sharp bone is proof of discipline. She doesn't need saving. She doesn't need anyone. She's fine. She's always fine. Then a wedding neither of them wanted makes them family. Thrust under the same roof, Devane and Clarisse are now cousins by marriage—and enemies by instinct. Devane is chaos and cigarette smoke, cold and unapologetic. Clarisse is silence and uneaten dinners, a girl folding inward. They clash at every turn. Devane thinks Clarisse is a fragile little princess playing at suffering. Clarisse thinks Devane is a brute who takes up too much space. But the tension between them is a living thing. And it's growing. Every slammed door. Every lingering stare. Every accidental touch that lasts a second too long. Devane finds herself watching Clarisse in ways that have nothing to do with family. Clarisse finds herself craving a danger she's spent her whole life avoiding. Neither of them is ready for what happens when hatred starts to feel like hunger. And neither of them knows that this isn't the first time their lives have collided.

It’s all fun and games until a body washes up…. Beth Monroe just wants to make it through the summer baseball season without being the constant target of her brother Shane’s jokes, but he is relentless, and she’s ready to lock herself in her room and hide. Until the new girl shows up. Halley appears in small town Barryville like a ghost. No one knows where she came from or anything about her past, not even her last name. When she gives Beth a piece of unsolicited advice that, “It’s what’s on the outside that counts,” Beth changes everything about herself. By the time Beth realizes she’s becoming a monster, it might be too late, and Halley has already sunk her claws into Beth’s best friend Ryan—who might’ve been something more if Beth had opened her eyes a little earlier. As Halley’s past catches up to her, Beth realizes there’s more to this mysterious girl than she realized. Can she stop Halley from revealing her true, monstrous nature to Ryan before it’s too late?