A Los Angeles Times–bestselling author “combines the divine and the profane in this erotically charged urban fantasy” (Publishers Weekly). Imagine Leaving Las Vegas meets City of Angels and American Gods, and you can imagine the power of Severed Wings. Brandon Jones, a handsome, hopeful young actor, stands on the verge of fame and fortune—when a car accident shatters his life, bringing his career to a screeching halt. Isolating himself, he cuts off his friends and family, turns to booze for companionship, and withdraws to a small apartment on Sunset Boulevard. Now, the only people he interacts with are a drag queen and a student working her way through college as an escort .Brandon has nothing to live for . . . until a startlingly beautiful young couple moves in across the hall. Spying through the peephole in his door, he grows increasingly obsessed with his new neighbors—and the parade of damaged strangers who visit them at all hours. Then something seemingly impossible happens that convinces him that this mysterious couple can help restore all he lost. “Altman delivers a thrilling roller-coaster ride, plunging us headlong into dark territories fraught with unexpected pivots and twists.” —Stephen Susco, screenwriter of The Grudge “A tour de force of the Weird. Eat of the fruit and take a truly mesmerizing trip through a glass darkly. I did, and I can't wait to do it again.” —Nancy Holder, New York Times–bestselling co-author of The Wicked Saga “[An] ethereal story about the damage of the past and the hope for a better personal future.” —Booklist

The witch's redemption... Kelyn Saint–Pierre always had a bit of a thing for Valor Hearst. But after he makes a harrowing sacrifice to save the tomboyish witch from a gruesome death, Kelyn's certain that any spark between them is gone forever. Valor wishes she'd known about Kelyn's crush before she ruined everything. There may be a way she can repay her smoking–hot champion...but it won't be easy. Circling the globe on a dangerous mission that pits them against deadly magics and dark creatures, Kelyn and Valor are pushed scorchingly close together. But surrendering to passion may only further bind them in pain...

The irresistibly compelling BOOK TWO in the long awaited PENRYN AND THE END OF DAYS series. It is THE book we are all waiting with bated breath to read... In this sequel to the bestselling fantasy thriller, Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what's left of the modern world. When a group of people capture Penryn's sister Paige, thinking she's a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken. Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels' secret plans, where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go. Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can't rejoin the angels, can't take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

Gabriel can still feel his wings, even though they were severed from his body nearly two thousand years ago. He and Laura, have just happily reunited with the daughter they once thought was dead, despite being caught in a fierce battle between the Mafia and the Roman Catholic Church. But now as he watches his daughter, Belle, attempt to lead a normal life despite losing a hand in a fight with her long-time nemesis, Gabriel knows he will do anything to restore his beloved daughter's original beauty. Because of her unique physiology, Belle thinks there is not a surgeon in the world who can reattach her hand. But Gabriel knows of someone who may be willing to perform the operation. Unfortunately, Malevar the Grey Priest is not exactly from this world and the last time Gabriel and he met, each had attempted to kill the other. In a different dimension with few gateways, Gabriel embarks on a fateful journey where he must find allies before he can strike a deal to save his daughter. In this continuing fantasy tale, a father's unconditional love drives his perilous mission within a strange land where he soon discovers a dark force wants far more from him than he ever imagined.

"Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments, edited by Ramayana scholar Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha, scholar of Theater and Performance Studies, examines diverse retellings of the Ramayana narrative as interpreted and embodied through a spectrum of performances. Unlike previous publications, this book is neither a monograph on a single performance tradition nor a general overview of Indian theatre. Instead, it provides context-specific analyses of selected case studies that explore contemporary enactments of performance traditions and the narratives from which they draw: Kutiyattam, Nangyarkuttu and Kathakali from Kerala; Kattaikkuttu and a "mythological" drama from Tamilnadu; Talamaddale from Karnataka; avant-garde performances from Puducherry and New Delhi; a modern dance-drama from West Bengal; the monastic tradition of Sattriya from Assam; anti-caste plays from North India; and the Ramnagar Ramlila. Apart from the editors' two introductions, which orient readers to the history of Ramayana narratives by Tulsidas, Valmiki, Kamban, Sankaradeva, and others, as well as the performance vocabulary of their enactments, the volume includes many voices, including those of directors, performers, scholars, connoisseurs, and the scholar-abbot of a monastery. It also contains two full scripts of plays, photographs of productions, interviews, conversations, and a glossary of Indian terms. Each essay in the volume, written by an expert in the field, is linked to several others, clustered around shared themes: the politics of caste and gender, the representation of the anti-hero, contemporary re-interpretations of traditional narratives, and the presence of Ramayana discourse in everyday life"--