Christy Awards

On an uncharted world, happiness is effortless and constant ... but can true joy exist without sacrifice? The people of Meriel have long believed their island world floats alone in the vast ocean universe, so they are astonished when another island drifts into view. With resources becoming scarce, Carya and Brantley quickly volunteer to search the new land for supplies. After navigating a barrier of menacing trees, the pair encounter a culture of perpetually happy people who readily share their talents and their possessions. But all is not what it seems. At the core of the island is a horror that threatens everyone, including Brantley and Carya. Freeing the villagers of the bondage they've chosen may cost Carya and Brantley more than they could have imagined. Even if the two succeed, they'll have to find a way to return to Meriel quickly ... or be cut off from their home forever.

Dedicated reptile expert Oakley Laveau loves the thrill of wrestling a 'gator. But her dream job at the swamp tour slips away when she's charged with a crime she doesn't remember: her best friend's murder. Sentenced to life on a secluded isle, she'll have to battle violent criminals and genetically modified dinosaurs to uncover the truth.

The island world of Meriel faces an old adversary and a new danger. Will the reformed Order die before it has a chance to blossom?Storm clouds loom on the horizon as Carya and Brantley struggle to overcome wounds of the past and build a future together. The fragile new Order is on shaky ground, with too few dancers and sparse resources. Then trouble erupts--and now an insidious rebellion and a new foe threaten their entire world.When she uncovers an old enemy behind all the destruction, Carya realizes the past is not done with her. With conflict tearing apart the dancers and villages, rimmers are soon overrun, and Carya must unite her people by leading the battle to protect the very heart of her world ... or lose it all.

Her future destiny is hidden in the ancient past. Sahara Aldridge, a young Egyptologist in 1922, is making a name for herself on the digsite soon to become Egypt's most sensational discovery--the tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamun. Despite opposition from a mostly-male profession, Sahara fights to continue the legacy of her Egyptologist parents, who died tragically at sea when she was a teen. But then a childhood friend finds a lost journal written by Sahara's mother, hinting at the bizarre possibility of time-travel, and a crazy suspicion forces Sahara to confront a freak incident years earlier... Is it possible her parents were time travelers? And has she inherited this mind-blowing ability? When the American journalist Jack Moretti begins asking too many questions, Sahara suspects he knows more than he's telling. Did her parents truly perish in an accident? Or did someone target and murder them because of their time traveling gift? There's only one way to unearth the truth. Sahara must travel back in time, to the days of King Tut. But the biggest surprise is yet to come... the truth about her parents, and about her own destiny, discovered in the whispers of conspiracy around the death of Egypt's most famous Pharaoh. But what secrets are better left buried?

On the eve of his medical retirement, Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson receives a frantic call from his estranged childhood best friend, David Yarnell. David's daughter has been kidnapped off the streets of Nashville in broad daylight. The police have no suspects and no leads. The only clue: the body of a dead priest left behind at the scene. With the clock ticking, David is growing desperate, as is his wife, Rachel . . . Jed's first love. Despite his painful history with David and Rachel, Jed agrees to help. But he's spent his career as a door-kicking Navy SEAL, not an investigator. His presence immediately draws unwanted attention, creates friction with the local police, and triggers a mysterious attempt on his life. Just when he thinks things can't get worse, it starts to happen again-the voices in his head, the nightmares, the visions. Dark memories and strange abilities, things he believed he'd left behind when he fled Nashville for the Navy at eighteen, begin to resurface. Jed realizes that to save the missing girl, he must take a leap of faith and embrace the gifts he's denied for all these years. To foil this dark intercept, he'll need more than just his years as a SEAL operator, because he has no choice now but to take up arms and join the battle in the unseen, spiritual warfare raging all around him. And there is far more at stake than just a missing girl: the world is not the place he thought it was-and he is not alone.

Recorder has no family, no friends, and no name. Donated to the Consortium before birth, her sole purpose is to maintain and verify the records. A neural implant and drone ensure compliance, punishing for displays of bias. Suddenly cut off from controlling technology, Recorder tastes what it means to be human. But if the Consortium discovers her feelings, everyone she knows will be in danger. With no name, no resources, and only an infinitesimal possibility of escape, Recorder's time is running out.

In the glacial nation of Norgard, Jolan the dream teller serves every seeker, whether peasant or high lord. Though she loves using her gift, she struggles to navigate the corrupt and dangerous court and the jealousies of the Guildagard. When an old man's nightmare imparts a dire warning, Jolan realizes her entire nation is in danger. But before she can sound the alarm, she is betrayed by the guilds and sold into slavery in a rival kingdom far to the south. As a slave in a foreign land, at first Jolan can't see beyond her singular focus: return home to warn Norgard of the coming calamity. After facing new dangers, making new friends, and forgiving old wrongs, she must fulfill the purposes the Provider has set before her. Only then can she face a decision that could cost her the man she loves, her calling, and her freedom--all to save a people who abandoned her.

The Dynasty claims to be a veritable paradise, where a multitude of races live in peace and harmony. Everys knows better. The Dynasty has been broken since it was founded, with the human nobility oppressing many of the peoples they've brutally conquered, including her own. As an illegal mage, Everys hides in a rundown corner of the capital city, running her family's electronics repair shop, afraid to risk her life to stand against injustice. But then she is brought to the palace and forced to marry King Narius, the descendant of the tyrant who destroyed her people's homeland, and she realizes this might be the chance she's been waiting for to make things right. Due to sacred law, Narius must marry to legitimize his reign. Forced to marry for political gain, he cannot marry the woman he actually loves, so he must settle for another. Unfortunately, the young woman he chose seems determined to cause him nothing but trouble, jeopardizing his plans to bring the Dynasty into a more prosperous future. Thrown together by circumstances they can't control, Everys and Narius must set aside old grudges and painful legacies to forge an uneasy partnership before the Dynasty's enemies destroy everything they hold dear.

Eliza Bontrager and Jesse Ebersol have fallen in love and are determined to marry, despite the belief of their Amish community and respective families that there's a hidden curse-one that only shows up when an Ebersol and Bontrager marry. Before the ceremony on the day of the wedding, Eliza's great-aunt Rose gives her a family heirloom quilt and tells her that she may use it to change one event in the past. Eliza appreciates the woman's heart, but she dismisses the strange conversation while keeping the beautiful quilt. Several years later, mourning the loss of their third child, Eliza discovers her inability to deliver a healthy baby is genetic. Remembering her great-aunt's strange words, she decides that if she can go back in time and reject Jesse's proposal, she can save him the heartache of a childless marriage. Her sacrifice will allow him to marry someone else and raise a family. But once she puts her plan into action, she discovers the true impact of her decision-on Jesse and so many others within their community.