Showing results by author "K. A. Riley" in All Categories

On her 17th birthday, Ashen Spencer is blindfolded and escorted to the massive, mysterious building known as the Arc to begin her year of training and testing in hopes that she can earn the Cure - a powerful drug given only to those deemed worthy to survive beyond their 18th birthday. Ashen has a chance to rise up from her former life of squalor and be granted a place in society, if the Panel - the mysterious group of powerful men and women in charge of the Arc - deems her year a success.

In a secret facility called the Processor, Kress and her fellow Recruits are subjected to endless weapons training, violent puzzles, dangerous war games, deadly escape rooms, and impossible Virtual Reality simulations. In the end, they’ll get answers to questions they’ll wish they never asked.

In the realm of Kravan, children of lower-class citizens are raised in a prison-like structure called "The Tower" from birth until adulthood. Known as the Tethered, they are held in thrall until their powers reveal themselves around the time of their nineteenth birthday. Every year, the Tethered who are tested and deemed harmless are chosen to leave the Tower and join the outside world as servants to live in the households of the ruling class. Those who are deemed threats are taken away—and no one knows what happens to them, though they suspect the worst.

Brought down by the trauma of recent events, Ashen Spencer resolves to step up the fight against her enemies in the Directorate. With the help of an unlikely friend, she infiltrates the Palace Grounds to steal a priceless object...only to find something even more valuable.

After their costly victory over President Krug and the Patriot Army, 18-year-old Kress and her Conspiracy travel to a newly medieval London, England where they are forced to fight their way through two warring factions amid a decimated hellscape. Their struggle for survival takes them on an epic quest through what’s left of London as they race to track down a pair of mythical twins, who are rumored to have the unique ability to enter the world of dreams.

Having escaped from the Processor and with the truth behind the Eastern Order finally revealed, Kress and her fellow Seventeens go on the run. Guided by Render, they find themselves in the mountains, where they encounter a group of fellow teenagers who have escaped from another small town like the Valta. Finding a clue that there may be a resistance movement in San Francisco, the Seventeens complete a dangerous, enemy-filled journey west.

Aided by the Insubordinates, Kress and her Conspiracy wage a daring counteroffensive against the Patriot Army in an effort to liberate the city of San Francisco. Outnumbered, facing impossible odds, and opposed by a powerful and ruthless enemy named General Ekker, Kress and her friends hope for help as they struggle to understand and control their emerging abilities.

Leaving behind the people she loves most in the world, Ashen sets off into the wilderness in hopes of finding the elusive group of rebels know as the "Consortium". But, when she finds herself among strangers in the former ski town locals have named the "Bastille", secrets begin to reveal themselves, friendships prove as fragile as glass, and Ashen begins to understand just how powerful her enemy really is. When her brother, Kel, goes missing, Ashen is forced to return to the place she despises...where she's faced with a cruel and brutal choice that will break her heart.

After barely escaping with her life, Ashen finds her way home to the Arc thanks to the help of an old friend. After a long absence, Ash isn’t sure what she’s about to find. The Bishop’s deception and cruelty have turned her world upside down. As she fights an impossible uphill battle, she must confront betrayal, lies, and heartbreaking loss that will either lead to her vindication or her ultimate downfall....

Embarking on a fresh set of adventures through France and Spain, Kress and her Conspiracy continue their search for fellow Emergents, unsure if they’re about to find new friends or the deadliest collection of enemies. With Noxia and her team of Hawkers hot on their heels, the Conspiracy will come face to face with mind-blowing discoveries, the shocking truth about their dreams, and solutions to mysteries they may wish they’d never tried to solve.

When Ashen heads east to New York City to find Finn's brother, she finds herself confronted by an entirely new set of problems. The city is a war zone overshadowed by the Behemoth, the largest arcology in existence. Few are allowed entry and those who go in never leave. She soon discovers that the power in New York is held entirely by one young man. Known only as the Bishop, he's mysterious, unnervingly handsome, and smooth-voiced. His allure is undeniable, despite his tendency toward cruelty. Who is the Bishop really? What exactly goes on inside the Behemoth?

Captured by the group of rogue Emergents known as Hypnagogics, Kress and her Conspiracy search desperately for a way out of their confinement in a stadium-size prison-lab called the Mill. There, they find themselves subjected to a bombardment of psychological manipulations, physical challenges, and cruel techno-genetic experiments.

Encouraged by happy reunions, shocked by terrifying discoveries, and with the lives of millions and the fate of the nation hanging in the balance, Kress and her conspiracy—along with their new legions of allies, the Survivalists and the Unkindness—prepare for their final, all-or-nothing war against Krug and the assembled might of his Patriot Army.

In a deal with her greatest enemy, Shara must move into the palace and pose as Prince Tallin's doting fiancée. Desperate to be reunited with the man she loves, she promises to put on an act that will convince the realm's Nobles that she is madly in love with the prince, and loyal to the Royals. She must also convince them that she's one of them, which means concealing her powers. But as she learns more about the wealthy citizens of Kravan, long-forgotten secrets come to light—and nothing is quite as it seems.

In the year 2043, with the nation destroyed by war, 17-year-old Kress and her conspiracy of friends embark on a dangerous cross-country mission to locate and recruit other Emergents, the name given to teenagers who have begun to exhibit strange evolutionary abilities. Not all Emergents are ready to accept who and what they are, however, and some have even started using their abilities for selfish or evil ends. Now Kress has to figure out who is friend and who is foe as she risks everything to expose the government’s lies and take down the tyrannical President Krug once and for all.

Separated from Thorne by the sadistic Royal Family, Shara makes her way through miles of dangerous, dark tunnels in search of him. Deep below the realm of Kravan, she forges a new friendship or two and encounters terrifying new enemies.

Every year, 100 of the most dangerous convicted criminals from the impoverished Ward are given a chance to earn their freedom and to live a life of luxury in Nova Heights, the walled-in city of glass and steel estates built into the side of a mountain. All that’s standing between the Hopefuls and a full pardon are the Amnesty Games, a seven-day barrage of challenges, puzzles, mazes, traps, obstacles, contests, and competitions.

Stormport and Crystalbay have been feuding for five hundred years. The two kingdoms are different in almost every way except for one: In both places, girls and women have been stripped of their ancient power and are now owned like property and treated like pets. In the living room of Stormport’s Castle Lumen, none of that is on Ynarra’s mind as she celebrates her 16th birthday with her best friends and her secret and totally forbidden boyfriend from Crystalbay. Everything is going great…until Torren—one of Stormport's mysterious, hooded messengers—arrives with an egg-shaped present.

What happens when the first day of school is the last day of the world? For 16-year-old Virtue, navigating 11th grade is hard enough. Throw in the mass carnage of the Purple War, the brain-mangling Lemming Plague, and the overnight, post-apocalyptic breakdown of civilization, and suddenly, arguing with her parents, being picked on by bullies, and tyrannized by her teachers doesn’t seem quite so devastating.

After their overseas missions, Kress and her Conspiracy return home to a divided nation. The East and West Coasts have become fragile havens from a dystopian middle America, which remains mired in fear, poverty, and the most sadistic brands of vigilante violence. All Kress and her Conspiracy have to do is embark on a cross-country road-trip from Washington, D.C. to the Valta in Colorado, dodge the deadly Cult of the Devoted and the Army of the Unsettled - two groups battling for control over a land that might not be worth saving - and complete a perilous rescue mission along the way.