Books with author M.A. McDonald

Secrets can’t stay buried forever. I’m Indi Bellamy and my whole world is about to come crashing down. I thought I was living an ordinary life, but it was all a carefully constructed lie. Truth is, I'm not ordinary at all. I might not even be human. Vampires tell me I'm a threat that must be eliminated. Witches steeped in black magic are targeting me. Abilities I never knew I had are rising to the surface, and the person who can help me figure this all out is the one guy I'm certain I shouldn't trust. My very existence is forbidden. My past has been taken from me. For me to survive, I must discover why I've been declared too dangerous to live. A YA Urban Fantasy with plenty of dangers, demons, and delightful twists, Of Blood and Magic is a spellbinding story of paranormal creatures hunting down a strong heroine with powers she has yet to unveil. Fans of dark tales of magic, vampires, angels, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy with splashes of horror will be hooked.

"Important questions emerge from this frothy novel: Can't smart girls embrace frivolity, beauty and sexuality without guilt? Can't they have fun and be serious too? McDonald cleverly answers. Her ostensibly simple, bubble-gum debut is actually chock-full of substance." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Take an administrative snafu, a bad breakup, and what shall heretofore be known as "The Hot-Tub Incident," and you’ve got two unprepared sophomores on a semester abroad. For American party girl Tasha, an escape to Oxford may be a chance to ditch her fame as a tabloid temptress, but wading Uggs-deep in feminist theory is not her idea of a break. Meanwhile, the British half of the exchange, studious Emily, nurses an aching heart amid the bikinis and beer pong of U.C. Santa Barbara. Soon desperation has the girls texting each other tips — on fitting in, finding love, and figuring out who they really are. With an anthropologist’s eye for detail and a true ear for teen-speak, exciting novelist Abby McDonald has crafted a funny, fast-paced, poignant look at survival, sisterhood, and the surprising ways we discover our true selves.

Abby McDonald channels Jane Austen in this modern take on Sense and Sensibility. Hallie and Grace Weston couldn't be more different. Older sister Hallie thinks all the world's a stage --her stage, to be exact --while even-tempered Grace tries to keep her dramatic sister in check. When their father dies, leaving everything to his snooty new wife, the sisters face a new challenge: uprooted from their home and friends, they're forced to move into a relative's guest house--in shiny, status-obsessed Beverly Hills. Plunged into a strange and glamorous new world, the penniless Weston sisters try to rebuild their lives. Aspiring actress Hallie throws herself headlong into the Hollywood scene--and an intense affair with musician Dakota. Meanwhile, shy Grace manages to find an unlikely ally in the bubbly entrepreneur Palmer, but still yearns for the maybe-almost-crush she left behind. But is Hallie blinded by her cinematic visions of true love? And can Grace find the strength to step off the sidelines?

The collection of stories in Dirt Road Memories will take the reader back to my boyhood dreams of playing second base for the Yankees while growing up in a small frame house inhabited by a band of siblings and extended family in the Deep South. We travel from riding my horse during my boyhood to the trials and tribulations of a shy teenage boy attending high school in the sixties in a very small rural school. I tell stories of raising pigs, encountering poisonous snakes on the front porch and hiking and camping in the Great Smoky Mountains as an adult. Hopefully, the reader will find some of the stories amusing while others may bring a few tears. I sincerely hope these stories will transport the reader back to a time when life was more carefree and innocent. -

Award-winning author Ian McDonald presents the second novel in the critically acclaimed Luna series. Corta Helio, one of the five family-corporations that rule the moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed. Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that the last appointed heir, Lucas Corta, is not dead -- and that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the schemer, and even in death he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies; and to find them the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey -- to Earth.

The meek don't inherit a thing. Nice girls win nothing but regret. Virtue is wholly overrated. If you don't do it, some other girl will. Kat Elliot has spent her life fighting against phony schmoozing-and it's led her nowhere. A rebellious music journalist, Kat is down on her dreams when her ex–best friend Lauren swishes back into town. Ten years ago, Lauren dumped Kat for high school gold: popularity. Now Lauren wants to make amends by teaching Kat the secret to her success: The Popularity Rules, a decades-old rule book that transformed Lauren that fateful summer. Broke and desperate, Kat reluctantly agrees to a total makeover-what does she have to lose? She's gotten nowhere on her own. Maybe becoming someone new is just what she needs.