Books with author Nicole L Taylor

Do you dare enter the Woodlands? As the last livable spot on Earth, it's the only home Rosa and Joseph have ever known. But now they need to escape, or Rosa will be trapped forever in a horrific government program. A dystopian page-turner with over 750 five-star ratings on Goodreads. The Woodlands Series is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth, and The Jewel Series by Amy Ewing. Rosa never thought she’d make it to sixteen...When being unique puts you in danger and speaking your mind can be punishable by death, you might find yourself fighting to survive. Sixteen-year-old Rosa lives in one of the eight enclosed cities of The Woodlands. Where the lone survivors of a devastating race war have settled in the Russian wilderness because it’s the only scrap of land left habitable on the planet. In these circular cities, everyone must abide by the law or face harsh punishment. Rosa's inability to conform and obey the rules brands her a leper and no one wants to be within two feet of her, until she meets Joseph. He's blonde, fair-skinned, green-eyed, and the laid-back complete opposite of Rosa. She's never met anyone quite like him, and she knows that spells danger.But differences weren't always a bad thing. People used to think being unique was one of the most treasured of traits to have. Now, the Superiors, who ruthlessly control the concrete cities with an iron fist, are obsessed with creating a 'raceless' race. They are convinced this is the only way to avoid another war. Any anomalies must be destroyed.The Superiors are unstoppable and can do anything they want. After all, they are considered superheroes by the general public. But not everyone sees them this way. When they continue to abuse their power by collecting young girls for use in their secret, high-tech breeding program, they have no idea that one of those girls has somehow managed to make friends even she didn't know she had. And one man will stop at nothing to save her.

2017 IPPY Book Awards Winner! A “remarkable” (Booklist Magazine) reimagining of Peter Pan. After World War II, orphaned Kettle faces prejudice as a Japanese American but manages to scrape by and care for his makeshift family of homeless children. When he crosses paths with the privileged but traumatized Nora, both of their lives are forever changed...Lauren Nicolle Taylor’s Nora & Kettle is a heart-wrenching historical fiction novel that will appeal to fans of books by John Green and Ned Vizzini, novels such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Beginning of Everything, Eleanor & Park, The Book Thief, and classics like The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye.

GOLD MEDAL WINNER Independent Book Awards What if Peter Pan was a homeless kid just trying to survive, and Wendy flew away for a really good reason? Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in history not often referred to―the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for having "one drop of Japanese blood in them"―things are finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel, a job, and his gang of Lost Boys. Desperate to run away, the world outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naïve, eighteen-year-old Nora―the privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for things to change. For months, they've lived side by side, their paths crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window. In her honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees the chance to take to the window and fly away.Set in 1953, NORA AND KETTLE explores the collision of two teenagers facing extraordinary hardship. Their meeting is inevitable, devastating, and ultimately healing. Their stories, a collection of events, are each on their own harmless. But together, one after the other, they change the world.

You think you're in control. That it's your hands on the reins. But I'm starting to think either someone else is driving, or the reins are attached to nothing. Just flapping and snapping in the breeze. What could be simple, never is. Rosa doesn't want to get used to being separated from Joseph, from Orry. So she must find the strength to battle her way back to her family, while mustering the courage to face her father, his secrets. With her best friend, Rash, by her side, she feels blessed and cursed. He is her saving grace, but will Joseph accept him and forgive her for leaving? Rosa must pull these threads together as she hacks her way to The Wall with the aid of her new companions but, heartbreakingly, without the one person she'd planned to save. Finding her way home is only the beginning. The biggest changes, the shocking truths, are waiting, hovering over the town like a menacing vapor. The Wounded have waited, nursed, and been dormant for too long. And now they're coming... dragging the ghosts of their lost ones behind them.Do you dare enter the Woodlands? A dystopian page-turner with over 750 five-star ratings on Goodreads. The Woodlands Series is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth, and The Jewel Series by Amy Ewing. The Woodlands is an Award-Winning Finalist in the "Fiction: Young Adult" category of the 2014 USA Best Book Awards, as well as a Semifinalist in The Kindle Book Awards by the Kindle Book Review.

Southern cooking meets the Brooklyn foodie scene, keeping charm (and grits) intactGeorgia native Nicole Taylor spent her early twenties trying to distance herself from her southern cooking roots--a move "up" to Brooklyn gave her a fresh appreciation for the bread and biscuits, Classic Fried Chicken, Lemon Coconut Stack Cake, and other flavors of her childhood.The Up South Cookbook is a bridge to the past and a door to the future. The recipes in this deeply personal cookbook offer classic Southern favorites informed and updated by newly-discovered ingredients and different cultures. Here she gives us pimento cheese elevated with a dollop of creme fraiche, grits flavored with New York State Cheddar and blue cheese, and deviled eggs made with smoked trout from her favorite Jewish deli. Other favorites include Collard Greens Pesto and Pasta, Roasted Duck with Cheerwine Cherry Sauce, and Benne and Banana Sandwich Cookies.The recipes speak to a place "where a story is ready to be told and there is always sweet tea chilling." This promises to be a new Southern classic. 75 color photographs

BOOK #2 THE WOODLANDS SERIES Joseph, wake up, wake up, wake up... She says it over and over. It's her mantra, her prayer, her plea. But life doesn't stop while he's sleeping. With a newborn baby in her arms, Rosa's thrown into a new world, with new rules and a philosophy that sounds too good to be true. She's sure they didn't rescue her out of the goodness of their hearts. The Survivors must want something in return. The Wall finds Rosa eagerly entering a new life, yet struggling to keep the demons and ghosts of the past from dragging her backwards. She's left so many people behind. There's freedom in the Survivors' world, more than she'd ever dreamed of, but there's also secrets. The darkest of which pulls Rosa headfirst into a trauma, forcing her to reevaluate her past and pushing her to make a choice that threatens to destroy the tenuous, sewn-together family she's built on the outside.

Southern cooking meets the Brooklyn foodie scene, keeping charm (and grits) intactGeorgia native Nicole Taylor spent her early twenties trying to distance herself from her southern cooking roots--a move "up" to Brooklyn gave her a fresh appreciation for the bread and biscuits, Classic Fried Chicken, Lemon Coconut Stack Cake, and other flavors of her childhood.The Up South Cookbook is a bridge to the past and a door to the future. The recipes in this deeply personal cookbook offer classic Southern favorites informed and updated by newly-discovered ingredients and different cultures. Here she gives us pimento cheese elevated with a dollop of creme fraiche, grits flavored with New York State Cheddar and blue cheese, and deviled eggs made with smoked trout from her favorite Jewish deli. Other favorites include Collard Greens Pesto and Pasta, Roasted Duck with Cheerwine Cherry Sauce, and Benne and Banana Sandwich Cookies.The recipes speak to a place "where a story is ready to be told and there is always sweet tea chilling." This promises to be a new Southern classic.

FAMILY SECRETS. PARALLEL WORLDS. FORBIDDEN LOVE. Eighteen-year-old Alexa Moore has had enough of her rigid, controlled existence. Shortly after her graduation, she decides it’s time for her to make the decisions in her life, and quit letting her grandmother have the last say. But when she sees a man watching her—at her graduation, at the market, outside of where she volunteers—her excitement is snuffed out by a sense of dread she can’t shake. And that’s only the beginning… Soon, strange things begin happening: doors opening by themselves, books falling off shelves. At first, Alexa ignores the bizarre occurrences, chalking them up to coincidence. But when things take a violent turn, she discovers that these occurrences aren’t coincidence at all. In fact, they’re all tied to one thing: her. It isn’t long before she realizes that telepathy and empathy are not the only abilities she possesses. And these new abilities—ones she cannot begin to explain—are growing in strength…becoming more and more dangerous. Lost and confused, Alexa turns to her grandmother, the one person she trusts above all others, for help. But Gran isn’t who she appears to be, and Alexa finds herself embroiled in a family history that’s shrouded in mystery and lies, where no one, not even the young Irishman she’s fallen for, is who they seem. Part romance, part thriller, and part fantasy, Piercing the Veil is Nicole L. Taylor’s premiere novel that is not to be missed.

Sixteen-year-old Rosa lives in one of the eight enclosed cities of The Woodlands, where the lone survivors of a devastating race war have settled in the Russian wilderness--the only habitable land left on the planet. The Superiors are ruthless in their control of the concrete cities, striving to create a 'raceless' society where everyone is the same. But Rosa has always been different--and that makes her a liability. She finds her counterpoint in Joseph and as the two grow closer, it becomes clear that if they want to be together, they will have to escape the tightly controlled Woodlands--and leave behind the only life they've ever known.A dystopian page-turner with over 2,000 five-star ratings on Goodreads, The Woodlands Series is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth, and The Jewel Series by Amy Ewing. Readers can purchase this boxed set at a significant discount over the cost to purchase each novel individually. This is a complete-series boxed set.The Woodlands is an Award-Winning Finalist in the "Fiction: Young Adult" category of the USA Best Book Awards, as well as a Semifinalist in The Kindle Book Awards by the Kindle Book Review."Lauren Taylor's writing is powerfully descriptive; she is a master of words and similes." -Author Erica Kiefer"It seems so rare these days to find a dystopian with an original vein in it. The Woodlands Succeeds." -Author Pauline Creeden"I went into this story with my own ideas, but they were obliterated by what I found instead. I was so happy to be wrong because this story touched my heart deeply in a way that I never expected."-Reviewer Amber Douglas Mcallister"This book was fantastic! Spectacular! It had everything I look for in a book: Action, Adventure, and even romance!"-Reviewer Jocelyn Sanchez"Great storyline. Love the characters. I started with the first in the series then slammed through all 4. I couldn't put it down."-Amazon Reviewer

The captivating story of Nora and Kettle continues in Hiro Loves Kite, the second installment in the award-winning Paper Stars historical fiction series by Lauren Nicole Taylor.We offer our wounds and scars. Understanding that is part of what makes us beautiful.Nora finally has her beloved sister Frankie back, but that's just the beginning of their struggles. She must now become Kite—a stronger, more independent version of herself—a king and a guardian.Kettle has Kite's heart. But something holds him back; a feeling that he doesn't deserve good things. It's a looming shadow that threatens to separate them. Kettle must accept that he is also Hiro: a Japanese American with every right to happiness and freedom.Hiro loves Kite—but Kite won't wait forever for him to tell her. And now they're standing on icy ground. The leverage they had on Kite's abusive father has wavered, and life on the street is affecting Frankie's health. Snow is gathering at the station doors, and doubts are piling high…they must rely on each other, and believe in the magic that got them this far. If they don't, it's not just their future in jeopardy—but the fates of all the street kids in their care—all the Kings.Fans of Nora and Kettle have asked for more of their story since it first hit shelves. By popular demand, Lauren Nicolle Taylor has written this follow-up that is sure to please her fans. Find out why readers are calling this series "unforgettable," "powerful," and a "remarkable reimagining of Peter Pan."