The Darling Undesirables Series

Fall in Love with a Star.... Heart, a girl of fifteen, lives in a world of madness and grace, where test-tube babies are propagated to discover the secrets of Eternal Life. Left as a foundling on the doorstep of a Darling Undesirables facility, alive and healthy – without a heart! – she has always loved stars. Her first love is Caffau's star, 13 billion years old, in the Heart of Leo, one of the oldest and most mysterious stars in the Universe. Her destiny is set into motion when a Being of Light comes to her from Caffau's star. With a voice of wind chimes, he takes her on a journey through the Universe and teaches her that the Power of the Universe is shaped by the Power of Love. The Heart of Leo is the novella prequel to The Darling Undesirables and includes chapter one of The Darling Undesirables.

The Darling Undesirables takes place in a post steampunk world where dark energy harnessed by a reclusive genius, known as "Father Inventor" – revered by many, reviled by more. Energy problems solved, humanity becomes obsessed with unlocking the secrets to eternal life. Unrestricted experimentation has produced a population of parentless and deformed children, the Darling Undesirables. Named for their missing body part, each Darling Undesirable is pampered, adored and indulged, with the most charming – or physically haunting – becoming popular media pets. The most adored Darling Undesirable is 15-year-old Heart. She dreams of escaping with her friend, Eye, and the beloved, centuries-old, clockwork horse. But first, she must save Father Inventor and the world he brought into being from the evil forces of The Purists, intent on destroying everything he ever accomplished. What readers are saying....  The Darling Undesirables is great entertainment for anyone who enjoys young adult steampunk fantasy/science fiction, with the added twist of an "alternate future history" of a post steampunk world. "In the Darling Undesirables, Heart and Eye captured my attention and stole my heart from page one, (in) a world where electricity is antiquated, dark energy has been harnessed, and clockwork figures come to life in the Museum of Scientific Improbabilities and Unpredictable Oddities, where that name alone sparks the imagination. Thanks to Blythe Ayne's memorable characters...and the vivid setting where this story takes place, I found myself propelled by Heart's quest that challenges her world and her place in it. I recommend this book to all...young or old." Cheri Greear "I got in to YA fantasy when my (now grown) son was at that age – and since then I have continued reading the Pullmans and the Pratchetts with great delight. It is with this in mind that I was delighted reading The Darling Undesirables. The writing is superb and the characters well developed. The story is compelling and well-paced...There is just the right level of background darkness coupled with great clarity and hope. "I was also very impressed by the physical design of this book. Clearly the publishers have gone to great lengths to match the (steampunk-y) feel of the story with a corresponding artistic design. This is an excellent addition to the genre, and one that both YAs and oldies like me will love to read." Chris Robson "I found this book to be a feast for my imagination. A world of Dark Energy populated by a cast of beguiling characters...people of courage, vision and ingenuity, versus forces for repression that are dark indeed. Atmospheric and hugely entertaining." Joseph Edge

Moons Rising….   Heart and her winged, clockworks horse, Equuleus, land safely out of the clutches of The Purists on the synthetic moon known simply as Pink, constructed by her father, Father Inventor, many years previous, where he escaped when banished from Earth. Heart and Equuleus are left to explore as her father becomes ever more engrossed in the creation of a shield to protect Pink from the rabid determination of The Purists to destroy the little moon and everything on it.  Fearing that life on the eternally twilight moon may prove to be dangerously boring, Heart suddenly discovers that it's filled with mystery and intrigue and astonishingly more complicated than it first appears. As power plays augment on Earth with the threat of frightening repercussions for Pink, Xavier, a strange—yet beautiful!—shape-shifting young man appears on the scene to help Father Inventor save his world, while proclaiming an undying love for Heart.

Suspense and panic mount when the Purists kidnap the entire population of children and keepers from The Darling Undesirables Facility at The Gulf. This dire news comes on the heels of equally terrible news that Father Inventor's clone made clones—and these clones have been reproducing. With a report of over one-thousand programmed-for-evil clones of the great and kind Father Inventor, Jackson leaves the little moon, Pink, flying to Earth to undertake the clone calamity. Heart soon follows, with a single-minded determination to find and rescue the abducted Darlings. Meanwhile, Peter has saved the children from several Darling Undesirable Facilities, bringing them aboard the the flying, city-sized Gargantua. Heart refuses to relinquish her belief that The Cause of All Beings will prevail. And though she and Jackson continue to spar over everything, they prove to be an unbeatable force when the Purists initiate battle. But will Heart's greatest desire ever come to pass? Will The Darling Undesirables ever have a real home of their own, with freedom for all?  And, last ... but not least, will Heart and Jackson—for all their brilliance!—ever discover that the shortest distance between two points is ... LOVE?

Reeling from shock after the Bot Invasion on Pink, the synthetic moon constructed by her father, Heart is surveying the destruction when she hears a high-pitched wail, and comes upon the little clockworks dog, Yippee. He leads her a pile of stone under which his mistress is trapped. Heart quickly mobilizes the surviving clockworks, mechanical, and bio residents of Pink to save her. Filled with fury and grief at the relentless wicked destruction, Heart resolves to right the wrongs of The Purists, who are hell-bent on destroying the life-improving works of Father Inventor and the good deeds of The Cause of All Beings. The mystery heightens when Heart returns to Earth with Equuleus and Jackson to try to solve the riddle Xavier put in place with arcane puzzle pieces that may lead to the whereabouts of her father's cloned brain, illegally downloaded many years previous and believed destroyed. But it's now on the scene, cleverly and diligently countering Father Inventor's every move. Heart faces her worst nightmare when she is caught in an underground maze made of an adamantine mirrored matrix, populated by Bots. Will she discover her father's cloned brain and save The Darling Undesirables, Earth, and Pink from it, and the evil acts of The Purists?