Fantasy Realism

Acclaimed fantasist Mary Robinette Kowal has enchanted many fans with her beloved novels featuring a Regency setting in which magic--known here as glamour--is real. In Valour and Vanity, master glamourists Jane and Vincent find themselves in the sort of a magical adventure that might result if Jane Austen wrote Ocean's Eleven. After Melody's wedding, the Ellsworths and Vincents accompany the young couple on their tour of the continent. Jane and Vincent plan to separate from the party and travel to Murano to study with glassblowers there, but their ship is set upon by Barbary corsairs while en route. It is their good fortune that they are not enslaved, but they lose everything to the pirates and arrive in Murano destitute.

Jack Swift can tell you every element on the periodic table, recite Treasure Island verbatim, and would remember in perfect detail every word you'd ever say to him. He has been alone for a long time, so he has buried himself in books, using them to plan his escape. But no textbook could ever prepare him for the land of Keymark. At 3:33 a.m. on his 14th birthday, Jack is kidnapped by a hideous monster to another sphere of existence. Now there are two moons in the sky, and he is surrounded by grotesque creatures and magical warriors training for battle.

A hit-and-run. A frozen body. A missing ghost. Can this psychic defrost the truth? FREE on Kindle Unlimited! Talking to ghosts is a secret, but when a sorceress catches her in the act, Mandy Rowling’s world turns upside down. Sara Abe, a detective and a local sorceress discovers Mandy’s ability. Sara asks Mandy to teach her how to speak to ghosts. A group of tourists on the Midsummer Spooky Tour found a frozen body in a bamboo forest. But the body was not part of the tour. The big question: How did someone freeze to death in the middle of summer? The bigger question: Where is the ghost?...

Fleeing her past, Lydia Ash seeks refuge among wolf-shifters in Crescent Crossing, only to become entangled in a murder mystery that leads her to embrace her inner strength and rewrite her destiny. Running from the haunting shadows of my traumatic past, I seek refuge in this isolated haven, a community of wolf-shifters who've never embraced me, a fae. Amidst towering mountains and whispering forests, I hope to find the peace that has eluded me for so long. As I wrestle with memories of my bustling city life, the town's mystique draws me into its embrace. Yet, what I thought was a sanctuary ...

Two men while away the days in an Antarctic research station. Tensions between them build as they argue over a love letter one of them has received. One is practical and open. The other surly, superior and obsessed with reading one book - by the philosopher Kant. As a storm brews and they lose contact with the outside world, they debate Kant, reality and the emptiness of the universe. The come to hate each other, and they learn that they are not alone.

Golden boy Graysen Galder has it all figured out. He’s the soon-to-be valedictorian of the first combined class of Magics and Naturals at the Boston School of Magic. No one would ever guess that, beneath the charming veneer of the school’s top Natural student, there are dark secrets. Like execution-worthy crimes. But all those crimes are in the past where they belong. That is, until Graysen is framed for a brutal murder. With his future in shambles and the past nipping at his heels, Graysen has no choice but to go on the run. And the only one willing to help him is a ghost from his past...

One man is the key to getting everything I want. When I met Captain Aras of the Tiger's Claw, I started hearing a voice. Just one. Still, hearing a voice in your head, other than that of your own thoughts, is not something a sane person experiences. This voice claimed to belong to a Dragon relic called Ensarena's Eye. I was skeptical at first, but it quickly proved itself to me. The Eye wants me to wield it. It claims that only through it can I win the inter-dread war that's brewing. So I accepted Captain Aras's offer to procure Ensarena's Eye for me. But on his way back to me, the Tiger's ...

Hell is coming to Earth. Everyone believed that Seren destroyed the Arma Christi and the knights who bore them. But two of the knights have been spotted in California, alive and well. With her pregnancy progressing, it's the worst possible time for the Twilight Princess to go hunting evil knights, but she knows she's the only one who can stop them. So, Seren and her husbands return to Earth. Things take a terrible turn when Berich, a Demon Lord of Hell, finds a way to claim the Spear of Destiny. Immediately, he uses the Spear to open pathways between Hell and Earth, ushering lesser Demons ...

*** Global Book Awards Supernatural Gold Medal Winner 2024 *** Esther dropped her handbag on the dinette table and hustled into the kitchen to heat water for tea. “What are you reading, Mamma?” “Oh, that little book of yours. I’m glad you finally found it, dear. I still think it reads funny, the language and all, but I kind of like it for some reason. It seems to calm me, somehow. You know what I mean?” “What little book, Mamma? My book was stolen, you know that.” “Well, I thought maybe the police recovered it for you. It was lying right here on the end table like always ...

In "Books and Roses", one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?", an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks", where doors can be closed only with a key - with surprising unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think", a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).

Hell was just the beginning. Tim Kovak was supposed to be a bad guy, the latest in a line of evil wizards bound by a demon contract, supervised by a 600-year-old succubus named Lydia. With a little magic and a lot of luck, Tim broke the contract and set them both free. Now he’s trying to be a superhero, learning the hard way that you can’t save everybody, and some problems are too big to punch. He thought he had managed to flip the script and beat Hell at its own game, but demons are patient, and all debts eventually come due.

A Nutty Fruitcake, a Nuttier Ghost, and a Murder... FREE on Kindle Unlimited! The newlyweds Mandy and Rick are looking forward to their first Christmas in wedded bliss when the untimely death of a real estate developer puts a crimp in their plans. A bite of deadly dessert at a trendy bakery seems to be the culprit, and now the naughty ghost of Woody Napoleon is demanding justice. A spirited investigation turns up a plethora of suspects, but only Mandy’s special gift can unwrap the killer in this holiday edition of the Manhattan Mystery Series. Wicked as a Christmas Fruitcake is part of ...

Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you’re inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die. El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions - never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school. Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too.

Bay Winchester is at a crossroads in her life. Her powers are growing, her personal life is settled, and there’s a young witch in crisis under her care. Things are...difficult. Bay has no idea what to do. She needs to keep her teenage protégé hidden while uncovering a deadly story of an affair gone wrong and greed run amok. All the while she wonders what will happen if she can’t turn things around for her new teenage responsibility. What will she have to do to protect the people that she loves?

In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an 11-year-old girl named Clara. Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for la Lotería. Life and Death deal the Lotería cards but once a year, and the stakes could not be higher. Every card reveals a new twist in Clara’s fate - a scorpion, an arrow, a blood-red rose. If Life wins, Clara will live to a ripe old age. If Death prevails, she’ll flicker out like a candle.

They've found the other lost children, but that win came at a price. On the run, Lena, Flint and their family know they have two options: go back into hiding or fight. Will their abilities be strong enough to ensure their freedom? Or will Lena and Flint's greatest fear finally come true? Don't miss out on book three in this captivating YA Science Fantasy series. Download now!

In the 12 unforgettable tales of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible Kafkaesque nightmare. Each story builds a new world all its own: A group of children steal a haunted doll; a runaway bride encounters a sea monster; a vendor sells toy boxes that seemingly control the passage of time; an insomniac is seduced by the Sandman.

After her mother dies, Hannah doesn’t know how to exist without her. Literally. In fact, Hannah’s not even certain that she does exist. No one seems to see or hear her, and she finds herself utterly alone. Grief-stricken and confused, her sense of self slowly slipping away, Hannah sets out to find new purpose in life—and answers about who (and what) she really is.

When a sacred standing stone vanishes from the Isle of Lewis, enchantress and investigator Elle Chambers is called in to solve the impossible. A seven-ton artifact has disappeared without a trace, and the theft threatens to destabilize the magical balance of Scotland. Complicating matters, Elle's former coven mentor, Rebecca, arrives at her doorstep battered, broken, and on the run. Tortured for refusing to carry out a deadly mission, Rebecca reveals secrets that shake Elle to her core, including the truth about Elle’s father. As Elle delves into the case, she must navigate a complex web ...

Penniless and stranded in France after a bid to escape her cruel uncle goes awry, Cornelia Shaw is far from the Parisian life of leisure she imagined. Desperate and out of options, she allows herself to be recruited to Napoleon’s Grande Armée. As a naturalist, her mysterious ability to heal any wound with herbal mixtures invites awe amongst the soldiers…and suspicion.