Fantasy Realism

In publishing-speak, here's what we at the LQ office sometimes describe as the Queer lovechild of Sholem Aleichem and Philip Roth: Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.

Olympus is calling! The thirteenth installment of The Godhunter Series takes us through the Greek pantheon reaching ultimate highs and surprising depths. Ambrosia, the source of immortality for the Greek gods. It's creation is a secret, held only by Zeus himself, and he's held that secret over the heads of his fellow gods for years, giving ambrosia only to those who agree to serve him. Now the Godhunter has gotten wind of his monopoly on immortality and although she normally fights for humanity, this time she's going to make an exception and fight for the gods. But Zeus isn't the only storm...

Simon Watson, a young librarian on the verge of losing his job, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home - a house, perched on the edge of a bluff, that is slowly crumbling toward the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, works for a traveling carnival reading tarot cards and seldom calls.

Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a bookbinder - a vocation that arouses fear, superstition, and prejudice among their small community, but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse. For as long as he can recall, Emmett has been drawn to books, even though they are strictly forbidden. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born.

It's been one year since graduation, and Beatrice Hartley has mixed feelings about joining her friends a weekend reunion. She's right to be worried. After a night out, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Or so they believe... Back at the mansion where they are staying, a mysterious man knocks on the door during a raging storm. He tells them that they must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die. And the decision must be unanimous.

Rivulet (Web of Hearts and Souls Book 11) – A Gripping Paranormal Romance "When death shadows your path, your only defense is adrenaline..." Drenched in secrets, bound by fate, and haunted by the past, Genevieve "Indie" Falcon's world is anything but ordinary. Night terrors plague her sleep, and the chilling touch of her emotions manifests in ways she cannot control. But when a near-fatal accident brings her darkest fears to life, Indie is thrust into a mystery that spans centuries—one tied to a love that defies time itself. Set against a backdrop of eerie visions, supernatural forces, ...

Following the birth of her second daughter, Vervain just wants to relax. But the Christian God has become insanely obsessed with her husband, Azrael. Consumed by fury, Jerry attacks the Faerie God in devious ways, all while he remains safely ensconced in Heaven. With every strike, it becomes more apparent that Jerry doesn't care who gets hurt by his vengeance; he's willing to sacrifice everyone and everything to destroy Azrael. The God Squad's goal of stopping a war between Heaven and Hell is soon replaced by another—killing Jehovah. Can they put an end to Jerry's tyranny once and for all...

I put out fires. He ignites them. When a naked man stumbled out of the wildfire we'd been battling for over a week, I figured he'd escaped from some psych ward in the middle of nowhere. We all did. Who else walks barefoot through hell with a grin on his face? But then Kaspian did the impossible. He stopped the fire—snapped his fingers, and it died. You save a firefighter’s life, and you become more than a mystery. You become family. After that, I didn’t care if he was a lunatic, an alien, or the Dragon he claimed to be. Family is family. So I brought the naked man home. And slowly, ...

It ain't easy being green. Amara would like to look forward to her wedding day but her last wedding is haunting her. Thoughts of war and a madman on the loose are hindering her happiness. Then, Cyprian's ex-girlfriend, Rhea, comes to town; a beautiful Naga diva who's intent on getting Amara's fiance back in her coils. Coinciding with her arrival are a string of Naga attacks that leave Amara wondering if Rhea could be behind them. Is this a simple case of envy or is there more sinister forces at work in the city Spectra calls home?Grab your copy today and fight supervillains with Spectra! ...

It all starts with the radio. Dorothy's husband has left for work, and she is at the kitchen sink washing the dishes, listening to classical music. Suddenly, the music fades out and a soft, close, dreamy voice says, "Don't worry, Dorothy." A couple weeks later, there is a special interruption in regular programming. The announcer warns all listeners of an escaped sea monster. That afternoon, the seven-foot-tall lizard man walks through Dorothy's kitchen door. She is frightened at first, but there is something attractive about the monster, and the two begin a tender, clandestine affair.

After her narrow escape at the burning of Bedlam, Eliza Braxton's world has been turned upside down. The Illustratum's hold on the Riftborn is slipping, but so is Eliza's fragile hold on who she is. She is left facing a terrifying choice; continue her role as spy in the powerful Hallewell household, or join in open rebellion against the Illustratum. All her life, Eliza has been cautious, but now that her eyes are open, it is clear that the time has come to throw caution to the wind and embrace the power that has kept her repressed since childhood.

The future has amazing technology. Our alien allies have magic. Together, we are building a training system to teach the best of humanity to go to the stars. But the training is monumentally expensive. Stephanie Morgana is a genius, she just doesn't know it. Join her on the first half of her adventure with this collected edition, including the first three megabooks in the Federal Histories series.

Wayétu Moore’s powerful debut novel, She Would Be King, reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia’s early years through three unforgettable characters who share an uncommon bond. Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper, and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him.

As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother, Vivienne Margaux, the powerful head of a major New York theater company has no time for her. She does have one friend - Michael - but no one can see him except her. When Jane is in her 30s, working for her mother's company, she is just as alone as she was as a child. Then she finds Michael again - handsome and just the same as she remembers him, only now he's not imaginary.

The world of culinary magic is about to implode as the greatest threat to their secret existence is carried—well, dragged—into this delectable second installment of the Hex Kitchen series. Kidnapped by the very group meant to protect her, Kenzie finds herself in another cooking tournament. This time, though, the stakes are higher. Every meal she cooks could be her last. If she’s going to survive, she’ll need to do the one thing she swore she’d never do again. Use her magic to kill. Braxton is facing his own battle. Each step that brings him closer to Kenzie jeopardizes his family....

Marvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He's compelled to volunteer at the local Children's Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week. Oh, and he's also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thérage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc's pyre in 1431. He's just seen a woman on a Los Angeles talk show claiming to be Joan, and absolution seems closer than it's ever been . . . but how will he find her?

Listeners will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination. The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written.

With the same deadpan mania and genius for dislocation that he brought to his internationally acclaimed novels A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami makes this collection of stories a determined assault on the normal. A man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald's in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard.

From the town’s founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City, the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a neighbor, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives.

Métis millennial Lucky St. James is barely hanging on when she learns she’ll be evicted from the tiny Toronto apartment she shares with her cantankerous but loving grandmother Stella. But then one night, something strange and irresistible calls out to Lucky. She burrows through a wall to find a tarnished silver spoon, humming with otherworldly energy, etched with a crooked-nosed witch and the word SALEM.