Fantasy Realism

I never wanted to be a hero. I acted on impulse and did a really stupid thing to save a lot of people. And it worked. Except that I wasn't the only one who did a stupid thing that day. After I drank the potion that would have been used to destroy the Tiger Army and possibly all of Stalana, the Tiger Lord did something that had never been done before; he made me a faerie. Yep, that idiot gave me a piece of his soul and then his Goddess used it to transform me into one of them. Now, I'm immortal. Sure, sounds great. But I'm also bound to the man who saved my life. I feel things for him that I...

The fate of the world hangs on my heart. The planet of Varr has been at war for centuries. A mage known as the Corrupter magically enslaves humans and uses them as his soldiers against the immortal races. As a human, I should be mortal, magicless, and susceptible to the Corrupter's Death Magic. I am none of those things. I was born with magic, making me immune to corruption, and I recently discovered that I'm also immortal. I was also born with a destiny. I'm supposed to unite and empower Wraith Lords—the magical warriors blessed by the Goddess to fight the Corrupter. You wouldn't think ...

When Alyx Eris convinced him to become a keeper of the watch, Chase Walker knew he gained the ability to traverse the twelve dimensions. He knew there were others—the hunters—who would do anything to put an end to the watches’ existence. He knew his status as a keeper was completely binding until his nineteenth birthday. Most importantly, he knew he’d be spending the year by Alyx’s side. What he didn't know was that in this dimension resides a ruling mage that poses more of a threat than the hunters ever could. He didn’t know that magic-born hybrid beasts lurk in every corner of...

Orphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad. Battered and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge.

Why so blue? Amara's heart has taken a beating, but she's moving on. She's found love again as well as a passion for her work. She's finally accepted who she is and who she wants to be; a superhero. And just in time too. Missing women start turning up dead, their skin an alarming shade of blue, and F.E.A.R. is called in on the case. But as Spectra investigates the strange blue murders, old wounds are torn open, and she must unravel an even greater mystery; love.Save the world in order: 1. Spectra: A Cynical Superhero 2. A Gray Area 3. A Compression of Colors 4. Blue Murder 5. Code Red 6. ...

In the wake of her mother's passing, Layla Hurley unexpectedly reconnects with her mother's sisters, women she hasn't been allowed to speak to, or of, in years. Her aunts reveal to Layla that a Gullah-Geechee island off the shore of South Carolina now belongs to her. As Layla digs deeper into her mother’s past and the mysterious island’s history, she discovers that the terrifying nightmares that have plagued her throughout her life and tainted her relationship with her mother and all of her family, is actually a power passed down through generations of her Gullah ancestors.

In the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is commissioned to uncover the stories of its fabled beasts. These creatures live alongside humans in near-inconspicuousness - save their greenish skin, serrated earlobes, and strange birthmarks. Aided by her elusive former professor and his enigmatic assistant, our narrator sets off to document each beast and is slowly drawn deeper into a mystery that threatens her very sense of self.

Fille de l'esclave Abena violée par un marin anglais à bord d'un vaisseau négrier, Tituba, née à la Barbade, est initiée aux pouvoirs surnaturels par Man Yaya, guérisseuse et faiseuse de sorts. Son mariage avec John Indien l'entraîne à Boston, puis au village de Salem au service du pasteur Parris. C'est dans l'atmosphère hystérique de cette petite communauté puritaine qu'a lieu le célèbre procès des sorcières de Salem en 1692. Tituba est arrêtée, oubliée dans sa prison jusqu'à l'amnistie générale qui survient deux ans plus tard.

Launching into new territory that the author hadn’t mapped out when he embarked on the series, Nekomonogatari (White) tells the tale of heroine Tsubasa Hanekawa from her own perspective, in her own voice - if that can hold true for a damaged soul who, depending on who you’re asking, suffers from a split personality or a supernatural aberration.

Love. Magic. Betrayal. And a garden that never forgets. When Ivy answers a mysterious letter offering her a job at a crumbling estate, she thinks she's just escaping her dead-end city life. What she finds at Thornhollow Manor is something far older—and far more alive—than she ever expected. The reclusive and brooding Lucien Vale isn't just a grieving wizard. The garden he guards is sentient, blooming with spells, memories, and secrets buried in blood. As Ivy tends to its tangled roots, the garden begins to awaken. So do her dreams—haunted by visions of a ghost bride, a forbidden ...

A girl who dances in a forbidden realm. A boy who dares to follow. Muriel has always dreamed of joining the legendary Westhaven Dance Company, and when she’s finally chosen, it feels like a fairy tale come true. She enters a world beneath the stage—a realm of moonlight and magic, where music drifts from unseen instruments and the dancing never stops. The enchantment is beautiful… but not without its cost. As the days blur and exhaustion deepens, Muriel begins to wonder what lies behind the glamour—and why none of the other girls will talk about it. Owen, a kind-hearted but awkward ...

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.

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).

Saint Petersburg, 1812. Russian forces have defeated Napoleon at great cost, and the tsar's empire is once again at peace. Sasha, a captain in the imperial army, returns home to Grand Duke Felix, the disgraced second son of the tsar and his irrepressibly charming lover, but their reunion is quickly interrupted by the arrival of Sofia, a mysteriously persuasive figure whose disruptive presence Sasha suspects to be something more than human. Felix, insisting that Sasha's old-fashioned superstitions are misplaced, takes Sofia into his confidence.

Beneath the ruins of a forgotten Earth, an ancient Garden stirs — and it remembers everything. When botanist Evelyn Marrow falls through a fracture in the land, she finds herself in a living memory: an underground world where plants are sentient, grief breathes through the soil, and humanity’s forgotten sins bloom like poisonous flowers. Haunted by personal loss and burdened with guilt, Evelyn must journey through landscapes of sorrow, hope, rage, and wonder — facing the Garden’s deepest trials and her own broken heart. As the roots awaken and the surface world trembles, Evelyn must...

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm - and the mysterious curse that has haunted them for generations. The madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance left her daughter, June, to be raised by her grandmother. Everyone in Jasper is certain it's only a matter of time before she finds the same end, but June has kept secret that her unravelling has already begun.

A cursed violin, a witch with a shattered past, and the enemy sworn to silence her magic. Isadora Valen hides her power behind sugared pastries and enchantments whispered into the crust. But when forbidden magic flares during the Veil Festival, she’s marked by the realm’s most sacred relic—and by the man ordered to destroy her. Lachlan Daeven is a royal warden bound by duty and scarred by betrayal. Hunting rogue mages is what he does best. But when Isadora’s magic intertwines with his own, a soulbond sparks—violent, undeniable, and impossible to sever. She’s a fugitive with a ...

Florrie Buckley is an orphan living on the wind-blasted moors of Cornwall. It's a hard existence, but Florrie is content; she runs wild in the mysterious landscape. She thinks her destiny is set in stone. But when Florrie is 14, she inherits a never-imagined secret. She is related to a wealthy and notorious London family: the Graces.

The death of a Resistance leader has thrown Post-Rift London into upheaval, and Eliza Braxton, a Riftborn lady's maid with exceptional magic, has promised her help to the rebel cause. But she quickly realizes that her role as a spy in the powerful Hallewell household will place her - and perhaps even those she loves - in near-constant peril.

A powerful, eerily unsettling story collection from a major international literary star. Unearthly and unexpected, the stories in Mouthful of Birds burrow their way into your psyche and don't let go. Samanta Schweblin haunts and mesmerizes in this extraordinary, masterful collection. Schweblin's stories have the feel of a sleepless night, where every shadow and bump in the dark take on huge implications, leaving your pulse racing, and the line between the real and the strange blur.