Fantasy Realism

Her Christmas started with a talking puppy, a cynical cat, and a man in her pear tree—what could possibly go wrong? Mary’s holiday plans were simple: avoid drama, stay cozy, and binge Christmas movies with her pets. But those plans crumble when her cat and dog start talking, waking her up to see the man in her backyard pear tree. Parch T. Ridge is an elf, here to show her that the Twelve Days of Christmas can come true for some people. Particularly when St. Nicholas himself personally adds his twist to the holiday. Mary is a little slow—it takes her until the third day before she ...

Japan, after suffering from a massive irreparable disaster, cuts itself off from the world. Children are so weak they can barely stand or walk: the only people with any get-go are the elderly. Mumei lives with his grandfather Yoshiro, who worries about him constantly. They carry on a day-to-day routine in what could be viewed as a post-Fukushima time, with all the children born ancient - frail and gray-haired, yet incredibly compassionate and wise. Mumei may be enfeebled and feverish, but he is a beacon of hope, full of wit and free of self-pity and pessimism.

War looms and with it, shadows rise. Destiny always picks its chosen one. Garrett was just its next victim. After a plague ravages his home, he is taken in by a young girl and her father, Lord Drathus Firehart. Of course, as a child of destiny, Garrett soon finds out he is the Goddess chosen one. The Druid. It is up to him to save the world from the coming darkness. Is it truly that simple though? With elves at the center of the malice in Faerungarth, it seems impossible to unravel the riddles and bring light onto the shadows.

Ben... "There. He heard it again. Something had woken him from a deep sleep. Normally he was a sound sleeper unless one of his girls needed him, and this wasn’t them. It sounded like a small wounded animal of some sort, or maybe a child, although he couldn’t even imagine how that was possible. The ranch had patrols out every night and a watch team monitoring electronic feeds covering all approaches. Surely if there was a child out wandering around they would have spotted them? Well, shit. He was awake anyhow- He might as well check it out. He carefully extricated himself from a sleeping...

Grieving, she’s raising the next Alpha alone. He’s evading arranged marriage. Can destiny unite a werewolf and an alien? Marika Edgewater has refused to shift since her husband’s tragic death. A brutal biker attack forces her into wolf form, leaving her gravely injured. When a mysterious, handsome stranger heals her, their unexpected connection threatens her community’s carefully held secret. Evan wants to live on his own terms. Fleeing his home realm and rejoicing in his newfound freedom on Earth, he’s stunned when he stumbles across a woman who’s been fatally stabbed. And ...

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.

This fierce and beautiful story charts the histories of two women: Rae, young, unmarried, and far from home, awaits the birth of her first child. Lila, a fortune-teller with no interest in the future, lost her own daughter more than a quarter of a century earlier in New York. When these two women meet in Southern California, it's earthquake weather - the time when unexpected things happen.

Hers was the plight of a gothic heroine, banished from her home by a cruel brother and his heartless wife, the Dragon Sage. Misunderstood and maligned, Georgiana’s only hope of rescue were letters to aunts describing the medieval dungeon to which she had been sent.

Rachel hates her life. So when her boyfriend David goes to a music festival in England she decides to surprise him - but she gets a nasty shock of her own. Hurt and angry, Rachel makes a wish- and finds herself in someone else's shoes! Can she keep the swap a secret? And will she ever be herself again? Over the course of a very weird weekend, Rachel puts herself in someone else's shoes and finds that her own maybe weren't as uncomfortable as she'd always thought. But can she ever be herself again?

Dear Reader, I just want to be clear…THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE. Heck, this isn't even a book blurb. It’s not a rom-com. It’s not a family drama. It's not a cozy mystery. That’s a lot of what it’s not. So what is Story Magic? It's about a girl who needs help. Every now and again I write a book because it nags me. The characters won’t let me not write them. You’d be right to be concerned about someone who has imaginary people nagging them, but I’m a writer so it’s okay. In fact, it’s magic. Story Magic, if you will. I guess if you were going to label this novella it would be ...

Bay Singer has bigger secrets than most. Not that she knows about them. Her mother, Nan, is sure that the burden of those secrets would be too much, and that's why she never told anyone the truth... not even Bay. There's a lot that Nan has kept quiet over the years, especially those times with Mavis and Ruthie - times that were dark and full of guilt. But some secrets have a power all their own, and Nan realizes she needs Mavis and Ruthie now more than ever.

Welcome to the Midwest, America's Heartland, home to a hidden community of witches and wizards. When Maria Apple receives a strange music box for her 19th birthday, everything changes. She begins to showcase odd magical abilities, glowing blue, seeing ghosts, and talking to creatures that shouldn't be able to talk, all while trying to juggle the task of being a typical teenage girl. Now, not only does Maria learn she is a witch, but her grandfather, Ignatius, reveals he was once a famous warrior from a planet named Oriceran.

Warning: Contains intense action, adult situations, threesomes, and untraditional relationships. After slaying a leviathan of the deep, and gaining a magic he barely understands, an ordinary fisherman finds himself entangled in a magical game of the gods with the fate of his planet as the prize. Dean becomes Oakley's champion, competing in the Minotaur's Maze. He travels through a portal to Mixonia, a city of wonders, filled with magic and monster girls of all sorts.

Lucy Scarborough is 17 when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child's birth. How can Lucy succeed when all of her ancestors have tried and failed? But Lucy is the first girl who won't be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents beside her. And she has Zach, whose strength amazes her more each day. Do they have enough love and resolve to overcome an age-old evil?

In the icy expanse of Antarctica, where the winds howl like forgotten spirits and the ground is a frozen canvas of white, a secret lies buried beneath layers of ancient ice—a secret that could rewrite history itself. Dr. Tory Novak, a fierce and brilliant paleontologist, stands at the precipice of discovery, her breath misting in the frigid air as she peers into the depths of an anomaly that pulses with an otherworldly energy. Beside her, Alex Campbell, her steadfast partner, shares her fervor and ambition, both driven by the tantalizing possibility that dragons, those magnificent beasts ...

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.

Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina's cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather, two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother - a bond Bina thought was unbreakable. Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her.

As children, Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea dreamed of a strange otherworld: a nightscape of mists and fog, perpetually falling leaves and hungry ivy, lit by an unwavering moon. Here, in this shadowland of Everwhere, the four girls, half-sisters connected by blood and magic, began to nurture their elemental powers together. But at 13, the sisters were ripped from Everwhere and separated. Now, five years later, they search for one another and yearn to rediscover their unique and supernatural strengths.

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...

What if your childhood daydream wasn’t just a fantasy—but a doorway to the unimaginable? For three years, Jonas Shay has tried to forget Extraordinary, the imaginary world he once escaped to after his mother’s disappearance. With his dad’s help, he buried the daydream, convinced himself it wasn’t real. But now, just shy of thirteen, the whispers are back—talking seagulls, meddling elfins, a world that refuses to stay forgotten. Soon, Jonas learns the impossible: his mother is alive, trapped somewhere inside Extraordinary. Reality slips away as Jonas plunges back into the world ...