Book picks similar to
A Reluctant Druid by Jon R. Osborne
fantasy
urban-fantasy
abandoned
ebook
Ink and Bone
Rachel Caine - 2015
Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service. When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn…
Gilded Cage
Vic James - 2016
If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them. This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit. Have a quick ten years. . . .
Through the Door
Jodi McIsaac - 2012
One day, a fight between the two leads to the stunning discovery that Eden can open portals to anywhere she imagines. But before they can learn more about Eden's extraordinary gift, the young girl mysteriously disappears.Desperate to find answers and her daughter, Cedar seeks out Eden's father, who left before Eden was born. What she discovers challenges everything she's ever known about the world around her: Magic is real—and mythical beings from an ancient world will stop at nothing to possess Eden's abilities. Now, Cedar may have to put her faith in all of them if she hopes to save her daughter's life.The first in the Thin Veil series, Through the Door is a pulse-pounding adventure that takes readers across the globe and into the ancient realm of Celtic myths, where the stakes are high and only the deepest love will survive.
Charmed: The War on Witches: Charmed Series #1
Paul Ruditis - 2015
But when Phoebe’s former love, Cole, returns from the dead and the sisters are reunited with Prue, now imprisoned at the magical convergence between the realms, a dangerous new threat emerges.As seemingly normal mortals violently steal the magic of witches, The Charmed Ones must shield their kind while protecting themselves from a modern-day witch hunt.Charmed: The War on Witches continues the story of the Halliwell witches, picking up where the hit television series, Charmed, left off. With only the Book of Shadows to guide them, the Halliwell sisters are the fulfillment of their ancestor Melinda Warren’s prophecy that three sisters descending from her line would become the most powerful witches of all time. As The Charmed Ones, the sisters use the Power of Three to protect the innocent and banish evil from the Earthly realm.
The Accidental Alchemist
Gigi Pandian - 2015
Dorian Robert-Houdin is no simple automaton, nor is he a homunculus; in fact, he needs Zoe's help to decipher a centuries-old text that explains exactly what he is. Zoe, who's trying to put her alchemical life behind her, isn't so sure she can help. But after a murder victim is discovered on her front porch, Zoe realized she's tangled up in ancient intrigue that can't be ignored.Includes recipes!
Dark Waters
Shannon Mayer - 2011
. . And doomed to face the unimaginable.An everyday vacation quickly turns into a nightmare of epic proportions. Two sisters must struggle to find the strength within themselves to survive as well as to save one another. When the world of Fae emerges on a rocky shore far from the Emerald Isle, all hell breaks loose. Two factions vie for the sister’s loyalties, one light, the other dark. Neither honest.A series of events are set into motion that will not only test the bonds of sisterly love, but will defy belief and reality. Then you have found yourself deep in . . . “Dark Waters”.
The Watchmaker's Daughter
C.J. Archer - 2016
Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who'll accept her - an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he's ill. Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won't tell India why any old one won't do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London's best streets. So when she reads about an American outlaw known as the Dark Rider arriving in England, she suspects Mr. Glass is the fugitive. When danger comes to their door, she's certain of it. But if she notifies the authorities, she'll find herself unemployed and homeless again - and she will have betrayed the man who saved her life. With a cast of quirky characters, an intriguing mystery, and a dash of romance, THE WATCHMAKER'S DAUGHTER is the start of a thrilling new historical fantasy series from the author of the bestselling Ministry of Curiosities, Freak House, and Emily Chambers Spirit Medium books.
Little King Henry
Richard Raley - 2011
But how exactly did she find out about her most troubling recruit just days before the new school year? How did she find out about King Henry Price?This story is set in the world of THE KING HENRY TAPES:Book 1 - The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady (released)Book 2 - The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes (released)Book 3 - Forthcoming
Something from the Nightside
Simon R. Green - 2003
That's why he's been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines.
The Atrocity Archives
Charles Stross - 2004
While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob's under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe - but then he went and got Noticed. Now, Bob is up to his neck in spycraft, parallel universes, dimension-hopping terrorists, monstrous elder gods and the end of the world. Only one thing is certain: it will take more than a full system reboot to sort this mess out ...This is the first novel in the Laundry Files.
The Secret History of Moscow
Ekaterina Sedia - 2007
Moscow in the tumultuous 1990s is no different, its citizens seeking safety in a world below the streets -- a dark, cavernous world of magic, weeping trees, and albino jackdaws, where exiled pagan deities and faerytale creatures whisper strange tales to those who would listen. Galina is a young woman caught, like her contemporaries, in the seeming lawlessness of the new Russia. In the midst of this chaos, her sister Maria turns into a jackdaw and flies away -- prompting Galina to join Yakov, a policeman investigating a rash of recent disappearances. Their search will take them to the underground realm of hidden truths and archetypes, to find themselves caught between reality and myth, past and present, honor and betrayal . . . the secret history of Moscow.
Guilty Pleasures
Laurell K. Hamilton - 1993
Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy...
A City Dreaming
Daniel Polansky - 2016
Alas, in the infinite nexus of the universe which is New York, trouble is a hard thing to avoid, and when a rivalry between the city's two queens threatens to turn to all out war, M finds himself thrust in thrust in the unfamiliar position of hero. Now, to keep the apocalypse from descending on the Big Apple, he’ll have to call in every favor, waste every charm, and blow every spell he's ever acquired - he might even have to get out of bed before noon.Enter a world of Wall Street wolves, slumming scenesters, desperate artists, drug-induced divinities, pocket steam-punk universes, hipster zombies, and phantom subway lines. Because the city never sleeps, but is always dreaming.
The Magicians
Lev Grossman - 2009
A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart. At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.
Black Blade Blues
J.A. Pitts - 2010
One of the extras, who claims to be a dwarf, offers to help. And that’s when things start to get weird. Could the sword really be magic, as the "dwarf" claims? Are dragons really living among us as shapeshifters? And as if things weren’t surreal enough, Sarah’s girlfriend Katie breaks out the dreaded phrase… “I love you.” As her life begins to fall apart, first her relationship with Katie, then her job at the movie studio, and finally her blacksmithing career, Sarah hits rock bottom. It is at this moment, when she has lost everything she has prized, that one of the dragons makes their move.And suddenly what was unthinkable becomes all too real…and Sarah will have to decide if she can reject what is safe and become the heroine who is needed to save her world.