Book picks similar to
Bad Soul by David Bussell
urban-fantasy
fantasy-paranormal
audible
fantasy-urban
Stray Souls
Kate Griffin - 2012
It wants you to look back.’London’s soul has gone missing. Lost? Kidnapped? Murdered? Nobody knows – but when Sharon Li unexpectedly discovers she’s a shaman, she is immediately called upon to use her newfound powers of oneness with the City to rescue it from a slow but inevitable demise.The problem is, while everyone expects Sharon to have all the answers – from the Midnight Mayor to Sharon’s magically-challenged self-help group – she doesn’t have a clue where to start.But with London’s soul missing and the Gate open, there are creatures loose that won’t wait for her to catch up before they go hunting.Stray Souls is the first novel in the Magicals Anonymous series, set in the same fantastical London as the Matthew Swift novels.
Frostbite
Joshua Bader - 2016
Colin Fisher is a young man with a lot of problems on his plate: a dying father, a dead car doubling as a home, and a mysteriously disappeared fiancée. You’d think with a magical inclination, he’d be able to turn it all around, but not so much. Yet, his bad luck appears to be on the way out when the CEO of a multinational corporation offers him a job. It’s a sweet gig as a personal wizard with a fat paycheck. The catch? The paranoid CEO isn’t a mere hypochondriac, he’s been hexed with an authentic ancient curse. Now Colin is the only thing standing between his new boss and a frozen bundle of fangs, claws, and rage. If he can’t stop the cannibal ice demon in time to save his new boss, it’ll be back to living out of his dead car. That is, if he even survives the battle.
Aurora Sky
Nikki Jefford - 2012
. .If there's one thing I want, it's go get off this iceberg. I'm thinking college on the east coast. ANYWHERE besides Alaska. Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Government agents jump in and save my life in exchange for my services as a vampire hunter. Did they just say vampires? Yep. And they're not the kind that sparkle. They're rabid, disgusting, rude . . . and way too suave. Those are the ones I really have to watch out for.A knife isn't my only weapon. My rare blood type sends vampires into temporary paralysis right before I have to finish the job by hand. Basically I'm a glorified chew toy.Now I'm stuck with an overzealous partner, a group of suck junkies, and a maddening attraction to Mr. Joe Cool, dresses all in black, Fane Donado. I don't know if I want to punch him or kiss him, but clearly he's keeping secrets of his own. The old Aurora is gone forever. Destroyed in the wreckage. I don’t know who I am anymore, only that I suddenly have intense cravings and a V.I.P. pass into Alaska’s underworld. If vampires found out who I worked for it would be lights out forever. In the meantime, I have some undead ass to kick so long as it doesn't kick mine first.
The Belial Stone
R.D. Brady - 2013
Before she can deal with the heartbreaking loss, she is viciously attacked in her home by a man with inhuman fighting abilities.Former Navy SEAL and head of security for a global think tank, Jake Rogan drops everything when he hears his foster brother, Tom Jeffries, has gone missing. There seem to be no clues, no information about his whereabouts. He has just vanished. But Jake won't rest until he finds him.Laney and Jake join forces when they learn that the fates of their loved ones are intertwined. And somehow all the danger that dogs their steps, revolves around an eccentric archaeologist's controversial work on Gobekli Tepe, and the search for an ancient source of power.Their personal quest soon becomes a race to protect humanity's very existence. But how can they defeat a foe who has been planning his moves for millennia?To save mankind, Laney and Jake know they must succeed. But to succeed, they must live long enough to fight.
Snakes and Shadows
Amy Hopkins - 2019
Together, we've been recruited into the Academy of Myth and Legend.
Who's Boots? A rainbow serpent--magical creature come to life--no big.
It's actually not so unusual these days. Mythical creatures are tumbling through the Veil every two seconds. The Academy not only teaches us how to fight the bad ones, but to protect the good ones as well.That's why I joined. I'm only here to make sure Boots stays safe. Once we figure out a plan, I'm out. At least, that's what I'm trying to convince myself — and my new friends, including Cisco. It's only a coincidence that I blush when he talks to me, I swear.It's exciting to be recruited as one of the first wave of students at the Academy, but it's no joke. There are the classes, of course. And then there are poltergeists, bigfoot hunting expeditions, and psychotic gnomes. Just staying alive is a challenge.
But together with Boots, I can face anything. And I will. No matter what happens.
Witch Way to Murder
Shirley Damsgaard - 2005
She's created a comfortable existence with her kooky, colorful grandmother Abby, and if it were up to her, they could live out their days—along with Ophelia's dog Lady and cat Queenie—in peace and quiet. But, to Ophelia's dismay, she and Abby aren't a typical grandmother/granddaughter duo. She possesses psychic powers, and Abby is a kindly witch. And while Ophelia would do anything to dismiss her gift—harboring terrible guilt after her best friend was killed and she was unable to stop it—threatening events keep popping up, forcing her to tap into her powers of intuition. To make matters worse, a strange—yet devastatingly attractive—man is hanging around Ophelia's library, and no matter how many times she tells him she's sworn off men forever, he persists. Soon this handsome newcomer reveals he's following a lead on a local drug ring, and then a dead body shows up right in Abby's backyard. And much as Ophelia would like to put away her spells forever, she and Abby must use their special powers to keep themselves, and others, out of harm's way.
Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong - 2015
Here is the first time that best-selling fantasy, YA, and crime author Kelley Armstrong has had her stories collected from Otherworld and beyond. With her signature twists and turns, Armstrong gives a fresh spin on city-dwelling vampires, werewolves, and zombies, while also traveling further afield, to a post-apocalyptic fortress, a superstitious village, a supernatural brothel, and even to feudal Japan.With tales that range from humorous to heart-stopping, these are the stories that showcase Kelley Armstrong at her versatile best.- Rakshashi (standalone)- Kat (Darkest Powers universe, non-series narrator)- A Haunted House of Her Own (standalone)- Learning Curve (Otherworld universe, Zoe)- The Screams of Dragons (#0.5 Cainsville universe, non-series narrator)- The Kitsune’s Nine Tales (Age of Legends universe, non-series narrator)- Last Stand (standalone)- Bamboozled (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)- Branded (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)- The List (Otherworld universe, Zoe)- Young Bloods (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)- The Door (standalone, original to this collection)- Dead Flowers by a Roadside (standalone)- Suffer the Children (standalone)- The Collector (standalone)- Gabriel’s Gargoyles (#3.1 Cainsville universe, Gabriel)- Harbinger (standalone)- V Plates (Otherworld universe, Nick)- Life Sentence (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)- Plan B (standalone)- The Hunt (#4.1 Cainsville universe, non-series narrator)- Dead to Me (standalone)- Devil May Care (#4.2 Cainsville universe, Patrick, original to this collection)
Broken Realms
D.W. Moneypenny - 2014
That's about to change.After a jetliner plunges into the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon, everyone survives. So why do crash investigators have a hangar full of bodies, one for each passenger except Mara? Before the plane goes down, she glimpses a new reality, one with scales and snouts, fangs and gills. She sees a boy running down the aisle carrying a ball of blue light, chased by a girl who could be her clone. By trying to help, she unwittingly unleashes dozens of creatures on an unsuspecting world and sparks a series of events that threatens her life, her family and everything she believes. To save them, she has to embrace a power she cannot comprehend.
Threads That Bind
Brant Williams - 2012
Everything changes the summer before her junior year of high school when her eyesight inexplicably corrects itself, and she begins to rapidly lose weight. However, her new look comes with an unexpectedly expensive price. Madison’s first kiss with the boy she has had a crush on for years triggers powers she can’t control, almost killing him.She discovers she is a Berserker, a powerful being chosen to guard the world from the Havocs, ancient creatures brought into our world by magic thousands of years ago. They cause destruction and death, but cannot be killed. Only the Berserkers’ life-blood can bind – and free – the Havocs. One Havoc is free and wants Madison’s blood to free another. Instead of enjoying her new look and popularity at school, Madison must now work with the Berserkers to master her powers and bind the Havoc before it kills her. Oh, and if that weren’t bad enough, it turns out she is the first female Berserker since, well - ever.
Romancing the Null
Tina Gower - 2016
Lies the fates spin as half truths. Lies of destined love. And statistics. As a fateless, Kate Hale is immune to the first two, but the third kind of lie is her profession. After spending years as an actuary for the Traffic Department, Kate is promoted to Accidental Death Predictions. It’s all she’s worked toward, and her career is finally on track. But when an oracle delivers an impossible death prediction and insists on her help to solve the case, she might lose any chance of impressing the brass. Her only hope comes in the form of the police liaison assigned to her department, latent werewolf Ian Becker. Becker can grant her the clearance to find answers, but he’s a wild card with a shady past who doesn’t play well with others. Every prediction has a loophole, but if Kate can’t solve the case before the crime is fated to occur she won’t just lose her job–she’ll have the blood of an oracle on her hands. Romancing the Null is the first book in an exciting new urban fantasy romance series. Fans of Mercy Thompson, Charley Davidson, or The Dresden Files will likely enjoy this series. The Outlier Prophecy Series: Romancing the Null (book one) Big Bad Becker (Novella) Conditional Probability of Attraction (book two) The Werewolf Coefficient (book three) Standard Deviation of Death (book four) Shifter Variance (book five ~ fall 2016)
Black Spark
Al K. Line - 2016
I didn’t know my name, let alone that I had such power. The man was dead. I panicked. I ran.How was I to know I was a dark magic enforcer, tasked with keeping magic hidden from the world? Yeah, total noob move, I know.But my memory is returning, and the Hidden have given me twenty-four hours to make amends. Cover it up. Finish the job I was given, or else. Failure isn’t an option. Well, it is, but I like me, and I like being alive.Time is running out as I battle to make things right and exact revenge on those that took so much from me. Easier said than done as I deal with angry mages, bitey zombies, oversexed imps, creepy necromancers, and grumpy trolls—and those are just my friends!—all while trying to stop myself falling in love with my best friend, Kate, who just so happens to be a hot vampire.I’m Faz Pound, a.k.a. Black Spark, Dark Magic Enforcer, and time is running out.At least I have my looks. For now.
Edgewood
Karen McQuestion - 2012
Before long Russ discovers he's developed incredible superpowers, and he’s not the only one. Three other young people—beautiful Mallory, arrogant Jameson, and mysterious Nadia—have had the same experience and all of them now have powers of their own. Mallory can control peoples’ minds, Jameson moves objects with his thoughts, and Nadia has empathic abilities.At first the four relish their newfound gifts, but things become serious when they learn they are being hunted by an organization that wants them for its own nefarious purposes. When Russ’s family is threatened, he’s forced into action. What transpires will change all of them in ways they never imagined.
Goddess with a Blade
Lauren Dane - 2011
Physical vessel to the Celtic Goddess Brigid and raised by the leader of the Vampire Nation, she's a supercharged hunter with the power to slay any vampire who violates the age-old treaty.A recent string of murders has her at odds with Las Vegas's new Scion, the arrogant and powerful Clive Stewart. The killings have the mark of Vampire all over them, and Rowan warns Clive to keep his people in line—or she'll mete out her own brand of justice.Though her dealings with Clive are adversarial to say the least, Rowan is intensely aware of her attraction to him. But she can't let it distract her from her duty—to find and battle the killer before more women die.73,000 words
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
Mark Hodder - 2010
The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End.Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all!
Street Magic
Caitlin Kittredge - 2009
She was just sixteen when she met Jack Winter, a gorgeous, larger-than-life mage who thrilled her with his witchcraft. Then a spirit Jack summoned killed him before Pete’s eyes—or so she thought. Now a detective , Pete is investigating the case of a young girl kidnapped from the streets of London. A tipster’s chilling prediction has led police directly to the child…but when Pete meets the informant, she’s shocked to learn he is none other than Jack. Strung out on heroin, Jack a shadow of his former self. But he’s able to tell Pete exactly where Bridget’s kidnappers are hiding: in the supernatural shadow-world of the fey. Even though she’s spent years disavowing the supernatural, Pete follows Jack into the invisible fey underworld, where she hopes to discover the truth about what happened to Bridget—and what happened to Jack on that dark day so long ago…