The Merchant of Death


D.J. MacHale - 2002
    He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby.He is going to save the world.And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....Cover illustration by Victor Lee

The Color of Bones


Tracy Edward Wymer - 2012
    Lights live on the Northside of the Line, Darks live on the Southside. Hillside has been that way ever since the Line appeared naturally from the ground, much like a spring welling up from deep inside the earth. Now the Line controls the town, keeping Hillside separated, zapping those who come near it and killing those who dare cross it. But when Derby, a Northsider, finds a pile of bones stacked on the Line, he sets out to uncover the person's identity. While doing so, he befriends a Southside girl and soon begins to challenge the Line and the town's rules. And then, before he can turn back, Derby goes too far.

Witch Girl Study Group


Milo Storm - 2021
    Not quite an archeology major’s wet dream.But then an ancient Pillar awakens and Jake switches lives with a doppelganger in another world. This world’s Jake happens to be a top prospect at the magical Aether Academy… and a servant of a dark God who expects repayment for his boon.If he’s going to live long enough to find a way home, Jake will need a little help. Luckily, beautiful witch girls are lining up to form a study group with the man they think is a genius. He’s not. But who is Jake to turn away busty witch girls in need?When they learn about a bond that will help them all cheat on their deadly exams…well they’ve worked their whole lives to get into that school, and they’ll do whatever it takes to graduate!But exams are just the beginning.**Witch Girl Study Group is an 18+ isekai fantasy harem story with adult situations**

A Crack in the Line


Michael Lawrence - 1995
    You live with your father in a big Victorian house on the outskirts of London. Your mother is dead, killed in a train crash two years ago. It is snowing. The snow is falling on the house and the wide yard and the gnarled old tree that everyone calls the Family Tree. It makes you restless. You reach out your hands toward an object you've known all your life, and suddenly the walls melt away. When you open your eyes, you are still in your living room. "Who are you?" asks a girl who looks just like you but is not you. "And what are you doing in my house?"You have stumbled into another version of your life. This girl is sixteen. She lives with your father (her father) in a big Victorian house on the outskirts of London. Your mother (her mother) is not dead. She had a close call in a train crash two years ago. Listen: your mother is calling you (her) now.Michael Lawrence's gripping thriller about a boy and a girl who are the same person but not quite will have you turning the pages late into the night...and talking and thinking and wondering about the shifting nature of identity, time, space, and the cracks that can appear in a train rail, a lifeline, and a family tree.

Imagineer


Honor Raconteur - 2019
    And boy, are we all in trouble. A seventeen-year-old with a love of fantasy and unmanageable hair? Hardly anyone’s idea of the knight in shining armor. I went about life with no idea the world around me was not as it seemed, until one dark night I saw glimpses of things I knew shouldn’t exist. I’ve got enough problems of my own to deal with, but the glimpses of what I’m certain is a magical world that tantalize me like no other. When I find a pair of turquoise glasses that allow me to properly see everything, I put those bad boys on without a second of hesitation. I probably should have hesitated. I’m now neck deep in kobolds, pookas, magic castles, youkai, unruly werewolves, talking houses, and an ancient magical mystery in need of solving. Oh, and magic lessons. Turns out I’m an Imagineer, which was totally unexpected. An Imagineer creates by using imagination, willpower, and magic to form whatever they wish. Their only limitation is imagination, and imagination? Has no limits. At least, if you’re doing it right.

The Unwanteds


Lisa McMann - 2011
    That is the way of the people of Quill. Each year, all the thirteen-year-olds are labeled as Wanted, Necessary, or Unwanted. Wanteds get more schooling and train to join the Quillitary. Necessaries keep the farms running. Unwanteds are set for elimination. It’s hard for Alex to leave behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted, but he makes peace with his fate—until he discovers that instead of a “death farm,” what awaits him is a magical place called Artimé. There, Alex and his fellow Unwanteds are encouraged to cultivate their creative abilities and use them magically. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it’s a wondrous transformation. But it’s a rare, unique occurrence for twins to be divided between Wanted and Unwanted, and as Alex and Aaron's bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of Artim that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate magical battle.

The Dragon's Tooth


N.D. Wilson - 2011
    Nothing ever seems to happen. Then a strange old man with bone tattoos arrives, demanding a specific room.Less than 24 hours later, the old man is dead. The motel has burned, and Daniel is missing. And Cyrus and Antigone are kneeling in a crowded hall, swearing an oath to an order of explorers who have long served as caretakers of the world's secrets, keepers of powerful relics from lost civilizations, and jailers to unkillable criminals who have terrorized the world for millennia. N. D. Wilson, author of Leepike Ridge and 100 Cupboards, returns with an imagination-capturing adventure that inventively combines the contemporary and the legendary.

The Nixie's Song


Tony DiTerlizzi - 2007
    Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas only thinks his life has been turned upside down after his developer father remarries and moves his new wife and daughter into the soon-to-be completed Mangrove Hollow. But an "expedition" to a nearby lake turns up a little nixie with a giant problem - the huge, lumbering, fire-breathing variety - and it's up to Nick; his stepsister, Laurie; and his big brother, Julian (plus a familiar face from the original Spiderwick Chronicles) to figure out the best way to stop a host of rampaging giants before all of Florida goes up in smoke.

So You Want to Be a Wizard


Diane Duane - 1983
    until she discovers a mysterious library book that promises her the chance to become a wizard. But she has no idea of the difference that taking the Wizard's Oath is going to make in her life. Shortly, in company with fellow beginner-wizard Kit Rodriguez, Nita's catapulted into what will be the adventure of a lifetime—if she and Kit can both live through it. For every wizard's career starts with an Ordeal in which he or she must challenge the one power in the universe that hates wizardry more than anything else: the Lone Power that invented death and turned it loose in the worlds. Plunged into a dark and deadly alternate New York full of the Lone One's creatures, Kit and Nita must venture into the very heart of darkness to find the stolen, legendary Book of Night with Moon. Only with the dangerous power of the wizardly Book do they have a chance to save not just their own lives, but their world...

Return of the Dragons


Teddy Jacobs - 2012
    Then you go on all kinds of adventures -- fighting monsters, casting spells and saving damsels in distress. At least that's how it's supposed to work, but I didn't believe a word of it.FANTASY ADVENTURE FOR DRAGON FANS OF ALL AGESTwo forms of power -- natural and chemical -- divide the world. Dragons, who keep the chemical power in check, have long retreated from human sight; few still believe in them. Inside a castle surrounded by Tuscan hills more and more threatened by chemical forces, sixteen-year-old Anders lives a sheltered life. But much as his parents try, Anders can't avoid the forces that threaten...

Abarat


Clive Barker - 2002
    She is soon to find out: swept out of our world by a giant wave, she finds herself in another place entirely...The Abarat: a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day, from the sunlit wonders of Three in the Afternoon, where dragons roam, to the dark terrors of the island of Midnight, ruled by Christopher Carrion.Candy has a place in this extraordinary world: she has been brought here to help save the Abarat from the dark forces that are stirring at its heart. Forces older than time itself, and more evil than anything Candy has ever encountered.

The Kat Dubois Chronicles: The Complete Series


Lindsey Sparks (Fairleigh) - 2021
    Her brother is missing. One retired assassin must confront her past to save his future… Immortal Kat Dubois has traded in her sword for a flask. Hard drinking helps ease the grisly memories of her former trade: an assassin of immortals. She’s perfectly content to spend eternity in her Seattle tattoo parlor…until the mysterious disappearance of her brother finally brings her out of retirement. With a charmed deck of tarot cards and her trusty sword, Kat sets off to track down her brother and save his soul. A wicked corporation and a laundry list of old rivals stand in the way of her quest. For someone with an eternity to live, Kat's chances of unraveling the mystery become less likely with each passing second… The Kat Dubois Chronicles is a tough-girl urban fantasy series set in Seattle, WA. If you like intense action, gritty characters, unconventional magic, and Egyptian mythology, then you'll love this unique, fast-paced adventure. Perfect for fans of Kim Harrison, Karen Marie Moning, and Nalini Singh! This collection includes 350,000 words of mythology, action, and supernatural suspense: Ink Witch Outcast Underground Soul Eater Judgement Afterlife Also written in the Echo World: The Echo Trilogy Collection: The Complete Series What readers are saying: "I love, love, love, LOVE THIS SERIES!!!" "I love stories where the female is anything but a damsel in distress! She kicks butt and takes no excuses from those whose butts are being kicked!" "Loved the Puget Sound setting! Also loved the wonderful use of mythology!" "If you want a great escape from reality for awhile, I highly recommend this series." "So beyond amazing!! MUST READ!!"

TO FORGE A KING: The Chronicles Of Ellorhim


Thomas Adams - 2019
    This is an exciting new coming of age story with detailed world building and gritty action and fight scenes. The backstory has Norse or Scandinavian cultural and spiritual influences and overtones. His past was lost, only faded dreams and echoes of happier times remained. Sometimes he had a flash, a quick fleeting glimpse of a better place with friends, warmth and cheer below a silver sun in a twilight land. Those were rare though. Now, there is only the harsh brutal present, sweat stinging the eye and blood flowing from cracked bruised knuckles, a sword in his filthy callused hand and the hoarse shouts of the Sword Masters ringing in his ears. Exhaustion paints his partner's face like cheap mask. No doubt his own face looks just as bad. It is a never ending struggle, up before the sun, running, jumping, lifting and fighting, each day full of pain and injury. Training, always training, His country, Vesfalruk, needs warriors to defend their land and homes. And, this place makes the best warriors. There are none better with sword or ax in all the world. But there is a power and a sense of belonging in this place, this ancient Guild Hall and fortress lying in the shadow of the Eastern White Mountains. Being here comforts him in ways he does not understand and the cold winter winds are somehow less chill. His sword calls and he takes it up and trots out into the yard. Vesfalruk is a besieged place, an isolated mountainous land that has struggled against numerous foes and invaders, the Erhand. It is a land with a violent and bloody history and a kingdom without a king. There has been no king for over two-hundred years and relative peace, if it can be called that, has been the norm for most of that time. So trade flourishes, peace reigns and ancient traditions are openly questioned and sometimes mocked. Vesfalruk warriors are still renowned throughout Ellorhim and the Guild Halls continue to train them, against a rising popular opinion. Old enemies are stirring again, their armies gather, swelling and massing for another round of invasion and conquest. And, that is fine with him and it if the same for those he has grown up with in this Guild Hall. Let them come again. We will be ready. He vows this, to himself and to others.

H.I.V.E. Higher Institute of Villainous Education


Mark Walden - 2006
    He is the perfect candidate to become the world's next supervillain.That is why he ends up at H.I.V.E., handpicked to become a member of the incoming class. The students have been kidnapped and brought to a secluded island inside a seemingly active volcano, where the school has resided for decades. All the kids are elite; they are the most athletic, the most technically advanced, and the smartest in the country. Inside the cavernous marble rooms, floodlit hangars, and steel doors, the students are enrolled in Villainy Studies and Stealth and Evasion 101. But what Otto soon comes to realize is that this is a six-year program, and leaving is not an option.With the help of his new friends: an athletic martial-arts expert; a world-famous, beautiful diamond thief; and a spunky computer genius -- the only other people who seem to want to leave -- can Otto achieve what has never been done before and break out of H.I.V.E.?

The Cabinet of Wonders


Marie Rutkoski - 2008
    But it's never been ordinary. She has a pet tin spider named Astrophil who likes to hide in her snarled hair and give her advice. Her best friend can trap lightning inside a glass sphere. Petra also has a father in faraway Prague who is able to move metal with his mind. He has been commissioned by the prince of Bohemia to build the world's finest astronomical clock.Petra's life is forever changed when, one day, her father returns home – blind. The prince has stolen his eyes, enchanted them, and now wears them. But why? Petra doesn't know, but she knows this: she will go to Prague, sneak into Salamander Castle, and steal her father's eyes back.Joining forces with Neel, whose fingers extend into invisible ghosts that pick locks and pockets, Petra finds that many people in the castle are not what they seem, and that her father's clock has powers capable of destroying their world.