The Cursed Key


Miranda Brock - 2019
    Her reward? A mysterious key she has no idea is cursed. Soon, Olivia realizes she’s brought home more than just an ancient rarity.Malevolent visions begin to plague her. Unnerved by what they reveal, she casts away the key…unknowingly placing it into the waiting hands of a dark mage bent on destruction. Only when a shifter agent from the Paranormal Intelligence and Tracking Organization arrives searching for the key does Olivia realize what a huge mistake she’s made. Forced to team up with the ill-tempered shifter, her journey to reclaim the cursed key leads down a twisting path of dark histories, dangerous magic, and deadly obstacles. But Olivia’s efforts to take back the ancient relic before the dark mage can destroy the lives of humans, shifters, witches, and fae alike are thwarted by her own dark past…and a price steeper than what she’s willing to pay.

Blood Vows


Kathryn M. Hearst - 2017
    and we don't sparkle. Serena’s not your typical vamp. She drinks holy water for breakfast, and her boss runs the Vatican. However, life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Her relationship is in the crapper, and she’s asking herself the age-old question… “Should I stay or should I go?” Change is hard, especially for an immortal. For three centuries, two things have been constant – Nicholai and her job. Working as an assassin for one of the most influential forces in history has its perks, but business is slow. That all changes when Nicholai's human descendant is murdered, and he's the prime suspect. As the body count rises, Serena and Nicholai are forced to work together to find the real killer before it's too late. The problem is…the more they discover, the more they’re convinced the murderer is their commander. Worse still, proving him guilty could lead to a rebellion. On the bright side, there’s nothing like a war to put the spark back in a 300-year-old marriage. You'll adore this urban fantasy series, because everyone loves a tale of redemption and second chances. **Previously published as Feast of Reverence**

Shadow of the Fox


Julie Kagawa - 2018
    A new age is about to dawn.Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.

The Girl Who Brings the Dead


Alessa Winters - 2021
    But she couldn’t just let her brother die.◆◆◆A Necromancer hasn’t been seen in over a generation, and nobody knows why. Lyra just wanted a quiet life and for her brother to grow up healthy. But ever since she raised him from the dead, she’s been stalked by a Demon of immense power.He wants to kill her. He needs to kill her. Instead, he introduces himself. His name is Melekai, and Lyra belongs to him now. Whenever he chooses, he comes to her and steals from her soul, and in exchange, she gets to stay alive.Their uneasy peace is disturbed when two Magicians discover Lyra’s powers. They think they’ve found their savior, they think they’ve found a weapon that can save the world.Lyra wants to be left alone. Melekai wants her safe, to be his. Magic has other plans.◆◆◆If you like: Gothic Romance Romance with a little bit of gore Villain Love Interests Found FamilyThen you will LOVE this book.

Grim Lovelies


Megan Shepherd - 2018
    But Anouk can never have those things, because she is not really human. Enchanted from animal to human girl and forbidden to venture beyond her familiar Parisian prison, Anouk is a Beastie: destined for a life surrounded by dust bunnies and cinders serving Mada Vittora, the evil witch who spelled her into existence. That is, until one day she finds her mistress murdered in a pool of blood—and Anouk is accused of the crime. Now, the world she always dreamed of is rife with danger. Pursued through Paris by the underground magical society known as the Haute, Anouk and her fellow Beasties only have three days to find the real killer before the spell keeping them human fades away. If they fail, they will lose the only lives they’ve ever known…but if they succeed, they could be more powerful than anyone ever bargained for. From New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd, Grim Lovelies is an epic and glittering YA fantasy. Prepare to be spellbound by the world of Grim Lovelies, where secrets have been long buried, friends can become enemies, and everything—especially humanity—comes at a price.

The Black Witch


Laurie Forest - 2017
    But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people—including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians—is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of rebels…if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to fear.

Trial by Fire


Josephine Angelini - 2014
    Worlds collide. Magic reigns.This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying many of the experiences that other teenagers take for granted... which is why she is determined to enjoy her first (and perhaps only) high-school party. But Lily's life never goes according to plan, and after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class Lily wishes she could just disappear.Suddenly Lily is in a different Salem - one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruellest of all the Crucibles is Lillian... Lily's identical other self in this alternate universe. This new version of her world is terrifyingly sensual, and Lily is soon overwhelmed by new experiences.Lily realizes that what makes her weak at home is exactly what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. It also puts her life in danger. Thrown into a world she doesn't understand, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone, and a love she never expected.But how can Lily be the saviour of this world when she is literally her own worst enemy?

Possession: A Jack Nightingale Short Story


Stephen Leather - 2017
    But he can't do the exorcism alone - for that he needs the help of a priest. A very special priest. But Father O'Grady is all too well aware of the dangers of tangling with demons and he's going to need some persuading. Possession is a fast-paced supernatural story of almost 11,000 words. Jack Nightingale appears in the full-length novels Nightfall, Midnight, Nightmare, Nightshade, Lastnight, San Francisco Night and New York Night. He also appears in several short stories including Blood Bath, Cursed, Still Bleeding, Tracks, My Name Is Lydia, The Creeper, The Undead, The Asylum, The Mansion, Wrong Turn and The Cards. The Jack Nightingale time line is complex, this story is set sometime after Lastnight. Jack Nightingale has his own website at www.jacknightingale.com

Forest of Whispers


Jennifer Murgia - 2014
    I am no longer the simple girl hidden behind the safety of a make-believe forest. I am the story. I am the tall tale . . . I am the witch."Raised by an old fortune-teller within the dark veil of the Bavarian Black Forest, Rune has learned two valuable lessons: only take from the forest that which you can use, and never, never look anyone in the eye in the village. For something terrible happened in the forest long ago... and now, the whispers of a long-dead mother with a vengeful secret have come haunting.Forced to flee all she has ever known, Rune soon learns of a legacy she is bound to--one that is drenched in fear, witchcraft and murder--a birthright that stretches beyond the grave to the trees where Rune is no longer safe.

The Nature of Witches


Rachel Griffin - 2021
    But now their control is faltering as the atmosphere becomes more erratic. All hope lies with Clara, an Everwitch whose rare magic is tied to every season.In Autumn, Clara wants nothing to do with her power. It's wild and volatile, and the price of her magic―losing the ones she loves―is too high, despite the need to control the increasingly dangerous weather.In Winter, the world is on the precipice of disaster. Fires burn, storms rage, and Clara accepts that she's the only one who can make a difference.In Spring, she falls for Sang, the witch training her. As her magic grows, so do her feelings, until she's terrified Sang will be the next one she loses.In Summer, Clara must choose between her power and her happiness, her duty and the people she loves... before she loses Sang, her magic, and thrusts the world into chaos.Practical Magic meets Twister in this debut contemporary fantasy standalone about heartbreaking power, the terror of our collapsing atmosphere, and the ways we unknowingly change our fate.

New Blood: The Zaroi Chronicles


Laura D. Pidgeon - 2014
    But on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, she gets more than she bargained for... Violet learns she is part of an ancient vampire race, and that she must leave her life behind, leaving her mother and her best friend, to attend the Radictius Druidwitch Academy, a school for her race of vampires, the Callicantzaroi... Whilst at the school, Violet not only learns about her race, but also new things about herself, and terrifyingly, of her deadly connection to an evil race of vampires who want to see her entire species destroyed...

Wicked Hunt


Megan Montero - 2020
    I know everything about him. I know all of his dirty secrets and his evil deeds. He is more of a monster than my father ever was...because Dario just likes it.He needs to go down for what he did. He needs to pay for his crimes and I’ve dreamt of this day for a long time. So when Matteaus asks me and Cross to hunt him down, I don’t hesitate to say yes. I want the man dead, the problem is…he’s Cross’s father. Deep down I know he doesn’t want his own father dead and I’ll do anything to spare him that pain. Now I must find a way to stop Dario without killing him. If I don’t, I may lose Cross forever.And that would be the biggest problem ever because I kind of, sort of, accidentally fell in love with Cross.To win, I’ll have to walk that fine line between good and evil…but a little bad never hurt anybody, right?

Night of the Drakoryans


Ava Sinclair - 2018
    One reluctant maiden. And only one long night to claim her. Syrene does not come to Altar Rock as a willing sacrifice. Angered by her village’s eagerness to give her to the dragons, she seeks to escape. But the dragon who comes for her isn’t having it; he takes her anyway, and carries her home to share as mate with his shifter brothers. Now the Lords of Jo’Lyn wonder if they haven’t made a mistake. Syrene is as defiant of them as she was of the village she believes rejected her. She swears she will not give herself to even one Drakoryan lord, let alone three. But the three dominant dragon shifters will not be refused. With the survival of their bloodline hanging in the balance, they are determined to find creative ways to woo their wild mate before the sun rises once more over the empire.

The Girl at Midnight


Melissa Grey - 2015
    Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from all but one human: Echo, a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market.The Avicen are the only family Echo has ever known, so when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it’s time to act. Legend has it that to end the conflict once and for all, Echo must find the firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, though if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it’s how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

Our Crooked Hearts: A Novel


Melissa Albert
    . .Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there’s more to her mother than meets the eye.THE CITY, BACK THEN . . .Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural, set in a city of magical possibilities and secret mystics. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.Years after it began, Ivy and Dana’s shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with.