Blood Lies: Book One of The Redwing Saga


Sharon K. Gilbert - 2017
    When detectives arrive, they find not only the broken body of the victim, but a child who remembers nothing of who she is or how she came to be at the scene. Because the little girl has no known home, a gentle-hearted detective inspector named Charles St. Clair takes her to his home, and from that point on, his life will never be the same. Over the course of the next ten years, he’ll learn not only all about the girl but also about himself. And St. Clair will learn the truth about a supernatural battle that has been raging across England for four hundred years. The Redwing Saga presents an alternative telling of history, pulling back the veil of secrecy put into place by those who would deceive and destroy. Geopolitics, criminal investigation, and science merge with secret societies, angelic warfare, and human free will. Book One of the series, Blood Lies , introduces the characters—both human and non-human—as well as their backstories, and it starts us on a journey that will eventually lead from Whitechapel to World War.

Curse of the Specter Queen


Jenny Elder Moke - 2021
    But when a mysterious package arrives with a damaged diary inside, Sam's peaceful life is obliterated. Ruthless men intent on reclaiming the diary are after Sam, setting her and her best friend, along with her childhood crush, on a high-stakes adventure that lands them in the green hills outside Dublin, Ireland. Here they discover an ancient order with a dark purpose - to perform an occult ritual that will raise the Specter Queen, the Celtic goddess of vengeance and death, to bring about a war unlike any the world has ever seen. To stop them, Sam must solve a deviously complex cipher - one that will lead her on a treasure hunt to discover the ancient relic at the heart of the ritual: a bowl carved from the tree of life. Will she find the bowl and stop the curse of the Specter Queen, or will the ancient order bring about the end of the world?Indiana Jones gets a refresh with this female-driven mystery adventure, set in the 1920s, full of ciphers, ancient relics, and heart-stopping action - the first in a brand-new series!

A School for Unusual Girls


Kathleen Baldwin - 2015
    Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four fronts. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of Regency England’s dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don’t fit high society’s constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies—plans that entangle them in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy, and war.After accidentally setting her father’s stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. But Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible—until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads—or their hearts…

Cursed Once More: The Sequel to With This Curse


Amanda DeWees - 2015
    Former seamstress Clara Blackwood seems to have found happiness at last. Now a blissfully married baroness, she is mistress of a grand estate. But soon a mysterious summons shatters her contented life. Clara grew up believing that her mother’s family had disowned them. But now the grandmother she never knew is on her deathbed and anxious to disclose vital family secrets before it’s too late—for Clara’s unborn child may be cursed with a horrible fate. When Clara and her husband, Atticus, arrive at dismal Thurnley Hall, they find intrigue brewing. Her boorish uncle, Horace Burleigh, is greedy for her wealth and desperate to protect the family’s mysteries. Superstitious fear of Atticus torments the hulking Romanian servant, Grigore, and even the soft-spoken young ward, Victor Lynch, may have secret motives for getting close to Clara and her husband. When her grandmother dies under suspicious circumstances, Clara feels compelled to investigate. And when Atticus vanishes mysteriously, she must draw on all her strength and determination to find him before his time runs out… before her life can be cursed once more. Fans of the Gothic romances of Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Barbara Michaels won't want to miss this thrilling, romantic sequel to With This Curse, in which Clara faces new challenges and dangers. Just Book Talk gives Cursed Once More five stars and calls it “another exciting adventure . . . [with] a rich cast of spooky and strange characters.” And be sure not to miss Nocturne for a Widow , in which Clara's former employer, vivacious actress Sybil Ingram, is plunged into adventure in a haunted house in the Hudson River Valley.

Kindred Spirits: Tower of London


Jennifer C. Wilson - 2015
     Amidst the chaos of daily life, with political and personal tensions running high, Richard III takes control, as each ghostly resident looks for their own peace in the former palace – where privacy was always a limited luxury. With so many characters haunting the Tower of London, will they all find the calm they crave? But foremost – will the young Plantagenet Princes join them?

The Night Circus


Erin Morgenstern - 2011
    No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

The Midnight Sea


Kat Ross - 2016
    A girl of the isolated Four-Legs Clan, all she knows about the King's elite Water Dogs is that they leash wicked creatures called daevas to protect the empire from the Undead. But when scouts arrive to recruit young people with the gift, she leaps at the chance to join their ranks. To hunt the monsters that killed her sister.Scarred by grief, she's willing to pay any price, even if it requires linking with a daeva named Darius. Human in body, he's possessed of a terrifying power, one that Nazafareen controls. But the golden cuffs that join them have an unwanted side effect. Each experiences the other's emotions, and human and daeva start to grow dangerously close.As they pursue a deadly foe across the arid waste of the Great Salt Plain to the glittering capital of Persepolae, unearthing the secrets of Darius's past along the way, Nazafareen is forced to question his slavery—and her own loyalty to the empire. But with an ancient evil stirring in the north, and a young conqueror sweeping in from the west, the fate of an entire civilization may be at stake…

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel


Ransom Riggs - 2011
    As Jacob grew up, though, he decided that these photos were obvious fakes, simple forgeries designed to stir his youthful imagination. Or were they...?Following his grandfather's death - a scene Jacob literally couldn't believe with his own eyes - the sixteen-year-old boy embarks on a mission to disentangle fact from fiction in his grandfather's tall tales. But even his grandfather's elaborate yarns couldn't prepare Jacob for the eccentricities he will discover at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children!

The Hourglass Door


Lisa Mangum - 2009
    Her future. Can love bring them together in time?Abby's senior year of high school is textbook perfect, until she meets Dante Alexander, a foreign-exchange student from Italy. Time behaves differently when they are together - too fast or slow or seeming to stop. When the band Zero Hour performs at the local hangout, they have a bizarre influence over their audience, and Abby's best friend, Valerie, is caught in their snare. Dante helped Leonardo Da Vinci build a time machine, then was sent 500+ years into the future as punishment when falsely accused of being a traitor. As past and present collide, Abby learns she holds a special power over time itself.

The Librarian


Christy Sloat - 2017
    And that's just the start of their troubles.Emme never meant to stay in Maine. She'd come only to find a librarian for her Gram's library, a custodian for the collection of mysterious books she'd promised to protect. On a dark, wintery night, alone in the library, she takes her first glance into one of the antique novels and finds herself transported to 1892 England staring into the eyes of handsome and dashing hero Jack Ridgewell. As each chapter passes she learns you can truly fall in love with a character in a book, that book boyfriends are real and Emme must choose between the real world, and his.When the last page is read he's gone and Emme feels the cold loneliness of lost love. Will she find Jack again, or will their love be forever lost? The answer lies within the pages…

Accidental Witch


Lydia Sherrer - 2017
    But when someone you love dies, logic and reason die with them." Sebastian Blackwell is your typical high school popular kid: attractive, charming, and a little rebellious. At least he used to be. But when his parents are killed in a freak accident, he goes from cool kid to orphan outcast before the dirt even settles over their graves. Now a shell of his former self, Sebastian realizes what really matters in life and is determined to get it back, no matter the cost. To do it, he'll have to delve into his family's darkest secrets, secrets his parents tried to protect him from his whole life. With a ghost as his only friend, a goth girl his only ally, and a demon prince his only chance, Sebastian sets out on a desperate path of redemption that seems more likely to damn him than to save him. For all power has a price, and Sebastian must decide what he is willing to pay to defy death itself. For fans of paranormal series like Supernatural and Odd Thomas, this tale of loss and the struggle for redemption will keep you on the edge of your seat. Grab it today and discover what you would give to save those you love most. (Suggested age range 15+ for mild language and violence. The Dark Roads Trilogy is a spinoff series of Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus - The Lily Singer Adventures. Either series can be read first.)

The Clockwork Scarab


Colleen Gleason - 2013
    But when you’re the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery solving are in your blood. And when two society girls go missing, there’s no one more qualified to investigate.Now fierce Evaline and logical Mina must resolve their rivalry, navigate the advances of not just one but three mysterious gentlemen, and solve murder with only one clue: a strange Egyptian scarab. The stakes are high. If Stoker and Holmes don’t unravel why the belles of London society are in such danger, they’ll become the next victims.

How to Hang a Witch


Adriana Mather - 2016
    Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?If dealing with that weren't enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with The Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it's Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.

The Book of Spells


Kate Brian - 2010
    Her parents expect her to learn the qualities of a graceful, dutiful wife. But Eliza and her housemates have a dangerous secret: They're witches. After finding a dusty, leather bound spell book, the Billings Girls form a secret coven. Bonded in sisterhood, they cast spells--cursing their headmistress with laryngitis, brewing potions to bolster their courage before dances, and conjuring beautiful dresses out of old rags. The girls taste freedom and power for the first time, but what starts out as innocent fun turns sinister when one of the spells has an unexpected-and deadly-consequence. Magic could bring Eliza everything she's ever wanted...but it could also destroy everything she holds dear.

The Lancashire Witches


William Harrison Ainsworth - 1854
    The Lancashire Witches begins in the 16th century, in Lancashire, England. When a Cistercian monk, Borlace Alvetham, is falsely accused of witchcraft and condemned to death by his rival, Brother Paslew, he sells his soul to Satan and escapes. Years later, granted the powers of a warlock, he returns in the guise of Nicholas Demdike to witness Paslew's execution for treason. Dying, Paslew curses Demdike's offspring -- who become the titular "Lancashire Witches." The rest of the book set in the 17th century. Mother Demdike, a powerful witch, and her clan face rival witches, raise innocent young Alizon Devi as their own, and try to corrupt Alizon despite her innocent ways. Ultimately, the book becomes a struggle between Heaven and Hell, with Alizon's fate hanging in the balance.