Book picks similar to
The Last Door to Underhill by Kim McDougall


fantasy
novella
urban-fantasy
prequella-in-a-series

Royal Street


Suzanne Johnson - 2012
    DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.

Among the Nameless Stars


Diana Peterfreund - 2012
    But the journey was not an easy one.Featuring narrow escapes, thrilling boat races and at least one deadly volcanic wasteland.

The Graveyard Kiss


Meghan Ciana Doidge - 2014
    Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all...But really? Is it? Luci, a true believer in Victorian love poetry, is about to find out whether her teenaged heart and soul is up to surviving a boyfriend who prefers elegies … and the ancient evil he might have dug up on the Internet.

Demon Girl


Penelope Fletcher - 2010
    Rae Wilder has problems. Supernatural creatures swarm the earth, and humanity is on the brink of extinction. Stalked by a handsome fairy who claims she is like him, demonkind, Rae thinks maybe it was a mistake breaking the rules by going over the Wall into demon territory. Plunged into a world of dark magics, fierce creatures, and ritual sacrifice, she is charged with a guarding a magical amulet. The changes to her mind and body are startling, but rather than accept her purpose she struggles against who she is destined to be. Throw in a big lust for a vampire who can't keep his hands off her, and life starts to get complicated. Rae is forced to make the ultimate choice: to live and die human, or embrace her birth-right and wield magics that could turn her into something wicked, a force of nature nothing can control. BrE.

The Stranger


Anna Banks - 2013
    Novelette.The Syrena don’t trust many humans. Rachel is one of them. The story of how Galen met her – and how they bonded -- is both exciting and heartbreaking.

Lovers and Madmen


Nichole Van - 2018
    Summer, 1982. Judith Campbell prides herself on her level head. She’s a scientist with a ten-year plan, a well-managed bank account, and clear understanding of what she wants out of life. Currently, that means a summer of fun touring Europe with her friends. She intends to see some amazing scenery, flirt with a cute guy or two, and return home ready to settle down for good. Falling madly in love with an Italian playboy is definitely not on her life goals to-do list. But then her eyes meet those of Cesare D’Angelo across a crowded piazza. Cesare is everything Judith never knew she wanted. Handsome and charismatic, he challenges her assumptions and forces her rethink her logical approach to everything. Case in point—Judith finds herself falling for him, hard and fast. Definitely not her most carefully thought-out decision. But Cesare keeps devastating secrets that will challenge Judith’s very understanding of reality. And soon Judith finds herself facing the most difficult decision of all— Would you still chose to love someone even if your time together would be brief? Would you accept a relationship, knowing that only heartbreak and grief awaited you in the end? Lovers and Madmen is a prequel novella for the Brothers Maledetti series. Lose yourself in Judith and Cesare’s story and understand where it all began.

The Cursed


Alyssa Day - 2013
    But now a secret from his past—the League of the Black Swan—has surfaced. Because Luke isn’t any ordinary P.I. He’s the Dark Wizard of Bordertown, and he never backs down from a fight.But this time the fight threatens his life and his heart. Rio Jones, the only woman he loved, needs his help against a deadly menace. Luke pushed her away once before, so she’d never fall prey to the curse that threatens to destroy him. He swore he’d never let her go again.Luke and Rio, with the help of the newly reformed League, must keep evil forces from taking over Bordertown—all the while battling a passion on the razor’s edge between danger and desire. And going to take everything they have just to stay alive.

Never Dead


M.L. Bullock - 2020
    He hadn’t even opened the door.Ex-burlesque dancer and aspiring author Tamara Garvey just had her world turned upside down.Her best friend died and leaves her as guardian to a teenager. Now, not only is Tamara struggling with her new role but she is also charged with caring for the family home, the Ridaught Plantation known by the locals as the Dead House.To her surprise, the place is already occupied by an angsty ghost named Joey who has a penchant for wearing her clothes and a fascination for paranormal movies and television shows. Tamara and Joey develop an unexpected friendship but questions remain about how and when he got there.In an attempt to fit in with the suspicious small town residents, Tamara turns on the charm and decides to host a community wide Halloween party, right at the historic home. Everything turns out great until the dead begin to show up too. Can Tamara solve the secret of the Ridaught Plantation before it’s too late?Can she protect Chloe from the dead who are assembling?Or will they also become ghostly residents of the Dead House?

Blood and Iron


Elizabeth Bear - 2006
    Spellbound by the Faerie Queen, she has abducted human children for her mistress’s pleasure for what seems like an eternity, unable to free herself from servitude and reclaim her own humanity.Seeker’s latest prey is a Merlin. Named after the legendary wizard of Camelot, Merlins are not simply those who wield magic––they are magic. Now, with the Prometheus Club’s agents and rivals from Faerie both vying for the favor of this being of limitless magic to tip the balance of power, Seeker must persuade the Merlin to join her cause—or else risk losing something even more precious and more important to her than the fate of humankind.…

Favours


Benedict Jacka - 2021
    Returning to London after his year-long assignment to Washington D.C., Sonder is called into Keeper HQ to work with Caldera on an investigation. What looks at first like a simple burglary quickly turns into something much more difficult and dangerous, forcing Sonder to choose where his loyalties lie.