| Gather Her Round: A Novel of the Tufa by Alex BledsoeNot long after Cloud County resident Kera Rogers disappears, her half-eaten body is found in the woods near Needsville, Tennessee. Was she attacked by feral hogs? Murdered by a spurned lover? Or is there a less mundane explanation? After all, Needsville is the home of the Tufa, an insular group rumored to be descended from the fair folk. The discovery of a second victim, one of Kera's boyfriends, prompts an investigation by game warden Jack Cates and Tufa military veteran Bronwyn Chess. Imagine Charles de Lint's Newford series but with the plotting of an Appalachian murder ballad and you've got Alex Bledsoe's Tufa novels, beginning with The Hum and the Shiver. |
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Silence fallen
by Patricia Briggs
Rendered a pawn against werewolf Adam and the Tri-Cities vampires, Mercy flees her captor and struggles to recruit allies while avoiding activities that could cause an interspecies war. By the best-selling author of Fire Touched.
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Empress of the Fall by David HairThe Emperor is dead long live the Empress! Emperor Constant is dead and his rivals are scrabbling for power but any misstep could plunge the land, already devastated by the shocking outcome of the Third Crusade, into a calamitous civil war. The Imperial throne is not the only one in jeopardy. Two brothers, imprisoned veterans of the Crusades, finally return home to find their father's kingdom being plundered but the price of regaining their birthright will have far-reaching implications for the entire empire. In the East, Sultan Salim, peacemaker and visionary ruler, faces his greatest challenge as his people demand an invasion of the West in retribution for the Rondian Crusades And lurking in the darkness, orchestrating both the power struggles and the inevitable conflicts, is a shadowy group threatening to destroy civilisation itself. Once more, Urte stands on the brink of cataclysm.
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| Sins of Empire by Brian McClellanSet in the world of author Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy, this intricately plotted novel kicks off the Gods of Blood and Powder series. Amid rising unrest in the colony of Fatrasta, Lady Chancellor Lindet summons powder mage Lady Vlora Flint and her Riflejack mercenaries to Landfall, the capital, to keep the peace. As Vlora and her crew defend the city against indigenous Palo resistance fighters, her local contact, a member of the "Blackhats" secret police, attempts to track down the authors of a spate of seditious pamphlets. But the recovery of powerful artifacts from beneath Fatrasta, which sits atop the ruins of the ancient Dynize empire, poses a far greater threat than insurgency. |
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Born of vengeance
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
When his family is slaughtered and his wife frames him for their deaths, Bastien Cabarro goes on the run for 10 years before taking a chance to clear his name by placing his fate in the hands of his betrayer's sister, who struggles to choose between their friendship and her duty. By a #1 New York Times best-selling author.
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| Bane and Shadow by Jon SkovronFirst they destroyed her village, then they took her partner. Now, Bleak Hope must temporarily set aside her vendetta to embark on a rescue mission. Picking up where Hope and Red left off, this 2nd book in the Empire of Storms series finds Hope terrorizing the high seas as the pirate Dire Bane as she searches for Red, who's been taken by ruthless biomancers. Red, forced to infiltrate the Imperial court, struggles to survive the deadly politics of the realm while seeking to undo the physical and mental bonds his captors have placed on him. Series fans will enjoy reuniting with favorite characters and revisiting the empire, but newcomers should definitely start at the beginning, given the complexity of the books' multiple storylines. |
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Last year
by Robert Charles Wilson
A man from an alternate-universe 19th-century Ohio town that is on one side of a time-travel portal to the modern world realizes that dwindling tourism will soon close the portal, separating him from the 21st-century woman he loves. By the Hugo Award-winning author of Spin.
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Magical Coming-of-Age Stories
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| The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery; translated by Alison AndersonAlthough they don't yet know it, two orphaned girls must join forces to save the world. Maria grows up in a village in Burgundy, France, where she demonstrates a strong affinity for the natural world -- including an ability to see beyond the veil that separates this realm from the next. Carla, raised by a priest and his housekeeper in Abruzzo, Italy, is a musical prodigy whose talent is accompanied by powerful visions. Saying more might spoil the many surprises of this enchanting novel, but if you enjoy atmospheric and leisurely paced coming-of-age tales that unfold in lyrical language, this is a book you'll savor. |
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| Thorn Jack: A Night and Nothing Novel by Katherine HarbourHaunted by her older sister's suicide, Serafina “Finn” Sullivan moves with her father to Fair Hollow, a tiny town in upstate New York. Attending a local college, Finn meets the enigmatic Jack Fata (with whom she falls in love) and his strange, insular family, who unsettle her for reasons she cannot quite articulate. Based on the Scottish ballad Tam Lin, this opening installment of the Night and Nothing trilogy may appeal to fans of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, another version of the tale set at a small liberal arts college. |
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| Roses and Rot by Kat HowardHaving grown up with a parent who rivals any wicked stepmother, sisters Imogen and Marin are understandably obsessed with fairy tales, which inform their present-day careers as a writer and a dancer, respectively. Having lived apart since adolescence, the once-close siblings are reunited when both women are accepted to Melete, a prestigious artist's colony that seems too good to be true. And it is, of course, though neither woman could have ever imagined the darkness concealed beneath the colony's idyllic facade. For another fantasy novel that uses folklore to explore sisterly bonds, try Krassi Zourkova's Wildalone. |
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The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss
As proprietor of the remote Waystone Inn, Kote leads a quiet life until the itinerant Chronicler recognizes him as the legendary hero Kvothe and urges him to recount his life story, beginning with his birth as one of the Edema Ruh, a nomadic troop of performers. After being orphaned by demons at a young age, Kvothe becomes in turn a wizard, a bard, a thief, an assassin, and a hero who seeks to avenge his family's murder. The Name of the Wind is the 1st installment of the Kingkiller Chronicles, which continues with The Wise Man's Fear; there's also a companion novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which focuses on popular supporting character Auri.
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Faerie winter
by Janni Lee Simner
Unable to get answers from her mother, sixteen-year-old Liza learns from Karin that while her own actions may have doomed the fairy and human worlds, she may be able to save them with more training, if the Faerie Queen can first be stopped
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| Among Others by Jo WaltonAfter the death of her twin sister, 14-year-old Morwenna, or "Mori," flees her unstable mother and her Welsh hometown to live with the father she barely knows -- and never will, since he immediately packs her off to a boarding school in the English countryside. Grief-stricken and friendless, Mori takes refuge in books, eventually meeting others who share her interests in fantasy and science fiction. But Mori can't avoid her past forever. Unfolding in the form of a diary, Among Others is both a coming-of-age story full of magic and a love letter to literature that fans of Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock may enjoy. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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