Here’s the full list of fantasy titles heading your way in October!
Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Release dates are subject to change.
October 7
Higher Magic — Courtney Floyd (MIRA)
First-generation graduate student Dorothe Bartleby has one last chance to pass the Magic program’s qualifying exam after freezing with anxiety during her first attempt. If she fails to demonstrate that magic in classic literature changed the world, she’ll be kicked out of the university. And now her advisor insists she reframe her entire dissertation using Digimancy. While mages have found a way to combine computers and magic, Bartleby’s fated to never make it work. This time is no exception. Her revised working goes horribly wrong, creating a talking skull named Anne that narrates Bartleby’s inner thoughts—even the most embarrassing ones—like she’s a heroine in a Jane Austen novel. Out of her depth, she recruits James, an unfairly attractive mage candidate, to help her stop Anne’s glitches in time for her exam. Instead, Anne leads them to a shocking and dangerous discovery: Magic students who seek disability accommodations are disappearing—quite literally. When the administration fails to act, Bartleby must learn to trust her own knowledge and skills. Otherwise, she risks losing both the missing students and her future as a mage, permanently.
Alchemy of Secrets — Stephanie Garber (Flatiron)
It starts with a class in an old movie theater. Folklore 517: Local Legends and Urban Myths, taught by a woman called the Professor. Most students believe the Professor’s stories are just fiction, but Holland St. James has always been convinced that magic is real. When she tracks down a local legend named the Watch Man, who can supposedly tell you when you’ll die, the world finally makes sense. Except that the Watch Man tells her she will die at midnight tomorrow unless she finds an ancient object called the Alchemical Heart. With the clock ticking, Holland is pulled deeper into this magical world in the heart of Los Angeles—and into the path of a magnetic stranger. Everything about him feels like a bad idea, but he promises Holland that her sister sent him to protect her. As they chase clues and stories that take them closer to the Alchemical Heart, Holland realizes everyone in this intoxicating new world is lying to her, even this stranger. And if she can’t figure out whom to trust, not even the Alchemical Heart will save her.
The Shadow Rises (Stormfall #2) — Maelan Holladay (Inimitable Books)
Separated from everyone and everything she knows, Rae Toma is once again lost to the Shatter. This time, however, the Compass has been claimed—and there is no hope of escape. Now the bearer of Eriysha’s Compass, Nur Del Sue returns to her islands—where old enemies await. Caught between the goddess’s task and her desire for revenge, the Stormwitch soon realizes that she will need to place her trust in the very people who betrayed her. Upon reaching the shores of Okaro, Alana Zaya finds a tangle of politics and deception left behind by her mother. Facing opposition from all sides and denied by her homeland, the Queen of Darkness is pushed to the breaking point. Can these three women avert disaster yet again, or is their—and the universe’s—luck running out?
How to Survive a Fairy Bargain (Fairies and Familiars #2) — Laura J. Mayo (Orbit Works)
Theodosia Balfour is in a panic—she has no clue how to handle her new life as a fairy’s familiar. She just can’t seem to find her place in Cecily’s land of decadence, doublespeak, and whimsy. Moreover, Theo can’t stop thinking about Kasra, Cecily’s last familiar who is now living a cozy human life without any memories of his time in a fairy’s service. All she wants is to tell Kaz how she feels about him, but that’s impossible now. Then suddenly, the regent of the fairy kingdom reveals a secret that shocks Theo to her core and thrusts her into the role of detective to solve a thousand-year-old royal assassination attempt. With time running out to catch the would-be assassin, Theo can rely on only her own wits and unique charm to discover what’s really going on.
Legalist (Grand Illusion #4) — L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (Tor Books)
Fifty years after the establishment of the Imperium, and 450 years before the events of Isolate, Dominic Mikail Ysella—ancestor of Avraal Ysella—is the grandson of the last king of Aloor. Stripped of most of their land, Dominic, as the third son, must support himself. Dominic becomes a legalist and is elected to the Imperial Council quietly working as an isolate, someone unreadable by government telepaths. Amid a time of a crumbling imperial line, Dominic must build a coalition within the Council and quietly draft a new constitution to save the Imperium from itself. Uncovering rampant corruption, graft, and potential to be arrested for treason, Ysella discovers any number of ways that simple legal specialist in water rights could get himself killed.
The River and the Star (Warring Gods #2) — Gabriela Romero Lacruz (Orbit)
Reina is full of hope. At long last, Reina has the peace she’s been searching for on the idyllic islands of Tierra’e Sol with the lover she’s always wanted and in service to the god of the sun. But she can’t quite trust how long this will last. When monstrous creatures of the Void appear on the isle’s shores, she is certain she knows who is behind the attacks. Reina will stop at nothing to protect the woman she loves, but it could cost her everything she’s fought so hard for. Eva is cherished. Finally reunited with her father, the Liberator, Eva struggles to prove herself worthy of being his heir while keeping secret her alliance with the god of the Void. As destruction, both human and magical, tears across the lands, Eva is thrust into a power struggle she’s ill-prepared for. Confronted with the limits of her own ambition, Eva must fight to save herself from the powerful corruption of the Void before she loses the family she holds dear. The warring gods are returning and the only thing between them and absolute power are two young women. But for the first time in their lives, Reina and Eva have something to fight for. And they won’t back down.
The Door on the Sea — Caskey Russell (Solaris)
When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers a secret that can save Elān’s home: the Koosh have lost one of their most powerful weapons, and only the raven knows where it is. Elān is tasked with captaining a canoe crewed by an unlikely team including a human bear-cousin, a massive wolf, and the endlessly vulgar raven. To retrieve the weapon, they will face stormy seas, cannibal giants and a changing world. But Elān is a storyteller, not a warrior. As their world continues to fall to the Koosh, and alliances are challenged and broken, Elān must choose his role in his own epic story.
The Finest Edge of Twilight (Dungeons & Dragons) — R.A. Salvatore (Random House Worlds)
Breezy Do’Urden is more than just the heir of legendary heroes. For the past decade, she has dedicated herself to the study of combat, magic, and more recently, to the elusive Way of Shadow, honing her body and mind into a keen and singular weapon. But even after years of effort, her parents, Drizzt and Cattie-brie, struggle to see Breezy as more than just their little girl. Determined to prove them wrong, Breezy takes on the most intense challenge she can: to fight her way to becoming a Master of Dragons at the renowned Monastery of the Yellow Rose. Meanwhile, in the shadows of Westbridge, Dahlia Sin’felle plots her rise to power. Once a broken soul, Dahlia has few friends and fewer options to make her way through the world. But Dahlia believes she has discovered a new path to restored glory: the transformative charm and cunning of a vampire. With every step toward immortality, she consolidates her influence, building an empire from the darkness, even as she contends with her own monstrous instincts—and her complicated past with Breezy’s family. As Breezy fights her way through the shadows, and Dahlia follows her dark ambitions, both seek to find their place in a world that can be both brutal and beautiful. No matter the challenges, their divergent paths are forged by the same choice: their fates will be theirs and theirs alone.
A Mouthful of Dust (Singing Hills #6) — Nghi Vo (Tordotcom Publishing)
Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes. Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly…because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.
Queen Demon (Rising World #2) — Martha Wells (Tor Books)
Dahin, a beloved member of the Witch King’s coterie, believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs’ Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there’s something he isn’t telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself. Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch? And can he trust his companions to do what’s right?
October 14
The Works of Vermin — Hiron Ennes (Tor Books)
Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty. In this complex, chaotic city, Guy Moulène has a simple goal: keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he’ll take on any job, no matter how vile. As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny creatures that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is different: a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice. Guy doesn’t have a choice.
Our Gifted Hearts — Jennifer Kennedy (Angry Robot)
Fortune Blyth suffered the loss of a secret child when she was sixteen and vowed never to let another man touch her. Ten years later she is content with her beloved birds. But when witch hunters come to town it isn’t long before fingers are pointed at the spinster and she is forced to choose; stay and hang, or marry a man who can offer her safety far from home. She chooses marriage. Her husband’s island home is not the safe haven she expected, with a surly housekeeper and an eccentric mother-in-law to contend with. And there is something else; secrets hiding in the walls, demons creeping in her nightmares. Something sinister in the concealed tunnels below the house. It turns out she is not his first bride… Perhaps she would have been better off hanging after all.
The Keeper of Magical Things — Julie Leong (Ace)
Certainty Bulrush wants to be useful—to the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice, to the little brother who depends on her, and to anyone else she can help. Unfortunately, her tepid magic hasn’t proven much use to anyone. When Certainty has the chance to earn her magehood via a seemingly straightforward assignment, she takes it. Nevermind that she’ll have to work with Mage Aurelia, the brilliant, unfairly attractive overachiever who’s managed to alienate everyone around her. The two must transport minorly magical artifacts somewhere safe: Shpelling, the dullest, least magical village around. There, they must fix up an old warehouse, separate the gossipy teapots from the kind-of-flaming swords, corral an unruly little catdragon who has tagged along, and above all, avoid complications. The Guild’s uneasy relationship with citizens is at a tipping point, and the last thing needed is a magical incident. Still, as mage and novice come to know Shpelling’s residents—and each other—they realize the Guild’s hoarded magic might do more good being shared. Friendships blossom while Certainty and Aurelia work to make Shpelling the haven it could be. But magic is fickle—add attraction and it might spell trouble.
Red City — Marie Lu (Tor Books)
Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more. Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city—and the paths of their lives—will be irrevocably transformed. The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates’ brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off across opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war.
Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife — Deston J. Munden (Bindery Books)
Rottgor is worn out. Literally. Barely held together by dark magic, he has protected the Necropolis for centuries. When he’s forced into retirement, he’s faced with a new challenge: to forge a future guided not by obligation, but by passion. Following his heart (and stomach), he decides to open a restaurant where the city’s undead and living residents can share food and community. He’s helped in his quest by an unlikely assortment of neighbors, including elves, skeletons, vampires—and a young orphan girl named Astra, whose ancestry, if discovered, could put her and the entire Necropolis in danger. To protect Astra and the life he’s building, Rottgor must face his past and form new alliances built on friendship, loyalty, and love. As comforting as warm pumpkin bread, this gentle fantasy traces how even a dark history can rise into a bright future.
Kill the Beast — Serra Swift (Tor Books)
The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced. Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and—even more surprising—retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast. Alderic is ill-equipped for a hunt and almost guaranteed to get himself killed. But as the two of them search for the rest of the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa’s better judgment, an unlikely friendship begins to bloom—one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.
Lives of Bitter Rain (Tyrant Philosophers) — Adrian Tchaikovsky (Head of Zeus)
Outreach is that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy—converting enemies into friends, achieving through words what an army of five thousand could not, urging the oppressed to overthrow the bloody-handed priests, evil necromancers and greedy despots that subjugate them. Angilly, twelve-years-old, a child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, does not know it yet, but a sequence of accidents and questionable life choices will lead her to Outreach. As she travels from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, The Holy Regalate of Stouk and finally, Usmai, she’ll learn that the price of her nation’s success is paid in compromise and lost chances, and that the falling rain will always be bitter.
An Amateur Witch’s Guide to Murder — K. Valentin (Alcove Press)
Mateo’s mother forbade him from ever using magic, but now that she’s gone, magic’s his only marketable skill, and he’d really like an exorcism—which costs money he doesn’t have. What’s the harm in making a quick buck by calling himself an Occult Specialist and chanting a few half-remembered spells in his crappy Spanish? Enter Topher, a naive nepo baby with a curse that keeps killing people around him. Most importantly, he’s rich and too clueless to clock that Mateo—and his (absolutely-not-the-assistant) astral projecting best friend Ophelia—have never actually had a client before. Lifting Topher’s bad luck curse should be simple, but as luck would have it, nothing is simple, and Topher—who Mateo sort of, kind of likes—might be at the center of a deadly magical conspiracy. To make matters worse, the more magic Mateo does, the stronger the demon inside him grows and the more he wants to eat people. But would caving to the urges of an ancient evil really be that bad if it helps him get a payday?
October 21
The Lost Reliquary — Lindsay Ely (Saga)
The Devoted Lands was once home to many gods. Now, after centuries of brutal wars, only Tempestra-Innara, the Enduring Flame, remains. As a divine warrior, Lys is outwardly loyal to her goddess. If she dreams of deicide, that’s her business. When a routine heretical execution erupts into a near-fatal assassination attempt on Tempestra-Innara, Lys sees a glimmer of hope for her freedom. Lys is chosen to hunt down the heretics and find an ancient reliquary with the power to kill a god. Annoyingly, she’s not alone. Paired with Nolan, a warrior from a rival cloister who is as pious as he is determined, Lys must feign devotion if she hopes to keep her own god-killing ambitions within reach. But as they pursue the heretics linked to the assassination, Lys uncovers a world with more possibility—and peril—than she ever anticipated.
Slayers of Old — Jim C. Hines (DAW)
Three former Chosen Ones have joined together to spend their retirement in peace and quiet, running Second Life Books and Gifts in Salem, MA. A calm, peaceful, tourist-filled oasis, where they never have to worry about saving the world. Until some of the locals start summoning ancient creatures best left where they were… and they discover that their bookstore basement just may be the portal to the underworld. These ex-heroes may have thought they were done… but if they want to finish their retirement in peace, they’ll have to join together to save the world one last time. Why leave saving the world to the young? Cozy mystery readers looking for an extra dash of magic will eat this story up: fun, funny, and heartwarming, it’s a novel about community, second chances, and the healing power of scones.
When They Burned the Butterfly — Wen-Yi Lee (Tor Books)
Loner schoolgirl Adeline Siow has never needed more company than the flame she can summon at her fingertips. But when her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly seared onto her skin and Adeline hunts down a girl she saw in a back-alley barfight—a girl with a butterfly tattoo—she discovers she’s far from alone. Ang Tian is a Red Butterfly: one of a gang of girls who came from nothing, sworn to a fire goddess and empowered to wreak vengeance on the men that abuse and underestimate them. Adeline’s mother led a double life as their elusive patron, Madam Butterfly. Now that she’s dead, Adeline’s bloodline is the sole thing sustaining the goddess. Between her search for her mother’s killer and the gang’s succession crisis, Adeline becomes quickly entangled with the girls’ dangerous world, and even more so with the charismatic Tian. But no home lasts long around here. Ambitious and paranoid neighbor gangs hunt at the edges of Butterfly territory, and bodies are turning up in the red light district suffused with a strange new magic. Adeline may have found her place for once, but with the streets changing by the day, it may take everything she is to keep it.
Psychopomp & Circumstance — Eden Royce (Tordotcom Publishing)
Phee St. Margaret is a daughter of the Reconstruction, born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston. Coddled to within an inch of her life by a mother who refuses to let her daughter live a life other than the one she dictates, Phee yearns to demonstrate she’s capable of more than simply marrying well. When word arrives that her Aunt Cleo, long estranged from the family, has passed away, Phee risks her mother’s wrath to step up and accept the role of pomp—the highly honored duty of planning the funeral service. Traveling alone to the town of Horizon and her aunt’s unsettling home, Phee soon discovers that visions and shadows beckon from every reflective surface, and that some secrets transcend the borders of life and death.
The Isle in the Silver Sea — Tasha Suri (Orbit)
In an England fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes. Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen’s court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other? As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them. But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?
October 28
To Bargain with Mortals (Reckoning Storm #1) — R.A. Basu (Bindery Books)
In the colonized nation of Viryana, Poppy Sutherland lives between cultures. As the brown-skinned adopted daughter of the Viceroy, she is both rejected by white high society and alienated from the people of her native island. When she discovers her opportunistic fiancé’s plot to exile her, Poppy flees—straight into the clutches of the Jackal. Hasan Devar, the ruthless criminal known as the Jackal, has long been targeted for his family’s divine magic, a gift the colonizers have tried to stamp out. When his brother is arrested, he seizes Poppy as leverage. But Poppy has powerful secrets—and political ambitions—of her own. As allies, they could do more than just free Hasan’s brother and keep Poppy safe. They could topple the very power structures that hold them all back.
The Changeling Queen — Kimberly Bea (Erewhon)
On Samhain in medieval Scotland, pregnant Janet rescues her lover Tam Lin from being sacrificed by the Wild Hunt—but the callous Faery Queen is not finished with them yet. Over the span of a single night, the Queen and Janet spar over Tam Lin’s fate. The Queen aims to win, knowing how fickle mortals can be. Long before she was royalty, she was simply Bess, the changeling daughter of a midwife. Born with magical and mortal blood, Bess feared there was no true place for her on either side of the veil. She found refuge in the arms of the charming Thomas Shepherd, the bastard son of a local noble. While villagers viewed her as a scandal, Bess’s cunning knowledge and secret dark gifts attracted the attention of the elf lord Amadan. Wily and silver-tongued, Amadan led Bess into Faery’s realm of decadence, where her heart warred against her destiny. She fought to keep both—but at what cost?
The White Octopus Hotel — Alexandra Bell (Del Rey)
London, 2015. When reclusive art appraiser Eve Shaw shakes the hand of a silver-haired gentleman in her office, the warmth of his palm sends a spark through her. His name is Max Everly—curiously, the same name as Eve’s favorite composer, born one hundred sixteen years prior. And she has the sudden feeling that she’s held his hand before… but where, and when? The White Octopus Hotel, 1935. In this belle époque building high in the snowy mountains, Eve and a young Max wander the winding halls, lost in time. Each of them has been through the trenches—Eve through a family accident and Max on the battlefields of the Great War—but for an impossible moment, love and healing are just a room away… if only they have the courage to step through the door.
Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD : The Thin Blue Ley-Line (Supernatural Crimes Unit #1) — Keith R. A. DeCandido (Blackstone)
When Detective Domenica Kiernan solved the murder of a mayor’s aide—killed by a vampire—she never imagined she’d find herself at the vanguard of the NYPD’s latest special squad: the Supernatural Crimes Unit. Tasked with closing cases involving magic and monsters, the SCU has dealt with a shape-changing domovoy committing assault in Chelsea, the murder of a kappa on City Island, a thieving Taotie in Chinatown—and their latest, two murder victims whose corpses have been liquefied by a powerful spell. Kiernan and the rest of the SCU must find the connection between the two victims and figure out who cast the spell that destroyed the corpses. Soon, their investigation leads to a malevolent magic-user who yearns for limitless power, whose plans go far beyond disposing of dead bodies. He’ll stop at nothing to achieve his goals—including kidnapping Bobby, Kiernan’s ten-year-old son. The SCU has no choice: they must go rogue to find Bobby and stop the wizard before he unleashes hell on Earth!
No Life Forsaken (Malazan Tales of Witness #2) — Steven Erikson (Tor Books)
Amidst the ashes of a failed rebellion in Seven Cities, new embers are flaring to life. There are furrowed brows at the beleaguered Malazan Legion headquarters in G’danisban, for it would appear that yet another bloody clash with the revived cult of the Apocalyptic is coming to a head. Seeking to crush the uprising before it ignites the entire subcontinent, Fist Arenfall has only a few dozen squads of marines at his disposal, and many of those are already dispersed—endeavoring to stamp out multiple brush-fires of dissent. His soldiers are exhausted, worn down by the grind of a simmering insurrection. The last thing Arenfall needs is the arrival of the new Adjunct, fresh from the capital and the Emperor’s side. The man’s mission may be to lend support to Arenfall’s efforts… or stick a knife in his back. ‘Twas ever thus, of course. That a popular commander should inevitably be seen as a threat to the Emperor—such is the fatal nature of imperial Malazan politics. And what of the gods? Well, as recent history has proved, their solution to any mortal mess is to make it even messier. In other words, it’s just another tumultuous day in the checkered history of the Malazan Empire.
Dead Hand Rule (Craft Wars #3) — Max Gladstone (Tor Books)
The foundations of the world are quaking. Markets crash and cities burn as a new god struggles to be born. Ancient hunters skitter across space, eager and hungry. Dark forces conspire to undermine anything or anyone who could stand in their way. Divided, the world of the craft is certain to fall. In Alt Coulomb, the great powers of the world gather in conference. Empires, divinities, and corporate concerns take seats at the table. Untold wealth and inexhaustible might is on offer, but coalition will not come easily. Can these forces come together to save the world? And if they do, what parts of it will they choose to save, and for whom?
The Everlasting — Alix E. Harrow (Tor Books)
Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story—they’ll have to rewrite history itself.
Cry, Voidbringer — Elaine Ho (Bindery Books)
With the godspower waning, the queen of Ashvi has had to find another way to bolster her fight against her imperialist oppressors. The solution: wrenching children of other cultures from their homes and conscripting them into service. Hammer was one of those children. Now, she’s a jaded soldier waging Ashvi’s perpetual war, thinking only of her own survival. But when she accidentally rescues Viridian, a child with rare and potentially devastating powers, her priorities shift. The girl appears to be the answer to the queen’s prayers—the perfect weapon to restore her kingdom’s ancient borders, even if the colonized cities they reconquer don’t want her version of liberation. Can Hammer protect Viridian from the system that broke her . . . before the girl’s power is unleashed on the world?
Blood for the Undying Throne (Bleeding Empire #2)— Sung-il Kim (Tor Books)
The Empire continues to enforce its so-called peace with massive war machines that destroy anything that opposes their might. Though the conquered are wholly at the mercy of the Empire, desperate odds such as these can be fertile soil for heroic resistance. Last seen rallying under Loran’s banner, Emere is now a powerless politician in the Imperial Capital. But when an assassination attempt is made on his life, he discovers that he may just be at the center of sinister plots brewing in the highest levels of the Empire. Arienne has crossed the continent on a mission to learn more about the Star of Mersia, the infamous yet mysterious weapon that decimated the country of Mersia in a single day. But when she arrives at the supposedly lifeless land, Arienne is shocked to find much more than ruins. One hundred and seventy years ago, before the Empire laid waste to its plains and its people, Mersia suffers under the whims of the ruthless Grim King Eldred. When Yuma, the chief cattle herder, meets an emissary from the Empire, she dares to hope that this foreign nation might have the power to overthrow the Grim King and end his reign of terror. But Yuma will learn, only once it’s too late, that aligning with the Empire will have consequences that reverberate through the ages.
An Unlikely Coven (Green Witch #1) — AM Kvita (Orbit)
After seven long years Joan Greenwood is finally returning home. Unfortunately, her family totally forgot about it. Joan’s homecoming is lukewarm at best, but soon turns disastrous when news hits that someone has created a spell that can turn an ordinary human into a powerful witch, threatening the balance of the magical world and the Greenwood’s place at the top of it. When her best friend confesses that he has secretly, accidentally, saved this human-turned-witch from an uncertain fate, Joan is thrust headfirst into a desperate race to undo the spell before it does permanent damage to its unwilling host. Soon, Joan finds herself drawn deeper into the heart of the city’s magic, into an uncertain alliance with a (very attractive) family rival, and far beyond the limits of everything she thought her own magic capable of.
Spellbound — Georgia Leighton (Grand Central)
In a remote castle perched atop a windswept island, a long-awaited royal heir is born. In accordance with ancient custom, a blessing ceremony takes place to bestow the princess with magical gifts—along with a terrible curse. Except this is not the love story you may think you know. There is no enchanted sleep for the princess, and no handsome prince to come to her rescue. Just three women, who together concoct a desperate plan of misdirect that changes the course of all their lives. But dark magic cannot be tricked, and as the end of the curse edges closer, Violanna, Meredyth and Sel have a choice to make. They can wait to find out if the worst will happen, or they can turn to face the coming storm…
Witches of Dubious Origin — Jenn McKinlay (Ace)
Zoe Ziakas enjoys a quiet life, working as a librarian in her quaint New England town. When a mysterious black book with an unbreakable latch is delivered to the library, Zoe has a strange feeling the tome is somehow calling to her. She decides to consult the Museum of Literature, home to volumes of indecipherable secrets, some possessing dark magic that must be guarded. Here, among their most dangerous collection, the Books of Dubious Origin, Zoe discovers that she is the last descendant of a family of witches and this little black book is their grimoire. Zoe knows she must decode the family’s spell book and solve the mystery of what happened to her mother and her grandmother. However, the book’s potential power draws all things magical to it, and Zoe finds herself under the constant watch of a pesky raven, while being chased by undead Vikings, ghost pirates, and assorted ghouls. With assistance from the eccentric staff of the Books of Dubious Origin department—including their annoyingly smart and handsome containment specialist, Jasper Griffin—Zoe must confront her past and the legacy of her family. But as their adventure unfolds, she’ll have to decide whether or not she’s ready to embrace her destiny.
Best Wishes From the Full Moon Coffee Shop — Mai Mochizuki (Ballantine)
In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a Christmastime Kyoto moon. Satomi is devoted to her job in Tokyo, but when her long-distance boyfriend hints that he is going to propose to her on Christmas Day, she feels pulled between the career that she loves and a quieter life in the country. What will the magical cats see for her future? Satomi’s colleague Koyuki has been playing the role of the good, cheerful daughter ever since her father passed away in an accident on Christmas Day. But now that her mother has remarried, it’s hard to pretend she feels part of her new happy family. What will our feline friends reveal as her true wish this Christmas? Junko, Satomi’s sister-in-law, lives in a small town with her husband and their young daughter, Ayu. When Junko’s estranged father becomes ill, she returns home with Ayu in tow, where she’ll learn something surprising at the enchanted coffee shop that will change her life forever. This holiday season, each woman stands at a crossroad. With the help of some feline divinations, will they finally have the courage to seek what they most desperately wish for?
Redneck Revenant (Adam Binder #4) — David R. Slayton (Blackstone)
Adam Binder’s life has never been better. Sure, he has no money, no car, no home to call his own, and he’s worried about creating a future with his boyfriend Vic, but he’s closer to his family than ever before. He’s also Page to the Elven Court of Swords, and that appointment is not without its perks—like the invisible sword strapped to his back. But on Halloween night, Adam’s life takes a disturbing turn. Annie, his brother’s long-lost wife, turns up on her husband’s doorstep alive and well, with no memory of her death. But is it really Annie, or a Trojan horse from some new magical enemy? To uncover the truth, Adam will need help from those he loves most—as well as a couple of friends at Rogue Community College. As he navigates a perilous maze of magical politics and battles terrifying creatures from beyond the known realms, Adam will discover a secret darker and more unsettling than anything he could have imagined.
