1. Fiona and the Forgotten Piano
Eleven-year-old Fiona isn't allowed in the Fermata woods. And though its unique trees are fascinating, Fiona has no problem following her mother's rules. That is until the trees begin to sing.
Suddenly, it feels as though long forgotten memories are being unlocked in Fiona's mind. As she nears the woods edge, the trees fall silent, so silent even the leaves stop rustling. Fiona will finally break the rules and venture into the woods. She'll soon find herself traveling through portals to undiscovered worlds. And she'll have to trust her instincts and her quirky new friends to bring back the music or she may get lost within its notes.
Psychologist Laurel Nightingale has fled from her problems in search of peace and respite. However, after discovering a dead body shortly after arriving in the tight-knit community of Elderwick, she wonders if village life is as wholesome as she first thought.
Local police are convinced the death was accidental, but Laurel suspects murder and enlists her new friend Maggie to join her quest to uncover the truth. When a second body is found, Laurel ruffles feathers by pointing the finger at one of the locals. But when her accusation backfires, she's left alienated and afraid.
With her fear at an all-time high, her sleuthing partner gone missing, and village gossip spreading like wildfire, Laurel wonders who she can truly trust. Is it time to move on yet again? And will her newly formed friendships be enough to save her from this mysterious murderer?
A Little Bird Told Me is the debut whodunit from an exciting new voice in cozy mystery fiction that will put your sleuthing skills to the test.
Adair Finch is the most powerful warlock in the world, and one of the best private investigators for hire.
He has dealt with corporate vampires, murderous werewolves, and even fae royalty. Everything was perfect until he lost one case—the case where he also lost his brother.
So Finch retired. From magic. From PI work. From everything.
Bree Blackstone, a twelve-year-old witch, doesn’t know or care about any of that except Finch’s reputation. In the middle of the night, she bangs on Finch’s door. Her mother has been murdered, and now the assassin is after Bree as well.
Reluctantly, Finch agrees to help, only to discover something sinister has been brewing in town while he ignored the world… He’ll need to dust off all his old skills and magic before it’s too late.
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a child of the enemy.
Everything changes when mercenaries arrive hunting for Kasiel. The last people he expects to come to his rescue are Vanrian soldiers, one of whom claims to be his spirit brother, whatever that means. They plan to take him across the war zone to deliver him to his real father, a man whose name strikes terror in his enemies.
With his secret exposed, Kasiel can’t return to his old home. This is his chance to find out who he was supposed to be. It means traveling to a foreign land where they have unusual psychic abilities he may share. It also means leaving behind everything he’s ever cared about. If he is to survive, he will need to learn their language and culture and earn his place in their society.
Meanwhile, the man who cut Kasiel’s ears will do anything to keep him out of his true father’s hands, even if it means killing him.
Ladies and gentlemen, the show is about to begin…
All Laura Fitzpatrick wanted to do was tell her lab partner, Maddie, how she really feels about her, but when a perfect opportunity falls into her lap, Laura does what she does best – chickens out.
Then, Laura is dared to check out the abandoned carnival grounds outside of town, and she seizes the opportunity to prove to herself and others that she can be brave after all. To her surprise, Maddie isn’t about to let her go alone.
As they explore the eerie property, they’re thrust into an endless night of terror, where danger lurks around every corner. With a century-old mystery waiting to be uncovered, Laura must learn what true bravery means if she hopes to get herself – and Maddie – out of the Plum Creek Carnival alive.
Whatever you do, don't let the Carnival Man see you...
When the Whisperer speaks, the universe listens.
Growing up, Talia had never given much thought to the gray-robed Whisperers and their powers over reality. Their business was protecting the world; hers was hunting in the forest around her village and trying to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately for Tal, one Whisperer in particular becomes her business when she accidentally injures his companion, a talking cat-shaped creature named Morel.
As punishment, she becomes the Whisperer’s prisoner, whisked away to his island home for a year and a day of servitude. There is much to do — for both the Whisperer and for Tal — as he prepares for the ritual that must be completed every hundred years to ensure the safety of the world. Tal does as she is told; her priority is to simply finish out her sentence and return home to her family.
Yet there are many secrets on the island, many oddities, and they tug at Tal like an itch. As the year goes on, she learns more of the Whisperer, his duties, and the horrifying evils that he and the other Whisperers keep at bay. But secrets still remain: a room that is always locked, a stone monument in the woods, crimson flowers whose very name causes the Whisperer to storm away.
Unbeknownst to Tal, something is watching her, and what she does now may alter the fate of the world.
In the brutal desert city of Kasaban, the old gods have had their statues crushed to powder by invading Priests, with magick forbidden to anyone but themselves. Merely being born as one of the magi makes even infants into fugitives, and the Priests and their spies are always watching, ready to toss their enemies into the purifying flames of execution.
Saya Ani Anai is the last of her family, dedicating her life to being a teacher of magick for little orphaned children. From within her hidden home, she provides the closest thing to a normal life these children may ever know. They help each other like family, working for what they can and stealing the rest to scrape by, forced to live every day under the yoke of oppression.
When the warren-boss who keeps their domain a secret suddenly demands a higher price to keep his silence, they must race to find a way to meet the demand or they will lose their home and their lives. But for the poor living in Kasaban, simply surviving is anything but easy.
With the Priests and their magick-hunters scouring the city for magi to burn, and the catastrophes of daily life intervening to crush her plans at every turn, Saya must risk everything to save her home and keep the children safe. But Kasaban is unforgiving. Its fires rage bright. If she fails, all her hopes will burn.
A demon stole Matthew Carver's soul. They're not supposed to do that.
Matt has a terrible life. Seriously—it's awful. It is so bad that Dan the Demon is shocked when Matt turns down his infernal offer: 10 years of a blissful life in exchange for his soul.
But Dan is a salesman behind on his quota and his demonic managers are running out of patience. He forges Matt's signature on the dotted line, stealing his soul and thrusting him into a supernatural world he never knew existed. Matt must learn to navigate the hidden society of demons, faeries, demigods, and worse.
Matt has to get his soul back and stop a supernatural war before it is too late....
Fleeing her heartache and horrendous job, Bella stumbles upon a December wedding in the beautiful village of Haileybrook and the spirit of the season moves her to act as a fake date to handsome stranger Jack.
Jack and Bella hit it off, but Bella has to leave in a hurry and their magical evening soon becomes nothing more than a blissful memory.
A year later, Bella is returning to Haileybrook, seeking a fresh start and a quieter life. With a new job close to her cosy cottage home, a peaceful Christmas is surely only days away.
But it’s not long before family surprises, small-town feuds and romantic drama disrupt Bella’s plans, and she has to wonder if being alone is what she really wants for Christmas …
This standalone festive romance is set in the village of Haileybrook. The Haileybrook stories can be read in any order.
“A fantastic fantasy retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice” (The Lily Café)
War threatens England, but Elizabeth Bennet’s battles are closer to home. She’s managing the family estate for her ailing father. Insufferable gentlemen keep bursting in to propose marriage. And most dangerous of all, she’s hiding a forbidden skill. Elizabeth can speak to draca, the small, fire-breathing dragons kept by gentry as frivolous status symbols.
When Napoleon’s spies attempt to steal draca, the distant war threatens even cozy Hertfordshire. Elizabeth seeks the aid of Mr. Darcy, the proud man whose proposal she once scorned. Amid the breathtaking halls of Pemberley, she discovers the truth: she is not the first woman to speak with draca. But with her secret revealed, the dark history of Pemberley tears her and Mr. Darcy apart.
One hope remains: her dangerous affinity to draca. But does she dare to trust legends and lost songs? And when a terrible betrayal threatens the man she loves, does she have a choice?
Miss Bennet’s Dragon can be read standalone or as the first book of the complete, award-winning Jane Austen Fantasy trilogy. For fans of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and of course Jane Austen.
When Tess Dutton arrives in Castleby to help in her sister’s restaurant for the Christmas period her worst nightmare awaits. Tess finds her sister unconscious at the bottom of her stairs, and a restaurant fully booked until Christmas.
Ex-Navy chef Griffin Jones returns to his late mother’s house trying to put his past behind him. He can’t forgive himself for what he did, and someone from his past won’t let him forget either.
Griffin steps in to help Tess in the restaurant, but he is haunted by his past. As he grows closer to Tess and their attraction blossoms, Tess receives a visit from an ex-lover, who wants to rekindle their romance.
Tess struggles when she finds out about Griffin’s past.
But he’s being persecuted.
And then Tess’s life is threatened.
Someone is so full of hate and so intent on revenge, that the only solution is to kill.
Revenge, betrayal, suspense and romance continue in this Christmas special of the Castleby series
FALL 2028. Mickey Cooper, an elderly homeless man, receives an incredible proposition from a rogue pharmaceutical company: “Be our secret guinea pig for our new drug and we’ll pay you life-changing money, which you’ll be able to enjoy because if (cough) when the treatment works, two months from now your body will be youthened to twenty-three years old.”
When his treatment proves more difficult than expected and corporate espionage turns deadly, Mickey finds himself flanked by internal corruption and powerful external enemies, including Chinese operatives desperate to reverse their country’s aging demographics and amoral U.S. government officials who fear the new technology will upend civilization.
A nihilist at heart with a dwindling number of friends, Mickey yearns to fade into the woodwork to live in peace, struggling to remember what matters in life. An analog old-timer has no chance to win in the digital age anyway, right?
Corporate tells the public the mermaids aren’t dangerous, but that’s a lie.
When the superpredator Mer kill another trainer, Finnegan Jarvis finally sees his opportunity to become a superstar trainer. No more scrubbing tanks and cleaning blood: he’s gonna be in front of the audience showing off his brand-new, fully-trained mermaid. If only he can get her to do the tricks she’s supposed to.
That mermaid is Erie, an ocean-princess ripped from her home when she pushes another Mer out of the way of the net. She doesn’t understand why she’s there, but she’s determined to learn air-words to find out.
While Finn trains Erie, she teaches herself air-words. And when she finally speaks, Finn breaks the number one rule at Oceanica: Never Humanize The Mer.
Now he’ll do whatever it takes to save her.
A magical gift is more trouble than it's worth...
Cam has plenty of things to worry about. His best friend might have broken someone’s fingers, the class bully won’t leave him alone, and staying under the radar of his teachers is much harder than it ought to be. He definitely doesn’t need magic to make his life any more complicated.
Which is good, because when he does write his name in Libris Sapientia—the book of wisdom—a whole lot of nothing happens. He is a failure, and even a book agrees. Then, Loman Lykill joins their class, bringing a whole new brand of chaos to Highgrove Secondary.
Cam has his magical gift, whether he wants it or not.
A Gift of Words is the first book in The Gifts Trilogy by Rosalind Dando.
What if robbing a vault earned you a standing ovation?
In the city of Azoria, heists are a sanctioned sport, a dazzling spectacle where only the boldest thieves thrive. And Lars Harrow is the best.
But Lars wants more than fame. He wants the heist that will cement his legacy and put him beyond the reach of the city's power brokers. When a shadowy patron offers him a job targeting Cecil Thume, the ruthless mastermind who controls every theft in Azoria, Lars sees his shot at something bigger.
Yet the deeper he digs, the more dangerous the game becomes. A brutal murder sends a clear message: Thume isn’t just profiting from the city’s underworld... he is the underworld. And he’ll do whatever it takes to keep control.
As the line between thief and pawn blurs, Lars must decide how much he’s willing to risk. The city, his crew, and his own future hang in the balance.
If you enjoyed books like Mistborn, The Lies of Locke Lamora, or Six of Crows, you won't be able to put down this electrifying tale of ambition, greed, betrayal, and redemption.
Budding entrepreneur Kat Sinclair wants to grow her quirky solo narrowboat holiday enterprise but faces rejection at every turn. Until a Hollywood film crew gets in touch with the potential to change her business, dreams, and love life forever.
'Enemies to lovers'
'Small town romance'
'Grumpy sunshine'
Praise for Floating Solo
“Funny, sweet and deliciously romantic. An absolute gem of a book. Romance tied up in a narrowboat package.” Susan Buchanan
'It's such a heartwarming feel-good read! I loved the setting, the friendships, and the relationships! Everything really! Felt like I was watching a romcom film. More please!" Kim Nash
Claire Vessia's been sentenced to death.
The last survivor of a ship of would-be-pirates captured by the navy, she's been accused of all of their crimes.
She will die for it. Determined to go out with her head held high, her plans for a stoic execution are thrown out the window when a highborn lady offers her a chance to escape the noose... if she pays in vials of her own blood.
But she is betrayed.
Hung from the gallows and buried at sea, she rises amidst the waves as a Vampyri, an undead monster. Without a clue of where, or even what she is, and only a terrible hunger to guide her, it's only when she consumes a person trying to help her that she begins to understands what's been done to her.
Swearing revenge against the noble woman that turned her, the nation that accused her, and its people that killed her, Claire makes an oath that she will hunt down anyone under the navy's flag, and carve a blood-strewn path on her quest for vengeance.
But when the perfect chance to strike takes the form of the child of her maker - Claire must ask herself how far she's willing to go for justice.