A grieving man travels through time via car crash. A family of matriarchs collects recipes for the dead. A woman gains an unexpected child in the midst of a bunny apocalypse. An outcast finds work in a magical slaughterhouse. 

Julie C. Day’s debut collection is rife with dark and twisted tales made beautiful by her gorgeous prose and wonderfully idiosyncratic imagination. Melding aspects of Southern Gothic and fabulism, and utilizing the author’s own scientific background, Day’s carefully rendered settings are both delightful and unexpected. Whether set in a uniquely altered version of Florida’s Space Coast or a haunted island off the coast of Maine, each story in this collection carries its own brand of meticulous and captivating weirdness.

 Yet in the end, it is the desperation of the characters that drives these stories forward and their wild obsessions that carry them through to the end. It is Day’s clear-eyed compassion for the dark recesses of the human heart and her dream-like vision of the physical world that make this collection a standout. 

Every hour or so, the two skies of the city of Serendipity change as the lonely metropolis crosses paths with another pair of worlds. Wanderers and refugees from these strange places find their way into the city. Those who enter Above are deemed worthy and live life to its fullest. Those who enter Below are thought somehow lesser and struggle to survive with only their memories and dreams to give them solace.

In the decrepit neighborhoods of Below, Detective Lang hunts a killer. The chase will take him all the way to the highest towers of Above. There he will find himself caught in a game between ambition and betrayal, where the stakes are not life or death, only his soul.

TWO SKIES BEFORE NIGHT (12/7/18) by Robert Gryn is a sci-fi/fantasy detective story set in a two-sided city that periodically crosses all realities, and is populated by inadvertent refugees of countless physical versions of humanity. 

When The Foodgiver goes missing, two cats go on a journey for breakfast that takes them to the city that sleeps beneath the sea.

Welcome to the Meow-thos.

Oh January 1st. The time of year that we all think of what we are going to do better this year. And by January 5th, we're eating cupcakes in the supply closet at work. Ok, maybe that's just me!! I actually don't make New Year's resolutions for that very reason. I know that I'm not great on follow through. 

What kind of demons await you tonight?

For Richie, life's constant cheap shots are adding up. When he finds something is watching him, he never dreamed that it would show him everything that he ever wanted.

When his son, James, comes to stay for the last month of summer, the changes in his father's behavior come to the forefront. What is his father doing staring into the window in the middle of the night?

Was the fiery spark in the dark real? Or is James' imagination getting the best of him?

Summer's almost over.

And life is about to change.

Will the son be able to save the father? Or is it already too late?

The Window holds the answers...and the key.

The new and terrifying novel from Glenn Rolfe, author of LAND OF BONES and BECOMING

'Gaining their ink was just the first step. Now they have to earn it.'

Christian Blake, an unruly English teenager, finds himself in a mysterious tattoo parlour in Connaught Square where he is possessed by a Rune God, Hagalaz, and given the power to harness the forces of nature. Only problem? Hagalaz doesn't like to play nice. He is the God of Disruption, and he is intent on making Christian's life a living hell.

Christian’s mentor, The Raven, pulls him from his relative comfort in London and takes him across the world to join his Tribe, a group of four unlikely teenagers with their own newly-gifted magical powers. They are tasked with taking on the forces of evil brewing across the globe: The Settlers, a growing group of aliens that have slowly integrated themselves into the mainstream of Planet Earth's politics and positions of power.

They have a dark secret, and it the Tribe's mission to discover what that is and to put a stop to it. But nothing is what it seems, for it will take much more than the powers of a few long-forgotten gods to put an end to the impending global catastrophe that threatens to destroy everything and anyone in its path. 

There's something about tracking your reading on Goodreads that is so satisfying to me. It's so much fun at the end of the year to look back over all the titles I've read. And I'm a bit competitive in that I like to try and beat my goal from the year before. (Okay, okay, a LOT competitive.) 

I've read 130 books in 2018. Out of those, only seventeen were five star reads for me so it was actually rather easy to pick my top ten of the year. For me, five-star reads are books that 1) stay with me long after I've finished them and 2) books that I would have no problem picking up and rereading. Using those two qualifiers helps me to not get too star happy! It's actually pretty challenging for me to rate a book five stars. While I might really enjoy a book, most books are not something that I'd tuck away and reread on a rainy day.  

(Legacy of the Book Mesmer, #1) Published by: Crimson Tree Publishing
Publication date: December 17th 2018 Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Alarick Brandon is the powerful wizard who operates The Keep, a refuge for magical people fleeing the persecution of the Ministry. A bitter realist, Alarick knows it’s only a matter of time until the Ministry succeeds in eradicating magic from the world—and exterminating all magical beings—so he has been careful to avoid any personal involvement with the people who pass through his sanctuary.

But when Elissa Stone arrives at The Keep, her village a smoldering ruin, and only her magical talent and a forbidden library left to her name, Alarick’s ordered world descends into chaos. Elissa is a Book Mesmer, a magical talent long believed extinct. She can enchant books, making them indestructible, unreadable…even deadly to unauthorized readers.

But while her magic can secure a legacy for future magical generations, it’s not a skill that’s good in a fight, and certainly not one that Alarick sees any real use for. But there’s something compelling about a woman who defies the Ministry’s edicts against female literacy, and she seems determined to prove that knowledge is a weapon in its own right…

Kingdom of Salt & Sirens Boxed Set Publication date: TBA Genres: Fairy Tales, Retelling, Young Adult

The Little Mermaid but not as you remember it… 

Beneath the turbulent seas, beyond the smokey depths, lies a Kingdom that exists in your wildest imagination. 

A world where mermaids swim, sirens sing and shipwrecks hide mysterious creatures.

Make waves with our 11 magical retellings of the timeless classic, The Little Mermaid.

Dive into a world filled with adventure, love and magic!

One click now for your happily ever after.

Authors include:

J.A Armitage

R. Castro

Jennifer Ellision

Mira Crest

K.M Pyne

Laura Greenwood

Jacque Stevens

Scarlett Kol

Anne Stryker

Nikki Landis

Song of Sacrifice
Janell Rhiannon
(Homeric Chronicles, #1)
Publication date: December 26th 2018
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical

The heart of the Trojan War belongs to the women.

Mothers and daughters; wives and war prizes, whisper to us across time…

…remember our songs alongside the mighty men of myth.
As the Age of Heroes wanes, the gods gamble more fiercely with mortals’ lives than they ever have before. Women must rely on their inner strength and cunning to survive the wars men wage for gold and glory.
Clytemnestra of Mycenae struggles for control of her life after Agamemnon ruthlessly rips it apart. Leda of Sparta survives a brutal assault by Zeus, shouldering a terrible secret in silence. Penelope raises Ithaka’s sole heir alone, praying for Odysseus’ swift return. Thetis, the sea nymph, despairs of her son’s destiny and resorts to forbidden magic to save him. Hecuba of Troy mourns the loss of her second son to a dark prophesy. And Shavash of Pedasus prepares her daughter to marry the greatest warrior who ever lived.
In a world where love leads to war and duty leads to destruction, the iron hearts of heroines will conquer all.
Sing, Muse, sing their song of sacrifice…
Replaces Song of Princes as the first book in the Homeric Chronicles.