Urban Contemporary

Audie Award, Fantasy, 2016. As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don't cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn't fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.

When Nina Linden is hired to landscape a private island off the New England coast, she sees it as her chance to rebuild her failing business after being cheated by her unscrupulous ex. She never expects that her new client, software mogul Deacon Whitney, would see more in her than just a talented gardener. Deacon has paid top dollar to the crews he’s hired to renovate the desolate Whitney estate - he had to, because the bumps, thumps, and unexplained sightings of ghostly figures in 19th-century dress are driving workers away faster than he can say “Boo.”

Ever since Martin Banks and his fellow computer geeks discovered that reality is just a computer program to be happily hacked, they've been jaunting back and forth through time, posing as medieval wizards and having the epic adventures that other nerds can only dream of having. But even in their wildest fantasies, they never expected to end up at the mercy of the former apprentice whom they sent to prison for gross misuse of magic and all-around evil behavior.

I'd known my fair share of tragedy in the last year. Lost my family, abandoned by my friends... things were looking down. Imagine my surprise when I get ripped out of my own reality and forcibly enrolled in a magic school nestled between the seams of the multiverse. My new purpose? Defend all of creation against the Outer Gods and keep from dying at the hands of the Void Things. But there's something nefarious about my headmistress... something I don't trust. At least I'm not alone anymore.

Diviner Alex Verus finally made one too many enemies on the Council of Mages, and now one of them is angry enough to have him executed. Fighting for his life is nothing new, but this kill order also calls for the death of Alex's dependents - and there's no way that he'll let Luna, Anne, and Vari take the heat. With only a week before he's history, Alex will have to figure out how to disassociate himself from his friends, scrounge up allies on the council, and hopefully keep his head attached to his body.

The Master of Natchez, Mississippi has a nasty problem on his hands. Rogue vampires - those who follow the Naturaleza and believe that humans should be nothing more than prey to be hunted - are terrorizing his city. Luckily, he knows the perfect skinwalker to call in to take back the streets. But what he doesn’t tell Jane is that there’s something different about these vamps. Something that makes them harder to kill - even for a pro like Jane.

Mags was a Herald of Valdemar. But he had once lived the brutal life of a child slave. When he was Chosen by his Companion Dallen, his young life was saved, and he slowly adjusted to being well fed, educated, and treasured as a trainee in the Herald's Collegium at Haven. Singled out by the King's Own Herald, Mags would thrive in his secret training as a spy. His unusually strong Gift - an ability to Mindspeak and Mindhear anyone, not just others who were Gifted - made him a perfect undercover agent for the king.

Séïs n'a plus le choix. Pour protéger Naïs et son fils aux pouvoirs mystérieux, il doit tout quitter : Asclépion, la confrérie des Tenshins et peut-être même ce qui lui restait encore d'humanité. À l'ombre de toute chose, la silhouette du Porteur de Mort n'est jamais loin. En Ulutil, la terre de toutes les légendes, loin des affres de la guerre, Seïs espère vivre en sécurité... mais peut-on réellement échapper à son destin ?

High in the hills of Scotland, an ancient evil has returned. One young woman struggling to master her magic is the only hope to stop it. Teaming up with a handsome amateur historian, she uses her earth elemental gift to overturn secrets hidden deep in the soil. But never far from the trail of clues lurks a dark creature on the hunt for prey. As each clue is revealed, she learns more about her heritage and her own family history, revealing an uncomfortable link between herself and the wickedly alluring entity.

I knew how to love because I loved my Yaya more than life. I knew that I could love because of the baby I had grown within me and now held; I loved her more than I loved myself. As I watched this man sleep peacefully beside me, one arm around me, keeping me close, I knew that I loved him. I knew that I could see forever with him, and I knew that he would kill any and everything moving when it came to protecting me.

At the Misty Mountain Library, stories don't just sit on shelves—they leap right off the page. When Nyssa returns to the magical library she adored as a child, it's not quite how she remembered it. A wild magic storm has brought the books to life, leaving her to repair the library while wrangling tiny dragons, even tinier knights, a grumpy demon lord, and so much more.

Le roi Vérité est vivant ! Il a imposé une ultime mission à Fitz : "Rejoins-moi ! Loin sur les sentiers mystérieux de l'Art, au-delà du royaume des montagnes, le jeune homme se met en quête pour répondre à l'appel de son souverain affaibli. Mais il reste seul, pourchassé par les forces de Royal, l'usurpateur, et sans possibilité de compter sur ses propres alliés, qui le manipulent comme un simple pion.

When Owen Pitt and the rest of the Monster Hunter International crew are called away to mount a month’s-long rescue mission in a monster-infested nightmare dimension, Julie Shackleford - Owen’s wife and descendant of MHI founder Bubba Shackleford - is left behind. Her task: hold down the fort and take care of her new baby son Ray. The slow pace of office work and maternity leave are starting to get to her. But when a routine field call brings her face-to-face with an unspeakable evil calling itself Brother Death, she’ll get more excitement than she ever hoped for.

John Rast went to the Ren Faire looking for a fight. Well, a simulated fight, with blunt swords and safety equipment. But when his final opponent turns into a living, fire-breathing dragon, John finds himself in the fight of his life. It's John or nothing stopping a disaster in its tracks - and the only real weapon at hand is his mom's Volvo. So John decides to let it roll....

Everything happened so fast. So much was said, and so much blood was shed. As I stood there with blood on my hands, a knife in someone's head, and everyone looking at each other, there was only one person I could think to call—my husband. Meer would figure out what to do, and he would come when I called. As I stared at what used to be my best friend, standing with blood on her hands, I realized she had shed the best friend title, and became my sister. Zoya and I stared at her, and it solidified that she would protect the Delgatos, Infernos, and Casellis as her own.

With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide. The nine stories in this stunning debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.

Un secret ancestral a été dévoilé. Et rien ne sera jamais plus comme avant. Alors que le voile entre les mondes vient tout juste d’être refermé, Aileen n’a pas une seconde à perdre. Munie de sa détermination sans faille et de ses connaissances de druidesse, elle entreprend de réunir une équipe afin d’affronter la plus grande menace qui soit. Le tout en jonglant avec l’arrivée inopinée de son géniteur, ses histoires de coeur et la protection de son petit frère. Tic tac tic tac.

How well would you fare if the apocalypse fell upon you? Could you survive more than a few days? Would you be able to feed yourself? Find clean water? Safe shelter? Heal your wounds? Allistor is a gamer geek who has spent most of his life indoors, playing virtual reality MMORPGS and reading classic LitRPG books. But when Earth is seized by an ancient race wielding incredibly advanced tech, who transport the entire planet to a new location with twin suns, he finds himself fighting to survive in real life.

Robyn Peltier moved to Los Angeles after her young husband's sudden death. Though she's still grieving, the challenges of her new life as the PR consultant to Portia Kane - the world's most famous celebutante wannabe - can sometimes be amusing, even distracting. But when her client is gunned down in a nightclub, Robyn is suddenly on the run as the prime suspect in the murder. And as more bodies pile up around her, it seems like only Hope Adams, Robyn's best friend, and Hope's somewhat spooky boyfriend Karl are on Robyn's side. But it's not the police Hope is worried about, and the only way Hope can keep her friend alive is by letting her enter a world she's safer knowing nothing about.

For a vampire killer like Jane, having Leo Pellisier as a boss took some getting used to. But now, someone is out to take his place as Master Vampire of the city of New Orleans, and is not afraid to go through Jane to do it. After an attack that’s tantamount to a war declaration, Leo knows his rival is both powerful and vicious, but Leo’s not about to run scared. After all, he has Jane. But then, a plague strikes, one that takes down vampires and makes their masters easy prey.