Urban Historical

Raised his entire life for the sole purpose of defending his clan, Khalvir serves the chief who saved him from certain death. A death at the hands of the hated elves; a people who see him only as an abomination to be destroyed. Now a captive in his enemy’s clutches, Khalvir must find a way to escape the mysterious elf witch who holds him. An elf whose motives remain shrouded but whose very presence calls to his soul, threatening to turn every truth he has ever known into a lie.

In a Regency tale of Robert and Jane, New York Times best-selling author Mary Balogh brings together former lovers who have seen beyond their past mistakes, and are determined to be together in this life and forever.

In the pages of her journal, Mina Murray confesses the erotic devilment and nocturnal horrors of her time with Count Dracula. And what she writes says as much about her desires as it does about the Count’s - something no one, not even her fiancé Jonathan Harker, could ever understand. Readers everywhere will succumb to Essex’s sumptuous prose and thrill to celebrated reader Bianca Amato’s tantalizing delivery, the intoxicating effects of which will occupy listeners’ minds through the darkest of nights.

When young Emily Brontë helps a wounded man she finds at the foot of an ancient pagan shrine in the remote Yorkshire moors, her life becomes contentiously entwined with his. He is Alcuin Curzon, embittered member of a sect working to eradicate the resurgent plague of lycanthropy in Europe and northern England. But Emily's father, curate of the Haworth village church, is responsible for having unwittingly brought a demonic werewolf god to Yorkshire forty years ago—and it is taking possession of Emily's beloved but foolish and dissolute brother.

In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once a young sorcerer-bookbinder, Vella was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been collecting information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen’s world faces.Elsewhere, in an land ruled by priests, Rielle the dyer’s daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels.

He’s one of my father’s guards at the castle. Goes by the name Mastodon. There’s something about him I don’t like. He takes me into a cavern, and we descend deep underground - to the Bottom of the Cliffs. When I leave for the Capital, Mastodon escorts me. And just as I feared, he kills my guards and captures me. Then he tells me why he’s doing this. Because my family took everything from him - and now he’s about to do the same.

On her 17th birthday, Megan of Chaumont discovers she'll be sold as a bride to the brutish Volodane family - within hours. Her father grants only that she may choose which one of the ruthless, grasping lord's three sons she weds: Rolf, the eldest: stern, ambitious, and loyal? Sebastian, the second son: sympathetic, sly, and rebellious? Or Kai, the youngest: bitter, brooding, and proud? As shy, horrified Megan flees the welcome dinner for her in-laws-to-be, she finds an enchanted mirror that will display how her life unrolls with each man, as if she were living it out in a breath. But there is no smooth "happily ever after" in her choices.

Beneath the murky waters of the lake, an ancient being slumbers, and Brygida is its servant. Kept sheltered in the woods by her mothers from the nearby village, Brygida has never had so much as a friend - until the day she meets a charming stranger painting by the lake. He invites her to the village's harvest feast, but her taste of the forbidden ends with a murder. Called into service for the first time, Brygida must take up her ancestral duty as Reaper of Death and solve the murder within three days.

After a routine delivery, midwife Sarah Brandt visits her patient in a rooming house and finds that another boarder, a young girl, has been killed. At the request of sergeant Frank Malloy, she searches the girl's room and discovers that the victim is from one of the most prominent families in New York - and the sister of an old friend. The powerful family, fearful of scandal, refuses to permit an investigation. But with Malloy's help, Sarah begins a dangerous quest to bring the killer to justice before death claims another victim.

Despite a powerful snowstorm that has shut down the city, Silver and the Mageri crew are preparing to spend a peaceful holiday at home, surrounded by family, food, and merriment. But the party comes to an abrupt end when Logan receives an unexpected call, one that forces him to make a life-changing decision that could affect his relationship with Silver forever. Can they find the courage to weather the storm? Lives are at risk in this compelling and heartwarming story about the remarkable journey of love.

The game's afoot once more as the long-suffering Dr. John Watson and a partially decomposed Warlock Holmes (though he's getting better) face off against Moriarty's gang, the Pinkertons, flesh-eating horses, a parliament of imps, boredom, Surrey, a succubus, an overly Canadian aristocrat, a tricycle fight to the death, and the dreaded Pumpcrow. Oh, and a hellhound, one assumes.

Once a legendary police inspector, Nicolas Lenoir is now a disillusioned and broken man who spends his days going through the motions and his evenings drinking away the nightmares of his past. Ten years ago, Lenoir barely escaped the grasp of the Darkwalker, a vengeful spirit who demands a terrible toll on those who have offended the dead. But the Darkwalker does not give up on his prey so easily, and Lenoir has always known his debt would come due one day. When Lenoir is assigned to a disturbing new case, he treats the job with his usual apathy- until his best informant, a street savvy orphan, is kidnapped.

Alisanos, the deepwood, is more than just a forest...it is sentient, and predatory. Home to demons and worse, its mercurial boundaries can suddenly shift miles in any direction to encompass previously safe human lands - and those taken by the deepwood are forever changed. Audrun, a human woman trapped within the forest, is reunited with her four children, only to learn that each has been marked by the deepwood’s wild magic. And her newly born fifth child, captured by a winged demon, is still missing.

After his experiences as a young naval officer in battles off Okinawa, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. It is a time when publishing is still largely a private affair - a scattered family of small houses here and in Europe - a time of gatherings in fabled apartments and conversations that continue long into the night. In this world of dinners, deals, and literary careers, Bowman finds he fits in perfectly. But despite his success, love eludes him.

In an electrified Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a crime scene investigator, hunting killers with newfangled technological gadgets. She will need every advantage available to catch a terrifying new psychopath splattering London with blood. Hidden in the grimy shadows, the fiendish murderer preys on beautiful women, drugging them before slicing off their limbs. Finding the "Slicer" can make Eliza's career...or unmask her darkest secret.

A novel of rare genius, The Man with the Golden Arm recounts the life of Francis Majcinek, "Frankie Machine," who returned from World War II with a Purple Heart and a morphine habit. He relies on morphine to numb the pain of a war injury and the guilt he feels for a drunken spree that put his wife Sophie in a wheelchair. Frankie, a card-dealer in an illicit poker game, has now come back to Chicago's West Side after detoxing in the federal prison for narcotics addicts, being exposed again to all the pressures, anxieties, and temptations that put him there in the first place.

The Spear of Lugh, one of the four Kingly Hallows of Ireland is in Chicago. And everyone, everyone wants it, for it is said that he who carries the spear into battle cannot be defeated. Among those who seek it are an agent of the infamous Wild Hunt; a mobster who knows far more about these things than he should; and of course both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts - the last people PI Mick Oberon would want getting hold of the spear....

During the wedding festivities of his king, Cyan Dag, a knight of Gloinmere, is sought out by a mysterious bard and told a terrifying tale: that the king has married a false queen - a lie cloaked in ancient and powerful sorcery. Spurred on by his steadfast honor and loyalty, Cyan departs on a dangerous quest to rescue the real queen from her tower prison, to prevent war, and to awaken magic in a land that has lost its way.

Cat Barahal and her cousin Bee think they have reached a safe place to shelter. But the Cold Mages who are conspiring to take them prisoner are closing in. The warlord who hopes to conquer all Europa is convinced their destiny is to aid him, whether they want to or not. And the man Cat was forced to marry is back, as vainly arrogant and annoyingly handsome as ever. Worst of all, as Hallows' Night approaches, powers hidden deep within the spirit world are rising. Cat must seek allies against these threats and figure out who to trust, for if she makes the wrong choices, she'll lose everything.

Druid-born and magic-blessed, Isla is one of the deadliest she-devils ever to serve the forces of darkness. As an immortal Highland warrior, it's up to Hayden Campbell to destroy her and her kind. But for Hayden, Isla is more than a sworn enemy. She is temptation.Taking Isla captive, Hayden hopes to avenge his kinsmen who died by Druid magic. But when he looks into Isla's eyes, he sees the secrets of her past. When he touches her skin, he feels the passion in her soul. And soon Hayden comes to realize that this beautiful, beguiling woman is not his enemy at all - she is his destiny.