Fantasy – Book Reader Magazine

The Lucifer Journals: The Beginning of All Problems by Marc Finks

The Lucifer Journals: The Beginning of All Problems by Marc Finks

All Lucifer wanted to do was help one hungry little girl learn how to plant seeds.
He really should have known better.
What started as a simple agricultural lesson accidentally creates human civilization—and all its problems. Watch our interdimensional observer’s well-meaning suggestions transform peaceful hunter-gatherers into property-owning, wall-building farmers with a talent for weaponizing every helpful hint.
As paradise transforms into something far more complicated, Lucifer—now eternally exiled on Earth—realizes humans possess an uncanny ability to turn any knowledge into a weapon and any advice into disaster.
“The Beginning of All Problems” reveals how feeding a hungry child results in warfare, social inequality, and transforms Lucifer into the villain of humanity’s oldest stories.
Perfect for fans of Good Omens and anyone who’s wondered why humans can’t have nice things.

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Firebolt by Adrienne Woods

Firebolt by Adrienne Woods

Dragons. Right.

Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales, and sixteen-year old Elena Watkins was no different. Until the night a fairy tale killed her father.

Now Elena’s in a new world, and a new school.

The cutest guy around may be an evil dragon, a Prince wants Elena’s heart, and a long dead sorcerer may be waking up to kill her. Oh. And the only way Elena’s going to graduate is on the back of a dragon of her own. Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales. Now it’s time for Elena to believe – in herself.

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Innocence by Adrienne Woods

Innocence by Adrienne Woods

Welcome to Beaumont Academy! We’re here to mold your supernatural abilities into the best they can be. Remember to submit your abilities test results, or we will deny your application.

After Maxima Lane turns into a bat, her acceptance into Beaumont Academy was a given. It means freedom from her horrid stepmother and equally terrible stepsisters. However, her freedom isn’t long lived as her stepmother claims she doesn’t have the x-gene and if Max can’t turn into a bat before the Magic Sector comes, she might get expelled from school.

Gabriel Hendrix’s life is simple. Capture the villains and don’t fall for a witch. Until he meets Maxima Lane. She has an X-gene that allows her to turn into a bat. Meaning she can follow the falcon, and he can put a stop to the Shadowed—if only it was that simple. The girl comes with a lot of secrets, and it drives Gabriel insane. Why is her stepmother obsessed with her? Why is there yellow in her eyes when it’s supposed to be red and why can’t she activate her bat?

When people die and Max gets kidnapped from the academy, time is running against Gabe. He needs to find answers and Max before it’s too late.

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Child of Vanris by Nikki McCormack

Child of Vanris by Nikki McCormack

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.

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Broken Alphas by E.R. River

Broken Alphas by E.R. River

A world broken in two.
Two hundred years after the biological war, an unknown party kidnaps Sheila Black, the daughter of a pride alpha. Still a juvenile, she must find the strength to fight the unknown enemy and deal with the alpha mate she discovers unexpectedly.
Logan Stone, a tiger shifter and alpha of his pride, prefers to stay out of the other shifter’s business. He knows it’s time to go hunting when his little sister goes missing. The search for his kidnapped sister brings him to the border with the wolf pack, Hell Paw. What he finds there is not only his wounded sister, but also a young panther shifter determined to survive by tying her life to his.
The will to find and eliminate the enemy brings them together. But fate isn’t in their favor, and, just like their world, they become two broken alphas.

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Spirit Sight Book 1 Volume 1 by Ross Hightower

Spirit Sight Book 1 Volume 1 by Ross Hightower

Witches fight the patriarchy in this “Witcher” meets “Mistborn” epic tale. A tale of hope where the common people triumph over their imperial overlords.

In a remote village, on the edge of a corrupt empire, Minna Hunter wakes one day to find small orbs of light flitting through the trees. But Minna’s delight at finding she has Spirit Sight soon turns to despair. In the Empire, communing with spirits is punishable by death. Branded a witch, she resigns herself to a lonely existence.

When her sister, Alyn, gains spirit sight, Minna promises her she will never leave her alone. But titanic forces are at play, forces with Minna and Alyn’s fates in mind. When the Inquisition captures Alyn, Minna must leave her small life and step onto history’s grand stage.

In the Inquisition prison, Alyn learns she must choose between serving her captors against her own people or die. Meanwhile, Minna evades agents of the Inquisition and discovers her world is not what she believes it to be. To save her sister, she must master her spirit song, grasp her destiny and become the heroine her people need.

Spirit Sight by Ross Hightower is the first novel in the Spirit Song trilogy. Mythic in scope, yet intimate and engaging, this is a story that will draw you in and won’t let go.

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Argren Blue: A Spirit Song Story (Spirit Song Rebels Rising Book 1) by Ross Hightower and Deb Heim

Argren Blue: A Spirit Song Story (Spirit Song Rebels Rising Book 1) by Ross Hightower and Deb Heim

The Vollen Empire has killed Alar’s parents, burned villages and enslaved the Alle’oss. As the leader of a rag-tag rebel group, he is about to lose hope when he uncovers latent powers reminiscent of legendary heroes. Will it be enough to save his people, or is it already too late?

When Alar joined the resistance, he dreamed of throwing the imperial oppressors out of Argren. But as the inexperienced rebels reel from one disaster to another, Alar wonders if the Empire notices them at all. Until the day he discovers he has powers not seen since the great heroes of the past.

As he explores his newfound abilities, an imperial witch appears to ask the rebels to rescue prisoners from an Inquisition prison. The plan is crazy, but the rebels have been riding the ragged edge of crazy for years. Though their surprising success revives their dreams, they may come to regret drawing the Empire’s attention.

When a powerful inquisitor sends novice Harold Wolfe to root out the nascent rebel group, Harold has to wonder why. As a half-breed, Wolfe, is persecuted for his humble origins. By the time he discovers the trap, it’s too late to escape the tangled web involving the rebels, a mysterious assassin, a corrupt imperial governor, and foreign mercenaries, all vying for a cache of priceless art.

While Harold looks for a way out, Alar and the rebels fight for their land, their people, and their freedom.

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Bebe la Strangiato (With Love, Death & Chaos book 1) by Tor Underhill

Bebe la Strangiato (With Love, Death & Chaos book 1) by Tor Underhill

Yian is the embodiment of Chaos, and he has shit to do. He’s stuck in an endless cycle of rebirth that he’s trying to break, eternally bound to a spacetime sprawling corporation and an unstable girlfriend who likes it that way. She’s the embodiment of Passion, entangled with him on the quantum level. Forevers and no matter what he says. She’s vindictive, jealous and omnipotent. But she’d say she just loves him sooo much.

His one way out is to shepherd humanity along a path that frees him, manipulating the masses to his banner “free your ass, and your mind will follow”.

He’s fighting the FDA sorcery division over his wonder drug that ends the culture wars. And he’s fighting the otherworldly Deep Ones his other ex is slipping through the cracks in your reality. Plus all of the other exes who seem to show up at the worst time with the worst intentions.

It’s a lot. Even for an AllBeing. So he has the usual assortment of eternal champions and AI networked serial killers fighting the probably not really good fight from Pittsburgh, his Eternal City.

This is the first book in the series: With Love, Death & Chaos.

With Love, Death & Chaos is the story of Chaos and Passion, primordial beings embodied in a cycle of perpetual rebirth and entangled on the quantum level. They and others like them take sides in a grand struggle with the spacetime sprawling Syrinx Corporation. Syrinx has bound them into eternal service shepherding intelligent life in the realities it builds for …

Oh shit. He was going off and I wasn’t paying attention. Look. I’m Bebe. I’m in the title of book 1 so trust me. It’s all just about really bad exes. Like apocalyptically murderously bad exes. And it’s…a lot.

There’s Cthulhu at Woodstock 99; AI assisted serial killers turned actuarial assassins; a tattooed murder goddess with perfect feet and a bad attitude (I blame men for making me this way) ; retired mobster couples with bodies in their pool, a tub of margarine and a taste for the threeways; fake ass cartels that might be a thing, if you listen to that chick from Girls Gone Wild Monster Island; and Pittsburgh is the Eternal City in every dimension. He says it’s way cooler than those OTHER eternal cities. I know, he says crazy shit like that all the time.

He fights with the FDA Sorcery Division about troll packets. Oh, and he calls you skinsacks. My friend’s gramma is Papa Legba and she’s lusting after that annoying intersectionalist TV news guy.

My personal favorite is his megabomb that ends the culture war: Asstastica, an insurance required wonder drug that makes straight guys wonder how that feels, you know, when you put it up there for the most satisfying experience ever. For wellness I mean, because it prevents cancer and whatnot just to give them the excuse.

Yea, and he’s nudging society along his chosen path using pop culture, movie dialog and song lyrics to influence us. He fully annotated it so you too can join the followers of chaos (out of control chapter).

I’m totally asking for a friend, but if we’re all okay with girls falling in love with vampires and grossing $3billion, then why can’t I fuck a dead cheerleader? I blame men. And YA fiction.

It’s got these powerful women like the hotmom assassin killing in the name of American hegemony. She meets this ex-SAS guy who his ex says ate a pygmy in Chelsea. Plus other guys who just look cute and try not to make things worse.

He talked so much there’s a second book on the way. That one has Italian Cthulhus; an AI assisted serial killer in the White House; and that supercool hotmom from last time and the men who just make things worse. She’s got drop-dead husbands, that supergenius ex and their three kids Scott, Ramona and Stacey. They’re the bob-omb. Some of them were born in space too. She’s got a Presidential brother she loves and his pain dealing wife who she hates. There’s the huge rock band riding the plague out in a mob castle and their bitter singer being shot at and chased by a truffle pig. And an Italian-American detective walking through it all on a vengeful hunt for his guitar and sunglasses that were stolen long ago in…wait for it…Pittsburgh.

But wait. There’s more. There’s THAT actress who does THAT THING with her hair that you want me and every other woman to do; supermodel-actress eternal champions in battlesuits with PhDs in hand stuff from Miskatonic U; annoying Roman resurrectionists; Clarence fucking Darrow; and these four guys locked down in one apartment with a shirtless fireman and a manipulative goddess with a detachable penis. They say that’s, ah, life finding a way. I say that’s #quarantinequeer. And it all leads to this legendary breakup battle.

And he’s STILL talking. This is gonna be a series that is going to use the whole eternal cycle of breakup and revenge to crack genre norms and answer the question “if your ex really wants to ruin your lives, every one of them across every timespace, would be all be okay with that?”

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Mani

About Mani:

Welcome to Mani, the silver world. For one thousand years, humans have walked the face of Mani, kings and lords and magi, wielders of the great elemental forces. In the white city of Nytaea, an orphanage is burned to the ground. With everyone she ever loved dead or kidnapped, Lyn and her last remaining friend set out to rescue their loved ones from the clutches of a tyrant king. But when the princess herself and a powerful High Mage pull her into their confidence, Lyn is swept into a larger tale of ancient history and deep secrets—ones with personal relevance to her. For a girl can only for so long hide the fact that a monster lurks inside her, a brutal strength unknown to her world.

Mani is my debut novel, and the first book in The Mother Trilogy. Classic fantasy meets Superman in this young-adult sci-fantasy tale of colliding worlds, exploring the boundaries of a fantasy world: what holds one together, and what can unravel it? Follow me on this journey through the eyes of Lyn, the teenage girl caught in the middle.

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Lady Nightmare: War of the Old Gods, Book 1 by Rachel M. Yoldi

About Lady Nightmare: War of the Old Gods, Book 1 by Rachel M. Yoldi:

Forced into hiding, Keres Von Kesting yearns for a normal life, but the dark secrets she harbors threaten to unravel everything.

Desperate to escape her troubled past, Keres has spent the last six months living quietly under the protection of her best friend Hez and his witch coven. As she strives for normalcy, she pretends the shadowy magic in her veins makes her just like Hez: a witch. Even if she knows that her magic is something different—and more powerful—than any the witches have dealt with before.

When a chance encounter leads to her arrest for forged citizenship papers, Keres is offered a deal by the High Priestess of Cristata. If Keres returns to the dangerous world of her past to recover a list of ancient artifacts, all will be forgiven. If she does not, the fragile life she has built will be ripped away, putting not just the coven, but the secret Keres would do anything to protect at risk.

Caught between her hidden truth and the demands of the Priestess, Keres must do what she does best: track down what doesn’t want to be found. Thrust into the heart of a conflict between the Cristatan government and a growing rebellion, Keres navigates encounters with powerful figures on both sides of the conflict. To do so, she must tap into the darkness she thought she had left behind, only to stumble upon a shocking discovery that upends her entire world—someone else with magic just like hers.

Lady Nightmare is the first high-stakes fantasy adventure in the War of the Old Gods series, where Keres is forced to navigate a web of danger and deceit, and her choices could either save her or cost her everything.

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Spirit Sight Book 1 volume 1 by Ross Hightower

Spirit Sight Book 1 volume 1 by Ross Hightower

Witches fight the patriarchy in this “Witcher” meets “Mistborn” epic tale. Spirit Sight is the tale of Minna, a girl from a remote village on the edge of a corrupt empire, who develops spirit sight and is branded a witch. When the oppressive inquisition captures her sister, she must take on the Empire and become the heroine her people need. Looking for a tale of hope and transcendence where the common people triumph over their imperial overlords? Support an indie author and fight oppression at the same time.

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Strands of Time and Magic by Andrew Platten

Strands of Time and Magic by Andrew Platten

Magic is dangerous. Being a charmer is…

Deadly. And Brylee knows it. She conceals her abilities but lives in fear of exposure. Then, forced to protect herself and a suitor pressed upon her by her parents, her worst fear materialises.

She falls straight into the hands of a mage who understands exactly what she is and who recognises her exceptional abilities. He offers salvation for all her problems. His price? A deadly mission – she must hunt down the Red Assassin.

On the track of her quarry, Brylee is flung back through the currents of time – a dangerous event. Yet one that gives her an opportunity to better prepare herself and build her strength. She needs both. For a maelstrom of forces soon swirl around her to produce a surprise she could never imagine in her wildest dreams.

And her world will never be the same…

The first book in the Weavers of Destiny Duology, Strands of Time and Magic delivers a complete story.

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Anastasia’s Midnight Song by M. Laszlo

Anastasia’s Midnight Song by M. Laszlo

St Petersburg, 1917
French Huguenot Anastasia believes working in one of Sinai’s mirror factories will allow her to trap the imaginary Arctic Fox which lives in her womb.
Whilst Jack escapes from London to Sinai to avoid being conscripted to fight in the trenches with strange imaginings that do little to alleviate his feelings of cowardice.
Jack is captivated by Anastasia, seized with a fierce desire to possess her from the first second, and nothing can diminish his obsessive urge to be noticed by her, not even her obvious disgust in the face of his crude advances.
Their journeys twist together like a fugue, filled with phantasmagorical delays, as they both fail to accomplish what they set out to do. Unable to escape the consequences of their false beliefs, relentlessly they approach the brink, and eventual hebephrenia, on a quest for moral truths.
Anastasia’s Midnight Song is a revelatory, hallucinatory account of the growing insanity of two young people who happen to be in the same place at the same time.

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All in the Furry Family – Cat Tales Book 2 by Eileen O’Finlan

All in the Furry Family – Cat Tales Book 2 by Eileen O'Finlan

Can a cat be a bridezilla? In Fauanburg she can in this delightful sequel to All The Furs and Feathers.

The success of Oneness Park has brought big changes to town. Smokey is now Abigail Fluffington’s partner at Fluffington ArCATechture. Autumn Amelia runs the wildly popular Mama Cat’s Kitchen.

Two new neighbors moved in near the devoted cat sisters. One of them falls paws over tail for Autumn Amelia.

But it’s not all fun and games. Two strange cats are stalking Smokey. When she finally confronts them, she gets the shock of a lifetime.

Meanwhile, Greyson and Abigail Fluffington’s wedding is threatened as Abigail keeps changing her mind about the menu, the cake, the flowers, even the invitations. Her antics are driving all the furs and feathers crazy!

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Piper’s Impasse by J. Traveler Pelton

Piper’s Impasse by J. Traveler Pelton

Piper’s future was direct and well thought out; graduate, do research, marry, have 2.5 kids, live happily ever after. Then she met Sebastian in Baxter State Park; Bigfoot is real, the military is after her and nothing is certain anymore.

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Feeder by Lucinda Moebius

Feeder by Lucinda Moebius

Maria Christine lives life at the fringes of society as one of the Were, a race of beings from which legends of Vampires and Werewolves have been born. She calls herself a Vampire but instead of drinking blood, she feasts on the souls of humans. Like others of her kind, she has the ability to shift her shape into other creatures. Most of her kind can only assume one form other than their own. Maria is different, she can assume many other forms, though her favorite is that of a wolf.

Her kind calls themselves Feeders and Maria does her best to avoid contact with most of them, not wanting to be tied to any one Coven; however, her dark existence stealing life from strangers on the fringes of society will soon change. She soon finds herself on the run from a Warrior and Hunter team determined to kill her in an effort to wipe the scourge of her kind off the face of the Earth.

She faces a choice, join a Coven and find protection from the Hunters or find a way to live life on her own terms. Through the struggle the only constant is her ever present hunger, driving her to feed.

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Anastasia’s Midnight Song by M. Laszlo

Anastasia’s Midnight Song by M. Laszlo

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