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|authorisbn=Jennifer SaintB0GHPMNF6P|title=ElektraThe Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Carolyn Mathews|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionFantasy|summary=When Phil'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells s father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the story running of three women who live in the heavily male dominated world of Ancient Greecefamily's farm zoo. CassandraHe's not expecting much excitement, Clytemnestrauntil he receives an unidentified egg that his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, and Elektra are all bit players in suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. Then the story of egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, but a dragon! Now he, Edgar, his mother Abi, and the Trojan War. Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the silent women zoo's part-time café waitress Pearl have the most compelling stories to raise this little bundle of scales and joy, despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and the most extreme furiesnot being able to tell anyone about it.|isbn=1913097854But this tiny little dragon may show them love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…

|author=Dean KoontzPekka Harju-Autti|title=QuicksilverLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse|rating=2.54|genre=ThrillersFantasy|summary=Meet Quinn Quicksilver. HeIt's not had the chance to get to be a mercurial character yeteighteenth century, for he's lived in a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundling, time of discovery and now Britain is starting a career on a needless magazine's staffexpanding its foreign trade. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind''Captain Julius Hawthorne, for something – call it unearthly intuitionan experienced Scottish sea captain, call it mind-control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go is sent to a derelict dinerthe Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, find a gold coin worth a fortunePeter, cash the value of it out of his bank and prepare for going their cat, Michi, they set off on the lama perilous voyage to these faraway lands. And all this is just in time for two of those typical Men The islands are beautiful and stunning in Black types to turn up their scenery and suggest hethe islanders's of interest to them. Helped to escapeleader, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in controlAarav, the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besideskeen to establish good relations.|isbn=1542019885B0DS1VGHH3

|author=Tasha SuriA G Slatter|title=The Jasmine ThroneBriar Book of the Dead|rating=45

|summary= On the night '' There's a part of her sacred burning, Princess Malini defies her brother and refuses me that wants to step on keep this just to the pyremyself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. She is immediately sent I just want to be imprisoned on enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with Briar's, a community family of people witches who got powers protect the town and the wider world from the mysterious deathless watersDarklands. But now Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the temple is nothing more first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than an overgrownspells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, decaying ruin. One daythe town's leader, Malini witnesses a girl kill someone with magicand Ellie takes her place beside her. Instead of reporting As challenges come her for such a gruesome crimeway left, right and centre, Malini claims that Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the girl saved dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from an attacker one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and begs for determine what to do as the girl Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to become her own personal maidservantsurvive, is under threat.|isbn=03565156481803364548

|author=Genevieve GornichecRachel Greenlaw|title=The Witch's HeartCompass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=FantasyTeens|summary= A modern and approachable reimagining ''I can hear the song of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrbodasea. She hides The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a forest at remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the edge of rocks and plundering the nine worldswrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, remembering nothing is one of her past life but the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that fact that she was survived burnt at lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the stake three times because of Odinisland's leader and Mira's wrathfather. Her attempts Desperate to live in peacesave him from death, however, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her literal heart—the one , she sets off in search of a family secret that was cut from her chest before she was tied to lies buried deep in the stake—and refuses sea. With only nine days to leave unearth what might save her father, as her alone. After an initial period journey takes her from the watched streets of mistrust, Angrboda begins foreign islands to fall for Lokithe heart of the smuggler's charmsterritory, and Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the two start an unusual family made future of up a half-dead daughter, a son that's a wolf, her home and another son that's a snakethe ones she holds most dear.|isbn=17890970610008664730

|author=Hannah WhittenT Kingfisher|title=For the WolfThornhedge

|summary=In Red's family, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes 'You had a sacrificeright to retake your place. To Red'' T Kingfisher's misfortunelatest novella is a lovely reimagining of a fairytale that is well known and well beloved. But whilst there is a princess trapped in a tower, sleeping under an eternal enchantment, she Thornhedge is the second daughternot her story. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her backInstead, Red knows what to expect: within the woods our protagonist is Toadling, who was stolen away by fairies when she was a wolf, new-born baby and he is the one who will decide secreted away to the fate land of their kingdomfairie where her childhood was spent being taught how to draw magic from her veins and cast spells.|isbn=1803364238}}{{Frontpage|author=Nicole Jarvis|title=A Portrait in Shadow|rating=4. If she is not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained 5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=''I want all of Florence to the woods will be releasedknow my name'' Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories gowhere her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But when Red as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the woodspowerful Accademia, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the hour, she finds self-proclaimed guardians of the healing magics that through paintings have the legends are liespower to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The wolf all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.|isbn=1803362340}}{{Frontpage|author=Thomas D Lee|title=Perilous Times|rating=3|genre= Fantasy|summary= ''Hate is not the path of least resistance'' Set in the near-distant future, in a monster—he's world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a manhero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.|isbn=03565163690356518523

|author=John GwynneAmelia Estelle Dellos|title=The Shadow Of The GodsDelilah Recovered|rating=54

|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment We meet Dee at a point when her life isn't going as planned but things might, just might, be about to look up. Out of the Bloodsworn Sagawork, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarokabout to lose her flat, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered Dee is up for all an accountant's job. But it's not to seebe. This story Dee is attacked by two men calling themselves witch hunters. She survives the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice attack but not unscathed. Witch hunters? What on earth has that to the genre, do with mythical creaturesDee? She's just an ordinary woman, archaic language and battles galoreliving an ordinary life. This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters Slivers of memory of things that are woven together not ordinary at all return to create a wonderfully realistic her and gritty world in which our heroes must do battlethings will never be the same....|isbn=0356514218B0BKYFDLLV

|author=H M LongHadeer Elsbai|title=Hall The Daughters of SmokeIzdihar

|summary= Hessa is an Eangi: a powerful priestess Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the Goddess lives of Wartwo women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a society pitted against them. That is until she is banished by her high priestess for not following her one order: Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to kill attend the traveller that visits Weaving Academy to learn to control her temple. Her whole town is burnt to abilities and then join the ground while military, but instead she is praying for forgiveness, forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. Giorgina on the other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and Hessa – now left alone – must find this traveller feels great pressure to atone provide for her weakness family and win back her goddessmaintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women' favours rights. On her journeyGiorgina also happens to be in love with Nico. What follows is a story of an unjust society, she encounters zealot soldiers, deceitful godsfilled with hypocrisy and cruelty, from which blossoms a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and newly awakened demons at every turnovercoming their personal obstacles. It |isbn=0356520471}}{{Frontpage|author=Heather Fawcett|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Emily Wilde is a gruelling questan expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and along the way, she discovers a harrowing truth: the gods are dyinghas travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the High Halls very first encyclopaedia of the afterlife are fadingfaeries. Soon Hessa's trust in her goddess weakens Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, and she is thrust into a battle between not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in the gods small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the Old World village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the Newright track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|isbn=17890949840356519120

|isbn=0356512479|author= Alix E HarrowChristopher Golden|title= The Once and Future WitchesRoad of Bones|rating= 3.5|genre= FantasyHorror|summary=The Kolyma Highway… the 'Road of Bones'There… the R504. Stretching for over a thousand miles across Siberia, it's one of the world's no such thing as witchesmost notorious routes. For months of the year it's a spread of sheet ice suspended above the permafrost surrounding it, while its 'spring' sees it turn into a huge blodge of unremitting, apocalyptic-level mud, which dries into rutted, puddly dust. I don't think google streetview updates it very often. Built because Stalin wanted so much uranium and other Siberian minerals, but there used and because he wanted to begive too many people a lesson, it legendarily cost a life every metre it covers. You can easily find documentaries about it online, but that's a bit rich, for one of our main characters, Felix ' In 1893Teig' Teigland, is a film-maker, doing a recce with his cameraman buddy, after the purges and John Prentiss – who's mostly there to encourage the burnings, witching has been reduced project to little more than weak charms and simple spells. If women want fruition to hold power claw back some of the funds he'd invested in the pair's prior TV projects. They pick up their handsoh-so-chatty local guide, to have their voices heardgain the company of a local beauty, it is now through womenand fetch up at the guide's suffragechildhood village. And that's where things start to go awry…|isbn=1803361476

|author= Andrea StewartAndrew Givler|title= The Bone Shard Daughter Soul Fraud (The Drowning EmpireDebt Collection Book 1)|rating=4.5|genre= Fantasy|summary=''I could never be what he wanted if I did not take what I wantedMatt 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.''

In an empire controlled by a bone shard magic that powers animal-like constructsPoor Dan! I know, an heir to the throneI know, a smuggler, and a warrior will fight to find their place in the worldwe shouldn't feel sorry for soul-catching demons. Lin But he really is the emperor's forgotten daughter, kept locked away in a palace of secrets and closed doorsterrible salesman. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to show him she is capable of reviving a dying empire He never hits his targets and in secret, she begins when he fails to unlock one door after another, searching for the mysteries of her past and the forbidden art of bone shard magic. Yet Lin is playing a deadly game and her quest for power will come at great cost. With revolution in the air and creeping closer and closer get even Matt to sign on the gates of the palacedotted line, Lin must decide just how far she will to go to become a catalyst of change and save her peoplehe's so desperate that he simply forges Matt's signature.|isbn=03565149431958204021

|author= Joan HeOlivie Blake|title= Descendant of the CraneThe Atlas Six|rating=54|genre= Fantasy|summary=''Heroes cannot be forged without villains''Princess Hesina of the kingdom of Yan has never wanted the throne. Instead of craving powerDark, sharp, she has always considered the crown her inescapable duty and shrank away from the responsibilities of being Queen. To herhighly inquisitive, it has always been a distant, faraway future. Until that is, it isn't. When her beloved father suddenly dies, she is thrust into ruling. But contrary to the official report, Hesina knows all is not as it seems, her father didn't die. He was murdered.Determined to seek the truth and discover her fatherThe Atlas Six''s killer, Princess Hesina will stop at nothing to find justice, even committing treason. Under the cover of darkness, her feet lead her to makes its publishing debut after becoming a soothsayer to learn what happened that day and who killed the KingTik-Tok sensation.|isbn=17890940461529095239

|author=Joanne M HarrisDaniel Abraham|title=A Pocketful Age of CrowsAsh|rating=4.5|genre= Confident ReadersFantasy|summary= I have always been We meet Alys under the most northerly of the mind that once youOldgate're above picture-book level and before you get to graphic sex & violences four bridges, there is no difference between books for children and books for adults. There are good books she has a knife in her hand and poor ones. And Joanne Harris does not produce poor onesa meeting that she dreads. ''A Pocketful Meanwhile the City of Crows'' Kithamar is clearly aimed at a point in the younger readers as witness the use turning of years when the middle initial in the author's name to differentiate from her adult offersworlds are at their thinnest and all things are possible. Ignore that if you have loved anything from ''Chocolat'' onwards you will know that Harris It is mistress the night between the funeral of a Prince and the modern fairy talecoronation of his successor. This For a night the Kithamar is no different. It is an utter delightun-ruled.|isbn=14732221840356515427

|author= Maggie Tokuda-HallAnn Sei Lin|title= The Mermaid, the Witch and the SeaRebel Skies

|summary= On Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the pirate ship DoveMidori, Flora the girl has assumed a massive dining hall floating in the identity sky where soldiers of Florian the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man in an attempt named Himura arrives to fit in tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the crew. Life is hard as power to form paper into whatever she desires – a pirate, trust and empathy are power sought after all across the first things Empire. He asks her to be discardedcome with him, but anything has to be better than starving on leave the streetslife of dreary servitude that is all she has known. MeanwhileWell, soon Kurara won't have any say in the young Lady Evelyn Hasegawa boards matter, because the DoveMidori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, headed off to be married and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a military man she's never met on some farsky-flung colony of the Nipran Empire. Neither of them expects ship whose express purpose is to be thrown together by fatehunt down shikigami, never mind fall in love…and a whole world of adventure awaits her…|isbn=15362043151406399590

|authorisbn=Baye HartshorneB09Q3P283Y|title=Ghosted: The Treason House TrilogyShadebringer|author=Grayson W Hooper

|summary='Julia Crawley has lost her job on ''Celebrity'' magazine and so she decides to cut her losses and return home to Clyde Robbins signs up for the village of Monmouth Cove on US Army during the Jersey Shore, hoping to return to her harder hitting journalistic roots via local newsVietnam War. She'll be staying with her grandmother - a woman always ready to help younger relatives in need of a hand. ThereHe's only one problem with not really that: creepy Uncle Dex, who doesn't always keep his hands to himself.|isbn= B0829CP5BM}} {{Frontpage|author=A J Hackwith|title=The Library of invested in the Unwritten|rating=2|genre=Fantasy|summary=Bear with mefight against Communism, this summary nor is not going to be forced into he particularly interested in a career in the intended, one breath lengthmilitary. In this world, there is a corner of Hell that is employed to look after all the worldIf he's incomplete stories. (You'd think Heaven would look after literaturehonest - which Clyde usually is, but as it has no loss, no need and no variation from heavenly norm, you canwith himself at least - he hasn't have any decent narrative there.) Now got many choices and again something happens to the restless creativity on show – characters come to life as embodiments this one, at least, gets him out of the books theyrut he're in, and can even breach through to the human world. As a result of one such incidence, our heroine Claire has gone to Seattle to force a Hero type back into ink form, but has failed, resulting s in him still living. But itHe's also brought something much more important close to the fore – at the same time as this, a human at the Pearly Gates has tried to bribe his way good in by yielding training and is quickly put onto a page of what is claimed to be Satannon commissioned officer training course. He's Bible. The humble (and humbled) gatekeeper, the angel Ramiel, is on the hunt, but such is the import that Claire and her cohorts also feel the need to chase what fragments of it are floating about our worldchuffed with himself.|isbn=1789093171

|author=H G Parry Jennifer Saint|title=The Unlikely Escape of Uriah HeepElektra

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled to see eye to eye for years - Rob a sensible lawyer 'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the story of three women who exists live in the "normal" world - and Charley a man who is blessed with an ability he can't fully control - one which allows him to bring literary characters into the real heavily male dominated worldof Ancient Greece. After years of protecting CharleyCassandra, Clytemnestra, Rob wants to discharge his duties and leave Charley to his own devices - but circumstances soon take choices out Elektra are all bit players in the story of both their handsthe Trojan War. As literary characters begin to appear everywhere, it soon becomes clear Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that someone out there shares Charley's powers and intends to use them for nefarious gains. Rob and Charley must team up to stop often the madness - in a battle to win before they, silent women have the characters most compelling stories and the world reach The End…most extreme furies.|isbn=03565137771472273915

|isbn=1250168546|author=Sarah KozloffDean Koontz|title=A Queen In HidingQuicksilver|rating=32.5|genre=FantasyThrillers|summary= World-building is Meet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not had the backbone by which fantasy novels live and die. And what a pleasure, then, chance to get to be a novel with world-building you actually want to delve into. Sarah Kozloffmercurial character yet, for he's debut novel presents lived in a startlingly rich nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundling, and layered worldnow is starting a career on a needless magazine's staff. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind'', for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-control, with call it a complex history supernatural urge – has demanded of connecting nations him that seems certain he go to have more to tapa derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out of his bank and prepare for going on the characters are interesting – if a little underdevelopedlam. But itAnd all this is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's a world I could – and did – eagerly buy intoof interest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, and the struggle discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of each Queen to discover burgeoning power – and hone her magical talent felt very real and very apta whole lot more besides.|isbn=1542019885

|author=Struan Murray and Manuel Sumberac (illustrator)Tasha Suri|title=Orphans of the TideThe Jasmine Throne|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary= In On the last city night of her sacred burning, Princess Malini defies her brother and refuses to step on Earth, anyone can to the pyre. She is immediately sent to be imprisoned on the vessel Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with a community of The Enemy - the god people who drowned got powers from the world - who has come to wreak havoc on mysterious deathless waters. But now the last of humanitytemple is nothing more than an overgrown, decaying ruin. When One day, Malini witnesses a mysterious boy is pulled from the corpse girl kill someone with magic. Instead of reporting her for such a whalegruesome crime, Malini claims that the citizens immediately believe him to be girl saved her from an attacker and begs for the Vessel - all except for young Ellie Lancaster, a girl inventor. As the ruthless Inquisition prepares to execute the boy, Ellie must prove that he is innocent - even if it means revealing become her deepest, darkest secrets..own personal maidservant.|isbn=02413844350356515648

|author= Luke ArnoldGenevieve Gornichec|title= The Last Smile in Sunder CityWitch's Heart|rating= 24|genre= Fantasy|summary= A modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in a forest at the edge of the nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the stake three times because of Odin''The Last Smile s wrath. Her attempts to live in Sunder Citypeace, however, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with her literal heart—the one that was cut from her chest before she was tied to the stake—and refuses to leave her alone. After an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to fall for Loki'' is s charms, and the two start an urban fantasy noir written by Luke Arnold. It centres on unusual family made of up a Private Detectivehalf-dead daughter, Fetch Philipsa son that's a wolf, as he attempts to find a missing vampire in and another son that's a world filled with magical creatures where all the magic has suddenly disappeared with catastrophic consequencessnake.|isbn=0356512886 1789097061

|author= A K LarkwoodHannah Whitten|title= The Unspoken NameFor the Wolf|rating= 45|genre= Fantasy|summary= What does it mean to betray someone? What if that someone is In Red's family, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes a god? Csorwe has been raised knowing that sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she would be sacrificed to her god is the second daughter. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her fourteenth birthdayback, yet when Red knows what to expect: within the opportunity ariseswoods is a wolf, she chooses to abandon everything she knows and flee with her lifehe is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. Who can blame her? Her god’s reach If she is limited and Csorwe intends not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained to stay far beyond itthe woods will be released, yet fate is a funny thing and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories go. But when circumstances bring her back Red enters the woods, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the reach of her god Csorwe learns hour, she finds that her god remembers her, and blames her very much indeedthe legends are lies. The wolf is not a monster—he's a man.|isbn=12502389000356516369

|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)John Gwynne|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy TalesThe Shadow Of The Gods|rating=4.5

|summary=Curses. They're there throughout tales The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of faery Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and other fantastical folk – people being cursed their bones lie scattered for all to do thissee. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, or not and John Gwynne certainly does justice to be able to do that. Children can be cursedthe genre, as can princesses on the verge of marryingwith mythical creatures, archaic language and older people toobattles galore. It seems in This is a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this thick book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that demonised place, are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wronggritty world in which our heroes must do battle.|isbn=17890915000356514218