Soria (Thief Liar Lady) delivers small-town mystery alongside spellbinding romantasy in this cozy outing. Witch Charlotte Isabel “Charlie” Sparrow devotes herself to her parents’ occult shop, the Chanterelle Cottage, in charming Owl’s Hallow. The family business manages to scrape by until a fierce competitor arrives in town: Maven Enterprises, operated by handsome mage Sterling “Fitz” Fitzgerald. Witches and mages are natural rivals, so Charlie and Fitz have every reason to hate each other, but they can’t help their intense chemistry. When a mysterious “magic pandemic” strikes Owl’s Hollow and causes spells to go haywire, their two businesses race against each other to find the culprit—and the solution. Fitz’s noble efforts draw even more attention to Maven Enterprises, leaving Chanterelle Cottage on the verge of bankruptcy. Charlie’s one hope is that the town council will refuse to extend Fitz’s temporary magic license. As the council prepares for a vote, both Charlie’s livelihood and her budding relationship with Fitz hang in the balance. Soria’s worldbuilding is sweet and inviting, brimming with magic, intrigue, and community. Fans of forbidden romance will be especially delighted. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bram Stoker Award winner Piper (Queen of Teeth) delivers a staggering tale of queer horror. While out for a morning swim along the coast of the small beach town of Cape Morning, Mass., trans woman Ivory Sloan discovers the dead body of Cabrina Brite, the trans daughter of a town councilmember. When Ivory starts seeing things shortly thereafter, she thinks it may be Cabrina’s ghost, and begins an investigation into her death, which precipitates further paranormal activity around town and especially on nearby Ghost Cat Island. From the first line—“The sea wanted blood,” a refrain that repeats throughout the story—Piper hits on an evocative combination of the picturesque and the gory, pulling back the curtain on the dark side of quaint Cape Morning. Supporting characters, especially Cabrina’s friends Xi and Rex, also shine. Weaving classic horror elements into a powerful tale of trans solidarity and the life-sucking toll of being forced back into the closet, Piper cements her place in the queer horror canon. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

Chronister (Thin Places) creates a claustrophobic portrait of ecological devastation and dire poverty in this grim Appalachian gothic. The Haddesley family of West Virginia has had a long and mystical compact with the bog next to their house. Each Haddesley patriarch is buried in the peat and the eldest son of each generation washes himself in the mud, returning from this ritual with a bog-made bride. However, no bride appears for eldest son Charlie, shattering the fragile ties binding together the rest of the surviving Haddesleys: tyrannical eldest daughter Eda, runaway Wenna, resentful Percy, and animal-loving Nora. Wenna wants to sell the house, Percy to create his own bog wife, Eda to get pregnant and carry on the family line herself, Nora to keep Wenna from returning to her husband in Illinois, and Charlie to delve deep enough into their family history to discover the truth of their origins. These disparate reactions build to an abrupt and unsatisfying ending that leaves toxic cycles intact and the family to stew in their misfortune. Even diehard fans of gothic horror will need a high tolerance for misery to get through this. Agent: Laura Cameron and Amanda Orozco, Transatlantic Agency. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

Stewart (The Bone Shard Daughter) explores how blood ties can strain against the ties of friendship in this stirring first volume of a new epic fantasy trilogy about sisters separated by divine intervention. Hakara and Rasha, orphans fleeing the god Kluehnn’s “restoration,” a process that alters or vanishes half the human population, wind up on different sides of a magic barrier. Hakara spends the next 10 years exploiting her sensitivity to magic to earn passage back to her sister. Meanwhile Rasha, who has been transmuted by restoration, adopts Kluehnn as her patron and trains to become one of his special agents, known as godkillers. Politics complicate their separate plans as human rulers plot to forestall restoration and the other gods work to stay hidden from Kluehnn’s agents. While the duplicity of Kluehnn is never in doubt, Stewart maintains a good balance between the sisters and their competing goals, creating a fascinating level of moral ambiguity so that readers will feel that each character is justified in making her choices. This promises good things for the series to come. Agent: Juliet Mushens, Mushens Entertainment. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

The raucous third entry in Rambo’s Disco Space Opera series (after Devil’s Gun) takes Capt. Niko Larsen and the motley, multispecies crew of the bioship You Sexy Thing to Coralind, a vast and luxurious interstellar station. While there, Niko hopes to recoup the insurance money for damage incurred while trying to take down pirate king Tubal Last. Each crew member has some dicey loss to recover from, too—as do the enigmatic con woman Jezli and Niko’s ex-lover Petalia, turned against Niko by Last, who both happen to also be on Coralind. And they’re not the only old enemies laying in wait. The sprawling cast all handle their grief with unique and convincing aplomb. Luscious extraterrestrial foods highlight Coralind’s attractions, while the diverse alien species Rambo delineates so well provide stories-within-stories that spice up the main plot. A crew roster at the start will help orient new readers and forgetful returning fans. This is a feast for space opera enthusiasts. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bestselling YA author Saft (A Fragile Enchantment) ventures into adult fantasy with this elaborate whirlwind of folklore, magic, and sapphic romance. Twenty-something academic rivals Lorelei Kaskel and Sylvia von Wolff join a seven-person expedition under the order of King Wilhelm of Brunnestaad, who commands them to find the Ursprung, a spring fabled to be the source of all magic. Unfortunately, their expedition leader is killed their first night on the road, and the only suspects are the remaining six expedition members. Saft’s intricate worldbuilding melds elements of Jewish tradition and folklore, fairy tales, and classic fantasy tropes, creating a steep learning curve and making it easy to get lost in the unfamiliar names of people, places, and creatures. Still, patient readers will find the important information shines through, even if the precise details are confusing. Meanwhile, the enemies-to-lovers arc between the heroines delivers a classic interplay of infuriating kindness and endearing irritability, with a long buildup and a worthwhile payoff. Fans of queer fantasy will find something to enjoy here. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

Waggoner (The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry) takes the cozy mystery in a beguiling new direction in this tale of murder and supernatural manipulation. Sherry Pinkwhistle moved to Winesap, in Upstate New York, several years ago and has carved out a comfortable niche for herself as town librarian and civilian murder investigator. Recently, however, she’s been struck by the occasional thought that Winesap has significantly more than its fair share of murders. When her boyfriend is killed and the townsfolk aggressively push Sherry to investigate despite her reservations, she becomes certain that something is very wrong—and that something appears to be demon related. Waggoner makes nimble and entertaining use of cozy mystery tropes while also constructing Winesap’s larger supernatural conflict with careful attention to detail. Meanwhile, plentiful humor and endearing budding friendships give the story heart. Fantasy fans who also watched Murder, She Wrote and wondered about the abnormally high murder rate in Cabot Cove will especially want to check this one out. Agent: Jennifer Udden, Laura Dail Literary. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

A smart home turns into a house of horrors in this suspenseful outing from Coile (Oracle, written as Andrew Pyper). Henry, a robotics engineer, and his wife, Lily, a software company founder, are living in the “fantasy of the Upstate College Town.” When Lily’s friends Davis and Paige stop by for brunch, Henry—an agoraphobe with self-esteem issues—decides to show them the robot he has been building. William, the robot, is smart and articulate, but so indifferent to the danger his aggressive behavior poses to the pregnant Lily and her guests that Henry tries dismantling him—whereupon William appears to flex his will through the home’s integrated security system to imprison the quartet. Coile expertly imagines the sort of ghoulish snares a cybernetic environment could spring upon its unprepared captives and throws in a late-inning explanation for the source of William’s apparent sociopathy that is as believable as it is chilling. It’s a frightening Frankenstein fable for the age of AI. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

Segura (Secret Identity) and Hart (The Paradox Hotel) interweave their styles seamlessly in this stellar blend of space opera and spy thriller, set after Earth has become almost uninhabitable. With humanity concentrated on the lunar colony of New Destiny, hopes for a sustainable future rest with the spacecraft Mosaic, which has traveled over four light-years from Earth to ascertain whether the planet Esparar can serve as a new home. Mosaic’s pilot, Jose Carriles, must scramble to avert disaster when, without the vessel’s alarms going off, its engines begin powering down, threatening the failure of essential protective shields. Meanwhile, disgraced spy Corin Timony is at her headquarters when an alert comes in from Mosaic, followed a moment later by a message calling it a false alarm. The authors alternate between Carriles’s attempts to keep the crew alive and the mission on track, and Timony’s search for answers about why the alert, which readers know was legit, was canceled. The universe feels remarkably well-developed and the tension is palpable. James S.A. Corey fans will want to check this out. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 06/28/2024 | Details & Permalink

White debuts with an equally campy and tender tale that answers the question: what happens when Agatha Christie meets queer fantasy? Ganymedes Piscero is among the Empire of Concordia’s 12 Blessed, wielders of magical powers said to stem from the Goddesses they worship who each rule one of the empire’s 12 provinces. Together, the Blessed set out on a 12-day team-building journey on an enchanted ship, with the aim of fostering friendship and connection between their lands. Instead, the Blessed start dying off, and as they are the only people on the ship, one of them must be the culprit. Ganymedes harbors a big secret: he’s not actually capable of magic, but has been forced to fake it by his father. Even so, he intends to get to the bottom of the mystery and find the killer. Notwithstanding some slightly farcical magical happenings, there’s real heart here, and Ganymedes—a fat bisexual man from the lowest and least respected province in Concordia—makes an indisputably lovable hero. Studded with puns and dad jokes, this is a fun romp with a wholesome message about believing in oneself and lending a helping hand to others. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 06/21/2024 | Details & Permalink