1899, Sand Island, Wisconsin. Bridget Lederle resides in the lighthouse she’s tended since her father died. Here, on the rocky shore of Lake Suprior, she’s alone with the bitter ignominy of her birth, the shame of her love child’s death, and the ghost of a mother she never really knew... That all changes on the wintry night she rescues a mysterious, charismatic stranger whose boat is nearly dashed upon the rocks. After she’s nursed him back to health, he tells her a fantastical tale...of another world, where somehow only she can save the beleaguered Empress from sorcerous plottings to usurp the throne. His tale is wildly fanciful, yet Bridget feels somehow drawn to his world, to the empire of Isavalta. Kalami, her handsome, charming patient, transports her with him from Lake Superior to a dazzling world that seems like a dream... But if Isavalta is a dream, Bridget’s new life is a nightmare. Caught in a magical crossfire between the powerful Dowager Empress, her daughter-in-law, an the sorcerers who serve their mistresses and other more subtle ends, she doesn’t know whom to trust, whom to beware...With the fate of an empire at stake and her heart torn by conflicting desires, she becomes a reluctant player in a deadly game of politics and magic with rules as hard to untangle as the knots in a silken tassel or the threads of a woven rug. As she attempts to see beyond the masks of power and discover truth in a world where magical spells can take almost any form, each hour she spends in the luxury of Isavalta’s court bunds her more tightly in the seductive embrace of secrets from her own past and of unfulfilled yearnings she can’t deny. A stranger in this bedazzling place, she must find a path to salvation - for herself and for her new, otherworldly home - but that path seems rockier than the Lake Superior shore she left behind.

Fantasy-roman.

A New York Times bestseller! “A bewitching gem...I absolutely loved every moment of this story.” —Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series “If you loved the Hogwarts Library…you’ll be right at home at Summershall.” —Katherine Arden, New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an “enthralling adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom. All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them. As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

David Keck captivated readers with In the Eye of Heaven. Now, he continues the gripping story of Durand Col, a man at the heart of a nation divided. Fighting under the banner of Lord Lamoric, Durand and his companions thwarted a mad duke’s ambition and saved the crown. They have spent the winter counting their last pennies in their master’s gloomy hall and wondering what the coming season will bring. One thing seems certain: the peace they forged cannot hold. Too many barons have plotted against the king, too many strongrooms are empty, and no one truly believes that a simple vote will long deter the brooding Duke of Yrlac. With the advent of spring, the king rails against traitors and flings mad edicts across the land. There is open rebellion in the North. And, the Duke of Yrlac steps over the border of Lamoric’s homeland. Even as Durand fights at Lamoric’s side, his loyalties are increasingly torn. As a knight of Lamoric’s household, he cannot stray far from his master’s wife—the one woman he can neither have nor forget—while siege and sorcery conspire to bring him closer to treason. Can his loyalties survive his divided heart? Can the land of his birth survive the forces that tear it asunder? Can love and loyalty endure in a time of treason?

Most scholarship on sorcery and witchcraft has narrowly focused on specific times and places, particularly early modern Europe and twentieth-century Africa. And much of that research interprets sorcery as merely a remnant of premodern traditions. Boldly challenging these views, Sorcery in the Black Atlantic takes a longer historical and broader geographical perspective, contending that sorcery is best understood as an Atlantic phenomenon that has significant connections to modernity and globalization. A distinguished group of contributors here examine sorcery in Brazil, Cuba, South Africa, Cameroon, and Angola. Their insightful essays reveal the way practices and accusations of witchcraft spread throughout the Atlantic world from the age of discovery up to the present, creating an indelible link between sorcery and the rise of global capitalism. Shedding new light on a topic of perennial interest, Sorcery in the Black Atlantic will be provocative, compelling reading for historians and anthropologists working in this growing field.

Danielle Stinson's Before I Disappear is an action-packed YA novel where a young woman has to find her little brother after her town disappears into thin air. Rose Montgomery parks her family’s trailer in Fort Glory, Oregon with one goal: to carve out a new life for herself and her little brother, Charlie. They need a fresh start for their family, and she thinks she's finally found it in a town where nobody knows them. But Rose’s plans come crashing down when, in an instant, Fort Glory disappears and every person in town vanishes into thin air—including Charlie. Rose and four other teens become trapped in the Fold, a patch of woods caught halfway between the real world and the lost town. In the Fold, a mysterious force suspends the laws of physics, and everyone’s inner darkness has the power to kill. To survive the Fold, Rose must unravel the clues Charlie sends her from the missing town. And Rose has to find Charlie soon—or he'll be gone forever.

From the USA Today & International Bestselling author of the Saga of Crimson & Clover comes a gripping new epic fantasy world that will leave you breathless to the very last page. A crown woven together by lies. A kingdom with the power to unravel them. Four Reaches. Four brides. Only a fortnight separates the young women from becoming reluctant queens of the usurper king, Eoghan Rhiagain. Twenty years earlier, King Eoghan’s father cunningly devised marriages between the highborn sons and daughters of the oft-warring Reaches, sealing the unions before they could protest, shattering existing betrothals in place of forced alliances. Now, Eoghan, the cruel boy king who stole his crown through murder, demands the eldest daughters of these unions. To accept is unfathomable. To refuse is treason. The lords and ladies of the kingdom have no choice but to prepare their beloved daughters for the horrors ahead. But they’ll soon discover there are no longer any daughters left to present. All four have disappeared, painting the world with their rebellion. Theirs is not the only rebellion. Across the kingdom, little fires light within. From the enigmatic sorcerers in the northern mountains, to the magi who both wield and regulate the kingdom’s magic, and beyond... to a place where two prisoners are not what they seem. As the Reaches ready themselves to face the king, the kingdom hovers on the edge of chaos. And there are many who recall, in candlelit secrecy, tales of a time before... 👑 Evil King ⚔️ Formidable Women 👑 Raven Priestesses ⚔️ Arranged Marriages 👑 Found Family ⚔️ Enemies to Lovers 👑 Friends to Lovers ⚔️ Multiple Romantic Subplots 👑 Unique Magic System ⚔️ Revenge 👑 Medieval Fantasy ⚔️ Forbidden Romance 👑 Epic Worldbuilding ⚔️ Politics and Intrigue For content warnings, please visit sarahmcradit.com.