Cozy Fantasy Hidden Gems

Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure—the first in the Invisible Library series! One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction... Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself. Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself... FEATURING BONUS MATERIAL: including an interview with the author, a legend from the Library, and more!

Georgia Peach Award Nominee • Florida Teens Read Award Nominee • ABC Best Books for Young Readers • Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year • A Junior Library Guild Selection • Hugo & Locus award finalist In Other Lands is an exhilarating novel from bestselling author Sarah Rees Brennan about surviving four years in the most unusual of schools - friendship, falling in love, diplomacy, and finding your own place in the world — even if it means giving up your phone. Excerpt: The Borderlands aren’t like anywhere else. Don’t try to smuggle a phone or any other piece of technology over the wall that marks the Border — unless you enjoy a fireworks display in your backpack. (Ballpoint pens are okay.) There are elves, harpies, and — best of all as far as Elliot is concerned — mermaids. "What’s your name?" "Serene." "Serena?" Elliot asked. "Serene," said Serene. "My full name is Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle." Elliot’s mouth fell open. "That is badass." Elliot? Who’s Elliot? Elliot is thirteen years old. He’s smart and just a tiny bit obnoxious. Sometimes more than a tiny bit. When his class goes on a field trip and he can see a wall that no one else can see, he is given the chance to go to school in the Borderlands. It turns out that on the other side of the wall, classes involve a lot more weaponry and fitness training and fewer mermaids than he expected. On the other hand, there’s Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an elven warrior who is more beautiful than anyone Elliot has ever seen, and then there’s her human friend Luke: sunny, blond, and annoyingly likeable. There are lots of interesting books. There’s even the chance Elliot might be able to change the world. Chapter illustrations by Casey Nowak.

Fleet Captain Three Seagrass sends her former partner Mahit Dzmare a message from the front lines of a war against an alien species. Together they must determine what the aliens actually are—and whether first contact might be possible—before the empire decides to simply destroy them.

At Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, new arrival Rini faces a unique dilemma: she doesn't belong in this world. Born a princess in a fantastical realm of sugar and sweets, a twist of fate brought her here, and now she's slowly dissolving. To save her life, a courageous group of Wayward Children—including the quiet Nancy and the determined Kade—must embark on a desperate quest. They will journey through treacherous portals, facing bizarre landscapes and dark magic, to find a way back to Rini's sugary home beneath a fantastical sky. Their bond will be tested as they race against time, for if they fail, Rini will vanish forever.

Professor Emily Wilde, a meticulous scholar of faerie lore, finds her quiet university life upended when enigmatic faeries from forgotten realms suddenly appear on campus. These otherworldly visitors aren't merely curious—they are tangled in dangerous courtly intrigue and harbor secrets that threaten the very fabric of the Hidden Ones' existence. Tasked with unraveling their perilous agenda, Emily must delve deeper into the magical Otherlands, utilizing her unparalleled knowledge and perhaps even the charming assistance of her former rival, Wendell Bambleby. As she maps uncharted territories of fae society and navigates ancient rivalries, Emily must race against time to prevent a catastrophic upheaval that could shatter both the human and fae worlds, all while confronting the burgeoning complexities of her own heart.

When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek. In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books. Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it. What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine. Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.

Perfect for fans of Travis Baldree and TJ Klune, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a cosy fantasy tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams and even sweeter romance. ‘Reading this book was like sitting in the sun . . . A warm, peaceful delight of a novel’ – Katherine Arden, author of The Bear and the Nightingale Every home needs a little magic . . . Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people, and as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to. She and her assistant Caz, a sentient spider plant, have spent most of the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s precious spellbooks, protecting the magic for the city’s elite. But a revolution is brewing, and when the library goes up in flames Kiela and Caz steal whatever books they can and flee to the faraway island where she grew up. But to her dismay, in addition to a nosy – and very handsome – neighbour, she finds the town in disarray. The empire has slowly been draining power from the island, and now Kiela is determined to make things right. But opening up her own spellshop comes with its own risks – the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela starts to make a place for herself among the townspeople, she realizes she must break down the walls she has kept so high . . . From award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop is a cottagecore cosy fantasy following a woman’s unexpected journey through the low-stakes market of illegal spell-selling and the high-risk business of starting over. Readers are in their cottagecore era . . . ‘If you ever played one of those cosy magical farming games and always wished there was a book like it: look no further’ ‘I want whatever this is (a cute shop where I sell spells and make jam and a hot man builds me floor to ceiling bookshelves)’ ‘This was the most heartfelt, wholesome, cosiest and cutest book I’ve ever read’

Zachary Ezra Rawlins stumbles across a book in his university library that contains a story from his own childhood. He follows a series of clues leading him to a subterranean world beneath a hotel—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, and assassins. A timeless love story set in an underground sea of story.

Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the Teixcalaanli Empire to find her predecessor dead—and no one willing to admit it. She is sent to discover what really happened, while navigating a glittering, treacherous court where even language is a weapon and assimilation is pressure. A space opera about power, identity, and belonging.

A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND INDIE BESTSELLER One of Buzzfeed's "Best Books of 2022"! An Indie Next Pick! A Locus Awards Top Ten Finalist for Fantasy Novel A Man Called Ove meets The Good Place in Under the Whispering Door, a delightful queer love story from TJ Klune, author of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller The House in the Cerulean Sea. Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through. When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead. But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days. Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.