Caroline Scymanski

Clayton and Avril Shaw have lost their little boy and are still mourning when they move into Swallow’s Nest on the Yorkshire moors. In their new house Avril discovers a painting. When she learns that the boy in the painting was deaf, like her dead son, she starts to try to communicate with his ghost. Meanwhile, Clayton finds himself entangled in an equally undesirable friendship with a retired fire chief who knows more about the painting than he is prepared to let on. Is The Crying Boy painting cursed, and can numerous house fires be linked to it?

My greatest enemy has always been myself. Over the past few weeks, I've painstakingly put my broken pieces back together, from the dark mysteries of my past to the heartrending conflict of my present. But just when I finally start to feel whole again, everything around me falls apart.

Having somehow convinced Lady Annika Jenoure to marry him, all Finlay Ashowan wants to do is settle down, cook some good meals, and enjoy a quiet life in Daxaria. But fate has different plans. Fin’s father, Aidan Helmer, fire witch and servant of King Matthias of Troivack, has arrived in the kingdom with devastating news: Annika’s brother Charles has been taken prisoner, and the only way his life will be spared is if Annika or Fin goes to plead his case. Given that an attack from Troivack is imminent, there’s no way some trickery isn’t involved in this plot.

When Finlay Ashowan joins the staff of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. No one knows where he comes from or how he came to be where he is, which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly uncanny meals. But Fin’s secret identity doesn’t stay hidden for long. After all, it’s not every day a house witch and his kitten familiar, Kraken, take to meddling in imperial affairs.

Divorced, desperate, and destitute, former restaurateur Defiance Dayne finds out she has been bequeathed a house by a complete stranger. She is surprised, to say the least, and her curiosity gets the better of her. She leaves her beloved Phoenix and heads to one of the most infamous towns in America: Salem, Massachusetts. She's only there to find out why a woman she's never met would leave her a house, a veritable castle that has seen better days.

Elliot Richardson thought he’d lost everything. He’d come home from deployment to find his wife cheating on him, his sons strangers and his life in tatters. Driving away, unsure where he was going, he fell through an interdimensional rift and found himself in a very different world, a city of magic and mystery and dangers beyond his comprehension, a land spinning out of control. Innovations from the distant west unsettle the monarchy and challenge the position of the aristocrats and warlords who hold the kingdom in their grasp.

At 72, Johnny Ribkins shouldn't have such problems: he's got one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it's curtains. What may or may not be useful to Johnny as he flees is that he comes from an African American family that has been gifted with superpowers that are a bit, well, odd. Okay, very odd. For example, Johnny's father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin belches fire. And Johnny himself can make precise maps of any space you name, whether he's been there or not.

Finally out of money, Warren is evicted from his flat, with no immediate job prospects forthcoming from Aimee.

Three of the most powerful necromancers in the Blighted Lands have banded together into an unstoppable force, one capable of breaching the Craggy Mountains and laying waste to the lands beyond. If they cannot be stopped, they will tear the Allied Lands apart. Nothing will survive. And so Emily, the Necromancer’s Bane, is called upon once more to stand in defense of her adopted homeland and stop the necromancers in their tracks. Her presence may be the only thing keeping the Allied Lands from shattering as the war turns hot once again.

William hates reading. It’s so boring! Word after word, page after page, chapter after chapter, ugh. So when his local library starts stocking something called a brame - a combination of a book and a game in a jar - he’s intrigued enough to give it a go. He has to nibble the brame pieces, which taste like cardboard and only give a hint to the story, which is fun at first. Who, or what, is Madison? What does “Thursday at Midnight” mean? Chewing the pieces is slow and tedious work - how will William ever get through all the pieces and figure out what this story is about?