Morgan Stang

Explore its many rooms, pick something nice off the shelf, and have a little read by the fire at the Cozy Quill Bookshop. Running from strife in her homeland, Maribella Waters becomes the new owner of the fabled Cozy Quill. After finding squatters on her property, she employs Asteria Helsdottir, a giant, barbarian warrior woman more accustomed to swinging an axe than opening a book. Together, the odd couple must make a success out of the bookshop—and survive a dizzying procession of seasonal festivals. But the local evil noblewoman has other plans in mind. Threatened with being run off the land, Maribella and Asteria must use their wits to outsmart Lady Malicent and keep their business open. Along the way, the whole town lends a hand, friendships are forged, and mysteries are revealed. The Bookshop and the Barbarian is a low stakes, comedic and cozy fantasy with a slice-of-life, sapphic romance. It is about the celebration of books, autumn and winter, community, friendship, and unexpected love. There is plenty of fourth-wall breaking, and a narrator who may or may not be a green slime. And it is also very patiently waiting for you to pick it up and read it.

As far as Harriette Cooke is concerned, a little lie or two never hurt anyone. A down-on-her-luck scribe and the sole provider for her family, she struggles to get by in a city that turns a blind eye to the poor. Her finances are squeezed to the breaking point when she stumbles across the impossible on the side of the road: a chest full of gold coins. The fortune could completely change Harriette's life. The problem? It's a lost provincial tax payment meant for the King. Throughout the city, the search is on for the missing money, and everyone is closing in on Harriette. On one side is the lord of the city, Count Gainsbury, and the cruel City Watch at his disposal. On the other side is the Cobbler's Guild, a band of ruthless cutthroats led by a madwoman who will stop at nothing to claim her prize. And complicating things is the arrival of Royal Inquisitor Samara Adia, an investigator sent straight from the King to put his affairs in order with the help of her infamous bodyguard, the Misfit of Kantor. Trapped in a web of deceit, all clues lead to Harriette and her friends. If they want to get out of the city alive—and rich—they have only their wits to rely on...and perhaps a little lie or two.

Mysteries abound in Spindle Manor. For Huntress Isabeau Agarwal, the countryside inn is the last stop in a deadly hunt. Armed with gaslamp and guns, she tracks an insidious beast that wears the skin of its victims, mimicking them perfectly. Ten guests reside within Spindle Manor tonight, and the creature could be any one of them. Confined by a torrential thunderstorm and running out of time, Isabeau has until morning to discover the liar, or none of them—including her—will make it out alive. But her inhuman quarry isn't the only threat residing in Spindle Manor. Gunshots. A slammed door. A dead body. Someone has been killed, and a hunt turns into a murder investigation. Now with two mysteries at her feet and more piling up, Isabeau must navigate a night filled with lies and deception. In a world of seances and specters, mesmers and monsters, the unexpected is hiding around every corner, and every move may be her last.

Mercenary Samantha Redwyne has seen too much blood spilled by her sword. She travels to the frigid north to get away from her ghosts, but doesn't find peace for long. The job: help deliver a wagon of wolf skins to a nearby village. The complication: a band of cutthroats on the hunt for a missing wagon with a priceless package hidden within. Pursued by ruthless men who believe her a thief, Samantha finds herself double-crossed, wounded and alone in a deadly forest. Armed with just her wits in a fight for survival, she discovers that some bloody habits are hard to break. But it's the longest night of the year, and man isn't the only thing chasing Samantha. The woods are lovely, dark and deep—the place folktales come from, where monsters dwell—and before the night is over, Samantha will have to confront not only death, but the unknown lurking just beyond the safety and sanity of the civilized world.

Traveling mercenary Samantha Redwyne just wants an easy job so she can afford to protect her loved ones, when she finds herself swept up in a city's violent rebellion. An idealistic revolutionary leader seeks her sword, urging her to fight for a cause. But causes don't always pay, and an eccentric and seductive baroness, more concerned with the latest masquerade than her own citizens, promises plenty of coin and a life of leisure for Samantha's lethal services. Samantha finds herself embroiled in schemes and intrigue between these two great forces, and after tragedy and the ultimate betrayal, she puts her life on the line to save her friends. Her fight grows far beyond a simple town revolution, and she must give everything she has in the name of survival, redemption, and bloody revenge.

Six months after helping win a bloody revolution, mercenaries Victoria Belltower and Samantha Redwyne find themselves working freelance on the road. But old ties are hard to break. They receive a letter from their former employer with dire news: Punkin—friend, thief, and strange young woman—is missing. Cryptic clues lead Victoria and Samantha to the bustling desert city of Al-Haumarune, where they learn there is more to Punkin's past life than she ever let on. The city has unsettling secrets, with stories of disappearing people, knives in the shadows, and a sinister group gathering power behind the scenes. There's a darkness in the City of a Thousand Cults, and if Victoria wants to find her missing friend, she'll have to embrace it—and face the darkness in the mirror as well. She Courts Darkness is the second novel in the Bartram's Maw series, following the events of She Topples Giants.