A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king—while also fighting her growing desire for his fiery son—in this Norse-inspired fantasy romance from the bestselling author of The Bridge Kingdom series. Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back. Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate. Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and the creator and host of the popular podcast, The Happy Writer, comes the ultimate guide to writing with less stress and more JOY. If you aren’t suffering, you aren’t creating. Right? Wrong! Writing can and should be joyful, fulfilling… even fun! Applicable to writers in all genres and disciplines—from screenwriters to novelists, journalists to picture book authors, aspiring to many-times published—The Happy Writer is a heartfelt and optimistic guide that will show you the way to a happier writing journey. Part craft guide, part writing coach, and part cheerleader, this book offers useful advice on a slew of common writing and publishing ailments, such as how to end procrastination, how to build a social media platform that reflects your personality, how to get your imagination to overflow with new ideas, how to listen to your intuition when receiving a critique on your work, how to overcome impostor syndrome, what to do when you’re stuck in the query trenches, and so much more. No matter where a writer might be on their creative journey, Meyer encourages them to tap into their own personal sources of joy and to celebrate every milestone, all while confronting challenges (writer’s block! rejection! burnout!) with a reservoir of resources for every temperament, budget, and career. Known in writers’ circles as a generous mentor, Meyer shares stories from her own writing path to help every writer discover the ultimate joys of living their best writing life.

When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange colony of beings in the woods.When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother's house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be? Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more—Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants…until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself. Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale. From Hugo Award–winning author Ursula Vernon, writing as T. Kingfisher.

With the haunting, romantic voyeurism of The Virgin Suicides and the atmosphere and emotional intensity of Where the Crawdads Sing, an intoxicating Southern Gothic debut novel about identical triplets whose lives are devastated when their burgeoning desires turn deadly. “There never was a gator killing around here, contrary to everlasting rumor, and there was only one real murder, but it seems each bad thing that happens is like an incantation invoking the Binderup family, its women and their dying.” Identical triplets Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C Binderup were welcomed into the world as their mother was ushered out of it, leaving them nameless and in the care of their Gram, Isadora. Nineteen years later, the triplets work at their Gram’s crumbling golf course in Longshadow, Texas, where the ever-watchful eyes of the town observe them serving up glasses of ice-cold lemonade to golfers, swimming in the murky waters of the neighboring bayou, or slipping t-shirts off their sunburnt shoulders in hopes of attracting the kind of attention they are only beginning to understand. Cautious Baby B watches as lustful Baby A and introverted Baby C find matches among the town boys. Even Baby B has noticed that the town’s golden boy seems to be intrigued by her, only her. Just as each girl’s desire to be seen for herself is becoming fulfilled, a seemingly trivial kiss is bestowed on the wrong sister, leading to a moment of unspeakable violence that will upend the triplets’ world forever. Pulsating with menace and narrated with hypnotic lyricism, Girls with Long Shadows is an electrifying literary thriller that captures how female teenage angst can turn lethal when insecurities are weaponized and sibling bonds are severed. Tense, lush, and painfully beautiful, it forces us to consider the lengths to which we will go to claim our own personhood.

From the author of Enemy Feminisms and Abolish the Family, an original diagnosis of femmephobia in our culture, and a vision of a life-giving femme feminism for all. To be femme is to embody a dispossessed femininity, to be freighted with freedom, to refuse to be made proper or institutionalized. To love it is to embrace love for women (be they butch or not) in the broadest sense. In Femmephilia, Sophie Lewis makes the case for the vital importance of politicized femme-ness: a feminism that is self-consciously artificial, extravagant in its erotic and political appetites, and staunchly anti-work, abolitionist, and utopian. Femme labors deserve our care, respect, and support, but instead face dismissal from masculinist antagonists and feminist allies alike. Where neoliberal women’s empowerment has failed to combat the eruption of right-wing, anti-trans, and anti-feminist attacks, Lewis argues that femmephilia can help us imagine a radical future. In essays on the high femme genius of Marilyn Monroe and trans yearning in the myth of Apollo and Daphne; on octopuses and girlbosses, reluctant heterosexuals, lesbian separatists, and anti-work cats; and on a mother on strike from maternity, Femmephilia offers a new logic of liberation for all feminized people.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin. Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?

Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0751504386 In a bumper collection of truly chilling tales, we meet Gramma - who only wanted to hug little George, even after she was dead; The Raft - a primeval sea creature with an insatiable appetite; The Monkey - an innocent-looking toy with sinister powers; the unspeakable horror of The Mist. And there is a gruesome host of other stories, each with the distinctive blend of unimaginable terror and realism that typifies King's writing.

The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. Full blurb to be revealed soon!

In a city clinging to light during an age of darkness, all healer Ophelia wants is for a Saint to finally claim her. Since being brought to Lumendei as an orphan nearly thirty years ago, she’s worked tirelessly to prove herself worthy of the Mysteries—the sacred, magical power that only the Saints can bestow upon mortals of their choosing. When she’s tasked with caring for an injured prisoner, Ophelia sees the perfect way to prove she’s ready for her Sainting. The prisoner is none other than the Umbra Knight—the most dangerous warrior of Lumendei’s sworn enemy, the Sepulchyre. If she can save the Umbra Knight’s soul by converting her to the Church of the Host, the Saints will surely fight amongst themselves to claim Ophelia. But the disarmingly beautiful and undeniably deadly knight’s soul is in even worse shape than Ophelia feared. In fact, she insists Ophelia’s beloved God is a murderous liar and her adopted city is built on blackened bones. It’s easy to dismiss as blasphemy, at least at first. Until Lumendei’s gilded secrets begin to tumble from their hiding places and Ophelia herself uncovers a conspiracy ... then she’s forced to consider the idea that Nyatrix—otherwise known as the Umbra Knight—might be telling the truth, and that saving the alluring knight’s soul is the least of her concerns. A sapphic high fantasy for fans of The Fall That Saved Us and The Foxglove King, Holy Wrath is a standalone novel about the fierceness of queer love and two women who no longer want equality once they’ve tasted revenge.

A riotous trans enemies-to-lovers romantasy that roars off the page—in which a magical girl-gone-bad and a renegade mech pilot must find a way to stay on a date forever... ...even if it means destroying the world. Don't you want to help them? An extraordinary meld of adventure, rom-com, and experimental fiction, Violet Allen’s unstoppable debut is the cosmic thrill ride of a lifetime. Give in, succumb (you know you want to) to Plastic, Prism, Void.