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Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror December 2025 |
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The Everlasting
by Alix E. Harrow
What it's about: Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion's greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children's books and recruiting posters--but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory--failed soldier, struggling scholar--falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives--and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una's legend--if they want to tell a different story--they'll have to rewrite history itself--
Why you might like it: From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.
Reviewers say: "Combining an epic love story with meditations on storytelling, history, and power, Harrow achieves the perfect balance of these powerful themes. Readers will savor the legendary love and lives of Owen and Una. Highly recommended." - Booklist
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Alchemised
by SenLinYu
What it's about: Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed. In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia's new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive. According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance's final gambit?
Why you might like it: In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
Reviewers say: “SenLinYu has created a vivid new universe. Alchemised made me remember what makes reading good fantasy so enjoyable.”—The Atlantic
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Daughter of No Worlds
by Carissa Broadbent
Book 1 of The War of Lost Hearts series
What it's about: Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life. Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. To join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders. The Orders’ intentions are cryptic, and Tisaanah must prove herself under the threat of looming war. But even more dangerous are her growing feelings for Maxantarius. The bloody past he wants to forget may be the key to her future… or the downfall of them both. Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means gambling in the Orders’ deadly games. Even if it means sacrificing her heart. Even if it means wielding death itself.
Why you might like it: A former slave fighting for justice. A reclusive warrior who no longer believes it exists. And a dark magic that will entangle their fates....fans of romantic fantasy will devour this tale from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carissa Broadbent.
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The Black Phone: Stories
by Joe Hill
What it's about: John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, which rings at night with calls from the dead. Imogene is young, beautiful...and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. Francis was human once, but now he's an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of '77, when his younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds.
Reviewers say: “Fully developed characters with complex emotional lives enhance the 14 stories in Joe Hill’s extraordinary collection. There’s not a false note or disappointing effort in this volume.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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For Whom the Belle Tolls
by Jaysea Lynn
What it's about: Lily isn't exactly thrilled with her arrival in the Afterlife, but what awaits her there is more fantastical than she ever could have imagined: Deities wait in line at the coffee shop. Fae flit between realms. Souls find ways to make death a beginning. As she explores the many corners of the Afterlife, Lily finds herself surprisingly drawn to a place most people would avoid at all costs: Hell. Armed with years of customer service experience and pent-up sarcasm, Lily carves a job out for herself amongst Hell's demons, sending souls to their rightful circles with more than a hint of sass. Lily's expectations are subverted every day in Hell--especially by Bel, a demon general with a distractingly sexy voice. The two meet by chance and form an immediate, deeply healing friendship, but the undeniable heat between them threatens to combust--
Why you might like it: From Hell’s Belles BookTok sensation Jaysea Lynn comes a hotter-than hell-romantasy about a young woman who finds a different side of the Afterlife, for fans of Sarah A. Parker and Callie Hart.
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Ship of Spells
by H. Leighton Dickson
What it's about: When Ensign Bluemage Honor Renn is rescued from the wreckage of her first naval post, she expects death or disgrace. Instead, she wakes aboard the Touchstone, a mythic vessel whispered of in dockside ballads and royal war rooms alike. With a crew of misfits, a mysterious, elven captain, and a mission tied to the Dreadwall, the crumbling barrier that has kept the Overland and Nethersea from open war for a hundred years. But the tragedy that sank her last ship didn't just take lives--it left something behind. Now Renn carries a secret everyone wants. A magik that’s chimeric, arcane...and slowly killing her.
Reviewers say: "Dickson’s novel keeps readers on the edge of their seats with morally gray characters, action, and wonderful worldbuilding; perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Erin Morgenstern." ―Library Journal, starred review
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Voyage of the Damned
by Frances White
What it's about: Twelve days at sea. One chance to stop a killerand save the world...For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor's ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess's Mountain. Aboard are the twelve heirs of the provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing.All except one: Ganymedes Piscero--class clown, slacker and all-around disappointment.When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people and without a Blessing to protect him, Ganymedes's odds of survival are slim.But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be. Can he unmask the killer and their secret Blessing before this bloody crusade reaches the shores of Concordia? Or will the empire as he knows it fall?
For fans of: Unlikely Snarky Heroes, Found Families, LGBTQIA+ Rep, Locked Room Mysteries, Second Chances, Magical Fantasies with a Touch of Romance
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Available in the Libby App
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| Extremity--Audiobook by Nicholas BingeWhat it's about: London Detective Julia Torgrimsen leaves her forced retirement to investigate the murder of billionaire Bruno Donaldson. When the crime scene reveals two perfectly identical bodies, Julia discovers an underground world of cloning, time travel, and a conspiracy that could end humanity as she knows it.
Why you might like it: This cinematic and intriguing time-bending procedural will delight fans of A.G. Riddle's Lost In Time and Matthew Fitzsimmons' Constance. |
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Bagman
When a sinister threat from his childhood returns to haunt him, a father desperately struggles against his deepest inner fear. Only this time, the fight isn't for himself; it's for his family.
Rated PG-13
Horror
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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