T.M. Baumgartner is my favorite cozy fantasy writer and this new series starting with Theoretical Magic was another lovely addition to my library. Theoretical Magic was fast-paced urban fantasy with characters I really loved. The plot is solid, fraught with danger and kept me guessing. The character growth and world-building were excellent. It's twisty, fun and has those great touches of humor. Realistic relationships whether it's with co-workers, the boss, or even the potential love interest.
Floodmouth: home of vampires, mages, reliable public transportation… and student loans. For Jen Perkins — a non-mage human with a PhD in magic theory — working as an evidence technician for the Federal Bureau of Magic Enforcement provides a much-needed paycheck. Sure, the petty politics are irritating, but at least she doesn't have to deal with the vampire agents upstairs…
…until she gets paired up with one of those vampires to help him execute search warrants. Special Agent Simon Bowers expects an experienced entry team specialist, not an evidence tech who took some online training.
Crudrat is my very favorite Gail Carriger book. It has everything I look for in a space opera: a downtrodden, stubborn main fighting to survive, excellent and heartwarming sidekicks, danger, a seemingly insurmountable problem to be solved and an action-packed plot. Maura has to work incredibly hard to create her place in life and discover that she's worth something after all. It's billed as YA, but it's not an angsty teenage book. No, this works for all ages because Maura has real problems to solve, ones that were easy to emphasize with.
Maura is doomed to starve. Her space station has no further use for her.
New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger brings you a fast-paced young adult scifi adventure featuring a capable heroine, her adorable pet, and the alien they accidentally rescue.
Abandoned
Outcast
Crudrat
With only her crud-eating murmel and a fuzzy alien stranger to help, Maura must find a way to survive, before they catch her and blow what’s left of her life into space.
In the far future, on a space-port the size of a city, crudrats scrape out a meager living cleaning the great machines that…
Benedict Jacka plots like no other author I've read. The details and world building are realistic and stay within bounds. They are doled out slowly, building a plot that is so intricate, I can read the book two or three times and learn things I missed. The characters are always what grabs me. I have to care and Jacka has created a great star in Stephen Oakwood. Stephen doesn't have much, but he cares about his cat and his friends. It's very much an "outside looking in" at the world of the wealthy, but Stephen is less interested in wealth and more interested in surviving his own way. Stephen isn't terribly interested in the rules. There's more than one mystery to be solved in this series. I love the family nuances and all the fun to come.
The super-rich control everything—including magic—in this thrilling and brilliant, contemporary fantasy from the author of the Alex Verus novels.
The wealthy seem to exist in a different, glittering world from the rest of us. Almost as if by . . . magic.
Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into magical power takes money, opportunity, and training. All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat.
But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong…
There’s a lot of magic in the world, but a single touch from me and any enchantment is ashes to ashes, dust to dust. People want me dead, but the homeless are hard to pin down. At least that was true until I made a foolish mistake and rescued a caged mountain lion shifter. My null is no threat to him, but those who wanted him captured are after me now. Carlos didn’t realize the danger when he hired me to buffer him from magic that could put him back in a cage. I didn’t realize the danger of being part of a partnership. Sure, it’s better than being hungry on the streets, but it’s more dangerous for both of us. Carlos is strong and fast; I’m quick and sneaky. But will Carlos trust me enough to keep me hidden when he finds out what I am? And can I stay free long enough to protect him?
Audio narrated by Lori Barkin available late Jan 2026!
