Staff Picks by Tag

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Girl, Serpent, Thorn By Melissa Bashardoust Cover Image
$12.99
ISBN: 9781250196163
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Flatiron Books - January 10th, 2023

 

Cursed at birth to be poisonous to the touch, Soraya considers herself the shameful secret of the royal family. That is, until a fortuitous series of events leads her down a path that will irrevocably change her family and her country. As she attempts to come to terms with her actions, she learns that not everything is black and white. I truly appreciate how Bashardoust casts Soraya in a morally gray light in which she is not the hero, nor the villain, and not simply a damsel in distress either. She is fully aware of her reach and her actions. This story beautifully blends Persian fairytale, historical drama, and epic poetry.


Review by Lauren

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A Deadly Education: A Novel (The Scholomance #1) By Naomi Novik Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593128503
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Del Rey - May 4th, 2021

Did Harry Potter make you long to go to Hogwarts? Could you see yourself as part of a House, making lifelong friends, wearing knitted scarves, enjoying feasts and holidays, and maybe even rubbing elbows with the Chosen One? Be warned, the Scholomance is Hogwarts deadlier cousin. A wizarding high school where every day is a battle with lethal creatures, a murderous building and 4000 other teenagers who will do anything to make it to graduation where, if they're lucky, the alliances they've made will allow them to pass the final exam and survive.


Review by Deborah

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The Unwilling By Kelly Braffet Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780778388241
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Mira Books - May 25th, 2021

I picked this up because I wanted a fund diverting fantasy, maybe with a light romance thrown in for flavor. 

Instead I got this dark, convoluted monster of a novel, in which nothing is simple, event the characters you love can be terrible, ad all your expectations are brought into a startling, hideous light.

This book gave me nothing I wanted, but what it gave me instead was much better. It is not for the feint of hearth. Read it


Review by Allie

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Firelight (Darkest London #1) By Kristen Callihan Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9781455508594
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Forever - February 1st, 2012

This paranormal romance series hooked me to the Romance genre once and for all. The Darkest London series follows three sisters and their various supernatural acquaintances in Victorian England. There's adventure, there's horrible deeds, there's heroes lurking in the dark - all framed by a magical investigative organization that's as old as it is secret. It's like Gail Carriger's Soulless series but with more fabled creatures and very steamy couplings. 



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The Ballad of Black Tom By Victor LaValle Cover Image
$13.99
ISBN: 9780765387868
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Tordotcom - February 16th, 2016

What an angry and satisfying story. Apart from creating a compelling and morally ambiguous character worthy of his own series, Lavalle serves up a rebut to the xenophobia writhing in the depths of the Lovecraft mythos. This book made me hold up foot traffic on the way to the store, demanding that I finish the heartbreaking chapter before I took another step. J'adore.