I am a part-time pooka and native of the Unseelie Court. I collect acorns, glass beads, and pretty rocks, and the crows outside my house know me as She Who Has Bread. My fantasy novels are crafted in the dead of night after offering sacrifices of almonds and red wine to the writing-block deities. You can reach me by scrying bowl, carrier pigeon, or @egradcliff on social media. If I can’t describe myself in fantastical terms, why take me seriously as a fantasy author and recommender?
I wrote
The Wild Court: A Celtic Fae-Inspired Fantasy Novel
The Night Circus…where to begin? I can describe this book only as ‘delicious.’ The fact is, the plot itself does not drive the progression of the pages; instead, this book’s true magic lies in its descriptions. Its complete sensory immersion has no match, and Erin Morgenstern achieves this with such complexity and detail that the scenes seem to linger behind closed eyes. While the plot itself is scarcely a focal point, this poses no problem. Instead, the progression of events acts like the flavor of bourbon threading subtly through chocolate: captivating, yet in the background. A beautiful read, an enchanting read, The Night Circus will surely ensnare your imagination with its creativity and masterful execution.
Rediscover the million-copy bestselling fantasy read with a different kind of magic, now in a stunning anniversary edition to mark 10 years since it's paperback debut.
The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Against the grey sky the towering tents are striped black and white. A sign hanging upon an iron gates reads:
Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn
Full of breath-taking amazements and open only at night, Le Cirque des Reves seems to cast a spell over all who wander its circular paths. But behind the glittering acrobats, fortune-tellers…
Another book remarkable for its descriptions, The Weight of Feathers combines the real world with enough distance and faint magic to make everything in it shimmer. Not everything makes perfect sense, and not everything needs to, because in Anne-Marie McLemore’s rewriting of the classic Romeo and Juliet love story, the taste of aguas frescas and the clinking of wind chimes make the otherworldly seem perfectly plausible. The Weight of Feathers is the sort of book that made me want to live in its world, to be privy to the hidden magic. The love story unfolds gradually as the deep cultures and subtle, colorful fantasy steal away the senses.
The Palomas and the Corbeaus have long been rivals and enemies, locked in an escalating feud for over a generation. Both families make their living as traveling performers in competing shows. The Palomas swimming in mermaid exhibitions, the Corbeaus, former tightrope walkers, performing in the tallest trees they can find. Lace Paloma may be new to her family's show, but she knows as well as anyone that the Corbeaus are pure magia negra, black magic from the devil himself. Simply touching one could mean death, and she's been taught from birth to keep away. But when disaster strikes the small…
The world of This Savage Song is one of the most excellently-built settings I’ve ever seen in a Young Adult novel. From gritty grayness to sleek and veneer-thin wealth, Victoria Schwab’s City of Verity—complete with bone-crunching monsters, blood-sucking monsters, and soul-stealing monsters—pokes quietly at the truths of human society. It is not, however, a philosophical book; instead, it’s a fast-paced read of trust and disgust, expectations and reality, and, of course, some cold betrayal. The characters are addictive and individual, the plot compels the pages to turn, and sympathies are pulled in both directions as two people, polar opposites, must find a common ground to survive in a world where the monsters are not always the wicked ones. This Savage Song is the first of two books.
Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city, a grisly metropolis where the violence has begun to create real and deadly monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the inhabitants pay for his protection. August just wants to be human, as good-hearted as his own father-but his curse is to be what the humans fear. The thin truce that keeps the Harker and Flynn families at peace is crumbling, and an assassination attempt forces Kate and August into a tenuous alliance. But how…
Inspired by the culture of ancient Rome, An Ember in the Ashes is a story of two very different people forced into an unlikely alliance. With constant horrors (Sabaa Tahir pulls no punches) pressing grimly on each characters’ psyche, the similarities between the protagonists emerge with artful telling. The immersive world building and compelling characters lend the story its strength, and as the plot progresses, those protagonists, along with the reader, must dig deeper and deeper into Tahir’s stunning tangle of divided loyalties, slowly-emerging love, and impossible, gruesome decisions. The series unfolds from this book on, and Tahir introduces new characters and plot twists that will keep you captivated from beginning to end.
'Keeps one reading long after the lights should have been out' - Robin Hobb
Read the explosive New York Times bestselling debut that's captivated readers worldwide. Set to be a major motion picture, An Ember in the Ashes is the book everyone is talking about.
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death.
When Laia's grandparents are brutally murdered and her brother arrested for treason by the empire, the only people she has left to turn to are the rebels.
But in exchange for their help in saving her brother, they demand that Laia spy on the ruthless Commandant…
Just a few pages into Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses, I was completely ensnared. With descriptive intricacies, a fully-fleshed culture, and frankly incredible character development, the series that begins with A Court of Thorns and Roses only seems to peak higher with each new book. Maas’s world of magic and deception hangs heavy with ancient cultural references (which I adore), and each new plot point weaves in with the last so that instead of a linear thread, the result at the end of the book is a tapestry. Quite frankly, in the days after reading A Court of Thorns and Roses series, I couldn’t center myself; I’d become so anchored to Maas’s world that the myth of the story held me more firmly than reality.
Experience Feyre Archeron's journey all over again with the beautiful collector's edition of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the seductive first book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series by Sarah J. Maas, featuring a deluxe new package, an updated map, ribbon pull, and more!
When nineteen-year-old Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin-one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she…
Fae and fire, magic and mayhem…what perils await beyond the veil?
As night descends on the autumn festival, a time of revelry turns into one of fiery destruction—as fae pour across the veil and the Gut becomes a battlefield in an otherworldly war. Determined to protect his kingdom and the people he loves, Áed is catapulted into a realm as unfamiliar as it is dangerous, where magic is king and wild courts vie for supremacy. While the faerie Queen's missing consort holds the key to life and death, tenuous alliances raise questions about Áed’s connection to the mysterious Bone Court. His survival hinges on cunning as much as illusion. On a mission like no other, no one will survive unscathed. May be enjoyed as a standalone.
Growing up in New England, my mother had a set of books that she kept in the living room, more for display than anything else. It was The Works of Edgar Allen Poe. I read them and instantly became hooked on horror. In the seventh grade, I entertained my friends at a sleepover by telling them the mysterious clanking noise (created by the baseboard heater) was the ghost of a woman who had once lived in the farmhouse, forced to cannibalize her ten children during a particularly bad winter. And I’ve been enjoying scaring people ever since.
In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunged off a waterfall to her death, leaving behind a legacy shrouded in secrets. Her great-niece Julia, a struggling journalist recovering from a divorce, seeks answers decades later.
Tasked with retrieving Dr. Greer’s discovery–a flower that could have world-changing properties–Julia unearths a story rife with hidden agendas and a missionary community unwilling to share the truth. As she confronts the eerie legends and a fellow traveler with his own motives, Julia finds that the longer she stays, the thinner the line between reality and the fantastical becomes until she…
From the award-winning author of Dead Souls and Poe comes an all-new bone-chilling novel where a mysterious island holds the terrifying answers to a woman's past and future.
In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunges off a waterfall to her death, convinced the spirits of her dead husband and daughter had joined the nightmarchers-ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights. But was it suicide, or did a strange young missionary girl, Agnes, play a role in Irene's deteriorating state of mind?
