Urban Fantasy Thriller

I’m Val Thorvald, and I’m an assassin. When magical bad guys hurt people, I take care of them. Permanently. This doesn’t make me popular with the rest of the magical community — as you can tell from the numerous break-ins and assassination attempts I’ve endured over the years. But thanks to my half-elven blood, a powerful sword named Chopper, and a telepathic tiger with an attitude, I’ve always been able to handle my problems with aplomb. Maybe some cursing and swearing, too, but definitely aplomb.

With characters arranged alphabetically - from the Ancient Pythoness to Bethany Zanelli - best-selling author Charlaine Harris takes fans into the future of their favorite residents of Bon Temps and environs. You’ll learn how Michele and Jason’s marriage fared, what happened to Sookie’s cousin Hunter, and whether Tara and JB’s twins grew up to be solid citizens. This coda provides the answers to your lingering questions - including details of Sookie’s own happily-ever-after…

Okay, so I'm in trouble. Big trouble. I'm broke. Worse, my boyfriend of five years just dumped me. What do I do? I move in with my three eccentric aunts in their family home, Davenport House. Sounds exciting, only this massive farmhouse likes to eat men. If I were a regular human, I would have run out screaming like a banshee. As a witch - I do absolutely nothing. Hey, maybe they deserved it? I'm back in Hollow Cove, the flamboyant paranormal community, where nymphs, werewolves, trolls, shifters, witches, and other paranormals live comfortable lives away from prying human eyes.

Aspen is a Norm. A non-magic. A human. And in this supernatural city, that's a quick way to wind up dead. Or worse. She didn't plan on becoming an apprentice to Lucien Dunadine, one of the strongest members on the Council of Mages. She really didn't plan on taking part in a deadly competition against Isak Uchida, her handsome, aggravating, deadly opponent. But with something sinister going down in the magic boroughs, they'll all have to work together if they want to uncover the source of an ancient evil threatening their home.

No one ever told me what to do if I ended up 40-something, divorced, and jobless. When my ex knocks at my door with his new girlfriend, I somehow manage to turn them into toads. But that's not possible, right? Still, my ex-husband's car is in the driveway, and he's nowhere to be found. Which doesn't look great for me. So I do the only rational thing I can think of...I run for it, straight back to the small town I grew up in. Mystic Hollow is exactly the way I remember it, except now it seems that everything I thought was normal and boring is supernatural.

Deftly blending such genres as mystery, science fiction, and classic literature, Jasper Fforde’s gleefully irreverent New York Times best-selling Thursday Next novels defy categorization. In this sixth installment, the threat of all-out Genre war looms over BookWorld. But with the real Thursday Next retired in the real world, the Council of Genres has no other choice than to tap the fictional Thursday to save the day. Her mission as emissary is to prevent the brewing war—but her task is made more difficult by a hidden foe manipulating events.

Eighteen-year-old Jason Rogers’ life is turned upside-down when he finds himself in the custody of an unnamed government agency that is falsely accusing him of being responsible for the explosion that caused the death of his parents. Anya is 17 - a teenager who wishes she could be normal for once - but she’s not. A secret government agency, headed by none other than her father, knows how to leverage the dangerous capability she was born with. All goes well for her until one of the agents turns on her.

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason, he is.

It's the annual Night Festival in Hollow Cove, a paranormal festival extravaganza that lasts for five nights and features a multitude of powerful faces in our paranormal circles. There's only one little problem. Someone ends up dead. And I'm the one accused of murder. As my life spirals down the crapper once again, things between me and Marcus are even more confusing than ever before - hot - but ridiculously confusing. And to add to my wondrous good fortune - something or someone is trying to kill me.

We're the D'Artigo sisters: Half-human, half-Faerie, we are savvy - and sexy - operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But our mixed-blood heritage short-circuits our talents at all the wrong times. My sister Delilah shapeshifts into a tabby cat whenever she's stressed. Menolly's a vampire who is still trying to get the hang of being undead. And me? I'm Camille - a wicked-good witch. Except my magic is as unpredictable as the weather, which my enemies are about to find out the hard way.

Get ready for a journey of discovery as a forty-something heroine slams into a midlife crisis. After her husband leaves her, Naomi moves into her late grandmother's cottage and discovers a world of magic. Life becomes unpredictable—and exciting—especially with a supernatural mystery that only she can solve—if she survives.

Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross is renowned for his cutting-edge science fiction. This third entry in his “edgy … spoof of Cold War spy thrillers” ( Booklist) finds covert agent Bob Howard learning about a top-secret dossier that vanishes with his boss. Determined to discover the contents of this memorandum, Howard runs afoul of Russian spies, ancient demons, and apostles of a hideous cult planning to raise the Eater of Souls from the undead.

Between life and death, there's magic. Our secrets have been exposed and now we have to deal with the consequences: Friends of the Midwest Pack are missing. Alliances are forming between enemies whose sole intent is to destroy the pack. And a mysterious group is trying to make a power grab using any means possible. With my pack and our allies in danger, I don't think things can possibly get any worse. I'm wrong.

They say that by the age of 40 you should have gained the skills and experience to have a better life. But the only thing I've gained is a job promotion to permanent desk jockey until retirement. I thought I escaped my mediocre destiny when I met my husband...until he died on our honeymoon and a series of unfortunate events left me with a strange mark on my body and my husband's corpse stolen right out of the funeral home!

Being part of the Midwest Pack isn't easy - especially now. My life has never been simple - and it only keeps getting more complicated. The Alphas, Ethan, and several key players in the otherworld go missing, thrusting me into the position of Elite Alpha and tasking me with finding them. The list of suspects grows as I realize that mating with Ethan has caused allies to become enemies. Will I locate the missing in time or will I be the last Alpha standing?

As long as I can keep my supernatural origins hidden, my life is simple. It's just my best friend and me against the world, eating dried ramen and peas, watching reality TV, and laying low in the city that never sleeps. That is until Draven, a dangerously attractive hunter, tracks me down and kidnaps me. He's with the Obsidian Order, and he gives me a choice: join their ranks or die. All I have to do is pass a series of deadly trials at their Academy, competing against a bunch of supernaturals who want me dead. Sounds easy, right?

Victoria can't wait to start college, but there's a hitch - she can't remember anything before arriving on campus. Her memories finally spark when she sees her ruggedly handsome math professor, but she senses something terrible happened. The shock on his face affirms her fears. Toby is an alpha wolf who never thought he'd see his true love again - not after she died in his arms. Nothing could have prepared him for her walking into his class. But to his dismay, not only has she forgotten the past, she doesn't even know who she is.

Penniless graduate Blair Wilkes has always felt one step behind everyone else. Unemployed and out of luck, with the uncanny ability to cause havoc wherever she treads, when she receives a job offer from a strange town called Fairy Falls, she's certain it's too good to be true. It turns out Fairy Falls isn't just eccentric: it's magical...and so is Blair.

The Alaskan wilderness is a harsh landscape in the best of conditions, but with a pack of rogue werewolves on the loose, it's downright deadly. Elena Michaels, the Pack's chief enforcer, knows all too well the havoc "mutts" can wreak. When they hear of a series of gruesome maulings and murders outside Anchorage, she and her husband, Clay, journey to Alaska in the dead of winter in order to hunt down the dangerous werewolves.

I survived the Obsidian Order's first series of trials. I stopped a madman from putting a massive crater in the middle of NYC. Good job, Seline, but that was only the beginning. As I take on my silver trials, friends become competition, competitors turn ruthless, and I still can't touch my magic without it nearly killing me every time I do. If I don't win these trials I'll get left behind, and I've been promised that won't be good for me. If that weren't enough, the infuriatingly sexy Draven asks me to accompany him on a mission to retrieve an item of incredible magical power.