Showing results for "Julie Smith" in Fantasy

The Beast Keepers is the story of Jonathan F. St. Roche, a young veterinarian, who takes a job in the rural Ohio town of Carrollton. He soon discovers it is a safe haven for a menagerie of mythical creatures (including a pregnant Pegasus, a flying monkey with a sprained wing, a centaur with Cushing’s disease, and a unicorn with a sweet tooth), who rely on him for their medical care and shelter from the outside world.

Apropos is the unlikely noble whose life began in the lowest of ways: as the result of a gang assault by a group of drunken knights on a helpless tavern wench. Last time out, Apropos attempted to seize control of his own fate, and ended up with, appropriately, nothing. Time has passed since he fled the kingdom of Runcible, and Apropos leads a quiet existence as a tavern owner.

My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I should be at my father's side as a royal princess. But as a half-breed, bastard child, that isn't going to happen. In a world of lava and fire, I am about to face my hardest trial yet. Not one of strength, or power, but intrigue and manipulation. However, my tolerance level for anyone outside of my family is at an all-time low, and the queen who rules the Pit expects complete obedience.

Magic had at last returned to Caithe - though hardly in the form that the princess Athaya Trelane had imagined. The Sage, the wizard leader of the ice-bound island of Sare, was poised on Caithe's shores. No longer would wizards be persecuted by Church and State. No longer would the Tribunal dare root out and exterminate them. And those Caithans who were struck with the madness of untrained magic would no longer need to flock to Athaya's secret schools to learn control. The promises he made to Caithe's wizards were grand....

While the Tribunal scours the land, determined to exterminate all wizards in Caithe, Athaya's camp swells with refugees, and the only person who can keep them from starving is the sage of far-off Sare.

Safely ensconced with a master magician who is teaching her wizardry, Princess Athaya realizes she must return to Caithe, from which she has recently escaped, to teach its citizens how to control the evil magic that is controlling them.

In Caithe, magic is considered to be a gift from the devil, that should be rejected - by giving away your life when the first signs of 'magic madness' appear. However, the same magic gift is considered a blessing, when used by Caithe's king. But the situation is problematic, when Athaya, the king's daughter starts showing the signs of the magic. She runs to a nearby kingdom that embraces magic, but will that be enough to protect her?

My name is Peta, and I am a familiar. To stand at the side of an Elemental as their familiar is a gift given to few familiars. Yet here I stand with my thirteenth—Larkspur, child of the earth. I do not want this charge, for all my previous have ended in deaths I could not prevent. I am not sure my heart can take another loss of one bonded with me. Larkspur’s strength and heart call to me as only one other Elemental's had, and I cannot deny the need to protect her, and to shield her from all pain.

Isabella Barton, fleeing from an ex-fiancé after uncovering his ties with the Russian mafia and his willingness to bargain her body for business, finds herself at her childhood home in Rhode Island. Searching through the aged Victorian mansion, Isabella discovers an ancient book of witchcraft. With nothing to lose, she attempts the spell for “True Love” that insists on flipping open in front of her.