ARCs

When sickness comes to the village, it takes the children first. Xander is burning from the inside, his body wasting away while the healers whisper that nothing more can be done. Desperate to save her younger brother, Maeve turns to the only hope left—the forbidden orchard beyond the hills, where crimson fruit grows on twisted trees and the mist never lifts. The villagers speak of it only in warnings. They say the fruit can heal any wound. They also say the orchard is alive. Maeve steals the fruit and brings it home. Xander begins to recover, but something inside him has changed. And beyond the village, the orchard is stirring. Soon the bodies begin to appear—hollowed, bloodless, organs missing as though harvested by unseen hands. The fruit gives life. But the orchard always takes something in return.

Lucy isn’t a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She’s a doll on a mission—to find the man who killed her and return the favor. Lucy McQuinn has been murdered, but she’s not about to go quietly. If she doesn’t get to keep breathing, then neither does Kyle, her killer. Possessing the body of an antique doll, she sets out on a quest for revenge. But it’s hard when you’re eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain. For help, she turns to Nicola, a human and fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle. But in their small idyllic town, no one wants to hear the truth, especially not about such a promising young man. If they can’t expose his crimes, Lucy will have to roll up her lacy little sleeves and teach him a lesson the old-fashioned way—as slowly and painfully as possible. From LA Times bestselling author Barbara Truelove, She’s a Doll is a ghoulish and gleeful tribute to the unstoppable power of female rage and a love letter to the friends who have our back—in this life and the next.

When egos clash during an assemblage of wizards, grandstanding displays of magic become a matter of murder in a witty and suspenseful short story by a New York Times bestselling author. Curmudgeonly conjurer Shiverick joins a conclave of fellow wizards on the strangest beach in the world expecting the usual flashy outfits, hammy miracles, and predictable suspicions that his own powers are nil. After all, he’s never so much as cast a spell in public. When accusations of fraud end in a flamboyant murder, Shiverick must piece together the truth amid the chaos. An observant and logical thinker, it’s his time to shine. Scott Lynch’s The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.

A TOUCH OF MAGIC In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un\-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…