Multicultural Fantasy

At the end of the 21st century, the world has changed dramatically, but life continues 1,000 feet below the ocean's surface. In Great Britain, sea creatures swim among the ruins of Big Ben and the Tower of London, and citizens waver between fear and hope: fear of what lurks in the abyss and hope that humanity will soon discover a way to reclaim the planet. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Leyla McQueen has her own problems to deal with.

News stations across the country are reporting mysterious messages that Earth has been receiving from a planet - Alma - claiming to be its creator. If they’re being interpreted correctly, in seven days Alma will hit the kill switch on their “colony” Earth. True or not, for teenagers Jesse Hewitt, Cate Collins, and Adeem Khan, the prospect of this ticking time bomb will change their lives forever. With only a week to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide as their worlds are pulled apart.

Imani is a crusader for justice. After a tragic event in her family, she has sworn to fight for those who are unjustly accused and imprisoned. So when she is asked to go to another planet and fight for the rights of a Kindred warrior who is scheduled for execution, she jumps at the chance. But there's one problem - he's a Nightwalker Kindred, a species so dangerous, even the other Kindred shun them. Imani is fearless and determined to free her new client, but what happens when she accidentally claims him as her own?

Everything in 12-year-old Pilar Violeta “Purp” Ramirez’s world is changing, and Pilar doesn’t care for it one bit. Her Chicago neighborhood is gentrifying, and her chores have doubled since her sister, Lorena, left for college. The only constant is Abuela and Mami’s code of silence around her cousin, Natasha - who disappeared in the Dominican Republic 50 years ago during the Trujillo dictatorship. So when Pilar hears that one of Lorena's professor's studies disappearances under the Trujillato, she hops on the next train.

Wanted criminal, Lisa Moss, has come out of hiding to find her missing twin brother. She's carrying top-secret corporate technology that has the law hot on her tail. An alien pirate captain with smoldering eyes and a rock-hard body is the last distraction she needs - but he's also her only hope of escape.

Twelve-year-old Maya is the only one in her South Side Chicago neighborhood who witnesses weird occurrences like were-hyenas stalking the streets at night and a scary man made of shadows plaguing her dreams. Her friends try to find an explanation - perhaps a ghost uprising or a lunchroom experiment gone awry. But to Maya, it sounds like something from one of Papa’s stories or her favorite comics.

Heir apparent, young Prince Ahkin feels unprepared for leadership after his father's death. His royal blood controls the power of the sun, and he’s now responsible for the lives of all the Chicome people. Despite all Ahkin’s efforts, the sun is fading - and the end of the world may be near. For Mayana, the only daughter of the Chicome family whose blood controls the power of water, the old emperor’s death may mean that she's next. Ahkin must marry before ascending the throne, and Mayana is one of six noble daughters presented to him. Those who are not chosen will be sacrificed.

Arden Highmore was living your average postgrad life in Rochester, New York, when someone flipped the “off” switch on the world. No cell phones, no power, no running water - and no one knows why. All she and her roommate, John, know for sure is that they have to get out, stat. His family’s cabin near the Canadian border seemed like the safest choice. It turns out isolation doesn’t necessarily equal safety.

Not even in her wildest imaginings did Kumari ever think she'd become a princess. But having fallen for Ben - or rather Prince Benedict, sixth in line to the throne - it looks like nothing will ever go as planned again. And as Christmas rapidly approaches, the distinction between family festivities and Royalty becomes ever more apparent. With the paparazzi hounding her, her job on the line and some rather frustrating royal training, Kumari feels panic set in. Does loving Prince Charming mean she'll get her fairy tale ending - and on her own terms?

Isabel is having an existential crisis. She’s three years into high school, and everything she’s learned has only shaken her faith in humanity. Late one night, she finds herself drawn to a niche corner of the internet—a forum whose members believe firmly in one thing: that there are indeed people out in the world quietly performing impossible acts of heroism. You might even call them supers. No, not in the comic book sense—these are real people, just like each of us, but who happen to have a power or two.

Conquering the world is a hefty job for anyone, not to mention the additional surprise of becoming a father, again. Cade Willmartin is up for the task though.

Gillian Armstead-Bancroft—Pride of the East Side and once-perfect bruja, wife, and mother—is going to spend her summer getting good at being bad. The first time she left Freedom, Kansas, behind, she did it by doing everything right. This time, she’ll hide from the large Mexican American family welcoming her home and work in secret to break the curse that’s erased her magical life. Only by doing it all wrong can Gillian get herself and her two children away from the ghosts of her hometown by summer’s end.

Früher betrachtete ich meine Hände mit Stolz. Jetzt kann ich nur noch denken: Das sind die Hände, die meine Mutter begraben haben. Ning hat nur ein Ziel: Sie muss das Leben ihrer kleinen Schwester retten, denn nach dem Tod ihrer Mutter könnte sie nicht noch einen Verlust ertragen. Und so nimmt sie die Einladung zum Wettkampf der mächtigsten Tee-Magier des Reiches an, obwohl sie gar nicht für sie bestimmt ist. Denn wer diesen Wettkampf gewinnt, hat einen Wunsch frei.

Despite being back with the family she so desperately fought to get back to, all she can think about is the life she left behind. Her aching heart grows worse day by day, but she doesn’t have anyone to confide in about her impossible adventure, so she keeps it all to herself, letting her grief slowly consume her. With no seer, no queen, and no love of his life, Kang-Dae is in a bad place. Though those around him try to convince him Serenity is gone for good, he refuses to accept it. There’s something inside him that desperately clings to the hope that she is alive.

Seventeen-year-old Asha's days are spent training in martial arts, attending homeschool classes, and helping in the kitchens of a luxurious Miami resort which she seldom leaves. Until the night her grandfather arrives home mysteriously injured, accompanied by a terrifying stranger. Asha begins to suspect that nothing is what it seems when she is abruptly sent to Punjab, India, to live with relatives she never knew she had.

Portland book artist Neve Kelly is having weird visions - vivid daydreams of lovers on a battlefield that yank her out of reality. A couple weeks before Halloween, a confused, strangely dressed man appears in her living room. He drops a slip of paper that describes a dream much like her own before disappearing without a trace.

All her life, 17-year-old Iph has protected her sensitive younger brother, Orr. But this summer, with their mother gone at an artist residency, their father decides it’s time for 15-year-old Orr to toughen up at a wilderness boot camp. When their father brings Iph to a work gala in downtown Portland and breaks the news, Orr has already been sent away against his will. Furious at her father’s betrayal, Iph storms off and gets lost in the maze of Old Town.

Eighteen-year-old Filipino American Ruby Santos has been unmoored since her mother’s death. She’s always dreamed of going to art school, but instead, she and her father have had to move into the basement of their home and rent out the main floor while they work to pay back her mother’s hospital bills. Then Ruby finds out her father has been living a secret life as a delivery person for a magical underworld—he “jumps” train lines to help deliver packages for a powerful family. Recently, he’s fallen behind on deliveries (and deeper into a fog of alcohol).

Fifty-four years ago, the Corporate World War of 2050 annihilated a bunch of animal and insect species on the planet, not to mention billions of people, but the good news is that we were born—the Red Mighties. They don’t like us. They call us mutants. I’m attending their high school in the afternoons to try to understand them better, which, believe me, is no cup of tea, except for one particular Pre-ev guy who I could drink right up. Meanwhile, they’re trying to steal our pure water source and stop us from saving the Red Mighty babies born to their people.

Dustin Averin, lead guitarist for Manifold and crown prince of the European Kirata community, has been ignoring the call home by his queen for longer than he’d care to remember. His purpose, to sire the next generation of Kirata with a willing female, is the furthest from his mind. Dustin’s cat isn’t interested in anyone, and unless he has a pure mating, one where he actually wants to be with the woman in question, he is content to be alone, play in the band, and wait. When a meeting at a music conference leaves him hurting from a woman he didn’t expect, his interest is piqued.