Southern Fantasy

Emma Bartyle is a shy, sheltered teenager. At a bonfire with her first real boyfriend, which goes horribly awry from almost the beginning, she is yanked from her ordinary life into horrific events. If she wants to stay alive, she must trust herself, her instincts, and a complete stranger. Something is out hunting, something with a voracious appetite and a rage that can’t be quelled. Set in the autumn of 1973, The Mongrel is a lean, dark adventure, not only of things that go bump in the night, but of things with sharp teeth and sharper claws.

It’s her wedding day, and Bunny Raines is marrying the man of her dreams. Tall, handsome, tender, and passionate in bed, Rafe Dalvahni is perfection in a tuxedo—more so out of it. He’s everything a girl could wish for, but poor Bunny is in for a rude awakening. Before she can take the first bite of wedding cake, she discovers that Mr. Perfect has a secret, and it’s a doozy. Rafe is not the man she thought he was. In fact, he’s not a man at all. Bunny’s new husband is a demon hunter, an immortal warrior pledged to hunt demons called “djegrali” through space and time.

After her father’s untimely death, Jenna Ashby moves to Koush Hollow, a bayou town outside of New Orleans, dreading life with her wealthy mother. As the 16-year-old eco-warrior is introduced to the Diamonds & Pearls, her mother’s exclusive social club, she comes to the troubling realization that secrets are a way of life in Koush Hollow: How do the Diamonds & Pearls look so young, where does their money come from, and why is life along the bayou disappearing?

Within the deep woods of rural Alabama, along the forgotten southern course of the Black Warrior River, lies an unseen world long feared by the residents of the tiny town of Carlsdale. Down through the centuries, few people have survived a visit to this hidden place long enough to talk about it. Among these fortunate souls is Jack Kenney. Thirteen years old at the time of the event, Jack and his family were forced to flee Carlsdale in the aftermath and head north to the larger city of Tuscaloosa. Mercifully, the menace from their former home left them in peace for nearly eight years.

The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away. After dropping out of college, all she wanted was to resume her life as a tobacco hand and taxidermist and try not to think about the boy she can’t help but love. Instead, a devil from her past has returned to court her, as he did her late mother years earlier. Now, Laurel must unravel her mother’s legacy and tap into her own innate magic before her future and the fate of everyone she loves is doomed.

At night, Roddie still dreams of sitting at his mother’s feet while she braids his Afro down. But that’s a memory from before. Before his mom died in a tragic accident. Before he was taken in by an aunt he barely knows. Before his aunt brought him to Dogwood House, the creepiest place Roddie has ever seen. It was his family’s home for over a hundred years. Now the house—abandoned and rotting, draped in Spanish moss that reminds him too much of hair—is his home too.

Jim Byrd died. Technically. For a few minutes. The diagnosis: heart attack at age 30. Revived with no memory of any tunnels, lights, or angels, Jim wonders what—if anything—awaits us on the other side. Then a ghost shows up. Maybe. Jim and his new wife, Annie, find themselves tangling with holograms, psychics, messages from the beyond, and a machine that connects the living and the dead. As Jim and Annie journey through history and fumble through faith, they confront the specter of loss that looms for anyone who dares to fall in love.

Rebecca’s boyfriend, Ezra, has gone missing, but when she notifies the police, they seem surprisingly unconcerned. They suspect he has been playing the “stranger game”, a viral hit in which players start following others in real life. As the game spreads, however, the rules begin to change, play grows more intense and disappearances are reported across the country. Curious about the game and hoping she might be able to track down Ezra, Rebecca tries the game. In playing the game, what may lead her closer to finding Ezra may take her further and further from the life she once lived.

I've seen her in the trees and along the edges of the clan's lands. Her scent is carried on the wind, and I don't know how much longer I can stay away. I need her, even if she is a cinnamon bear - I know she's mine. I've seen him while in my animal form plenty of times, but I'm terrified of what being his mate means for me and for my family. My dad has always spoke against clans. My mate couldn't possibly be different.

At 19, our hero is caring for her sickly mother when a stranger appears with a shocking truth: Skyla Draken was born in a realm where magic rules, and mythical creatures roam. This land is now the key to curing her mother. And so, Skyla must return to her homeland, but once there, she discovers a hostile world of warring kingdoms, and she meets with evil forces that would see her noble family dead. Things get worse when, during her journey, she has visions of a man and learns a secret that changes everything.

Tonia Brown brings you another triple shot of horror, this time with a southern bent. A sheriff of a small town tries to keep the secret of a local bootlegger, but at what cost? A small town sin eater takes on more than he can handle, leaving him sick to the core. While on the run from zombies, Mary stumbles across an old farmhouse. But of course, nothing is as it seems in a post zombie apocalypse world.

Leah is a child from Away, isolated from her peers because of her stutter. After her family moves to Mattingly, she begins painting scenes that are epic in scope, brilliant in detail, and suffused with rich, prophetic imagery. When the event foreshadowed in the first painting dramatically comes true, the town takes notice. Leah attributes her ability to foretell the future to an invisible friend she calls the Rainbow Man. Some of the townsfolk are enchanted with her. Others fear her. But there is one thing they all agree on—there is no such thing as the Rainbow Man.

A northern white couple has relocated to the South to operate a vineyard on a North Carolina plantation. There, they pass their idle hours listening to the stories of one Uncle Julius, who has a deep knowledge of the land. These stories, however, are more than mere entertainments. They all have their time and place, and they offer not only a quiet commentary on the events of the day but also a deeper reckoning with the plantation’s disturbing past.

The Walpole brothers take their little sister, Dew, out on a johnboat to pirate the waterways for beer and loose change. Dew falls overboard and appears to drown, until two men with gigantic wings swoop down and carry her body away into the sky. The news of her disappearance hits the family hard, driving the mother to fashion wings so she can fly after the men who took her daughter.

In a forgotten corner of western Kentucky lies a haunted forest referred to locally as "The Deadening", where vampire cults roam wild and time is immaterial. Our protagonist and his accomplice - the one and only Carver Canute - set out down the Old Spur Line in search of the legendary Kudzu House, where an old couple is purported to have been swallowed whole by a hungry vine.

When Karen Paladino, a mild-mannered accountant, started her work week with a simple carpool, who would have know her life would have taken an unexpected turn toward the absurd and the sometimes just plain weird. Thrust blindly into a world of magic she can’t believe or comprehend, Karen is rocketed on a whirlwind journey that will test her sanity her patience and, most importantly, her ability to handle bad puns and pop culture references by a less than amusing mage and his sidekick dragon.

For three strangers whose paths will cross, the storm hasn’t even reached its peak. Two of them are the kind of climate scientists no one ever listens to in disaster movies. The third, against even icier opposition, has just moved to the Magnolia State to come out. Soon they’ll all be pushed closer to the edge, where the bracing winds of cataclysmic change can be so wildly liberating.

Death and destruction follow the demon wherever he treads, and Gabriel is rarely far behind, waiting for his chance to extinguish the creature known as Temple once and for all. But in Singapore during the Second World War, a lone soldier in possession of a shattering secret gets caught up in their battle. The knowledge he holds could change the course of their ancient conflict...and the fate of the world.

The grid is down and electric bikes are the transportation of choice for the coming apocalypse, but where do you find one in this deserted beach town? The prepper couple forages for food and other supplies in the looted-out vacation spot and lucks up on a restaurant supply truck. A small group of people still living at the marina seems to hold the key to reforming society but closely guards its secrets and turf against strangers.

After Windsor Ebonwood’s love life and successful career as a book conservator vanish in one fell swoop, she’s determined to begin anew. Win moves to Darkly Island off the coast of Louisiana, where she’s been bequeathed an unusual bookshop and a charming home on the edge of a dark swamp. Win gets to work settling into her new life in the sleepy Southern town but discovering Darkly’s heartless town alderman impaled on a gravestone wasn’t on the books. Nor was finding out about her family’s legacy as powerful witches responsible for protecting the bookshop at all costs.