Lilith Saintcrow

Nat Drozdova is desperate to save a life. Doctors can do little for her cancer-ridden mother, who insists there is only one cure—and that Nat must visit a skyscraper in Manhattan to get it. Amid a snow-locked city, inside a sleek glass-walled office, Nat makes her plea and is whisked into a terrifying new world. For the skyscraper holds a hungry winter goddess who has the power to cure her mother…if Nat finds a stolen object of great power. Now Nat must travel with a razor-wielding assassin across an American continent brimming with terror, wonder, and hungry divinities with every reason to consume a young woman. For her ailing mother is indeed suffering no ordinary illness, and Nat Drozdova is no ordinary girl. Blood calls to blood, magic to magic, and a daughter may indeed save what she loves... …if it doesn’t consume her first. This is the way to the Dead God’s Heart.

American Gods vs. Baba Yaga in this contemporary fantasy: Spring's Arcana, by New York Times bestseller Lilith Saintcrow. Nat Drozdova is desperate to save a life. Doctors can do little for her cancer-ridden mother, who insists there is only one cure--and that Nat must visit a skyscraper in Manhattan to get it. Amid a snow-locked city, inside a sleek glass-walled office, Nat makes her plea and is whisked into a terrifying new world. For the skyscraper holds a hungry winter goddess who has the power to cure her mother...if Nat finds a stolen object of great power. Now Nat must travel with a razor-wielding assassin across an American continent brimming with terror, wonder, and hungry divinities with every reason to consume a young woman. For her ailing mother is indeed suffering no ordinary illness, and Nat Drozdova is no ordinary girl. Blood calls to blood, magic to magic, and a daughter may indeed save what she loves... ...if it doesn't consume her first. This is the way to the Dead God's Heart.

Granite Falls has secrets, and some of them are deadly. After nearly dying on his team's last mission, Paul Klemperer is heading home for the first time since signing up for the Army. His hometown's grown a little. The inhabitants are older. And life has moved on, but some things are still the same. Like the way he feels about the girl he left behind-who ended up marrying someone else.Beck Sommers has a divorce in the works; if she can just hold on, she'll be able to leave this godforsaken town. Unfortunately, her soon-to-be-ex-husband has other ideas. Her first love Paul has returned as well, making things even more complicated. And then there's the corruption, the drugs...and murder.Beck's determined to fix what's gone wrong, but she has no idea how deep the corruption goes. And Paul? Well, he's a little behind on the local news, but one thing's for sure-he's not letting Beck get away this time.First, though, he'll have to keep her alive...

Long ago, there was a mad god who almost destroyed the world.And he is still out there, waiting...On a cold winter's evening, Liv Stellack escapes a bad date...and walks straight into nightmare. Kidnapped and held without ransom, she's ready to use every trick in the book to escape. But her captors aren't criminals, they're Sons of Ymre, hunters of the unclean things living in the cracks of sanity and dreams-and Liv is a valuable tool in their war against the Mad God.Erik knows the beautiful woman they've rescued can't possibly understand the danger she's in, or the fact that she's being held for her own protection. Some things can't be explained, only shown; he and his fellow Sons have to keep their precious potential alive long enough for the days to lengthen so she can be transported to another temple and learn how to fight an evil older than recorded history.But treachery lives in the Mad God's chosen, and it's soon obvious that one of the Sons can't be trusted. Fleeing for their lives, Liv and Erik must make an uneasy alliance, depending on each other to reach tenuous safety.That is, if the monsters don't get them first...Author Bio: Lilith Saintcrow lives in Vancouver, Washington, with her children, dogs, cat, a library for wayward texts, and assorted other strays."

Anglene is smoldering. The galactic insurrection is supposed to be crushed. Robbhan Locke, a Second Echelon soldier, has returned to his birth planet along with other veterans, finding Sharl Notheim holding all of Sagittarius in his mailed fist for Parl Jun the Regent.There's no redemption in homecoming. Even Marah Mad n and Ged Gizab n, Robb's childhood friends, have been forced into accommodation. The Sharl won't stop squeezing until he's made maximum profit for his royal patron-and covered up all their wartime indiscretions.If the Gran Parl Riccar can be found, he could save all of Anglene. In the meantime, Robb, Marah, and their friends are going to have to do it themselves. If they survive.The war is over, but "peace" is a relative term...

Robb Locke's trapped in a high-security Panoptikon and Sharud is under embargo, the military governeur Notheim's fist is tightening around the throat of the entire system for his master Jun Planetagen, and all hope is lost. Somewhere at the edge of charted space, the true ruler of Anglene is drifting in a wrecked flagship. If Marah Mad n can reach Gran Parl Riccar before the oxygen runs out, she can not only save Robb but also the rest of Anglene. It's going to take all her wit, all her resources, and a collection of spies, codejackers, rebels, and outright criminals, not to mention betraying her other childhood friend-Ged Gizab n, a dangerous adversary with secrets of his own. Anglene is boiling, ready for yet another bloody civil war-and when it ends, Jun will be not only the Parl but the unquestioned dictator of the entire galaxy. Unless Marah and her ragtag alliance can stop him. No hero ever stands alone...

Drunk and disoriented after her best friend's funeral, Ginevra Bennet stumbles through a door in an ivy-covered wall...and finds herself in a dry wasteland under a dying crimson sun, the only possible shelter a giant stone castle.If it's a hallucination, it's a deadly one; the Keep is full of beauty, luxury, courtly manners-and monsters. The inhabitants rejoice in her arrival, dress her in white, and call her a queen. Greenery returns to their gardens, and the prince of the realm, with his silver-ringed eyes, seems very interested in Gin indeed. It should be the answer to every lonely young woman's dreams.But nothing in Gin's life has ever been what it's seemed. Not her best friend, not her upbringing, and most especially not her nightmares. Drowning, violent death, a stone roof, and the hallucinatory prince have filled her nights, and Gin hopes she's going mad-because the alternative is just too scary to contemplate.Caught in a web of manners, intrigue, and betrayal, Gin has to depend on her sorely tested wits and uncertain sanity. There are Gates at the edge of the wasteland, and if she can escape the castle and its beautiful, terrifying inhabitants, she might just find a few answers and be able to get home.Assuming, of course, home is where she really wants to be...

Keeping her safe will be his hardest assignment yet. . .Reeling from trauma and divorce, Cara Halperin takes what should be a simple job with an expensive agency. As a nanny to rich children, she shouldn't have much to worry about, and her job is just complex enough to keep her from brooding. Unfortunately, the agency's sent her into a trap.Vincent Desmarais wants to go back into the field, but instead, he's put on leave. The diagnosis? PTSD. No problem--he can pick up security work on the side to keep himself sharp--that is, if the side work isn't just as dangerous as the bloody places he's longing to get back to.When the lights go out, Cara and her young charge have only one option: to trust the new security guy. Vincent finds himself unwilling to abandon them to fate or let them out of his sight. If the trio wants to stay alive, they've got to trust each other. . .. . .but that may just be what their enemies are counting on.Lilith Saintcrow lives in Vancouver, Washington, with her children, dogs, cat, a library for wayward texts, and assorted other strays.

After an accident claims her unconventional mother, Val Smith has to live with her boring, reliable father. Grief and change aren't good for anyone, but Val and her dad are doing okay--until they visit a place like paradise.Harmony Home is safe, secure, and secluded, a place where where everyone belongs to everyone else. For a commune it's pretty okay, at least at first. There are strange things--the metal boxes in the clearing, the Red House where secrets are kept, and little Sarah, who pushes buttons inside people to "make them glow." Val and her dad are honored, temporary guests, at least at first, and it's exciting to be special, to be chosen. By the time Val's uneasy, it's too late.Even heaven can be a trap, and Val's going to need all her new talents to break free...

Beauty...Isabella Harpe, last in a long line of witches, drifts with the wind. Her tarot cards always ready to bring in enough to live on, and her instincts keep her mostly out of trouble. Unfortunately, bad boyfriends and even worse luck strand her near the most dangerous place for a witch to land--beside a cursed town, and an even more cursed man.The roses...Jeremy Tremont's family built their house over an ancient place of power, turning it into an uneasy, rose-choked sanctuary for the weird and the dangerous alike. Scarred, quiet, and difficult, he's not Isabella's idea of a prospective employer, no matter how badly she needs the money. He's paying well, and there's only one catch: she has to be home by dusk. Because in Tremont City, bad things happen after nightfall.And the curse.Secrets hide in every corner, an ancient curse cloaks itself in silence, and Isabella's arrival has begun a deadly countdown. Despite that, she may have found a home--all she has to do is figure out how to break the curse.Oh, and survive in the dark...

Cotton Crossing was a dead end, but not for Ginny Mills. She's just marking time, getting experience in the county library system, before moving back to a decent urban environment. Then the phones stop working. Lee Quartine knows there's no way the pretty girl at the library will even look at him. Especially since he can't open his mouth. He knows he's a hick, but when the power starts going out and the woods are full of strange creatures, it's good to have someone around who can build a fire. And kill. Ginny and Lee and their small band of survivors can't stay put, and moving is dangerous. The infected are shambling in the hills and the concrete canyons of cities. It's gonna be a long trip...

After pitched battle, betrayal, and escape, Kaia Steelflower has enough gold to feed her troupe of outcasts through the winter. She can settle them in a small villa in Antai, that queen of maritime cities, and look forward to welcome boredom.Unfortunately, there's a pirate-infested sea to cross, her difficult new talents to corral, her traveling companions' problems to solve, a princeling's attentions to manage, and once in Antai, people keep trying to kill her. Or, more precisely, assassinate the barbarian Redfist, and Kaia keeps getting in the way.Even the Steelflower can't kill every assassin in the city. It's going to take all her sharp wits--and sharper blades--to even try...

Kaia Steelflower meant to spend her winter resting, but the high price upon the head of her barbarian companion Redfist has drawn her out of safety and through the northern passes to the Highlands.Bandits, blood, and treachery, Kaia's seen it all before. But something else lingers in the snowy wastes north of the mountain Rim. Ancient power has found a new host, plans have been laid for rebellion, and the giants of Skaialan do not take kindly to foreigners. Saving Rainak Redfist will demand all the skill, strength, and cunning the Steelflower can muster; saving herself--and her new princeling husband--might be impossible.Winter in the Highlands is brutal, and it's only just begun...

A winding road, a freak storm, and a lightning strike.Jude Altfall's life, just beginning to coalesce after her divorce, is shattered afresh. Dazed with grief, she's not sure if the weird things happening around her are hallucinations...or something more. And there's the mark on her hip--a tattoo she can't for the life of her remember getting.Preston Marlock left a shadowy government agency two years ago, to hunt a killer. Each time the bastard strikes the trail goes cold, and not even Marlock's more-than-natural abilities are helping. Now the killer's taken one of his very few friends, and there's a surviving witness. The Altfall woman is now that most precious and fragile of targets, newly Marked. All Marlock has to do is dangle her like bait, and the killer will eventually show up. The Skinner knows some people are different. Special. He has a collection of stretched skin and pretty pictures, each harvested with care. The trick is to take them while the victim is still struggling, still alive, otherwise their power is lost. He is careful, methodical, and precise, but chance robs him of a prize. Once he realizes Jude Altfall has what he covets, and has possibly seen his face, her fate is sealed. And just to be cautious, the Skinner might swat at the annoying fly who has buzzed along his trail for two years.Sometimes you survive. You bear a Mark. And some things are worse than death.

They say the war's over when the surrender is signed. It's a lie.America's bloody Second Civil War lasted for years. When the surrender is signed, it's supposed to be over; refugees flood the highways, trying to get back home. For Swann's Riders-especially their newest addition Lara Nelson, snatched from certain death in the Firster kamp system-there's no such thing as a home to return to.Swann and his crew of partisans work for the Federal Army now, hunting through the wreckage for war criminals and kamp officials. Their next quarry is carrying something explosive, something that can level the nascent Federal government and turn the entire continent into a hellscape- well, more than it already is.Across America, working against time and chaos, Swann's Riders are back in the fight. And Lara, whose secrets may well end up consuming her too, has a vengeance of her own to deliver...