The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton

This is the fifteenth book in the Anita Blake series. Regardless of what some of her critics say about her characters never growing and the sex just getting in the way, I have a hard time putting one of her books down.

Published: 2002

Genre: urban fantasy

Length: 422 pages

Setting: a week after the events of Danse Macabre, St. Louis

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

I’ve seen this book in several “best of” lists as a good read aloud or a good book for kids. I decided it would be a good change of pace for our last morning read aloud for the 2016/2017 school year.

Published: 2012

Genre: middle grade fiction

Length: 316 pages

Setting: NYC, present day

The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

This is the second book in the Memoirs of Lady Trent series. The basic principle behind them is Victorian lady becomes a naturalist studying dragons. Pushes all my delight buttons right there!

Published: 2014

Genre: historical fantasy

Length: 331 pages

Setting: three years after the events of A Natural History of Dragons, mostly in Bayembe (which feels like an African country)

The Call of Chewing Gum by Russell Reed

This is the next short story in the Event Horizon 2017 collection of short stories highlighting authors who are eligible for the 2017 Campbell award for best new writer.

Published: July, 2016 in Mothership Zeta: Issue 4

Genre: fantasy

Setting: Darienburg, Connecticut, present day

Ravens of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson

This is the sixth book in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Avalon series that started with The Mists of Avalon. I’ve always enjoyed Bradley’s writing and picked that book up a while ago. Paxson finished up the series when Bradley died. I happened to see this book at the library when it first came out and picked it up, even though I hadn’t read all the intervening books.

Published: 2007

Genre: historical fantasy

Length: 394 pages

Setting: first century Britain

Sleipnir by Linda Evans

When I first got a Kindle, my husband loaded it with a bunch of ebooks published by Baen books, and this was one of them. I needed a random book from my Kindle to read while we were on another bike trip. I picked it solely based on the title.

Published: 1994

Genre: military urban fantasy

Length: 336 pages

Setting: a cave in Scandinavia in the 1990s and the Middle East sometime before that

The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan

This is the second book in the Trials of Apollo series. I didn’t think the first book was quite as good as Riordan’s other series, but I still enjoyed it enough to read this book. It helps when it’s in the house for the kids to read.

Published: 2017

Genre: middle grade urban fantasy

Length: 401 pages of text, 414 pages with glossary

Setting: mostly Indianapolis, soon after the events of The Hidden Oracle