While still loaded with plenty of fantasy, these reads unfold outside of traditional high fantasy settings like Middle Earth. Sometimes recognizable, other times more futuristic, whether set on city streets or hiking trails, the action of these reads occurs in places and times close to our own, but with a fantastical twist. These titles are well-received, more recent additions to the Contemporary or Urban fantasy genres in our adult collection. Curated by SJPL librarians.
Meet Laszlo, eight-hundred-year-old demon and Hell’s least productive Curse Keeper. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves a pathetic family upstate and a mysterious black stone. It’s a sexy enough…
Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.
Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well…
We bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword.
Pain is Dymitr’s calling. His family is one in a long line of hunters who sacrifice their souls to slay monsters. Now he’s tasked with a deadly mission: find the legendary witch Baba…
It’s been labelled a doomsday cult, but the Bastion might be humanity’s last hope. Amidst all the lies and chaos, come hear their true story, in their own words.
On the rural coast of Puglia, Italy, Becca and Ric run the Bastion, offering…
Sidney Catchpenny has had a bad run. Laid low by a years-long bout of debilitating depression, he’s all but squandered his reputation as one of the most uniquely talented thieves in LA. There aren’t many who can do what Sid does. He’s a…
What happens when nature will no longer stand by and accept its destruction? A female fire chief discovers an ancient world rooted with secrets that can save―or destroy―in the newest fantasy by Veronica G. Henry, author of Bacchanal .…
Petra Grady has known since adolescence that she has no talent for magic—and that’s never going to change. But as a sweeper first-class, she’s parlayed her rare ability to handle dross—the damaging, magical waste generated by her more…
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her.…
Treasure and her mother lost everything when Treasure’s father died. Haggling for scraps in the market, Treasure meets a man who promises to change their fortunes, but his feet are hovering just a few inches above the ground. He’s a…
‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have…
Julie Crews is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-something who packs a lot of magic into her small body. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs to claw her way to the top.
Julie is…
The wealthy seem to exist in a different, glittering world from the rest of us. Almost as if by . . . magic. Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into…
Inheriting a Victorian mansion from a relative they’ve never met, sisters Cordelia and Eustace come face to face with a haunting family secret—the truth of what happened to their mother and the enemy that’s been stalking them from the…
When Byron Kidd's twelve-year-old daughter vanishes, the only clue left behind is a note claiming she's taken off to explore the Hidden World, a magical land from a series of popular novels. She is not the only child to seek out this…
Shigidi is a disgruntled and demotivated nightmare god in the Orisha spirit company, reluctantly answering prayers of his few remaining believers to maintain his existence long enough to find his next drink. When he meets Nneoma, a sort-of…
For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere…
“Mothers fly away like migrating birds. This is why farmers have daughters.”
A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small Midwestern family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mom, a…
Reunited when they receive a strange inheritance--a sentient house on chicken legs called Thistlefoot, the Yaga siblings find themselves being hunted by the Longshadow Man, who bears with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories…
To save Moonshyne Manor and Distillery from demolition, five octogenarian witches, having only nine days save their home, make a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced, fracturing their sisterhood and…
A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family-and a new love-changes the course of her life. As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her…
