Three new fantasy novels offer readers a delightful escape into worlds of curses, gods, and magical battles. From a cursed bookshop to a campus thriller, these books are sure to enchant.
Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe
Harper Voyager £18.99, 384pp. Available now from the Mail Bookshop.
What is a princess to do? You stop off at a quaint old bookshop for a bit of respite from your busy schedule, only to find yourself doomed to stay there forever. Of course, it is not the worst sort of curse for a bibliophile: your assistant is a bookish goth dragon schoolgirl, while your clientele comprises orcs, dwarves, a Creeping Horror called Caroline, and a devilishly handsome light-fingered pirate. What is more, to break your curse you have to find your heart's desire, which involves being kissed by a lot of princes, and a princess. Fresh, innocent, deliciously funny, with a sprinkling of sapphic snogs, this is an enchanting, and enchanted, treat. Love, laughs and orcs in an enchanted treat.
Death's Daughter by S.A. Barnes
Headline £20, 400pp. Available now from the Mail Bookshop.
Death comes in many guises, and few less likely than Jocasta, a sociology student at Beecher University. She is Death's spawn, progeny of the ancient god, and endowed with the power to suck the negative energy from her fellow students and, unless she is very careful, leave them, well, you can guess. But her campus life is about to be disrupted. Other spawn seem to be muscling in on her territory, and when bodies start to stack up, she must fight to prove her unlikely innocence with the help of lust-inducing Devon and the horrendously hunky Carter. Funny, fraught, sexy and savage, with one-line zingers: 'Death conquers all, b*tch.'
Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter
Harper Voyager £20, 496pp. Available now from the Mail Bookshop.
The stakes could hardly be higher: the battle for magical powers between two realms comes down to a duel between royal firstborns. One is Astrid, a witch with faulty casting powers; the other is Zryan, a teleporting hunk with thighs strong enough to grip the most monstrous dragon. Ahem. Enter Skylar, a feisty itinerant knife juggler, a republican plot to overthrow Zryan's tyrannical father, and more dragons and familiars than you can afford to shake a stick at. Added to which Skylar is not exactly who she thinks she is, neither is Zryan, and Astrid's passions are all over the place. A thumping, twisty, romantastic tour de force.
