How do you keep the romance lights burning when your two BFFs go off and marry a vampire and a werewolf? In one of the most fun of the new fantasy books out, we ask the question: is it any wonder that Corrine has vowed to only fall in love with a human! But even the best laid plans etc. etc. when she gets sent by her editor to interview “a leprechaun” who turns out to be the hottest man alive. Only problem is, he isn’t a man in the strictest sense – because he is Fae. In fact, he isn’t just one of the faerie tribe; he is the Captain of the Queen’s guard. And he has the kind of looks that make a girl’s knees knock. He could make a nun think bad thoughts!

New Fantasy Books with A Mission!

But Luc is on a mission and it is a dangerous one. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he lets her know that it looks like he will need her help to solve this one! It is one thing to be sent on a wild-goose chase to interview a leprechaun that turns out to be the most impossibly gorgeous faerie alive (and they tend to come gorgeous, so that is no mean feat!). It is quite another to have that man tell you he needs you to save the world! It can be especially difficult to concentrate when it begins to feel like there is more than just a comrade-in-arms thing going on here.

So how do they manage to keep their thoughts straight, their hands to themselves and the world in one piece, all at the same time? Well, as you can expect, they can’t! But while some parts of the above formula are falling apart in this latest of the new fantasy books from one of our favorite authors, others are working just fine, thanks. It’s the saving the world part that seems to be the hard part in Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale. And they can’t afford to fail at that!

Another excellent story has been delivered by the husband and wife writing team known as Ilona Andrews. This book takes place in the “Edge”, the boundary area between the Broken (where non-magical humans live), and the Weird (a magical land where bizarre creatures exist). The Edge is where Audrey Callahan lives, a smart, strong young woman who is trying to overcome her grifter history. She’s doing well and working a day job in the Broken, trying to fit in as a normal (but very private) young woman. Her main goal is to keep herself distanced from her family, since they only want to use her for her magical lock-picking skills. But this proves to be easier said than done when Audrey’s father appears one day and inextricably pulls her back into the fold for “one last job”.

Kaldar Mar is a wild spirit who does recovery work for paying customers. When he’s hired to recover a device recently been stolen from a vault that has unpickable locks, he’s intrigued. He’s pretty sure this will be a simple trackdown and recovery job until he comes across Audrey and realizes he’s met his match. Although Kaldar is one of the best con men around, Audrey is his alter ego. He’s fascinated with this unusual woman who cherishes her independence so much that she’s willing to isolate herself from others and forgo the things that make life worth living, like love and companionship. It’s clear Audrey is a strong and determined woman but is she strong enough to stop Kaldar from conquering her independent spirit? It’s con vs. con in this action-filled and romantic fantasy book.

Fate’s Edge continues the tradition of providing well written, intriguing, and adventurous tales delivered by these two authors. The dialogue exchanges between Kaldar and Audrey are fantastic because Audrey really holds her own with him. There are also several characters from previous Edge novels who are key to the storyline. George and Jack from Book 1 (On The Edge) help Kaldar and Audrey and it’s great to see them mature and become major contributors to the outcome. I sat down and read this in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. It’s a perfect mixture of everything I like – romantic tension, a unique storyline, interesting characters and a group of underdogs who are trying to come out on top when the odds are stacked against them.

If you haven’t read any of the Ilona Andrews novels yet, stop missing out and pick one up. Over the past 6 years I’ve read, talked about and written about thousands of fantasy books and I can tell you that the “Ilona” books are at the top of my “Most Recommended Fantasy Books” reading list. Every week I get emails from fantasy lovers asking for book recommendations. I’ll tell you what I tell them: read an Ilona Andrews book, any book. If you’re new to urban fantasy, start with Ilona. If you’ve read lots of fantasy and are looking for something new, buy an Ilona Andrews book. I promise, you’ll be back at the bookstore (or online) eagerly purchasing more.

Fate’s Edge is available in paperback, audiobook and Kindle formats.

I was actually surprised at some of the great books in the list. I’ve read some but I found quite a few that I hadn’t read. I downloaded all of the ones I hadn’t read because you can’t beat these prices! I mean really, I’m willing to take a chance because the prices are so cheap. Some of these books are regularly priced at $9.99, and they’re marked down to $2.99!

So, here are 9 Kindle Fantasy Books that are on sale for less than four dollars:

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
For a limited time, discover Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series with Halfway to the Grave. Plus, as a bonus, you will receive exclusive material, including deleted scenes and excerpts! Folks, I’ve read this book and it’s AWESOME! Get it while it’s on sale!

Half-vampire Cat Crawfield is going after the undead with a vengeance, hoping that one of these deadbeats is her father — the one responsible for ruining her mother’s life. But she’s captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter who specializes in tracking down rogue vamps, and is forced into an unwilling partnership.

Bones will help her find her father but realizes that Cat’s hunting skills are lacking. He trains her until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs.

But before she can enjoy her newfound status as a kick-ass vampire hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side – and decide if she can trust Bones with not just her life, but her heart as well.

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Quincie Morris has never felt more alone. Her parents are dead, and her hybrid-werewolf first love is threatening to embark on a rite of passage that will separate them forever.

Then, as she and her uncle are about to unveil their hot vampire-themed restaurant, a brutal murder leaves them scrambling for a chef. Can Quincie make their new hire into a believable undead before opening night with fake fangs, a cheap cape, and red contact lenses? Or is there more to this earnest face than meets the eye?

As human and preternatural forces clash, a deadly love triangle forms, and the line between predator and prey begins to blur. Who’s playing whom? And how long can Quincie play along before she loses everything?

Sophia – Vampires in America by DB Reynolds
Sophia, beautiful and deadly, has spent the last hundred years dancing her way through the balmy nights and hot-blooded men of South America. But when her Sire sends an urgent summons, Sophia rushes home to Vancouver only to find he has disappeared, leaving nothing behind but three dead vampires and a letter with Sophia’s name on it.

Colin Murphy, a former Navy SEAL, is seeking a quiet place to heal the scars earned in war. But when someone starts killing local vampires and torturing their mates, Colin sets out to find the killers and stop them, even if that means hunting with vampires.

Following her Sire’s trail of death to a small town in northern Washington, Sophia soon joins forces with Colin. But they must race to uncover the killers before the next dead vampire becomes Sophia herself.

Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind
In Wizard’s First Rule, Goodkind introduced the world to an ordinary forest guide, Richard Cypher, and the mysterious, powerful woman he comes to love, Kahlan Amnell.

Learning his true identity, Richard accepts his destiny as the only man who can stop the bloodthirsty killer Darken Rahl. Kahlan calls upon Richard to reach beyond his sword and invoke something more noble within himself as the final confrontation with Darken Rahl looms.

The importance of Wizard’s First Rule goes beyond these achievements. Goodkind took on the toughest of all literary challenges: to tell an electrifying story of action, violence, and adventure that would also make people think, and that would influence the choices and actions of its readers.

Against All Odds by Thomas DePrima
War has kept Jenetta Carver far from home on Earth for twelve years. With the advent of peace, she takes a well-deserved vacation and returns home for a visit. She picks up her two sisters on the way home and the three women surprise their mom with the unannounced visit.

Just a week after arriving home, Jenetta receives word that Region Two has been invaded by the Tsgardi. Determined not to let the news interfere with her mother’s joy of having her three daughters with her, she doesn’t mention the invasion but she’s soon summoned to Space Command Supreme HQ to discuss the situation.

Although Jenetta hopes to quickly squash this situation, she doesn’t know that the Tsgardi invasion is not an isolated event. Three other interstellar powers have joined the Tsgardi, hoping to further the invasion before Space Command can move security forces into place. Jenetta’s tiny fleet will face an armada a thousand warships strong. It’s not just another day at the office . . . .

Ring of Fire by Pierdomenico Baccalario
Every hundred years, four kids from four cities must save the world.

A mix-up with their reservations forces Harvey from New York, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai to share a room with the hotel owner’s daughter, Elettra. The four kids discover an amazing coincidence — they all have birthdays on February 29, Leap Day. That night, a strange man gives them a briefcase and asks them to take care of it until he returns. Soon afterward, the man is murdered.

The kids open the briefcase. In it they find a series of clues that take them all over Rome, through dusty libraries and dark catacombs, in search of the elusive Ring of Fire, an ancient and extremely powerful object.

In the first book of the Century quartet, author P. D. Baccalario begins a mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve.

ExHeroes by Peter Clines
They were heroes. Vigilantes. Crusaders for justice, using their superhuman abilites to make Los Angeles a better place.

Then the plague of living death spread around the globe. Despite the best efforts of the superheroes, the police, and the military, the hungry corpses rose up and overwhelmed the country. The population was decimated, heroes fell, and the City of Angels was left a desolate zombie wasteland like so many others.

Now, a year later, the ex-heroes must overcome their differences to protect the thousands of survivors sheltered in their film studio-turned-fortress, the Mount. The heroes lead teams out to scavenge supplies, keep the peace within the walls of their home, and try to be the symbols the survivors so desperately need.

For while the ex-humans walk the streets night and day, they are not the only threat left in the world, and the people of the Mount are not the only survivors left in Los Angeles. Across the city, another group has grown and gained power.

And they are not heroes.

A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott
Genna is a fifteen-year-old girl who wants out of her tough Brooklyn neighborhood. But she gets more than she bargained for when a wish gone awry transports her back in time.

Facing the perilous realities of Civil War–era Brooklyn, Genna must use all her wits to survive. In the tradition of Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, A Wish After Midnight is the affecting and inspiring tale of a fearless young woman’s fight to hold on to her individuality and her humanity in two different worlds.

Skellig by David Almond
This award winning novel celebrates its 10th anniversary!

Ten-year-old Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless.

Then he steps into the crumbling garage. . . . What is this thing beneath the spiders’ webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never before seen? The only person Michael can confide in is his new friend, Mina. Together, they carry the creature out into the light, and Michael’s world changes forever. . . .

Beware of a kiss under the full moon. It will change your life forever.

Celeste Parker is used to hearing scary stories about werewolves—Legend’s Run is famous for them. She’s used to everything in the small town until Brandon Maddox moves to Legend’s Run and Celeste finds herself immediately drawn to the handsome new student. But when, after an unnerving visit with a psychic, she encounters a pack of wolves and gorgeous, enigmatic Brandon, she must discover whether his transformation is more than legend or just a trick of the shadows in the moonlight.

Her best friends may never forgive her if she gives up her perfect boyfriend, Nash, for Brandon, who’s from the wrong side of town. But she can’t deny her attraction or the strong pull he has on her. Brandon may be Celeste’s hero, or he may be the most dangerous creature she could encounter in the woods of Legend’s Run.

Psychic predictions, generations-old secrets, a town divided, and the possibility of falling in love with a hot and heroic werewolf are the perfect formula for what happens . . . Once In a Full Moon.

Best Book Quote: “Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade.”

The Waverly women of Bascom, North Carolina are special. Each of them is endowed with a quiet but special gift. Claire Waverly can affect people’s emotions through her cooking. Evanelle has a knack for giving people what they need, just before they need it. Five-year-old Bay knows exactly where things belong, including her own mother. Even the apple tree in the Waverly’s back yard has a power: Its fruit reveals selective visions of the future.

In Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen’s debut novel, each of the Waverly women must come to terms with her gift as well as the Waverly family name. After growing up with a mother who abandoned her and her sister, Claire must learn how to trust people again; she must especially learn how to trust her new neighbor, a man who seems determined to love her no matter how much she tries to ignore him. Claire’s sister Sydney, an expatriate who fled Bascom when she turned 18, decides to return to the sanctuary of her childhood home to protect her young daughter when the outside world grows too dangerous. Before she finds a peaceful future, Sydney must reconcile shadows from her past while discovering the nature of her own special power.

Author Sarah Addison Allen does a superb job at creating the cozy, comforting fantasy universe that the Waverly women inhabit. The world of the Waverlys is a highly appealing one, from Claire’s garden and kitchen to the apple tree that hurls fruit like a benign version of the trees in The Wizard of Oz.

If you’re in the mood for a gentle, uplifting tale of magic, one that entertains while reinforcing the healing power of family ties, you will love Garden Spells. Highly recommended!

Best Book Quote: “Tatooing is a sacred business for Amazons – one exclusively performed by women, for obvious reasons. Men just don’t have the same spiritual depth. I found it endlessly funny that in the modern world men had come to dominate the art. Of course, it also explained why most tattoos today no longer possess the power they should.”

Amazon Ink is an urban fantasy with a new twist. In Book One of the Amazons series, Lori Devoti introduces us to the world of the Amazon warrior in modern society. She details, with great skill, how the mythical tribe of female fighters lives in today’s world and how they exist without giving away any of their secrets. She introduces us to Melanippe Saka, a shamed Amazon warrior who left the tribe ten years earlier to give her daughter a normal upbringing. Even though Mel has left her tribe behind, she is always watched by her warrior mother and priestess grandmother – the tribe plans to keep an eye on her. Mel wants nothing more than to forget the pain that her tribe has caused her.

Mel has built herself a very successful tattoo business because of her unique magical skills in tattoo creation. She is doing just fine without the tribe and she wants it to stay that way but, unfortunately, that is not to be for Mel. Suddenly, dead bodies have started to show up on her doorstep. These bodies are Amazon tribe girls that in any normal circumstance could not be captured, let alone killed. Mel hides the bodies while she tries to solve the murders before somebody starts to blame her.

Add in a sexy tattoo artist named Peter who knows a whole lot more about the murders than he should and you’ve got the makings of an excellent urban fantasy. The character of Mel is engaging as she skillfully juggles the many problems that have arrived on her doorstep along with the dead bodies. Lori Devoti has given fantasy readers a true treat with this action filled mystery that has a twist of romance added in for fun. For the fantasy reader out there, this urban fantasy book is one that you will certainly enjoy.

Desire can heal the coldest heart—or burn it to ashes.

Alrik Gunn knows from bitter experience that change isn’t always for the better. From the woman who annihilated his Viking clan to the goddess who tricked him into centuries of slavery, betrayal has dogged his existence. The Goddess of Love is going to let him avenge his family, but for a price. As a Phoenix—a merchant of change—he must grant a human woman three chances to change her life.

When former Irish dancer Calleigh McCarthy tosses a carved-bird statue that belonged to her ex into a roaring bonfire, she unwittingly summons an honest-to-god Phoenix. A sexy, irresistible Viking who offers her an unbelievable bonus—three get-out-of-her-crappy-life-free cards. She’ll take it, even if it means guarding her cautious heart against the dark pain behind Alrik’s eyes.

Alrik has vowed never to let love sway him again, but Calleigh’s innocence and kindness throw him off balance. Yet even as his need for revenge fades and his love for her grows, he is bound to let her make her choices without interfering.

One wrongly chosen word, and any chance for happiness—for either of them—will go up in flames . . .