"What do you do with a grumpy grimoire?
When Sibyl unexpectedly acquires a magical bookshop, she is torn between exhilaration and panic. She's landed on her feet on her first venture away from home, as the bookshop comes complete with an apartment above it. But as her would-be customers press her for an opening date, she has to juggle cataloguing the books and trying to keep her new apartment rodent-free - not to mention settling the unruly grimoire her benefactors left her. Plus, there's a vampire intent on gaining entry.
With no experience in retail and a grumpy grimoire to keep in check, will she ever succeed in running a bookshop?"
"It was just another rainy day in autumn when Freya's house fell into the sea.
Freya isn't your average suburban school kid– she's a demigoddess. But even a demigoddess can't hold back the sea. After a violent storm, Freya and her family are set adrift in a world where the weather comes with attitude, and rising sea levels are as much about personality clashes as climate change. School isn't a walk in the park either, not when Freya's classmates could be demigods, trolls or weres. All Freya wants to do is keep her cat fed and her family together. A friend wouldn't hurt either. Over the years she develops her own powers, but will those be enough to achieve her modest goals - or will her world wash away once again?"
"Freya thought that moving inland for university would mean safety. She was wrong.
Despite taking her cat with her when she moved for university, Freya is lonely. Her need for friendship leads her to join a group on a night out. But can her new acquaintances be trusted?
An out-of-season snowstorm descends on the city. The night streets are haunted by terrifying black barghests. There's a freak accident in the climbing gym. And not all of her new friends are what they seem. When a descendant of Apollo attacks the group with crows and arrows, Freya is horrified. But when it turns out he's on a vendetta to get rid of weres, Freya isn't sure what to think. Then, one of the group is reported missing.
Deep in an underground river, Freya and her friends must find and neutralise the kidnapper, or they may not survive until their term exams."
"When divination fails, will disaster automatically follow?
To take her place as a seer, Sibyl first has to pass an exam proving her ability. But not all exams end well. When Sibyl fails her seers exam, she escapes to a family farm to come to terms with her failure. Her stay doesn't bring the relief she expected; instead, she's reminded all over again how much hard work there is to do on a farm in rural Aotearoa New Zealand - and what dangers there are, too.
While Sibyl's unable to divine the future, it seems that everyone around her has already done so. Even so, they may not be able to prevent disaster. Can Sibyl see her way past disaster to a new future?
This novelette is a prequel to Seers and Salt, the first novella in the Woodside Cosy Urban Fantasy series."
"Cleo's witch is sometimes a little scatterbrained, so it's just as well she has a cat to keep her in order.
Cleo has her paws full making sure that her witch Elodie's do-it-yourself charms are worth the boxes they're packaged in. Her witch isn't always the best flier, either.
Elodie just needs to get her next batch of charms made in time for Witch Week. If only Cleo didn't keep getting in the way, upsetting pumpkins, and getting her claws into everything.
But when Cleo and Elodie find a hunter and his hellhounds risking wildfire in the forest one Halloween morning, the cat and her witch will have to work at their best to make sure the Wild Hunt doesn't bring terror to the nearby town."
"It's hard to do the unexpected when you come from a family of seers.
Sibyl’s family are descended from the same bloodlines that provided the oracles in Greece. She’s even inherited the name to go with the talent. But she's just failed her prophecy exams. Worse than that, her dog has disappeared and none of her far-seeing family can find him. When her aunt prophecies that her dog has gone where he's needed most, Sibyl decides she's had enough of the seer lifestyle.
Setting off to seek her fortune without the benefit of predictions, she takes the first bus that comes along to her small rural hometown, hoping to make herself less visible to her family by doing unpredictable things.
On the journey, she'll be lucky if she avoids being bored to death by her fellow passengers, being eaten to death by dragons or dying a metaphorical death by bad poetry. And that’s not counting the terrifying driving on dangerous roads. Her travel companions include wizards, djinns, witches and werewolves. While each of them possesses potent abilities, some of them might hold the key to an unseen future. She has important decisions to make along the way too. For example, should she choose ginger slice or custard square from the bakery where the bus stops?
Sibyl is someone who tends to think first and act afterwards, if at all, but when she spots an elemental incursion while gazing out the bus window, she will have to do more than just think. Can she save a small corner of the world without the help of an oracle?
Seers and Salt is the first book in a cosy and fun new urban fantasy series set in a magical version of Aotearoa New Zealand."
"Metamorphosis isn't all it's cracked up to be. But when a private investigator with dryad ancestry has to find her ex's killer, she might have to embrace it.
Ngaire is desperate for a case to pay the bills. She needs to feed herself and her teenage daughter, not to mention paying the rent. But the case she gets turns out to be more challenging than she was prepared for when it turns out to be a murder investigation. As a part-dryad, she's able to use some non-standard investigative procedures. But partial metamorphosis isn't much fun, and it's not something she wants to advertise either. As the information she obtains leads her closer to the person who killed her ex, she finds herself obliged to moonlight as an arborist, a job she's really not cut out for. Can she find the murderer, or will it be too hard to separate the wood from the trees?"
"Meet Tammy, a demigoddess gifted with a water affinity. Her only problem? She resides in perpetually soggy England, where her unfortunate rain allergy complicates life. One fateful day on her way home, she stumbles upon a flash flood and a teenage werewolf, sparking a chain of events that will alter her destiny forever.
In this enchanting short story, dive into the captivating world of Tammy as she grapples with newfound challenges and unexpected encounters. Will these twists of fate lead to a brighter future or cast her into darker realms? Unravel the intriguing beginning of the Weather Gods series, while also savouring the standalone appeal of this gripping tale."
