"Viv thought that her life was gaining some sort of equilibrium.
Yeah, there's something dodgy in her family tree, and yeah, she's living in a magic Tea House in Melbourne that has fae residents and feathered-and-or-tentacled visitors; but at least she's starting to get the hang of it. She's been keeping an eye on her not-quite-sane and perennially murderous coworker Luca (while convincing him not to kill quite everyone who looked at him sideways), getting closer to her mysterious and probably-fae-royalty boss Jasper, and catching humans and behindkind causing trouble between the worlds.
But now one of her housemates has kissed her—and she may have accidentally kissed him back. Romance wasn't meant to be a part of Viv's new life at the Tea House: she's still just trying to figure out how her mother connected with the world in which Viv now lives, and making sure she doesn't get killed either outside or inside the Tea House. She would also settle for just figuring out what her father is hiding from her and why he has what he has in his safe at home. She doesn't have the bandwidth for romance as well.
Meanwhile, outside the Tea House, the 'men' from Forex have begun to take a closer interest in her . . ."
"Viv has been living alongside behindkind and fae in the Historic Renner Tea House in Melbourne for nearly a month now. In that time, she's been almost killed by friends and enemies alike, discovered that the human world is not the only world on the edges of her reality, and become a glorified babysitter for Luca, an unstable assassin of otherworldly creatures who has nightmares that are a bit too . . . real. She has uncovered mysteries and murderers—and discovered just a bit too much about herself into the bargain.
Now a small selkie has turned up on her windowsill, while a nightmare has begun stalking the floors of the Tea House, and Viv is certain the two things are connected. The selkie's human sponsor has disappeared, as has his pelt, and there's no help to be had from the selkies, who won't interfere with a traditional sojourn of one of their own on solid land.
Between her boss Jasper's dislike of doing anything he doesn't get paid for, and Luca's disinclination to do anything to help behindkind rather than humans, Viv is finding it hard to get to the bottom of the disappearance. But if she doesn't, the nightmare that has infiltrated the Tea House might burgeon into daylight reality, and the little selkie won't get his pelt back. And without his pelt, it's just a matter of time before Kyma crumbles away into dust . . ."
"Viv just wants work—any work. Well, not quite any work. But she's desperate enough to accept a job offer as personal assistant to Jasper Renner—the rich and mysterious owner of the Renner Tea House—even though odd things happen whenever he's around.
She expects to deal with rich, entitled Melbournians and a full business schedule. Instead, Viv finds herself following Jasper into a strange new world where a murderous madman has been incarcerated in a secret floor at the old Kew Asylum that may or may not exist in the human world as she knows it.
Reality is just as worryingly soft at the old tea house itself, which hides a few too many not-quite-human secrets. In one of the downstairs rooms, there's a little girl who has been a little girl for a suspiciously long time; in the uppermost floor, there are a few windows that show a view that doesn't exist in Melbourne. And then there are the giant cephalopod tentacles that appear from nowhere and disappear again, seemingly at will . . .
Now Viv isn't sure if she's going mad, or if the world itself has gone mad and the lunatic in Kew Asylum is the only sane person she knows."
"The world isn't the same as it was yesterday. In fact, Viv is no longer sure that she is the same as she was yesterday. She can do something she never knew was possible—and Luca tried to kill her, just like Jasper said he would if she let him get too close.
At the teahouse, it's business as usual, however: tentacles in the top floor, an invasion of not-quite-real-but-nevertheless-terrifying spiders . . . and a new murderer to catch, of course. Someone is trying to make sure a Greek-Australian couple never makes it to the altar, and it's not just perfume they're sneaking into the bride's room.
But Luca isn't talking to Viv; not since she stopped him from escaping. That shouldn't be surprising—and the last thing Viv should be doing is trying to talk to him more than she has to—but there's another murderer on the loose, and they're going to need Luca's help to catch him.
Life was already hard, but now Viv has to somehow stop the wilder side of that life from spilling over into her normal life. Her human life. But if the two halves begin to split apart, which should she try to hold onto?"
"Revenge. Restoration. Romance. A few deadly wishes.
The Glass Elder wants wishes. Three, to be exact. Athelas wants a way in, and those wishes may well be that way—but giving the Elder what he wants means putting Camellia in harm's way. It also means that YeoWoo will have to choose between trusting Athelas one last time, and taking a bite at suddenly hot revenge that could swiftly go cold if she misses her chance.
Now that revenge is within reach of her teeth, will YeoWoo manage to tear out one last, bloody heart? Can Athelas put aside his own ends for long enough to protect all those dearest to him from threats outside—and from himself?
Can a family that began in blood survive one too many wishes and a far-too-wily Elder, or will the world as they know it fall apart into the chaos of wishes-gone-wrong?"
"The world Between is full of dangers, shadows, and reflections. Athelas knows the dangers, is one with the shadows—and has finally encountered a reflection that could be just a bit too much like himself for comfort.
The house master has come back. Nobody will quite say who he is, or why he owns the house. And to Athelas's growing irritation, no one will talk about the oddly powerful influence the house master seems to have over Camellia.
YeoWoo knows exactly who and what the house master is—and she knows exactly how much danger Camellia is in. The question she can't quite seem to answer is: How much safer is it to put Camellia into Athelas's power than to leave her in the house master's power?
There are nightmares skulking in the corners. Pieces of curse lingering beneath the couch. And soon Camellia will have to make a choice between two evils.
To add insult to injury, the teapot has gone missing . . ."
"Athelas never wanted housemates. Now he has three: the gumiho for whom he provided an alibi, the tea-wielding housekeeper who poisoned him, and the young human who might pose the greatest danger of all.
All of Athelas's training tells him to kill small, soft things before something else does—or worse, before he grows fond of them and then something kills them. He should at least know better than to worry about the revenge-bent gumiho who is drawing the attention of every high-ranking Behindkind in Seoul Between.
Hot on the tails of the gumiho who slaughtered her family, YeoWoo instead stumbles over the battered and broken body of a merman who knows just a little bit too much about her quarry. It should be simple to keep Marazul both alive and useful, but although YeoWoo is successful in the former, the latter is a different tail.
YeoWoo has always taken what she wanted in blood and force. Athelas has always gained what he needed by deception and manipulation. With their usual methods failing at every turn and the investigation swiftly becoming deadly, it's time to make a few changes.
Athelas has begun to fear that if he does change, his life will forever spin out of his control . . ."
"When is a curse not a curse? How does a house become a prison? Why is a reformed murderer the only hope for a far-too-easily injured boy?
Athelas has always been opposed to having a small, possibly-cursed Australian boy in the kitchen. When that small boy disappears, however, and Athelas's housekeeper Camellia strongly encourages him to do something about it, he finds himself wavering.
YeoWoo wants nothing to do with the disappearing Harrow, cursed or otherwise. Caught up with her own investigation and preparations for revenge, she would prefer her housemates to remain unseen and unheard. Entirely absent is even better.
But Athelas and YeoWoo have something in common: they both tread warily when it comes to their housekeeper, who runs the house with a tea-scented, magic-laced rod of iron. Camellia holds the key to Athelas's pretensions of reformation being accepted—and blames him for Harrow's disappearance. And she is determined to save Harrow, no matter what it takes.
Life as a reformed murderer would be so much easier if the process didn't include so much . . . reformation."
"Searching for redemption in the shifting realm between the human and fae worlds, not-so-reformed fae steward Athelas seems likely instead to find death, dismemberment, and deadly magic . . .
Exiled, excommunicated, and with a bounty on his head, Athelas is lying low in Seoul for exactly one reason: he has a wedding to attend. Whether or not he's welcome is another matter.
Luckily for Athelas, several bodies have turned up with their soft insides gnawed out, whether by magic or Behindkind—and the latest of those bodies is at the very wedding hall he has been staking out. The Behindkind investigators suspect one of Athelas's housemates: YeoWoo, a gumiho with a thirst for revenge and an even greater appetite for soft underbelly than Athelas. To buy herself time, YeoWoo barters alibis with the suspiciously quiet fae sharing her house, but to remain free, she must find the real murderer.
By joining the investigation, Athelas has exactly the chance he needs to prove that he is now a repentant, changed, and selfless fae, bent on atoning for former deeds . . . no matter how many Behindkind and humans he has to cut through to confirm that impression."
"‘If you want adventure, you have to march right up to it and kick it in the shins...’
At fourteen, barefoot and running wild, Rose is delighted to be apprenticed to Akiva, the witch of the forest. She thinks it will be all enchantment and excitement, and not so much fuss about baths. The reality is much more sober and practical—that is, until she meets a mysterious wolf in the forest and is tricked into stepping off the path...
In young, naive Rose, Bastian sees a way of escape. Cursed to remain in the shape of a wolf after running afoul of a powerful enchantress, he has lived many decades under a spell, and now he is both desperate and ruthless. But by breaking part of Bastian’s curse, Rose has caught the attention of Cassandra, the enchantress who cursed him: and Cassandra is by no means ready to forgive and forget.
Meanwhile, wardens have been disappearing from the forest, one by one. Rose is certain that Cassandra is behind the disappearances, but can she and Bastian get to the bottom of the matter before Akiva disappears as well? And are Bastian’s motives entirely to be trusted?
Sometimes the girl in the red hood doesn’t get eaten, and sometimes the wolf isn’t the most frightening thing in the forest...
*Wolfskin is a Two Monarchies Companion Novel*"
"G'day. I'm Pet. Heirling. Biter of fae lords. Trouble.
I have a lot of names these days—including my own, real name. Unfortunately for me, someone else knows that name too; not to mention the names of my other heirling friends. Now those heirling friends have disappeared, stolen by the current King Behind for a fight to the death where only one contender to the throne remains.
The rules say there's no way in and only one way out of that fight, but I've always preferred to work outside the rules. I just have to trust my friends to help each other stay alive long enough for me to get them out—without becoming a contender for the throne myself.
Because one thing is for sure: I am absolutely not planning on being the next King Behind."
"What is a maiden to do when her prince is not a prince, her hair won’t stop growing, and someone has cursed her to sleep for 300 years?
In Polyhymnia’s case, it seems expedient to get up with the help of a kiss or two, trailing her hair behind her, and find out who did it. Nothing quite works out as planned, however, and Poly can’t be sure if that’s because she never seems to be able to remember things like the mysterious spindle that keeps showing up around her, or if it’s the fault of the wizard who woke her but never stops long enough to explain anything.
Poly is determined in two things: One, that she will find out who cursed her to sleep and meddled with her memories. Two: that she will absolutely not fall in love with the irritating wizard who seems to need to keep kissing her back into the real world…"
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