Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists

In Navola, a city-state dominated by a handful of influential families, Davico di Regulai must demonstrate his mastery of Navolese diplomacy as he prepares to take the reins of power from his father, which reveals his fate depends on what lies buried in the heart of his adopted sister.
(Description from NoveList)

Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv, the orc barbarian, cashes out of the warrior's life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where sheplans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen. However, her dreams of a fresh start filling mugs instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune's shady underbelly may just upset her plans.
(Description from catalog)

Investigating a seemingly impossible death, detective Ana Dolabra, whose brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities, and her new magically altered assistant, Din, who is trying to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect, uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself.--Description from NoveList

A debut novel full of magic, adventure, and romance, The Book of Doors opens up a thrilling world of contemporary fantasy for readers of The Midnight Library, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, The Night Circus, and any modern story that mixes the wonder of the unknown with just a tinge of darkness. (Description from NoveList)

When Ian, a long-lost teenage relative, finds her, Louise Chao, punk rock vampire extraordinaire, feels a connection for the first time in ages, but when he discovers her true identity, he asks her for the ultimate favor--one that might change everything vampires know about life and death forever.
(Description from catalog)

Breaking the promise he made to his beautiful wife, to never pry into her past, when they arrive at her childhood home, a crumbling manor shrouded in mystery, a scholar of myths must choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage--or their lives.
(Description from catalog)

An incredibly inventive, highly anticipated second adult novel--with witches, magic, and a road trip through America.
(Description from catalog)

Lennon Carter's life is falling apart. Then she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to take the entrance exam for Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. Lennon has been chosen because-like everyone else at the school-she has the innate gift of persuasion, the ability to wield her will like a weapon, using it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself. After passing the test, Lennon begins to learn how to master her devastating and unsettling power.
(Description from catalog)

Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she's abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the "Unnamed Arts." Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows.
(Description from catalog)

Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority.
(Description from Amazon)

Dora, a former domestic servant at the university has a secret desire—to find where her brother went after he died, believing that the answer lies within The Museum of Psykical Research, where he worked when Dora was a child. With the city amidst a revolutionary upheaval, where citizens like Robert Barnes, her lover and a student radical, are now in positions of authority, Dora contrives to gain the curatorship of the half-forgotten museum only to find it all but burnt to the ground, with the neighboring museums oddly untouched.
(Description from Amazon)

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he's definitely dead. But even in death he's not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.
(Description from catalog)

Brought back to life by their high school music teacher, Laura, Daniel and Mo, desperate to reclaim their lives, agree to perform a series of magical tasks, but when their resurrection attracts the notice of supernatural figures, they must solve the mystery of their deaths to save everything they love. (Description from NoveList)

Follows Circe, the banished witch daughter of Helios, as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals. (Description from catalog)

A thrilling anthology of thirteen short stories that span the wide-ranging imagination of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance Trilogy, including a sneak peek at the world where her next novel will be set.
(Description from catalog)

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 Jaga. To reach her, Dymitr must ally with the ones he’s sworn to kill. Pain is Ala’s inheritance. A fear-eating zmora with little left to lose, Ala awaits death from the curse she carries. When Dymitr offers her a cure in exchange for her help, she has no choice but to agree. Together they must fight against time and the wrath of the Chicago underworld. But Dymitr’s secrets—and his true motives—may be the thing that actually destroys them.--Description by NoveList

As two royals fight to keep their crowns amidst old friends and new enemies in fantastical realms connected by a single city--London, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could bring them together--or unravel it all.
(Description from catalog)

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.--Description by NoveList