Alyssa Roat

An estranged uncle, a mysterious mansion, and Arthurian legend-together they lead to a world of magic and bloodthirsty wizards who want teenage Brinnie dead. Brynna "Brinnie" Lane has always lived a quiet life under the watchful eye of her hovering mother-until she's sent off for the summer to live with an uncle she didn't know she had. While her parents get to travel across the globe, she'll be spending three months in the middle of nowhere: upstate New York. It looks like she might spend the entire summer friendless with her nose in a book. However, she soon finds that Wraithwood Estate, her uncle's creepy old mansion, holds as many secrets as the man himself. When Brinnie is warned not to explore any of it, her curiosity only grows. As unnatural events take place and Brinnie hears whispers of a hidden war, she must unravel the truth about her family's mysterious past if she wants to survive. Something terrible happened at Wraithwood thirty years ago, and Brinnie is determined to find out what-even if it means confronting the possibility that magic is real.

Wraithwood

Hope Bolinger

Getting Reel

Cortex and V need a new nemesis. Cortex's last villain dumped him, and V got a little overeager and took out her hero prematurely. They meet on Meta-Match, a nemesis pairing site for heroes and villains. After throwing punches at each other behind coffee shops and hiring henchman to do their bidding (mostly just getting them coffee), they realize they have a lot more in common than meets the eye. And they may have a lot more hero and villain inside than they realize.

Dear Hero

Kevin and Himari didn't plan to be heroes. Henchmen and sidekicks aren't supposed to fall in love. Or save the world. They're supposed to brew coffee, take pics of their hero or villain for social media, and stay in the background. That was the plan for sidekick slash frat boy Kevin and henchwoman slash tech genius Himari, until a taxidermy-collecting villain robs Kevin's hero of his powers and leaves Himari's villain wounded. Now it's up to the sidekicks and henchmen to save the world. Without powers, they'll go up against the Shadow Assassins (a deadly organization that can't work a PowerPoint to save their lives), road trips slash kidnappings, and weird initiation rituals that may or may not involve singing campfire songs. Himari and Kevin will battle the odds, their insecurities, and a strangely polite Midwestern villain as they discover if they have what it takes to profess their love through Mexican food metaphors—and save the world from a nuclear disaster. The sequel to Dear Hero, this darkly humorous chat fiction novel told entirely through texts, transcriptions, and direct messages goes behind the scenes of the superworld.

Every Hero Needs a Sidekick, Every Villain Needs a Henchman

Dear Henchman

The bane of Mordred, the son of Mordizan, and a millennia-old prophecy-together they may provide what Brinnie needs to defeat the world of magic's greatest threat. More than a year has passed since Brinnie left Wraithwood, never expecting to see it again. But when Mordred captures her sister, she is thrust back into the world of magic. She flees to Wraithwood, where she learns of a prophecy located in the dark wizard capital of Mordizan that reveals the identity of "Mordred's bane," something that could destroy Mordred for good. Brinnie agrees to a rendezvous with Mordred to exchange herself for her sister, going undercover at Mordizan as a spy to find the prophecy and Mordred's bane. There, she weaves a complicated web of secrets, lies, and tenuous friendships. She makes an unexpected ally in Marcus Vorath, son of the Master of Mordizan, who fears the implications of Mordred's growing power. But in Mordizan, friends and foes may be one and the same. In the midst of court intrigue, battle, ominous new depths to her power, and searching for Mordred's bane, Brinnie struggles to draw the lines. How far is she willing to go to destroy Mordred? And how much of herself is she willing to give up along the way?

Mordizan

Cortex and V need a new nemesis. Cortex's last villain dumped him, and V got a little overeager and took out her hero prematurely. They meet on Meta-Match, a nemesis pairing site for heroes and villains. After throwing punches at each other behind coffee shops and hiring henchmen to do their bidding (mostly just getting them coffee), they realize they have a lot more in common than meets the eye. And they may have a lot more hero and villain inside than they realize.

Can a struggling career woman and a procrastinating artist save a beloved nonprofit? Aspiring novelist Caroline Penn expected a promotion, not a picture book assignment. But when her employer, the non-profit Helping Hope, runs into financial trouble, this book might be the solution. With the company struggling to stay afloat, she and the illustrator will need to collaborate on a strict deadline-no problem for a workaholic like Caroline, right? Andy Jackson, a "starving" artist, pays the bills by taking on graphic design gigs, but his perfectionism gets in the way. If only he could focus on a project for once, perhaps he could achieve his dream to make art for children for a living. When the two are thrust together to create a book, Caroline can't seem to write for children, and Andy can't meet a deadline to save his life. As time ticks down to release day, the two must face their pasts and insecurities. If they can avoid strangling one another for long enough, they may just bring to the table what the other is missing. If not, the fate of their careers-and a beloved nonprofit-hangs in the balance.

Alyssa Roat

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