The Mist and the Flame (The New Bardiverse, #1)

The Mist and the Flame (The New Bardiverse, #1) By Coral-Li St. Helen
Publication date: September 15, 2025
Buy Link: Amazon
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult
Summary:

What’s really behind the story of star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet?

Let’s start with the truth about Rosaline—Romeo’s actual first love. Rosaline scorns romance and instead craves magic. To free herself from Romeo’s amorous attention as well as her dull life in Verona, she uses her limited sorcery skills to bring him and Juliet together. Renaming herself Foschia Luminosa, she then gleefully runs off to join a school of magic.

Just when Lumi’s dreams are about to come true, disaster Syra, the intimidating witch who runs the school, denies her entry and demands she return to Verona. She must repair the damage done by her spell or the young couple is doomed and Lumi will be outcast forever.

As tragedy looms ever nearer, Lumi reluctantly teams up with a mysterious, sullen girl calling herself Fiamma Fredda, an orphan of unknown parentage. Freddi is an astonishingly skilled fighter, but who is she, and does she really want to help—or is she using Lumi for her own purposes?

Join Lumi and Freddi in their thrilling quest to save Romeo and Juliet, learn of Freddi’s origins, and grapple with Syra’s own dark past. They—and you—are in for a great many surprises along the way…

—

EXCERPT:

On the particular day that started it all, our tutor, Grigio, gave me something to translate which turned out to be an old recipe for a potion to be used for suppressing painful memories. It called for various common herbs which I knew Friar Lawrence grew in his garden, so I ran to him the first chance I got to ask for the ingredients. That, I found out later, was how the school at La Fortezza became interested in me. Friar Lawrence and, incredibly, my tutor both looked out for potential candidates to recruit for this secret school. Most of the tutor’s pupils, my cousin Juliet included, merely did the translation (perfectly, in her case). The very few with the curiosity to see if it would work, those were the ones that interested them.

The Bridge

The Bridge By Shanna Hatfield
Publication date: October 7, 2025
Buy Link: Amazon
Genres: Adult, Holiday, Women’s Fiction
Summary:

One Bridge. Five Strangers. A Christmas Eve That Changes Everything.

On a bridge suspended above the Willamette River, five lives collide for a journey through hope and hardship in a suspenseful, heartwarming tale of courage, connection, and the magic of second chances.

Sergeant Archer Raines has worked every holiday all year for one reason: to finally spend Christmas with his wife. But when a desperate man threatens to jump from Portland’s St. Johns Bridge, Archer’s expert negotiation skills are required to defuse the situation.

Rosalee, a high-powered accountant and mom-to-be, only meant to swing by home for a forgotten phone and client file. Then her car is caught in the chaos on the bridge, she unexpectedly goes into labor, and her carefully planned world begins to unravel amidst the unfolding drama.

Exhausted nurse Nova just wants to make it home for Christmas after too many night shifts. When the pileup halts traffic and Rosalee’s baby is on the way, Nova puts her own plans on hold to help a stranger in need.

Carter, the owner of a busy tow truck business, regrets taking the call to clear the multi-car collision off the bridge. He’d intended to spend the day tackling last-minute holiday errands. Instead, he’s praying the lunatic pointing a gun at him doesn’t pull the trigger.

Fresh out of college and anxious to kick-start his career, Ian’s running late when his car won’t start the morning of his big interview. His rideshare driver turns out to be a captivating girl with a penchant for aggressive driving that narrowly saves them from being part of the wreck on the bridge, sending Ian on an unexpected path of his own.

The Bridge is the perfect uplifting holiday read and a story of how one frozen moment can thaw even the loneliest of hearts.

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EXCERPT:

He’d just stepped outside when he saw a vehicle roaring up the street. The rideshare logo was clearly visible in the passenger-side corner of the windshield. He hoped the maniac driving the small SUV wouldn’t kill him in a fiery crash before they even made it out of the neighborhood.

He lifted a hand as he stepped out to the curb, and the SUV came to a precise stop beside him. All he had to do was open the door and slide into the back seat.

“You’re the dude heading to Magra? Ian Alexander?” the driver asked, giving him a glimpse over her shoulder.

Ian nodded, then cleared his throat. “Yes. I’m Ian. Do you have the address?”

Behind the Mirror

Behind the Mirror By Bridget Budd
Publication date: July 1, 2025
Buy Link: Amazon
Genres: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Summary:

Behind the Mirror is a powerful, character-driven novel about emotional healing, generational trauma, and the courage it takes to stop performing and start living your truth.

Sometimes, the hardest person to face is the one behind the mirror…

Julie Sloan was shaped by abandonment early in life—left behind by the people who were supposed to love her first. In the absence of emotional safety, she became what the world rewarded: high-achieving, self-sacrificing, and always performing. Through four marriages, she searched for stability while suppressing her deepest fears—that she was unworthy of lasting love, and too broken to be fully seen.

But when her fourth marriage nearly collapsed, something shifted. It wasn’t betrayal that broke her—it was the quiet realization that she had never truly lived for herself.

What followed was a reckoning: with her past, with the roles she had played to survive, and with the parts of herself she had long silenced.

Now, years later, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist named Laura wants to profile Julie’s nonprofit work—an organization devoted to helping women heal from emotional wounds. But what begins as a success story takes a deeper turn as Julie reveals the story behind the story—the one she’s never shared publicly. The one about how she abandoned herself first.

For readers drawn to novels about inner child work, identity, and spiritual awakening, this deeply personal journey will leave you both broken open and quietly restored.

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EXCERPT:

Julie Sloan had everything she thought she wanted—success, love, stability—but beneath the perfection was an exhaustion she couldn’t name. In this scene from Behind the Mirror, she begins to see the quiet cost of performing her way through life.

I had and have everything I had dreamed of. This gorgeous house, an indoor pool, a home gym, a massage room, and a state-of-the-art kitchen. Plus, I drive a super-fun and sporty Porsche 718 Boxster in Carmine Red … Nothing beats the top down on the glorious sunny days we have here.

But I was perpetually unhappy and had no idea why.

The Ordinary Bruja: Marisol’s Story (Las Cerradoras, #1)

The Ordinary Bruja: Marisol’s Story (Las Cerradoras, #1) By Johanny Ortega

Publication date: November 1, 2025

Buy Link: Amazon
Genres: Adult, Horror, Magical Realism, Psychological

The Ordinary Bruja is a haunting and heartfelt coming-of-age novel wrapped in Dominican magical realism and psychological horror.

Marisol Espinal doesn’t believe she’s special. Not when she’s back in her small Ohio hometown, working as a barista, haunted by grief and the girls who once made her life hell. But when mirrors flicker with strange words, cigar smoke curls where no one is smoking, and voices whisper from Hallowthorn Hill, she realizes something darker has always been watching.

The Espinal family magic was buried generations ago-forced into silence by Salvador, the ancestor who bound their power for himself. Now his ghost feeds on fear and doubt, and Marisol is his next target. To survive, she must reclaim her heritage, unearth the truth hidden in her mother’s journal, and face the hill that has been waiting for her all along.

Atmospheric and emotionally charged, The Ordinary Bruja blends generational trauma, identity reclamation, and queer love with a creeping sense of dread. Perfect for fans of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina and Mexican Gothic, this novel asks: What does it cost to embrace every part of yourself-even the parts the world taught you to bury?

“Ten months since she had dropped out and came home, to the place she promised herself she’d never return to. She was bad at keeping promises. That was for sure.”

—

PRAISE for The Ordinary Bruja

“There is spirituality, magic, ghosts, there is plenty of love, there is loss; and above all there is familia, both genetic and of choice.”

“…An impactful horror story that blew me away.”

Coming Up for Air

Coming Up for Air By Jessica Natalie Reino
Published by: Fire and Ice YA
Publication date: October 20th 2025
Buy Link: Amazon
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult
Summary:

As if the rumors and whispers from the people of her seaside town, Oceanbrook, weren’t bad enough, 17-year-old Sarah D’Antonio is troubled by the whispers from the forest. 

It’s not her fault that she hears voices, that she sees auras, and that she has been sleepwalking along the shore. The townspeople, and Sarah’s parents among them, claim that it is all in response to stress, including her chronic migraines and panic attacks. 

They believe that she can’t come to grips with the fact that her cousin, Lena, is dead. But Sarah knows that the things she is experiencing are real and not something she is bringing on herself. 

She also knows that Lena is not dead, only missing. She believes that there is something more supernatural going on and that the town is hiding secrets.

Sarah’s feelings are validated when she suddenly becomes thrust into a world in which she has always sensed but never seen. 

A world of fairy witches, shape-shifters, and legendary creatures. The world of the astral plane. And now, it will be up to her to form alliances to save the magic, fix the astral plane, and most importantly, to bring her cousin home.

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EXCERPT:

I had lost so much over the span of the last few years. Second-guessing everything but still trying to find a reason behind why bad things happen. 

It’s not like I didn’t know that life wasn’t fair, but living with chronic illness and how everyone reacted differently to Lena’s disappearance really drove home the fact that I would never be able to fully trust my relationships, my health, or even my beliefs. I think that’s what scared me the most.