Download Ebook: Masks and Shadows by Stephanie Burgis

The year is 1779, and Carlo Morelli, the most renowned castrato singer in Europe, has been invited as an honored guest to Eszterháza Palace. With Carlo in Prince Nikolaus Esterházy's carriage, ride a Prussian spy and one of the most notorious alchemists in the Habsburg Empire. Already at Eszterháza is Charlotte von Steinbeck, the very proper sister of Prince Nikolaus's mistress. 

Charlotte has retreated to the countryside to mourn her husband's death. Now, she must overcome the ingrained rules of her society in order to uncover the dangerous secrets lurking within the palace's golden walls. Music, magic, and blackmail mingle in a plot to assassinate the Habsburg Emperor and Empress--a plot that can only be stopped if Carlo and Charlotte can see through the masks worn by everyone they meet. Read Online Book Masks and Shadows by Stephanie Burgis Full Free

Review :

“Romance, music, and dark alchemy rise to a pitch-perfect ending in this wonderful historical novel. Memorable and utterly delightful.”
—Aliette de Bodard, Nebula Award–winning author of The House of Shattered Wings
 
“This deftly told and hugely engaging story weaves together the glittering court life of eighteenth-century Europe with a love for music (and Haydn), a thrilling taste of love and politics, and the bitter threat of a deadly magic.”
—Kate Elliot, author of Cold Magic and Court of Fives
 
“Elegant and exciting, Masks and Shadows celebrates diversity in taking us to a corner of the fantasy world few have ever visited. Stephanie Burgis plays her magical music with assurance and a profound knowledge that delighted and enlightened me as much as it entertained.”
—Ellen Kushner, author of Swordspoint and the Locus Award–winning The Privilege of the Sword

“Terrific. A lush adventure fueled by music and alchemy, and peopled with irresistible characters. Masks and Shadows blends history and magic into a rich, believable love story fraught with royal intrigue. I finished it in one sitting.”
—Donna Thorland, author of The Dutch Girl
 
“An intricate, passionate tale of love, difference, and danger. Loved it!”
—Laura Florand, international bestselling author
 
“A delightful tapestry of courtly intrigue, deadly magic, music, and romance. Stephanie Burgis has woven an unforgettable tale, steeped in eighteenth-century atmosphere and full of unique, well-drawn characters. This is a must-read for lovers of historical fantasy.”
—Leah Cypess, author of Mistwood
 
“Wonderful setting, fascinating characters, and beautiful music. It truly feels as if the author has lived with the people in that period and has written them from life—magic, demons, angelic singers, and all. I can’t wait to read the next. There will be a next? Yes? Please?”
—Judith Tarr, author of World Fantasy Award–nominated Lord of the Two Lands and the Hound and the Falcon series


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Free Ebook Download: Hystopia: A Novel from David Means

At the bitter end of the 1960s, after surviving multiple assassination attempts, President John F. Kennedy is entering his third term in office. The Vietnam War rages on, and the president has created a vast federal agency, the Psych Corps, dedicated to maintaining the nation’s mental hygiene by any means necessary. Soldiers returning from the war have their battlefield traumas “enfolded”―wiped from their memories through drugs and therapy―while veterans too damaged to be enfolded roam at will in Michigan, evading the government and reenacting atrocities on civilians.

This destabilized version of American history is the vision of twenty-two-year old Eugene Allen, who has returned from Vietnam to write the book-within-a-book at the center of Hystopia. In conversation with some of the greatest war narratives, from Homer’s Iliad to the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” David Means channels the voice of Allen, the young veteran out to write a novel that can bring honor to those he fought with in Vietnam while also capturing the tragic history of his own family.

The critic James Wood has written that Means’s language “offers an exquisitely precise and sensuous register of an often crazy American reality.” In Hystopia, his highly anticipated first novel, David Means brings his full talent to bear on the crazy reality of trauma, both national and personal. Outlandish and tender, funny and violent, timely and historical, Hystopia invites us to consider whether our traumas can ever be truly overcome. The answers it offers are wildly inventive, deeply rooted in its characters, and wrung from the author’s own heart. Read Online Book Hystopia: A Novel from David Means Full Free

Review :

“Supremely gonzo and supremely good . . . If Flannery O'Connor had written about Vietnam, Rake is the kind of character she would have created. . . What is the relation between the chaos of lived experience and the coherence of narrative? How is trauma tied to the fracturing of narrative, to our inability to see the past as past, distinct from, yet leading to the present? Henry James once described the real as ‘the things we cannot possibly not know.’Hystopia often reads, strange as it sounds, like a Jamesian investigation of knowledge, albeit one fueled by amphetamines. ” ―Anthony Domestico, The Boston Globe

“Hystopia quickly gains momentum and plausibility thanks to its richness of detail. Means is a writer of dazzling gifts: a challenging stylist and a keen observer whose senses seem, at times, pitched to a state of hyperawareness . . .Means writes beautifully about the natural world, effortlessly conjuring the sound of wind, the smell of Lake Michigan through the pines, 'the dry, lonely sizzle of cicadas going about their afternoon business.” ―Jay McInerney, The New York Times Book Review

“David Means’s Hystopia is the boldest alternate history novel in years . . . A debut novel that reinvents a genre . . . In his fidelity to a peculiarly American brokenness, Means’ debut surpasses nearly all of his recent peers.” ―Flavorwire

“Hystopia by David Means is a fascinating novel within a novel. Complex without being confusing, the novel weaves Eugene’s own battles with mental illness and his sister’s disappearance into a beautiful, haunting tale of loss.” ―Nancy Hightower, The Washington Post

"Hystopia, David Means’s dark acid trip of a novel, reads like a phantasmagorical . . . mash-up of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Michael Herr’s Vietnam classic, Dispatches . . . It's a meditation on war (not just Vietnam, Mr. Means suggests, but the continuum of combat that links veterans through history) and the toll it takes on soldiers and families and loved ones. It's also a portrait of a troubled America in the late 1960s and early '70s--an America reeling from unemployment and lost dreams, and seething with anger, and uncannily familiar, in many ways, to America today.” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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Read Online Book Smoke: A Novel by Dan Vyleta

"Smoke is an addictive combination of thriller, fantasy, and historical novel, with a dash of horror. It’s chilling and complex and amazingly imaginative.’”
—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness

England. A century ago, give or take a few years. 
 
An England where people who are wicked in thought or deed are marked by the Smoke that pours forth from their bodies, a sign of their fallen state. The aristocracy do not smoke, proof of their virtue and right to rule, while the lower classes are drenched in sin and soot. An England utterly strange and utterly real.
 
An elite boarding school where the sons of the wealthy are groomed to take power as their birthright. Teachers with mysterious ties to warring political factions at the highest levels of government.  Three young people who learn everything they’ve been taught is a lie—knowledge that could cost them their lives. A grand estate where secrets lurk in attic rooms and hidden laboratories. A love triangle. A desperate chase. Revolutionaries and secret police. Religious fanatics and coldhearted scientists. Murder. A London filled with danger and wonder. A tortured relationship between a mother and a daughter, and a mother and a son. Unexpected villains and unexpected heroes. Cool reason versus passion. Rich versus poor. Right versus wrong, though which is which isn’t clear.
 
This is the world of Smoke, a narrative tour de force, a tale of Dickensian intricacy and ferocious imaginative power, richly atmospheric and intensely suspenseful. Read Online Book Smoke: A Novel by Dan Vyleta Full Free

Review :

“Dan Vyleta has conjured a rich and surprising counter-history, an England saturated with a substance so potent and evocative it vaults instantly into the pantheon that includes the Dust of Philip Pullman, the soma of George Orwell, and the opium of Amitavh Ghosh. Smoke is enthralling.”
—Robin Sloan, bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
 
“Smoke is one of the most original and enthralling books I have read in a long time. I was immediately sucked in and then mesmerized enough that I read it in a rush. I think the book is absolutely stunning. I’ve told so many people about it, I feel like I should carry a bag of galleys around with me to hand out. I’ve refined my elevator pitch to: ‘Smoke is an addictive combination of thriller, fantasy, and historical novel, with a dash of horror. It’s chilling and complex and amazingly imaginative.’” 
—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness
“A fiercely inventive novel . . . Vyleta’s bold concept and compelling blend of history and fantasy offer a provocative reflection on the nature of evil, power, believe, and love. Dickensian in its imaginative scope and atmosphere.” 
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) 
“[T]he novel's sumptuous, irresistible narrative—filled with plenty of twists and turns and imagination—will satisfy any reader. A terrific, suspenseful tale.” 
—Kirkus

“Is it natural to think ‘bad’ thoughts, and if so, does that make it OK? Do people behave morally out of true goodness? Full of otherworldly adventure yet chilling in its realism, Smoke lures readers into considering these questions about society and ourselves.”
—Booklist (starred review)

"Astonishing . . . It's filling in that gaping hole left by both Harry Potter and Philip Pullman's Northern Lights. Yes, really."
—Stylist


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Read Online Book A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly

THE NIGHT CIRCUS meets THE PEAKY BLINDERS in Lee Kelly's new crossover fantasy novel.

Magic is powerful, dangerous and addictive - and after passage of the 18th Amendment, it is finally illegal.
It's 1926 in Washington, DC, and while Anti-Sorcery activists have achievedthe Prohibition of sorcery, the city's magic underworld is booming.Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters' crime sprees. Smugglersfunnel magic contraband in from overseas. Gangs have established secret performance venues where patrons can lose themselves in magic, and take a mind-bending, intoxicating elixir known as the sorcerer's shine.

Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from Norfolk County, Virginia accepts anoffer to work for DC's most notorious crime syndicate, the Shaw Gang,when her family's home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, a first-yearFederal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents ofhis own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws. 

Through different paths, Joan and Alex tread deep into the violent, dangerousworld of criminal magic - and when their paths cross at the Shaws'performance venue, despite their orders, and despite themselves, Joanand Alex become enchanted with one another. But when gang alliancesbegin to shift, the two sorcerers are forced to question their ultimateallegiances and motivations. And soon, Joan and Alex find themselvespitted against each other in a treacherous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.

A CRIMINAL MAGIC casts a spell of magic, high stakes and intrigue against the backdrop of a very different Roaring Twenties. Read Online Book A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly Full Free

Review :

This is a solid, suspenseful, Prohibition-era crime story, with one rather large twist: in this version of the U.S., it's not liquor that's been made illegal, it's magic. . . . This is a clever and very imaginative variant on a tried-and-true theme. (Booklist)

"This urban fantasy, always electric, reads like jazz itself."  (Publisher's Weekly)

"Kelly's enchanting novel takes place during the roaring 20s and is slightly reminiscent of The Night Circus with a splash of The Great Gatsby.  Readers will be enamored by this sci-fi, magical, New Adult story which is guaranteed to provoke bursts of excitement and surges in ones imagination thanks to the creative and descriptive non-stop flow throughout."  (RT Book Reviews)

"A Criminal Magic is a solid, well-written tale . . . but it's the ending that is going to have everyone talking.  The final plot twist is a punch in the gut."  (Tor.com)

"It sucks you in and doesn't let go." (SF Signal)

"This urban fantasy, always electric, reads like jazz itself." (Publishers Weekly)

"Reminiscent of The Night Circus with a splash of The Great Gatsby." (Romantic Times)

"Well-crafted and delightfully taut, A Criminal Magic is a wonderful piece of spellwork." (V.E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author of A Darker Shade of Magic)

"A Criminal Magic is a smart, absorbing read, with a deft take on Prohibition, engaging characters, and an utterly believable and fantastic version of magic that is as splendid as it is dangerous." (Kate Elliott, author of The Spiritwalker trilogy)

"This is a solid, suspenseful, Prohibition-era crime story...a clever and very imaginative variant on a tried-and-true theme." (Booklist)


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