Lauren Louise Hazel is here to tell us about The Book of Wands, The Tarot Series book 1, YA academy, urban fantasy.
There's also a great giveaway.
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The cards await,
ready to unveil their secrets.
Are you prepared to witness their magic?
The Book of Wands
The Tarot Series Book
1
by Lauren Louise Hazel
Genre: YA Academy, Urban Fantasy
The cards await,
ready to unveil their secrets. Are you prepared to witness their magic?
Olivia Pembroke is in her final year of The School of Wands, where she will
vie against her friends and rivals for qualification in The Final Judgment.
Designed to be the ultimate test of Intelligence, Strength, Creativity and
Courage, The Final Judgment is set by a mysterious figure called Rasmus, who is
wrapped in secrets.
Olivia has no doubt she is going to win and claim victory
and pride for her family. That is, until her grandmother dies, and leaves her
with her old Tarot Deck, which she claimed could see Past, Present and Future…
Olivia’s head was bowed, and her neck straining in its
awkward position. She had plaited her hair neatly, in a half-crown at the top
of her head, at her mother’s insistence. Olivia was already regretting the
decision. The weather was drizzling, the mist cool on her flushed skin, but she
had no protection from its light drops.
Nor did she have any shield from the flurry of
mourners.
Her mother was standing at the front, clad in a black suit
and skirt and black boots. Her face, starting to line with age, was stone cold
and remote. Her father was standing at her side, and like Olivia, he was
looking at the floor. He looked hunched and strangely small.
The casket, black and shiny, was lowered slowly into the
ground.
The priest was speaking, but his words were wrong. He was
talking about Olivia’s grandmother like someone who had never met her before;
he called her a bright and radiant light, kind and gentle and generous. She had
not been any of those things, but Olivia had loved her anyway. She had been
strong and resilient and a force of nature. She had advocated for Olivia when
nobody else had – attending every school event when her parents could not. Her
grandmother had stayed at the Pembroke Estate with her while her parents were
travelling for work, assisting with schoolwork and answering Olivia’s many
questions. She was always supportive and never judging. She always made time
for her.
But now she was gone…
And Olivia had never felt so alone. The distance between her
and parents was like a chasm, so far and almost unbreachable. Olivia blamed
them for their part in her grandmother’s death – for all that they had done to
her – and it was a thought, a feeling, that she could not shake. If they had
not sent her away, maybe she’d alive... maybe she would still be with Olivia.
She did not know what to do now.
How could her grandmother leave her? She didn’t understand.
What had seen done wrong? Olivia wanted to cry, the conflicting emotions
bubbling beneath her skin. She felt trapped, like she was suffocating under a
black cloud that only she could see.
After all, her mother was always watching – as soon as the
thought crossed Olivia’s mind, her mother turned towards her, reaching, as
though she hadn’t done anything wrong. Olivia swallowed and backed away.
“Don’t let this distract you, Olivia,” said her mother, her
quiet voice loud in the oppressive silence. Olivia jerked slightly, unable to
suppress the flinch. She did not reply.
Her mother barrelled on. “This is the most important year
for you,” she continued, oblivious to Olivia’s thoughts and feelings, as
always. “You could achieve anything.”
In
that moment, Olivia did not care.
Her grandmother was not coming back.
Lauren Louise Hazel is a Cyber Security Manager by day and
writes YA fantasy by night. She has one annoying brother and younger sister. As
she was growing up, the only item her dad would buy her without demanding her
pocket money was books. He’s hoping the writing is successful so he can get a
Ferrari!
Some of Lauren’s favourite books and influences include the
classics – like Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games – and anything by Haruki
Murakami and GRR Martin.
Lauren Louise Hazel is here to tell us about The Occult Series, YA Urban Fantasy.
There's also a great giveaway.
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A shuddering, thrilling urban fantasy series
The Reign of the
Occult
The Occult Series Book 1
by Lauren Louise Hazel
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
The Reign of the
Occult is a shuddering, thrilling, urban fantasy for Young Adults. Filled with
hair raising chases through shadowy streets, frightening fights and
mind-blowing magic, it's sure to keep many a different genre loving reader
happy.
The battle between the Underworld, full of darkness, and the Overworld, full of
light, has been evenly balanced for millennia. Caught between them is the
mortal world, where humans have become so afraid of a magic they cannot
understand or control that they allow the Occult to rule them. After the Occult
joins forces with the Underworld, the balance shifts and the Overworld is
decimated.
But still, in the mortal world, the magic won’t die. It appears when a
supernatural being and a human have a child, like Prue.
This is the first volume in an epic new fantasy series that spans the three
richly detailed worlds as Prue, her non-magical half-brother Everett, and all
Magic Users, fight to survive. They are being hunted by the Occult, who turn
the Magic Users they capture into tools to eliminate their own kind and,
eventually, to destroy all traces of magic.
“Prue!”
Everett gasped, unable to disguise the desperation in his voice. His legs were
aching, his lungs burning, and his heart was pounding erratically in his chest
– a reminder that, despite everything, he was still alive.
Maybe not
for much longer.
He wheezed,
attempting to inhale more air, but from the weakness in his legs, he knew he
wouldn’t last much longer.
“Prue! Which
way?” he cried, casting a panicked glance at his sister. He imagined he could
hear them, the cocking of their guns, drawing near. Every flicker of movement
in the streetlight, every sound, felt magnified, as though even the shadows
were poised and ready to pounce.
“Both ways
are blocked,” Prue replied at last, her feet pounding the pavement beside Everett,
faltering only as they approached the junction. She frowned, eyelashes
fluttering, and clenched her fists, her nails leaving angry red indentations in
the palms of her hands. She was very pale.
“What are
you talking about?” Everett gasped, slowing to a canter.
“Nothing is
certain.”
Everett,
while used to his sister’s cryptic remarks, was not in the mood for games. “That’s
not helping!” he cried, skidding to a halt as they reached the turning. He cast
a glance over his shoulder. “Are we going left, or right?”
Prue froze
and her eyes did too, as they often were when she saw things nobody else could.
“I told you,” she said, in a detached tone. “Both ways are blocked.”
Everett
cocked the gun he’d held loosely in his palm, trying to ignore the way it
slipped slightly in his grasp, dampened by his sweat-slick skin. “Does that
mean we’re dead either way?” he asked, with a carelessness he didn’t quite
feel. He checked his ammunition, if only to busy his shaking hands, knowing it
would probably make little difference in the end. Maths had never been his
strong point, but he knew one gun against hundreds were never favourable odds.
“They’re
coming,” Prue informed her brother, although she did not meet his eyes. She was
staring into the blackness at the other end of the street; Everett followed her
gaze, but as always, saw nothing.
“Where—?” he
began, before freezing. He couldn’t see, only hear, the rapid pounding of
footsteps along a cobbled street. Low at first, the sound was growing louder,
clear in the otherwise silent night. The hairs on the back of his neck were
standing up in warning. “Ok, you’re right,” he conceded, in a generous tone, “They’re
coming! No foresight needed for that. Which way do we go?”
Prue shook
her head, dark hair clinging to her bowed face, her eyes crunched in
concentration. She was covered in sweat.
“Wait— wait—”
Everett muttered, in a panicked breath, realising his sister was going to be of
no help. He could see them now, shadows moving in the darkness, emerging at the
end of the street. The Officers of the Occult. He shot three times in quick
succession – one, two, three – and something must have found its mark, from the
strangled cry of pain that followed. They were still alive, then. Good.
Everett had
only a moment to feel relief before the others swarmed. They were closing in on
them. Although in range, they had yet to fire a single shot; as he expected,
their aim was to capture, not to kill.
“Something
is changing,” Prue said from beside Everett. She clutched her head, fisting her
fingers into her hair, as though physically trying to remove something from her
mind. “Another factor is clouding things. His choices are unclear. He’s
conflicted already.”
“Prue!”
Everett cried, trying to pick something of use from her incoherent ramblings.
He pushed her sideways, behind the wall of a garden and out of sight – at least
for the moment. They were running out of time – the Officers would be upon them
in less than a minute, and then there would be no escape. “Pick a way! Which
way has more chance of survival?”
Prue gazed
up at the sky, but she was seeing nothing. “Left,” she replied at last, “Maybe
he will spare us.”
Without taking a second to contemplate what his
sister might mean, Everett grabbed her slippery hand and pulled, turning a
sharp left, the Officers of the Occult temporarily vanishing from view.
The Queen of the
Underworld
The Occult Series Book 2
The Queen of the
Underworld is the second novel in the award-winning The Occult Series
by Lauren Louise Hazel.
Following the fall of The Occult and its Head, Prue receives visions of The
Queen of the Underworld—a powerful Demon who was once overthrown by her allies
and exiled from her homeland—rising in its place.
Prue sees that the Queen is connected to Prue’s best friend, Lily. This leads
Prue and her half-brother, Everett, on their mission across worlds to destroy
the Queen and save their friend. But nothing is what it seems.
The Queen is ready and waiting for them—and she will stop at nothing to secure
her future and wipe out anyone who opposes her.
Lauren Louise Hazel is a Cyber Security Manager by day and
writes YA fantasy by night. She has one annoying brother and younger sister. As
she was growing up, the only item her dad would buy her without demanding her
pocket money was books. He’s hoping the writing is successful so he can get a
Ferrari!
Some of Lauren’s favourite books and influences include the
classics – like Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games – and anything by Haruki
Murakami and GRR Martin.
Laura Daleo is here to tell us about The Wolf Experiment, urban fantasy - werewolf.
There's also a great giveaway.
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Urban Fantasy / Werewolf
Date Published: 01-23-2026
In Doford Peaks, a small mountain town, 19-year-old Ethan lives with his
grandma. His life is quite normal, at least as normal as it can be for someone
with asthma. A winter morning walk turns dramatic when he and his grandma
discover an 18-year-old girl, Mia, who is unconscious and injured. As Mia
recovers, bits of her past emerge, attracting agents Gibson and Cooper of the
Bureau of Supernatural Investigation (BSI). A complex web of secrets
associated with the Defense Forces of Genesis (DFOG) intertwines their fates.
As the truth emerges, Ethan and Mia must face the horrifying reality of The
Wolf Experiment.
About the Author
Laura Daleo is an accomplished multi-genre author
known for weaving captivating tales across dark fantasy, urban fantasy,
supernatural/paranormal, sci-fi, and young adult fiction. Her acclaimed
Immortal Kiss series showcases her unique take on vampiric lore, reimagining
the origins of vampires through the lens of the Egyptian pantheon. Originally
from San Diego, California, Laura now calls Tucson, Arizona home, where she
shares her life with her two beloved dogs, Rose and Cooper.
J.J. Hebert is here to tell us about The Breaking of Time, Chronicles of the Arvynth #1, urban fantasy.
There's also a great giveaway.
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The Breaking of Time J.J. Hebert (Chronicles of the Arvynth, #1) Publication date: November 25th 2025 Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy
USA Today bestselling author J. J. Hebert’s brand-new urban fantasy series Chronicles of the Arvynth begins with The Breaking of Time, a novel about a devoted father whose desperate act to save his son fractures reality itself, awakening ancient magic and drawing him back into the path of an immortal order he once betrayed, where love, time, and silence collide in a race against eternity.
Mariel Hemingway’s Book Club Selection (Best Urban Fantasy):
“This novel is heartfelt, gripping, and memorable in all the best ways.” —Mariel Hemingway, Bestselling Author & Oscar-Nominated Actress ★★★★★
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ONE FATHER’S DESPERATE CHOICE FRACTURES TIME AND REALITY ITSELF.
To everyone around him, Daniel Ward is a mild-mannered accountant, devoted husband and father in a quiet New England suburb. But when his ten-year-old son chases a runaway soccer ball into the street, straight into the path of a speeding truck, Daniel does the impossible. He freezes time.
That single act of defiance exposes the secret he’s buried for decades. His magic awakens the ancient order he once betrayed, the Arvynth, a brotherhood of immortal sorcerers devoted to stillness and death, determined to silence the world.
As his carefully constructed life unravels, Daniel must protect his family while evading the brotherhood that hunts him. Every second he steals from time feeds the void that seeks to consume it, threatening not only the people he loves but reality itself.
Forced to choose between sacrifice and survival, Daniel discovers the truth: sometimes the loudest act of love is defiance.
The Breaking of Time is a race against eternity, a supernatural thriller that fuses urban fantasy and family drama in a story about the noise of life, the cost of power, and one father’s desperate fight to keep the world from falling silent.
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PRAISE FOR THE AWARD-WINNING URBAN FANTASY NOVEL THE BREAKING OF TIME:
“This work will grab readers’ attention early as Hebert combines a diverse array of genres—fantasy, thriller, family road novel, and others—into a fast-paced, character-driven adventure… An exciting, tightly written tale of magic… Our verdict: Get it.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The Breaking of Time is meticulously crafted to explore themes of love, loss, redemption, and the struggle to balance personal desires with greater responsibilities.” —BookLife/Publishers Weekly (EDITOR’S PICK)
“The Breaking of Time: Chronicles of the Arvynth delivers cinematic urban fantasy that bridges generations, echoing the mythic gravity and moral weight of J.R.R. Tolkien while unfolding within a sleek, contemporary world… This is prestige fantasy…” —Jesse Metcalfe, Award-Winning Actor ★★★★★
“An immersive paranormal thriller that balances the rich worldbuilding and in-depth lore characteristic of fantasy fiction with the all-too-human dramas of identity, family, and the consequences of secrecy.” —Independent Book Review (STARRED review)
“If you like magic that feels tactile and real, or if you enjoy emotional stakes wrapped inside supernatural danger, this book will hit the spot.” —Literary Titan★★★★★ (Gold Winner, Literary Titan Book Award: Fiction 2026)
“A smartly plotted supernatural thriller with a strong, charismatic protagonist to root for. A Wishing Shelf Recommended Read!” —The Wishing Shelf★★★★★
“A winning blend of the supernatural and family adventure that crackles with heart and imagination.” —BestThrillers ★★★★★
“A wonderfully complex dive into the world of fantasy… fast-paced, magical…” —Readers’ Favorite ★★★★★
I’ve spent years pretending to be someone I’m not.
The thought surfaces every morning when I shave, watching the face in the mirror—a face that should be ancient, centuries-old, but instead shows only the faint creases of a man in his early forties. A single gray hair at my temple that Elena keeps threatening to pluck. The kind of weathering that comes from the lost sleep of parenthood and mortgage payments, not from outliving empires.
To everyone else, I’m Daniel Ward—husband, father, the sort of man who mows the lawn on Saturdays and forgets garbage day at least twice a month. My neighbors wave when I’m pulling out the recycling bins, their smiles automatic and easy. Mrs. Dante from next door brings over her extra zucchini in late summer, always too much, always apologizing for the abundance. My coworkers at the accounting firm think I’m polite but quiet, the guy who keeps his head down and never complains about the coffee. My wife calls me dependable, though sometimes I catch a question in her eyes, a flicker of something she can’t quite name.
They all believe they know me.
They don’t.
The other man—the one buried under the flannel shirts and PTA meetings—still lurks somewhere beneath the surface. He’s the one who used to speak to the unseen currents of the world, who could twist wind and time if he chose, who once stood in a circle of elders and made the sky itself hold its breath. But I buried him twenty years ago, the day I first saw Elena across a crowded bookstore, her laugh carrying over the ambient music like a bell I didn’t know I’d been waiting to hear. I traded his power for peace, his truth for love, his ancient purpose for the warm weight of a child falling asleep on my chest. I told myself I could be normal, that five hundred and forty-three years of magic could be folded up and tucked away like old photographs in a drawer.
I even started to believe it.
Today was supposed to be an ordinary day. Another quiet Saturday, nothing more. But when does anything ever go as planned?
It was one of those deceptive autumn afternoons where New England shows off—sun bright and warm on the skin, gilding everything gold. The kind of day that makes you forget winter is coming. Trees along Brookfield Lane shed their red and gold. They carpeted the sidewalks in layers of crimson and amber, crunching underfoot like breaking glass. The whole world felt fragile, caught between seasons, holding its breath before the fall.
I stood at the end of our driveway, sipping coffee that had long gone lukewarm. The mug—a Father’s Day gift from three years ago with “World’s Coolest Dad” printed in fading letters—hung heavy in my hand, forgotten. I was watching the Hendersons’ cat stalk something invisible through their garden, its tail twitching with predatory focus, when Eli kicked his soccer ball a little too hard.
The sound was sharp—that hollow thwack of synthetic leather against a ten-year-old’s foot, released with more enthusiasm than aim. The ball bounced once, twice, then caught the curb at an angle and rolled into the street, picking up speed as it curved toward the stop sign at the corner.
Eli chased it before I could even form the word wait.
He wore his blue hoodie—the one with the frayed cuffs he refused to let Elena fix, the white stripes on the sleeves already graying from too many washes, and one drawstring longer than the other because he’d chewed on it during homework the night before. His sneakers were grass-stained, laces trailing, his gangly ten-year-old body a blur of elbows and knees as he ran with a reckless abandon only children possess. The kind of innocence that comes from not yet understanding that the world has teeth.
The ball slipped into the road, rolling lazily toward the middle of the lane. Eli followed without looking, without thinking, his whole world narrowed to that sphere of black and white pentagons.
And then I heard it.
An approaching car. Not the gentle whisper of someone cruising through the neighborhood, but the aggressive growl of speed—too much speed for a residential street. A truck came around the bend far too fast. The driver probably wasn’t paying attention, likely glancing at his phone or reaching for something on the passenger seat, thinking about anything but the quiet street where children played.
I felt my stomach drop, that vertiginous lurch that comes not from falling but from watching someone you love step off the edge.
The coffee mug slipped from my fingers, hitting the driveway with a dull crack. Coffee spread across the concrete in a dark stain that looked too much like blood.
“Eli!” I shouted. “Look out!”
He didn’t hear. The wind was wrong, carrying sound away from him, and he was bent over the ball now, just a few feet from the centerline, small hands reaching down to scoop it up. His hood had fallen back, revealing the stubborn cowlick at his crown that Elena had tried to smooth down this morning—the same stubborn swirl of hair I’d seen on Jonas five hundred years ago.
The driver saw him at the last minute—I could see the panic flash across his face through the windshield, his mouth opening in what might have been a shout or a curse. He tried to brake—the nose of the truck dipped as he slammed his foot down—but there wasn’t enough distance, not enough time.
The laws of physics are beautiful and merciless. Mass times velocity. Momentum conserved. A two-ton truck traveling at forty miles per hour needs approximately ninety feet to stop.
My son was thirty feet away.
The math was simple. The outcome inevitable.
Everything inside me fractured.
The years I’d spent pretending to be ordinary—gone, shattered like ice on pavement. The quiet life, the safe life, the carefully constructed fiction of Daniel Ward, the accountant—gone. Twenty years of restraint, of biting my tongue when the old words tried to surface, of letting the magic sleep dormant in my bones—all of it evaporated in the space between heartbeats.
My son was about to die, and the man I’d been pretending to be had no way to stop it.
The other man—the buried one—could.
It began as a vibration in my chest, not painful but insistent, like thunder humming before a storm breaks or the first tremor before an earthquake tears the world open. The sensation spread through my ribcage, resonating in the hollow spaces between bone, traveling down into my gut. My hands began to tingle, then burn, the old pathways of power waking, remembering their purpose.
The world thinned around me, like reality itself was just a membrane stretched too tight, waiting for permission to stop turning.
My vision sharpened with supernatural clarity—I could see each particle of dust hanging in the light, suspended like tiny stars. I could see the individual vibrations in the air, the way sound moves in waves, the molecular dance of oxygen and nitrogen. I could see the truck’s trajectory mapped out in lines of probability, see the exact angle at which metal would meet flesh, see the moment my son would stop being my son and become a memory, a ghost, another name added to the long list of those I’d failed to save.
The spell came unbidden to my lips, rising from a place deeper than thought, older than intention.
The syllables were hot and metallic on my tongue, tasting of copper and electricity, of blood and starlight. They weren’t English—weren’t any language spoken in many, many years.
They were Arvynth.
The old words.
The ones I’d sworn I’d never speak again.
“Fractura Tempora.”
The sound tore through the air like a blade through fabric, like lightning splitting the sky, like the world itself being unzipped at the seams.
And reality obeyed.
Author Bio:
J. J. Hebert is the #1 Amazon, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books, including his acclaimed debut Unconventional and The Backwards K, which, according to Newsweek, is currently in development for film adaptation. His latest #1 bestsellers, both published in 2025, are The Breaking of Time: Chronicles of the Arvynth and The Hands-On Author: Taking Control of Your Book Marketing Journey. A lifelong New England resident, Hebert frequently weaves the region’s landscapes and atmosphere into his storytelling. He is also the award-winning CEO and Founder of MindStir Media, a leading hybrid book publisher. Join his community of over 2 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) @authorjjhebert.
Edgar Thorn is here to tell us about The Key Keeper's Secret, book 1 The Zoe Frost Chronicles, urban fantasy.
There's also a great giveaway.
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Magic is real. Monsters are hungry. And Zoe Frost is already
marked.
The Key Keeper’s
Secret
The Zoe Frost Chronicles Book 1
by Edgar Thorn
Genre: Urban Fantasy
A Shadow demon tried
to kill me. Now it's master wants to finish the job...
I was just supposed to be going to the annual Magicians' Winter Charity Ball.
But pretty soon I was neck-deep in a world of murderous monsters, secret
societies, and time-travelling lunatics.
And if I can't figure out the truth, everyone I love is going to die.
With BFF Courtney by my side and boyfriend Blake showing his true colours, my
quiet weekend turned into a total nightmare. And somehow, it's only the
beginning...
The Key Keeper’s Secret kicks off The Zoe Frost Chronicles — a 13-book
series of fast, funny, magical short reads packed with danger, adventure, bad
guys, and monsters.
