THE 2025 PUBLISHING DERBY BOOKS

Some bonds are chosen. Others are carved into blood.Runa was never meant to leave the fjord. Marked from childhood by grief and silence, she’s the daughter of a man consumed by ritual—and a woman who stood by and let it happen. But Runa dreams of more than survival. More than obedience.The river that took her father flows cold and unforgiving. When Runa dares to take from it, she finds a wyrm—a creature of myth, feared by her clan. Its bite marks her. Its voice follows her. Its bond will never break.Fleeing her clan and the secrets rotting within it, Runa discovers freedom comes at a price. The wyrm’s call grows louder. Her blood is no longer her own. And as the line between girl and monster begins to blur, she must choose: escape the past…or devour it.Perfect for fans of dark fantasy romance and gothic horror, Bastard of the Wyrm blends Norse-inspired myth, monstrous transformation, and forbidden desire into a gripping tale of curses, monsters, and fate—drawing inspiration from the epic poem Beowulf.Buy the Book!

A religious pilgrim attacked by bandits is rescued by a mysterious renegade mage. Traveling a hostile terrain together, their secrets—and hearts—become entwined. Will their new love survive the revelation of their darkest truths?The old world has ended, and the new world is yet to begin.When the cataclysm came to the land of Auzhe, the sacred pacts between the worlds above and below were sundered. The gods fell, their acolytes and disciples scattered into remote sects to preserve the old ways, their former world descending into ruin under a mystical red rot.Natheì Ketre, last living member of his sacred order, must making a pilgrimage to find the shrines of the shattered gods and safely gather what relics remain. After a terrible bandit encounter, he falls in with a mysterious, handsome stranger, Kaésh Daloran, who offers safety and protection on his journey. As the two men travel together, Natheì must face difficult questions about who he is—and who he might become.Kaésh, a gentleman scholar and a clever scoundrel pursued by his former masters, sees in Natheì a compelling opportunity to elude his would-be captors. As he learns about his strange new traveling companion, his curiosity—and interest—only deepens.Their unusual bond is tested by Natheì's fracturing faith and by Kaésh's shadowy past. Will their burgeoning relationship withstand a world ruined by the squabbling hollow lords and treacherous remnant magic, or will it be shattered like the heavens above them?Buy the Book!

Two gods. Two kingdoms. One duel.Seron, god of Life, and Malgor, god of Death—once united, now divided. As black vines spread across the land, strangling both kingdoms, the brothers prepare for a final battle that will decide everything.But just as hope fades, two teenagers step forward. Lye, a stubborn girl who refuses to choose a side, and Vexture, the son of Malgor’s second-in-command, set out to uncover the truth. What is truly behind the vines destroying their world?Family secrets rise. Hidden villages surface. And in the end, only one answer remains:Who will win—Life or Death?
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A mysterious detective arrives in the night to investigate a vampire murder mystery.A locked room. A mysterious detective. A killer vampire on the loose.A doctor is found murdered at the hands of a vampire. A strange detective who arrives in the night is the only one capable of finding the killer. But just who is the mysterious detective Samuel Hunter, and what secrets is he hiding?In this house, secrets lie around every corner. No one can be trusted, and not everyone is who they appear. Can they find the vampire in their midst before the killer strikes again?Buy the Book!

What burden would you carry to save your family?What would you do to survive?Alexa's comfortable life in a post apocalyptic world is turned upside down when her father is injured and can no longer feed the family.
As the oldest child, she takes to the woods with her father's bow. With food stores rapidly depleting, she calls out in desperation to Artemis for help.The ancient goddess comes to her aid, but warns that it comes with a price.Can Alexa learn to shoulder the burden of the huntress?Buy the Book!

With planes falling out of the sky and a strange smell in the air, the group must face the real world outside of parliament.The end of the world happened far faster than Arlo River could have anticipated. One moment, he had been planning his next keynote speech, already missing the bustle of London. The next, everything had flipped upside down... literally. Suddenly, instead of wondering about mobilising young voters, Arlo stared down the barrel of the fall of society as he knew it.
Somewhere near Bristol, business became anything but casual.Buy the Book!

A haunting tale of sacrifice, destiny, and the terrible cost of salvation.Teya has always heard the song.In a world where humanity clings to floating islands above the clouds, most believe the earth below died long ago—destroyed by mages who drew too greedily from its power. But Teya knows better. The song in her head tells a different story, one of staves buried deep and a world waiting to be reborn.When the village elders discover her secret, they forbid her from ever leaving their island. But songs have a way of demanding to be heard.Years later, with nothing left to lose, Teya steals a skyboat and follows the melody that has haunted her since childhood. She descends through the clouds to the flooded world below—a world that isn't as dead as everyone believes.But awakening the ancient staves requires a price steeper than Teya ever imagined. And some songs can only end one way.Buy the Book!

"Tis meat we eat."Tulio lives in society where cannibals thrive. He has vowed to never eat meat. His vow clashes with the world as he knows it and he is kidnapped and taken to the heart of enemy territory.Buy the Book!

A divorced powerless witch returns home to her family's terrible matchmaking skills, her high school crush and a murder mysteryHazel Sangster used to be a powerful Autumn Witch. Now she’s a divorced, overweight cook in her uncle’s inn. She’s lost her magic, her confidence, and—most recently—a fight with an inflatable Santa.Back in her sleepy Scottish hometown of Sayham, Hazel hoped to blend into the background and wallow in the misery of her failed marriage and loss of magic. Instead, she finds herself fending off her family's matchmaking schemes, awkwardly flirting with her devastatingly attractive high school crush, dodging snide comments from her ex-husband’s ghost, and wondering why her father, the most famous Witch in the country, still treats her like she’s invisible.Oh, and there’s been a murder. Of course there has.When a student at her father’s prestigious magical academy is found dead under suspicious circumstances, the magical authorities send Cameron Duncan—a charming, infuriating, annoyingly competent Praetor from America—to investigate. He’s all business, no nonsense, and somehow keeps showing up right when Hazel needs someone the least. Or the most.As the seasons shift and old wounds resurface, Hazel is drawn into a tangled web of mystery, magic, and reluctant romance. But if she wants to protect the people she loves—and rediscover the magic she thought she had lost—she’ll have to stop running from her past and start believing in her future.Preferably before someone else ends up dead.Buy the Book!

Only a sharp mind and a sharper quill can set the story straight.At the Festival of the Fallen, truth wears many faces.Lorekeeper Sola Lior arrives in Graywatch to record the memories of heroes long gone and finally earn the bardic guild’s red sash. But when a man is found murdered behind the stables, her peaceful mission turns into a mystery—and in her way is a charming, maddening bard with a penchant for lies and ale.As histories clash and secrets rise, Sola must untangle truth from tale to reveal the killer before the Festival ends.A warm, witty fantasy full of memory, mischief, and unexpected harmony.Buy the Book!

How far would you go to save your home?Vireyln Valley needs a savior, and Vailintin Maglostir is NOT up for the task.Sickly and weak, the Firstborn of the once mighty Maglostir clan can hardly even lift a sword, let alone swing it. But with the vicious Brugali threatening to overrun the Valley’s tenacious defenders, someone needs to step up. An ominous rumbling in the surrounding mountains portends disaster, but for whom?Buy the Book!

Gaslight Gatekeep GirlbossEveryone deserves a holiday, especially ancient goddesses who watch the gateways between the godly and mortal realms.Leonora Lionhelm always looks forward to her few precious days off a year. The days between the Winter Solstice and the human New Year. It's going to be a bit more boisterous this year, as her sort-of-nephew Mav, minor god of thieves, has invited himself along.What will they get up to?Buy the Book!

A rogue wolf marked by fate. A scarred warrior bound by duty. Their bond shouldn’t exist—but it just might change everything.Arianne has spent her life running—from hunters, from heartbreak, from a past she can’t remember. When she's forced to cross into Stormclaw territory, she expects death, not salvation. But when a glowing mate mark appears on her skin before the Gathering, everything changes. The catch? No one else bears the match.Sentenced to compete in brutal trials or die trying, Arianne finds herself under the watchful eye of Kael, a ruthless sentinel with a haunted past and no time for wolves like her. He’s not her mate, and he's certainly not her savior. But as secrets unravel and whatever it is that's between them deepens, Kael and Arianne are forced to confront the terrifying truth: some bonds aren’t written in fate… but forged in fire.In a world where wolves are born to obey their destiny, what happens when two souls dare to choose?Buy the Book!

How much can you dare to hope for in a ruined world?In an irreparably polluted world, civilization was on the brink of collapse. When the apocalypse finally came in the form of behemoth trees that destroyed all the infrastructure, but cleared the air, it was called the Rejuvenation.Marlow, a former programmer, was fine surviving on his own. But when a young girl in need of protection that he can’t provide and a charismatic artist on the run from his former community stumble into his life, he’s forced to reassess the detachment he’s so carefully cultivated.Against a dominating background of fantastical woods born from the corpses of humanity, Marlow must reckon with questions of faith and love as he asks himself, how much can he dare to hope for in a ruined world?Buy the Book!

Mortal Kombat meets Aquaman.Ekin Bîn Anadar is about to compete for the legendary Leviathan's Throne - but he doesn't want it.The position of Deep King means nothing to him. The legendary seat of power holds no meaning. Not when he is there for one thing, and one thing only.Revenge.Buy the Book!

Save the boy, or kill the monsters?Tay’s peaceful and secluded retirement is thrown upside down by the arrival of a friend’s child asking him for help. His day sours as the simple request turns deadly and bandits try to reopen the old portals between worlds.Except these are no ordinary bandits. They are former knights sworn to protect the world. Knights and heroes who Tay once fought alongside a lifetime ago. Now he has to fight against them, and remember how to use his former powers to save the boy, or risk letting the world fall to the monsters once more.Buy the Book!

When the cost of safety comes to light, what is the price worth paying?Lora Savli is the Captain's daughter, born to the winds and waves of her small northern town. For as long as she can remember, everyone has known she'll inherit her father's position—after all, the town's Captain has always been a Savli. In the meantime, she's content to a normal kid, fishing and sailing and listening to her dad every once in a while.Until a disaster in the nearby area sparks an argument with her best friend that she can't ignore. Until she starts to question the unnatural safety of her town that she always took for granted. Until she starts pulling at strings, and her whole life starts to unravel as she discovers deals made with fantastical powers only the Captain knows of.When she breaks one of those deals without understanding the full consequences, she finds herself thrust into the middle of a centuries-long war between her world and the god-like beings who would use it as their own playground. Now she has to navigate the pacts that keep her world tied together—and tied to those who couldn't care less if they destroy it.As everything she thought she knew crumbles, she'll have to choose between leaving it be and destroying her world in hopes of saving everything else.Buy the Book!

Welcome to our fae pub. Can I take your name?When Logan joined his future brother-in-law's bachelor party, he didn't expect the pub crawl to go into the fae realm. Unfortunately for him and the groom's party, they showed up on the day of the Hunt.Now he’s stuck in a world where names hold power and even a harmless question can bind you. To escape, he'll need to face magical creatures, powerful faeries, and the legendary stag. Guided by the huntress who trapped him in this strange world, Logan will have to rescue the party without losing himself.A trans-led urban fantasy about identity and holding your ground when everything tries to unmake you.Buy the Book!

Malakai, familiar to the dragon Lilith, has been working quietly for centuries to get the mortals ready for the final, decisive battle.Dragons life cycles take centuries, and are tied to the planet's cycle of destruction and regrowth. The tales of dragons have been relegated to myth and legend, and mostly forgotten. Few alive have seen a dragon, they have kept hidden. Malakai, familiar to the dragon Lilith, has been working quietly for centuries to get the mortals ready for the final battle of this cycle.The Well of Insanity is calling to those rulers that are arrogant enough to believe they can rule the world. Each believes that they will win. Of the last two kings, one wants Malakai to wipe out the other's army. Instead he sends both armies back to their kings. Now is not the time for them to fight, their battle will be in the valley where the Well of Insanity is. After sending them off, Malakai finds a young dwarf. He can’t leave her on the surface, she will not survive. Malakai and Lilith take her home, where the dwarves have found a miracle that gives hope to the regrowth of the dragons and their familiars.Buy the Book!

Rolph was never supposed to enter the Labyrinth, but the goddesses had other plans for him.Rolph knew one thing and one thing only: never, ever, under any circumstance enter the labyrinth. The village priest prophesied at his birth that if Rolph wanted a happy life, he should follow this very simple rule. It’s too bad the goddesses had other plans in mind for him.Rolph, the hapless son of the local stonemason, has taken over the family business. If only he was any good at it. Or anything, really. But Mayfair has been the only life he’s ever known, sitting right outside the Labyrinth where delvers test their mettle against the Triad's dangerous creations.Through a wild accident, Rolph stumbles into the one place he was never supposed to go and becomes lost deep in the Labyrinth. Rescued and then betrayed by a party desperate to escape the depths, Rolph finds an ally in the unlikeliest of places. He promises to help them escape the cavernous maze in exchange for their help, as the denizens of the Labyrinth work to destroy him like any other delver foolish enough to travel so far.Will Rolph’s bad luck leave him living out his final moments far below where he used to rest his head, or can he rise to become a legend?Buy the Book!

"Don't stay out after dark," they said, "or the wisps will lead you away."Casper, the herbalist's apprentice, never quite fit in. He didn't fear the wisps in the forest; they didn't steal him away, like the others said they would. Instead, they led him home.But when his sister, Maia, goes into the forest after dark and doesn't return... he has no option but to follow.The dark woods hold many painful memories, but they hold a familiar song as well. Leiff, a wisp, plays the tune Casper remembers from so long ago, and although the years have changed them, their fascination with each other remains the same.With courage, luck, and a lot of trust, can Casper and Leiff find Casper's sister together?Buy the Book!

The creatures of the Clockwork Keep are in danger from an Enemy who wants to blot out the sun; everything depends on a child in an unfamiliar world.In the human world it's Hallowe'en, a time of laughter and merriment. But in the Clockwork Keep in the land of West Lastria, sinister events have begun to unfold, and the Keep's inhabitants have no choice but to depend on a prophecy of uncertain origins.Jana, a young human girl, is tired of her boring life and her parents' neglect. However, when she finds herself in the Clockwork Keep, a castle located in a fantastical world with beings that seem to be taken straight from a fairy tale, she finds herself wanting nothing so much as to go back home.Upon hearing the King's plea and the threat that the Enemy poses, however, she changes her mind. Xorag, the Enemy commander, is planning a ritual to blot out the sun and the moon. This can only be stopped with the Amulet of Widogast's Wisdom, located in the Haint Woods and only retrievable by a child, pure of heart.Once Jana, along with some companions, has retrieved the Amulet, however, they all return to see that the Clockwork Keep destroyed. Together, they must find and rescue the survivors and see that Xorag doesn't enact his plan.Will the companions be able to help them prevent the ritual and save the fantasy land from a terrible end?Buy the Book!

An ancient katabasis, retold.Eurydice, a superstitious bard-turned-huntress living the good life with her sellsword wife, is compelled to venture into the depths of the Underworld to save the soul of her estranged once-lover and fellow bard Orpheus and that of his new wife after their royal wedding ends in tragedy.Nestled between Xena: Warrior Princess and the works of Madeline Miller, Well of Souls is a queer reimagining of the mythological tale of Eurydice and Orpheus—a novella filled with love and tragedy in equal measure, featuring a trans bi Eurydice prone to anxiety and a bi Orpheus.Buy the Book!

Prince Rand had been taught to fear the ancient witches of Veridia and their black magic, but nothing could prepare him for falling in love with one.As the crown prince of Veridia, Rand is primed to manage the political squabbles of his day, and is grateful that he doesn’t have to deal with issues like the feared witches of old. Evil humans turned into creatures of darkness, those women had sold their souls to the devil in return for his black magic.Thankfully, the witch hunts had eradicated the wicked group one hundred years ago, so they were no longer a concern. However, whispers of the return of the vile power make their way to Rand as he works to handle the unrest growing between his magical and non-magical subjects.When an unfortunate hunting accident brings him face-to-face with a mysterious maiden, whose suspicious manner and intriguing past seem all too similar to the stories of old, Rand’s life is turned upside down, and he realizes the Veridian history he’d been taught may not be entirely accurate.As he searches for the truth, will Rand be able to keep his kingdom free from black magic? Or will everything fall to pieces, just as he is beginning to understand his enemy?Buy the Book!

**When you name something, you claim it. **A girl with no name and no people must try to defend her home from outsiders and insiders, and uncover a long-hidden secret that turns the world upside down.A Métis girl called Needle finds gold in the ice. When trappers, prospectors, priests and the Copperspear band all fight for a piece of the Northern Borealic Territory, Needle must confront who she is and the truth of what secrets hide in the ice.Buy the Book!

**Twenty-three years of running and hiding. Now that everything hangs on the line she has one shot at hope. If she can survive the chase. **In the neon Mids of Exuron's sprawl, Xyr exists in the spaces between—a ghost hacker whose deformed ears hide a secret that could destroy her. Enhanced as a fetus in illegal experiments, she can hear the city's cats speak while her own voice emerges only as meows to human ears. For twenty-three years, she's survived in the shadows of the surveillance state, taking contracts that pay the bills and asking no questions that might expose her as a rogue corporate property.Chrysalis Spine, the biotech giant that now owns her original creators, has spent decades tracking their lost investments through the city's all-seeing network. Her missing cats aren't victims of the deadly streets; they're bait in an elaborate trap designed to flush out their prize specimen—the one that got away, Xyr. As corporate hunters close in and her feline family dwindles, Xyr faces an impossible choice: remain hidden while everything she loves disappears, or surface from the digital underground and fight, or flee. But in a world where Genemade enhanced humans are corporate property and resistance means death, choosing to fight back might be exactly what they're counting on.Maybe the answer is finding others like her.Buy the Book!

Are you sleeping? Are you dreaming? Have their neon lullabies worked, or will you join the Awakening?Underneath Skycity, the sun never shines.Growing up in the sunless alleyways of the Seacity, former engineer Hat now carves a life out for themself by hacking into corporate databases and making edits for credits. When a job gone wrong lands them with a 100-grand bounty on their head, Hat finds themself at the mercy of the Awakening, a shadow-operating resistance group seeking to topple the mega-corporations that puppeteer everyday life in the Seacity.In the near future, upon learning of an impending software update with the potential to destroy any semblance of freedom the technologically reliant people of the Seacity still have, Hat finds themself in prison with no way to communicate to the outside world. As they navigate the brutal prison gang wars and corrupt correctional officers, Hat must find a way to escape their high-security jail cell or witness the end of free will in the Seacity.Buy the Book!

When a heist goes wrong, Lynn takes a deal to avoid trouble and finally fulfill her dream. But dreams come at a cost.Lynn has always dreamed of escaping Hyperion’s ruins and chasing the stars. But ever since The Schism took her parents, survival has meant scavenging bounties for the Explorer’s Guild and pretending her dreams don’t matter.When a heist gone wrong leaves her with nothing, Lynn is caught in the crosshairs of Aidan Merichov, the planet’s most powerful (and mysterious) billionaire. His offer? A chance to go off-world at last, if she’s brave enough to test-fly his secret project, Ceres.It sounds like everything she’s ever wanted… until Lynn realizes Aidan’s secrets could shatter more than just her chance at the stars. They could unravel everything she thought she knew about her world and herself.The Pinpoint of Infinity is a YA sci-fi adventure about chasing impossible dreams, uncovering dangerous truths, and finding the courage to risk it all.Buy the Book!

May the Sands lead you home.What do you do when the world ends, but you keep living?Well, you go on of course. Humanity goes on, as much as they can. They adapt, they survive, they figure out how to thrive.Nearly fifty years after the calamity that changed the shape of the world, people continue on. Hawk continues on, delivering messages in a disconnected desert world as a Sandrat.When he’s approached by two people who’ve never stepped foot into the desert, and a claim that they want to make the world a better place, he feels obligated to help them.Now he just needs to keep them alive.Buy the Book!

Explosions, cosmic horrors, and the friends you find along the way.Bedwyn is the caretaker to one of humanity's greatest enemies.For a decade, he has traveled the galaxy with Avi—a fifty-foot-tall space-faring cephalopod—who travels aimlessly among the stars, keeping to herself to avoid conflict with humanity.Alex, drowning in debt to one of the Outer Colonies' most brutal gangs, sees his chance to escape from it all when Bedwyn and Avi crash-land on his home planet. But the arrival of the leviathan and her caretaker amid tense negotiations triggers a catastrophic chain reaction that neither of them saw coming.As war erupts in their wake, Alex and Bedwyn must come to terms with their unlikely alliance if they wish to keep Avi out of the hands of those who would destroy her.In a galaxy like this, sometimes it's safer to go together.Buy the Book!

Cretaceous DNA and modern technology were never meant to be combined. The consequences spell certain doom for a certain man.Hubrys Rue Vespertine is a genius. He's a doctoral scientist with big ambitions. Those ambitions include bringing dinosaurs back to life here in the 21st century. He'll be the one to reverse extinction for prehistoric herbivores and carnivores alike.The closer he gets to his goals, the more ambitious he becomes. He starts experimenting with creating an entirely new species: one that turns out to be a little too human and way too much dinosaur.When his new creation proves difficult to control, Dr. Vespertine suddenly finds himself on the wrong end of the food chain. The monster he created is coming after him, and will stop at nothing to exact its carnal revenge.Buy the Book Here or on Amazon!

A gentleman sleuth. A lonely schoolmistress. One very inconvenient arrangement.When nineteen-year-old Lilliana Reed boards the night mail coach bound for Glasgow, she just wants to reach her new position as a junior teacher. Hugh Anstruther, a gentleman sleuth with more determination than skill, wants nothing more than to find the sister he fears is in the clutches of a con artist. Instead, they are caught in a storm, stranded in an overturned carriage, and mistaken as an eloping couple.What begins as a chance encounter soon entangles them in a far more complicated journey. To protect Hugh’s sister, and salvage their own reputations, they must pose as what society already suspects: a pair of lovers on the run. But at what point does pretence become reality?In a world where propriety rules, one misstep could ruin everything or lead to an unexpected attachment neither of them dared to imagine.Buy the Book Here!

Field 9 is alive, and it hates you all. Answer the call. Let it in.“I can’t keep doing this,” Eliza whispered. “I’m not supposed to do this alone. No one is helping–” She turned over onto her side, swallowing to try and ease the lump in her throat.The skull stared at her from the window.A hint of moonlight shone through empty eye sockets, the slits of its nose, traced its dead grin. Eliza couldn’t move. In her mind she leapt out of bed, drew the curtains, ran to Angie’s room and locked the door… but when she’d done all that she found herself still lying on her side, staring out her window into the face of death. She couldn’t even scream.A pale finger appeared in the darkness and tapped on the glass. Three times, lightly… knocking.“I can help,” came the loving whisper in her ear, sound without breath. “I will take her.”
Four stories of cereal suspense and lunar horror, harvested and refined from a twisted collection to ignite imagination and keep you awake at night. If nothing else, know at least one thing.There is something in Field 9, and it hates you.Buy the Book Here!