Shanna Swendson – författare

DON’T MESS WITH HEXESKatie Chandler had always heard that New York is a weird and wonderful place, but this small-town Texas gal had no idea how weird until she moved there. Everywhere she goes, she sees something worth gawking at and Katie is afraid she’s a little too normal to make a splash in the big city. Working for an ogre of a boss doesn’t help.Then, seemingly out of the blue, Katie gets a job offer from Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., a company that tricks of the trade to the magic community. For MSI, Katie’s ordinariness is an asset. Lacking any bit of magic, she can easily spot a fake spell, catch hidden clauses in competitor’s contracts, and detect magically disguised intruders. Suddenly, average Katie is very special indeed. She quickly learns that office politics are even more complicated when your new boss is a real ogre, and you have a crush on the sexy, shy, ultra powerful head of the R&D department, who is so busy fighting an evil competitor threatening to sell black magic on the street that he seems barely to notice Katie. Now it’s up to Katie to pull off the impossible: save the world and–hopefully–live happily ever after.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Click your heels three times and say, “There’s no place like Bloomies!”Katie Chandler’s life is pure magic–literally. As an executive assistant at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., she’s seen more than her share of fantastical occurrences. A mere Manhattan mortal, Katie is no wizard, but she’s a wiz at exposing “hokum” pocus, cloaked lies, and deceptive enchantments. And she’s fallen under the all-too-human spell of attraction to Owen, a hunky wizard and coworker. Owen, however, is preoccupied. Someone has broken into his office and disrupted top-secret files, and it reeks of an inside job. CEO Merlin (yes, the Merlin) and taps Katie and her special ability to uncover the magical mole.Keeping her feelings in check while sleuthing alongside Owen, Katie is shocked to discover that her immunity to magic is waning, putting her in grave danger. Soon she’s surrendering to the charms and enchantments of everyone and everything around her, including a killer pair of red stilettos. Katie must now conjure up her natural instincts to get to the bottom of the break-in, regain her power, and win the wizard of her dreams.From the Trade Paperback edition.

To-do: Stop the bad guys. Rescue the wizard. Find the perfect outfit for New Year’s Eve. At last, Owen Palmer, the dreamboat wizard at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., has conjured up the courage to get Katie Chandler under the mistletoe at the office holiday party. But just when it looks like Katie has found her prince, in pops her inept fairy godmother, Ethelinda, to throw a wand into the works. Ethelinda’s timing couldn’t be worse. A plot hatched by MSI’s rogue ex-employees, Idris and his evil fairy gal pal Ari, threatens to expose the company’s secrets–and the very existence of magic itself. Even worse, it could also mean the end of Katie’s happily-ever-after. Now Katie and Owen must work side by side (but alas, not cheek to cheek) to thwart the villains’ plans. Braving black-magic-wielding sorceresses, subway-dwelling dragons, lovelorn frog princes, and even the dreaded trip to meet Owen’s parents at Christmas, Katie and her beau are in a battle to beat Idris at his own sinister game. All mischief and matters of the heart will come to a head at a big New Year’s Eve gala, when the crystal ball will drop, champagne will pour, and Katie will find herself truly spellbound.Praise for Shanna Swendson’s Once Upon Stilettos“Magical and totally delightful . . . [a] quirky, lighthearted romance.”–freshfiction.com“A fast and funny read. Chicklit meets urban fantasy.”–Mary Jo Putney, author of The Marriage SpellFrom the Trade Paperback edition.

Everything’s bigger in Texas–including romance, magic, and danger!Katie Chandler has fled fast-paced Manhattan and returned home to a simpler life, working at her family’s feed-and-seed store in Cobb, Texas. In a painfully selfless gesture, Katie had left the sexy wizard Owen Palmer to battle his demons in the magical realm–after all, Katie just seemed to attract evil, which only made Owen’s job a lot harder. But now it seems that trouble has followed her home: Despite the fact that Merlin, Katie’s old boss at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., has assured her that Cobb is free of enchantmen, (magically speaking), Katie begins to notice curious phenomena. Cobb is being plagued by a series of inexplicable petty crimes and other devilish mischief, and after her experiences in Manhattan, Katie knows “unauthorized magic” when she sees it. As this new darkness strikes deep in the heart of Texas, Owen appears (literally) to investigate. Now Katie’s friends and family must show the bad guys why it’s bad luck to hex with Texas, while Katie and Owen combine their strengths like never before to uncover a sinister plot before evil takes root in the Lone Star State. “Enchanting . . . Trying to start a romance with the world hanging in the balance is not optimal, but it sure is funny.” –Romantic Times, on Shanna Swendson’s Damsel Under Stress“Winning . . . [a] smart, snappy novel.”–Booklist, on Shanna Swendson’s Once Upon StilettosFrom the Trade Paperback edition.

It's 1888, and Verity Newton lands a job in New York as a governess to a wealthy leading family but she quickly learns that the family has big secrets. Magisters have always ruled the colonies, but now an underground society of mechanics and engineers are developing non-magical sources of power via steam engines that they hope will help them gain freedom from British rule. The family Verity works for is magister but it seems like the children's young guardian uncle is sympathetic to the rebel cause. As Verity falls for a charming rebel inventor and agrees to become a spy, she also becomes more and more enmeshed in the magister family's life. She soon realises she's uniquely positioned to advance the cause but to do so, she'll have to reveal her own dangerous secret.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown – especially the crown of the fairy realm… Sophie Drake has made a promise, and she never breaks her word. She will free Michael Murray's long-lost wife from the fairy realm even if her intensifying feelings for him make it the most painful thing she's ever done. But Sophie is running out of time. Dark fae forces are stirring, threatening the human world. To make matters worse, humans are being cast out of the Realm, whether or not they want to leave, and the shock from these sudden evictions can even prove fatal. It's only a matter of time before it happens to Michael's wife.All this in the name of the fairy queen. Stunned, Sophie knows this is impossible because she's the queen. She won the throne fair and square, through trials and blood.Now she must find and fight an impostor for a crown she never wanted in order to save both the Realm and the human world.

Dancing on Ice …The holiday season in New York City is supposed to be magical, but it's not yet Thanksgiving, and what's happening isn't that kind of magic. The fairy world seems to be bleeding into the human world. Strange white horses carry people into the Central Park lake. Children are disappearing from their beds. Unearthly snow flurries pepper the air while odd pockets of summer appear randomly in Central Park. There's even a suspicious wave of injuries among Broadway dancers and ballerinas, who feel like they've danced all night. Noticing this, outside enchantresses are converging on New York to stop what they think is a fae incursion. Sophie Drake knows the fae aren't to blame, and she suspects that one of the enchantresses is up to no good, creating a situation that will put her in power. But revealing how she knows what's happening would mean revealing her own fae ties to the anti-fae enchantresses. Not that she has time to deal with any of this. She's been offered a major ballet role in The Nutcracker – a chance to revive her dance career. She can't miss a step onstage as she tries to thwart the power play and balance the realms without running afoul of the fae or the enchantresses.

"I wonder if Judy Blume really knows how many girls'' lives she affected. I wonder if she knows that at least one of her books made a grown woman finally feel like she''d been a normal girl all along..." —from Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume Whether laughing to tears reading Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great or clamoring for more unmistakable "me too!" moments in Are You There God? It''s Me, Margaret, girls all over the world have been touched by Judy Blume''s poignant coming-of-age stories. Now, in this anthology of essays, twenty-four notable female authors write straight from the heart about the unforgettable novels that left an indelible mark on their childhoods and still influence them today. After growing up from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing into Smart Women, these writers pay tribute, through their reflections and most cherished memories, to one of the most beloved authors of all time.

A collection of essays from some of today's hottest writers reflecting on how Judy Blume's novels affected their childhoods. From puberty to first loves to divorce, Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume follows the journeys of twenty four women whose life experiences we can all relate to.