Gen is a bard's apprentice growing up in a small town and getting into mischief with his friends. He is a decent young man who pines for the prettiest girl in the village and gets in trouble for playing pranks on the local nobles, that is until his somewhat idyllic life is ripped away from him in an instant. Shadan Khairn is a war monger, and master swordsman, who's army invades Gen's small town unexpectedly during the winter. Shadan's goal is simply to establish a unexpected foothold in Gen's country for a larger summer invasion, but this invasion results in Gen going from bard to prisoner over night. Things only get worse for Gen when Shadan quickly becomes bored in this nowhere town, and he decides to train Gen to be a sword fighter. He does this mainly for the sick pleasure of inflicting one devastating injury after another onto Gen, and then magically healing him of his wounds so he can do it again the next day. This process of repeated beatings changes Gen at his core, and puts him on a much different trajectory in life.

Jade Godfrey owns a popular cupcake bakery in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She's also half-witch on her mother's side, and although she's not any good at spell casting, she's a dowser. Dowsers are the rare Adepts who can see magic and "taste" the magic associated with individual Adepts. So werewolf magic tastes like chocolate, witches like grass, and so on. She mainly uses her gift to combine random objects with a trace of magic on them into little trinkets that she hangs around her bakery or turns into jewelry. They're just pretty and don't do anything. At least that's what Jade thinks until they start appearing on dead werewolves that have had all the magic sucked out of them. Black Magic. Naturally, the nearest pack, which consists of more than just wolves, first suspects Jade. But with her curly blonde hair, sunny disposition, and tasty cupcakes, Jade is an unlikely murderer. Still, she must be relevant to the case since her trinkets are found on the bodies, so the alpha, Desmond, slaps a life debt on her that can only be paid off by finding the killer. So far it seems like a typical urban fantasy with a Canadian flair, but Doidge skillfully manages to avoid the most common tropes as Jade slowly discovers who and what she really is. The Dowser, Alchemist, and Wielder of the Instruments of Assassination.

It is hard to believe that this series has reached book eleven already, but here we are. Xavier has finally stepped down and is no longer King of the Vanguard Islands, so he heads off with Magnolia in search of Michael, who is missing. Michael is out there somewhere trying to find a home for his family after they managed to escape the islands in the last book. Since they took the last remaining airship with them, Kade Long, who has taken over as king, has inherited an impossible situation. The Knights of the Coral Castle are coming for them, and they have no remaining air power of any kind. His master plan is to send out Gran Jefe, of all people, along with a few Barracudas to bring back two helicopters from an ancient facility. X, Michael, Kade and Gran Jefe means there are four separate story lines going on at the same time in four different locations. Has this series finally lost its way or does it all come together into something coherent?

Liscor has faced monstrous moths, cannibalistic gnolls, and an undead horde, but now they face a bigger threat, a greedy human lord armed with a goblin army and Earth inspired catapults. The death of Zev Shivertail ended Lady Magnolia's attempt to stop the Goblin Lord and has left the way clear for Lord Tyrel's great plan. If he's successful, it will mean the end of both the Goblin Lord and the city of Liscor which will mean war between humans and drakes and cement his political superiority among the humans of Izril. This is the most exciting installment of The Wandering Inn and the continent of Izril will never be the same.

Despite the Ash Angel victories in the prior books, the threat from the Dreads has only increased and the Ash Angel Organization finds itself on the verge of collapsing. Other Dread Loremasters have risen in power to fill the power vacuum at the top, and the war has grow so large that it now threatens entire cities of normals. As an Angel Born, Helo may possess power never before heard of, but that is also true of the new Dread leadership. Toss in the fact that Aclima is now back on the dark side, and Helo has limited options available to him. He knows that he can't win this fight without the other Ash Angels, but since he finds himself alone in his belief that Aclima can still be redeemed, joining up with them could cost Aclima her life. Despite his best efforts, Helo finds himself on a path where he may have to kill the only woman he has come to love in his afterlife in order for good to triumph over evil. Could he even do it?

Charlie's life has been going steadily downhill for several years. When he sees a report that his wealthy uncle has died, he doesn't expect it to impact his life since he hasn't heard from the uncle since his mom's funeral decades ago. But when he has to stop the guests from stabbing the corpse at the funeral to make sure it's actually dead he begins to suspect that not all of his uncle's wealth came from owning parking garages. Before he knows it, he has inherited a private island complete with volcano and hidden base. Charlie's first crisis as a new supervillain comes as soon as the plane lands. It seems some of his minions feel that their working conditions are unfair, so he's forced to fake his way through negotiations with supersmart asshole dolphins. The supersmart cats are management, so they don't have any complaints. Then he has a crash course in supervillain 101 because in less than a week he's due to meet the other dozen supervillains. All of which hated his uncle and see him as easy prey.

The victory against King in the first book is short lived, and the evil Dreadlords are determined to seek retribution in a very personal way. After their rebirth, Ash Angels keep their distance from their former family members and acquaintances; however, the Dread follow no such rules. Aclima warns Helo that he does not understand what lengths Cain will go through to exact revenge, and as events unfold, her warning is spot on. Helo and the Ash Angels are not prepared for what comes their way, and Cain is always one step ahead of them. Aclima becoming an Ash Angel provides access to an amazing wealth of Dread knowledge, but not everyone trusts her intel. Will her unprecedented turning to the good side make the difference or is it all just part of Cain's plan?

After surviving the horrors of humans and robots corrupted by alien ruins in Network Effect Murderbot is more than ready to take it's humans back to Preservation where they belong. Sadly it's humans, along with ART's humans, are determined to save the colonists from the greedy corporation trying to lock them into labor contracts in return for resettling them on a safer planet. Translation: the corp is trying to lock them into slavery and get them out of the way so it can exploit the planet's resources and sell the illegal alien material on the black market without disclosing the horrible corruption of bots and humans it causes. If only the idiotic colonists weren't still determined to disagree with anything another faction wants. At least they've quit killing each other so now it's only the remaining corrupted bots that Murderbot has to fight until the idiotic colonists finally remember that there might be another settlement hidden on the planet in yet another potentially infected pre-corporate bunker. Somehow life continues to live down to Murderbot's expectations.

I'm not into most urban fantasy, and heaven vs hell is also not a genre that usually grabs me, but I am a sucker for a well defined magic system. In Dread Uprising, if someone gives their life for another, then there is a chance they can be re-awakened as an Ash Angel. If their ashes are spread at the location where they were killed during the summer solstice, then there is a chance they will return as an Ash Angel. This is exactly what happens to Trace and he finds himself thrust into the eternal struggle against the Dread, who are created in a similar but opposite way. A Dread must have killed someone else while alive, and then the dust of their remains must be taken to the location of the murder. Ash Angels earn divine gifts known as bestowals, which are powers they may use against the Dread, and after 7 bestowals they ascend into heaven. Despite these powers, for the first time in history, the Dreads have the upper hand and the Ash Angels now find their numbers greatly reduced.

Shards of Glass is set in the same world as The Chronicles of Elantra and shares some characters, but it is set at the Academia , which appeared in the fifteenth book, Cast in Wisdom. It isn't necessary to have read Cast in Wisdom, but it would be very helpful. Robin was homeless and living on the streets of Elantra's worst slum when he was kidnapped and thrown into the Academia. Now that the Academia is a school again, he wants his friend Raven to join him. Robin loves the Academia, but Raven isn't sure it's safe, especially when a third student is found dead on her first day there. These deaths are disturbing because the Academia's spirit, Killian, did not "see" what happened. Two of the dead students were immortal and found without a mark on them to indicate cause of death. Even stranger, Raven alone can see a piece of the glass she collects under the body. Robin should be more surprised, but he's always known Raven was peculiar. Maybe he can accept that his best friend isn't human, but if he wants to stop the killings and save the Academia, Robin will have to accept that he's not an ordinary human boy either.