July in Houston, Texas, is far too hot for Frost Giants. But when a Valkyrie with an attitude shows up on Marti Keller's doorstep in the middle of summer, things take a turn for the polar. After Marti returned home from her ordeal at the hands of a notorious drug and human trafficker, she had expected her life to return to its normal placid state, maybe with the addition of a splash of romance. Instead, she finds she's hopped out of the frying pan and into the Arctic Circle, where she lands square in the middle of an ancient apocalyptic prophecy. Can a tiny tweak of the prophecy change the fate of the world? She'll find out, if she lives long enough to make it to Ragnorak.

"I didn't believe in ghosts, not until I became one." In Earthbound, by Artemis Greenleaf, Schuyler Ramsey just wants to be like the other kids in school. Too bad she's dead. She haunts a farm in windswept western Ireland, along with some of its previous inhabitants. When she partially materializes in front of her sister at breakfast, she is propelled on a quest to stop a fake TV psychic and ghost hunter from visiting the farm and stirring up trouble. Along the way, she visits a famous pirate, helps a mermaid rescue a basking shark from fishermen, and encounters Nicniven, queen of the dark elphs. But Schuyler soon finds that the Haunted Planet television show is the least of her problems. As her world unravels, can she find the strength to save her sister from a monstrous terror? Some of the proceeds of this book benefit shark conservation. See artemisgreenleaf.com for details.

Marti Keller was married to the man of her dreams and had a satisfying career as an emergency room nurse. But a soul-shattering tragedy turns her world upside down, leaving her desperately clinging to the one precious thing left in her life. After her search for a work-at-home job leads her to rediscover her long-suppressed ability to communicate with ghosts, she encounters Spam, the restless spirit of a murder victim, who begs her to help bring his killer to justice. She agrees, but her life quickly spirals out of control. Even as she fears she is descending into madness, a mysterious stranger named Quinn steps in to catch her fall. He always seems to turn up just in the nick of time. It's almost...preternatural. In fact, the more she discovers, the more she finds that everything she thinks she knows is wrong. And that the worst monsters are usually hidden in plain sight.