Noblebright fantasy is fantasy with a thread of hope even in the darkest hour, with characters who strive to do the right thing, even when it costs them everything. In this exciting collection of noblebright fantasy, fresh new fantasy voices and award-winning authors explore grief and hope, sacrifice and heroism. Rediscover the best aspect of classic fantasy - the noblebright ideals that made heroes heroic, even when the world grew dark around them. Wizards, princesses, peasants, schoolchildren, griffins, and the song of the stars shine brightly in these wide-ranging tales of possibility, courage, and hope. This anthology features stories from: JA Andrews, Gustavo Bondoni, Christopher Bunn, M.C. Dwyer, Yvonne Eliot, Francesca Forrest, Chloe Garner, Corrie Garrett, Joanna Hoyt, Cate Isert, Glenn James, Jim Johnson, Ville Meriläinen, A. K. R. Scott, Sherwood Smith, and John Taloni.

In this exciting collection of noblebright fantasy, fresh new fantasy voices and award-winning authors explore grief and hope, sacrifice and heroism. Rediscover the best aspect of classic fantasy - the noblebright ideals that made heroes heroic, even when the world grew dark around them. Thieves, dragons, nightmares, fairy warriors, pookas, enchanted bear-men, and other magical creatures will delight you in these unique tales of possibility, courage, and hope. This anthology features stories from: Leslie J. Anderson, C.A. Barrett, Terri Bruce, Aaron DaMommio, M.C. Dwyer, Anthony Eichenlaub, Francesca Forrest, Chloe Garner, W.R. Gingell, Lora Gray, Kelly A. Harmon, Tom Howard, Rollin Jewett, Tom Jolly, Samuel Marzioli, Amanda Nargi, Aimee Ogden, Beth Powers, Darrell J. Pursiful, Charles D. Shell, April Steenburgh, Alena Sullivan, and Troy Tang. Edited by Robert McCowen and C. J. Brightley.

Skite, the Rat King, notable Veridan assassin, and all-around bad guy, has had an idea of something he'd like to steal, and he has just the crew he needs to do it. Young Hightower has a building by the port full of goodies, and Skite has a mind to walk away with all of them. This is not the Skite you know. This is a Skite before Ella, before Lord Westhauser. This is the Skite that chose an assassin's life and commanded the control of the Rats for the first time. He doesn't care if anybody likes him. But he's still one of the cleverest men in the Black Docks, and when he sets his eye on a heist, it's going to be big, it's going to have a lot of moving parts, and it's going to change the way the future looks for a lot of people. Meet Skite's crew, Brandyrose the hawk, Sly the thief, Ace the con, Sam the hitter, and Tinman the stone elf. They've got the biggest job they've ever attempted staring them in the face, and if they can make it happen, they're going to be rich for the rest of their lives. But that's not why a crew like this does what they do. They're all here because Skite's plans are the most challenging and the most fun, and he's got a winner for them, this time. Only they can do it, and only with Skite's skills for planning and execution. Welcome back to Verida, in a time before anything you've yet seen. This is where a lot of things started... Murderers and Thieves is a part of the greater Verida universe, and is recommended in sequence between The Queen's Seal, book 4 of The Queen's Chair series, and The Marriage of the White Princess, from the Murderers, Thieves, and Velvet series.

If Valerie is going to learn how to use magic, she must first learn how to survive it. Valerie grew up a normal girl. In high school, she was popular, smart, happy.But all that changes when her mother's former life - a life kept hidden from Valerie - collides into Valerie's reality.Forced to walk away from everything she's always known, Valerie finds herself in a magic school where she may be protected, but she certainly isn't liked. Facing classmates who resent her for being there and a faculty who are caught up in the same secret war that threatened her mother, Valerie is going to have to flourish or perish in her new reality.Click now to enroll in The School of Magic Survival.

Carter is not an easy man to live with. He spent ten-thousand years hellside, and now he feels more akin to demons than humans, but Samantha shows up at his doorstep - bloody Garrett sent her - and Carter doesn't turn her away. Never really knew why. She wants to learn the truth: the small truth about who killed her family and the much bigger truths about the way the world works behind the curtain. She's not going to give up or go away until he teaches her, and he might just reclaim his humanity along the way. This volume includes the novellas Rage, Justin, Diana, and Departure.

Sam and Jason have been at this a long time, and they're some of the best out there. Gremlins, goblins, ghosts of all kind, vampires, even the yeti that time in Cleveland, they go where they're needed and they kill what needs killed. It's that simple. And it's a pretty good life, really.Then there's the girl. Samantha. She's feisty and difficult and she knows next to nothing about what they do, but she's pretty handy with a hatchet and seems to just keep tagging along with them, city after city, witch after ghost after spirit, despite Jason's best efforts to ditch her along the way. If he'd had any idea just how complicated she was about to make their lives, he probably would have left her in Georgia.It's too bad, really. Sam appears to be in love with her.

It gets worse before it gets better. Sam left her. It wasn't really Jason's decision, so he went along with it at the time, but he's regretted it ever since. Now they have to deal with the consequences. Samantha is back, but nothing is the same and it looks like it may never be, again. Carly, Sam's demonic ex-girlfriend, has put him under a spell that's likely to kill both Sam and Samantha, if they aren't careful. If they do manage to survive, they still have Carly's self-absorbed boss to deal with, plus a horde of zombies that Samantha says aren't zombies at all. Samantha may be a shaman with a knack for knowing the right things at the right times, but even she may not be able to get them out of this unscathed.

Becca has only just joined her first Makkai Gypsy tribe, devoted to fighting dangerous supernatural things, when an old threat to their tribe's queen resurfaces. Without knowing who else she can trust, Bella draws Becca deep into the intrigue of an old curse that has already claimed the lives of multiple queens. Can Becca reveal the source of the curse in time to stop it, or will Bella suffer the same fate as the queens who came before her?

Prepare for a thrilling return to the magical city of Verida. Though the once-crippling threat of famine has eased, not everything has been put right yet. Stasia, now less known as a merchant's daughter and increasingly as a merchant in her own right, has a huge amount of work ahead as she builds a life getting things where they need to go, her part in rebuilding industry in the city. That life must be put on hold when the time comes for Queen Melody's daughter, Amber, to return from the mountains, and another dangerous journey needs to happen to bring her back to the city. From there, things go from bad to worse, as Stasia finds herself entangled in a web of escalating threats and chaos within the castle walls. Stasia is pulled in multiple directions as the responsibilities of her life all demand more of her than she possibly has to give, but she has more to learn about Veridan life, about independent adult life, and about the significance of the decisions she's made before it's all done. Welcome back to Verida, city of elves and rivers and magic. It never rests and it never sleeps, and the journey is ready to continue. The Queen's Shadow is a part of the greater Verida universe, and is recommended in sequence between Destiny of a Wild Colt, book 4 of the Hill Chargers series, and Final Day, from the White Princess novellas.