Stories by @maiher

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe

When Jeanie’s aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job. Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor’s gossip at all costs. But Jeanie’s arrival disrupts Logan’s routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her. Will Jeanie’s happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won’t fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes…

A Crane Among Wolves

1506, Joseon. The people suffer under the cruel reign of the tyrant King Yeonsan, powerless to stop him from commandeering their land for his recreational use, banning and burning books, and kidnapping and horrifically abusing women and girls as his personal playthings. Seventeen-year-old Iseul has lived a sheltered, privileged life despite the kingdom’s turmoil. When her older sister, Suyeon, becomes the king’s latest prey, Iseul leaves the relative safety of her village, traveling through forbidden territory to reach the capital in hopes of stealing her sister back. But she soon discovers the king’s power is absolute, and to challenge his rule is to court certain death. Prince Daehyun has lived his whole life in the terrifying shadow of his despicable half-brother, the king. Forced to watch King Yeonsan flaunt his predation through executions and rampant abuse of the common folk, Daehyun aches to find a way to dethrone his half-brother once and for all. When staging a coup, failure is fatal, and he’ll need help to pull it off―but there’s no way to know who he can trust.

Kitsune: A Little Mermaid Retelling

Trapped in a dull and unfilling role as palace maid, Rin dreams of rising higher in the immortal court. Determined to change her lot in life, she plans to use her illusion power to spy on her ruler's rival and prove her worth. But when her mission fails, she's turned human as punishment. Now she has until the next full moon to seduce a human prince, break his engagement, and upend his treaty with a rival kingdom without her Kitsune magic or voice, otherwise she'll become a common fox.

The Scarlet Alchemist

Zilan dreams of becoming a royal alchemist, of providing for her family by making alchemical gold and gems for the wealthy to eat in order to stay young forever. But for now, she’s trapped in her impoverished village in southern China, practicing an illegal form of alchemy to keep food on the table—resurrecting the dead, for a price.

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White

Though Lan inherited the power of the Silver Dragon, she understands the path she must take. She believes the Demon Gods to be the cause of war, conflict, and turmoil, and that the future of the Last Kingdom depends on their being eliminated forever. Worse, she knows that if the Elantians manage to bind one of the legendary beings, their army will be unstoppable. To save her kingdom and her people, Lan will need to find the only mythical weapon capable of destroying the Demon Gods: the Godslayer.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods

Heroes die, cowards live. Daughter of a conquered world, Ruying hates the invaders who descended from the heavens long before she was born and defeated the magic of her people with technologies unlike anything her world had ever seen. Blessed by Death, born with the ability to pull the life right out of mortal bodies, Ruying shouldn’t have to fear these foreign invaders, but she does. Especially because she wants to keep herself and her family safe.

The Heavenly Sword

Set in a world of human conflicts, fantastical martial arts, sorcery and celestial magic, Alice Poon's debut fantasy, The Heavenly Sword, follows a martial maiden's heartbreaking adventures in her quest for love and justice.The goddess Chang'e, reborn as Shandong village girl Tang Sai'er, is sent by the Deities to the mortal world to impede a future tyrant. Her mission requires her to be both a warrior and also chaste. The Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, the Sky Wolf incarnate and once Chang'e's suitor in heaven, incites a brutal civil war to usurp the throne. He secretly covets Sai'er, but also fears her power. Ma Sanbao, a eunuch in Zhu Di's Palace, falls in love with Sai'er while they train together in Wudang kung fu. Sai'er is enamored of Sanbao, but knows she must focus on her celestial mission and her desire to protect her family and village folks from the tyrant. When Sai'er and her allies pit themselves against the wicked new Emperor and other adversaries, one being the vicious Green Dragon, Sai'er has to enlist the help of the immortals. But even with their help, she finds that her dreams are on a collision course with her mission.

A Bright Heart

Mingshin outsmarted three princes to help the man she loved become king. But she doesn’t see Ren’s betrayal coming, not until she’s lying in a pool of her own blood on the palace steps. As she’s dying, Mingshin makes a desperate plea to the gods to turn back time and give her a chance to make things right. Mingshin wakes up two years earlier, her prayer granted, and swears two things: Ren will never become king, and she will never fall in love again. But the timeline in this life has changed: a dignitary gifted with dark magic is threatening her kingdom’s peace, and Ren’s thirst for power runs deeper than Mingshin could have imagined.

The Dragon King's Imperial Wrath

Thirteen clans rule the land, and the Rat Clan is the weakest. Ruiying, the princess of the Rat Clan, is summoned to the land of the dominating Dragon Clan along with princesses from the other clans. The Dragon King seeks a bride, and they are all candidates! Yet instead of vying for the Dragon King’s favor, Ruiying takes refuge in the palace’s enormous library—a place she can read to her heart’s content. It’s there that the Dragon King discovers her by chance, sparking an immediate connection that will change Ruiying’s life forever!

Red blossom in snow

Magistrate Li Chen harbors a secret. One that could destroy his hard-earned reputation, as well as his growing passion for the talented courtesan, Song Yi. Li Chen’s duty to his family and the Emperor must come before the desires of his heart, but when a stranger to the city is found dead near the House of Heavenly Peaches, where Song Yi is indentured, the complicated nature of their relationship becomes the least of his troubles.

Vampire princess Miyu

Stranded in the space between the human world and the demon underworld, the series central characters are a beautiful Japanese vampire girl named Miyu and her Western Shinma companion Larva. Miyu is the daughter of both a human being and a Shinma (a name for a race of "god-demon"). She was born a vampire and as such, she was awakened as the guardian whose destiny is to hunt down all stray Shinma and send them back to "the Darkness"; charged with the responsibility of returning the evil demons away. Before turning 15 years old, she yearns to return to the darkness herself but not until she has banished all the Shinma from Earth.

Love hina

Keitaro Urashima promised a girl when he was young that they would meet up again at Tokyo University in the future. Sadly, in the National Practice Exam, Keitaro ranked 27th from the bottom. Knowing his grandmother owned a hotel, Keitaro intended to stay there while continuing his studies for Tokyo U, only to find out the hotel had long been transformed into an all-girls dormitory. Through an odd twist of fate, Keitaro eventually became the manager of the dorm, beginning his life of living with five other girls

Vampire knight

Yuki's earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter, where she was attacked by a rogue vampire and rescued by Kaname Kuran, a Pureblood vampire. Ten years later, Yuki is the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, Kaien Cross, and has become a guardian of the vampire race, protecting her childhood crush, Kaname, from discovery as he leads a group of vampires at the elite boarding school.

Ponyo

During a forbidden excursion to see the surface world, a goldfish princess encounters a human boy named Sosuke, who gives her the name Ponyo. Ponyo longs to become human, and as her friendship with Sosuke grows, she becomes more humanlike. Ponyo's father brings her back to their ocean kingdom, but so strong is Ponyo's wish to live on the surface that she breaks free, and in the process, spills a collection of magical elixirs that endanger Sosuke's village.

Spirited away

During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, a world where humans are changed into beasts.

THE LOTUS PALACE

This story set in Tang Dynasty China, weaves together romance and mystery. Yue-ying is a maidservant at the famous Lotus Palace to one of the most beautiful and popular courtesans. Yue-ying is not beautiful. A birthmark makes her ineligible to become a courtesan at the Lotus Palace. And after a traumatic past, she just wants to stay in the background and escape the attention of any men. This is why she rejects the privileged Bai Huang when he flirts with her on a visit to the Lotus Palace. But when courtesans begin being murdered, the pair is thrown together in their mutual attempt to find and stop the killer. This leads to an exciting number of twists and turns in the mystery plot, and a fulfilling, slow burn romance between Yue-ying and Bai Huang.

Sea witch

Ever since her best friend Anna died, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. Hiding her talents, mourning her loss, drowning in her guilt. Then a girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears on the shore, and the two girls catch the eyes of two charming princes. Suddenly Evie feels like she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after. But magic isn’t kind, and her new friend harbors secrets of her own. She can’t stay in Havnestad—or on two legs—without Evie’s help. And when Evie reaches deep into the power of her magic to save her friend’s humanity—and her prince’s heart—she discovers, too late, what she’s bargained away.

Paper bride 4 bound by love

a traditional Chinese Festival in the lunar calendar called ZhongYuan Festival, when, as believed, the spirits go out of the underworld and people should prepare food and burn paper to commemorate their ancestors.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night

Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died. The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it. Until the night a boy appears at her teahouse and saves her life.

Strike the Zither

The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves. But Zephyr knows it's no contest. Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged--while Ren's honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren's followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one--and not all of them are human.