A Meddle of Wizards — Alexandra Rushe

Welcome to Tandara, where gods are fickle, nightmares are real, and trolls make excellent bakers...

Raine Stewart is convinced she'll die young and alone in Alabama, the victim of a chronic, mysterious illness. Until a man in a shabby cloak steps out of her mirror and demands her help to defeat a bloodthirsty wizard.

Raine shrugs it off as a hallucination -- just one more insult from her failing body -- and orders her intruder to take a hike. But the handsome figment of her imagination won't take no for an answer, and kidnaps her anyway, launching her into a world of utmost danger -- and urgent purpose.

Ruled by unpredictable gods and unstable nations, Tandara is a land of shapeshifters and weather-workers, queens and legends. Ravenous monsters and greedy bounty hunters patrol unforgiving mountains. Riverboats pulled by sea-cattle trade down broad waterways. And creatures of nightmare stalk Raine herself, vicious in the pursuit of her blood.

But Raine isn't helpless or alone. She's part of a band as resourceful as it is odd: a mage-shy warrior, a tattered wizard, a tenderhearted giant, and a prickly troll sorceress. Her new friends swear she has powers of her own. If she can stay under their protection, she might just live long enough to find out...