Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025

Bundle of Holding's 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks.
Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025


Some elders of the borderland still remember the months in 949 when Daxis's Border Port was crowded with war refugees, caused by the outbreak of war between Koretia and Emor.
For a place of somber history, Border Port is an exceptionally cheerful town. Border Port is the only port in the borderland, though you can easily journey to the borderland from points north and south. Disembarking at Border Port, however, places you immediately into one of the liveliest locations in the borderland.
"Lively" is a euphemism for "rowdy." Do not – I repeat, do not – wander here unescorted if you are a woman. Families with small children will probably want to pass through this town quickly, taking overnight accommodations elsewhere.
Unmarried men, however, are likely to enjoy their visit. Sailors have long made this town – one of the oldest ports in the Great Peninsula – their place for recreation. Daxions have happily met their needs. In this mild climate, entertainment is year-round and usually takes place on the streets. Daxion bards sing on every corner, Emorian jugglers stand in every doorway, and Koretian dagger-throwers lay claim over every handy wooden wall. Look out for the last; dagger-throwers don't offer warning before they throw.
Many of these entertainers will have bowls at their feet. These are for coins or – if you do not yet possess peninsularean coinage – for gifts of food. Be generous in your offerings; bards in particular are inclined to offer commentary on stingy listeners, in the form of excruciatingly derisive ballads.
"But what about the women?" Many a northern mainlander has asked me that question. Houses of prostitution are indeed abundant in the Border Port. I mention this, not in order to encourage this distasteful trade, but because these houses are often overlooked by mainlanders who come to the Great Peninsula in search of wives. See the section on courting for more information.
[Translator's note: Readers can take a trip to Border Port in Death Mask.]
RECOMMENDED: The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter is $1.99! Lara gave this an A:
This book just got better and better with every twist and reveal. Original, compelling, well-written and immersive, this is a great book to escape into. It is perfect for right now, for the holidays, and for re-reading, which I will definitely be doing very soon.
Knives Out gets a holiday rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter.
The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.
Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy.
She hates his guts.
He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)
But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.
That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.
She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?
As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.
Assuming they don’t kill each other first.
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren is $3.99! This is a standlone, which is typically a bit of a departure from their Beautiful and Wild Seasons series (less explicit sex). However, there is a content warning for the book. If you want to read the spoiler, you can find it here.
The heart may hide, but it never forgets.
The first women’s fiction novel from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Christina Lauren (Autoboyography, Dating You / Hating You).
Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.
But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly teen friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother…only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.
Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco reading books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh is $2.99! I mentioned this one on a previous Hide Your Wallet. Might be worth picking up if you’re in the mood for a queer space oepra.
From Astounding Award Winner and Crawford Award Finalist Emily Tesh
“Masterful, audacious storytelling. Relentless, unsentimental, a completely wild ride.”—Tamsyn Muir
While we live, the enemy shall fear us.
Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the majoda their victory over humanity.
They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. When Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.
Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr escapes from everything she’s known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.
A thrillingly told queer space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and who you must become when every choice is stripped from you, Some Desperate Glory is award-winning author Emily Tesh’s highly anticipated debut novel.
An Immense World by Ed Yong is $1.99! I believe Aarya mentioned this on a previous Hide Your Wallet and I’ve heard it’s wonderful on audio. Did any of you pick this one up?
Enter a new dimension—the world as it is truly perceived by other animals—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes.
“A stunning achievement, steeped in science but suffused with magic.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Gene
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world.
In An Immense World, author and Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.
Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.”
Which 2023 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
4 (21.1%)
Metronome by Tom Watson
0 (0.0%)
Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
2 (10.5%)
The Anomaly (translation of L'anomalie) by Hervé Le Tellier
0 (0.0%)
The Coral Bones by E. J. Swift
0 (0.0%)
The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
15 (78.9%)

Welcome back to Cover Snark!

Elyse: Is this a PSA?
Tara: Or a how-to guide? Do you need hats and/or scarves to transport the crabs after you catch them?
Sarah: Gloves, too.
Tara: Oh yeah, the tiny ones can go in the fingers.
Claudia: Hmm my mind went to pubic crabs, I’m so sorry…
Sarah: Oh, me, too. I figured that was why their hair was covered.

From Jen: I see one dragon. Is the other one in his pants? What is he looking for? Disturbing and confusing cover.
Sarah: I think the dragon is yelling I TOLD YOU SO.
Amanda: Also there’s some strange texture going on with his chest.
Sarah: WHAT is with all the crotch-staring cover models? Even the dragon hates it.

From Brigitte: I saw this book couldn’t get over how bad this title is. I hope the ‘zon doesn’t send me any recommendations like this one, because it’s cringe worthy!
Sarah: During a gynecological exam, I expect medical professionals to keep their shirts on, not have them unbuttoned but still tucked in. Am I weird?
Claudia: I read Gorgeous Gyro and frankly that would be vastly preferable than the actual title of this book!
Sarah: I would eat a gorgeous gyro.
Sneezy: Dammit now, now I want a gyro too.

From Melodie: Nominee for the bad font choice award! Amazon claims this book is titled Culgan. But I guess I would be going by an alias too if I had to wear that ugly little capelet to a fight. By his face he knows that he needs actual armor to go against the giant parrot.
Sarah: Is Ulgah wearing a beauty shop drape cover? Was Ulgah interrupted at the salon by a giant bird looking for a fight? I bet Ulgah was mid-coloring and had to step out from under the dome dryer to get the sword.
Claudia: All I know is that Culgari looks mad about the interruption.
Elyse: See I’m getting Eulcah
Sarah: Or Eulcari?


Hey, everyone!
Can we all be shocked that there’s no non-fiction in this post? I’m definitely a little proud of myself. We have a middle grade graphic novel, a f/f novella, a cozy fantasy, and an Austen inspired anthology.
Have you received any great recommendations lately? Share them in the comments!
This was recommended in the SBTB Podcast Patreon Discord by Clay, and I desperately wanted to share it. Clay mention that this middle grade graphic novel is cute and funny, and that she’s given it successfully as a gift several times.
A modern middle-grade graphic novel retelling of Beowulf, featuring a gang of troublemaking kids who must defend their tree house from a fun-hating adult who can instantly turn children into grown-ups.
Listen! Hear a tale of mallow-munchers and warriors who answer candy’s clarion call!
Somewhere in a generic suburb stands Treeheart, a kid-forged sanctuary where generations of tireless tykes have spent their youths making merry, spilling soda, and staving off the shadow of adulthood. One day, these brave warriors find their fun cut short by their nefarious neighbor Grindle, who can no longer tolerate the sounds of mirth seeping into his joyless adult life.
As the guardian of gloom lays siege to Treeheart, scores of kids suddenly find themselves transformed into pimply teenagers and sullen adults! The survivors of the onslaught cry out for a savior—a warrior whose will is unbreakable and whose appetite for mischief is unbounded.
They call for Bea Wolf.
Obsessed! A f/f novella inspired by one of my favorite musicals.
From the best-selling author of Heartless Heathens, TGSLLPFTM is a killer rom-com, feel-good, magical short story about fated love blooming in the most unexpected of places.
I’VE GIVEN HER SUNSHINE
I’ve given her dirt
She’s given me much more
Than I ever deserved.
I’m begging her sweetly
I’m down on my knees
Oh, please,
KILL FOR ME
TGSLLPFTM Is a novella inspired by Roger Corman’s The Little Shop of Horrors
This really slid under the radar! It’s a short story collection featuring Austen’s side characters from well-known authors, especially in romance.
Celebrate Jane Austen’s classic novels with this short story anthology starring forgotten characters as they experience their own happy endings.
In honor of her 250th birthday, eight authors have come together with wildly imaginative reboots of the lives of several of Jane Austen’s minor characters. Written with plenty of love and wit, these clever stories star everyone from Pride and Prejudice’s snobbish Caroline Bingley to the modern descendant of Sense and Sensibility’s Eliza Williams and much more. Blurring genres and taking us across the oceans, Ladies in Waiting is a heartfelt celebration of Jane Austen and her timeless masterpieces.
Cozy fantasy had a moment of retiree plots, where an adventurer would hang up their gear to settle down somewhere (often with plans to open up a small business). If you’ve been searching for me, try this one.