Discover new books on Goodreads

See if your friends have read any of Danielle Ackley-McPhail's books

801 ratings | 189 reviews | avg rating:4.74

Danielle’s Year In Books

Danielle’s 2025 Year in Books

Take a look at Danielle’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

Go to Danielle’s 2025 Year in Books

Danielle Ackley-McPhail’s Followers (210)

Danielle’s Bookshelves

to-read (15)
currently-reading (1)
read (811)
did-not-finish (0)
anthologies (11)
books-i-am-in (4)
books-i-contributed-to (2)
books-i-have-written (3)
books-i-wrote (1)
chapbooks (1)
See all bookshelves »

Danielle’s Friends (805)

L.D. Colter

620 books | 79 friends

Stephen Kozeniewski

672 books | 5,346 friends

Jonathan

453 books | 5,001 friends

Josie Riviera

156 books | 573 friends

Valerie

4,122 books | 2,102 friends

J.J. Lair

1,301 books | 217 friends

Andrea Stewart

230 books | 322 friends

Darrell Grizzle

2,073 books | 699 friends

More friends…

Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.especbooks.com

Twitter

DMcPhail

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Cookbooks

Member Since

January 2008

edit data

Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with husband Mike McPhail and friend Greg Schauer to form her own publishing house, eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com).

Her published works include eight novels, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, Daire’s Devils, The Play of Light, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, Between Darkness and Light, The Fox’s Fire, The Kindly One, and the ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Danielle Ackley-McPhail questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Danielle Ackley-McPhail’s books

Average rating: 4.12 · 2,297 ratings · 649 reviews · 119 distinct works • Similar authors

	Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn: A Steampunk Faerie Tale by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author), Day Al-Mohamed (Goodreads Author), Ed Coutts (Illustrator) 4.18 avg rating — 121 ratings — published 2014 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bad-Ass Faeries by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jeffrey Lyman (Editor) 3.93 avg rating — 89 ratings — published 2007 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Halfling's Court (A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale Book 1) by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author), Linda Saboe (Illustrator) 4.07 avg rating — 68 ratings — published 2010 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Just Plain Bad by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author) (Editor), L. Jagi Lamplighter (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Lee C. Hillman (Editor) 4.24 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gaslight & Grimm: Steampunk Faerie Tales by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Diana Bastine (Editor), Danny Birt (Contributor) 4.14 avg rating — 49 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Yesterday's Dreams (The Eternal Cycle #1) 3.82 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 2001 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Chaos Clock by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author) (Editor), James Chambers (Goodreads Author), Carol Gyzander (Goodreads Author) 4.55 avg rating — 38 ratings — published 2024 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dragon's Lure (Legends of a New Age Book One) by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author) (Editor), C.E. Murphy (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Keith R.A. DeCandido (Goodreads Author) 4.17 avg rating — 41 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Daire's Devils 4.30 avg rating — 33 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Build-A-Book Workshop 4.22 avg rating — 32 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Danielle Ackley-McPhail…

1135 posts
Danielle Ackley-McPhail's Blog

AUGUST LIBRARYTHING LISTINGS

Do you have a LibraryThing account? If so, great! If no, it is free to sign up for, and once you have one, you can request all kinds of books to review, some of them before they’ve even been released! From large publishing houses and small. Here’s a link for LibraryThing, in case you want to sign up.

This month eSpec has three LibraryThing listings, all of them particularly special! They are

Series by Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Bad-Ass Faeries (5 books)
by

Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author) (Editor),

Keith R.A. DeCandido (Goodreads Author) (Contributor),

Jody Lynn Nye (Goodreads Author) (Contributor),

John Passarella (Goodreads Author) (Contributor),

D.L. Thurston (Goodreads Author) (Contributor),

N.R. Brown (Contributor),

John L. French (Contributor),

Lee C. Hillman (Contributor),

more…
4.11 avg rating — 297 ratings

The Bad-Ass Faerie Tale Series (3 books)
by

Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author)

4.10 avg rating — 105 ratings

The Eternal Cycle (4 books)
by

Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author)

4.06 avg rating — 101 ratings

The Literary Handyman (4 books)
by

Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author)

4.32 avg rating — 66 ratings

Forgotten Lore (5 books)
by

Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author) (Editor)

4.41 avg rating — 34 ratings

More series by Danielle Ackley-McPhail…

Danielle is Currently Reading

Danielle is currently reading

Dreadful

by Caitlin Rozakis (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Nov 29, 2024 03:36PM

rss
Danielle’s Recent Updates

Danielle liked Danielle Ackley-McPhail's blog post: AUGUST LIBRARYTHING LISTINGS " Do you have a LibraryThing account? If so, great! If no, it is free to sign up for, and once you have one, you can request all kinds of books to review, some of them before they’ve even been released! From large publishing houses and small. Her..." Read more of this blog post »
Aug 11, 2026 12:27PM
Danielle liked Danielle Ackley-McPhail's blog post: COVER REVEAL – THE GUARDIAN’S GIFT "The Guardian’s GiftJeff Young There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend. They have been sighted by a lucky—or unlucky—few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven..." Read more of this blog post »
Aug 10, 2026 03:21AM
Danielle liked Tony Ciak's review of Were-: "A fine collection of were related stories; even though wolves are mentioned; they are not featured in these stories. This provides many other were creatures to have their light in the moonlight."
Aug 02, 2026 01:36AM · see review
Danielle liked Anastacia's review of StokerCon 2026 Souvenir Anthology: "This anthology was a PDF I won from Early Reviewers. I did not attend the actual con. This book has interviews, poems, short stories and artwork by members of Stokercon. My favorite short story was Harrison's about a haunted house that was haunted by " Read more of this review »
Aug 01, 2026 04:55AM · see review
Danielle wants to read Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 01, 2026 06:50PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Danielle rated a book it was amazing The Mirror of Yu-Huang (Library of Athena) by Christine Norris (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 26, 2026 09:48AM · like
Danielle rated a book it was amazing More Hearts for Hounds by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 26, 2026 02:55AM · like
Danielle rated a book it was amazing A Heart for Hounds by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 14, 2026 05:19PM · like
Danielle rated a book it was amazing The Ritual of Names by Bernie Mojzes (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 14, 2026 04:54PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Ritual of Names by Bernie Mojzes. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Ritual of Names by Bernie Mojzes <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Danielle rated a book it was amazing The Mists of Cairn Gorm by Jennifer Povey	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 21, 2026 12:52PM · like

More of Danielle's books…

Quotes by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (?)

“Because dreams are the difference between living...and existing...”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

tags: inspirational

25 likes

“I hate it when realism intrudes on my dreams.”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

tags: humor

7 likes

“Words are the closest any of us can come to making something from nothing at all.”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

tags: creating, writing

5 likes

See all Danielle Ackley-McPhail's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Stress Free Readi...: Joy's Disney Travelogue	342	93	Mar 28, 2018 10:25AM
Flights of Fantasy: MrsJ's BINGO Extravaganza	24	24	Aug 01, 2018 07:36AM
Stress Free Readi...: Joy's Infinity Passport	1136	139	Jul 05, 2019 02:02PM
~Readers Sharing ...: Debbie'Z Reviews	1190	98	Dec 22, 2025 07:45AM
Goodreads Authors...: * Author Bloggers, Reviewers, & Supporters	6526	14221	Aug 11, 2026 12:57PM
Goodreads Authors...: * Introduce Yourself!	23017	25992	11 hours, 29 min ago
Goodreads Authors...: * Author List	7921	21813	5 hours, 1 min ago

More…

Danielle’s Quotes

“Because dreams are the difference between living...and existing...”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

tags: inspirational

25 likes

“Bury your differences, or bury your dead." Kara O'Keefe, Eternal Wanderings”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

tags: eternal-wanderings

0 likes

“Good enough'isn't enough.”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

3 likes

“Words are the closest any of us can come to making something from nothing at all.”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

tags: creating, writing

5 likes

“No time spent on hopes and dreams is ever wasted.”
― Danielle Ackley-McPhail

2 likes

More of Danielle’s quotes…

Danielle’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-7) post a comment »

date

newest »

message 7: by Richard

Apr 11, 2023 03:13AM

thank you for the friend

reply | flag

message 6: by Danielle

Dec 13, 2015 10:16AM

Deanna wrote: ":) Your books look awesome, but Yesterday's Dreams looks the best. I enjoy urban Celtic fantasy (Urban Shaman is a great series) and this looks like a good addition to my collection."

Hi Deanna,

Thank you. Yesterday's Dreams I can provide, what format works for you? Send me an email at greenfirephoenix @ aol . com and I can send you the file.

Best,

Danielle

reply | flag

message 5: by Deanna

Dec 13, 2015 06:54AM

:) Your books look awesome, but Yesterday's Dreams looks the best. I enjoy urban Celtic fantasy (Urban Shaman is a great series) and this looks like a good addition to my collection.

reply | flag

message 4: by Danielle

Jan 17, 2012 04:43PM

Thank you :)

reply | flag

message 3: by Book Review Diva

Jan 17, 2012 04:40PM