Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts

(Veiled, #2)  Publication date: November  25th  2018  Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy History believes me to be a merciless savage. A ter...

(Veiled, #2) Publication date: November 25th 2018 Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy
History believes me to be a merciless savage. A terror upon the Earth known as The Impaler. Archaic lore whispers I am the first of the vampire lineage.
These claims … are all painted in bloody truth.
Now, while the world watches in fear, a war is brewing. Humans are targeting vampires in merciless attacks to force us back into the shadows.
They woke me to be their weapon.

They know not my loathing for my own kind.

Even I cannot say for certain whose side I’m on.

I have bowed before the alter of darkness rooted in the Nosferatu bloodline. Been forced to drink of its bitter sacrament. They refer to me as The Son of The Dragon, and I laugh. For I, alone, know that malevolent essence is one no man could ever tame.

Bryn Kolt can’t seem to stay put—or perhaps she can’t seem to find what she’s looking for. Traveling the country ever since cancer took he...

Lurking in the Woods by Anne StrykerBryn Kolt can’t seem to stay put—or perhaps she can’t seem to find what she’s looking for. Traveling the country ever since cancer took her mother five years ago, Bryn has yet to fill the ache death left behind.

When her grandmother wills her a cabin, she isn’t expecting to discover the old woman’s ramblings about magic are true. But sure enough, Rhyeos, a shadow wolf guardian, enters her life as casually as if he had always been there, bringing with him the promise of adventure.

Soon there’s more for Bryn to dwell on than the flirty Guardian of the Forest’s advances, however. Somewhere deep in the magical world Beyond a villain known as The Beast threatens to tip the balance toward darkness. What’s worse? He wants to meet her.


Callie, a Classics major, flees home to protect her family from a monster straight out of mythology. Visions l...






Callie, a Classics major, flees home to protect her family from a monster straight out of mythology. Visions lead her to Nectar and Ambrosia: the weirdest pub on Earth, where inter-dimensional travelers with attention seeking issues get drunk in between the A-list celebrity lives they create. They can't pretend to be gods anymore—not since a treaty with the current Supreme Deity promising they won't intervene in human affairs.


The Doorkeeper of this threshold, Florian, rides herd on the rowdy Amaranthine and offers her shelter and a job. Callie likes the lonely, mysterious bartender more than she should. For Florian, her presence is a ray of light in the gray monotony of his sentence behind the bar, but he keeps a cautious distance—the truth of how he became Doorkeeper could change Callie's perception of him forever. 

Thirteen strangers check into the Sunset Inn hoping to find rest.  When one of them is murdered in the middle o...



Thirteen strangers check into the Sunset Inn hoping to find rest. 

When one of them is murdered in the middle of the night, the survivors realize they’ve found something else entirely; an ancient evil looking to satisfy an undying hunger. 

If the guests want to make it through the night, they’ll have to discover the secret behind the motel and the mysterious town it serves. However, in uncovering the truth, they might find that the town’s past is nowhere near as dark as their own.

(The Clockwork Chimera , #1)  Publication date: November 14th 2018  Genres: Adult, Science Fiction Add to Goodreads Life in d...

(The Clockwork Chimera , #1) Publication date: November 14th 2018 Genres: Adult, Science Fiction


Add to Goodreads
Life in deep space could be a drag sometimes, but Daisy supposed things could have been worse. They were still alive, after all, which was always a plus in her book. Now if only she could figure out who, or what, was endangering her return home, things would be just peachy.
It had been one hell of a way to start the day––being rudely snapped from a deep cryo-sleep, and in the middle of a ship-wide crisis to boot––but Daisy was pleased to note that the ship had not decompressed, the crew hadn’t been blasted into space, and, most importantly, they hadn’t simply blown up. At least not yet. So, they had that going for them, but being stuck on a damaged ship in the inky depths of space as it limped toward Earth was not exactly the relaxing trip home she’d imagined. 
With the powerful AI supercomputer guiding the craft beginning to show some disconcerting quirks of its own, and its unsettling cyborg assistant nosing into her affairs, Daisy’s unease was rapidly growing. Add to the mix a crew of mechanically-enhanced humans, any one of whom she suspected might not be what they seemed, and Daisy found herself with a sense of pending dread tickling the periphery of her mind. 
Something was very much not right––she could feel it in her bones. The tricky part now was going to be figuring out what the threat was, before it could manifest from a mere sinking feeling in her gut into a potentially deadly reality.

All myths have a kernel of truth. The truth is: vampires are real. They’ve always been here, but only came out of hiding in the last cent...


All myths have a kernel of truth. The truth is: vampires are real.

They’ve always been here, but only came out of hiding in the last century. They are not what Hollywood would have you believe. They are not what is written in lore or whispered by the superstitious.

They look and act like humans. They live and love and die like humans. Puberty is just a bit more stressful for those with the recessive gene. And while some teenagers worry about high school, others dread their next set of teeth.

Vampires are real, but in a social climate still struggling to accept that truth, do teeth alone make them monsters?

Nevada Frida Baylor and Connor Ander Rogan cordially invite you to join their wedding celebration. Summoning, weather manipulation, an...



Nevada Frida Baylor and Connor Ander Rogan cordially invite you to join their wedding celebration. Summoning, weather manipulation, and other magical activities strictly forbidden.



Catalina Baylor is looking forward to wearing her maid of honor dress and watching her older sister walk down the aisle.  Then the wedding planner gets escorted off the premises, the bride’s priceless tiara disappears, and Rogan’s extensive family overruns his mother’s home.  Someone is cheating, someone is lying, and someone is plotting murder.


To make this wedding happen, Catalina will have to do the thing she fears most: use her magic.  But she’s a Baylor and there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her sister’s happiness.  Nevada will have her fairy tale wedding, even if Catalina has to tear the mansion apart brick by brick to get it done.




Mirah Bolender's fast-paced, adventure fantasy debut, City of Broken Magic, features a bomb squad that defuses magic weapons. ...


Mirah Bolender's fast-paced, adventure fantasy debut, City of Broken Magic, features a bomb squad that defuses magic weapons.

Five hundred years ago, magi created a weapon they couldn't control. An infestation that ate magic--and anything else it came into contact with. Enemies and allies were equally filling.

Only an elite team of non-magical humans, known as sweepers, can defuse and dispose of infestations before they spread. Most die before they finish training.

Laura, a new team member, has stayed alive longer than most. Now, she's the last--and only--sweeper standing between the city and a massive infestation.


One girl. A reincarnated war god. The chance to stop the carnage before it begins. Emmaline Rain’s father is the Stoneman....


One girl. A reincarnated war god. The chance to stop the carnage before it begins.


Emmaline Rain’s father is the Stoneman. His responsibility: travel into Massaporan lands and end the life of the reincarnated Massaporan deity—the Deer King—the instant he is born. But when he fails in this task, the delicate equilibrium between Emmaline’s people and the Massaporans is disturbed. It seems likely that the violence of the past will be renewed.


Emmaline’s father is soon murdered by a priest of the Bronze Titan for his shortcomings. Newly orphaned, Emmaline absconds with the Saving Stone in the hopes of finding the Deer King and completing her father’s work. But when she comes face-to-face with the Deer King, she realizes that relations between her people and the Massaporans are more complicated than she has been led to believe. 


The Deer King is the first in a planned series of fantasy novellas set in Dreyland, a colonial world where the indigenous people rely on the strength of a reincarnated god to help them offset the technological superiority of the settlers. 

After generations of advancement, the human race had thought they were invincible. That was until the revenant made the...


After generations of advancement, the human race had thought they were invincible. That was until the revenant made their presence known. The humans that survived the culling must pay to survive. 

The cost......their blood. The source of life for all living things.



The Covenant (a pact between the humans and the revenant) was made at the end of the war. In order to maintain power and to ensure the continuation of the human race (the food source of the revenant), the Consulate (a group of higher class humans living in the upper city) was formed. Their main job was to maintain order and to work as a go-between for the humans and the revenant. 



Persephone Black (Phoebe) lost her mother when she was born and she had never known her father. She and her Pappy made a living on the outskirts of the revenant city where the poor and desolate are numerous. Every month, Pappy would give blood in place of Phoebe (his way of silently rebelling against the revenant). Persephone had kept her head low and remained unnoticed for her entire life. She was content working as a junior gardener at the nursery as long as it meant her and Pappy's continued survival within the city walls. 


"As long as Pappy has a roof over his head and food in his belly, then I couldn't complain."---Persephone Black
As fate would have it, Phoebe wouldn't be able to go unnoticed for much longer. She caught the attention of Cassius, a revenant (one of the sons of Judas) and was summoned by him (through the use of the Consulate) to the tower. 


Phoebe would learn more about the revenant than most other humans. Cast into a world that she was not yet ready for, Phoebe would do anything to survive. 

She stretched out her hand and touched SIRCA’s waist which felt as it looked, smooth and solid. When she remov...



She stretched out her hand and touched SIRCA’s waist which felt as it looked, smooth and solid. When she removed her hand, a trail of stringy mucus-like fibers dangled from her palm like glue—How is this a suit?

On a cold winter night in New York City, former NYPD officer Cindy Ames snuck into a top-secret lab and stole a dangerous technology. With this device, she physically transformed herself into an unstoppable superhuman. 
Tortured by guilt over her partner’s murder, Cindy swore to use her new weapon to bring justice to the killer who ruined her life. But when the deaths of innocent people plague Manhattan, all evidence points to her. 
Has Cindy's quest for revenge gone too far? 
The truth she discovers about herself may be more than she bargained for. 

A Bitter Winter is book 1 of The Silver Ninja series.

Super powers can save a city but BREAK a hero. 


Holy fire-farting Hell Hounds. Pet lover and animal activist Pepper Peterson has a secret. She inherited the caretaker position of the ...


Holy fire-farting Hell Hounds.

Pet lover and animal activist Pepper Peterson has a secret. She inherited the caretaker position of the notorious Hell Hounds from her deceased aunt. Every year on Halloween she opens the gates to hell and sets them free to mark the souls of the damned. Only this year she lost the magic whistle to call them home and the massive black beasts run amok causing mischief in the town.

Ottar Jones holds the position of senior boss man at L.A.M.P.S. (Legends and Myths Police Squad) secret government agency. Ottar appalls Pepper. He’s the most barbaric man she’s ever met, but she can’t stop thinking about the sexy brute. When he finally chooses to show up to repair her dinosaur statue, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

Ottar’s calendar has been packed full of mythical beasts to capture. Upon return to Haber Cove for his friend River’s wedding he has to contend with the crazy but hot vegan’s dinosaur, but a surprise awaits him. Haber Cove is infested with flesh-eating, ankle-biting Jack-a-lopes, and a pack of large black Hell Hounds. Will all hell break loose when he finds who let the dogs out? Or will Pepper turn out to be the one woman who can tame the savage Aussie hunter?


A new anthology bringing together five great new and established writers to explore the world of Mary Shelley’s all-time...


A new anthology bringing together five great new and established writers to explore the world of Mary Shelley’s all-time classic, Frankenstein

“My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.”

Victor Frankenstein was the first to unlock the key to life, but he would not be the last. Through two centuries of scientific enquiry and relentless advancement, five more minds found the secret, and five more creatures were made. Five more stories ended in tragedy.

From the 1840s to the modern day, from the race to publish the first anatomy to the desperate search for weapons to win the Second World War, telling the stories of the creatures that never were.

As a child, rare and unusual animals, especially cryptid creatures, always fascinated Carter Wilde.  Now that he’...



As a child, rare and unusual animals, especially cryptid creatures, always fascinated Carter Wilde. 

Now that he’s an eccentric billionaire and runs the largest conglomerate of high-tech companies all over the world, he can finally achieve his wildest dream of building the most incredible theme park ever conceived on the planet…CRYPTID ZOO. 

Even though there have been apparent problems with the project, Wilde still decides to send some of his marketing employees and their families on a forced vacation to assess the theme park in preparation for Opening Day

Nick Wells and his family are some of those chosen and are about to embark on what will become the most terror-filled weekend of their lives—praying they survive. 

STEP RIGHT UP AND GET YOUR FREE PASS… 
TO CRYPTID ZOO 

Live. Die. Or become one of the Undead. News reports speak of mass panic and violence spreading across the globe. Negligent le...



Live.
Die.
Or become one of the Undead.


News reports speak of mass panic and violence spreading across the globe. Negligent leaders hide behind misinformation. But in an age of paranoia and suspicion, who can say what is true anymore? Struggling to survive against a sweeping epidemic that has engulfed the planet, survivors will have to make hard choices in a world that no longer makes sense.



Broke, almost homeless, and recently fired. Those are my official reasons for answering a wanted ad for a skeevy-looking bartender...



Broke, almost homeless, and recently fired. Those are my official reasons for answering a wanted ad for a skeevy-looking bartender gig.

It went downhill the moment they asked me to do a trial shift instead of an interview — to see if I'd mesh with their "special" clientele. I think that part went great. Their customers were complete dickheads, and I was an asshole right back. That's the definition of fitting in, right?

I expected to get thrown out on my ass. Instead, they… offered me the job?

It turns out this place isn't a bar. It's a guild. And the three cocky guys I drenched with a margarita during my trial? Yeah, they were mages. Either I'm exactly the kind of takes-no-shit bartender this guild needs, or there's a good reason no one else wants to work here.

So what's a broke girl to do? Take the job, of course — with a pay raise.

Note: The three mages are definitely sexy, but this series isn't a reverse harem. It's 100% fun, sassy, fast-paced urban fantasy.

WHAT HAS LONG PINK FINGERS AND SMELLS LIKE ROTTING FLESH? It is a slime-covered fungus known for its pinkish red tenta...

The Devil's Fingers by Hunter Shea cover

WHAT HAS LONG PINK FINGERS AND SMELLS LIKE ROTTING FLESH?
It is a slime-covered fungus known for its pinkish red tentacles and pungent odor. It is indigenous to Australia but has spread to North America. Its Latin name is Clathrus Archeri, also known as Octopus Stinkhorn. Most people call it The Devil’s Fingers . . .
 
I DON’T KNOW BUT IT’S GROWING ON YOUR NECK. 
Deep in the woods of Washington, botanist Autumn Winters stumbles onto a field of the luridly colored fungi. Two of her fellow campers make the mistake of touching it. Now it’s growing on them. Fleshy gelatinous pods. Sprouting from their skin. Feeding on their blood . . .
 
AND IT’S STILL GROWING.
Autumn watches in horror as her friends are transformed into monstrosities—grotesque, human-fungal hybrids as contagious and deadly as any virus. Autumn knows she must destroy these mutations before they return to civilization. But if there’s one thing that spreads faster than fear, 
it’s The Devil’s Fingers . . .

Keeping Charleston—and the world—safe from supernatural threats one cursed object at a time! Cassidy Kincaide run...



Keeping Charleston—and the world—safe from supernatural threats one cursed object at a time!

Cassidy Kincaide runs Trifles & Folly in modern-day Charleston, an antiques and curios shop with a dangerous secret. Cassidy can read the history of objects by touching them and along with her business partners Teag, who is a Weaver witch and Sorren, a 600-year-old vampire, they get rid of cursed objects and keep Charleston and the world safe from supernatural threats. 

When zombies rise in Charleston cemeteries, dead men fall from the sky, and the whole city succumbs to the “grouch flu,” Cassidy, Teag, and Sorren suspect a vengeful dark witch who is gunning for Teag and planning to unleash an ancient horror. Cassidy, Teag, and Sorren—and all their supernatural allies—will need magic, cunning, and the help of a Viking demi-goddess to survive the battle with a malicious witch and an ancient Norse warlock to keep Charleston—and the whole East Coast—from becoming the prey of the Master of the Hunt.

Chaos reigns around the world. Strange creatures, accorded the title "Phantom Ninjas" by the media, are leap...

Seeking Dr. Magic by Scott Spotson Cover

Chaos reigns around the world. Strange creatures, accorded the title "Phantom Ninjas" by the media, are leaping off tall buildings and somersaulting back up without any scratch - and then disappear. There follows more spontaneous acts of magic, confounding the world. Who - or what - is responsible? In the middle of the mystery arrives Detective Hetfield, a private investigator just recently released from the FBI due to an on-the-job injury. Hetfield, accustomed to fame as a star witness in the murder trial of a beloved actress, uses the media to put forward the theory that a person of extraordinary magical powers is behind all the incidents, and labels him Dr. Magic. Hetfield gets much more than what he bargained for when that powerful being does exist - in the form of a young man long disillusioned with his past - and cruelly takes him up on his offer.

For lovers of light-hearted and fun novels involving magic.

Margaret Willow has never met an eleven-year-old as dangerous as Natalie Glasgow. Natalie spends her days comatose, but a...



Margaret Willow has never met an eleven-year-old as dangerous as Natalie Glasgow. Natalie spends her days comatose, but at night she prowls her mother’s home, unnaturally strong and insatiably carnivorous. With doctors baffled, Natalie’s mother reaches out to Margaret, an expert in the supernatural. But even Margaret is mystified and terrified by Natalie’s condition. She’s dying, and before she dies, she might kill someone. Has a demon clawed its way inside an eleven-year-old girl? Or does the source of this nightmare lie with Natalie’s dead father?

A tight, tense novella, THE POSSESSION OF NATALIE GLASGOW twists the exorcism tale at every turn down to its final grave confrontation.






"Whatever set foot out there and made those heavy steps had to be far stronger and heavier than any eleven-year-old girl in the world.


And each step brought it closer."

In this horror novella, Natalie's mother, Heather, having exhausted medical reasoning for her daughter's strange nocturnal behavior and stuporous daylight affection, consults paranormal expert, Margaret. Natalie starts stalking the hallways of her home, a strange nightly occurrence of a child that is comatose during the daylight hours. Her mother, understandably, locks herself in her bedroom each night while Natalie, if it even is Natalie,  roams in search of sustenance: Red meat, the rarer the better. Margaret confronts her during one of these dark nights, trying to determine exactly what is hiding inside Natalie's skin. 


When the blurb describes this as a "tight, tense novella", they aren't kidding. The tension is elevated from the first few pages and it continues throughout. Within five minutes of starting to read, the hackles on the back of my neck stood up. There's real fear experienced in The Possession of Natalie Glasgow and the author commands it to rise off the pages and wrap itself around you, coating you in anxiety and unease. 


It's not often that I'm taken unawares by horror, whether it's a book or a movie. I'm the person that usually spoils it for everyone else by going "Oh, I bet..." (and I'm almost always correct-le sigh). When you love horror like I do, especially paranormal horror, there's not much that you haven't seen done before. This novella managed to surprise me. In hindsight, it should have been obvious. There were signs all over the place pointing in the direction of exactly what is haunting Natalie Glasgow, but I didn't see any of them until it was too late. Not only did I not anticipate the ending, but I was also completely unprepared for the poignancy of it. When I turned the last page, I couldn't vocalize exactly what the reading had impressed upon me, only that it did.


If you are looking for a quick, frightening read that touches on the primal fear within us all, this is your story. The Possession of Natalie Glasgow takes the typical exorcism tale and turns it on its head, with the lesson that sometimes karma comes back to bite you...and those you love.