Rosie’s Book Review Team (RBRT) – Booklist

What authors are saying about Rosie Amber’s Review Team:

‘I rely on Rosie’s review team for honest and thoughtful reviews. I know they love reading and the reviews they post express both that love and their opinions of my (and other writers’) novels. Long may they continue. Their support has been invaluable.’  Carol Hedges, author of Victorian murder mysteries and YA

‘As well as introducing me to talented authors in other genres, I’m grateful to Rosie’s review team for helping raise awareness of my books to new readers.’  Tony Riches, Amazon best-selling historical fiction author.

‘Without doubt the best book review service I’ve used. Always a quick turnaround, always honest reviews, and as an author you can’t ask for more than that.’  Dylan J. Morgan, author of horror, Sci-Fi, dystopian and post apocalyptic fiction.

‘Rosie Amber and her team of reviewers/bloggers are professional, dedicated and fair minded. As an author, I know that I will receive a fair critique of my novels from them. I am happy to use them as go-to reviewers for any new novel I publish. I am also happy to recommend them to other authors.’  Lizzie Lamb, author of romantic comedies

‘Rosie’s team bring authors and readers together in the nicest possible way.  Reviewers who care about books – what more can an author ask for?  David Ahern, mystery author

“Smaller authors don’t have the same publicity budget as the big publishers and it is a struggle to reach potential readers. Rosie and her team provide an invaluable service not only with providing good quality reviews but also with sharing those reviews on social media to reach a larger audience.” Diane Febry thriller author

 

 

Book Review Team Booklist

Below will be a list of books team members can request for review. Please read and write a review for any chosen book within a month of receipt. Reviews should be posted on at least 2 sites, these can be your own blogs, Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords etc.  Plus a copy of the review should be e-mailed to me and I will post it here on my blog with full recognition going to the reviewer.  I shall endeavour to keep this page as up to date as possible and match book requests to reviewers on a first come first served basis.

Members of the book review team and authors are spread across the world and it’s time zones so a little patience may be required at times.

All books will be in e-formats.

Team members should contact me via my e-mail to request their choice of book/ books and FORMAT. I will pass on their request to the author. Do check spam and contact me if you think you haven’t received your book after a reasonable 48 hour wait.

Once you’ve written your book review please send a copy to me via e-mail and also tell me where you will be posting the review. I will post the review on my blog as soon as is reasonably possible with full credit to the reviewer. Please provide a link to your blog if you intend posting the review there as I will pass this on to the authors.

New Book review Team members are always welcome, please make initial contact via the Book Review Team Tab at the top of the blog.

Twitter Hashtag #RBRT

The Book List

 

Waltz of the Crows by L. G. Rollins (ARC now for June 4th publication)

Waltz of the Crows is a Victorian Era steampunk bundled up with a cozy mystery and a sweet romance. Though it is Book 3 in the Steam and Shadow Series, all books in this series are stand-alone and can be read in any order.

In Waltz of the Crows, Leila Hale orders are clear: impersonate being a nurse, make contact with her fellow spy, and get London the information it needs without being caught or killed; or worse, tripping up so horribly her superiors deem her incompetent.

Samuel Rowley has returned to find his hometown disease ridden and many people falling mad. Not a man to sit back and merely hope for the best, he determines to explore every resource available until he finds a solution.

Together, Leila and Samuel sort out the relevant from distraction and tease truth from lies. But as they uncover various secrets, it becomes evident that this insanity isn’t a disease at all, but a meticulously infiltrated poisoning; and the perpetrator has them in their sights.

When all is made known, will Leila and Samuel have enough whit and strength to save themselves, their future, and a town full of innocent victims?

Genre: Steampunk

Format: Mobi / epub

Secret Kill by Robin Storey (125 pages)

Businessman Jackson Forbes is at the pinnacle of his career, after leaving a life of crime well and truly behind.
But when a young girl turns up in his office, claiming to be his daughter and threatening him with a gun, his life is suddenly not so rosy.
Frida is on the run and needs his help. But saving her life will mean not only returning to the criminal underworld, but also risking his reputation – and his life.
Not to mention the crime for which he was never caught…
Secret Kill is Book 2 in Noir Nights, a series of stand-alone short novels.

Genre: Crime Fiction

Format: Mobi or e-pub

Undoers One by D.P Davies (191 pages)

“I can’t do magic,” said the boy. “That’s impossible.” He paused. “But I can undo it.”

Sam is a nine-year-old boy who can solve anyone’s spooky problems. He knows there are no such things as ghosts, vampires or aliens, only a mysterious energy that gets attached to stuff. People give Sam their “cursed” things, he applies some school science, and their terrors disappear, all without ever having to leave his bedroom (which is the way he likes it).

But then Lily, a girl in the grade above him, arrives outside his house one night surrounded by this strange energy, and it keeps coming back whatever Sam tries to do to help. Can they work together to find out why? And where in the maze of DC’s streets and monuments will it lead them? Together with a best friend who thinks he’s a Russian hacker and a brother who believes he’s the next baseball All-Star, Sam and Lily can’t give up until they figure it out.

If you can prove that monsters don’t exist, what is there to be scared of?

Genre: Middlegrade

Format: Mobi

The Bledbrooke Works: A Cosmic Horror Story by John F. Leonard (68 pages)

Ever notice how some places don’t feel right? No rhyme or reason, they’re just unsettling, without you being able to pinpoint the cause.
The vaguely suspicious demeanour of the locals. The pewtered quality of light. The old and indefinably alien smell that blows on the breeze …difficult to say for sure, but there’s definitely something.
Bledbrooke is one of those places. It’s always been different to other towns.

Quaint and quiet, a little backwater with a somehow dark charm all of its own. Once you get used to it, you wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
It’s not all sweetness and light though. There are problems.
A new one has just appeared. The drains on Cinderlake Drive are bubbling unsavoury water onto the street. Even worse, the toilets are blocked and spitting nastiness at some affluent backsides.
The town council reckon it’s a fatberg – one of those awful accumulations of wet wipes, grease and other unmentionables.
There’s only one man to call…

Donald Hobdike, world-weary and well past his prime, this sort of issue inevitably ends up on his chipped desk. When it comes to the sewers in Bledbrooke, he’s seen it all and more besides. Knows them better than he knows the back of his wrinkled hand.
Or so he thinks.
Maybe the labyrinthine warren beneath Bledbrooke still has some surprises in store for him…

Genre: Horror

Format: Mobi

Go Down the Mountain by Meredith Battle (224 pages)

Bee Livingston is a nervy, teenage beauty whose beloved father’s sudden death in a snake charming accident has left her alone with her abusive mother. Her one salvation is Miles, the big-city photographer who promises escape and a life full of the adventure she craves. But when Bee is caught in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with a government man who takes her family’s land and won’t stop until he claims her too, it may be Torch, the boy she grew up with on the mountain, who becomes the man she needs.

Based on the true story of the hundreds of families who were forced from their Blue Ridge Mountain homes to make way for Shenandoah National Park in the 1930s, Go Down the Mountain is a tale of dispossession, coming of age, and love.

Genre: Cultural Fiction

Format: Mobi

Passionate Travellers: Around the World on 21 Incredible Journeys in History by Trish Nicholson (356 pages)

Accompanying these 21 passionate travellers on their personal quests, we discover what drove them, and share their incredible journeys through deserts, mountains, jungles and seas to every continent, spanning 2,000 years of history from 480 BCE to the 1930s. These are true stories of daring adventure, courage, cunning, even murder and, above everything, sheer determination against all odds.

Genre: Non-Fiction

Format: Gifted e-book from AmazonUS or Paperback from AmazonUK

Agent 603: The Teddy Files by Tabitha Bell (136 pages)

Agent 603 embarks on his first adventure as a Teddy Seal secret agent. His mission is to locate the whereabouts of his assigned human’s (Amy’s) leopard. Is her closet that messy? Or is something more sinister lurking in the dark? Pirates, donuts, and an insatiable imagination collide in this epic adventure.

Genre: Middlegrade adventure

Format: Mobi

Disorder by Johan Fundin (439 pages)

Cat is a hot multimillionaire supermodel but her life is far from perfect. She suffers from a chronic brain disorder and she is being stalked by a figure in a raincoat. Who is he … or it? In connection with the bizarre death of the founder of a groundbreaking biotechnology institute, Cat is pulled into a sinister corporate plot with a global backwash.

Genre: Thriller

Format: Mobi

Monkey Temple by Peter Gelfan (435 pages)

“Jules—former beatnik, experimental therapist, and now editor—is having one hell of a year. First, an old friend dies. Then his wife announces her retirement (and without her income, they’ll have to leave New York). Finally, Ralston—lifelong friend and devil’s advocate—shows up at their door in the midst of his own existential crisis…and apparently considering suicide.

“Jules has no idea how to deal, so the two men set off on a road trip to find a new home for Jules, Ritz, and perhaps Rals. Their search leads them to the North Carolina swamps—the perfect spot, Ralston decides, to establish Monkey Temple, the commune he could never hold together in his younger days.

“Monkey Temple is a coming-of-old-age adventure about two best friends and rivals making one last attempt to rectify their failures and give meaning to their futures before it’s too late.”

Genre: Fiction

Format: mobi

The Strap by William Blackwell (289 pages)

When Gray Eagleson remembers the strap, it brings back horrific images of pain, suffering and humiliation in the public school system. Financially strapped and broken-hearted, he decides a trip to Ecuador, the most bio-diverse country on the planet, is exactly what he needs to take his mind off his problems. Before departing, he connects with Adriana Enrique on an internet dating site, promising to meet her on his arrival. He also helps his best friend Derrick Richmond evict some biker tenants involved in a marijuana grow-operation in one of Derrick’s rental properties. One of the bikers, Stuart Treblecoch, aka The Strap, threatens to kill Gray for tossing biker belongings into a blazing backyard inferno.

Arriving in Ecuador, he soon discovers the idyllic vacation has turned into a life-and-death struggle. The Strap is hunting him down, Adriana’s behavior casts a black shadow of doubt over his optimistic expectations, and he meets a Canadian woman, Abby Taylor, who wants his help evicting violent squatters who have overrun a hotel she purchased in the beach town of Atacames.

As the nail-biting tension and violence ratchet up, Gray believes a visit with a shaman and an experience with the mind-altering and spiritually enlightening drug ayuahuasca is his only hope for salvation.

The Strap ushers you full-throttle deep inside the exotic sights and sounds of Ecuador while also exposing the very real dangers that exist. Through Gray’s harrowing journey for personal redemption, survival and sanity, we discover the frailties and insecurities of the human condition and the ever-present need for companionship at the root of human nature.

Genre: Horror/ thriller

Format: Mobi

New York 1609: Onmibus Edition by Harald Johnson (579 pages)

Welcome to New York City, 1609.
When a Native American (Lenape) boy joins Henry Hudson’s expedition up the river that now bears his name, the fearless and visionary–and misunderstood–Dancing Fish doesn’t realize his entire world and way of life are in peril. Enthralled at first by these strangers, he begins to discover their dark and dangerous side, touching off a decades-long struggle against determined explorers, aggressive traders, land-hungry settlers, and ruthless officials. If his own people are to survive, the boy-turned-man must use his wits, build alliances, and draw on unique skills to block the rising tide of the white “salt people.”

Ambition and fear, love and loathing, mutual respect and open contempt bring Europeans and “savages” together in the untold story of the founding of New York City and the fabled island at its heart: Manhattan.

Genre: Histfic

Format: mobi

The Amulet by Effrosyni Moschoudi (239 pages)

Katie has a guardian angel . . . she just doesn’t know it
When Katie loses her office job, a gypsy woman hands her an amulet for good luck. Next, she gets hired as hotel receptionist on the Greek island of Sifnos.
One of the guests, heart-stoppingly handsome Aggelos, saves the day whenever she needs help. Katie is intrigued by him and his quirky friends, unaware that he is a guardian angel that came with the amulet.
As she falls in love, the mysteries continue, driving her crazy. Will Katie get her happily-ever-after? It may take a miracle; but on an island as magical as Sifnos, anything is possible!

Genre: Paranormal romance

Format: Mobi

The Silent Beauty by D.G. Driver (80 pages)

Colleeda is a beautiful but wickedly vain young woman. Of all her assets, the one she prizes most is the sound of her voice. Her favorite game is to attract young men and then leave them heartbroken. It’s all fun until she chooses to lure one man away from his fiancée—and that woman is rumored to be a witch bent on revenge. Colleeda is cursed to never speak or sing again, except for a couple minutes in the wee hours of the morning when no one can possibly hear her.

For years, Colleeda mourns the loss of her voice, believing she is no longer beautiful or desirable. She lives in solitude as her house falls into disrepair around her.

Is there any way to break the curse? Does she deserve to have it broken?

Genre: Fairytale

Format: mobi

The Lost Sentinel by Suzanne Rogerson (363 pages)

The magical island of Kalaya is dying, along with its Sentinel.

The Assembly controls Kalaya. Originally set up to govern, they now persecute those with magic and exile them to the Turrak Mountains.

Tei, a tailor’s daughter, has always hidden her magic but when her father’s old friend visits and warns them to flee to the mountains she must leave her old life behind.
On the journey, an attack leaves her father mortally wounded. He entrusts her into the care of the exiles and on his deathbed makes a shocking confession.
Struggling with self doubt, Tei joins the exiles search for the new Sentinel who is the only person capable of restoring the fading magic. But mysterious Masked Riders are hunting the Sentinel too, and time, as well as hope, is running out.

Against mounting odds it will take friendship, heartache and sacrifice for the exiles to succeed in their quest, but is Tei willing to risk everything to save the island magic?

Follow Tei’s journey through the magical land of Kalaya and the Astral Plane in The Lost Sentinel – Book 1 in the Silent Sea Chronicles.

Genre: Fantasy

Format: Mobi

Hide Not Seek by D.E. Haggerty (183 pages)

I know who you really are.
Pru has a secret, which she has no plans to reveal – ever. But after a woman is murdered and all clues point to her, she has no choice but to disclose her true identity. When her revelations thwart the killer’s plan to frame Pru for murder, the killer begins stalking her. With each note he sends, he gets closer. The police are stumped. Pru wants to run away. She really, really wants to run, but Ajax has found the woman of his dreams and he’s not letting her go anywhere. He can be patient. In the meantime, he’ll protect her with his life. Pru isn’t feeling very patient, and her friends, Mel and Terri, are definitely not willing to wait until the police discover who the stalker is. The three friends take matters into their own hands and jump headfirst into the investigation.
Will Pru and her friends uncover her stalker before he turns his violence on Pru?

Genre: Cosy mystery

Format: Mobi / epub

Silent Mayhem by Sue Coletta (228 pages) Book #3 of a series, first two books can also be requested if needed.

Some things in life defy comprehension, but that doesn’t make them any less real. Or deadly.

When a familiar crow drops a cryptic scroll at Shawnee Daniels’ feet, she’s compelled to open it, even though everything in her power warns her not to. Mr. Mayhem—the most prolific serial killer the North Shore has ever known—claims her life is in danger. He “claims” he wants to help her, but just last year he threatened to murder everyone she loves.

While Mayhem taunts her with oddly-placed feathers, like The Creator left at his crime scenes, an interstate killing spree rocks Massachusetts and New Hampshire. A madman is decapitating men and women, dumping their headless corpses on two area beaches. But what Shawnee soon uncovers shatters all she’s ever known, her memories shredded, the whispers of the past in shambles on the ground.

Can she find the strength to move forward, or will the truth destroy her?

Thanks, and have an awesome day!

Genre: Thriller

Format: Mobi

Seagulls Over Westminster by Richard Wade (415 pages)

A political thriller for our time, but with a strand of gentle humour woven through it, making this intriguing story into an entertaining page turner.

Its 2024. Popular TV chat show host, and former MP, Bradley Deakin is the man wanted by the Opposition Party of the day to lead them back to power, breaking the chain of endless hung parliaments and uninspiring political leaders. They just need to get him elected first.

Meanwhile, in Brighton, retired bank manager Harvey Britten is enjoying life with the three things he loves most – his family, the city of his birth and his beloved football team, Brighton and Hove Albion, (known locally as The Seagulls). His support for the team has led to a regular spot on the local radio breakfast show, which has turned him into something of a minor celebrity.

It proves very difficult to find Bradley a suitable by-election until one unexpectedly occurs in Brighton. But Harvey strongly objects to a big shot candidate like Deakin being parachuted into his city and is reluctantly persuaded by his family and radio listeners to stand against him as a protest candidate. But only in the knowledge that he won’t actually win!

Genre: Political thriller

Format: mobi

The Wind Reader by Dorothy Winsor (203 pages)

Stuck in a city far from home, street kid Doniver fakes telling fortunes so he can earn a few coins to feed himself and his friends. Then the divine Powers smile on him when he accidentally delivers a true prediction for the prince.

Concerned about rumors of treason, the prince demands that Doniver use his “magic” to prevent harm from coming to the king, and so Doniver is taken–dragged?–into the castle to be the royal fortune teller.

Now Doniver must decide where the boundaries of honor lie, as he struggles to work convincing magic, fend off whoever is trying to shut him up, and stop an assassin, assuming he can even figure out who the would-be assassin is. All he wants is to survive long enough to go home to the Uplands, but it’s starting to look as if that might be too much to ask.

Genre: Ya fantasy

Format: mobi or epub

Passage From Nuala by Harriet Steel (188 pages)

Inspector de Silva and Jane embark on a cruise to Egypt to visit the pyramids, excited at the prospect of two weeks of sun, sea and relaxation. With Nuala, and de Silva’s duties as a police officer, far behind them, what can possibly spoil their plans? Then a writer is found dead in his cabin, suffocated by newspaper thrust down his throat. Once again, de Silva must swing into action.
The Inspector de Silva Mysteries is a colourful and absorbing series, spiced with humour. Set in Ceylon in the 1930s, it will appeal to fans of traditional and cozy mysteries.

Genre: Cosy mystery

Format: Mobi

The Head In The Ice by Richard James (ARC now, due out June 4th)

Just released from a Lunatic Asylum, Inspector George Bowman is in no shape to lead an investigation, but the discovery of a severed head in the frozen waters of the River Thames sees him back in service at Scotland Yard. As he delves into the dark heart of the city in search of answers, the memory of his wife’s death threatens to derail his investigation and place his very sanity in peril.

Bowman must confront his demons and the part he played in her demise before he can solve the case; a case that leads him across Victorian London in pursuit of a killer.

Genre: Victorian mystery

Format: downlaod code for bookfunnel

The Haunting of Alice May by Tony Moral (226 pages)

Alice Parker moves with her Dad and younger sister to the sleepy town of Pacific Grove, to a start a new life after her Mom dies. Little does Alice know the strange and terrifying events to come. When she falls into the bay during a kayaking trip, she is rescued from drowning by the mysterious Henry Raphael. Handsome, old fashioned and cordial, he is unlike any other guy she has known before. Intelligent and romantic, he sees straight into her soul. Soon Alice and Henry are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance until she finds out that Henry drowned in the bay 100 years ago.

Genre: Mystery

Format: Mobi

Jane The Quene by Janet Wertman (283 pages)

England. 1535. Jane Seymour is 27 years old and increasingly desperate for the marriage that will provide her a real place in the world. She gets the perfect opportunity to shine when the court visits Wolf Hall, the Seymour ancestral manor. With new poise born from this event, it seems certain that her efficiency and diligence will shine through and finally attract a suitor.

Meanwhile, King Henry VIII is 45 and increasingly desperate for a son to secure his legacy. He left his first wife, a princess of Spain, changing his country’s religion in the process, to marry Anne Boleyn — but she too has failed to deliver the promised heir. As Henry begins to fear he is cursed, Jane Seymour’s honesty and innocence conjure redemption. Thomas Cromwell, an ambitious clerk who has built a career on strategically satisfying the King’s desires, sees in Jane the perfect vehicle to calm the political unrest that threatens the country: he engineers the plot that ends with Jane becoming the King’s third wife.

Jane believes herself virtuous and her actions justified, but early miscarriages shake her confidence and hopes. How can a woman who has done nothing wrong herself deal with the guilt of how she unseated her predecessor?

Genre: Tudor histfic

Format: Mobi

An Empty Vessel by J.J. Marsh (ARC now for March 16th publication – novella)

Today’s the day Nancy Maidstone is going to hang.
In her time, she’s been a wartime evacuee, land-girl, slaughterhouse worker, supermarket assistant, Master Butcher and defendant accused of first degree murder. Now she’s a prisoner condemned to death. A first time for everything.
The case has made all the front pages. Speculation dominates every conversation from bar to barbershop to bakery. Why did she do it? How did she do it? Did she actually do it at all? Her physical appearance and demeanour in court has sparked the British public’s imagination, so everyone has an opinion on Nancy Maidstone.
The story of a life and a death, of a post-war world which never had it so good, of a society intent on a bright, shiny future, and of a woman with blood on her hands.

Genre: Fiction

Format: Mobi or epub

Let’s Be Legends by Sean Fesko (54 pages)

Kara Olecki didn’t mean to kill her boyfriend Matt. But she did—and she’s paying the price. As she waits for the jury’s decision, she has nothing but time to recap all the important moments, both good and bad, that led up to her sentencing. Told in dual timelines, experience Kara’s thoughts in the courtroom and musings from the previous two years: From the first time she laid eyes on Matt and their ski trip to Colorado, to their squabbles and individual tribulations. It was the kind of first relationship that Kara had imagined. Right up until the end.

Genre: Ya short story

Format: Mobi

Broken Humanity by Karine Vivier (104 pages)

What do a young girl, an ex-convict and a mother have in common? “Broken Humanity” tells the story of three characters who, somewhere along the way, have lost touch with humanity in the eyes of society. Three characters, three parallel stories, a common thread. A debut thriller.
Short extract: The first time was on another beach that looked just like this one. She’d lured another little girl away, younger than her, to have a snack in the van parked near the jetty. The man in the vehicle smiled when the two girls reached him. ‘Oh, what am I thinking?’ he mused, getting out of the van. ‘I left the biscuits in the boot. You get in the front,’ he added harshly.
He opened the boot and pushed the other girl inside. She started screaming at the top of her lungs as the lid slammed shut. Then the van sped away and they drove at breakneck speed for hours. Worn out, the girl finally dropped off, her face pressed up against the window. What had happened next was all a bit of a blur.

Genre: Thriller

Format: Mobi / e-pub

Immortal by Nick Lloyd (324 pages – Arc now, due to be published Feb 28th)

“We’re coming to help.”

That’s the message humanity receives from the depths of space.
The senders, calling themselves the Ankor, claim a colossal gamma ray burst from a supernova will engulf the Earth in less than a year, sterilising all life.

But they provide no proof … only demands that all countries must prepare to build an enormous shield in orbit around the Earth.

Francis MacDonald, industrialist and private owner of the UK’s only satellite launch facility, says there’s no alternative but to mobilise immediately. Tim Boston disagrees – there are always alternatives – but as a senior data analyst in one of MacDonald’s bioengineering start-ups with a desperate need for money, he won’t risk biting the hand that feeds him.

Samantha Turner will. Since smashing her spine in a car crash five years previously, she’s happy to bite anyone and she’s had a close eye on MacDonald’s shady practices for a while.

Genre: Scifi thriller

Format: Mobi

Molly Hacker Is Too Picky by Lisette Brodey (303 pages)

At thirty-two, newspaper reporter Molly Hacker vows to never attend another wedding until she has had her own. And that’s a problem because Molly’s younger sister, Hannah, is going to be married in one year. Armed with snark, wit, and fabulous good looks, “Picky Molly” embarks on a quest to find Mr. Right in her hometown, Swansea, an elegant bedroom community of NYC.

Things get complicated fast. In no time at all, Molly has four “men of interest” and the memories of a lost love to send her overanalytic, befuddled mind into serious overdrive. Determined not to let her “helpful” girlfriends help her right out of another relationship, Molly tries to keep mum on the state of her love life. Her BFF male coworker, Randy, becomes her closest confidant as he stumbles over romantic issues with his new Mr. Right, Kyle.

Meanwhile, Molly’s BFF gal pals aren’t too happy about being left out of the loop. Tweaking Molly’s last nerve is the town’s most visible socialite, Naomi Hall-Benchley. For self-serving reasons, Naomi is hell-bent on setting up “Picky Molly Hacker” and she doesn’t care who she has to manipulate or hurt to do it. Just how far will she go? Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! takes the reader on a yearlong romp through Molly’s mind and a joyride through her life. Her dating life, town secrets, a group of quirky, crazy characters, and Naomi’s machinations collide head-on at a holiday gala that will change the social landscape of Swansea forever.

As the New Year rolls in, Molly gets earth-shattering news. Can she go on? Will life ever return to abnormal again?

Genre: Romcom

Format: Mobi

Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen ARC now for March 28th publication

“There is a story you might enjoy. It’s a good one…I think.”
“Do people die in it?”
“Yes, they do.”
“Fire? Women? Drinking? Fights?”
“Plenty of everything.”

In March 1920 Icelandic days are short and cold, but the nights are long. For most, on those nights, funny, sad, and dramatic stories are told around the fire. But there is nothing dramatic about Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith who barely manages to make ends meet. He knows nobody will remember his existence – they already don’t. All he wants is peace, the company of his animals, and a steady supply of his medication. Sometimes he wonders what it would feel like to have a story of his own. He’s about to find out.

Sigurd – a man with a plan, a broken ankle, and shocking amounts of money – won’t talk about himself, but is happy to tell a story that just might get Gunnar killed. The blacksmith’s other “friends” are just as eager to write him into stories of their own – from Brynhildur who wants to fix Gunnar, then marry him, his doctor who is on the precipice of calling for an intervention, The Conservative Women of Iceland who want to rehabilitate Gunnar’s “heathen ways” – even the goddamn elf has plans for the blacksmith.

As his defenses begin to crumble, Gunnar decides that perhaps his life is due for a change – on his own terms. But can he avoid the endings others have in mind for him, and forge his own?

The author is an ex-blacksmith, lover of all things Icelandic, physically located in Amsterdam, mentally living in a log cabin near Akureyri. He has published stories and essays in Polish and American magazines, both online and in print. This is his first novel.

Genre: Histfic fantasy humour

Format: Mobi / e-pub

The Unfolding by Jeehan Quijano (216 pages)

Set in San Jacinto, a rural town in the Philippines, the story traces the return from Los Angeles of Benjamin, the son of an indigent farm worker, who realized his dream of gaining an education and escaping the poverty of his hometown. He is drawn back to his roots by the sudden death of his brother, Omar, and the unanswered questions that emerge from that tragedy. Over one week, the story focuses on the revelations that follow one after the other about how his future was actually secured and the deal his father made with the seemingly benevolent figure of Don Rafael. Overtaken by feelings of guilt and questioning all that his education had helped him achieve, Benjamin finds himself led down a deadly path in search of redemption.

Genre: Contemporary

Format: paperback only

The Shadowverse by John-Clement Gallo (346 pages)

Johnny Sparks longs for a greater purpose. After an encounter with a mysterious stranger, he and his friends are imbued with incredible powers—at last giving his life meaning.
But this dream soon disintegrates once one of the friends is taken by an alien warlord named Titan. In a rescue effort, the remaining group is sent across the galaxy in search of the only possible aid—an ancient, immortal warrior missing for centuries.
To succeed, the team must join forces to reclaim their friend and stop a sinister scheme devised against humanity by Titan and his empire. The conflict for the soul of the universe is set in motion, but even if the group prevails, they risk losing what it means to be human.

Genre: Ya scifi

Format: Mobi / epub

Lingering by Melissa Simonson (ARC now, due for publication March 31st)

Death doesn’t have to be the end.

With Lingering, your departed loved ones are only ever a phone call or text message away.*
Say all those things you should have said. Get their advice, hear their comforting words. Let them celebrate your achievements and soothe your fears like they used to.
Everyone is welcome, and consultations are always free.

*Some conditions may apply. Please call our office for details.

Genre: Scifi

Format: Mobi

A Bittersweet Garden by Caren J Werlinger (Arc now due for publication March 1st) 310 pages.

Nora McNeill has always dreamed of exploring her Irish roots. When she finally gets the opportunity to spend a summer in the village where her grandparents grew up, the experience promises to live up to her very high expectations. Except for the ghost that is haunting her rented cottage and is soon invading her dreams.

Genre: Contemporary

Format: Mobi or e-pub