Rosie’s Book Review Team (RBRT) – Booklist

Desire & Deceit by Carol J. Hedges (Book #9 of the series)

It is 1868, and the body of a young man has gone missing from the police mortuary at Scotland Yard, an event that has never happened before. Who was the mysterious corpse, and why was he spirited away in the night? These are the questions baffling Detective Inspector Stride and Detective Sergeant Cully as they set out to uncover the truth.

Meanwhile, two greedy, unscrupulous, inheritance-seeking brothers, Arthur and Sherborne Harbinger, descend upon London and their very rich dying aunt, each determined to get whatever they can out of her, and prepared to use whatever methods they can to win her favour. And over in her newly rented rooms in Baker Street, Miss Lucy Landseer, consulting private detective, has been presented with her first ever proper case to investigate ~ and finds it is one that will defy even her imaginative and inventive mind.

Set against the hottest summer on record, Desire & Deceit, the ninth outing for this popular Victorian Detectives series, explores how the love of money really is the root of all evil. One again, Victorian London is brought to life in all its sights, its sounds, its sordid and gas-lit splendour. Another must-read book, teeming with memorable Dickensian-style characters.

Genre: Victorian Mystery

Format: Mobi

The Blitz Bus by Glen Blackwell (218 pages_ Arc now for Spetember publiction.

Emmie let out a huge sob – “It’s not a film set”, she cried. She held onto Jack for a moment, then took a step back, closed her eyes and shouted – “WHERE AM I?”
When Jack and Emmie suddenly find themselves transported back to London in 1940, they find a world both familiar, yet very different. As they dodge falling bombs and over-zealous policemen, they befriend Jan – a lonely Polish refugee. Together, they must work out if the shadowy figure they keep seeing is a spy and unlock the secret of getting home again…

Genre: MG / Children’s story

Format: Mobi

Ravens In The Rain: A Noir Love Story by Christie & Jeff Santo. (Arc now for September publication) 248 pages

Ravens In The Rain centers around Pru and Carney, she’s a woman with a past, and he’s a man with no future. Down on luck and down on love, they meet over a game of chance at an off-strip Vegas casino, and Carney wonders if Pru’s sparkle is what he needs to lift him from his darkness. He doesn’t even mind that she swiped a hundred-dollar bill from an old cowboy. It excites him.

While Pru, disillusioned by her sparkle, is now accustomed to the cynical disposition of vagabond life. She’s not looking for a one-night stand; she’s looking for survival and sizing Carney up as a comfortable solution, for the moment. When she finds out who he really is, she’ll ante up for the game of her life.

This romantic noir is a turbulent flight; like dating in the 21st century, it’s dangerous and daring.

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Format: Mobi / epub

Bloodstone by M.J. Mallon (revised version) 234 pages

Fifteen-year-old Amelina Scott lives in Cambridge with her dysfunctional family, a mysterious black cat, and an unusual girl who is imprisoned within the mirrors located in her house.
When an unexpected message arrives inviting her to visit the Crystal Cottage, she sets off on a forbidden path where she encounters Ryder: a charismatic, perplexing stranger.
With the help of a magical paint set and some crystal wizard stones, can Amelina discover the truth about her family?
A unique, imaginative mystery full of magic-wielding and dark elements, Bloodstone is a riveting adventure for anyone interested in fantasy, mythology or the world of the paranormal.

Genre: Ya fantasy

Format: Mobi / epub 

Dead Letters by Sheila Lowe (Forensic Handwriting Mysteries #8) Arc now for Aug publication

A heart-pounding hunt begins when Claudia Rose’s young niece goes missing with an archaeologist whose shady past spills into the present. The frantic search takes Claudia to Egypt, Gibraltar, and the UK, where her skills as a forensic handwriting expert of international renown are needed to help foil a deadly terrorist plot—if only she can find Monica before she becomes a casualty.

Genre: Cosy mystey

Format: Mobi

 

Asperfell by Jamie Thomas (430 pages) Book 2 in the series is also available for request.

Only the darkest and most dangerous of Mages are sentenced to pass through the gate to Asperfell.
Not one has ever returned.
Never did Briony dream she might set foot in the otherworldly prison of Asperfell. She was, after all, neither Mage nor criminal. She was simply her father’s little whirlwind—fingers smudged with ink, dresses caked with mud—forever lost in a book or the spirit-haunted woods surrounding her family’s country estate.
But Briony always had a knack for showing up where she was least expected.
Only by braving the gate of Asperfell could Briony hope to find the true heir to the throne of Tiralaen and save her kingdom from civil war. And so, she plunges into a world of caged madmen and demented spirits, of dark magic and cryptic whispers… and of a bleak and broken prince with no interest in being rescued.
Hauntingly beautiful and lavishly told, Asperfell is a must-read for fans of Jane Austen who always wished she’d dabbled in blood magic.

Genre: NA Fantasy

Format: Mobi / e-pub

Stephen From the Inside Out by Susie Stead (373 pages)

“Susie, my life has been a complete and total waste of time”.
In 2012 when Stephen said this, he believed it to be true. But was it? And how do we decide?
From the outside, it may have looked like this. Stephen spent 25 years inside British psychiatric wards, was finally diagnosed with autism in his late forties and never felt acceptable in the ‘normal’ world.
From the inside, though, here was a man with powerful convictions, deep longings, wide interests and an incapacity to be anything other than himself, whatever the cost.
This is his story, inside and out; a story of grave injustices, saints and bigots, a faithful dog, a wild woman, a fairy godmother and angels hidden in plain sight.
It is also the story of the author, Susie, who started off by wanting to ‘help’ Stephen ‘get better’, and instead found herself profoundly challenged by a friendship she did not expect.
Idiosyncratic, unorthodox, tragic, yet at times hilarious – this book not only tells a compelling and important story but will be vital reading for anyone who cares about mental health in our contemporary world or who might just be open to a different way of seeing: from the inside out.

Genre: Biography / mental health

Format: Mobi / epub

An Audience for Einstein by Mark Wakely (211 pages)

Professor Percival Marlowe is a brilliant, elderly astrophysicist who’s dying, his greatest achievement still unfinished and now beyond his diminished means.
Doctor Carl Dorning, a neurosurgeon, finally discovers a secret method of transplanting memories from one person to another thanks to Marlowe’s millions.
Miguel Sanchez, a homeless boy, agrees to become the recipient of Marlowe’s knowledge and personality in the unorthodox experiment, enticed by Dorning’s promises of intelligence, wealth and respect but dangerously unaware that his own identity will be lost forever.
What results is a seesaw battle for control of Miguel’s body as Marlowe learns to his dismay what his lifetime of arrogance and conceit has earned him. And when Marlowe stumbles upon the shocking procedure Dorning used in desperation to succeed, the professor does what he must to defeat Dorning and redeem himself at last.

Genre: Ya scifi

Format: Mobi / epub

Cenotaphs by Rich Marcello (148 pages) Arc now for July 26th publication

When Ben Sanna, a contemplative retiree with a penchant for helping people, and Samantha Beckett, a secretive New York City hedge fund manager, meet by chance in a small Vermont town, they enter into a tenuous relationship. Over several weeks, Samantha and Ben open their pasts inch by inch, sift through their futures consciously, and come to terms with the strength and depth of their bond. A meditation on redemption told in alternating chapters of musings and scenes, Cenotaphs is about platonic love; the ways we close ourselves off in reaction to pain and what happens when we open ourselves up again; and the deep, painful legacy of loss.

Genre: Contemporary

Format: Mobi

Departures by E. J. Wenstrom ARC now for August 10th publication

Tonight, seventeen-year-old Evalee is scheduled to die.
She’s planned her celebration for weeks, and other than leaving her sister Gracelyn behind, she’s ready. The Directorate says this is how it should be, and she trusts them, as all its citizens do. So tonight she dresses up, she has a party, and she dances. Then she goes to sleep for the last time … except, the next morning, Evalee wakes up.
Gracelyn is a model Directorate citizen with a prodigious future ahead. If she could only stop thinking about the shuffling from Evalee’s room on her departure morning. Even wondering if something went wrong is treasonous enough to ruin her. If she pulls at the thread, the entire careful life the Directorate set for her could unravel into chaos.
Swept away by rebels, Evalee must navigate a future she didn’t count on in a new, untidy world. As the Directorate’s lies are stripped away, she becomes determined to break Gracelyn free from its grasp—before Gracelyn’s search for the truth proves her to be more unruly than she’s worth to the Directorate.

Genre: YA Dystopia

Format: Mobi / epub

A Year in the Life of Andrea Coe by Lucinda E. Clarke (303 pages)

Andrea was Leah’s best friend. A strange attraction between a wild, confident, fun-loving, widow and a quiet, insecure housewife.
But Leah’s gentle and loving nature hide the depths of an underlying iron-hard mental strength. After surviving her vicious husband’s terrifying games and the mental asylum he committed her to, Leah’s only desire now is for a life of peace with her new partner, and her best friend, Andrea. What could possibly go wrong?
Plenty, as it turns out. With her husband now on the run from a mob hitman, and his family each hiding their own secrets, they are prepared to go to any lengths to finish what they started three years ago. Will they succeed this time?
Leah knew the only person she could rely on was Andrea.
This is book two in the series and answers all the questions raised in Book 1: A Year In The Life of Leah Brand. 

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Format: Mobi / epub

Diaries of the Damned by Ivan Radev 

This anthology is not for the faint of heart and easily disturbed. All eleven narrators suffer from mental affliction, excruciating existential dread, or terminal despair. This book is evil. It is absolutely capable of inducing nightmares and scarring the mind. The characters within are ruthlessly relatable; they are normal people who drew the short straw. They got sick or old or just lost it all.
Beware the Damned! They are trapped inside wailing, waiting for a willing victim, a witness to their tales and tears.

Genre: Horror short stories

Format: Mobi / epub

Dark is the Grave by TG Reid (Arc now for July publication) 208 pages

A dead cop. A damaged detective. A copycat killer on the loose.
When the chief suspect in the notorious Peek-a-boo cop killer case blew himself up, almost taking lead investigator DCI Duncan Bone with him, the psychologically damaged detective thought his days on the force were over. But when another PC is abducted and murdered in the same deranged Peek-a-boo fashion, Bone is persuaded to return to lead the new investigation. But as Bone and his team hunt a copycat killer, and with time running out before yet another cop is slain, Bone’s terrifying past returns to tear open old wounds and push him to very edge of the abyss.
Can DCI Bone end the killing before the killing ends him?
Set among the dramatic hills and glens of Scotland’s Campsie Fells, Dark is the Grave is the first in a series of edge-of-your-seat crime thrillers that will keep you guessing right up to the nail-biting, heart-stopping climax.

Genre: Crime fiction

Format: Mobi or e-pub.

Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford (Arc now for August 31st publication) 222 pages

Is Zenna a muse, a sleep-deprived apparition, or something much more sinister?
Suffering long-term amnesia, artist Jo Mckye is ready to start a fresh, new project after the success of her debut exhibition. But the fictional subject of the collection, Zenna, won’t let go so easily. Infiltrating Jo’s dreams—and increasingly, her waking hours—Zenna is fast becoming a dangerous obsession.
Jo is confident the answers lie at her childhood home, an idyllic Cornish village on the south-east coast; she just doesn’t know why. Only when she walks into the sea and almost drowns does the past start to unravel.
Haunting and melodic.

Genre: Contemporary / Magical realism

Format: Mobi / epub

Remembrance by SJ Moquin (Arc now, publication due July 27th)

Sometimes home is a place you’ve never seen, a place you’ve never been, or even a place you never dreamed existed…
Nothing in Gwelle’s seventeen years aboard the starship Deliverance prepares her for life on the surface of Varax, her new home world. Life is good, but hard. But Earth’s last survivors have lived through hardships before; they will survive this, too.
Or at least that is what Gwelle thinks until accidents begin to plague the settlement. But wild beasts, explosions, and kidnappings do nothing to deter her from living her best life. That is until she uncovers a secret no one is supposed to know.
Together with the help of her friends, and the boy who broke her heart, she will do whatever it takes to protect those she loves. Gwelle has no problem breaking a few rules to get to the root of the tragedy wracking her world.
What she isn’t ready for is embracing her past. But to forget yesterday’s pain, she will do the one thing she does not think she can.
She will remember.

Genre: Ya scifi

Format: Mobi / epub

The Castle by Anne Montomery (Arc now for Sept 13th publication)

The novel tells the story of Maggie, a National Park Ranger, who is back at The Castle—an ancient Native American pueblo carved into a limestone cliff in Arizona’s Verde Valley. Maggie, who suffers from depression, has been through several traumas: the gang rape she suffered while in the Coast Guard, the sudden death of her ten-year-old son, and a suicide attempt. 

One evening, she chases a young Native American boy through the park and gasps as he climbs the face of The Castle cliff and disappears into the pueblo. When searchers find no child, her friends believe she’s suffering from depression-induced hallucinations. 

Maggie has several men in her life. The baker, newcomer Jim Casey, who always greets her with a warm smile and pink boxes filled with sweet delicacies. Brett Collins, a scuba diver who is doing scientific studies in Montezuma Well, a dangerous cylindrical depression that houses strange creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Dave, an amiable waiter with whom she’s had a one-night stand, and her new boss Glen. 

One of these men is a serial rapist and Maggie is his next target. In a thrilling and terrifying denouement, Maggie faces her rapist, discovers she’s not alone, and conquers her worst fears once and for all.

Genre: Contemporary

Format: Mobi

Sunflowers Under Fire by Diana Stevan (325 pages)

In this family saga and Great War story, love and loss are bound together by a country always at war. A heartbreakingly intimate novel about one courageous woman.

In 1915, Lukia Mazurets, a Ukrainian farmwife, delivers her eighth child while her husband is serving in the Tsar’s army. Soon after, she and her children are forced to flee the invading Germans. Over the next fourteen years, Lukia must rely on her wits and faith to survive life in a refugee camp, the ravages of a typhus epidemic, the Bolshevik revolution, unimaginable losses, and one daughter’s forbidden love.

Based on the true stories of her grandmother’s ordeals, author Diana Stevan captures the voices of those who had little say in a country that is still being fought over.

Genre: Histfic

Format: Mobi

Intent to Join: A Neostriker SABRE story by J. D. Nyle (30 Pages)

Entry Point OK!
Sophia wants to join a new government task force to help others. Charlie wants to simply wants to be an artist. Their parents oppose them. Will they be able to convince them to pursue their desired paths? What is Neostriker? What if combat was based off the combatants’ spirits? This is the core of Neostriker.

Genre: Ya fantasy short story (first book in series)

Format: Free download from Amazon (June 12-16th) or Mobi

Elle’s A to Z of Love by Claire Huston (377 pages) Arc now for July 6th publication

Haileybrook, a beautiful village in the peaceful Cotswolds countryside, is most people’s idea of heaven on earth.
Born and raised in this small slice of paradise, Elle Bea can’t wait to leave.
It should be easy, but every time she packs her bags for exotic adventures, old loves and loyalties pull her back.
Will Elle be forced to forget her dreams of far-flung places and epic romance, or can she grab one last chance to have it all?
An uplifting, romantic story about friends, family and the relationships that what makes a place a home.

Genre: Comtemporary romance

Format: Mobi / epub

Banished (Fallen Angels Book 1) by Iris Champion (Due out June 21st)

She’s an angel in training. He’s darkness incarnate. When their heated attraction breaks divine rules, can love rewrite fate?
Britton prays she’ll live up to her destiny. The first human raised by Archangel Michael, she’s desperate to fit in with those born in Heaven. But when she’s humiliated by her angelic peers during battle practice, she flees in shame and falls into the devilish arms of a stranger.
Lucifer has grown weary of banishment. And when he happens upon his archenemy’s beloved protégé, he’s delighted by the unexpected opportunity for vengeance. But he’s confronted by the surprise return of a long-buried yearning when their passion turns hotter than Hell.
After her steamy affair with her Fallen lover is discovered by her cherished father figure, Britton refuses to accept his furious forbiddance of their courtship. And with ancient rivalry drawing Lucifer down a familiar dark path, he’s torn between the hope in his heart… and giving in to his deadly instincts.
Can their sizzling desires pave the way for the Devil’s redemption?

Genre: Paranormal romance

Format: Mobi / epub

Fleuringala by M.K.B. Graham  (368 pages)

From the author of CAIRNAERIE, a new historical novel set in 1939….Abandoned by her no-count mother in a rundown shack on the outskirts of Lauderville, Virginia, seven-year-old Ruby Glory is alone. Her only friend and sole companion is her faithful dog, Arly. Then along comes Tack, the teenage son of Lauderville’s prominent and well-heeled Pittman family. Despite his sincere desire to help Ruby, Tack learns quickly that no good deed goes unpunished. His involvement with the child of a women of ill-repute sends his family and the citizens of Lauderville into a frenzy of rumors and gossip, presenting Tack with a dilemma. Will the uproar spell the end for the mismatched friends——or set in motion opportunities that Tack and Ruby could only imagine?

Genre: Histfic / coming-of-age

Format: Mobi / Epub

The Ascension Machine by Rob Edwards (309 pages)

Welcome to the Justice Academy – the galaxy’s best superhero college! Teen grifter Grey arrives at the school carrying a lie: he isn’t really tech heir Mirabor Gravane. At the first opportunity Grey plans to leave the Academy. That is until he makes the mistake of starting to like his fellow students. The Justice Academy promises to “equip you with the skills to be the hero the galaxy needs” and Grey is beginning to believe the hype. But as he takes more risks to protect his secret, events spiral out of his control. When the real Gravane is kidnapped, Grey and his new friends must come together to mount a rescue and defend a city from an attack by hostile super-powered aliens. If he is to succeed, or even survive, Grey must decide who he is, and does he want to be a superhero?

Genre: Ya scifi

Format: Mobi / epub

Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance by Liz Gauffreau ARC now for September publication

When a loved one dies, the family will often turn to the photograph albums as an act of solace, to keep their loved one with them just a little while longer, Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance arose from that experience. The collection opens with three free verse expressions of raw grief, followed by a series of photographs from the author’s family album, each paired with a poem written in tanka. Taken together, they tell the story of a loving family lost.

Genre: Poetry

Format: Mobi / e-pub

Broken Pieces Of God by David B. Seaburn ARC now for September publication (252 pages)

Crippling unemployment and a life-threatening illness push Eddy and Gayle toward life’s dark edge where they hope a Statue of Jesus, the IRS, some magical thinking, and family ties will save the day. Eddy, a supervisor for a cable company, loses his job. Gayle, a tax accountant, is recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Unemployment, failed chemotherapy, and no insurance bring them to life’s precipice. Desperate, Eddy turns to a statue of Jesus, seeking a miracle, while Gayle dives deeper into a scheme she has been concocting for twenty-five years. The ‘statue’ responds, but in an unexpected and nearly catastrophic way. In the meantime, their adult offspring, Rich and Sandy, grapple with the aftershock of a tragic incident that has shadowed their lives since high school. What will happen when their secret is revealed? At the eleventh hour, Gayle re-enters treatment. Will it be too late? This is a story of resilience in the face of uncertainty, hope in the midst of darkness, and family ties strengthened by life’s vicissitudes.

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Format: Mobi

A Flight in the Heavens (The Theurgy of the Gods, #1) by Gabrielle Gagne-Cyr (ARC) June Publication

The king is dead, long live his murderer.

After fifteen years of passive torment, Farrah and her implacable group of renegades endeavour to alter their fates by attempting to assassinate the man who stole everything from them, Daemon Daromas.
Alas, he who wields the theurgy of the gods has no rivals in the lands of Iscar but those foolish enough to challenge their wrath.

When confronted by this ancient and destructive force, the renegades have no choice but to flee the capital and embark on the airship of Iscar’s most notorious sky corsair Captain Feras Sadahl, daughter of the late pirate sovereign.
Their meeting with the corsair, however, might not have been as welcome as they would have hoped.

As Farrah and her allies set out on a journey to find the means to challenge their oppressor, they soon discover that the price of power is steep and the road to get one’s hands on it, perilous.

*Must be ok with LGBTQ romance 

Genre: Fantasy

Format: Mobi / epub

The Unknown Man by Natalie Hanson (Arc now for October publication)

Created in chaos; it took just a tiny bit more matter than antimatter for the big bang to produce the entire universe. Born with a rare abnormality that manifests through her body and mind, imbalance is something Zalla Bennbett understands. Her ability to sense out lies gives her an advantage on FBI investigations, but sixteen years in, both her marriage and career are on the rocks.
Her husband is battling cancer and Zalla is reluctant to leave town when she’s assigned to work the kidnapping of an FBI informant’s daughter. There’s no evidence and the informant isn’t helping. DNA leads to a suspect but a shootout ensues and he is killed.
Zalla deciphers clues that lead her to a sickening realization that’s too little too late. The kidnapper now also holds her dying husband hostage. Will the unforgiving chaos claim the most important thing in Zalla’s world?

Genre: Thriller

Format: Epub

This Is Our Undoing by Lorraine Wilson (273 pages) Arc now for Aug 3rd publication

Could you condemn one child to save another?

In a near-future Europe fracturing under climate change and far-right politics, biologist Lina Stephenson works in the remote Rila Mountains, safely away from London State.

When an old enemy dies, Lina’s dangerous past resurfaces, putting her family’s lives at risk. Trapped with her vulnerable sister alongside the dead man’s family, Lina is facing pressure from all sides: her enemy’s eldest son is determined to destroy her in his search for vengeance, whilst his youngest carries a sinister secret…

…But the forest is hiding its own threats and as a catastrophic storm closes in, Lina realises that to save her family she too must become a monster.

Genre: Speculative fiction

Format: E-pub

Of the Lilin by Paulette Hampton (200 pages) Re-releasing Sept ’21

A teenager dealing with grief and depression slips from reality into a realm of darkness and a demonic bloodline she is unable to escape.

After the loss of her mother, her stepfather’s mental breakdown, and the sudden death of his best friend, teenager Sage Frankle is taken to live with her aunt and cousin at the Englewood Inn in Vermont. While working through her trauma and meeting cryptic guests at her aunt’s inn, Sage finds out more about herself than she bargained for…and she’s terrified.

The Sage Chronicles, Book One – Of the Lilin, is a slow-burning story steeped in demons and archangels, myths and legends, romance, and dark family secrets.

Genre: Ya Paranormal

Format: Mobi

In a Nutshell by Cindy Dorminy (215 pages)

Mitchell Sorrow wallows in a major funk after his decades-long crush leaves town for good. Intent on powering through, he throws himself into his work as an EMT at Smithville Regional Hospital. He’ll steer clear of women, especially those who love their careers more than people.

Jackie Myers, chief development officer at a hospital association, is determined to climb the corporate ladder. The best way to do that is to show upper management she’s capable of making tough decisions, such as closing a fledgling rural hospital. When she’s assigned to visit Smithville under the guise of writing an article about small-town life, she’ll easily assess how dire the hospital situation really is.

After suffering an allergic reaction at the fall festival, Jackie blabs the true reason for her visit. Desperate to save the hospital, Mitch agrees to a deal. In exchange for keeping her secret, he gets one week to convince her the hospital is essential. But the more time they spend together, the more complicated things become. Mitch begins to open his heart, and Jackie’s decision becomes nearly impossible. He may never forgive her, and she’ll lose the only guy who can take her breath away – no Epi pen required.

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format: Mobi / epub

The Thirteen Gates: Apprentice by Elton Gahr (280 pages)

Magic has been banished from our world for five hundred years.

The day that Nate died, everything changed for Quinn. His long-term mentor had helped him through the death of his father, years of being bullied and far more. It also changed for everyone else. Nate was a wizard and five-hundred years ago had closed the thirteen gates cutting the world off from magic. Now with his death those gates have opened and magic has returned to the world.

With corrupt wizards, monsters, fae, jinn, olympian gods and nameless elder abominations returning, the world is entirely unprepared. But unbeknown to him, Nate was preparing Quinn for this day. By convincing him to read books that explored the gods of Olympus, faerie tales, the words of H. P. Lovecraft and many others, he was teaching Quinn to be a wizard.

Now Quinn must prove he isn’t a murderer, learn to control magic left and protect the world from powers it hasn’t faced in five-hundred years, all while avoiding being killed by his best friend’s ex-girlfriend. 

Genre: Ya urban fantasy

Format: Mobi / epub

The Third Thing by Sirkka Smith  (390 pages)

Love. Friendship. Weird Birds.
A socially-awkward artist and a shy photographer shadowed by a mysterious virus must face their fears to find what they need…

Xiomara (Xo for short) relaunches her artistic career with a bang—or rather, a crash—when she moves to the small mountain town of Lingen to paint birds. She’s determined to get her life back on course by pursuing what she loves, and she is sure that can be accomplished with a practical approach. But while Xo readily understands her avian acquaintances, humans have always been a bit of a challenge.

Elliot is an unassuming photographer who is smitten when Xo disrupts his quiet existence. His penchant for attracting disaster has left him scarred by his past and tongue-tied when it comes to revealing his growing feelings for her. Nevertheless, this unlikely hero can’t help trying to protect her from anything that could harm her—including his closest friend, Alec.

The three of them start out searching the slopes of Mount Arin for flammulated grosbeaks and other local rare species. But in spite of the seemingly idyllic setting, there are dangers lurking both within and without.

Can Xo and Elliot find love in spite of themselves? Or will Elliot’s past destroy their chances?

Genre: Contemporary fiction
Format: Mobi / epub

 

Reckless by Carolyn O’Doherty (306 pages) Stand alone /Book #3 of a series

Alex and KJ have rescued their friends from the Center that held them captive all their lives, but they are not yet safe. Discovering a community of free spinners also reveals the full extent of the plots against them, and the true threat is not the Center, nor even the Central Office, but Kronos, a shadowy international organization that has masterminded the spinners’ suppression for centuries.

When their escape from the Center brings Kronos’s attention to the very refuge that is protecting them, Alex is determined to act. Back on the cold streets of Portland, she and KJ find out Kronos’s chilling new plan to eliminate spinners forever.

As the danger mounts, Alex has to decide how far she will go to save her friends. Time is running out and evading the enemy is no longer enough. To win this battle, Alex must face Kronos itself.

Genre: Ya scifi thriller

Format: Mobi /epub

How the Wall Crumbles (The Gray-Haired Knitting Detectives, #6) by D.E. Haggerty (100 pages)

The last place I expect to find myself on Halloween – in a Cinderella costume no less – is the scene of a crime.
A wall at a construction site fell and accidentally killed one of the workers. Naturally, the gray-haired knitters are convinced the wall didn’t fall all on its lonesome. No, they claim, murder is afoot! They’re just looking for an excuse to start another murder investigation.
When the police discover the wall didn’t crumble like a cookie, the knitters are determined to discover who used the wall to cover up a murder. It doesn’t matter that absolutely no one – including the police – has a clue why the victim was murdered.
The gray-haired knitters haven’t failed to solve a mystery yet. And they’re not going to now either.
Can the Gray-Haired Knitting Detectives find the killer when they’re plum out of suspects?

Genre: Cosy mystery novella

Format: Mobi / e-pub

Wolves of Adalore by Morgan Gauthier (383 pages)

Niabi killed for it once and is prepared to kill again.
Crispin wants it and is determined to have his revenge.
Salome wants nothing to do with it, but has to fight for it.
After years of people insisting she must be cursed due to her discolored left eye, Salome starts to believe they might be right. But when Harbona the Seer unexpectedly visits her, he reveals not only has the Year of the Hunter begun, but Salome’s distorted eye is in actuality the Mark of the Hunter, and she is charged to avenge the blood of the innocent.
With the Immortal Seer, their axe-wielding guardian, and a dangerous bounty hunter known as the Wanderer in their company, Salome and her brother, Crispin, embark on a journey to defeat their sister and reclaim the White Throne.

Genre: Na/ ya fantasy

Format: Mobi

Everlong by Raeta (236 pages)

Lily doesn’t remember her death, or even her reawakening, but she knows this: the sun is to be feared, words are her salvation, and—above all—the bench facing the playground is hers. She is the pin holding the hands of the clock, watching the world move and change around her while she remains fixed, lonely and unchanged… until a boy takes a seat beside her. A slow burn, friends to lovers, contemporary paranormal romance.

Genre: Ya paranormal romance

Format: Mobi / epub

Miss Wetherham’s Wedding by Linore Rose Burkard (196 pages)

Every step she takes to ensure his happiness is a nail in the coffin of her own.
Miss Wetherham, a matchmaker, must agree to the devious plan of a society rogue before she finds herself destitute. Helping him gain back his lost love will protect her independence and survival. But can any amount of money protect her guileless heart from falling for his charms?
Nick Dellacort is determined to restore his pride and gain back the bride he lost. Miss Wetherham is the woman to help him do it and he’ll make it worth her while. But once he sets the devilish wheels in motion, can he persuade her to abandon the scheme and choose instead a scoundrel like him for a wedding of her own?

Genre: regency Romance

Format: Mobi / epub

Kill List by Vicki Fitzgerald (360 pages)

Emilia has a secret hobby; killing.She’s hunting the Dark Web gamers who stole her life. The players underestimated Emilia’s will to survive and her thirst for vengeance. It’s her game now. Her rules, her kill list, and she has an unlikely accomplice teaching her how to get away with murder. But revenge has a price that’s both breathtaking and disturbing. Will Emilia overcome betrayal and tragedy to settle the score and end the game?

Genre: thriller

Format: Mobi / epub