Monday, December 31, 2018

Mind the Gap (The Hidden Cities book 1) by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon


Mind the Gap
The Hidden Cities Book 1
by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon
Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy Thriller

"The super-fast pacing and creepy touches give this teen adventure plenty of character."—Publishers Weekly


Returning to her home in London, teen Jasmine Towne realizes just how long she’s been training for the moment she would be on her own. Her paranoid mother’s last words, scrawled in her own blood, demand her action: JAZZ HIDE FOREVER. In this moment, the strange men who have always hung around her family’s life—whom her mother called the Uncles—become starkly sinister. And they’re on her trail.

Seeking cover in the Underground, Jazz slips through a mysterious gate, down tunnels, and seemingly through time. Inside an abandoned city of bomb shelters and forgotten Tube stations, she finds temporary refuge with a gang of petty thieves. Flashes of the past, spectral and haunting, share the tunnels…with no regard for the living. For how long can Jazz hide from the terrors of both her worlds?




The Map of Moments
The Hidden Cities Book 2

To what lengths would you go to undo the pain of the past? 


"Golden and Lebbon have far outstripped their past efforts with this wonderfully creepy thriller of a ghost story." —Publishers Weekly starred review

"Golden and Lebbon vividly evoke the rich, enduring character of New Orleans, as well as spinning a compelling fantasy yarn that builds momentum as Max works his way through the city's history." —Booklist

Max Corbett has returned to New Orleans for the funeral of his former girlfriend, Gabrielle Doucette, but between the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of his ruined relationship, the city feels alien.

At Gabrielle's graveside, Max meets Ray. Over a bottle of bourbon in a dive bar, the two discuss Gabrielle's unique connection to the city. Ray suggests that this connection might mean her tragic death is not truly her end. And he happens to know a real magic practitioner—not some Bourbon Street phony—who could open a window to the past and send a warning to Gabrielle. Maybe Max can even deliver the warning in person? Ray offers him a cheap map and says the process is simple. Follow the charted moments to build up a little bit of magical clout and then find the man with the gift. 

Surging with liquid courage, Max takes the ludicrous tourist map and sets off. But it turns out this quest is not so easy. When Max enters the First Moment, he is drawn into the fabric of history to witness dark and violent periods, and with each passing step, a grim conspiracy is revealed. Suddenly in too deep, there is nowhere for Max to go but through. But when you trudge through a swamp, you're going to get muddy.





The Chamber of Ten
The Hidden Cities Book 3


Archaeologist Dr. Geena Hodge is on the precipice of success: her team has found an entrance to an underground chamber while searching for the Petrarch’s lost library. A documentarian is joining her team for the descent into the long-hidden structure and may be the key to extensive funding. Best of all, she is able to share the excitement of this momentous occasion with her assistant-slash-lover, Nico, whose psychic presence resonates in her own mind.


Within a strikingly preserved room—unlike any Venetian excavation—the team finds only one artifact: a small vessel that immediately mesmerizes Nico. While the team investigates a slab of granite inlaid in the floor, Nico becomes transfixed by the object, and before he can be stopped, he has the urn in his hands. Then, it is broken open on the ground. And with that, the impossibly withheld groundwater begins to fill the chamber…

In the clamor to escape the rapidly flooding room and save the found texts, the team is sent in all directions. And Nico’s mind, always attuned to Geena’s, seems to go quiet. His actions in the days after the incident feel unlike him, and his consciousness seems to dissolve beneath the weight of his experience with the artifact. What insidious force was within? And what can satisfy its restless will?





The Shadow Men
The Hidden Cities Book 4

From Beacon Hill to Southie, historic Boston is a town of vibrant neighborhoods knit into a seamless whole. But as Jim Banks and Trix Newcomb learn in a terrifying instant, it is also a city divided—split into three separate versions of itself by a mad magician once tasked with its protection.


Jim is happily married to Jenny, with whom he has a young daughter, Holly. Trix is Jenny’s best friend, practically a member of the family—although she has secretly been in love with Jenny for years. Then Jenny and Holly inexplicably disappear—and leave behind a Boston in which they never existed. Only Jim and Trix remember them. Only Jim and Trix can bring them back.

With the help of Boston’s Oracle, an elderly woman with magical powers, Jim and Trix travel between the fractured cities, for that is where Jenny and Holly have gone. But more is at stake than one family’s happiness. If Jim and Trix should fail, the spell holding the separate Bostons apart will fail too, and the cities will reintegrate in a cataclysmic implosion. Someone, it seems, wants just that. Someone with deadly shadow men at their disposal.






CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Ararat, Snowblind, Tin Men, The Myth Hunters, Wildwood Road, The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, and Of Saints and Shadows. He has also written books for teens and young adults, including Poison Ink, Soulless, and the thriller series Body of Evidence, honored by the New York Public Library and chosen as one of YALSA's Best Books for Young Readers.

Golden co-created (with Mike Mignola) two cult favorite comic book series, Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, The New Dead, and Dark Cities, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, a BBC radio play, the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson), and a network television pilot. A frequent speaker at conferences, schools, and libraries, Golden is also co-host of the podcasts Three Guys with Beards and Defenders Dialogue, and the founder of the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival.
Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world.




TIM LEBBON has been published for over twenty years and have written over forty horror, dark fantasy and tie-in novels, including The Silence, Relics, Coldbrook, The Cabin in the Woods, the Noreela series of fantasy books (Dusk, Dawn, Fallen and The Island), the NY Times Bestselling novelisation of the movie 30 Days of Night, Alien: Out of the Shadows, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi - Into the Void, and several books with Christopher Golden, including Blood of the Four, The Map of Moments and The Secret Journeys of Jack London. He's also written hundreds of novellas and novels and have won several prestigious awards.


The movie of The Silence, starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka, is out summer 2018. Pay the Ghost, starring Nicolas Cage, was released in 2016. More of his work is currently in development for the big screen.




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Sunday, December 30, 2018

Murder, Curlers, and Cream (Murder, Curlers series book 1) by Arlene McFarlane


Murder, Curlers and Cream
Murder, Curlers Series Book 1
by Arlene McFarlane
Genre: Cozy Mystery 

Smart, entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny!”Liliana Hart, New York Times Bestselling Author



Valentine Beaumont is a beautician with a problem. Not only has she got a meddling mother, a wacky staff, and a dying business, but now she’s got a dead client who was strangled while awaiting her facial.

With business the way it is, combing through this mystery may be the only way to save her salon. Until a second murder, an explosion, a kidnapping, death threats, and the hard-nosed Detective Romero complicate things. But Valentine will do anything to untangle the crime. That’s if she can keep her tools of the trade in her bag, keep herself alive, and avoid falling for the tough detective.

In the end, how hard can that be?



**Get it FREE!!**



Murder, Curlers and Canes
Murder, Curlers Series Book 2

Valentine Beaumont is back in her second hair-raising mystery, this time, trying to find out who had it in for an elderly nun. Only trouble is there are others standing in her way: hot but tough Detective Romero, sexy new stylist Jock de Marco, and some zany locals who all have a theory on the nun’s death.


Making things worse: the dead nun’s secret that haunts Valentine, another murder, car chases, death threats, mysterious clues, an interfering mother, and a crazy staff.

Between brushing off Jock’s advances and splitting hairs with handsome Detective Romero, Valentine struggles to comb through the crime, utilizing her tools of the trade in some outrageous situations. Question is, will she succeed?





Murder, Curlers and Cruises
Murder, Curlers Series Book 3

Sharp, sexy, and side-splitting. Everything I love in a good mystery!” – Darynda Jones, New York Times/USA Today Bestselling Author of the Charley Davidson Series


A fun-filled ride. A zany cast of characters. And a quest to find a killer. Another great book in a wonderful series!” – Wendy Byrne, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Izzy Lewis Mysteries

In her third fast-paced mystery, beautician Valentine Beaumont and her madcap crew sail the high seas on a Caribbean “Beauty Cruise.” When a bizarre murder takes place onboard, Valentine finds herself swept into the middle of the investigation.

If things aren’t bad enough, her mother is playing matchmaker, a loved one is kidnapped, drug smuggling is afoot, a hair contest proves disastrous, and a strange alliance between tough Detective Romero and sexy stylist Jock de Marco rubs Valentine the wrong way.

Will this impulsive beauty sleuth comb through the catastrophes and untangle the mystery, or will this voyage turn into another fatal Titanic? With Jock and Romero onboard, it’s destined to be a hot cruise!





Arlene McFarlane is the author of the Murder, Curlers series. Previously an aesthetician, hairstylist, and owner of a full-service salon, Arlene now writes full time. When she’s not making up stories, or being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, cat-mom, or makeover artist, you’ll find her making music on the piano.
Arlene is a member of Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Toronto Romance Writers, SOWG, and the Golden Network. She’s won and placed in over 30 contests, including twice in the Golden Heart and twice in the Daphne du Maurier.
Arlene lives with her family in Canada.




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A Mind Reader's Christmas (Eric Beckman Mysteries book 4) by Al Macy


A Mind Reader's Christmas
Eric Beckman Mysteries Book 4
by Al Macy
Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery

Eric Beckman, a mind-reading private investigator, is spending Christmas in snowy Vermont with his wife and daughter. He needs a break from solving cases, but the townspeople convince him to look into the village mystery: Every holiday season, someone switches the baby Jesus with one of the other figures in the town’s nativity scene.


With the help of his ten-year-old daughter, also a mind reader, he soon learns that some of the residents of the small town are not who—or even what—they seem to be. There’s something supernatural going on in Newburn, Vermont.

His investigation causes an escalation of strange happenings, and soon, swapped manger figures are the least of the town’s worries. If Beckman can’t adjust his view of the world—force himself to believe in things he never thought possible—the Christmas vacation could turn out to be his family’s last.

A Mind Reader’s Christmas may be read as a standalone book or as Book Four in the Eric Beckman series.





Democracy's Thief
Eric Beckman Mysteries Book 3

Private Investigator Eric Beckman hates politics. He doesn’t even watch the news—it’s just sensationalized stories crafted to sell commercials. Why should he care?
But that changes when a friend is shot in the head during a politically motivated break-in. Eric starts digging, and using his paranormal mind-reading skills, he soon discovers that Wilson Kingman, the presidential candidate behind the burglary, has some supernatural skills of his own. With one sweep of his mesmerizing gaze, he's able to secure the fanatical devotion of the thousands who attend his rallies--including the very people investigating him.
Worse, Kingman’s true motivations have nothing to do with leading the free world. With the clock ticking down toward election day, Beckman must overcome his aversion to politics and stop the wrong man from being elected. If he fails, millions will die.
Democracy's Thief is a standalone book which may be enjoyed without reading any of the other books in the series.




Sanity's Thief
Eric Beckman Mysteries Book 2

Private detective Eric Beckman can read minds. He's used to weird cases, but this one may be his most difficult yet. A beloved relative has disappeared into a suspicious psychiatric hospital and Eric has no choice but to go in after her.


Getting in is easy—he knows how to fake insanity. Getting out … not so much.

The asylum's director has some personality issues of his own and is doing more than just treating patients. Now that Eric is one of them, his mind may be headed for a fate worse than death.

His only hope for escape is to work together with the other inmates. But collaborating with schizophrenics has its own challenges, even when he knows what they're thinking. Unless he can get word to the outside, the case could cost him his sanity.

Sanity's Thief is a standalone book and may be understood and enjoyed without reading any of the other books in the series.






Yesterday's Thief
Eric Beckman Mysteries Book 1

Private detective Eric Beckman can read minds. 


Although he reads only the conscious thoughts of the people he interviews, it usually gives him enough of an edge to overcome his inexperience as a PI. But mind reading is hell on relationships. Trusting comes hard when you know what people are really thinking.

The case of his life lands in his lap when a beautiful woman materializes during a televised baseball game. She floats in midair, then drops to the ground, comatose. 

Beckman is at her bedside when she wakes up. From the moment she opens her eyes, she has him under her spell. He vows to figure out where—or when—she came from, even if it kills him.

The stakes increase when she disappears without a trace. Worse, she holds the key to a worldwide energy catastrophe. If Beckman can’t find her and unlock her secrets, economies will collapse, and the world will spiral down into chaos.



**FREE!!**


Al Macy writes because he has stories to tell. In school he was the class clown and always the first volunteer for show and tell. His teachers would say “Al has a lot of imagination.” Then they’d roll their eyes.
But he put his storytelling on the back burner until he retired and wrote a blog about his efforts to improve his piano sight-reading. That’s when his love of storytelling burbled up to the surface, along with quirky words like “burble.”
He had even more fun writing his second book, Drive, Ride, Repeat, but was bummed by non-fiction’s need to stick to “the truth” (yucko). From then on it was fiction all the way, with a good dose of his science background burbling to the surface.
Macy’s top priority is compelling storylines with satisfying plot twists, but he never neglects character development. No, wait … his top priority is quirkiness, then compelling storylines, then character development. No, wait …





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Friday, December 28, 2018

Everkin (The Kindred book .5) by Donna Grant


Everkin
The Kindred Book .5
by Donna Grant
Genre: Paranormal Romance

To live in the light, they hunt in the dark…


When natural-born witch Edra is approached by others who share her gifts, she jumps at the chance to join a Coven. Until she discovers that they’re not what they seem. They’re hell-bent on destruction, and in order to save herself and those she loves, Edra must leave her home, and the only man she’s ever loved.

Squire-turned-knight Radnar has never been the same since the love of his life disappeared in the middle of the night seven years ago. Despite his broken heart, he doesn’t give up hope of finding her again. Only when he does, he gets more than he bargained for, and his world is turned upside down. Being brought back together in the midst of magic and danger, Radnar and Edra rekindle their once in a lifetime love and set about making the world a safer place. But can they do it alone, or will it require a much grander plan?


**Only .99 cents!!**




Eversong
The Kindred Book 1

New York Times bestselling author Donna Grant “skillfully melds history and legend” (RT Book Reviews) in a brand new series – The Kindred.


To live in the light, they hunt in the dark…

Unparalleled in beauty and daring, Leoma has been raised with a single-minded focus—to wipe out corrupt witches. But when her new target leads her to a discovery that unveils a graver plan from the Coven, she doesn’t hesitate to follow. Yet, she’s not the only one on the hunt. And the sexy, infuriating man who crosses her path could prove to be a distraction—something she’s never encountered before.

Honor and family mean everything to Braith. When his life is turned upside down by the murder of his ward and heir without cause or reason, he has no choice but to turn to vengeance. Until a stunning, dangerous woman continues to thwart his efforts at every turn. Now, he must battle not only his need for revenge but his desire for the female, as well.






Everwylde
The Kindred Book 2

Re-enter the world of New York Times bestselling author Donna Grant’s spellbinding Kindred series. 


To live in the light, they hunt in the dark…

Strong-willed and cunning, Ravyn was taken in as a child by witch Hunters and raised her to be the best of the best. When she receives word that the witch who murdered her family and ripped apart her world is nearby, Ravyn begins her hunt. In her quest to locate the witch, she finds her pursuit impeded again and again by a gorgeous and powerful man. But she won’t be denied and intends to do whatever is necessary to complete her mission. But the Coven is more dangerous than ever, and Ravyn may not be enough to thwart their latest endeavor.

Carac has spent years building his army and winning wars to become known as one of the greatest knights of his time. But he holds a big secret. Everything he’s worked for comes into question when he's faced with a threat he hadn’t known existed. He suddenly finds his mission changed after he’s approached by the most spirited and beautiful woman he’s ever seen. It’s soon apparent that priceless antiquities are only the beginning of what they’re fighting for—and what they stand to lose.





Everbound
The Kindred Book 3

To live in the light, they hunt in the dark…


The power of Helena’s magic has made her a target for the Coven. She wanted no part in the war of the witches, but it’s out of her hands now. She has to make a stand – and she does that by helping the Hunters and their allies against their common enemy. And now, the witch who ripped Helena’s future apart is coming. Sybbyl’s vengeance is swift and terrible, pitting the two against each other. But Helena doesn’t have to fight the Coven alone. A seductive warlock offers his aid. Helena is hesitant to give her trust to him – because it’s more than her life on the line. It’s her heart as well.

As the most feared and respected warrior of the Varroki, Jarin is used to being on his own. But with the Coven’s quest to locate the bones of the First Witch escalating, he finds it increasingly difficult to retain his solitary existence. When Jarin encounters Helena, he is helpless to resist her. She’s everything he didn’t know he wanted, and with her help, he’s convinced that maybe his people can finally defeat their foe. But there’s so much more at play than they know―ties in blood and sacrifice―and the loss that’s sure to follow may be greater than any of them can bear.





New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Donna Grant has been praised for her "totally addictive" and "unique and sensual" stories. Her latest acclaimed series, Dark Kings, features a thrilling combination of dragons, Fae, and immortal Highlanders who are dark, dangerous, and irresistible. She lives with her two children and an assortment of animals in Texas.




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