For Your Reading Pleasure
And to be a little different this week, listening, too!
These are some books I have enjoyed, or that people I really like wrote, or just because I thought my readers would enjoy. It's the day after Christmas, it's a weekend, what better to do than put your feet up, sip cocoa, and read your cares away? (disclosure: buying a book here not only supports an author, but this blog through a small affiliate kickback that costs you nothing)
We'll start off with a free book, but the whole four-book series can be had for inexpensive as book 2 is also on sale, and they are fun.
by BE Sanderson (no relation by blood, connected by mutual compulsion to write!)
‘Be careful what you wish for.’
In hindsight, Jo Mayweather should’ve taken those words seriously back in 1926. Of course, spoiled brat, flapper-girl that she was, Jo probably would’ve made the not-so-clever wish that turned her into a genie anyway.
Being endowed with phenomenal power may have its perks but, for the most part, life’s been a pain in her tiny hiney. After running into a ‘slash first, ask questions never’ genie, her problems only worsen. Some demented thing is making wishes that can’t be granted and djinn are dying. Now, instead of freeing her brethren from their bonds, Jo has a killer to neutralize.
by Francis Porretto
Gregor of Serebal, a journeyman sorcerer educated at the Scholium Arcanum in the East, is on a cross-continent trek through the Great Waste: the lifeless desert left by the Dieback that all but eliminated life from Aeol. He has been tasked to chart the courses of the major mana conduits of the continent. In the process he discovers that they have been diverted from their normal paths: Whereas they once flowed from north to south, they now flow from east to west. While there is no obvious explanation for their diversion, they appear to flow directly toward Pontreval, where the Scholium Arcanum in the West is situated.
Recommended highly by Francis, and I'll be checking it out (it's only a dollar? Why not!)
Manhattan attorney Mara Rains is drawn into a shadow war with terrorists and joins a team that 'doesn't exist' to fight an enemy whose reach extends to the White House.
by Margaret Ball
(and another of my covers!)
After waiting ten long years for Richart Dalkey to realize she’s no longer the awkward young girl he grew up with, Elspet is thrilled when he finally comes to pay her court . . . until he divulges the true reason for his visit. His proposition? A sham engagement to discourage debutante Dorothea Turvoll, who’s infatuated with Richart and whom his mother wants him to marry. Elspet convinces him to pretend he’s desperately in love with her and actually court her instead, certain that with time—and a little bit of magic—he’ll see they’re meant to be together.
After waiting ten long years for Richart Dalkey to realize she’s no longer the awkward young girl he grew up with, Elspet is thrilled when he finally comes to pay her court . . . until he divulges the true reason for his visit. His proposition? A sham engagement to discourage debutante Dorothea Turvoll, who’s infatuated with Richart and whom his mother wants him to marry. Elspet convinces him to pretend he’s desperately in love with her and actually court her instead, certain that with time—and a little bit of magic—he’ll see they’re meant to be together.
by JL Curtis
The opening to one of my favorite series with my favorite characters is now available in audiobook!
The bad guys don't stand a chance
Texas rancher and lawman John Cronin knows what it means to be tough. A decorated Vietnam vet with connections to law enforcement agencies all around the world, he’s thwarted smugglers and drug plots across the globe with more than a few narrow escapes. Whether it’s a sniper competition or teaching the feds a thing or two about police work, Cronin doesn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. Of course, this slow-talking lawman’s biggest challenge yet might be when his granddaughter Jesse falls in love with a Marine. When drug smugglers stir up trouble in Cronin’s backyard and try to kill Jesse and her new beau, all hell breaks loose, and Cronin and his granddaughter are just the people to set things right.
by Rob Howell
Cover by Cedar Sanderson (I'm stinkin' proud of it, too. I painted that, and it's all original work, unlike my usual photocomposite stuff which is good, but this is special!)
Sinners, saints, and everyone in between.
Nick Patara, PI, has seen them all. He's been on the job for a long time.
He's always busy during the holiday season, and this time he's got a client who wants to go to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Can he find the proof to get his client off the hook? More importantly, can he find the key to make his client want to defend himself?
by Edward Thomas
George McIntyre has a problem. He caught a nanotechnological disease that turned him into a ten-foot-tall monster. He has scales, fur, horns, big teeth, claws, a face like a pony and a barbed tail. He got an upgrade in strength, speed and intelligence that is so profound it is terrifying him. But that’s not his problem. He’s been shot, stabbed, blown up and thrown in jail. But that’s not his problem.
by Fiona Grey
(the setting caught my eye, and I know from a year of MOTE that Fiona writes good stuff)
Dr. June Porter is headed for New Hampshire as a professor, brand-new PhD in hand. The last thing she wants in her new life is more magic, so of course that's exactly what she finds. Magic, and a mysterious Irishman with emerald eyes. But there's little time for dalliance when historical artifacts begin taking a life of their own and threaten the campus. Can June reclaim her magic, protect her students - and keep her job?
by Becky Jones
(really, you can't go wrong with any of the MOTE lineup)
Zoe O'Brien has found her dream job at a small liberal arts college teaching the history of Medieval witchcraft and magic. Academic life is exactly what she expected it to be...until the squirrels stop by to talk with her and her department chair and best friend turn out to be mages.
And because I can...
It is my blog, after all, and maybe you missed it?
by Cedar Sanderson
Anna's rescue training kicked in when she tripped over the injured elf. Getting him home? No problem. Getting herself home again? That's going to be a little more complicated.
Trapped Underhill, in the land of the fae, Anna has to remember everything she knows about fairy tales. Not the sweet happy ones: the stories where Baba Yaga boils you alive and giants grind your bones for bread. Her skills as a hunter and her good manners might be all that keep her alive. At least, if she can keep the Wild Hunt at bay!