Everyone loves getting a book!
I was thinking today about this, wanting what I want, when I want it. Right now, I want to have the book I'm reading read, so I could write you, my beloved readers, a review of it. It's enjoyable, if off my beaten path of genre, but it's not fair to review a partially read book. My week with finals was not kind to reading time. But it is over! And now I also want my grades. It will be a few days.
I'm spoiled. When I want a book, I go to Amazon, one-click, and start reading. If that's not an option, I grump a little. Like the Zelazny books. When I told my First Reader I have never knowingly (may have in an anthology. I am terrible about remembering author names, although the story may stick with me. Like a Pail of Air, which I can remember clearly, but not the author) read any Zelazny, his eyes got really wide, and when I asked if I should, he started to nod vigorously… a whole hearted recommendation without a spoken word on his part! Anyway, I went to look at them on Amazon, with his suggestion of reading the first Amber series, and the ebooks I found were priced above what I was willing to pay. Paper copies, on the other hand, could be had for cheap. So I settled for waiting a few days…
But if you are looking for Christmas Gifts, I have a few suggestions that are available instantly! Giving an Amazon ebook as a gift is as easy as knowing the email of the person you are gifting, and they need not have a Kindle, you can read the books on any data device (smart phone, tablet, what have you) or computer. What follows is a list of books, mine, but also some of my writing family which you may enjoy. The titles are linked, click and enjoy!
You can't keep a tough Pixie down… Pixie Noir
Lom is a bounty hunter, paid to bring magical creatures of all descriptions back Underhill, to prevent war with humans should they discover the strangers amongst them. Bella is about to find out she's a real life fairy princess, but all she wants to do is live peacefully in Alaska, where the biggest problems are hungry grizzly bears. He has to bring her in. It's nothing personal, it's his job…
"They had almost had me, that once. I’d been young and foolish, trying to do something heroic, of course. I wouldn’t do that again anytime soon. Now, I work for duty, but nothing more than is necessary to fulfill the family debt. I get paid, which makes me a bounty hunter, but she's about to teach me about honor. Like all lessons, this one was going to hurt. Fortunately, I have a good gun to fill my hand, and if I have to go, she has been good to look at."
12-year-old Linnea Vulkane is looking forward to a long, lazy summer on Grandpa Heph's farm, watching newborn kittens grow up and helping out with chores. That all goes out the window the night Mars, god of war, demands her grandfather abandon her and return to Olympus for the brewing war.
Now Old Vulcan is racing around the world and across higher planes with Sehkmet to gather allies, leaving Linn and an old immortal friend to protect the farm and the very special litter. But even the best wards won't last forever, and when the farm goes up in flames, she is on the run with a daypack, a strange horse, a sword, and an armful of kittens. Linn needs to grow up fast and master her powers, before the war finds the unlikely refugees...
A vampire, a werewolf, an undercover angel and his succubus squeeze. Whoever picked this team to save the world wasn't thinking of sending the very best. But then, since this particular threat to the universe and everything good is being staged in science fiction conventions, amid people in costume, misfits and creative geniuses, any conventional hero would have stood out. Now Jim, the vampire, and his unlikely sidekicks have to beat the clock to find out who's sacrificing con goers before all hell breaks loose -- literally.
ConVent is proof that Kate Paulk’s brain works in wonderfully mysterious ways. A sarcastic vampire, his werewolf best buddy, an undercover angel and his succubus squeeze. The “Save the world” department really messed it up this time.
Impaler by Kate Paulk revisits the tale of Vlad Dracul, also known as Vlad Tepes and Vlad the Impaler. This is the tale of historical fact mixed with fiction and a touch of fantasy. But this is most definitely not the tired tale of vampires skulking in the night, lying in wait for innocent victims. Impaler tells the tale of a man devoted to family and country, cursed and looking for redemption.
December, 1476. The only man feared by the all-conquering Ottoman Sultan battles to reclaim his throne. If he falls all of Europe lies open to the Ottoman armies. If he succeeds...
His army is outnumbered and outclassed, his country is tiny, and he is haunted by a terrible curse. But Vlad Draculea will risk everything on one almost impossible chance to free his people from the hated Ottoman Empire.
Across the one human colony world, a place technologically regressed to near medieval, possibly the last place humans still survive, a desperate search continues. Scattered across the deserts, tangled jungles, and alien fortresses, lie the core sections of the matter transmitter.
These sections hold the key to vast wealth, power, or… the fulfilment of the colony’s purpose: to help humankind survive the rabidly xenophobic alien Morkth who will tolerate no other intelligent species. The Morkth managed to follow the colony ship, and, despite their mothership being shot down and their queen being killed, they continue their relentless struggle to destroy humankind… and to reconstruct that incredibly valuable matter transmitter. If they succeed, they’ll be able to return to the hive with the location of the colony of vile humans, and have a new world to occupy. If they fail, they’ll destroy the planet.
The search has gone on for centuries, and it is all reaching an end point. The future hangs in the balance.
The Morkth have lasers, aircraft, nukes. Those who want the core sections for their own ends… have vast armies. Against them are three unlikely reluctant heroes: A street child thief, a dispossessed spoiled brat of a princess, and a confused, amoral Morkth-raised human, armed only with 14th century weapons and their own wits.
It’s a lost cause, a forlorn hope.
But it’s all humans have.
A humorous, satirical noir detective urban fantasy, set in a small city in flyover country, which has an unusually high population of Trolls, werewolves, fairies and a dwarf.
Private Investigator Bolg, a Pictish gentleman who happens to be vertically challenging, a self-proclaimed dwarf and tattooed so heavily he appears blue, finds himself called on undertake paranormal cases: in this case tracing the Vampire bride's absconded or kidnapped groom.
The groom should have been a troll by the name of Billy Gruff, the manager and owner of the Ricketty-Racketty Club - a topless bar and nightclub. Bolg finds himself, and his client embroiled in murder, extortion and a Celtic wizard. The latter is supposedly helping him, but wizard's help is not always what it you think it will be.
May You Write Interesting Books
A book on how to wring the blahs from your fiction, by award winning science fiction, fantasy and mystery author Sarah A. Hoyt. Containing such vital information as how to avoid being oatmeal, and how and when to use pole dancers and Martian invaders. Also explains the vital importance of piranha tanks for the acquisition and training of first readers.
A dead woman in an alley in the Paris of Louis XIII would not occasion much consternation. Unless the dead woman looked like the Queen of France and was discovered by Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan. Suspecting a plot of Cardinal Richelieu, the three musketeers and their new friend plunge into the investigation of murder, only to find that the matter is both stranger and more dangerous than they could have imagined. Caught in a web of intrigue and death, the four friends will have trouble staying alive, much less solving the crime.
Some things can never be forgotten, no matter how hard you try.
Detective Sergeant Mackenzie Santos knows that bitter lesson all too well. The day she died changed her life and her perception of the world forever.It doesn’t matter that everyone, even her doctors, believe a miracle occurred when she awoke in the hospital morgue. Mac knows better. It hadn't been a miracle, at least not a holy one. As far as she’s concerned, that's the day the dogs of Hell came for her.
Investigating one of the most horrendous murders in recent Dallas history, Mac also has to break in a new partner and deal with nosy reporters who follow her every move and who publish confidential details of the investigation without a qualm.
Complicating matters even more, Mac learns the truth about her family and herself, a truth that forces her to deal with the monster within, as well as those on the outside.But none of this matters as much as discovering the identity of the murderer before he can kill again.
All she'd ever wanted was to get out of the dead end town she'd lived in all her life. Well, that and find a job that wasn't as much of a dead end as the town. Perhaps even find someone to share her life with. Then Alexander Reed walked back into her life just as suddenly as he'd walked out years before. There'd been a time when she'd have done almost anything to be with him. Now he offered her the chance to do exactly what she'd been wishing all her life. But at what cost?