Other People's Books rides again! You know, this is fun. I get to share the stories my friends create, and I feel less guilty about my glacial writing pace. Whee! I know most of my readers are here because, well, they read. So here's to having reading noms on tap every week for y'all, while I'm writing real stuff *coff* over at the Mad Genius Club. Ping me through private channels if you'd like me to include a book here. Note: I have not personally read all of these books. This isn't a book review or endorsement of any title. I trust the authors to have told the best stories they have in them, and no-one is in any way compensating me for including them in this list. It's just a labor of love. Cover images are clickable links.
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Dolly was reborn into a new body just last week. Right out of the birthing chamber, she was tumbled into a conflict that goes back to the stone age. Her creator, the Greek Goddess, Aphrodite, has disappeared, and the God in charge of her institution -- the Babylonian Marduk -- has called for her death. Her lover and Geppetto, Mitchell Drummond, is threading his way through political minefields to keep Dolly safe. New in love, they soon find they can't keep their hands off each other. Their sexual fever comes to worry them. They suspect there's more to the situation than mere new love. Meanwhile, they have a job to do. Keeping up the pretense that all's well and nothing's going on is wearing thin. But in Upothesa, you're not allowed to talk about secrets. Dolly is a secret. Trying to keep it together, Dolly and Drummond go on a mission to New Zealand to protect the Dolly's secret and the life of a major TV drama star. ***
A new generation carries on the legacy of service in the latest Grey Man novella... Marine Corporal Jace Cronin, a scout/sniper, survived insurgents in the Philippines, only to be handed an even greater challenge: the Naval Academy. He won't be headed in alone, though. Esme Carter got her own slot and is ready to go head to head with him over who's the best. They've got their eyes on lieutenant's bars and pilot slots, and woe betide anyone who gets in the way! ***
At war with an old enemy, betrayed by a supposed ally, Fuercon is a system on the brink of disaster. All that stands between it and defeat are its Space Navy and Marines – and the fact the betrayer does not yet know its secret plans have been discovered. But will that be enough to turn the tide of war? Honor and duty. Honor and duty have guided Colonel Ashlyn Shaw’s life for as long as she can remember. Honor kept her sane when she was betrayed by those she had fought beside. Duty gave her reason to trust again once the betrayal came to light and her name, as well as the names of her fellow Devil Dogs, was cleared. Now she and the Marines under her command are once again asked to risk their lives to protect Fuercon from its enemies. ***
Evelyn Adamsen grew up knowing she had to hide her psychic abilities, lest she be labeled a witch. However, when the U.S. Army Air Corps came calling in 1943, looking for psychic women to help their beleaguered bomber force, Evelyn answered, hoping to use her powers to integrate the bomber crews and save American lives. She was extremely successful at it…until her aircraft got shot down. Now, Evelyn is on the run in Occupied Europe, with a special unit of German Fallschirmjager and an enemy psychic on her heels. Worse, Evelyn learns that using her psychic powers functions as a strobe that highlights her to the enemy. As the enemy psychic closes in, Evelyn is faced with a dilemma in her struggle to escape—how can she make it back to England when the only talent she has will expose her if she uses it? ***
Garia and the East Morlans have been on increasingly rocky terms for years, and when Téo and Zara ran away together, they touched off the powder keg of war between their kingdoms. Now they have to fight for their lives while learning to live in a foreign land. In the Morlans, Hanri and Alia are facing their own sets of problems. He must control and divert the single-minded vengeance of his father King Reynard, and she must sort the gold of information from the dross of gossip in a palace swarming with rumors. It could mean the difference between life and death for all of them. ***
Food and drink for sale; snark for free... It's hard to be a god nobody believes in, sometimes. Especially when one spends their days trying to quietly go about his or her life in a world that barely remembers the myths surrounding the old Greek gods, but where some religions still follow the old Norse gods. And some of the Norse gods are getting more dangerous: Loki, the trickster, has lost the last of what passed for his sanity, and needs to be helped, or stopped. One of the two. And no one seems to be up to it. At least, not alone. Working together, they can avoid the worst of Loki's tricks, and maybe even solve their problems. A tale told from several points of view. ***
When her uncle calls EJ back home to Felony Flats, a tiny reservation community in Nevada, she is unaware that werewolves and other werekin roam this desert. Plus she is already in trouble for transforming into a werewolf and saving her teammates from an assassin. This soldier is coming home after early retirement to a world filled with werecats, supersoldiers, and wildfires. Then she meets the Alpha, Sheriff Adam.