#BookReview: As Worlds Drifted by @ParkerTiden

Synopsis: The FBI says Lily’s father killed himself to escape justice. As she deals with her grief, can a team of gamers help her prove them wrong? A gripping story about friendship, loss, and redemption, about a daughter’s love, and about finding one’s place in the world – all wrapped in a young-adult thriller package. A perfect blend of the funny and profound, as high school sophomore Lily tries, with some unexpected help, to find out what happened to her father. Something for Looking for Alaska, Warcross, and We Were Liars fans alike.

Lily’s world comes crashing down when her father dies in an apparent suicide. The official version is that her father was a criminal who took the easy way out. Lily doesn’t buy it, but can’t prove it. Instead she withdraws into her own darkness, stops talking to her friends, and misses her first day as a high school sophomore. When Nick, her neighbor that she hardly knows, pulls her into the gaming world, she is hooked. She meets her new tribe, and is drawn out of her darkness and into a new kind of light, into a new reality. Together they set out to find out what really happened to her father.

FBI agent Tristan Casco can’t stand the nerds he has to work with at the FBI’s Cyber Gaming Unit. Something happened during Tristan’s tour in Afghanistan that derails his career. He hasn’t seen his daughter in months and can’t seem to find the will to do much about it.

In As Worlds Drifted, Tristan's and Lily’s paths cross in an exhilarating online and offline adventure that gets deadly serious.

#BookReview: Next Stop Love (Next Stop Love #1) by @rachstockbridge @Netgalley

Synopsis: Love will get you back on track.

Beatrice Bauer is struggling to keep up with the demands of family, friends, college life, and a part-time job. She doesn’t have room to breathe, much less question whether the track she’s on is worth the effort. But it’s fine. She’s fine. She can breathe after college.

Julian Moon is doing his best to get back on his feet and reconnect with his dream of being an illustrator. The problem is he can’t seem to shake the habit of making all the worst decisions. The most recent of which is his return to New York, where all his problems started in the first place.

When a shared commute dumps Julian and Beatrice in each other’s lives, they start wondering if there isn’t more to life than a desperate scramble to stay afloat. If maybe a coincidental commute acquaintance couldn’t become something more.

#BookReview: From Foster Care to Millionaire: A Young Entrepreneur's Story of Tragedy and Triumph by Cody McLain

Synopsis: Cody's story offers all the components you'd expect from the success story of a young entrepreneur with Aspergers-motivation, drive, perseverance, focus, and passion. You might call it a rags-to-riches tale, and you wouldn't be wrong. But that here-to-there narrative is only the top layer. Cody's story unfolds to reveal a narrative that is more complicated and yet simpler, more central, to the human experience. What remains is the story of a boy, burdened like all of us with deep wounds and great gifts, searching for a purpose. What remains is a story that will inspire readers to find their true calling and work like hell to achieve their dreams. 

#BookReview: Dragon Called (Deadweed Dragons #1) by Ava Richardson

Synopsis: In a kingdom that has fallen into chaos, one young woman—and her dragon—are thrust into the role of bringing balance to the land.

From the moment Dayie washed ashore as an infant, everyone in her tiny village treated her as… different. She didn’t belong, no matter how hard she tried. So when a vicious, invasive plant called Deadweed overruns her village, she’s blamed and sold to the Dragon Traders for fear of her powers and the mystery surrounding her origin. 

After years of service to the ruthless Dragon Traders, Dayie wants her freedom. To repay her debt, Dayie steals a dragon egg. But she winds up with far more than she bargained for when her egg hatches before she can get it to them. Now she must hide her hotheaded young dragon Zarr or risk losing him: either to the Dragon Traders or the Deadweed that’s creeping ever southward.

When the Dragon Traders travel further south to evade capture and Deadweed attacks, Dayie meets a mysterious Dragon Rider named Akeem, who tells her magic is behind the spread of the Deadweed, and that she’s been bonded with Zarr—for life. Now Dayie faces a choice: give up her dragon for her freedom or take her place with Zarr in the Training Hall of Dagban. There, she may have the chance to avenge her parents’ deaths and solve the mystery of ever-spreading Deadweed.

Dayie’s destiny awaits, if she’s brave enough to follow it…

#BookReview: Silverlegs I: Seed of Rage by Camilla Monk

Synopsis: Will you be fast enough? 

A fifteen-year-old girl with a gift for violence and nothing left to lose, Constanter is running. To escape the farm she grew up on in a remote part of the Western Lorian empire. To forget the family and the life she can never return to. She runs east, toward the distant war she knows only from the tales of travelers—a twenty-year long conflict, opposing the Western and Eastern halves of the empire.

Mistaken for a boy after she stole the gear of a dead soldier, she is captured and drafted by a band of mercenaries whose leader recognizes her innate speed and agility. Her face hidden under a mask, Constanter surrenders to the anger she wears like a second skin and becomes Silverlegs, a legendary killer, an uncontrollable weapon in the hands of power-hungry rulers and religious fanatics. 

As the Western empire spirals into madness in the name of the One God, Constanter will have to choose what she truly fights for, before Silverlegs’s rage leads her down the road to hell...

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Trigger warnings:
Silverlegs is a grimdark fantasy novel set in a world inspired by the late Roman empire. The heroine evolves in an environment that is violent, classist, misogynistic, and homophobic. This book questions religious fanaticism. It contains elements of sexual violence, rape, and graphic violence.

#BookReview: Monster by @SEGreenAuthor

Synopsis: It takes a survivor to know a madman.

When the police need to crawl inside the mind of a monster, they call Caroline.

As a child, Caroline was abducted along with her twin sister. For over a year, their captor forced them to play his sick games, using their hunger to test the lengths they’d go to survive.

Caroline escaped. Her sister didn’t.

Now a young woman gnawed by survivor’s guilt, Caroline’s horrific past has left her with a unique gift to understand the twisted motivations of serial killers. She couldn’t save her sister—but she can at least help the police keep other girls safe.

But there’s something different about her latest case.

Something familiar.

Teenage girls are being murdered, their organs removed. As the scope of horror widens, Caroline begins to experience blackouts of lost time and disturbing hallucinations that are leading her to one terrible, impossible conclusion.

Caroline is a keeper of secrets. She knows her captor can’t be responsible.

Yet a message is being sent…a buried echo resurfacing…a personal connection of a dark and dangerous appetite.

#BookReview: Spark (Red-Line: The Fletcher Family Saga, #3) by @jtbishopauthor

Title: Spark

Series: Red-Line: The Fletcher Family Saga, #3
Author: J.T. Bishop
Genres: Adult, Suspense
Pages: Kindle Edition, 380 pages
Pub Date: August 15th 2018
Publisher: Self Published
Book Source: Author
My Rating: 4 Stars

Add to Goodreads | Buy from Amazon

Synopsis:  Eve Fletcher is on the run. She’s hiding from the men who’ve killed her boss. But she’s not alone. A man she barely knows is with her, and she must decide whom to trust. But Eve has more than her life at stake. She’s protecting secrets too. Secrets that if exposed could risk not only her, but her entire family. But everyone has secrets, including the man who refuses to leave her side. 

With time running out, Eve must choose whether to bring her boss’s murderers to justice. But she’s falling for the mysterious man with his own suspicious motives. Can she risk loving him or will his presence threaten the family she’s trying so hard to protect? 

Family whose survival depends on keeping secrets. 

#BookReview: Beautiful by @FranWrites11

Title: Beautiful

Author: Fran Laniado
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy (Retelling) 
Pages: ebook, 254
Pub Date:  July 4th 2018
Publisher: Independently published
Book Source: Author
My Rating: 4 Stars

Add to Goodreads | Buy from Amazon

Synopsis:  A TALE OF BEAUTIES AND BEASTS

Eimear is Faerie. She left the land of her birth, to find a place where she felt like she could belong. She finds herself in the World, a strange place, where she is the only magical being, and she begins to build a life for herself. But when she encounters Finn, supernaturally beautiful but thoughtless and selfish, she gets angry. In a fit of rage, she casts a spell on Finn. It’s a spell that she can’t undo, even when she discovers that she’s ruined Finn’s life.

Finn is wealthy, arrogant, and cruel. He didn’t think twice about insulting Eimear, until it was too late. Now, exiled from the only home he’s ever known, he is forced to make his own way, for the first time ever. He does have support- if he wants it. Eimear, wants to assuage her guilt by helping him.

In an isolated place, thrown together initially out of desperation and need, Eimear and Finn find a way to live together. That alliance eventually blossoms into friendship, and even love. But before they can have their happily ever after, Eimear must go on a perilous journey that will force her to confront everything that she ran away from when she left Faerie. 

#BookReview: Hearth, Home, and Havoc by @rj_blain with @adivineeternity

About the Book: Dakota never intended to become the single mother of a goddess. To make matters worse, her daughter hadn't quite figured out her role in the grand scheme of things.

Havoc isn't supposed to be part of Hestia's portfolio, but where the young goddess of the hearth and home goes, trouble surely follows.

When Dakota's ex-husband barrels his way back into her life, a heavy dose of havoc is just what the doctor ordered. She just never expected to find love in the midst of murder.

Hearth, Home, and Havoc is part of the Legends and Lore box set, but was just re-released as a stand-alone novella, as well!

#BookReview: Bricked In by Max Wannow #Giveaway

  Bricked In is a disgusting glimmer of self-recognition. For many, happiness is found in freedom. After winning the lottery, a former gypsy becomes the queen of a dystopia. Newlyweds, Bethany and Neil, join this isolated society, which is devoid of common American laws. With no holds barred, experimental science takes place.

#AuthorInterview with @Allison_Pang Magpie's Song (IronHeart Chronicles)

 

In the slums of BrightStone, Moon Children are worth less than the scrap they must collect to survive. It doesn’t matter that these abandoned half-breeds are part-Meridian with their ancestors hailing from the technologically advanced city that floats above the once-thriving, now plague-ridden BrightStone. Instead they are rejected by both their ancestral societies and forced to live on the outskirts of civilization, joining clans simply to survive. Not to mention their role as Tithe, leading the city’s infected citizens deep into the Pits where their disease can be controlled.

Nineteen-year-old Raggy Maggy is no different, despite the mysterious heart-shaped panel that covers her chest. Or at least she wasn’t… Not until her chance discovery of a Meridian-built clockwork dragon—and its murdered owner. When the Inquestors policing the city find Maggy at the scene of the crime, she quickly turns into their prime suspect. Now she’s all anyone can talk about. Even her clan leader turns his back on her, leading her to rely on an exiled doctor and a clanless Moon Child named Ghost to keep her hidden. In return, all she has to do is help them find a cure for the plague they believe was not exactly accidental. Yet doing so might mean risking more than just her life. It also might be the only key to uncovering the truth about the parents—and the past—she knows nothing about. 

#BookReview: Heir of Illaria (Illaria #1) by Dyan Chick

  In Illaria, there is a fate worse than death.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been taught to fear the Necromancer King. He controls the kingdom of Illaria with dark sorcery and the constant threat of his undead army. I never thought I’d have reason to cross his path. Everything changed the day his guards tried to kill me. That’s when I found out my whole life has been a lie. By joining a resistance group called the White Ravens, I’ve claimed new roles. Princess of Illaria, sorceress in training, and threat to the Necromancer King.

#BookReview: Truck Stop Love by Cara Duryea

 Love Revenge.

Commit to a path and take action. #Love.

Set shit on fire and blow everything to hell. #Revenge.

Ever think about the one who got away?

How far would you go to find them again?

Hunter Ryder and her stepbrother, Wesley Ellis, are living in a rural Kansas town trailer park with an alcoholic, abusive father (his) and a neglectful, depressed mother (hers). Both have big dreams - Wesley wants to be a famous musician, and Hunter wants to act on Broadway. With only each other as support, the two stumble upon young, first love and the grip that it holds on teenage hearts. When a violent encounter at home forces them to strike out on their own, they navigate the landscape of truck stops, lot lizards, and the traveling ministry to become a killer and a minister in the name of love...and revenge.

#BookReview: Colorless (Colorless #1) by Rita Stradling

  In Domengrad, there are rules all must live by: Fear the Gods. Worship the Magicians. Forsake the Iconoclasts. 

To Annabelle Klein, the rules laid down by the Magicians are the mere ramblings of stuffy old men. As far as she’s concerned, the historic Iconoclasts, heretics who nearly destroyed the Magicians so long ago, are nothing but myth. She has much more important matters to worry about. 

Heiress to a manor mortgaged down to its candlesticks and betrothed to her loathsome cousin, sixteen-year-old Annabelle doubts the gods could forsake her more. 

Then Annabelle is informed of her parents’ sudden and simultaneous deaths, and all of the pigment drips out of her skin and hair, leaving her colourless. Within moments, Annabelle is invisible and forgotten by all who know her. 

Living like a wraith in her own home, Annabelle discovers that to regain her color she must solve the mystery behind her parents’ murders and her strange transformation. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of the Magicians’ monks, with their all-black eyes and conjoined minds, have usurped control of Annabelle’s family manor. An Iconoclast is rumored to be about—a person who they claim goes unseen, unheard, and lost to memory, yet is the greatest threat to all of Domengrad. For the first time in a hundred years, the monks plan to unleash the dire wolves of old. 

Their only target: Annabelle.Put Stuff Here

#BookReview: Scent of the Past by @ErinMBernardo #Giveaway

  A secret diary. A forgotten past. Another time. Close cousins Addison and Elissa live in present day New York City and lead somewhat ordinary lives. When uncertain circumstances surrounding a set of antique perfume bottles sends them back to eighteenth-century France, they must uncover the truth behind their travel. Disaster strikes when Addison finds herself in a nearly identical situation to a mishap she experienced in the present-the witnessing of a murder and release of a secret. Only this time the truth could destroy the entire French monarchy. With Addison's head on the line, the young women search for answers before Addison suffers her unlucky fate twice. It is only when they discover the haunting connections to life in the present, that they understand why they both were sent, and why a repeating past...may not always be such a bad thing.

#BookReview: Love Hate & Us by S. P. West

  Brody and Brooke, sitting in a tree.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G…

We grew up thinking that our future was set in stone.

We were wrong.

Turns out there is a thin line between love and hate.

Then there is us.

Brooke never imagined a life away from Emmerton. She never pictured a life without her childhood sweetheart, Brody. But when Brody does the unthinkable Brooke’s world is turned upside down. Unable to watch as Brody moves on with his life, she decides to start afresh. 

Unfortunately, leaving her past behind is not a easy as she thought, especially when her past wants her back.

#BookReview: Magpie's Song (IronHeart Chronicles) by @Allison_Pang @Netgalley

  In the slums of BrightStone, Moon Children are worth less than the scrap they must collect to survive. It doesn’t matter that these abandoned half-breeds are part-Meridian with their ancestors hailing from the technologically advanced city that floats above the once-thriving, now plague-ridden BrightStone. Instead they are rejected by both their ancestral societies and forced to live on the outskirts of civilization, joining clans simply to survive. Not to mention their role as Tithe, leading the city’s infected citizens deep into the Pits where their disease can be controlled.

Nineteen-year-old Raggy Maggy is no different, despite the mysterious heart-shaped panel that covers her chest. Or at least she wasn’t… Not until her chance discovery of a Meridian-built clockwork dragon—and its murdered owner. When the Inquestors policing the city find Maggy at the scene of the crime, she quickly turns into their prime suspect. Now she’s all anyone can talk about. Even her clan leader turns his back on her, leading her to rely on an exiled doctor and a clanless Moon Child named Ghost to keep her hidden. In return, all she has to do is help them find a cure for the plague they believe was not exactly accidental. Yet doing so might mean risking more than just her life. It also might be the only key to uncovering the truth about the parents—and the past—she knows nothing about. 

#BookReview: Stirring Power (Evolution of Magic, #1) by K.C. Blackbyrn

  In young hunter Jacob Wildleaf’s world, magic isn’t a thing of beauty or wonder.

It’s a nightmarish plague.

And it’s crept into his village.

With his loved ones falling prey to the infection, Jacob sets out to find a healer in a nearby city. But before he can, soldiers loyal to Regent of the Blackwood Kingdom catch him using magic and chase him out.

He doesn’t realize they’ve followed him until it’s too late.

The Regent wants to purge all traces of magic from the land. Every village. Every person.

Jacob barely manages to escape the burning of his village, the sole survivor. With every step drawing him unwillingly deeper into battle, he must find a way to survive both the Regent’s soldiers and the magically created beasts to prevent more bloodshed than magic alone could ever cause.

If the magic inside him doesn’t destroy him first. 

#ReleaseDay: Where Words Fail Music Speaks Anthology

  Where Words Fail, Music Speaks is a collection of short stories and poetry by writers from all walks of life. 

Each story is based on the titles of 90s Britpop songs, including Come Back To What You Know, Bittersweet Symphony, Animal Nitrate, Disco 2000, and more.

Our list of authors is: Ker Dukey, Kyra Lennon, Clare Dugmore, Annalisa Crawford, Wesley Copeland, Robb Turburville, D H Sidebottom, Audrina Lane, M.B. Feeney, Karen Frances, S.J Warner, Scout Dawson, Kimberly Morgan, Maddie Wade, Rebeccalou Heronpontin, Andrea Coventry

All proceeds from the sales of this anthology will go to Clusterbusters.

#Promo: Synchrony (Destiny #2) by @CindyRayHale

  Against all odds, Destiny fought for love and won. Her story continues when she finds herself facing an entirely new set of problems, leaving her with festering doubts. 

When she discovers her boyfriend, Isaac's, terrible secret, she is completely shattered. As the darkness threatens to engulf her, Preston, her childhood friend, comes to the rescue, giving hope that with time she could be whole again. 

When heartbreaking disaster strikes her friends, Destiny must learn to heal her heart by giving unselfish service to others before Isaac walks back into her life, threatening to rekindle feelings she’d hoped to bury forever.