Margo Bond Collins's Blog, page 8
March 22, 2020
Books in the Time of COVID-19: A Reading List
Yesterday, my daughter asked if we could watch a couple of episodes of The 100 together. And that ties into a trend I’m seeing during the COVID-19 crisis: people seem to be consuming a lot of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic entertainment right now. So a friend and I put together this list of essential quarantine reading, in no particular order:
Books in Time of Covid-19:
An Idiosyncratic Reading List
by Margo Bond Collins and Parrish Potts
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women — brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul — this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.
And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail — and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America.
Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.
It’s all fun and games until someone ends up undead.
Layla spent her whole life running away from her hometown. Raised by the town’s medium, and dubbed the “weird” girl, the last thing she wants is to go home. When Layla gets a desperate phone call to return just as a mysterious outbreak sweeps the country, Layla’s instincts urge her to go. Good thing, because the dead are rising. The town’s residents, including the ex who jilted her, will need Layla’s help if they hope to survive.
A classic narrative about Africa’s cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man’s futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.
Considered Dickens’ harshest indictment of mid-19th-century industrial practices and their dehumanizing effects, Hard Times offers a fascinating tapestry of Victorian life, filled with the richness of detail, brilliant characterization, and passionate social concern that typify the novelist’s finest creations.
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China’s infamous Cultural Revolution. There the two friends meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, the two friends find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined.
We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the pandemic.
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.
The population of the entire world has been obliterated by a pandemic of vampire bacteria. Yet somehow, Robert Neville survived. He must now struggle to make sense of what happened and learn to protect himself against the vampires who hunt him nightly.
As months of scavenging and hiding turn to years marked by depression and alcoholism, Robert spends his days hunting his tormentors and researching the cause of their affliction. But the more he discovers about the vampires around him, the more he sees the unsettling truth of who is—and who is not—a monster.
New York City has been decimated by war and plague, and most of civilization has migrated to underground enclaves, where life expectancy is no more than the early 20’s. When Deuce turns 15, she takes on her role as a Huntress, and is paired with Fade, a teenage Hunter who lived Topside as a young boy. When she and Fade discover that the neighboring enclave has been decimated by the tunnel monsters–or Freaks–who seem to be growing more organized, the elders refuse to listen to warnings. And when Deuce and Fade are exiled from the enclave, the girl born in darkness must survive in daylight–guided by Fade’s long-ago memories–in the ruins of a city whose population has dwindled to a few dangerous gangs.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Still, if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
What are you reading these days? I’d love to hear from you!
February 20, 2020
The Borgia Confessions by Alyssa Palombo ~ Excerpt
A Novel
By Alyssa Palombo
The trials of Renaissance Italy play out through the eyes of one of Italy’s most powerful men – Cesare Borgia – as well as one of the least powerful – a simple maid. In THE BORGIA CONFESSIONS (St. Martin’s Griffin; on sale February 11, 2020; $16.99), author Alyssa Palombo brings a story of passion, politics, and class, set against the rise and fall of one of Italy’s most infamous families–the Borgias.
During the sweltering Roman summer of 1492, Rodrigo Borgia has risen to power as pope. Rodrigo’s eldest son Cesare, forced to follow his father into the church and newly made the Archbishop of Valencia, chafes at his ecclesiastical role and fumes with jealousy and resentment at the way that his foolish brother has been chosen for the military greatness he desired.
Maddalena Moretti comes from the countryside, where she has seen how the whims of powerful men wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary people. But now, employed as a servant in the Vatican Palace, she cannot help but be entranced by Cesare Borgia’s handsome face and manner and finds her faith and conviction crumbling in her want of him.
As war rages and shifting alliances challenge the pope’s authority, Maddalena and Cesare’s lives grow inexplicably entwined. Maddalena becomes a keeper of dangerous Borgia secrets, and must decide if she is willing to be a pawn in the power games of the man she loves. And as jealousy and betrayal threaten to tear apart the Borgia family from within, Cesare is forced to reckon with his seemingly limitless ambition.
EXCERPT
Not much changed for those of us in service at the Vatican Palace when the new pope took over. There were still the same tasks to see to, the same rooms to be cleaned, the same floors to be scrubbed, and the same laundry to be washed. The Holy Father was to be obeyed whoever he was, and his earthly house was to be kept clean and running smoothly so he could attend to far more lofty matters.
One morning I was returning to the kitchens with an empty tray from one of the cardinals’ rooms—the new Vice-Chancellor, Ascanio Sforza by name—when I passed a man heading for the Holy Father’s audience chamber. He was rather garishly dressed, in brightly colored hose and tunic with a huge codpiece, and wear- ing a hat with a large feather in it. He winked and leered at me as I passed, and I cast my eyes down. Surely such a man was not fit for an audience with the Holy Father?
I caught up with one of the other maids, Fabrizia, at the end of the hallway. “Fabrizia,” I murmured, my voice low so my words would not echo off the marble floors and walls, “who is that man?” I jerked my chin toward the man’s retreating back.
She snickered. “That’s Juan Borgia. The pope’s son,” she confided.
I gasped. All of Rome knew of the existence of Cardinal Borgia’s children—Pope Alexander, I corrected myself. It was no secret that many of the other cardinals had mistresses and bastard children as well. But for a pope to acknowledge such children . . . “He brings his children into the Vatican?” I asked, shocked. “He allows them to be known as such, even now that he has been made pope?”
Fabrizia nodded. “It is unusual, indeed. No referring to them as his nephews or nieces, as popes usually do. And you know he keeps a mistress, yes?”
I gasped again. I had heard the whisperings, but I tried my best to close my ears to such things. Gossip—especially gossip about the Holy Father—was a sin.
Yet my curiosity rose, despite my pangs of guilt. I shall confess this sin after Mass on Sunday, I promised myself. “I . . . he does?” I asked.
Fabrizia’s eyes gleamed, and she drew me into a small alcove. She was well and truly settled in to gossip. “Oh, yes. Honestly, Maddalena, even for a country bumpkin you seem altogether too innocent sometimes—and you a widow, no less. Her name is Giulia Farnese and she is the most beautiful woman in Rome. He keeps her with his cousin, Adriana, and his daughter, Lucrezia. Can you imagine? And La Bella Farnese is married to Adriana’s own son! They were just married when Giulia La Bella caught Cardinal Bor- gia’s eye, and so Donna Adriana banished her son to the country estates to get him out of the way—before the cuckold’s horns were even properly affixed to his head, they say.” She snickered. “If the stories are true, Cardinal Borgia—Pope Alexander—has rewarded Adriana and her family richly, including the poor cuckolded son, which is exactly what she was hoping for.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice further. “He is said to be moving them to the pal- ace of Santa Maria in Portico. He wants La Bella Farnese nearer to him—they say there is a secret passage that connects the Vatican Palace to that one, so he can visit her in secret.”
I crossed myself automatically. “God forgive him,” I said. “He has been led astray by a harlot.” Immediately I regretted my words—he was the Holy Father; he could do no wrong. Who was I to criticize, when I could not understand the ways in which God spoke to His representative on earth? “But that is not for us to say,” I added hastily.
Fabrizia rolled her eyes. “Indeed,” she said. “All I know is men do what they want, whether they wear hose or a cardinal’s robes. Or a pope’s, even. I don’t know that God has much to say about it. But his son, that Juan . . .” She nodded in the direction from which we’d come. “They say Pope Alexander has big plans for him, and for his other son, Cesare. He’ll not let his children fade into the background, not the Borgia pope.”
****
It was some weeks before I saw the other son, Cesare. It was late evening, and he looked to be heading in the direction of the pope’s private rooms. I curtsied to him as he passed in the darkened hall- way in his purple archbishop’s robes. I felt his eyes on me as I curt- sied, and when I rose our eyes met briefly. Goodness, but he was handsome, with his head of thick, dark curls under his cap and his dark eyes and the stubble lining his cheeks and chin, which looked like they belonged on a statue in the Vatican gardens. He was much more handsome than his fop of a brother, that was for certain. His eyes turned away, forward once more.
My cheeks burned with shame as I continued on, back to my cot in the bowels of the palace where I shared a room with three other maids. Cesare Borgia was a man of God, an archbishop, no less—it was not meet that I should think him comely or attractive. I crossed myself, whispering a silent prayer of forgiveness. Back in my room, I bent over the handkerchief I was embroidering, squinting at it in the dim light, and recited a prayer with each few stitches to keep my thoughts from wandering where they did not belong.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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ALYSSA PALOMBO is the author of The Violinist of Venice, The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence, and The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel. She is a recent graduate of Canisius College with degrees in English and creative writing, respectively. A passionate music lover, she is a classically trained musician as well as a big fan of heavy metal. When not writing, she can be found reading, hanging out with her friends, traveling, or planning for next Halloween. She lives in Buffalo, New York, where she is always at work on a new novel.
Praise for Alyssa Palombo and THE BORGIA CONFESSIONS
“[A] vivacious tale of power and love set in 1492… Excavating the personal relationships and petty disagreements that fueled Pope Alexander VI’s controversial reign, Palombo’s enticing tale will please fans of Sharon Kay Penman.”
–Publishers Weekly
“Readers looking for an immersive, light, romantic read will enjoy this book.”
–Booklist
“Under Palombo’s skillful hand, the entangled world of the Borgias comes vividly to life, exposing the dark facets of class structure and the all-consuming greed that comes with ambition–and love. I was utterly engrossed from page one. A colorful and suspenseful novel, The Borgia Confessions is packed with complex characters and political intrigue, and will leave readers hungry for more.”
–Heather Webb, internationally bestselling author of Last Christmas in Paris and Meet Me in Monaco
“Palombo has crafted a sweeping and surprisingly sympathetic portrait of Cesare Borgia, one of history’s most notorious “bad boys,” and the world surrounding him. [A] dark Renaissance parable about the intertwining of lust and power. If you’re as fascinated with all things Borgia as I am, you won’t want to miss this one!”
–Kris Waldherr, author of The Lost History of Dreams and Bad Princess
“Handsome. Intriguing. Dangerous. Seductive. [This] is everything you want in a book–it’s a romance, a page-turner, and a ride deep into the sumptuous and tumultuous time of Renaissance Italy.”
–Crystal King, author of The Chef’s Secret
“Alyssa Palombo’s deft and delicate prose makes a gorgeous contrast against the visceral and cutthroat world of the Borgias. Dark and decadent, THE BORGIA CONFESSIONS is mesmerizing from start to finish.”
–Meghan Masterson, author of The Wardrobe Mistress
THE BORGIA CONFESSIONS: A Novel
By Alyssa Palombo
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin | On-Sale: February 11, 2020
Trade Paperback | 9781250191205 | $16.99
EBook | 9781250191212 | $9.99
February 11, 2020
Vote for Legally Undead to get it in front of film & TV producers! #TaleFlickDiscovery #MFRWauthor #MFRWHooks
Vote to make Legally Undead into a film or TV series!
Hey! Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I wanted to let you know that my book Legally Undead is up for a chance to go in front of producers and be made into a film or TV series–but it needs votes to win!
I’ll love you forEVER if you vote for me in this first round! (I’ll love you anyway. But… TV OR MOVIES!!!)
You can vote for Legally Undead HERE.
If you haven’t read it yet, you can pick up a copy below.
And in honor of getting this far in the contest, I’m running a vampire giveaway. Every time I get to the next round, I’ll add more goodies to the prizes.
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A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can.
Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her PhD, then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.
But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire sucking the blood from her fiancé, Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs – not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.
As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning to face them, Elle realizes Greg’s body is gone – and her perfect life falls apart.
Fans of Ilona Andrews, Faith Hunter, Dannika Dark, and McKenzie Hunter will love this urban fantasy adventure romance!
And vote to bring it to film or TV!
February 8, 2020
Get Unholy by Margo Bond Collins #FREE! #PNR #ReverseHarem #demon #romance #satspanks
Pick up your FREE copy of Unholy!
If she wants to save her sister, there will be hell to pay.
Monster-Hunter Grace Falls is willing to make an unholy alliance with not one demon, but three—all to save her sister Eileen from the local mob boss.
When it’s all over, she’ll have to give the devils their due.
This book also includes the holiday short story “O Holy Hell”:
When evil elves attack their hideout, monster-hunter Grace Falls, her pregnant foster-sister, and three protective demons set out to find a new place to call home—but it might just take a Solstice miracle to keep them safe.
You can also preorder Unhallowed, the next book in the Unholy Alliance series!
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Monster-hunter Grace Falls never intended to make a deal with a devil—much less three of them.
When Grace agreed to take a job tracking down demons in the notoriously dangerous Blood Heights district, she didn’t realize her charismatic new employers ruled Hell itself.
Now she’s locked into a contract with them, and everyone knows they don’t leave loopholes. But the longer Grace works for them, the more she realizes that all is not what it seems—not in Heaven, not on Earth, and certainly not in Hell. The demons she’s spent her life tracking may not be the monsters she expects them to be, and her own history might hold a surprising secret or two.
But now that she’s joined their unholy alliance, she’s all in.
She’s about to discover that she’s no angel—and there will be Hell to pay.
Fans of urban fantasy by Nalini Singh, Ella Summers, and K.F. Breene along with fans of reverse harem romances by B.L. Brunnemer, Eva Chase, and C.M. Stunich will love this blend of urban fantasy, reverse harem, and action adventure romance!
One-click this hot-as-hell whychoose romance!
Then be sure to check out the other authors and books in the Saturday Spankings Blog Hop!
January 21, 2020
Legally Undead #FREE #ebook #urbanfantasy #paranormalromance #pnr
A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can.
Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her PhD, then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.
But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire sucking the blood from her fiancé, Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs – not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.
As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning to face them, Elle realizes Greg’s body is gone – and her perfect life falls apart.
Fans of Ilona Andrews, Faith Hunter, Dannika Dark, and McKenzie Hunter will love this urban fantasy adventure romance!
And preorder the next two books in the Vampirarchy series!
December 9, 2019
Under Her Skin by Margo Bond Collins #FREE Dec. 9-13
She’s lucky he’s a charmer. He’s lucky she doesn’t bite. Much…
Lindi Parker works hard at being human, not an easy task for a snake shifter. She has no desire to search for others like her—until a new case changes everything. When Lindi learns that she she’s not the only shapeshifter in the world, she also realizes she might be next on a killer’s list.
In order to save herself and the abused children she works with, she will have to team up with Dr. Kade Nevala, a member of the shifter tribe responsible for eradicating weresnakes—and the most attractive man Lindi’s ever met. Even more terrifying, she’ll need to embrace her serpent side, a choice that has enormous consequences for Lindi, and for everyone around her.
Preorder the next two books in the Lindi Parker Shifter Shield series!
The Skin She’s In (Lindi Parker Shifter Shield Book 2) *
In Someone Else’s Skin (Lindi Parker Shifter Shield Book 3)
*Note: The Skin She’s In was previously published as a series of novellas, including A Generation of Vipers, More Than Skin Deep, and Saving Her Skin. It has been newly revised and edited.
About the Author
USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestselling author Margo Bond Collins is a former college English professor who, tired of explaining the difference between “hanged” and “hung,” turned to writing romance novels instead. (Sometimes her heroines kill monsters, too.)
Want to hang out with the author, win book prizes, see the cool covers first, and support Margo’s books on social media? Join The Vampirarchy, Margo’s street team on Facebook!
You can sign up for Margo’s newsletter here.
Join Margo Online
December 6, 2019
The Cursed by Blood Saga by Marianne Morea only 99c #PNR #urbanfantasy #paranormalromance
The Cursed by Blood Saga Volumes 1-3: Hunter’s Blood, Twice Cursed, Blood Legacy
Author Marianne Morea is having a HUGE sale this weekend. Grab all three
of these books in the brand new boxed set for only $.99!!
HUNTER’S BLOOD
Revenge. It’s a way of life for psychic Lily
Saburi. Haunted since the brutal murder of her best friend and
partner, she’s obsessed with retribution—a vigilante bent on striking a
blow for humanity against the shadowed world of the supernatural. Prey
turned predator she aims to even the score—one bullet at a time starting
with the beast that changed her life forever.
Prepared for Armageddon she’s in for the fight of her
life. But when mortally wounded by a diseased and
insane Were, Lily is rescued by a most unlikely
savior—Were-hunter, Sean Leighton. Sexy and powerful,
Leighton is charged with destroying anything infected with the deadly
pathogen threatening the survival of his pack, and that includes Lily.
But their immediate attraction leaves them both breathless and confused.
As Lily grapples with truth about herself, Leighton is faced with the
looming reality that he will most likely have to kill the woman he’s
falling in love with. Only time will tell if they are destined to be
together or if they’ll fall victim to the Hunter’s Blood.
TWICE CURSED
Psychic investigator, Lily Saburi is no stranger to the
supernatural. Tough as nails, she’s a hunter in her own right,
a once self-proclaimed vigilante that has joined forces with the
man she once sought to kill, and now can’t live without. Sexy,
Sean Leighton, Alpha of the Brethren of Weres. Their passion surpassed
every obstacle set in front of them, yet in the wake of a mysterious
virus threatening everyone they love, they are embroiled in an
unforgiving scheme of political double dealing, hidden agendas and
assassination, with Lily and Sean as primary targets. To stay
together, they are forced apart. But treachery follows hard on Lily’s
heels when she returns home to find New York City bathed in a series of
bloodbaths. Baffled, the police have no leads, so they call in their
last line of defense to work the case. Lily.
Thrown together with homicide detective, Ryan Martinez, danger ensues as
the two uncover the undead truth behind the killings. Long hidden
secrets are revealed, as are truths too unbelievable to accept when Lily
is kidnapped, and Sean and Ryan must work together to find her.
Revenge and the struggle for power all play a part in this urban fantasy
suspense, taking you from the rocky coast of Maine to the heart of New
York City, the NYPD and the vampire underground, where Weres and
Vampires are forced to work together to solve the mystery of what’s
tearing their veiled world apart from the inside out.
BLOOD LEGACY
A Man Trapped Between Light and Dark
Freedom fighter, Carlos Salazar, lived by his sword, fighting evil in
the guise of righteousness and the atrocities carried out in the name of
God—until the night he met true evil. Three hundred years later, he
still walks in darkness, his only solace the hope that one day he will
find absolution and a purpose under heaven for his cursed
existence. Can forgiveness transcend time and heal a broken
soul? Even if it is no longer human?
A Woman Changed Forever
Trina Markham’s life was ordinary—until a chance meeting with the man of
her dreams. Alarmed by the intensity of their
attraction, dangerous passions ignite when she falls head over
heels for this dark stranger. But when she finds herself thrust
into a world she never knew existed, her life becomes a legacy of blood
and lies, a nightmare where the monsters are real. Can she be saved from
this nightmare, even if it means choosing death?
December 3, 2019
Cursed by Fire by Danielle Annett #FREE #UrbanFantasy #NewAdult
Cursed by Fire: A New-Adult UrbanFantasy Novel (Blood and Magic Book 1)
Blood is going to spill …
It won’t be mine.
Someone is feeding the flames, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.
The victims are innocents, chosen to pit the shifter Pack and the
vampire Coven against one another.
If war breaks out, humanity won’t survive.
But controlling fire is my thing, and I won’t let that happen.
I’m a mercenary, but this is about so much more than money. It’s my city
and someone is threatening it. I won’t stop until I find them.
When the good guys start to look more like villains, I have no choice
but to question everything I knew, including the people I thought I
could trust.
It turns out the humans might not be as helpless as they seem, and
I’m in more danger than I realized.
Grab it on Amazon HERE
October 23, 2019
The Chosen Series by Jeff Altabef & Erynn Altabef #YA #Dystopian #NativeAmerican #Paranormal
From Book 1: Wind Catcher
WINNER: 2015 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal – Young Adult
Coming-of-Age
Lies. Betrayal. Destiny. A choice that changes
everything.
My name is Juliet Wildfire Stone, and I am special. I see visions and hear voices, and I have no idea what they mean.
When someone murders medicine men in my sleepy Arizona town, I can’t help but worry my crazy grandfather is involved. He’s a medicine man and more than a just a little eccentric. He likes to tell me stories about the Great Wind Spirit and Coyote, but none of it makes any sense. I thought I knew the truth, but in order to clear his name I dive into his alien world and uncover an ancient secret society formed over two hundred years ago to keep me safe—me! And I can’t help but to start to wonder whether there’s some truth to those old stories my grandfather has been telling me.
I just want to be an average sixteen-year-old girl, but apparently I’ve never been average. Could never be average. I didn’t know it before, but I’m a Chosen, and those voices I’ve been hearing… well, they’re not just “voices.” I’ve started to develop abilities, but they might not be enough. A powerful entity called a Seeker is hunting me and he’s close—really close.
I thought I knew the answers but truth is, I don’t. Betrayed by those I love, I must choose to run or risk everything in order to fulfill my destiny. I hope I make the right choice. Don’t you?
Includes a special sneak preview of the second book in the series, Brink of Dawn.
MORE AWARDS FOR WIND CATCHER:
WINNER: Mom’s Choice Awards — Silver Medal: Young Adult Books
WINNER: Beverly Hills Books Awards – 2015: Best Young Adult Fiction
WINNER: Awesome Indies — Seal of Approval: “A treat to read.”
Evolved Publishing presents the first book in the highly acclaimed and often bestselling “Chosen” series of young adult mystery thrillers, featuring an American Indian fantasy and supernatural theme, from the same author who brought you award winners like the YA dystopian fantasy Red Death and the futuristic thriller Shatter Point, co-writing with his daughter.
[DRM-Free]
“Wind Catcher is one of the best thrillers for YA that I have read in some time…. If I hadn’t had to eat and sleep, I would have read it right through without stopping. It is just that good!”
~ Bookends
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I need answers only my father can provide. Separated from birth, we’ve only recently connected. Still, I have no one else to turn to. The Deltites are hunting me and they’re close now. We’ll fight our final battle soon. Needing more information, I force him to tell me a story about the beginning, my beginning. He sheds new light on my mom, on my grandfather Sicheii, and on how I started down this path. He spins a tale about love, a recent murder, and mysterious strangers who come to town looking for a medicine man, my grandfather. My father reveals his
own shadowy past in the story, too, but I’m not worried about who he used to be. I care only about who he is now, and who I am, and the foe I face. He made a choice back then, and it led to all of this. Now I give him a second chance—an opportunity to make things right.
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October 17, 2019
The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller #newrelease #historicalromance #gothicromance #gothic #ghosts
**Named a MOST ANTICIPATED ROMANCE of 2019 by BookPage**
Advanced Praise for THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE “Biller’s complex and intriguing debut, set in 1875 New York City…is part romance, part ghost story, and part period piece with just enough modern sentiment on the topics of feminism, mental illness, and abuse.” —Publishers Weekly
“A chemistry-fueled debut with a bit of a ghost story, great for readers of gothic romance” —Booklist
“Utterly irresistible. With engaging, original characters and dialogue as crisp as a new apple, Diana Biller’s debut will have you rooting for Alva and Sam through every spooky twist.” —Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author of the Veronica Speedwell series
“Take a Joanna Shupe Gilded Age romance, stir in a Simone St. James ghost story, add a pinch of Julia Quinn banter, and, voila! Sheer fun with a satisfying emotional conclusion.” —Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author of The English Wife
“Get ready to devour Diana Biller’s magnificent debut novel in one sitting. The Widow of Rose House boasts memorable and vibrant characters, a delicious romance, great period detail, and a hint of the supernatural. Alva and Sam spring off the page and to life, so that I now feel as though they are friends of mine. This novel is a treat not to be missed!” —Alyssa Palombo, author of The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel
THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE by Diana Biller
Diana Biller’s debut novel, THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE (St. Martin’s Griffin; October 8, 2019; $16.99), is a gorgeous piece of prose, with a decidedly dark Victorian Gothic flair and an intrepid and resilient American heroine guaranteed to delight readers everywhere.
Prior to penning this novel, Biller had one idea in mind: “Edith Wharton, ghost hunter.” After touring Wharton’s estate, The Mount, and the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, New York, she came away with a wealth of inspiration, and THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE was born.
It’s 1875, and New York’s Gilded Age is in full swing. After fleeing her abusive husband, Alva Webster spent three years being pilloried in the newspapers of two continents. Now he’s dead, and she’s returned to New York to start over, restoring Liefdehuis, a dilapidated Hyde Park mansion for her new home decoration book and hopefully her reputation in the process. So when the eccentric and brilliant
Professor Samuel Moore appears, threatening her fresh start with stories of a haunting at her house, she refuses to give him access. Alva doesn’t believe in ghosts.
A pioneer in electric lighting and a member of the nationally-adored Moore family of scientists, Sam’s latest obsession is ghosts. When he learns about a house with a surprising number of ghost stories, he’s desperate to convince its beautiful owner to let him study it. Can he find his way into her house…and her heart?
EXCERPT
New York City, February 1, 1875
Alva stood on the city sidewalk and sucked in a deep, triumphant gulp of air. The clock had just struck ten—the middle of the evening by New York City standards—and she was surrounded by elegantly dressed men escorting women dripping diamonds and rolled up tightly in furs. A few feet from her, the street was busy with carriages. She could smell the city: The damp fog, the sharp tang of refuse, the high floral notes of perfumed women. Horse dung.
Had she missed it? She wasn’t sure, although she knew she missed the steep, tangled streets of Montmartre already. But it was America that held her future now, even as it held her past. For a second her triumph was tempered by the remembrance of the thin envelope in her pocket, a few brief lines from her mother’s secretary, thanking her for her interest in visiting and regretting that Mrs. Rensselaer would be unable to see her. Alva knew her mother, likely even now sitting down to a stiff dinner with her husband and twelve of their closest friends fifty blocks away, did indeed feel regret. She just suspected it was about giv ing birth to her at all.
The restaurant door opened behind her, and, recalled to the moment, she signaled to the boy hailing cabs to find her one.
“Excuse me,” a deep voice said. “Mrs. Webster?”
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Couldn’t she stand outside for one minute without some intrepid lothario assuming she must be waiting for him? In the less than seventy-two hours she’d been back in the States, she’d been propositioned eleven times. Twice by friends of her father’s.
She glanced over her shoulder at the man, receiving an instant impression of big, though he stood mostly in the shadows. “I don’t know you,” she said, her voice flat. “Go home to your wife.”
“But I don’t have a wife,” the man said. He took a hesitant step towards her, leaving the shadows, and her eyebrows lifted. He looked more like a laborer than a man finishing a dinner at Delmonico’s, for all he was dressed in a suit and tie. Sort of dressed, she amended; the suit looked like it had been made for someone two inches shorter and two inches narrower across the shoulders. “Do I need a wife to talk to you? Is it a chaperone sort of thing? I have a mother, but she’s in Ohio.”
Alva blinked. “You’re not very good at this,” she observed. “I’m not a man, but I don’t think it’s standard behavior to invoke one’s mother at a time like this.”
They stared at each other in puzzlement. He was attractive in the sort of way she’d always imagined the heroes of western folktales to be: tall, broad shouldered, with a strong nose and a square jaw. He could stand to add barber to the list of people he needed to see, though, the one that started with tailor. Actually, looking at the way his dark blond hair fell into his eyes, she thought he’d better have it start with barber and go from there.
“There’s been a misunderstanding,” he said finally. “Perhaps if I introduce myself—my name is Professor Samuel Moore.”
He held out his hand. She looked at it, looked up at him, and did not extend her own. Bafflingly, he smiled at her, as though she’d done something rather clever.
Was he really a professor? He certainly didn’t look like one, not that it mattered, because she made it a policy, these days, never to talk to strange men—
“A professor of what?” she heard herself saying, although she was pleased it at least came out with a nice air of sarcasm and disbelief.
“This and that,” he said, still smiling. “Engineering, mostly.” She looked at his rumpled clothes. Yes, she could see that, one of those men who always had a tool in one hand and a grease can in the other. She didn’t know they were giving professorships out to men like that, but why not, after all? She was as appreciative of things like trains and working carriage wheels as the next person.
And now she’d gone and encouraged him. Stupid. “I see,” she said as coldly as she could manage. “Well, I’m not interested, so I’ll wish you good evening.”
“But how can you know if you’re not interested?” He shook his head in confusion, still smiling at her. The smile was . . . impressive. “I haven’t even explained my proposition, yet.”
“I find that if you’ve heard one proposition, you’ve heard them all,” she replied. Stop talking to him, you idiot. “They’re not as unique as men would like to believe.”
“But—who else has approached you? Was it Langley, from Yale?” His tone turned plaintive. “How did he hear about this before me?”
“Langley—who?”
“Piers Langley,” he said. “No? I can’t think of anyone else reputable—look here, if you’ve been approached by anyone from that quack Santa Fe institute you should know they’re absolute frauds.”
“Institute?” Alva said faintly. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“Your house, of course. I hadn’t realized I was so behind on the news.” His face fell—What must it be like to let all your emotions float freely on your face?—but he nodded gravely. “If it’s Langley, though, he’s an excellent researcher, and a decent human, too.”
“It’s not Lang—what do you want with my house?” It was her turn to sound plaintive.
“But that’s what—” He stared at her, his brows crunched together. “Oh god. I wasn’t—I wouldn’t—”
To her astonishment, a distinct touch of pink appeared in his cheeks. He cleared his throat.
“I beg your pardon, ma’am. Henry warned me—that is, I shouldn’t have; my proposition is not of an intimate nature.”
“I’m coming to understand that,” she said.
“You thought . . . do men . . . they must—good lord.”
She began to feel in charity with this befuddled giant. “Indeed,” she said. “I quite agree. But I must ask again—what is it you want with Liefdehuis?”
“To study it,” he said. “One of my personal interests is in metaphysical energies, you see, and from what I’ve heard, your house may prove a most interesting case. Your ghost story is so recent, you know. I hardly ever hear one claiming to be that new—”
He broke off as she shook her head. “You almost had me convinced that you were unlike the majority of your sex,” she said. “And now I see you are. I’m just not sure insanity is much of an improvement.”
To her surprise, he smiled again. “You’re not the only one who thinks so,” he said. The embarrassment had left his face; he was quite relaxed once more. A man who apologizes for a proposition and grins at an insult, Alva thought. Where did you come from, Professor Moore?
“And I’ll admit there’s no conclusive evidence yet,” he continued, “but what I have collected looks extremely promising. Certainly promising enough to warrant extensive study.”
A hint of cold pierced her thoughts. Firmly, she banished it. “You’re talking about ghosts,” she said.
“Maybe,” he replied. “Or I could be studying some kind of alien intelligence that just happens to concentrate in areas corresponding to local folklore.”
“Alien intelligence.”
“Invisible alien intelligence,” he clarified. “At least invisible to the naked human eye. But ‘ghost’ is probably the easiest term.”
“Really.”
“People tend to go a bit strange when you talk to them about invisible alien intelligences,” he confided. “Which is odd, when you think about it, because why are the shades of one’s dead ancestors any less unsettling?”
She found herself nodding before the rest of her wits caught up with her. “No,” she said, not because the word corresponded with any particular question, but because she had the feeling the only way to survive here was to stick to very black-and-white words. His nuances were both compelling and sticky. “I’m afraid I won’t give you access. I don’t believe in ghosts, and I’m about to start several months’ worth of building work.”
“Don’t decide yet,” he begged. “I’m willing to pay you for the privilege, and I promise I won’t be in the way . . . although there is rather a lot of equipment, so I suppose—”
The boy hailing cabs caught her eye and gestured as a hansom pulled up beside him.
“That’s mine,” she said. “I’m sorry I can’t help you. Good evening.”
“Wait!” he said. “I’ll—I’ll send you a letter. Henry said that was the way to do it—I’ll write you and explain more.”
“It won’t help,” she said as the cab boy helped her into the carriage. “I’m sorry. Good-bye, Professor Moore.”
Finally, he sighed acceptance and raised his hand. “Good evening, Mrs. Webster.”
As the cab pulled away from the sidewalk, though, she looked back at him, to find him staring after her with his hands shoved in his pockets and that apparently irrepressible grin back in place. An uncomfortable lightness expanded in her chest as she watched him standing head-and-shoulders taller than the passersby around him, looking back at her as though he would be perfectly happy never to look at anything else ever again.
What couldn’t I get, if I could look at people like that? she thought, and settled grumpily back against her seat.
About the Author
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DIANA BILLER lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their very good dog. THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE is her debut novel.
