Beauty in Ruins

Going on Indefinite Hiatus...

2022-05-03T18:31:00.001-04:00

As someone who is neurodivergent, the line between interest and obsession is one with which I've always struggled. I'm incapable of dabbling or experimenting. Whether it's reading, reviewing, blogging, or something else, it's an all-or-nothing commitment - and one that usually comes with (self-imposed) obligations. It's why, if a book catches my attention, I'll buy an entire trilogy (or more) before even reading the first page of the first book. It's also why, when I find an author I like, I'll often go out and buy everything they've written just on principle.

Because of that, when it comes to reviewing, there's often a compulsion for me to take on everything, to accept or request more review titles than I can possibly read. I go through cycles, (increasingly shorter) periods where I try to hold back, try to resist, try to reign myself in and focus on what I know I'll definitely, absolutely, positively read next . . . only to have that all fall apart the moment obsession returns.

After a Sunday night doubling up on Beyond Oak Island & Oak Island, treasure hunting adventure novels come calling. After an episode or two of Lower Decks, I start browsing for sci-fi novels. Watch a strong woman character on a Suits or Yellowstone binge, and I start looking for thrillers with kickass heroines. Admire a romantic moment between Maze and Eve on our final season watch of Lucifer, and suddenly it's a romance I want to read next. Before you know it, I'm suddenly drowning in review titles that were perfect in the moment, and which I still want to read, just not necessarily right now.

Compounding all of that is the fact that I suffer from anxiety and seasonal depression, which have been growing worse as I get older. The prolonged darkness, cold, snow, and misery of October through April takes its toll, emotionally and physically, and the whole COVID experience hasn't helped. It used to be that, after a long day of being stuck in the house, we could go out for dinner (take-out only for much of the last two years), hit the bookstore (which closes at 7 instead of 10, when they're not restricted to curbside only), or run to a gym (which have been closed more than they're open, if they're not out of business entirely), but so much of that has gone away.

The weariness, that sense of being trapped, that feeling of hopelessness, it all makes it even harder to deal with those review obligations, to the point where picking up a book becomes more of a chore than a pleasure, and choosing a next book is all-but paralyzing.

Then, just to add insult to injury, this winter I've had to face the fact that my eyes are aging along with the rest of me. It's getting harder to read in the evening darkness, and so much harder for me to switch my focus between objects at a distance and objects nearby. Something snags my attention, I make the mistake of looking up to see what's happening on TV, and when I look back down the words on the page are a fuzzy blur. They eventually come back if I stare long enough, but that also means I go to bed more nights than not with a headache.

Long story short, I'm stepping away from blogging to focus more on reading (and, yes, reviewing). I'll keep posting pictures of current reads or purchases to my Instagram and Twitter, and I'll keep tracking my reading progress and reviewing books on Goodreads, but the blog itself is going on hiatus. Never say never, as I may find my way back, but as the third time's often the charm, this may very well be the hiatus that sticks.

Best wishes, good luck with your reads, and hopefully our paths will continue to cross elsewhere.

Excerpt & Giveaway: Last Worst Hopes by Lee Hunt

2022-05-02T04:23:00.009-04:00

Lee Hunt has a new epic fantasy out in both eBook/print and audiobook formats, set in the world of the Dynamicist Trilogy: Last Worst Hopes. And there's a giveaway!

Their world was ending, all the heroes were dead, the leaders confused, and their enemies were head and shoulders above them. But there was no one else; they were the dregs, the last worst hopes.

Nehring Ardgour has summoned Skoll and Hati from hell. They have torn through the proud and ancient country of Engevelen and the angelic Methueyn Knights that protect it. Armies have died, cities have fallen. None of the great remain. No brilliant inventors, no powerful knights, no master wizards.

No heroes.

But it gets worse. Farrah Harbinger has looked into the future and foretells the coming of an enemy worse than all the others, a creature of destruction and entropy like no other. A being who will grind all hopes and memory of civilization into dust: the One, True Devil.

Who can stop it? Who is left to even try?

Surely not Val, an arrogant young wizard who no one takes seriously, or Mick, an old man who can’t even remember his name. Certainly not Dav, who cannot seem to tell left from right or up from down, or Aveline, a squire filled with more questions than courage. No one would pick them to save the world, and yet there is no one else left.

Universal Buy Link | Get it On Amazon

Giveaway

Lee is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47235/?

Excerpt

They watched, hardly daring to breathe. Then, as if buffeted by a sudden wind, something stirred among the trees. An instant later, the movement resolved into soldiers, running, seven of them, bursting from the trees. It looked like someone in the group might have stumbled and been helped up by others.

The horn called a single note, which cut off almost before fully forming.

“Run!” shouted the major.

“Run!” shouted Havard.

The call echoed up and down the line, but to Mick it did not look like the soldiers were running fast at all. It almost never does, when you’re watching someone impatiently, and absolutely never does when they might die if they’re too slow. He wondered how he knew this.

The image of Sir Valence playing fetch with Fenris blazed like the sun in Mick’s eyes.

Last chances.

Mick did not shout “Run!” but suddenly, unaccountably, he found himself over the line with a pike in his hands, running toward the struggling rangers. He did not remember grabbing the pike or leaping over the wall. He did not remember if landing from the six-foot height had hurt his ancient knees. Mick did not remember his earlier self-doubt, never worried if he would get to the rangers in time, never speculated that he might not be needed, or if his effort was a fool’s errand, the futile histrionics of a mad, old fool from a house of fools, never wondered if he might do more harm than good or fretted that a wall of monsters might come out of the trees and dwarf any effort a hundred of him could muster. He never considered in any way the question of leaping the wall or not. There was no thought or speech involved at all.

He simply ran.

“Mick, get back here!” bellowed Havard. “For knight’s sake, stop!”

But Mick was gone.

The ground sped by quickly as the rangers grew closer and closer. Two huge, strange shapes broke out of the trees, aiming straight for the soldiers. He tightened his grip on the pike, lowered his head, and charged.

The rangers abruptly stopped and formed a semi-circle. One of them limped on as the rest rotated their spears and planted them, gleaming tips pointing up and back toward the trees. An instant later, the skolves hit them, hard, pushing recklessly into the rangers’ spears, swiping at them with their rusty swords. For a moment, the spears held them there, but could not turn them back. Mick could see the skolves shake from side to side, paws, swords and bodies trying to dislodge the spears from the rangers’ hands and get inside their arcuate line.

As Mick rushed toward the battle, one of the spears broke. The rightmost skolve lunged forward with a roar and was immediately hit on its horse-length head by an overhand sword stroke delivered by one of the rangers. The creature reeled back and fell.

Mick broke left for several long strides, then sharply right into the flank of the skolve still held at spear length. “Last chance!” he roared as he lunged and thrust his pike straight into the chest of the beast, taking it off its feet so suddenly that its sword flew out of its huge paw, tracing a spinning arc through the sky before disappearing into the grass. Ferociously, the old man twisted the bladed end of the pike, which had penetrated a foot-and-a-half into the creature’s chest cavity, and step-pulled it out. Dark red blood sloshed out of the ragged wound, but the beast was done. It could only collapse and curl weakly around itself.

The other skolve was struggling under spear thrusts from four of the rangers. With an incomprehensible roar, Mick leaped forward and rammed his spear into the skolve’s head, just missing its eye. It skittered along skull until it caught at the base of where its cheekbone would be. Mick pushed harder, forcing the skolve’s head roughly to the earth, and the haft broke, making him stumble forward with seven feet of wood in his hands. He stepped between the rangers, shifted his grip, and speared the skolve again in the snout with the broken end of the pike haft. It tried to scramble up but collapsed, bleeding from dozens of wounds, but the soldiers kept slashing at it. No one was certain when it would be safe to stop stabbing. Another ranger was rolling around on the ground, hands to his leg, blood seeping between fingers.

“Pick him up,” said one of the rangers at last, a man with a rough goatee.

Mick shouldered his way in, whipped off his belt, slapped the man’s hands away from his leg, and wrapped it tight twice around, just above a large gash oozing red. “I’ll take him,” he wheezed, picking the soldier up and slinging him over his shoulder.

“Run!” a female ranger screamed. “There’s more coming!” Her voice dropped. “All of them.”

Mick did not bother looking back, knew that there was no looking back once over the wall once the chance was taken. There were, however, consequences.

A vast, high-pitched wail passed overhead. A sheet of arrows. Mick knew the sound from somewhere in the distant past. A storm punctuated by the pounding of arrows as they struck their targets. Mick did not look back.

“Look out!” cried the man he was carrying, and an instant later something heavy struck the back of Mick’s leg. He stumbled and went down. The soldier flopped off his shoulders with a scream. “Ahhh. Fuck me,” the man groaned. “Why?” he cried piteously as he rolled weakly, one arm over his face.

Mick staggered back up, hopped, found that his legs still worked, saw nothing was sticking out of himself, shoveled the ranger back up into his arms, and started running again.

“Grandpa,” the ranger whispered. “Grandpa … don’t drop me again.”

Author Bio

Born with only one working lung and having had the last rights read to him and dying of an influenza related viral pneumonia, 25-year-old geophysicist Lee Hunt experienced several near-death dreams. The power of communication and the need to both understand and be understood was at the heart of each. He had already found that nothing was more important than being able to cross the distance between people.

Lee’s interests are eclectic. He is an Ironman Triathlete, hiker, traveler, and an enthusiastic sport rock climber. Lee also continues to work as a geophysicist on Carbon Capture and Sequestration projects, and is a writer for BIG-Media.ca.

The dream of understanding and being understood has never left his mind, and Lee continues that in his works of fiction through metaphor. His works include The Dynamicist Trilogy, Last Worst Hopes and Bed of Rose and Thorns.

Author Website: https://www.leehunt.org/

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100052376555360

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/DynamicistAuthor

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1196106.Lee_Hunt

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): DynamicistAuthor

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Hunt/e/B082YFTMCK

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Last Worst Hopes by Lee Hunt

2022-04-19T06:41:00.003-04:00

Lee Hunt has a new epic fantasy coming out in both eBook/print and audiobook formats, set in the world of the Dynamicist Trilogy: Last Worst Hopes. And we have the cover reveal! There's a giveaway too.

Their world was ending, all the heroes were dead, the leaders confused, and their enemies were head and shoulders above them. But there was no one else; they were the dregs, the last worst hopes.

No heroes.

Who can stop it? Who is left to even try?

Universal Buy Link | Get it On Amazon

Giveaway

Lee is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47233/?

Excerpt

The horn called a single note, which cut off almost before fully forming.

“Run!” shouted the major.

“Run!” shouted Havard.

The image of Sir Valence playing fetch with Fenris blazed like the sun in Mick’s eyes.

Last chances.

He simply ran.

“Mick, get back here!” bellowed Havard. “For knight’s sake, stop!”

But Mick was gone.

“Pick him up,” said one of the rangers at last, a man with a rough goatee.

“Run!” a female ranger screamed. “There’s more coming!” Her voice dropped. “All of them.”

Mick did not bother looking back, knew that there was no looking back once over the wall once the chance was taken. There were, however, consequences.

Mick staggered back up, hopped, found that his legs still worked, saw nothing was sticking out of himself, shoveled the ranger back up into his arms, and started running again.

“Grandpa,” the ranger whispered. “Grandpa … don’t drop me again.”

Author Bio

Author Website: https://www.leehunt.org/

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100052376555360

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/DynamicistAuthor

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1196106.Lee_Hunt

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/lee-hunt/

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Hunt/e/B082YFTMCK

Cover Reveal: She’s the One Who Scares Us All by S.R. Cronin

2022-04-08T05:21:00.009-04:00

S.R. Cronin has a new historical fantasy coming out (The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters book 7), and we have the cover reveal: She's the One Who Scares Us All.

Plus there's a giveaway!

Iolite, the youngest of seven sisters, was born a frundle, a rare condition that makes her both shunned and feared in Ilari. This has made her family doubly protective of her, even though she only wants to live a normal life and have the sorts of adventures her sisters do.

Although frundles suffer from some physical and emotional challenges, they also have valuable powers that no one discusses. Iolite learns more when she forges a connection with a roving army on horseback from far away Mongolia. She soon learns that the adventure-loving men she enjoys riding with in her visions are planning to invade her homeland.

When the Mongols send envoys to discuss terms of surrender, Iolite goes into a trance and serves as translator. Her family fears for her, knowing such trances can damage a frundle’s health. But her own people become a more serious threat to her when a secret cabal inside of Ilari’s army contrives to imprison Iolite and force her to become on ongoing source of information.

How much does a daughter of the realm owe her country? Iolite has plenty of time to ponder the question trapped in her cold dark cell.

What she does once she is freed will determine the fate of her people.

Universal Buy Link

About the Series

The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters consists of seven short companion novels. Each tells the personal story and perspective of one of seven radically different sisters in the 1200s as they prepare for an invasion of their realm. While these historical fantasy/alternate history books can be enjoyed as stand-alone novels, together they tell the full story of how Ilari survived.

Which sister saved the realm? That will depend on whose story you are reading.

How do they do it? Each sister offers surprise information on why this didn't go as anyone planned.

Giveaway

S.R. is giving away a $10 Amazon or B&N gift card (winners choice) with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47231/?

Excerpt

“What’s your name?”

I didn’t know whether to answer the stranger or not. We seemed to both be in jail, yet I had no idea why. He wore well-tailored clothes on his tall, thin frame, so other than looking like he could use a good meal or two, he appeared refined.

“What are we doing in here?” I said.

“Ah, yes. That is the question. You’ll figure it out in time.”

We stared at each other between the thick metal bars. Me annoyed. Him amused.

“Iolite. My name is Iolite.”

“Really? Another one named for a stone? Your parents certainly lacked imagination, didn’t they?”

I said nothing. I’d learned long ago that engaging in meaningful conversation with the people in these dreams was pointless. I avoided it.

I already knew I’d meet this man eventually. If my previous dreams were any indication, he’d look the way he did here but he’d speak for himself, not echo my thoughts. We might find ourselves in jail when it happened, but more likely it would just feel like a jail to me. I’d probably meet him at a time when I felt confined by circumstances. Sadly, my dreams conveyed more about my future emotions than they did about any future reality, making their information hard to use.

“I’ve had enough of this,” I said to him. “I’m going to wake up.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.” Then he chuckled. “See you around.”

He kept laughing at his own witticism until he went into a fit of coughing and I woke up grateful to be in my small cot. Many of the girls at the school shared rooms with others, but I was allowed to sleep alone. At times like this, it was a blessing.

I pulled the blankets closer around my body trying to stay warm, thinking I didn’t mind the physical oddities life thrust upon me when it made me a frundle. Okay, my short stature was sometimes a nuisance but I rather liked my silver hair. I found my purple eyes attractive, too, though plenty of others averted their gaze rather than look into them. I always wondered what they feared.

My dreams, however, did present an actual problem. They had started a year ago, and happened more often now, leaving me wide awake in the middle of the night filled with questions. I kept both the dreams and the questions to myself. I knew people didn’t mind frundles, as long as they stayed in the background and caused no trouble.

The only troublesome ones were the ones who had the dreams. Or worse yet, the dreams and episodes.

But I wasn’t that kind. Not yet. Not as far as anyone knew.

Because I’d never had a single episode. For you can hide the dreams, but there is no way to hide that.

Author Bio

Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and now writes a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. The synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.

She’s made a lot of stops along the way. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. She’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up fine, both despite how odd she is.

These days she lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she also answers a hot-line, does things to improve her writing, and volunteers for the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) of which she’ s proud member.

It is her life’s dream to tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.

Author Website: https://troublesome7sisters.xyz/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/46Ascending

Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/cinnabar01

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.r.cronin/

Author Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/5805814.Sherrie_Cronin

Author Amazon: www.amazon.com/Sherrie-Cronin/e/B007FRMO9Q

Excerpt: Black Swan Empire by James Peters.

2022-03-17T04:09:00.009-04:00

James Peters has a new sci-fi adventure out, Black Swan series book 3: Black Swan Empire.

Raka Varoule, Maven Blackheart, and Marco return for one final adventure in Black Swan Empire!

When Maven nearly starts WWIII as a result of an international nuclear incident, she and Raka are forced to flee from Earth and return to the Galactic Empire, but they aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. They are quickly drawn into a plot that just happens to involve the assassination of Emperor Caligula himself.

With the help of some old friends and a few frenemies, they face their biggest challenge yet when the entire Empire is on the line.

About the Series:

Raka Varoule is a second-rate investigative reporter and just an average citizen of the Galactic Empire. When he weasels his way on the Emperor’s own Star-Cruiser and exposes the illicit activities of this very adult party, his life takes a minor change of direction.

Escaping with the help of a leather-clad dominatrix, the Emperor’s own ganja runner, and a chimpanzee wearing assless chaps, Raka makes it to a barbarian world some call “Earth”, only to find himself very alone and very vulnerable.

Raka survives and has a series of hilarious adventures before learning that it’s up to him to protect Earth from an Imperial retrieval team, set to destroy everything. He’ll need the help of his Imperial companions to do this, but can he trust them?

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Swan Spawn

To my great surprise, I found myself on a warm beach watching the waves pound repeatedly against a rocky shoreline, while winds whirled around me making a repetitive and comforting pattern of sounds. I was completely alone, yet I felt a sense of contentment just to be. Just to be here, just to be alone, just to be alive.

A lemon-yellow sun smiled down upon me, and a few cotton-candy clouds dotted a perfect blue sky. A wave washed up just far enough to tickle my toes; the water was warm and welcoming. I took a few steps into the ocean to see small fish schooling around my legs. When they looked up at me, they seemed happy.

A dolphin crested over a distant wave. It turned toward me, approaching quickly but I felt no sense of fear. The dolphin raised up out of the water in front of me and spoke, but not in Dolphinese, instead, he spoke in perfect English. “What do you do if you don’t have enough cash to buy a coffee mug?”

I didn’t waste my time considering the concept that an aquatic mammal was talking to me. Instead, I simply responded, “I don’t know Mr. Dolphin. What do you do if you don’t have enough cash to buy a coffee mug?” “You write a cup-check!” The dolphin said as it slammed its nose into my crotch with enough force to shatter the side-window of an ’83 Escort.

I screamed and flailed to find myself snapped into reality, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. I was laying on my back in a bed with dozens of electronic sensors connected to me, an IV line in my arm, a hospital-style light shining in my face, and a fat little fuck of a kid laughing at me. He was maybe twelve years old and he still had his hands on my junk. He had black hair, raging acne, a triple chin, thick glasses, and he repeatedly sniffed as if he were snorting black pepper.

“Now the stinky man is awake!” the kid said and made a snorting sound like he was hawking up a loogie. “Fifty buck says I can hit you in the eye with this.”

“Fifty bucks says if you don’t back away from me immediately, I’ll beat you into next year, you little shit.” I began ripping off the electronic sensor pads and tried to get up, only to find I didn’t have the strength.

“You think you’re a tough guy? My bodyguard could rip you in two long-ways and not even break a sweat.” He sniffed, then wiped his nose down his black shirt sleeve. An eight-inch-long trail of mucus glistened in the light on his shirt sleeve.

I grabbed Tubby McZitface by both arms where his biceps should have been and tried to shake him. “You ever touch me again you’ll regret it for what little is left of your sad, pathetic life.”

The kid’s eyes opened wide and his lip quivered in fear. Tears flowed freely down his cheeks, making a roundabout path between fat and pimple. His mouth opened for several seconds before any sound came out, but finally he screamed an ear-piercing wail of “Smiles!”

The door flung open, rattling against its stop. A huge gorilla wearing a perfectly tailored gray suit stepped inside. He had a scar across his cheek, and as he approached I smelled the pleasant fragrance of his shampoo.

“Rip the bad man in two!” Tubby said to the gorilla.

“I’m sorry, Master Filbert. I’m unable to harm Mr. Raka, as I’m sworn to protect him.”

“Can you at least give him a super-atomic wedgie?” Filbert wiped big wet tears from his cheeks.

“No,” the gorilla replied.

I felt a sense of relief. “General Smiles. It’s good to see you again. Be a sport and toss this evil little turd into the street, ideally into traffic. Thanks buddy” “I can’t do that either.”

“Why not?”

“I’m sworn to protect him as well.”

“Why?” I asked, as a deep sense of nausea and dread flushed through my body as if I were in a porta-potty in the act of being tipped over, balancing on its edge for just an instant before engaging maximum shitstorm.

“Because sir, he’s your son.”

Author Bio

James Peters fell in love with Science Fiction at a young age, becoming hooked on the works of Asimov, Anderson, and Pohl (among many others), as well as the mixed bag of anything labeled Science Fiction on television or at the movies while growing up. While in grade school, he was given an assignment to write a journal about anything he wanted. He quickly filled the pages with a Buck Roger’s type adventure of robots, spaceships, and pew-pewing lasers, discovering his inner passion to write.

He writes with a gritty blend of character-driven action, wry humor, and social commentary that transports the reader through wild worlds of speculative fiction and fantasy. He’s known to cross the borders of different genres into new territory, along with an occasional ‘wink and nod’ to pop culture and other authors, then shock the reader with an unexpected turn of events.

Sit back, open your mind and enjoy the ride. Your adventure awaits.

Author Website: https://authorjamespeters.com/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/BlackSwanPlanet

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/james-peters/

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B017TQ8VUS

Excerpt & Giveaway: Daring Duplicity by Edale Lane

2022-03-16T05:09:00.009-04:00

Edale Lane has a new FF historical steampunk book out: Daring Duplicity. And there's a giveaway!

Solving mysteries is her business. Finding love is her dream. Will combining the two get her killed?

Victorian Era England. Stetson revels in being unconventional. So when society shies away from her independent nature, the bold woman creates an imaginary boss and opens her own detective agency. And her keen observational skills, convincing disguises, and Holmesian methods quickly bring in a string of tough-to-crack cases.

Struggling to squeeze a personal life in around a series of hazardous investigations, Stetson worries she'll never find a woman of like-passions. But with her heart set on true love despite the risk, she carries on hunting for the perfect relationship.

Will her clever escapades lead to death… or delight?

Daring Duplicity: The Wellington Mysteries, Vol. 1, Adventures of a Lesbian Victorian Detective is a collection of five sequential novellas, each encompassing its own exciting mystery while furthering the story of Stetson’s life in London. If you enjoy crime dramas, Victorian era fiction, or a sweet lesbian romance, then you’ll love award-winning author Edale Lane’s Daring Duplicity. Order yours today!

Amazon | Goodreads

Giveaway

Edale is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47227/?

Excerpt

Jewel gripped her own gloved hands and scanned the room anxiously. "It is a matter of the utmost discretion," she began in a tone much more demanding than she had intended. "It is of a personal nature, you see," she continued more gently and forced a polite smile. "May I speak with Mr. Wellington in private?"

Miss Goody responded with a pleasant smile of her own. "I'm afraid that will not be possible. Mr. X is extremely successful in foiling criminals because of his anonymity. In fact, no one has ever seen him but me. All correspondence between the investigator and the clients goes through his assistant—me. So how this works is, you tell me the specifics, I talk to him, and he gives me a list of questions to ask, and so forth. I assure you, anything you say to me will be kept in the strictest of confidence, just as if you were conversing with the detective himself."

"I see." The assistant paused for a moment before continuing and her attention fell on Miss Goody for the first time, being specifically drawn to ample breasts squeezed into her buttoned waist coat. It required conscious effort for Jewel to raise her gaze, but doing so she became captivated by two warm, caring cognac eyes. "Very well, then. I am being blackmailed, and the nature of the information being held over me makes it impossible to go to Scotland Yard, or a constable, or even my father, for the money. I receive an allowance, not enough to meet the foul villain's demands, but sufficient to cover your agency's fees and expenses I'm sure."

"I see," she replied with a soft expression of compassion. "Was the man you were seen with married, or simply from the wrong side of the tracks?"

"Well," Jewel stammered, cleared her throat, and fixed her gaze on a painting on the wall. "Not exactly. And he has a photograph."

Miss Goody sighed and leaned forward, her palms on the desk top. "Now, Lady Jewel Ashton, if we are to find this blackmailer and save your reputation, you cannot hold anything back. How can Mr. Wellington help you if you won't tell us the whole story?"

"It is not my reputation I am concerned with," she admitted, a hint of real fear trembling in her voice. "My whole family could be ruined, utterly ruined, and destroy my father's political career. We would be forced to retreat to our estate in the countryside. I cannot allow shame to come upon my family for one moment's indiscretion."

Miss Goody met her eyes. "I assure you if you provide Mr. X all the information he needs, he can find this scoundrel, take back the photo and the plates, and give him every reason to keep his deceitful mouth closed on the matter."

Jewel held her gaze for a long moment, and believing her sincerity, made a decision—the only one she could really make. She opened her reticule and withdrew a tan envelope. "Someone left this in my carriage while I was shopping. My driver said he didn't see or hear a thing." She placed the parcel on the desk within Miss Goody's reach and held her breath.

Stetson opened the envelope and spilled its contents out onto the desk. Inside was a note and a photograph, not of Jewel kissing a married man, but another young woman! For an instant, time stood still. A flush rose in Jewel's cheeks while Stetson's mouth absently fell agape as she stared dumbfounded at the image. Stetson's mind raced almost as fast as her heart. Could it be that this beautiful gem who walked in this morning has the same inclination as myself? Could there actually be other women who love women, that I am not a singular oddity? She not only had these thoughts, but acted on them! She had never met another like-minded woman—not to mention one whose looks could stop a locomotive in its tracks like Jewel Ashton.

She was roused from her musings when she heard a desperate voice from across the desk. "So now you see the urgency and delicacy of the matter."

She quickly shoved the note and the photograph back into the envelope and replied with sincerity. "Do not be distressed, Lady Jewel Ashton. We will take care of this with great expediency. I shall show these to the detective and he will know just what to do. Wait here. I'll return anon."

Stetson stepped into the room behind her, leaned against the closed door, and let out a deep sigh. With eyes shut and hugging herself, she took a moment to process the warm thrill that rose from her loins. Reveling in the euphoric rush, she wanted to believe the impossible–that maybe her dreams could come true. Mayhap there was a chance, ever so slight, that she, too, could act on her passions. Her breathing became ragged as she imagined kissing Jewel, and being kissed in return. Her heart pounded in excitement. Until reality stuck its ugly head into her dream reminding her there was a case to solve. Stetson moaned softly in aggravation and opened her eyes to glance around her inner sanctum.

Within the confines of Mr. Wellington's lair were all the implements one would need to be a successful private investigator. On the wall to the left was an array of weapons, including both an umbrella and walking cane hiding swords in their handles, an umbrella with a singleshot rifle barrel and a trigger in the handle, several knives, guns, and gadgets. A glass-doored cabinet contained other curiosities such as a wristwatch that concealed a tiny explosive, a unique copper and brass miniature camera with flash attachment, a mirror attached to a long folding pole for seeing around corners or over walls, telescopic opera glasses, and a voice recording device. There was a table holding an array of wigs in vast colors and styles for both men and women, false beards and moustaches, along with an exhaustive selection of hats. Hanging from hooks on another wall were various costumes for the well-to-do business people, and the poor, male and female alike. There was a large vanity with a mirror and cases of cosmetics and face powder as one might see backstage of a theatre. Yes, the windowless room had all the trappings to outfit a man of mystery save one—there was no Xavier Wellington… only Stetson.

Author Bio

Edale Lane is an award-winning author (Rainbow Awards, Imaginarium Awards, Lesfic Bard Awards) who is realizing her dream of being a full-time writer. She is the alter-ego of author Melodie Romeo, (Tribute in Blood, Terror in Time, and others) who founded Past and Prologue Press. Both identities are qualified to write historical fiction by virtue of an MA in History and 24 years spent as a teacher, along with skill and dedication regarding research. A native of Vicksburg, MS, Edale (or Melodie) is also a musician who loves animals, gardening, and nature. After driving an 18-wheeler cross-country for eight years, she now lives with her partner in beautiful Chilliwack, B.C. Canada.

Author Website: https://pastandprologuepress.lpages.co/

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/melodie.romeo/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/Pastandprologuepress/

Author Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EdaleLane

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melodieromeo/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15264354.Edale_Lane

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/edale-land/

Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/edale-land/

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Edale-Lane/e/B07GRFPDRZ

Excerpt & Giveaway: Knight in Retrograde by Lee Hunt.

2022-03-07T04:43:00.001-05:00

Lee Hunt's epic fantasy book Knight in Retrograde is now available in audiobook format, in addition to eBook and paperback. And there's a giveaway!

Would you trade uncertainty for stagnation, chance for god, invention for inertia, thought for dogma?

Four years have passed since the events of Dynamicist and war is on the horizon.

Robert, Koria, Eloise and Gregory went to the New School, hoping to change the world. They thought that mathematically based dynamics, the enlightened age's answer to wizardry, would give them the power to make everything better. Their hopes were naïve.

Protestors are condemning the creation of a new vaccine. The city is seeing a series of hangings; is it murder or sacrament? The cloaked man is back stalking students. The long-absent demons Skoll and Hati reappear and begin slaughtering whoever they meet. But the real question is, will Nimrheal return? If he does, who will die first?

Uncertainty is inspiring fear, and inventions are not making the world better, only more complicated. The terrified civilians don't want dynamics and reason. They want the word of Elysium and the return of the Methueyn Knights.

Koria fears the world faces an awful conundrum: that if the Knights return, Nimrheal will stay.

Will Robert, Koria, Eloise and Gregory choose to transform into angelic knights or, at the cost of such heavenly communion, instead banish Nimrheal? What price will be paid? If a new Methueyn Knight rises, will the age of invention disappear forever?

About the Series:

The Dynamicist Trilogy examines the difficulties of change in a fantasy setting. This challenge manifests itself through a rigorous magic system where thermodynamic cost is accounted for, and an inventor killing god. Most realistically, the challenge of creating a better world is illustrated by the many mistakes and miss-steps of the well-meaning and intelligent characters. The power and importance of memory, love and hope are ever present.

Universal Buy Link | Amazon

Guest Post - Eloise as a Little Girl

He was cut off by a loud, violent knocking on the door.

“Hide her eyes,” Hemdale said. “It’s best she does not see this.”

Eloise’s parents ran up to block Eloise’s view, but the little girl peered around them to see. Hemdale had raised his sword in one hand as if to strike. As she watched through her daddy’s legs, he opened the door with the other. Eloise wondered how her uncle could pull off a swipe with a sword so long inside their tiny house, but she was looking forward to seeing this. On the other side of the door was a woman in armor like her uncle’s. She was not tall at all, but looked confident. Uncle Hemdale lowered his gargantuan weapon. “Chamyle, you came,” he said, his rough voice sounding almost happy for once.

Chamyle took off her helm. Long, braided blond hair spilled out like golden ropes. “Hello, little one,” she said, peering at Eloise.

“I’m almost as big as you!” Eloise piped back.

The knight smiled. “I’m Sir Valcryst. Maybe I’ll see you again.” Looking back at Hemdale, she said, “I’ll head out to the correction line and see if I can put a stop to this, but they may also be coming by the south road. Jormundheim is joining us too, but he may be held up.”

The night was a long nightmare of running that Eloise, dying on the rope, could not remember all of. She was only three when it had all happened, and what remained was a curious, traumatic mix of vivid, vague, and simply missing. She could only piece together that her father had died first, holding off a group of men in a moonlit field. She never saw him go down, but she knew that he had stayed behind to buy time and had never managed to rejoin them. Later, her mother disappeared doing the same. Balls of fire and sheets of lightning coursed across the sky throughout the journey. Columns of soldiers exploded, smoke blotted out the moon, and at some point Aloysia was suddenly covered in frost and shivering like a leaf. Then she was gone too.

“It’s best you don’t see,” Hemdale whispered, covering her eyes as he ran through fields. Three times, he threw her under a hedge while he fought groups of men in the chaotic dark. “It’s best you don’t see,” he said again and again as he ran through fields or carried the little girl across streams. “Don’t see what you love dead,” he huffed, perhaps speaking to himself as well. Eloise never saw and barely remembered, but as she hung by her neck, she grew confident at last that Hemdale had seen and did remember their faces and their sacrifices.

Finally, Hemdale’s armor lost the long war of attrition. Utterly destroyed, it hung off him with no greater tensile strength than the blood that streamed off the dozens of wounds he had taken that night. Even her Uncle Hemdale could eventually be spent. As terrific as the sword he carried was at slicing through hardened plate armor and sending limbs flying, even it needed to be swung extraordinarily hard to do so. When the double troop of horsemen rode out to cut them off, Hemdale took a knee and faced his niece. He lifted the hilt of the great sword to show it to Eloise and changed his words from “It’s best you don’t see” to “Do you see this, Eloise?”

“Do you see it?” he repeated. “This sword was made by Meycal Endicott. It is the hardest steel in the world, the strongest ever forged, made into the biggest sword of its kind ever contemplated. Making it was a huge risk for Meycal and his dad. Nothing even close to it had been done before. But you know what made them take the decision to try?”

Eloise shook her head and Hemdale smiled, though his was not a pretty smile as when other people smiled. “Meycal has a little boy named Robert. He’s just your age.”

“So?” Eloise asked, lower lip trembling.

“So?” Hemdale mirrored Eloise’s question. “Meycal’s wife had just died, so Robert only had a father. And Meycal, that little boy’s father, is dead now too. He died making this for me. For you.”

“But why?”

Hemdale looked back at the troop of knights as they marched closer. There were at least forty of them. “Meycal and his father think you’re important. They thought you were worth the risk of making this steel.”

Eloise’s eyes blurred. I want my mommy. “Am I worth it?” Even at three, she only spoke the relevant words.

“It’s called Sacrifice, Eloise,” Hemdale said, standing up. He looked back at her. “That’s the name of the sword, and it’s also the thing about sacrifice. It’s worth it, but real sacrifice always hurts. Not everyone or everything can be saved. If they could be, there would not be sacrifice. Now stay here.”

Eloise did not stay there.

Giveaway

Lee is giving away a $30 Amazon gift card with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47224/?

Excerpt

As their eyes met, Heylor found himself abruptly pulled away from the handshake and whirled around by the strong hands of his mother on his shoulder. “What in Leylah’s long night happened to your face, Heylor?”

This again.

“It looks like he got trampled across the gizzard by a team of oxen,” said Herevor in a deadpan voice, rubbing his long narrow jaw with his right hand. His fingernails were black with dirt.

“He wouldn’t tell me what happened!” Shelley yelled from the kitchen table.

I don’t want to talk about it.

“Who’s there?” came a new voice from the couch. It was grandma’s broken, warbly twitter. Heylor peered into the den again and saw her slouched low on the half-collapsed couch. Beside her, perched primly with a straight back, sat Constable Lynwen, hands on lap. Heylor had not seen the young woman cross the room and sit down. He had forgotten about her completely, and now there she was beside his grandma.

“It’s me, Grandma. Heylor.”

The old lady squinted at him. She seemed little more than a bundle of thin, wrinkled skin, looking as if she had lost another two inches of height in the months since Heylor last saw her. Looking at her, spine hunched like a question mark and eyes rheumy and clouded with cataracts, felt like a stab in the gut.

“I thought you were out there across the line.”

“I was.” Heylor looked at Lynwen again, sitting beside his grandma. What is she thinking? “I’m back. Where are Heyden, Scrandeyn, and Helloise?”

Jesteyn crossed her arms. “They’re out farm-handing, Heylor. We told you that at the beginning of the season.”

“Sorry, I forgot about the farm work,” Heylor mumbled. “It’s probably a good thing they’re not here.”

“Why’s that?” Jesteyn asked, eyes narrowing. “They’d love to see you. You know that.”

“Why would they?” Heylor spread his arms wide in a surge of frustration. “They must be glad to be away from here. I can’t believe all the junk you have here.”

Herevor flinched for a microsecond before breaking into a mad grin that exposed every one of his missing teeth. “One knight’s junk is another knight’s armor.”

“Oh, for knights’ sake,” Heylor exclaimed, “why is there a wheelbarrow full of cats in the fireplace? What knight is going to make plate out of that? The cat would be better armor! And isn’t that Shelley’s sextant on the bookshelf? She lives in the orchid now. I do remember that. And isn’t that my old cooper’s kit spread out on the shelf yonder? And why do we have three busted telescopes? I’m sure I threw away the bronze one after second year. What isall this stuff doing here?”

“I needed a place to store my spare things,” Shelley replied evenly. “My room in the Orchid isn’t big enough.”

“Those rooms are huge!”

“Nope.” Shelley was not flustered in the least.

Heylor clenched both fists so hard his face hurt where Skoll had gripped it. “What about the cooper’s kit?”

“Heygard thought we should hold on to it for him until harvest is done,” his father answered nonchalantly

“Oh, of course,” Heylor whispered. “What about the telescope I know I threw away?”

“I think I can fix that,” Grandma piped up.

You? You can barely stand up!

“Well, that accounts for one telescope. How about the other two?”

“That’s me,” jumped in Herevor. “I thought I would see if I could make a small version of an Eindarch Eye.”

Heylor blinked. “Did you succeed?”

“Nope.”

Heylor shook his head. Of course you didn’t. “How about the old wheelbarrow?”

Herevor rubbed his jaw again. “Scrandeyn didn’t want it anymore. I figured it could come in handy. Someday.”

“Of course! Of course it could. Someday,” Heylor almost shouted, angrier than ever. Everything about his family reminded him of himself, of his own failings, of killing his friends. In that moment, he despised them like he despised himself. “It’s come in handy for the cat at least. Whose cat is that anyway? No, don’t answer, I know it came from a cousin or was thrown away by someone somewhere. Everything is useful, everything comes back. From everyone. Nothing is trash. It’s all worth something. My hand-me-down clothes probably got handed back and used for another cat’s nest.” He whirled around. “You know what this family is? Sick, crazy hoarders. It’s an illness. You’re so bad that, even when one of you finally throws something out, it gets thrown back by some other member of the family. When they throw something out, you take it. It’s a circle, a circle of junk, a knights-damned hoarding circle! We should study it in the New School. It’s a mathematical singularity for trash. Nothing ever leaves that doesn’t re-enter. There’s no escape from the entropic pull of the Style family’s hoarding circle vortex! No junk is abandoned, no mistakes are left behind, nothing is forgotten or moved on from.” Heylor held his hands up and whirled slowly around. “This might be a big new house, but we’re still just the same old peasants.”

Smack!

Heylor’s jaw rung for the second time that day, this time from the big hand of his own mother.

“My face already hurts, Mom! Don’t hit me.”

“I love you, boy, but I know that hurts less than what you’re carrying.” Jesteyn had hit him, but she did not look angry. Her liquid eyes betrayed a different emotion. “What mistakes aren’t you leaving behind? What pain are youhoarding? What happened to your face? It’s your family here. The only way yer gonna get rid of whatever it is, is to share it.”

Heylor started laughing. “That’s so clever, Mom.” He kept laughing and didn’t stop until his nose started running because he was actually crying. Through blurry eyes, he looked over at Lynwen, sitting silently, watching. “I’m sure you want to leave now, Constable.”

“Nope.” Lynwen smiled.

Author Bio

Ever try to do things you were really not well suited to? Lee Hunt understands. He was born with only one working lung, but has gone on to be an Ironman triathlete, a sport rock climber, and a professional geophysicist. The poor lung function has been an excellent excuse for his unimpressive triathlon performance—he is among the worst of those able to complete the Ironman under his own power—and is of some service in eliciting a modicum of sympathy for his average at-best skills as a climber. Actually no one on a rock wall really cares about excuses. It’s a climb-or-fall kind of thing.

His marginal ability to breathe is of no use whatsoever in explaining his career as a geophysicist. He was good at that. Lee published close to fifty journal papers, articles or expanded abstracts, has been awarded numerous best paper awards, and was even sent on a national speaking tour to Canadian universities by the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists. He was born on a farm but grew up near the giant oil sand mines of Fort McMurray and is interested in discussing the environment and the amorality of science. He is also useful at parties in explaining the physics around why, or why not, fracture stimulation might be a risk to manmade structures and the fuzzy cuddly things of nature. Lee’s career helped him appreciate the difficulty in predicting outcomes, the dangers of arrogance—such as thinking you can predict even the smallest thing—and the exigent need to try anyway. He was comfortable and happy being a geophysicist, so after twenty-eight years, he quit to go do the things he was less well suited to.

If you want to hang out with Lee, look for him hiking, cycling, floundering in a lake, clinging desperately to a wall, or at his desk trying to write an entertaining story.

Author Website: https://www.leehunt.org/

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100052376555360

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/DynamicistAuthor

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Hunt/e/B082YFTMCK?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000

Excerpt & Giveaway: Flotsam by R J Theodore

2022-02-18T04:31:00.002-05:00

R J Theodore has a new Science Fantasy Steampunk book out: Flotsam. And there's a giveaway!

Captain Talis just wants to keep her airship crew from starving, and maybe scrape up enough cash for some badly needed repairs. When an anonymous client offers a small fortune to root through a pile of atmospheric wreckage, it seems like an easy payday. The job yields an ancient ring, a forbidden secret, and a host of deadly enemies.

Now on the run from cultists with powerful allies, Talis needs to unload the ring as quickly as possible. Her desperate search for a buyer and the fallout from her discovery leads to a planetary battle between a secret society, alien forces, and even the gods themselves.

Talis and her crew have just one desperate chance to make things right before their potential big score destroys them all.

Warnings: genocide plots, bigotry, racism, classism, obsessive ex-lover, violence, gore, grief and loss, religious dogma, law breaking, manipulation, hostage situations, claustrophobia, anxiety, frustration, guilt, lies and deception, betrayal

Publisher | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks| Author Site | Goodreads

About the Series:

On a planet cracked open by ancient magic, outlaws and pirates are the only ones with what it takes to save Peridot from its next apocalyptic threat.

Guest Post: Meet Tisker, a Thief with a Heart of Gold

Flotsam is the first book in an alchemy-imbued adventure through the open skies of Peridot, a planet that was destroyed and remade by its gods in a distant past. The book opens on the not-quite-law-abiding crew of the airship Wind Sabre, working to salvage an ancient ring from the trash caught in the titular gravity trap at the bottom of Peridot. But as they retrieve their prize from the ice- and monster-infested garbage layer, Wind Sabre is joined by two unannounced vessels: an imperial airship and the strange starship crewed by Peridot's alien visitors.

Both unwelcome ships are clearly interested in the ring, and their timing is uncanny.

What should have been a simple freelance contract now catapults the crew of Wind Sabre into a run for their lives. But it also gives them a chance for more than their usual hand-to-mouth contract work when the aliens offer a significant fortune for the ring, while the imperial ship is offering to arrest and hang them. It's not a hard decision for an airship crew down on their luck and nearly out of fuel.

Tisker may be the youngest of Wind Sabre's crew, but he doesn't lack for experience—though not of the positive sort. He was raised as a thief and a cutthroat under the direction of crime bosses while the older orphans kept the cycle of child criminal going: finding new recruits from the bounty of unparented tots trying to fend for themselves. His fighting skills and light fingers don't go unappreciated by the crew of Wind Sabre, but no one would wish that kind of childhood on anyone. Tisker's lucky to have found his way out of that life, down to the docks, and into the crew quarters of a transient airship.

But he didn't just sneak aboard any ship. He watched the docks and found a small crew that could not only use an extra pair of hands, but that could fill that gap in his life. Could become his family. For several days, he snuck onto, and was subsequently chased off of, the deck of Wind Sabre, a carrack-hulled airship with a laughably small crew: Talis, its captain; Dug, first mate; and Sophie, engineer. He was sure he could eventually convince Talis that he didn't mean harm to her ship—she knew what the bosses had trained him for, after all. He had to. He was getting too old to pass unnoticed in the throngs of dirty pickpockets. Soon, he was going to have to join the ranks of the boss's lieutenants and start training the next generation of children. He had no intention of bringing more kids into the life he had. He'd leave from the docks, with or without an airship under his feet.

Luckily, Captain Talis saw something in Tisker and—after a few days—she stopped chasing him away. Challenged him to tell her what he knew about airships—which was a fair amount from watching the docks but very little practical and almost no vocabulary. He'd be an investment in time, food, and hot water if he was going to shape up to be worthy of Wind Sabre.

Still, Talis had a hunch, and gave him a chance. That hunch paid off in a big way—it turned out Tisker had what some might call a god-given talent for flying, especially for a kid who spent his whole life in a bottom-hanged city with stable and unmoving rock over his head. He knew the wind, on an instinctive level, and knew how a ship worked with it, not against it. Talis let him fly Wind Sabre out from the city that raised him and never tried to pry him off her deck again.

Once, Tisker's focus was on keeping his crime boss happy so he’d get fed once a day. And on learning to fight so he could keep the other kid thieves from bullying him and taking that meal for themselves. And learning to run and to hide so he wouldn't get left behind after a snatch to answer for his criminal siblings to the authorities.

But when he got a face full of wind, his purpose changed. He wanted to get away from the cramped dens and flea-peppered blankets. To get out into the skies on an airship where the wind could always find him.

Having accomplished that, he's only got one purpose in life now. He wants to keep the crew of Wind Sabre safe and keep them together. Among his duties aboard the airship that gave him the life he wanted, in addition to those that Captain Talis would write on a list, Tisker plans to keep his shipmates' tempers from boiling over, keep tensions from mounting, and keep their various prides from doing irreparable harm to his new family.

He's got his work cut out for him. Airship pirates aren't always the most sociable types and have a bad habit of burying their feelings. Captain Talis and Sophie are often at odds over the needs of the ship, so Tisker does what he can to sympathize with Sophie while honoring the orders of the Captain that rescued him. When Captain Talis and Dug are often at odds over something in their past that Tisker doesn't quite understand—a story that neither the captain or first mate are willing to talk about—Tisker tries to make sure everyone's present needs are met, often by cooking a comfort meal or doubling his efforts at the ship's physical duties. When that fails, he cracks a joke to split the tension in the air.

The youngest, Tisker has an influence over his crew that even he isn't aware of. His earnestness and youth awaken the protective natures of his crewmates. Often, he manages to dissolve tension simply by showing how much he cares about the others, making them realize on their own that they're reaching critical levels of pridefulness. When Tisker—whose face is not the mask he might like to think it is—shows concern, often the rest of the crew backs down of their own volition.

But now—with the aliens not just offering heaps of money for the salvaged ring, but asking to be taken to meet one of Peridot's living gods—can Tisker keep the crew's pride, and their secrets, from tearing his new-found family apart?

Find out in Flotsam, Book One of the Peridot Shift, Second Edition, available now in digital and print from your favorite indie bookseller or online retailer.

Giveaway

R J is giving away a $20 gift card to Bookshop.org with this tour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47223/?

Excerpt

Talis descended toward the sparkling layer of trash below her feet. Generations of detritus, coated in frost, shifted slowly and caught the light. She hung in open skies, a tiny dark figure on an impossibly thin thread. Her airship, Wind Sabre, lurked in the shadow of a small island above her like the hoarbeasts that lurked in the garbage below. Around her, the shrapnel of Peridot’s tectonic crust peppered the skies, tiny islands not big enough to park a chair on.

She might have said the chance to do something reckless like this was half the reason she was in her line of work. But there was no one to bluff except her crew on the other end of the comm—Dug, Tisker, and Sophie—and she owed them more than words. She owed them a job that didn’t end up costing more than it paid. She owed them a ship that wasn’t in constant want of repairs. She owed them a ship worthy of being called a home.

A soft click sounded in the comm of her helmet, and Dug’s voice cut through the quiet sounds of her rapid heartbeat and quick breaths. The voice tube transmission made him sound small and far away. “Progressing well, captain. How much farther do you need?”

Talis unclenched her jaw to answer. “I’d guess I’m just about halfway down. Can’t make out any details yet.”

“Understood. There is plenty of length on the winch.” Her first mate’s voice was low and even, though his syllables were tight as a guitar string. Dug was worried.

The bulky descent suit didn’t make it any easier to see the view below her. It was a one-size-fits-all antique, big enough to wear over her clothes. Big enough that Dug, who towered above her and was thick with muscle—could have worn it, if he was so worried. It was designed to keep her body heat in, and it was most definitely doing that. The musty wool lining felt moist after the short time she’d had it on. Her breath fogged the glass dome that protected her from the thin air, even though she wore a scarf over her mouth. Yet her fingers were still getting stiff with the cold. She could have worn thicker gloves if she was just going down to strap up a large object to tow out. But this time her quarry was smaller than that, and thinner gloves provided better dexterity.

From this distance, the garbage below her looked deceptively beautiful. A lazy flow of icy shapes caught the green light from Nexus, and their reflected light sparkled through the fogging on her helmet. It wasn’t hard to imagine why there were so many stories about treasure down below.

And there was treasure down there. Or, reckless or not, she wouldn’t be dropping into it. The flotsam layer was where the dead went to be forgotten. Dead people. Dead ships. Dead technologies. Gravity trapped it all there. Kept it from dropping out of Peridot’s atmosphere on the bottom side and drifting off into the stars. Silus Cutter created the hoarbeasts centuries ago to prowl the frozen wreckage and clean things up a bit with their vicious, crunching jaws and fang-lined throats. Did her god intend for those beasts to prefer the frozen flesh of bodies to the wrecks? She wouldn’t ask if she got the chance; she was here for the latter and glad to have the chance.

If things went wrong, Talis would be on the menu, too. But the contract for this salvage made it worth the risk. She could make a lot of overdue repairs on Wind Sabre with the payoff. Her crew had been enthusiastic about the operation when she proposed it, knowing what kind of money a salvage might bring in. Better than the transport jobs she’d scrounged up of late. Not one of the trio had volunteered to make the descent, though.

“You’re the reckless one, Cap,” Tisker told her at the time. The cheeky helmsman got away with the comment. He always did. His crooked, infectious grin and sparkling, deceptively innocent eyes transformed every gibe into a morale boost.

Details emerged, just a couple lengths below Talis. Large shapes at first. Broken hulls of ships tangled in their own lift canvasses. A roof, a wagon. An old tree trunk. Anything organic or burnable should have been composted or used for fuel, not pitched over island edge. But those hadn’t always been the rules. Seventy-something generations back to the Cataclysm that fractured Peridot and the Re-Creation that made it what it was now. Seventy-something generations of garbage and waste swirled in the gravity trap. And down here, nothing ever decayed.

Soon she got close enough to see movement: the hoarbeasts pulling themselves across the wrecks, their undersides a chaos of tentacles. Their bodies flashing gray and silver in an imitation of the flotsam. They moved above and below the gravity line, scanning the field of garbage with cavernous eyes and probing the jetsam with sensitive, bobbing whiskers. Always in search of fresh additions to the flotsam layer. In search of food. In search of the dead.

And they would find them.

Mostly Cutter folk. Some Vein. Even a Rakkar or two. The Bone fed their dead to the ravens and kept the bones, but still ended up in flotsam. Usually lost with their ships. No Breakers, of course. Their population was finite and, as far as the ages since Re-Creation had proven out, didn’t die of natural causes.

If they couldn’t find dead flesh, they’d be perfectly happy to accept the living.

Continuing to descend, Talis was far too aware of such things. Her brother had tormented her with stories of the hoarbeasts when she was a child, and she grew up convinced they clung to the bottom of her bed the way they latched onto the hulls of airships that flew too low, too close to flotsam. Convinced that their tentacles and their long, sharp teeth would find her in the dark.

In her forties now, and captain of a smuggling ship that had taken on many a perilous contract, she still didn’t sleep with her feet hanging off her mattress.

Author Bio

R J Theodore is an author, graphic designer, podcaster, and all-around collector of creative endeavors and hobbies. She enjoys writing about magic-infused technologies, first contact events, and bioluminescing landscapes.

Her love of SFF storytelling developed through grabbing for anything-and-everything “unicorn” as a child, but she was subverted by tales of distant solar systems when her brother introduced her to Star Trek: The Next Generation at age seven. A few years later, Sailor Moon taught her stories can have both.

She lives in New England, haunted by her childhood cat. Find more information at rjtheodore.com.

Author Website: https://rjtheodore.com/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://facebook.com/RJTheodore

Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/bittybittyzap

Author Instagram: https://instagram.com/bittybittyzap

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17166271.R_J_Theodore

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/r-j-theodore/

Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B073ZLVGMM

I Can't Wait for... Hide by Kiersten White

2022-02-16T03:23:00.005-05:00

Horror Books Coming Soon!

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about and have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released, but not necessarily. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, which was originally hosted at Breaking the Spine.

My pick for this week involves a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek in an abandoned amusement park ... and that's all I need to be hooked!

Title: Hide
Author: Kiersten White
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: May 24, 2022
Genres: Horror

A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this dark supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that.

It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Scifi Book Review: Revenant by Alex White

2022-02-13T19:15:00.000-05:00

Science Fiction Book Review

Title: Revenant
Author: Alex White
Publication Date: December 21st 2021
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Genres: Science Fiction

As much as I generally dislike stories that take characters out of their element - in this case, Jadzia Dax and Deep Space 9 - I enjoyed this. Revenant delves deep into the lives of Dax and the culture of the Trill, and while it's almost completely removed from DS9, we do get Kira, Bashir, and Worf along for the adventure.

The novel works as both science fiction and horror, with a monstrous element that I really can't say much about without getting into spoilers. Alex White tells a story that feels original, while remaining true to the characters and their continuity. The world-building in regards to the Trill is fantastic, successfully building upon the darker aspects introduced during the series run.

In many ways this is a crime novel in a science fiction setting and, to their credit, White does justice to both aspects of the story. There's plenty of suspense here with questions we're anxious to see answered, drama with the conspiracy and conflict between Starfleet and local authorities, and action with the monstrous aspect I mentioned earlier. For a story that takes place mid-series, where we know the main characters will survive, there's still a palatable sense of dread that brings the story to life.

Maybe not the best Star Trek novel I've read, Revenant is still a welcome addition to Deep Space 9 lore.

Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀

Stacking The Shelves: Week 6 (2022)

2022-02-12T04:21:00.001-05:00

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books we are adding to our shelves, whether they be physical or digital. This includes physical books bought, digital books downloaded, and those titles received for review.

Review Titles

A trio of review titles this week courtesy of Berkley, Oblivion, and Tor . . .

Witch 13 by Patrick Delaney is a bloody buzzsaw of a fairy tale, ripe with magic and mayhem, setting up a small-town microcosm only to slowly obliterate it with a gleeful hammer in the form of a monstrous witch, overlaid with a thick black coat of cosmic horror. June 7th 2022 by Oblivion Publishing

All the Seas of the World returns triumphantly to the brilliantly evoked near-Renaissance world of Guy Gavriel Kay, deploying his signature ‘quarter turn to the fantastic’ to tell a story of vengeance, power, and love in a page-turning drama that also offers moving reflections on memory, fate, and the random events that can shape our lives—in the past, and today. May 17th 2022 by Berkley

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller is a fascinating whodunit set in a lush, gothic world of secrets and magic—where a dying emperor charges his favorite concubine with solving his own murder, and preventing the culprit, which undoubtedly is one of his three terrible sons, from taking control of an empire. March 22nd 2022 by Tor Books

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

Nothing new (or used) this week...

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

No new additions on the digital front this week...

I Can't Wait for... The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert

2022-02-09T04:01:00.001-05:00

Science Fiction Books Coming Soon!

My pick for this week is an erotic love story for an age of extreme caution, that rare pandemic novel with enough imagination and a fresh enough approach to overcome my exhaustion ...

Title: The Petting Zoos
Author: K.S. Covert
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Publication Date: June 21, 2022
Genres: Science Fiction

In a virus-fearing world, skin hunger can drive you crazy — and human petting zoos can return you to yourself.

Ten years after the deadly virus nicknamed Henny Penny, the world has largely recovered — there’s an interim government as well as law and order, and life is returning to normal for its greatly reduced population. But despite effective vaccines, the law still requires people to wear protective masks and gloves at all times in public, and many still fear a resurgence of the virus. On top of this, people who haven’t been touched in years are going crazy from skin hunger.

Lily has lived in isolation for ten years, afraid to rejoin the world. But a return-to-work order and an invitation to go to a petting zoo — a highly illegal club where people go to touch and be touched — start to bring her back to life.

A post-apocalyptic sex adventure and a woman’s journey of self-discovery, The Petting Zoos is an erotic love story for an age of extreme caution, in which the value of safety itself is questioned.

Excerpt & Giveaway: Luck Lines by Quinn Tollens

2022-02-07T03:11:00.012-05:00

Title: Luck Lines

Author: Quinn Tollens

Publisher: NineStar Press

Release Date: 02/01/2022

Heat Level: 1 - No Sex

Pairing: Female/Female

Length: 19900

Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQIA+, Romance, fantasy, family-drama, magical realism, lesbian, luck, visual/performing arts, painter, musician

Add to Goodreads

Description

Every person is born with a line of luck on their arm that they can spend to bribe fate in their favor. Spend it wisely and the doors to success will open. Spend it foolishly and you’ll be shunned as a reckless blank-arm.

At age twenty-three, Helena has never spent a single inch of luck, for fear of ending up like her gambling brother. She’s never needed luck though. So far, her life has unfolded perfectly as planned, with her plush apartment, prestigious job, and parental approval. But then Helena develops inconvenient feelings for the mysterious, blank-armed Nadia who works in the office next door.

Nadia is brilliant and confident and absolutely hiding something. Helena wants to love her, but she has a hard time trusting someone whose priorities are so different from her own. Can Helena make this relationship work, or will she rue the day she took a risk on romance?

Excerpt

Luck Lines
Quinn Tollens © 2022
All Rights Reserved

When Helena was eleven years old, she watched her older brother burn his entire luck line.

She’d recently come home from boarding school for the summer. Her parents were busy on a work trip, much to her disappointment, so Michael was the only person around to babysit her. One day, while Helena was lounging around the house in a puddle of self-pity, Michael asked if she wanted to go see some ponies.

Of course, she’d said yes—she was an eleven-year-old with a dozen cowgirl posters in her dorm room. And, of course, there had been a catch—her brother was a recently graduated eighteen-year-old with his own car. He wouldn’t take Helena anywhere unless he absolutely had to.

“This isn’t a farm, Mikey,” Helena said accusingly. A proper stable would be a cute wooden shed beside a grassy valley where the horses could frolic and graze. This place was an ugly yellow box squatting in an endless parking lot.

“I said we were going to watch horses. I didn’t say from what distance. Don’t complain.”

As they approached the building, the thick scent of manure grew stronger, and a racket of clapping and shouting bled out of the walls. Her brother dragged her through a crowd of sweaty adults to the ticket counter inside.

A bored teller glanced at the pair: first Helena, with her tight braid and glitter jeans, then Michael, with his long bangs and baggy T-shirt. The man drawled, “Sorry, kids. We can’t take bets from minors.”

“I’m eighteen. And she’s not betting.” Michael opened his wallet to reveal a wad of twenty-dollar bills. How many allowances had he saved to get that much? “Race number twenty-three, two hundred dollars to win on Gravy.”

“Bold choice.” The teller slid Michael a form. “You understand the rules, yeah? You’re allowed to spend as much of your luck line as you want, but—”

“You’re not liable for anything. I know, I know.” Her brother signed the paper, grabbed his ticket, and led Helena to the bleachers.

Since it was a weekday, there were barely a hundred people in the stands, so the siblings had most of the row to themselves. Helena and Michael looked through the list of horses on his ticket. Gravy was scheduled for the next race.

Gravy did not look like a winner. He had a brindle coat with sickly gray spots. Helena pitied the poor horse as he was trotted to the starting line.

She was so busy worrying about the horses that she almost didn’t see her brother roll up his left sleeve. His luck line’s crimson hue contrasted sharply with his skin. It started at his wrist bone, then curled round and round the arm until it reached his elbow.

Like Helena, Michael still had all twenty inches of line he’d received at birth. But her line coiled tightly to squeeze itself within her forearm, while his line had stretched out with him during puberty. Michael slowly traced the length of his luck line with a forefinger, never letting his skin break contact.

Unease shivered up her neck. “Mikey, what are you doing?”

“A dumpy horse like that needs some help if he’s going to win.”

A gun went off. The horses galloped forward. Michael nudged his forefinger an inch up his arm. The bright-red mark faded into his skin. Gravy pushed his way to the front until he was head-to-head with a black horse named Lotus.

“But Mom and Dad say we’re only supposed to spend our luck line for important things, like college or job interviews or—”

“I need the money,” Michael snapped. He burned another inch of luck line to push Gravy into the lead.

“Why?” When her brother didn’t answer, she took her cell phone out of her purse. “Tell me why or I’m calling Mom and Dad.”

Michael winced. Helena would follow through on her threat, and they both knew it. “I…Iris is having a baby.”

Helena gasped. Michael’s girlfriend was the one who had bought Helena her first grown-up paint set. She was quiet and bookish and had a scholarship to Dunestown University. Why would she ruin her future by getting pregnant now? Helena could understand Michael screwing up, but Iris was supposed to be the responsible one.

A wave of cheers rolled through the stadium as a horse called Duke took the lead. The cream stallion cut in front of the competition. His tail flicked Gravy in the face.

Michael grimaced. “How? Two inches should be more than enough to win at this trash heap of a track.”

“Duke! Duke! Duke!” Six men stood up from their seats a couple of rows down. They held their left arms above their heads, showing off to the crowd as they burned through their luck lines in unison. Individually, their luck lines were embarrassingly short, barely three inches each. But if all six of them were pulling fate in Duke’s favor…

“Damn it, they must be planning to split the winnings.” Michael dug his finger into his skin and pushed down the line.

“Mikey, it’s not worth it!” Helena tried to pull his finger off the line. He elbowed her away. She watched in horror as he burned through four inches, eight inches, sixteen inches. Soon an entire lifetime of luck was gone.

Down on the track, Duke stumbled over a rock. The poor horse tumbled onto his side, spilling the jockey off his saddle. As Duke picked himself up, Gravy raced into the lead. He curved around the track, sprinting toward the finish line.

Michael leaned forward. “Come on, come on, come on!”

Gravy only had twenty feet to go when Lotus barreled past him to victory.

“No!” Michael fell to the filthy stadium floor. He took his finger off his skin to see the damage. His expression made it clear he’d burned more than he’d planned. He took his palm and rubbed his arm, as if he could somehow undo his mistake. “No, no, no…”

An elderly couple strutted up the stairs. The husband and wife each held the corner of a ticket. They carried the paper like it was a fragile gemstone. It wasn’t unusual for elderly people to be blank-armed, but Helena suspected the couple had burned their luck lines rather recently. Someone must have bet on Lotus, after all.

Michael sobbed by her feet. Helena felt bad for her brother, but at the same time, she had warned him. Now he’d lost two hundred dollars and his luck line with nothing to show for it.

Helena looked down at her own arm. Her luck line was still red and untouched—she wouldn’t be able to activate it until puberty—but it felt warm, as if all the luck burning around her would catch her arm on fire. She rolled down her jacket sleeves and put as much space between herself and her brother as she could.

Purchase

NineStar Press | Books2Read

Meet the Author

Quinn Tollens lives in the land of corn, cows, and tornados. They started writing romance as a distraction from the doom and gloom of quarantine and forgot to stop. Quinn’s day job revolves around science, and so when they write, their imagination refuses to obey the laws of physics, biology, or common sense.

Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive a $50.00 NineStar Press Gift Code!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stacking The Shelves: Week 5 (2022)

2022-02-05T03:06:00.004-05:00

Review Titles

A pair of review titles this week . . .

When it Rains is an upcoming novella by Mark Allan Gunnells that gives me vibes of King and Laymon with a mysterious, slimy rain that falls on the entire world at once, a fear that it contained a toxin that would make those who touched it sick, and tensions inside a bookstore between those who had been caught out in the rain and those who had not. March 25th 2022 by Crystal Lake Publishing

Ascension: Wolves of Goose Creek is the latest in the Tales from the DarkWorld series by Ronnie Massey, set in a world where vampires, werewolves, witches, and all other manners of beings not only live their lives freely and out in the open but are some of the media’s biggest celebutantes. Jan. 13th 2022 by Toil and Trouble Studios

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

A handful of used bookstore finds on the paperback front this week...

Empire of Gold is the 7th Nina Wilde & Eddie Chase novel by Andy McDermott, in which an ancient puzzle leads them from Singapore to the jungles of South America, where inside a storm of political and drug warfare, Nina is getting close to one of history’s greatest secrets - the mythical golden city of El Dorado.

Azure Bonds & The Wyvern's Spur are the first two books of the Forgotten Realms: Finder's Stone Series by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, featuring Alias, an excellent warrior who wakes up with blue, twisting and magical runes inscribed on her right arm, and with total amnesia about the circumstances that surround the tattoo. Ready to unveil the impenetrable mystery, she forms a party with a halfling troubadour, a magician, and an introverted man-lizard.

Six Moon Dance by Sheri S. Tepper is the story of Newholme, a world settled by humans who cruelly bent the planet to their will, setting down roots and raising up cities and farms and a grand temple to their goddess . . . a world that is shaking with ever-increasing violence fed by a terrible secret that lies buried deep within a past that is not dead, not completely.

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

No new additions on the digital front this week...

I Can't Wait for... Fairy Tale by Stephen King

2022-02-02T03:10:00.012-05:00

Fantasy Books Coming Soon!

My pick for this week is Stephen King's return to fantasy, a book that may or may not be connected to the world of The Dark Tower, but which promises to convey to Constant Readers the same happiness he found writing it ...

Title: Fairy Tale
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: Sept 6, 2022
Genres: Fantasy

Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher--for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself--and his dad. Then, when Charlie is 17, he meets a dog named Radar and his aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it.

Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.

King's storytelling in Fairy Tale soars. This is a magnificent and terrifying tale about another world than ours, in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy - and his dog - must lead the battle.

Early in the Pandemic, King asked himself: "What could you write that would make you happy?"

"As if my imagination had been waiting for the question to be asked, I saw a vast deserted city--deserted but alive. I saw the empty streets, the haunted buildings, a gargoyle head lying overturned in the street. I saw smashed statues (of what I didn't know, but I eventually found out). I saw a huge, sprawling palace with glass towers so high their tips pierced the clouds. I saw a magic sundial that could turn back time. Those images released the story I wanted to tell."

Scifi Book Review: The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

2022-02-01T01:59:00.000-05:00

Sci-fi/Horror Book Review

Title: The Tommyknockers
Author: Stephen King
Publication Date: November 10th, 2987
Publisher: Signet
Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

The Tommyknockers has, as I look back at my reading history on Goodreads, been my comfort read of choice for the last 9 months. That's not a knock against it (no pun intended), and it's in no way a reflection of quality. I always have one big book on the shelf that I turn to when I need a break from release dates or review obligations, a book that I'm reading just for me, just because I want to.

Yes, as the critics have said, it's a big, bloated book, a doorstopper of a novel with a massive cast of characters and a meandering plot. A careful editor could have chopped it in half and not lost an ounce of story, excised most of the characters and not missed anything crucial. Stephen King himself has called it an awful book, saying it's the last book he wrote before cleaning up his act, and that it'd be greatly improved if he rewrote it at half its length. But you know what? I loved it. I loved every superfluous detail, every single character, and every unnecessary side-story that threads into it. King, when he was at his best, when he allowed himself to be self-indulgent, refusing to self-edit, was always a storyteller, a weaver of tales that were always more about the journey and the company than the destination.

The whole story begins with the accidental discovery of a thin, gleaming edge of metal deep in the woods. Curious as to what she's tripped over, Bobbi Anderson begins digging at it, worrying at it until she's obsessing over it, working herself to mental and physical exhaustion in her efforts to uncover it. It, of course, is a massive UFO, a genuine flying saucer, crashed to earth and buried in the bedrock for untold millennia. It's still thrumming with an unknown power, though, one that spreads ever wider as more of it is uncovered, infecting everyone in the small town of Haven, Maine. Most - and by that I mean a solid 80% - of the novel is about those people, those unsuspecting innocents who are slowly 'becoming' something more. It's a story of the changes wrought upon body and soul, and the bizarre, battery-powered alien technologies they're inspired to create.

As a character study and a commentary on society as a whole, The Tommyknockers is a secretive beast, a novel that waits until nearly the very end to ask the questions that matter - both of the aliens and the people of Haven - but King's answers to those questions are the pivot on which the entire story turns, a series of revelations that have as much power as the climax itself. As 'aha' or 'eureka' moments go, there are a couple of big ones here, and they're brilliant. Whereas I often have an issue with King's endings, the very fact that the answers are so much smaller, so much simpler than we're expecting, is what makes this so satisfying. You get to that point, your eyes widen, and you just smile and say, "damn, but that makes a whole lot of sense."

There's not a lot of visual, visceral horror to the book, but there are moments and scenes that are absolutely disturbing. Granted, others are so absurd as to be laughable (I'm looking at you, flying Coke machine), but the story knows it, the characters know it, and our disbelief is intentionally mirrored within the narrative. The real horror comes from what the people of Haven do to protect their secrets and to advance their becoming. We're left wondering just what the hell is going on inside Bobbi Anderson's shed, with its weird green lights and strange sounds, for most of the book, and when we finally step inside . . . well, there's an emotional power to the simple horror we find there that is entirely satisfying as a climax of its own.

For those Constant Readers among us, I picked up on references to It, The Dead Zone, and Firestarter along the way, and while the first was a bit jarring and too on-the-nose, the other two are perfect, entirely reasonable connections between stories.

So, what's next for a comfort read? Hard to say. I'm kind of leaning towards revisiting Needful Things, the first book he wrote post-sobriety (and of which I have fond memories), but I've also got the twinned Desperation & The Regulators lined up . . . and I may want to revisit The Eyes of the Dragon before Fairy Tale hits shelves. With our next vacation just weeks away, I suspect I'll be making a choice soon.

Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀

Erotica Book Reviews: Sunday Smutday

2022-01-30T04:09:00.294-05:00

Erotica Book Reviews

Sunday Smutday is where we get naughty, nasty, and NSFW between the covers. If that doesn’t sound like your kind of thing, then you should most definitely stop reading now.

Seriously.

Still here?

You sure?

Okay, great!

Then let’s get kinky!

Title: The Lesson

Author: B.J. Frazier

Publication Date: January 25, 2022

Protagonist Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight

Kink/Fetish: Femdom

One of the things that B.J. Frazier does so well with their stories is establish characters as people with pasts, people who've grown and evolved, and who you can believe have a life outside the story. Such is the case with Belinda, the protagonist of The Lesson, who we're introduced to in flashbacks that show her finding her way in kink.

Those first two encounters are brief affairs, one in an airport bathroom, requiring nothing more than verbal dominance and physical control, and the other in a hotel room, involving improvisational BDSM with repurposed household items. The scenes establish history, personality, and kink evolution, all of which make the story's main classroom encounter feel both natural and authentic.

While there is a soft sort of taboo nature to the teacher/student dynamic, with just the right amount of risk, the story is careful to establish maturity and consent, while avoiding any deep moral conflicts. The encounter itself is wonderfully plotted, with a fantastic shift in the nature of the tension and the source of the associated fears as surprises are revealed that illuminate who Derek is and what motivates Belinda.

Frazier takes us from gasping to cheering, entertaining and arousing us along the way, as we learn not just a lesson but The Lesson.

Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀

Title: Closing The Deal

Author: B.J. Frazier

Publication Date: July 21, 2021

Protagonist Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight

Kink/Fetish: Femdom

Closing The Deal is another fabulous example of B.J. Frazier's plot-driven erotica, a story that establishes Teddy as a successful saleswoman, motivates her to change her dynamic, and evolves her sexual personal, before leading us into a fantastic scene of teasing exhibitionism that ultimately culminates in a twist that brings the story full circle.

The first chapter, in which we see Teddy's jealous peers slut-shaming her for outperforming them, is surprisingly powerful. The whole story has a lot to say about gender dynamics, the double standards of promiscuity, and the interplay of professional dominance and personal submission, but the way that chapter forces her initial revelation is superb.

One of the things Frazier does so well in their stories is offer up a variety of sexual situations that evolve naturally from chance encounters, as opposed to being carefully structured around genre cliches. The dance of teasing and seduction is different every time, and the responses of her lovers are never the same. There's a fantastic contrast between the anxious newbie of the first chapter and the comfortably experienced submissive of the second but, in both instances, we see Teddy as a woman directing things to demand her own pleasure.

The second half of the story reminds us there's a plot behind the fun. It expands on Teddy's character, suggesting a personal alienation of friends that parallels her professional one from coworkers, and that's where I first began to suspect this wasn't going to be just another femdom happily-after-after. The erotic element, the prolonged tease at the bar and rushed hotel rendezvous, is something entirely different - I loved the verbal sparring, the bratty challenges, and the utter confidence that belies Noah's submissiveness - but there's so much more to it, with Teddy's frustration and anxiety having a deeper meaning than we initially expect.

As a submissive who only wants to see the Domme get everything she desires, Closing The Deal doesn't close the way I'd hoped, but as a reader who appreciates plot and theme, I applaud Frazier for that final twist.

Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀ 1/2

Stacking The Shelves: Week 4 (2022)

2022-01-29T03:36:00.004-05:00

Review Titles

A quiet week on the review front this week. There were a few books I thought about grabbing, but nothing that I absolutely had to read, so I'll work on the TBR as I wait for a few requests to be granted...

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

Just one new acquisition on the paperback front this week...

Madam President by Nicolle Wallace is a book I've had my eye on for a long while now, so I'm thrilled to have finally found a copy. Three women, including the first female President of the United States, must deal with five major attacks being leveled on US soil while protecting personal and professional secrets that could rock the West Wing to its very foundations...and change the lives of the people they love most. What I didn't realize is that it's the third book of Charlotte Kramer presidency, so Eighteen Acres and It's Classified are taking its place on my wishlist.

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

A trio of digital titles this week...

My Alien Summer by Gregor Daniels promises sentient purple extraterrestrial goo, surprising transformations, and a summer of slimy fun.

Sorority Sisters and Studying with Jo by Amber Collins are both size-changing erotica, the first exploring a biology department's new shrinking drug and its interesting side-effect, and the second following partners in an archeology class who get a little to immersed in stories of Amazons shrinking their victims.

I Can't Wait for... The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

2022-01-26T05:12:00.017-05:00

Fantasy Books Coming Soon!

My pick for this week is the story of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.. ...

Title: The Stardust Thief
Author: Chelsea Abdullah
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: March 17, 2022
Genres: Fantasy

Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, The Stardust Thief weaves the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.

Neither here nor there, but long ago…

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.

Stacking The Shelves: Week 3 (2022)

2022-01-22T01:35:00.005-05:00

Review Titles

A pair of review titles finding their way onto the shelves this week, courtesy of Blood Bound Books and B.J. Frazier.

The original Welcome to the Splatter Club was a strong collection of extreme horror with some outstanding entries (minus one infuriating piece of trash) so I'm eager to see what K Trap Jones has compiled for Welcome to the Splatter Club Volume 2 - which apparently includes mutant gators, occult sex ceremonies, aliens. Available 31 December 2021 from Blood Bound Books.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first two B.J. Frazier reads, so I trusted their character quizzes to direct me to my next reads, which are Perchance to Dream (What could go wrong when a wife, whose rest is disturbed, sends her husband to a clinic to be treated for a sleep disorder? A lot, actually.) & Closing the Deal (What happens when a girl with a boyish name realizes SHE may control her business dealings? She becomes a woman… and a proficient Domme.). Available 30 March & 17 January 2020 from B.J. Frazier Publications.

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

Just one new acquisition on the paperback front this week...

After Dragons of a Fallen Sun and Dragons of a Vanished Moon arrived last week, Dragons of a Lost Star arrived this week to complete my Dragonlance: The War of Souls trilogy by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. With Dragons of Deceit, the first new Dragonlance novel in over a decade, scheduled to hit shelves this summer, I'm excited to immerse myself in Krynn once again.

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

Nothing new on the digital front this week...

Fantasy Book Review: The Queen's Weapons by Anne Bishop

2022-01-20T04:43:00.015-05:00

Fantasy Book Review

Title: The Queen's Weapons
Author: Anne Bishop
Publication Date: March 9th 2021
Publisher: Ace
Genres: Epic Fantasy

The original Black Jewels trilogy is an all-time favorite of mine, particularly because of its powerful, kick-ass women and its themes of female dominance and sadomasochism. Yes, it was dark and problematic, and hardly what one would call a feel-good fantasy, but the gender dynamic was important to me, a significant shift from most of the fantasy I was reading.

The Queen's Bargain marked a significant departure from that subject matter and those themes, but I didn't realize how much of a departure until I was about halfway through The Queen's Weapons. Anne Bishop has gender-flipped and subverted her own work, not only restoring the traditional fantasy patriarchy, but reducing women to being defined as the daughters and wives of men, making them powerless in the face of uncontrollable male sexual heat, and demonstrating deplorable cruelty towards them - including rape and psychological assault.

Sadly, for a book that should be exploring the larger threats of a taint in the Blood and the source of a familiar evil, this is mostly relegated to emotional wounds - it's basically Mean Girls with magic, focused on a bunch of spoiled brat teenagers who are obsessed with their social standing. It's soap operaish to the extreme, and there's such a massive shift in personalities and motives from the first half to the second that I really began to wonder if my book was a misprint that was missing something significant. Add to that some absolutely deplorable decisions made regarding family dynamics, the brutal breaking of bonds between mothers and daughters, and I began to wonder why I was still reading at all.

The Queen's Weapons isn't necessarily a bad book, if it's what you're looking for (or willing to settle for), it's just not up to the standards of earlier in the series.

Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀

My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I Can't Wait for... Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

2022-01-19T05:04:00.006-05:00

Urban Fantasy Books Coming Soon!

My pick for this week is the story of love, vampirism, fandom, and transphobia that explores what it means to be at home in your own body. ...

Title: Dead Collections
Author: Isaac Fellman
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Date: Feb 22, 2022
Genres: Urban Fantasy

A whirlwind romance between an eccentric archivist and a grieving widow explores what it means to be at home in your own body in this clever, humorous, and heartfelt novel.

When archivist Sol meets Elsie, the larger than life widow of a moderately famous television writer who's come to donate her wife's papers, there's an instant spark. But Sol has a secret: he suffers from an illness called vampirism, and hides from the sun by living in his basement office. On their way to falling in love, the two traverse grief, delve into the Internet fandom they once unknowingly shared, and navigate the realities of transphobia and the stigmas of carrying the "vampire disease."

Then, when strange things start happening at the collection, Sol must embrace even more of the unknown to save himself and his job. DEAD COLLECTIONS is a wry novel full of heart and empathy, that celebrates the journey, the difficulties and joys, in finding love and comfort within our own bodies.

Fantasy Book Review: Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

2022-01-16T18:59:00.001-05:00

Fantasy Book Review

Title: Empire of the Vampire
Author: Jay Kristoff
Publication Date: Sept 14th 2022
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genres: Epic Fantasy

Vampires and epic fantasy are a match made in heaven - or hell, as the case may be - but the last series to really make me stand up and take notice was the Necroscope: Vampire World trilogy by Brian Lumley. Those epic, horrific, wildly imaginative doorstoppers set the bar for me and, fair or not, have been the standard against which I so often find other vampire fantasies wanting.

Never mind melancholy brooding and tragic romances, I want vampires who know they're monsters, who revel in their evil, and who are damned well prepared to seize the opportunity of eternal undeath to make the world their own. The cover blurb for Empire of the Vampire promised just that, but given that I only knew Jay Kristoff as a YA author who didn't seem particularly dark or edgy, it took me a few months (and a holiday hardcover sale) to finally give this a chance.

To steal a line from Gabriel de León, fuck my face, this was amazing . . . this was vampires done right AND epic fantasy done right . . . this was all the darkness, violence, and eternal arrogance that I craved . . . along with one of the best explorations of faith in the war against the darkness that I've ever read. I'm still not completely sure about those endings (and, more importantly, lack of one ending), even after mulling it over for a few days, but I'll be right there, first in line at the bookstore, whenever the sequel drops.

The narrative style employed here has been done before, of course, but rarely with the same attitude and sense of style. If I had to compare it to anything, it would be the conversation between Kihrin and Talon in The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons, only there's more fatalism and restrained aggression here. in fact, the verbal sparring between Gabriel and Jean-François is what initially drew me into the story, despite my misgivings, and kept me reading right through to the end where a few surprising moments of empathy on behalf of the vampire historian transformed the whole telling.

While I'm not generally a fan of stories that jump around in time, leaping from one narrative to another, what makes this so successful is the fact that it's a tug-of-war between an historian trying to steer the narrative and a paleblood trying to thwart him, all the while desperately wanting to avoid an emotional toll. It creates so much anticipation, giving the reader just enough information to crave answers, and leads us into a series of climaxes, each one more devastating than the one before it. I don't think a linear narrative would have worked half as well, or felt half as genuine.

For a world of eternal darkness and pain, one where everyone seems to be fighting against the inevitable end of humanity, I expected a mix of sad fatalism and religious fervor - and we get that, we do - but I didn't expect the characters to be so engaging. Gabriel is one of the more complex protagonists I've encountered in fantasy, a man of darkness and light, damned by his birth and cursed by the way he lives his life. There's a lot of talk here about what makes a hero, about the difference between duty and glory, recklessness and foolishness, and I give Kristoff full credit for drawing us so close to him, making us take his side in every questionable decision, only to drop some questions or suggestions at the very end that make us wonder if he'll be the man to save us, or whether he's the man who already damned us.

The characters surrounding him, Silversaint Brother and Holy Sisters, and complex and engaging as well, several with character arcs that are surprisingly deep and meaningful for a supporting cast. There were men who I loathed before I loved and women I adored before I abhorred. Nobody is left unchanged by their role in this cataclysm of darkness and pain, and that's as it should be. It's not just those of holy/unholy power either, it's the common soldiers and blacksmiths as well.

Beneath it all is the whole aspect of faith, the idea of believing in something or someone, and that is where Empire of the Vampire shines brightest. What could be a simple story of good versus evil, God versus Devil, becomes so much more in Kristoff's hands. There's faith in God, and faith in the remnants of old religions still scattered about the world. There's faith in the word of God, as written by man, and faith in the construct of religion, as interpreted by man. There's no question that life encompasses more than simple mortality, but there's also no hard-and-fast declaration that it comes from God or Devil. Tied up in all of that are two questions - what is sin and what is love - and they have more power over events than prayer, holy water, or enchanted silver. Exploring those questions between two couples, and the ways in which they intersect, is, I would argue, the very heart of the novel.

Finally, for a novel about the epic struggle of a handful of humans against the hordes of the undead, the fight sequences and battle scenes here are absolutely fantastic. There are different kinds of undead, different levels of vampires, and those who are the most powerful don't go down easily - if at all. There's a palatable sense of danger and dread to every encounter, even with the miraculous healing powers of the Silversaints, and the choreography of throwing everything you have - swords, knives, alchemical bombs, holy water, etc. - against flesh that refuses to bleed, chipping and cracking like marble, is breathtaking.

Empire of the Vampire was so much more than I expected and everything I dared hope for. The lack of one ending still grates on me, but the climaxes of the other threads carry enough emotional weight that I won't soon forget them. I love how the final chapters seem to twist everything, how they undermine so many of our assumptions, and even if there are some red herrings and false doubts there, I'm ridiculously anxious to read whatever comes next. Highly, highly recommended.

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say a few words about the gorgeous illustrations by Bon Orthwick - if there was ever a book where investing in the hardcover is a must, it's this one. I can't tell you how many times I paused to admire the images, to reflect on what they illustrate, and to find them coloring the read. Exquisite stuff.

Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀

Fantasy Book Review: The God is Not Willing by Steven Erikson

2022-01-15T22:14:00.003-05:00

Fantasy Book Review

Title: The God is Not Willing
Author: Steven Erikson
Publication Date: Nov 16th 2021
Publisher: Tor Books
Genres: Epic Fantasy

The fact that it's taken me more than 4 months to finish this, the shortest and, I'd argue, most straightforward, most accessible Malzan novel to date, should tell you all you need to know about The God is Not Willing.

As much as I love Steven Erikson's flair for witty banter, this felt like all talk, no show. There was just so much dialogue, pages and pages of it, with hardly a dialogue tag to be seen, and far too often it's just self-indulgent nonsense. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a little nonsense - The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach are full of it, and I love them - but here it's taken to distraction and beyond. I found myself skimming past quotation marks, desperately searching for a thread of plot, on far too many occasions.

What's so frustrating is that all started off so well. I was amused by and curious about the new Bridgeburners, who are as crazy a lot as Erikson has ever written, but they're given no depth or personality beyond the craziness. I couldn't tell you most of them were from one chapter to another, and (to be honest) I didn't care to try and remember. I was, however, fascinated by Rant's tale, by the whole story of the Teblor, the breaking of Omtose Phellack, and the coming flood that's pushing a world of change before it. I really think there was an opportunity to do something new here, to let the legendary heroes rest and tell a proper sequel of who and what came next, but the book wastes too much time trying to craft Bridgeburners: The Next Generation,

Looking back, I struggled greatly to find my way into Gardens of the Moon, but that's only because it was so big and so bewildering, dropping the reader in media res and leaving us to figure things out. It took me 3 tries, but I wanted to break through, I wanted to wrap my head around it all, and I'm so glad that I did. Here, I struggled to keep going, to find a reason to pick up The God is Not Willing again, after longer and longer pauses, because I just didn't care. It feels like a superficial Malazan story, one that Erikson felt pressured to write because of flagging sales, not one he had any great passion for.

All that said, the book is averaging 4.67 on Goodreads and 4.8 on Amazon, so it seems I'm in the minority with my dissatisfaction . . . although I swear those ratings have to be fueled more by nostalgia for what came before and hope for what comes next that what's actually in the book.

Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀

My sincere thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stacking The Shelves: Week 2 (2022)

2022-01-15T02:31:00.011-05:00

Review Titles

A pair of review titles finding their way onto the shelves this week, courtesy of Rebellion and Sarah Chorn.

Set in a planet-sized matriarchal city where magic and technology freely bleed together, a male courtesan’s quest for vengeance against his aristocrat father draws him into an ancient struggle between dragons, necromancers, and his home district’s violent history. It should be no surprise I've had Silk Fire by Zabé Ellor on my watch-list since August! Available 5 July 2022 from Rebellion.

I don't know that there's an SFF author writing today who is more emotionally engaging than Sarah Chorn, which makes A Sorrow Named Joy an automatic must-read. Joy desires nothing more than her husband's happiness. She spends her days creating the perfect life for him in their idyllic suburban home. Everything is neat, predictable, and in its place . . . but when Joy finds a picture that hints at a past she cannot remember, the facade cracks and secrets are revealed. Available 10 Jan 2022.

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

Just one new acquisition on the paperback front this week...

Dragons of a Fallen Sun and Dragons of a Vanished Moon are the first and last book (I still need to find a copy of the middle book) of Dragonlance: The War of Souls, by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. With all the legal wrangling over and Dragons of Deceit, the first new Dragonlance novel in over a decade, scheduled to hit shelves this summer, I'm excited to immerse myself in Krynn once again.

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

A pair of new acquisitions on the digital front...

I'm a huge fan of Henrietta Soto's loving, passionate take on stories of dominant women and the submissive men who love them, so Yes, Mistress, a 5-story anthology of stories I've yet to read, is a perfect excuse to indulge.

Not only is Wol-vriey one of my favorite authors of Bizarro horror, but Women sounds like exactly my kind of story, with five very angry women out to settle a score. "What the hell did John Miller do to anger these five women this much?" indeed!

Beauty in Ruins

Going on Indefinite Hiatus...

Excerpt & Giveaway: Last Worst Hopes by Lee Hunt

Universal Buy Link | Get it On Amazon

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Last Worst Hopes by Lee Hunt

Universal Buy Link | Get it On Amazon

Giveaway

Excerpt

Cover Reveal: She’s the One Who Scares Us All by S.R. Cronin

Universal Buy Link

About the Series

Giveaway

Excerpt

Author Bio

Excerpt: Black Swan Empire by James Peters.

About the Series:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Excerpt

Author Bio

Excerpt & Giveaway: Daring Duplicity by Edale Lane

Giveaway

Excerpt

Author Bio

Excerpt & Giveaway: Knight in Retrograde by Lee Hunt.

Universal Buy Link | Amazon

Guest Post - Eloise as a Little Girl

Giveaway

Excerpt

Author Bio

Excerpt & Giveaway: Flotsam by R J Theodore

Publisher | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks| Author Site | Goodreads

Guest Post: Meet Tisker, a Thief with a Heart of Gold

Giveaway

Excerpt

Author Bio

I Can't Wait for... Hide by Kiersten White

Horror Books Coming Soon!

Scifi Book Review: Revenant by Alex White

Science Fiction Book Review

Title: RevenantAuthor: Alex WhitePublication Date: December 21st 2021Publisher: Pocket Books/Star TrekGenres: Science Fiction

Stacking The Shelves: Week 6 (2022)

Review Titles

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

I Can't Wait for... The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert

Science Fiction Books Coming Soon!

Excerpt & Giveaway: Luck Lines by Quinn Tollens

Add to Goodreads

Description

Excerpt

Purchase

NineStar Press | Books2Read

Meet the Author

Giveaway

Stacking The Shelves: Week 5 (2022)

Review Titles

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

I Can't Wait for... Fairy Tale by Stephen King

Fantasy Books Coming Soon!

Scifi Book Review: The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

Sci-fi/Horror Book Review

Title: The TommyknockersAuthor: Stephen KingPublication Date: November 10th, 2987Publisher: SignetGenres: Horror, Science Fiction

Erotica Book Reviews: Sunday Smutday

Erotica Book Reviews

Stacking The Shelves: Week 4 (2022)

Review Titles

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

I Can't Wait for... The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

Fantasy Books Coming Soon!

Stacking The Shelves: Week 3 (2022)

Review Titles

New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures

New Acquisitions: Digital Titles

Fantasy Book Review: The Queen's Weapons by Anne Bishop

Fantasy Book Review

Title: The Queen's WeaponsAuthor: Anne BishopPublication Date: March 9th 2021Publisher: AceGenres: Epic Fantasy

I Can't Wait for... Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

Urban Fantasy Books Coming Soon!

Title: Revenant
Author: Alex White
Publication Date: December 21st 2021
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Genres: Science Fiction

Title: The Tommyknockers
Author: Stephen King
Publication Date: November 10th, 2987
Publisher: Signet
Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

Title: The Queen's Weapons
Author: Anne Bishop
Publication Date: March 9th 2021
Publisher: Ace
Genres: Epic Fantasy

Title: Empire of the Vampire
Author: Jay Kristoff
Publication Date: Sept 14th 2022
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genres: Epic Fantasy

Title: The God is Not Willing
Author: Steven Erikson
Publication Date: Nov 16th 2021
Publisher: Tor Books
Genres: Epic Fantasy