Name the last three books you have read...

[beccaomecca]

I love that people still read physical books. Over the years I’ve had to progress to audio books because every time I have picked up a book in the past few years it’s ended up on my face a few pages in, I’m useless…. Makes me sad though because I have so many books!

 

[Peach State Scholar]

I love that people still read physical books. Over the years I’ve had to progress to audio books because every time I have picked up a book in the past few years it’s ended up on my face a few pages in, I’m useless…. Makes me sad though because I have so many books!

I love physical books because it's easier for me to get immersed into what I'm reading. I have tried to read books electronically it has been okay, but I haven't been able to finish an ebook yet. And I have started four or five.

 

[Tamstrong]

I love that people still read physical books. Over the years I’ve had to progress to audio books because every time I have picked up a book in the past few years it’s ended up on my face a few pages in, I’m useless…. Makes me sad though because I have so many books!

Audio books have that effect on me. Maybe I should get some to play when I go to bed to help me with my insomnia. lol
I'm sad with you and your poor, neglected books! If they need a good home, send them to me.

I love physical books because it's easier for me to get immersed into what I'm reading. I have tried to read books electronically it has been okay, but I haven't been able to finish an ebook yet. And I have started four or five.

Physical books are the best of all forms. I used to feel the same about ebooks, but it has grown on me somewhat for a couple of reasons. One, I can take my Kindle wherever I go. Two, it's a much less expensive way to get books, which is good when I read as much as I do. And a bonus feature—adjustable font size for my somewhat visually impaired ass. lol

 

[Peach State Scholar]

Audio books have that effect on me. Maybe I should get some to play when I go to bed to help me with my insomnia. lol
I'm sad with you and your poor, neglected books! If they need a good home, send them to me.




Physical books are the best of all forms. I used to feel the same about ebooks, but it has grown on me somewhat for a couple of reasons. One, I can take my Kindle wherever I go. Two, it's a much less expensive way to get books, which is good when I read as much as I do. And a bonus feature—adjustable font size for my somewhat visually impaired ass. lol

I do love how dirt cheap ebooks are. And how little (physical) space they take up, which I really appreciated when I was moving last year. I had an absurd number of books on hand and even after giving over half away, I still have a ton. I feel like I live in a library sometimes. It's great!

 

[Tamstrong]

I do love how dirt cheap ebooks are. And how little (physical) space they take up, which I really appreciated when I was moving last year. I had an absurd number of books on hand and even after giving over half away, I still have a ton. I feel like I live in a library sometimes. It's great!

It sounds great!

You and Becca are as bad as I am with so many books. lol Even if you've read them, it's painful to let them go! I had a big move years ago and didn't have the space to take my big library with me. I sold probably 2/3 of them in a yard sale, and I still get sad about it sometimes. I also miss the house I rented back then. It had two huge walk-in closets, and one of them had shelves on three of the four walls all the way up to the 12 foot ceiling. The shelves were full of books. It was awesome!

 

[Ol'Skool Classic]

Diana, the Roman Goddess of the hunt, lives alone on the far edge of the Roman Empire. When an old friend arrives looking for help, Diana finds herself thrust back into her old life, and old problems.

With innocent lives caught in the crossfire, Diana realizes that the only way to ensure the safety of her friends and loved ones is to do what she does best: hunt her enemies down.

Spin-off novel set in McHugh's Hellequin Chronicles Universe spotlighting/giving some of the back story for one of the supporting characters from the main series, Diana, the were-bear "Roman goddess of the hunt". Descent adventure read.


V. E. Schwab's Villains Books 1 & 2

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine.

But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her new-found power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other.

With Marcella's rise, new enmities create opportunity--and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

Good reads. Basically a grounded take on "super powers" but with a dark horror edge to it.

 

[Tamstrong]

For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive and threatening races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies—elementals of earth, air, fire, water, wood, and metal. But in the remote Calderon Valley, the boy Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans’ most savage enemy—the Marat horde—return to the Valley, Tavi’s courage and resourcefulness will be a power greater than any fury, one that could turn the tides of war...

For centuries, the people of Alera have harnessed the furies—elementals of earth, air, fire, water, wood, and metal—to protect their land from aggressors. But no fury can save them from the dangers they face within. A mysterious attack from across the sea has weakened the First Lord. Should he fall, a bloody civil war is inevitable. The responsibility of fending off assassination attempts and treachery within the First Lord’s circle of spies falls on Tavi, the one man with no fury to call...

When the power-hungry High Lord of Kalare launches a merciless rebellion against the First Lord, young Tavi of Calderon joins a newly formed legion under an assumed name. And when the ruthless Kalare allies himself with a savage enemy of the realm, Tavi finds himself leading an inexperienced, poorly equipped legion—the only force standing between Alera and certain doom...

All good so far. This series isn't as good as the Dresden Files, but this author never disappoints.

 

[Bookworm616]

I've been reading pretty slowly lately. Here is the last book I finished and the one I'm currently reading:

Finished this one:



Being a HUGE Friends fan, I was looking forward to reading this. This was my reaction after reading it: I'm three parts horrified at everything that happened to him because of his addictions (my brother, in comparison, is like a saint with his addiction), disgusted he kept going back despite everything that happened to him and I'm in awe he's still alive to talk about it.

This guy should be dead. He should have died on several different occasions. It's amazing he's still here. That all being said, his "voice" is quite interesting. I read how people called him condescending and elitist. I didn't really get that, but his voice is definitely unique.

I'm currently reading this:



I'm also a HUGE Harry Potter fan and a HUGE Draco Malfoy fan, so I needed to buy this book. LOL.

I'm thoroughly enjoying it. He comes off as being super nice and he's very funny. I'd love to be able to talk to him in person. He seems very personable. I can't figure out if I'm really enjoying it because of his writing, or because I'm learning a bunch of behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes from the Potter movies. I am reading this one faster than Matthew Perry's book.

 

[Tamstrong]

Now, as enemies become allies, and friends become bitter foes, a danger beyond reckoning looms for all...

After two years of bitter conflict with the hordes of invading Canim warriors, Tavi of Calderon, now Captain of the First Aleran Legion, realizes that a peril far greater than the Canim exists—the mysterious threat that drove the savage Canim to flee their homeland.

Tavi proposes attempting an alliance with the Canim against their common foe, but his warnings go unheeded. For the Senate’s newly-appointed military commander has long desired to wipe out the Canim “scourge,” and their slave allies.

Now, Tavi must find a way to overcome centuries-old animosities if an alliance is to be forged, and he must lead his legion in defiance of the law, against friend and foe—or none will have a chance of survival...

Tavi of Calderon, now recognized as Princeps Gaius Octavian and heir to the crown, has achieved a fragile alliance with Alera’s oldest foes, the savage Canim. But when Tavi and his legions guide the Canim to their lands, his worst fears are realized. The dreaded Vord—the enemy of Aleran and Canim alike—have laid waste to the Canim homeland. And the Alerans find themselves trapped alongside their former enemies.

Meanwhile, war-torn Alera rebuilds while politicians and nobles vie for power. But from the south comes the news: the Vord have come to Alera. For a thousand years, Alera and her furies have withstood every enemy, and survived every foe. But the thousand years are over...

For Gaius Octavian, life has been one long struggle. Battling ancient enemies, forging new alliances, and confronting the corruption within his own land, he became a legendary man of war and leader of men—and the rightful First Lord of Alera.

Now, the end of all he fought for is close at hand. The brutal, dreaded Vord are on the march, using fear and chaos to turn the Alerans against one another, and forcing those who will not submit to flee to the outer reaches of the realm.

Perhaps for the final time, Gaius Octavian and his legions must stand against the enemies of his people. And it will take all his intelligence, ingenuity, and furycraft to save their world from eternal darkness...

It's a pretty good series overall. There were moments when I was ready to get to the end already, but it was mostly due to being sleep-deprived/ill and an impatient grump. lol

Like I said in my last post, Jim Butcher never disappoints. So fat at least. lol

 

[Tamstrong]

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold—a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite—and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Alina Starkov’s power has grown, but not without a price. She is the Sun Summoner—hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Shadow Fold. But she and Mal can’t outrun their enemies for long.

The Darkling is more determined than ever to claim Alina’s magic and use it to take the Ravkan throne. With nowhere else to turn, Alina enlists the help of an infamous privateer and sets out to lead the Grisha army.

But as the truth of Alina's destiny unfolds, she slips deeper into the Darkling’s deadly game of forbidden magic, and further away from her humanity. To save her country, Alina will have to choose between her power and the love she thought would always be her shelter. No victory can come without sacrifice—and only she can face the oncoming storm.

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. The nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

The Darkling rules from his shadow throne while a weakened Alina Starkov recovers from their battle under the dubious protection of the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Now her hopes lie with the magic of a long-vanished ancient creature and the chance that an outlaw prince still survives.

As her allies and enemies race toward war, only Alina stands between her country and a rising tide of darkness that could destroy the world. To win this fight, she must seize a legend’s power—but claiming the firebird may be her ruin.

This is another good series. It's my first time reading anything by this author, but it won't be the last. I know there's a show on Netflix based on the series, but I haven't seen it. I may need to check it out and see if it measures up.

 

[Tamstrong]

New York City, 1899. Tillie Pembroke’s sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie’s imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can’t be—can it?

A ravenous reader and researcher, Tillie has something of an addiction to truth, and she won’t rest until she unravels the mystery of her sister’s death. Unfortunately, Tillie’s addicted to more than just truth; to ease the pain from a recent injury, she’s taking more and more laudanum…and some in her immediate circle are happy to keep her well supplied.

Tillie can’t bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister’s death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what’s real—or whether she can trust those closest to her.

Good.

Marty Strauss, a gambling addict recently released from prison, is hired to be the personal bodyguard of Joseph Whitehead, one of the wealthiest men in the world. The job proves more complicated and dangerous than he thought, however, as Marty soon gets caught up in a series of supernatural events involving Whitehead, his daughter (who is a heroin addict), and a devilish man named Mamoulian, with whom Whitehead made a Faustian bargain many years earlier, during World War II.

As time passes, Mamoulian haunts Whitehead using his supernatural powers (such as the ability to raise the dead), urging him to complete his pact with him. Eventually Whitehead decides to escape his fate after a few encounters with Mamoulian and having his wife, former bodyguard, and now his daughter Carys taken away from him. With hope still left to save Carys, Marty Strauss, although reluctant to get involved in the old man Whiteheads deserved punishment, decides to get involved and attempt to save the innocent gifted addict from being another victim to the damnation game.

Good.

The year is 1816, in Northamptonshire. A red, spiderwebbed haze covers the sun. Temperatures drop, fields flood and freeze, grain rots on the stem. The people are starving, and even the wealthy and titled are affected by shortages. Sickness spreads as a red fungus overtakes fields, seals over windows, and infiltrates cellars.

On the way back from the Napoleonic Wars in France, Marcus, the younger son of the Earl of Penderbrook, returns to find his brother dead, the estate covered in fungus, and his father sinking into madness.

The last thing Marcus wants to do is be responsible for Penderbook; he wants only to spend the rest of his life playing cards, drinking, and seducing other men’s wives. But even the responsible life of an heir escapes from his grasp, as his brother’s body disappears, his father turns violent, and pale monsters horrify the countryside.

As Marcus pieces together the truth, he discovers a past more tainted with evil than he could have suspected.

From the family wine cellar to the folly behind the house—from the pond where he played as a child to the new cotton mill built along the stream—

None of what happens at Penderbrook is innocent.

And the monstrosities that have been committed may still be carried in Marcus’s blood…

Okay. It was a bit messy, especially in the beginning when the author kept getting two of the character names mixed up, but the story was okay.

 

[Tamstrong]

Something Evil is Inside Cassie Stevens...

In a quiet coastal New England town, a girl awakes suddenly in the dead of night — there's something in the room with her. She doesn’t see it or hear it, but she feels it in the pit of her soul. The presence of cold unseen eyes watching her from the darkness.

Ever since surviving a near-death experience in a crash, Cassie Stevens has been haunted by this malevolent presence. She’s shunned by friends and classmates who fear her, and with good reason — terrifying phenomena is happening around her, and something evil is taking over.

Pretty good.

Some things are best left undisturbed . . .

In the countryside of Victorian England, Edward Atherton, rector of Thornham St. Stephen, has taken on the arduous task of restoring the ancient church. But he should never have meddled with the tomb that lay beneath the church’s crumbling walls. The moment the workman raised the tomb lid, an unspeakable horror escaped. At a loss to explain the unsettling noises and frightening visions that begin to plague the church, Atherton calls upon fellow antiquarian and Cambridge professor Richard Asquith to help investigate the strange events that began in the wake of the tomb’s disturbance.

The two discover tantalizing hints of whom and what may have been laid to rest in the tomb, but the unforeseen circumstances force Asquith to give up his inquiries and leave the small village of Thornham behind. Asquith tries to put the frightening experiences behind him and focus on his new wife and family. But death and disappearances abound, and Asquith soon has no choice but to confront the darkness that has followed him from that ancient church into his own home.

The story is good, but the writing style is stiff and long-winded.

Wife, mother, or robot?

Ren feels alone. Uncomfortable in her own skin. The world is against her. Strangers treat her with contempt. Her family are exhausted with her mood swings and the weird stories she tells. Ren knows she is different, but why can’t she be accepted for who she is?

After the loss of his wife and mother to his child, Jan Wiskirski decides to purchase one of a new generation of robots to replace her. Perfectly designed, with a human-like artificial intelligence, and a human look and feel, he believes the clone is everything he needs to bring the family together.

But Ren v. 4.3 may not be quite the all-perfect model advertised. She begins to develop real feelings, and a powerful protectiveness over her step-child, Kamil. Indeed what happened to the boy’s mother, why won’t Jan talk about it?

As suspicions grows within the home, nobody is sure whom to trust. When Ren starts to suspect Kamil is being abused by his father, she decides to act. But doing so will have consequences for the whole family. How can this assemblage of organic matter and machine know what’s best for a young boy? Yet, in turn, how can she be dealt with, without undermining the very role she was to perform as wife, mother and carer?

It attempted to be a good book, but it failed. It seemed to be going somewhere interesting, but it fell completely flat before it got there.

 

[XenNChill]

Read the Den of Shadows quartet by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I can say that they definitely do come across as something a teen would write and post on Wattpad. Tons of edge, vampires, a lot of sultry looks, brooding hunks dressed in black with smouldering gazes and hair trigger tempers but they would never harm the lead girl, and snappy girl protagonists who for some reason everyone is obsessed with despite them being as interesting as a frozen pizza on a Tuesday night. But they were quick reads, so I can't complain too much. What impressed me the most though was that at the time of these books being written and published, she was actually a teenager if I'm remembering right. Imagine being 15 and being a published author, that's lowkey dope.

 

[Ol'Skool Classic]

Lucas Rurik is a Riftborn fighter bent on vengeance in this thrilling urban fantasy/detective noir series from the bestselling author of the Hellequin Chronicles.

The peace between the Rift and humanity has always been tenuous. It’s up to the Guilds to protect it, removing whomever—or whatever—poses a threat, whether human or rift-fused. Lucas Rurik used to be part of the Raven Guild. That is, until someone murdered all of its members—except for him.

That was seven years ago. Now, Lucas keeps to himself, avoiding getting too close to anyone lest they become targets themselves. But when one of his oldest friends at the Rift-Crime Unit calls upon him for help with a case that’s already taken down people who mean a lot to him, Lucas can’t resist stepping back into the fray.

Something is killing FBI and RCU agents alike—something unlike anything Lucas has ever seen before, on Earth or in the Rift. Even more concerning, the gruesome assaults seem to be linked to Dr. Callie Mitchell, a depraved and disturbed individual who treats the rift-fused like her own personal lab rats.

And when someone Lucas thought he could trust turns on him, he realizes these killings aren’t just the random attacks of some terrifying new kind of fiend. They’re connected to whoever killed off his Guild all those years ago—and that’s something Lucas just can’t let lie . . .

Lucas Rurik confronts a cult determined to remake the world—no matter the cost—in this urban fantasy noir from the author of the Hellequin Chronicles.

Lucas Rurik is no stranger to navigating the tricky territory between humans and those touched by the Rift. After all, as the last surviving member of the Raven Guild, protecting the peace is his job. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

As much as Lucas would like to be out hunting for Dr. Callie Mitchell—a deranged scientist with a bad habit of experimenting on the rift-fused—his friends at the Rift-Crime Unit require his expertise on a perilous case. It seems a mysterious kingpin known as the Croupier has been making some shady deals, and revenants, riftborn, and humans alike are winding up dead in the process. Now, with the help of chained revenant Nadia and FBI-agent-turned-revenant Emily West, it’s up to Lucas to track down the anonymous crime lord before anyone else is hurt.

But as Lucas gets closer to his target, he discovers this is no ordinary manhunt. The Croupier is leading a dangerous group of zealots who want to destroy both the rift and humanity—and they’ll stop at nothing to make their so-called Blessed plans a reality . .


Good start off for a new series with book three scheduled for a June release.

Stormy Bay is a dying town nestled against an eerily placid ocean, and Ray Lilly is trapped in it. He can barely remember his name let alone his mission for the Twenty Palace society. Worse, he realizes that for some time now he’s been living as a puppet, his body and mind under the complete domination of an unknown power, and the townsfolk think this puppet is his real identity.

And that power can still seize control of Ray’s body at any time, forcing him and the people around him to playact in nonsense stories that center around a mysterious boy and his monster dog.

The town and its people shift and change, but only Ray seems to notice. He has no idea what sort of magic has imprisoned all these ordinary folks in Stormy Bay, but he does know he needs to get them, and himself, out.

But that might mean crossing a line he has never crossed before. While Ray has certainly taken lives in his work for the society, it was always in self-defense or in the desperate moments before impending calamity. Can he bring himself to commit cold-blooded murder, even to save dozens of lives?

I wondered after reading Connolly's last Twenty Palaces novella if he would continue with the new character mission/motivation he set up at the end in other full length novels or novellas. Looks like he's going full novel route with this and a follow up novel (The Flood Circle) that's already out. This works as a good jumping on point into the current stories going forward with all of the previous books working as background story for the two series protagonists, especially when it comes to Ray Lilly. In previous books the readers along with Lilly were discovering the the who, what, where & why's of the supernatural world he foolishly stumbled into now he, along with the readers, have a better understanding of the weird happenings taking place as the story progresses.

 

[Tamstrong]

Paul Czarcik, the longest-tenured detective in the Illinois Bureau of Judicial Enforcement, puts the rest of the team to shame. Ruthless and riddled with vices, Czarcik always gets his man. And fast. Until now…

A double slaying isn’t the open-and-shut case of urban crime he’s used to. Connecting it to a high-profile Texas judge, Czarcik realizes something bigger is going on. It’s the work of a serial killer for whom Chicago is just the beginning. Now he’s inviting Czarcik to play catch-me-if-you-can on a cross-country murder spree.

Going rogue, Czarcik accepts the challenge. But as the bodies pile up, he must come to grips with the fact that nothing—not the killer, the victims, or the rules—is what it seems in this bloody game of cat and mouse.

Pretty good.

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary.

The book was good but a bit long-winded at times, which made it drag. It's the book the movie "Simon Birch" was loosely based on. The concept was the same, but most of the details were different. Both are great stories, but I think the movie version is better.

This is the story of four young boys. Four lifelong friends. Intelligent, fun-loving, wise beyond their years, they are inseparable. Their potential is unlimited, but they are content to live within the closed world of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. And to play as many pranks as they can on the denizens of the street. They never get caught. And they know they never will.

Until one disastrous summer afternoon.

On that day, what begins as a harmless scheme goes horrible wrong. And the four find themselves facing a year’s imprisonment in the Wilkinson Home for Boys. The oldest of them is fifteen, the youngest twelve. What happens to them over the course of that year—brutal beatings, unimaginable humiliation—will change their lives forever.

Years later, one has become a lawyer. One a reporter. And two have grown up to be murderers, professional hit men. For all of them, the pain and fear of Wilkinson still rages within. Only one thing can erase it.

Revenge.

To exact it, they will twist the legal system. Commandeer the courtroom for their agenda. Use the wiles they observed on the streets, the violence they learned at Wilkinson.

If they get caught this time, they only have one thing left to lose: their lives.

According to the author, the book is based on true events. There have been many debates about the validity of that claim. In many respects, the story comes across as fiction, but as for the abuse encountered in the juvenile prison, it is something that could actually be true. It was an okay read.

 

[Peach State Scholar]

 

[andreboba]

 

[Tamstrong]

It has been twenty years since the serial killer known as The Black Heart Killer terrorized the town of Newport in 1979. Life mostly returned to normal after the killer was captured. All the townspeople have to do is stay out of the woods where the bodies were abandoned—their chests ripped open, and their hearts torn out...

Howie Burke and his friends decide rules are meant to be broken. That’s what fifteen-year-old kids do. On a beautiful fall day, they decide to go out in the woods to film a horror movie when they stumble across a mysterious grave. What they don’t know is that they are about to release an evil on the town unlike anything in their home-made movies. They will soon uncover the secrets of the Black Heart Killer, and what it truly means to be cursed.

This is a true story of a journey to hell and back.

In 1994 John Hoskison was a highly respected and successful professional golfer. He then shattered his perfect world. One evening he broke a rule of his life by drinking and driving and on the way home he hit and killed a cyclist.

Devastated by his actions Hoskison was thrown into an unimaginable world of remorse and regret. He knew he would never escape the pain he had caused and thought a prison sentence totally justified.

The story grips from the start when Hoskison swaps the safety of green fairways for the medieval squalor of HMP Wandsworth, where drug taking is rife and prison officers can throw victims to the hard men. Only one thing saves Hoskison – forgiveness. In the most incredibly generous gesture the story describes the forgiveness Hoskison receives which acts as a catylist for his survival in the face of adversity.

On a rainy afternoon, a mother's life is shattered as her son slips from her grip and runs into the street...

I Let You Go follows Jenna Gray as she moves to a ramshackle cottage on the remote Welsh coast, trying to escape the memory of the car accident that plays again and again in her mind and desperate to heal from the loss of her child and the rest of her painful past.

At the same time, the novel tracks the pair of Bristol police investigators trying to get to the bottom of this hit-and-run. As they chase down one hopeless lead after another, they find themselves as drawn to each other as they are to the frustrating, twist-filled case before them.

Life for Jake Paris is stable and ordinary--until a mysterious old woman pays him a visit and he begins to have encounters with unruly children everywhere he goes—children only he can see.

When Jake's estranged sister, Holly, finds herself the target of a national serial killer who has chosen her son as his next victim, Jake begins to wonder if there is a connection. Could these children be the ghosts of the killer's victims?

As the kidnapper's plan unfolds, Jake uncovers a startling secret about the unseen children that will change his life forever--and Holly discovers just how far she is willing to go to save her son. Unseen is a riveting story of rescue, restoration, and romance that will leave you thinking long after the last page has been turned.

Claudia doesn’t feel like herself anymore—she feels like prey. Her husband’s hired goons have stalked her all the way to Boston and will only stop their pursuit once she is dead.

Divorce is not an option. Instead, she has stolen a bunch of her man’s money to disappear into another life.

In order for Claudia to live, someone else must die. A lookalike college student becomes the target capable of freeing her from an awful marriage.

The plan goes horribly awry. Instead of murdering Claudia’s double, the assassins shoot the woman’s lover who is the cousin of a powerful Irish mobster. Claudia becomes hunted by all involved. Can she survive? Should she?

The Hooker. The Madam. The Driver. All on a collision course to a place where madness holds sway.

After four years working in a New York brothel to pay off a debt to the mob, Nina is nearly paid up and ready to go home. She just needs to see one more client, a recluse who always pays a half-million in cash for a night with the brothel's best girls, but this last trick soon becomes a battle for Nina's soul. Meanwhile, the brothel's sadistic madam has been secretly hoarding money so she can move up in her family's organization, and she's depending on that windfall to tip the scales in her favor, but her driver Ramón has other ideas, making off with the money in a bid for his own freedom. The theft sets off a horrific chain of events for all three, testing their wills and changing them them forever.

Lydia McCloud meets Arthur Danse at a wedding party in Plymouth, N.H., and she thinks he's a man she could grow to love. Arthur sees things differently. In Lydia, he sees the sort of woman people always want to protect. He decides he's going to show her "she wouldn't always be protected." Once their only child, Robert, is born, Arthur's behavior worsens. When the courts become involved, the nightmare really begins. This scathing novel is an indictment of a justice system that makes a mockery of its very name.

Iona Mueller arrives alone at the Willard Asylum for the Insane in this epic tale that spans a century. Through the Mueller family we take a deep look at what it means to be mentally ill in the year 1915 and in the present day.

By the time she reached fifteen years old, Iona had failed to become a “proper young lady” which profoundly concerned her parents. Her one and only friend, Hetty, the family maid, warned her not to disobey them but Iona couldn’t help herself. Iona’s quirk of counting steps may have been overlooked but when her mother and father learned of her exploits in the woods near her home in Ithaca, New York, she was taken to the town doctor. The doctor took one look at her self-cut short, mangled hair, learned of her bizarre behavior, and declared her insane.

At Willard Asylum on Seneca Lake there were plenty of activities to occupy her, including the job she procured working in the barn. Besides, she knew she was not anything like the crazy patients that banged their heads against the cinder walls until they bled or ran naked through the hallways. She was disobedient, that was true, and she would change. If only her parents would accept her correspondence and allow her to return home.

Iona’s new roommate, Cat, made every night a fight for survival. When Iona was caught trying to run away she was sent to the second ward, where her fate was sealed. Subject to tranquilizers and hydrotherapy, ice baths and physical beatings, Iona had only one thing on her mind. She had to stay away from the back building. Once you were placed there you were never seen again.

Iona met James at the institution’s barn. His kindness made the deprivation more bearable. He recognized that the violet hollows beneath her eyes, the bruises on her arms, and her apparent unraveling were the effect of the second ward. A plan was put into place, one that would remove Iona from harm’s way permanently.

In present day, it is Jenna, a young relative of Iona’s, who is plagued with mental illness. Jenna’s odd behaviors, bizarre language, and confusion disrupt her once perfectly normal life. Jenna’s family members trace their roots back to Iona in hopes of understanding their predisposition to mental illness. The journey leads them to an amazing discovery of the suitcases left behind by hundreds of patients at the Willard Asylum.

 

[Ol'Skool Classic]

The ninth novel of the bestselling Rivers of London urban fantasy series returns to the adventures of Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, as he solves magical crimes in the city of London.

There is a world hidden underneath this great city.

The London Silver Vaults—for well over a century, the largest collection of silver for sale in the world. It has more locks than the Bank of England and more cameras than a paparazzi convention.

Not somewhere you can murder someone and vanish without a trace—only that’s what happened.

The disappearing act, the reports of a blinding flash of light, and memory loss amongst the witnesses all make this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit.

Alongside their boss DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands and, most terrifying of all, the North!

And Peter must solve this case soon, because back home his partner Beverley is expecting twins any day now. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something—and somebody—that nobody ever expects…

The three original spellbooks, source of all magic in the world, have been found, and Ray Lilly has already “acquired” one. Now he and his "boss" Annalise Powliss are on a historic mission to get the other two and they’re ready to kill anyone who gets in their way.

If they succeed, the Twenty Palace Society will become more powerful than it has ever been and could truly safeguard humanity from both extra-dimensional predators and the people who summon them.

But this time their enemies are more formidable than any they’ve ever faced before. What starts as a covert mission to hunt sorcerers quickly collapses into a desperate—and very public—struggle to survive. Can Ray and Annalise track down and kill these sorcerers before they execute a plan to drive the human race to the edge of extinction?

Lucas Rurik faces unwanted celebrity, ancient enemies, and dangerous zealots in a thrilling urban-fantasy noir from the author of the Hellequin Chronicles.

Centuries of life experience inside and outside the Rift couldn’t prepare former Raven Guild member and riftborn detective Lucas Rurik for his latest set of challenges. First, when his capture of a prominent political figure “trends” on social networks, he finds himself the target of both the media and the public. Then, Noah Kaya, an Ancient, tracks him down for help on a job. As a rule, Lucas doesn’t trust the Ancients; they always seem to have an ulterior motive. But something about this gig just won’t let Lucas say no.

It seems one of Noah’s close friends disappeared right after becoming the lead suspect in a murder case. The problem is the guy in question isn’t the type to knock someone off. Not to mention a whole lot of rift-walkers have recently gone missing, the crime scene reeks of pure rift energy, and a deranged killer who Lucas thought was long deceased might not actually be dead after all.

Soon, what was originally a simple search for a missing person devolves into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an age-old enemy—and it could bring Lucas face-to-face with Dr. Callie Mitchell, the depraved scientist he’s been hunting for months . . .

 

[Ol'Skool Classic]

Since a few years have gone by since the first novel came out, I did an audiobook "re-read" of it in order to recap the events that played out and ended up audio booking the bridging novella & second novel as well for one big story read.

Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity. Within their halls, the ruling aristocratic houses develop scientific marvels, foster trade alliances, and maintain fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is damaged in combat, Grimm joins a team of Albion agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring his ship.

And as Grimm undertakes this task, he learns that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake...

Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster hasn’t even broken in his lieutenant’s insignia when he’s summoned to meet with the Spirearch of Spire Albion himself for a very special—and very secret—purpose. The Spirearch needs Benedict to retrieve a bag he’s “misplaced” on the Colony Spire known as Dependence, which has strangely cut off all contact with the outside world. It’s a delicate mission at best, a potential bloodbath at worst.

To this end, the Spirearch has supplied Benedict with backup in the form of three Warriorborn. But unlike the courageous lieutenant, this trio has formerly used its special gifts for crime, carnage, and outright bloody murder. And all of them were caught and imprisoned because of Benedict. Now, if they behave—and make it back alive—they’ll go free.

But when the odd squad reaches Dependence, they soon discover something waiting for them: a horrific weapon that could shatter the balance of power among the Spires. And Benedict will have to bring his own Warriorborn skills to bear if he, his team, and Spire Albion are to have any hope of survival . . .

For centuries the Cinder Spires have safeguarded humanity, rising far above the deadly surface world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses rule, developing scientific marvels and building fleets of airships for defense and trade.

Now, the Spires hover on the brink of open war.

Everyone knows it's coming. The guns of the great airship fleets that control the skies between the last bastions of humanity will soon speak in anger, and Spire Albion stands alone against the overwhelming might of Spire Aurora's Armada and its new secret weapon--one capable of destroying the populations of entire Spires.

A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch's diplomatic agents.

It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion--assuming that it is not already too late.