THE BRIGHTEST FELL BY SEANAN McGUIRE


New York Times-bestselling October Daye faerie series • Hugo Award-winning author Seanan McGuire • “Top of my urban-paranormal series list!” —Felicia Day

Contains an original bonus novella, Of Things Unknown!

Things are slow, and October “Toby” Daye couldn’t be happier about that. The elf-shot cure has been approved, Arden Windermere is settling into her position as Queen in the Mists, and Toby doesn’t have anything demanding her attention except for wedding planning and spending time with her family.

Maybe she should have realized that it was too good to last.

When Toby’s mother, Amandine, appears on her doorstep with a demand for help, refusing her seems like the right thing to do…until Amandine starts taking hostages, and everything changes. Now Toby doesn’t have a choice about whether or not she does as her mother asks. Not with Jazz and Tybalt’s lives hanging in the balance. But who could possibly help her find a pureblood she’s never met, one who’s been missing for over a hundred years?

Enter Simon Torquill, elf-shot enemy turned awakened, uneasy ally. Together, the two of them must try to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the Mists: what happened to Amandine’s oldest daughter, August, who disappeared in 1906.

This is one missing person case Toby can’t afford to get wrong.

BOOK DESCRIPTION COURTESY OF AMAZON

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley for an honest review.

Toby can never catch a break! Thinking that she can have a vacation, she is having some down time with May and a few others at a karaoke bar. Will the torture never end? She gets home and her Mom, Amandine,  shows up and takes her Fiancee, The King of Cats. Toby must find her sister to get her sister back. Did I hear that right? A sister? Yes, you heard right. This was exactly what Toby was thinking, and why no one told her. So in true Toby fashion, anything that could go wrong, does go wrong. I love how Toby and the other characters are always evolving from one book to the next. I recommend this book and series to everyone. I give The Brightest Fell (October Daye) 5/5 stars.

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Superhero Syndrome – Blitz

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Superhero Syndrome cover

Urban Fantasy
Date Published: September 2017
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Tess McBray was dying. The Solstice Syndrome had no cure, and she resigned herself to an early grave. But just when she gave up on survival, all her symptoms mysteriously disappeared.
All but one symptom, anyway. Something is wrong with Tess’s hands. They absorb any material they touch, and her skin turns to wood, or steel, or concrete. It doesn’t take this comic-book obsessed 21-year-old long to figure out what’s going on: somehow, she’s developed super powers. And she’s not the only one; across the country, people are coming forward and sharing their gifts with the world. In her own city, where the police are battling a human trafficking operation, a masked vigilante called The Fox is saving lives and stopping criminals.
Tess doesn’t know where she fits into this new, super-powered world. But when people around her start disappearing, she can’t just sit on the sidelines. Teaming up with The Fox to create the world’s first superhero duo might be the only way to rid her city of evil and save the people she loves most.

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Excerpt
I wish I’d been with the people I loved on the day the world changed. Then again, if someone had said, “Hey Tess, reality as you know it is about to be turned upside-down. You should probably witness this moment with someone you care about. Anybody fit that bill?” I would’ve barked out a bitter laugh and told them I’d rather be alone. Which, as it turns out, I was.
The meteor shower was all over the news. CNN covered it nonstop in the hours before it was visible, bringing on astronomers and astrophysicists to explain why it was such a big deal for a meteor shower of this size to be happening in the middle of January. Apparently, our scientists were supposed to be able to predict this kind of thing. The fact that one had snuck up on our collective set of observatories and satellites was—to quote one NASA representative—“extraordinary.”
I didn’t care if it was unprecedented. I didn’t care if people around the world were calling it a sign or a portent of the Second Coming or whatever. I just knew it was beautiful, and I wanted to see one more beautiful thing before I died.
The trick was explaining that to the floor nurse.
“Miss McBray, please go back to your room.” Nurse Davies crossed her beefy arms over her chest and planted her white-sneakered feet to the floor. “We’ve been over this before. You’re in no condition to leave.”
“How do you know?” I growled. “Nobody here can even tell me what my condition is.”
I shifted the weight of my duffle bag on my shoulder and leaned to the left, craning my neck to gauge the distance between Davies and the elevators. Only a few dozen yards. Sure, she towered over me. Sure, in the month I’d been in the hospital my body had wasted away to little more than a skin-wrapped skeleton. But I might be able to make a run for it.
Davies shook her head. “Do you think you’re going to find the answers out there?”
“Maybe. I don’t really care.”
She glared at me, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. It was the same thing she’d spat at me every time I’d fought against the IV, or questioned the contents of the murky soup they forced me to eat, or requested—and then repeatedly demanded—to have my comic book collection brought into the hospital. And just when I began to worry she’d disappoint me by refusing to lean on her catchphrase, she said it.
“Stop being so melodramatic.”
About the Author

Caryn Larrinaga is a Basque-American mystery, horror, and urban fantasy writer living in Utah with her husband and cats. Her debut novel Donn’s Hill (March 2017, Immortal Works Press) was a 2017 Dragon Award finalist.
Watching scary movies through split fingers terrified Caryn as a child, and those nightmares inspire her to write now. She lives in a 90-year-old house with a colorful history, and the creaking walls and narrow hallways send her running (never walking) up the stairs from her basement. Exploring her fears through writing makes Caryn feel a little less foolish for wanting a buddy to accompany her into the tool shed.
When her fingers aren’t glued to her laptop keyboard, Caryn also enjoys binge-watching Netflix with her husband, reading, playing video games, and filling up her phone’s flash memory with pictures of her cats. She loves music and plays the bass guitar.
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Black Snow – Blitz

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Paranormal Fantasy
Publisher: FAB Publishing
Release Date: October 24, 2017
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Snow’s best friend is a bird. An osprey, to be specific.
Everyone knows Snow’s parents died a long time ago, and she has perfected her happy smile and girly giggle so no one suspects that she hides a darker side of herself deep inside. No one, except her bird – and Nick, who always seems to know how she feels.
Then Hawker Johns blackmails her into joining his covert group of protectors. The imposing sheriff from Norton sends Snow to the Islands to investigate Jamie Jamieson, one of her friends and a man she dates casually, and once the first fury has passed, she’s eager to go. Mostly so that she can come back and shove Hawker’s suspicions down his throat.
Things are not what they seem on the Islands, though, and when Snow has been shot at, almost drowned and fallen through the roof of a cave, she starts thinking about her life, and her past.
Then she suddenly finds herself in a situation where she has a tough choice to make. Will she follow her heart or the pull from her family and friends? And will she ever find peace with her past?
Black Snow is the fourth book in the Birds of a Feather series, a young adult/coming of age series with paranormal elements, full of laughter, mystery, and romance.
Other Books in the Birds of a Feather Series
 
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Wilder
Birds of a Feather, Book 1
Publisher: FAB Publishing
Release Date: December 14, 2016
Wilder’s wonderful grandfather is dead, and so is her mother, but Grandpa Willy gives her one final gift in his will – the knowledge that her father is only her step-father.
Once she meets Hawker, the scary man who turns out to be her real dad, her life takes an unexpected turn. She finds out about a heritage she never knew she had, and secrets from the past are uncovered as she fights to save her part of the world from destruction.
And then there’s Mac, with his green eyes and a soft voice that flows through her like sweet honey. He’s there to help Wilder when she needs it the most, and as she struggles with how to fit into the group of people around her dad – having Mac in her life becomes more important with every bad thing that happens.
“Wilder” is the first in the Birds of a Feather series and a spin-off from the Dreughan trilogy. It’s set in modern time and can be read stand-alone.
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Sweet Water
Birds of a Feather, Book 2
Publisher: FAB Publishing
Published: March 2017
Jiminella “Jinx” Sweetwater is a genius. She’s a scholar, an inventor, hardworking and loyal, and well known in the scientific circles around the University in Prosper City.
Being smarter than everyone else might seem like a good thing, but it isn’t. At least, it isn’t to Jinx who has two friends, a small condo, and no life.
After a fight with her best friend Wilder, it just gets worse. Someone breaks into her home and when her parents show up in all their hippie-like glory, Jinx has had enough and escapes to a small village by the sea.
Suddenly, Jinx finds herself involved in village life, living with the unpleasant Mrs. Fratinelli and trying her best to juggle all the things that seem to end up on her plate. And then there’s calm, cool and gorgeous Dante – Snow’s boyfriend, who seems to see right through the shields Jinx has put up around herself, straight into her mind.
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Picture This
Birds of a Feather, Book 3
Publisher: FAB Publishing
Release Date: June 29, 2017
Life just keeps slapping Mary in the face.
She had it rough growing up, and when it finally looks like she’s getting her life firmly back on track, breaking up with her boyfriend starts a string of events that threatens to bring Mary to her knees.
Fortunately, there are good people in her life who will do everything in their powers to help her when she needs it. Mary’s girlfriends, Jinx and Wilder are there for her, and after she’s rescued from being kidnapped, Carson and Bo take her into their home, becoming the family she always wanted but never seemed to get to keep.
As the group around Hawker Johns hunt the men who wanted to trade Mary for the valuable crystal from the mountains, she slowly recovers. Then life throws her another few curveballs, and it looks like she’ll lose everything yet again.
Mary is resilient and used to restarting her life from nothing, but when it looks like she’ll also lose the man she loves, maybe the happy girl has just had enough?
Picture this is the third book in the Birds of a Feather series, a young adult/coming of age series with paranormal elements, full of laughter, mystery, and romance.
Excerpt
 
I found the ledge, and it was barely wide enough for my toes so I couldn’t stand on it for long. The arm holding me up started to burn, and I looked around frantically for somewhere to go.
“Snow,” my bird said. “Big rock. Have to jump, one arm’s length to the right, one head up.”
I looked and thought I saw the outline of the overhang she was talking about. The rock had hit my shoulder, but the numbness had subsided, and I clenched the hand a few times. It seemed to be working. Then my left foot slipped, and for a few seconds, I thought I’d fall, but I managed to hold on and find the ledge with both my feet again.
“Almost there,” Nick said.
Was he crazy? He was coming up right underneath me, something that was against all common sense.
“Get out of the way, Nick,” I repeated. “If I fall I’ll crash right into you.”
He didn’t stop, and my body was screaming at me to do something, so I made up my mind. Then I made sure my safety rope was loose enough, bent my knees as much as I could, tightened all my muscles, and jumped straight into the darkness.
My hands gripped the overhang firmly, and I held on.
“Twist legs right. Another rock,” the osprey said calmly.
I did, and felt my knee hit a rock, bent the leg upward and over it, and heaved myself up over the edge.
“I’m secure,” I called out to Nick and was met with a resounding silence. “Nicky?” I shouted.
He couldn’t have fallen because I would have heard, so why wasn’t he answering?
“Good,” he suddenly rumbled out of nowhere. “Is there an anchor there somewhere?”
My hands slid along the cold, hard rock and found another rusty piece of metal. I yanked it a few times, and it seemed to be safe, so I secured my rope to it.
“Yeah,” I said. “Do you want my rope?
“Yeah,” he echoed.
The overhang was big enough for both of us to sit on. I leaned my back against the mountainside and tilted my head a little to nudge his broad shoulder.
“That was fun,” I murmured.
He snorted out something unintelligible, and I giggled. It wasn’t my fake giggle, it was a real one, from happiness and adrenaline.
About the Author 

The proper way to put it here would probably be to describe how I love to play with our two big dogs, adore my fantastic daughters and how much I love to read.
Another way would be to use my imagination and then I would be a super powerful warrior woman, think Xena the warrior princess (though with less tacky clothes). Or when I think of it, maybe I’m actually more of a Hercule Poirot (sans the suit and moustache). Or maybe I’m like Aragorn, strong and cool and then I might get to meet Gandalf! Or I could be Bella’s pretty cousin and snap Jacob up in a second (yeah, I’m so not team Edward), or wait, maybe I could be like one of them heroines in historical novels who swoon all the time. I’ve always wanted to swoon…
Well, I guess you get how my mind is working (or not working, some say).
Anyways, I like to write. Stories, adventures, romantic and happy stuff mixed up with sorrow and hardship, and bit of laughter here and there because the way I see it – life is way too short to go around feeling grumpy.
 
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The Billionaire’s Beach: Shark Fin By Maggie Carpenter

The billionaire's beach: shark fin cover

Title: The Billionaire Beach: Shark Fin (Alpha Male Masters Series 7)
Author: Maggie Carpenter
Publisher: Dark Secrets Press
Release Date: October 21, 2017

Blurb:
HE WANTS PRIVACY ~ ~ SHE WANTS PAYBACK

Avery Madison, a farm girl from Montana and struggling interior decorator, has been trespassing on a private beach as payback for a broken promise.

For weeks billionaire Dean Guthrie has been irritated by a young woman disrupting his solitude, and finally catching her he pulls her over his knee. Infuriated she marches into the water not noticing the menace lurking in the shallow depths.

Dean’s frantic shouts of warning send her racing back to the sand, and barely escaping the jaws of the great white she falls into his arms at the water’s edge.

Moments later he recognizes the dark-haired green-eyed beauty. At a chance meeting months before she’d begged him to look at her ideas for his house. Though he’d agreed and was eager to see her again the portfolio had failed to appear.

They realize conniving forces must have interfered, but who, and why? As smoldering passion ignites, more questions surface as they are faced with a mysterious spate of nasty misdeeds.

Does someone want to keep them apart, or are Avery and Dean in serious danger…?

A menace lurks and romance flames in this sexy romance. If you enjoy mystery and suspense with take-charge alpha male and feisty female, you’ll love The Billionaire’s Beach. Grab your sunscreen and click the link today.

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Available in Kindle Unlimited

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EXCERPT:
A ripple of something indefinable was moving through his body. He’d wronged her, but who was she, and what had he done?
“This isn’t about me owning this property,” he exclaimed. “Tell me, dammit. What’s going on with you?”
“I’m leaving, that’s what’s going on with me,” she snapped, and turning away she hurried towards the water, but to his surprise she abruptly stopped, spun around, and glowered at him. “I’m glad I was irritating, I’m glad I messed with your perfect little world,” she shouted. “Maybe I was wrong to trespass, but you deserved every aggravating moment, and I might have a sore backside but it’s worth it. It’s time you did some thinking…asshole!”
As she stormed off a second time, he stared after her in complete disbelief. The bikini-clad, beautiful young woman had been the source of ongoing irritation for many weeks, and he’d done what came naturally. He was a dominant, spanking was as inherent as breathing, but had he acted too quickly? Clearly there was more to the story, but why hadn’t she told him? He thought about chasing after her but changed his mind. She was in a state, and he wasn’t feeling particularly happy either. Striding across to the staircase he punched the code into the gate keypad and started up the steps. His habit was to take them two at a time for exercise. He’d been tempted to put in an electric chair, but he liked the forced workout.
“Avery Madison,” he muttered. “I’d remember that name, but her voice, I know her voice, dammit.”
She had a knock-out body, but how could he recognize any woman wearing such large dark sunglasses? Any time he’d studied her through the telescope they’d covered her face. Had it been purposeful? Had she deliberately been hiding behind them so he wouldn’t recognize her?
“Dammit. I should have made her take them off. What’s wrong with me?”
He couldn’t abide sand in his house, and before entering he made it a point to clean it off with a brush he kept hanging on the railing. As he swept his feet and legs he continued pondering, and moving inside he headed up the stairs to his bedroom. As he dropped his clothes into the bathroom hamper, and washed his hands and face, the young woman’s attitude and words continued to weigh on his mind.
“We’ve met,” he mumbled. “I can feel it, and I know your voice. It’ll come to me. Once I calm down, it’ll come to me.”
Quickly dressing in comfortable slacks and a thin v-neck cashmere sweater, he moved swiftly back to the kitchen and filled a mug with coffee from his built-in coffeemaker. Curious to see if she’d left he carried the hot drink outside to the deck, and walking to the railing he stared down at his beach. To his surprise he saw her standing thigh-deep in the water. The baseball cap was gone, and her long dark hair was flirting with the wind. The sun, huge and low on the horizon, was sending a myriad of colors across the sky and sea. The sight was breathtaking. It was a photograph waiting to be taken.
Hurrying inside he grabbed his phone, moved quickly back to the railing and framed the shot. He snapped the picture, and as he stared at the captured image he felt a strange stirring in his soul. He glanced down at her, and to his surprise she turned around and gazed up at him. Had she felt his eyes on her? The moment felt almost ethereal, and impulsively he raised his hand in a simple wave. As she briefly lifted hers in response, he wanted to run down the stairs and pull her out of the water. Without those damn sunglasses he’d know her, he was sure of it, but she had already turned back to face the sea and was moving slowly forward.
“I’m going to have this printed out,” he mumbled looking back at the photograph, then seeing what looked like a speck of dirt on the glass he brushed it aside.
It didn’t move.
He enlarged the image.
A shard of panic sliced through his being.
It was a shark’s fin, and it was perilously close to shore.
It was perilously close to her.
Author Info:
Award-winning and best-selling author Maggie Carpenter has published over fifty romance novels, and is the recipient of a number Spanking Romance Reviews awards spanning a variety of genres. Her readers describe her work as, romantic, funny, suspenseful, beyond a five-star read, exciting romance with a ton of surprises.

Her work includes a best-selling twelve-book contemporary cowboy series, Cowboys After Dark, (https://amzn.to/2ihCNtp), a warrior fantasy trilogy, Warriors After Dark, (https://amzn.to/2iE0cDa) contemporary love stories, and several Victorian romances. His Willful Bride was a #1 best-seller for several weeks and a BookBub Feature Deal. She is best known for her smart, witty, strong-willed women who bring unexpected challenge, mystery and humor into the lives of passionate, dominant men.

Maggie has a history in show-business both in front of and behind the camera, but moved from Los Angeles to live in the Pacific Northwest to pursue her writing. She is an equine enthusiast who rides every day, and writes until the wee hours of the morning when her eyes close only because they must.

This author loves to hear from readers. You can contact her through her website: www.MaggieCarpenter.com. To sample her work for free, go to, www.3FreeBooks.com.

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The Summer Springsteen’s Songs Saved Me – Blitz

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The Summer Springsteen's Songs Saved Me cover

Women’s Fiction
Date Published: October 24, 2017
Coming home to catch her husband with his face between the long, silky legs of another woman is the last thing Sofia expects—and on today of all days. So, after scratching an expletive into his Porsche and setting the cheating bastard’s clothes on fire, she cranks up her beloved Bruce and flees, vowing never to look back.
Seeking solace in the peaceful beachside town of Bradley Beach, NJ, Sof is determined to start over. And, with the help of best friends, new acquaintances, a sexy neighbor, and the powerful songs of Springsteen, this may be the place where her wounds can heal. But, as if she hasn’t faced her share of life’s challenges, a final flurry of obstacles awaits.
In order to head courageously toward the future, Sofia must first let go of her past, find freedom, and mend her broken soul.
Excerpt
 
The sighs from my supposed-to-be-empty bedroom grow into moans, and my pulse thuds in my temples. I know the dark place might suck me in if I’m not careful, but I can’t stop myself from looking.
 I peer through the half-open door. My husband crouches naked on the bed with his face buried between long, shapely legs. Gorgeous, oddly-familiar legs.
“Oooh, oooh,” groans the owner of the silky limbs.
“Mmm, mmmmm,” answers Jerome. His rear wags from side to side. The two bald spots in the center of his butt cheeks stare at me, and my skin tingles the way it did when I drew too close to the sparklers little Benjamin played with on the fourth of July.
The bed creaks. After twenty-six years the thing still makes the same noise. A chill winds its way up my back, and pain sears beneath my ribcage. My breaths rush in and out.
How can he? What the hell? In our bed. Today of all days.
Darkness grows, and flames erupt behind my eyelids. In a red fury, I howl and charge. I whoop again and bear down on the startled couple.
With a jolt, the name of the owner of the legs explodes into my mind.
Mandy.
I know Mandy. Sort of.
Jerome’s personal trainer. Mandy Malone.
I slip on the area rug and lose my balance. Oh, yes. I know Mandy. At the gym Christmas party Mandy’s hips sported a short, pink thing that appeared to be more like a headband than a skirt. The Christmas party was where I saw those legs before.
Mandy jumps out of bed and pulls the covers around her. She cowers in the corner.
I’m not proud of what I do next.
I grab a red high heel from the floor and climb to my feet. Taking aim, I hurl the shoe, but Jerome rolls away and the stiletto lands on the pillow. I reach for one of Jerome’s wing tips resting annoyingly on the floor beside a pair of red panties and matching bustier.  I launch the shoe, and the ever-athletic creep dodges and leaps from the bed. A pink rubber phallus lands with a thunk, and a yowl bursts from deep within me. “Sex toys. You’re using sex toys.” My hands grasp the floor lamp and level it like a spear.
“Sof, cut it out.” Jerome’s voice quavers, and he holds his hands over his privates.
Yanking the plug from the wall, I swing the lamp in a circle with no idea of what I’m doing, acting on instinct. I run towards him, but Jerome darts out of the way. The lamp smashes into the headboard, shattering bulbs and sending the pole flying from my hands. Shards of glass cover the bed and floor.
A tiny red mini-skirt and pink tank top catch my attention. My God, she must shop in the children’s department. And what an awful color combination.
 “Sof, this isn’t doing anyone any good. Can we talk?” He’s bobbing and weaving now, waiting for the next assault.
“Talk? Talk? What’s there to talk about?” My brain sizzles, and my thoughts stab mercilessly. I seize his belt from the floor and hurl it, grazing the top of his head. “Do you remember when we bought this bed?”
No answer leaves his lips.
“I do.” I snatch up his other wingtip, and this one catches him in the back. “We couldn’t afford it, but you wouldn’t take no for an answer. You said it would last a lifetime.” I rip at the all-cotton sheets, yanking them off the mattress. “I just bought these at Macy’s. I changed the bed yesterday. You told me polyester blends make you sweat. So does she!” I yell, jerking my arm towards the cowering blonde and fighting the fury twisting inside my gut.
Jerome approaches the closet. His hairy bare rear with its Orphan Annie blank orbs shines in the morning light. I tug on the curtains, and as the metal rod falls we both reach for it. He twists hard, and I let go causing him to lose his balance and send the pole clattering against the oak flooring. I swoop up the rod in a death grip and connect with the back of his knees. He falls to the rug and writhes in agony.
“Stop,” he shouts.
“Sure,” I say, launching myself on top of him and boxing his ears. “How’s this?”
He rolls to the side throwing me off, and my face plants onto the carpet. I scramble to my feet and collect the scattered clothing, stumbling down the hallway to the spare bedroom.

 

About the Author
Barbara Quinn is an award-winning short story writer and author of a variety of novels.
Her travels have taken her to forty-seven states and five continents where she’s encountered fascinating settings and inspiring people that populate her work.
Her many past jobs include lawyer, record shop owner, reporter, process server, lingerie sales clerk, waitress, and postal worker. She’s a native New Yorker with roots in the Bronx, Long Island, and Westchester. She currently resides with her husband in Bradley Beach, NJ and Holmes Beach, FL. She enjoys spending time with her son and his family and planning her next adventure. She wants to remind everyone that when you meet her, SHE’S NOT SHOUTING, SHE’S ITALIAN.
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