Dark Siren: An Ashwood Urban Fantasy Novel (Half-Lich Book 1) A supernatural bounty hunter teams up with an old flame to battle evil. Dark Siren is the first in a truly urban fantasy trilogy by the writing team of Lee Dignam and Katerina Martinez, called the Half-Lich series. I downloaded the preview of this book and enjoyed it enough to purchase the whole thing for $2.99. Set in a […]
I found myself in San Marcos at the largest outlet mall in Texas a few years ago, and I wandered into a vacant storefront temporarily being used to sell off publisher overrun stock. Making my way to the science fiction and fantasy table, I came across a copy of Off Armageddon Reef, the first book in David Weber’s epic Safehold series. I bought it and got hooked. Although Mr. Weber […]
The Last Passenger is a recent book by Manel Loureiro. You may not recognize the name (he’s from Spain), but you might have heard about his Apocalypse Z series, a zombie thriller best selling set of titles. He’s been called “The Spanish Stephen King.” The Last Passenger is an interesting book, and the English translation is top notch. A Nazi cruise ship is discovered adrift in 1939. Everybody on board […]
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman offers the familiar trope of a magical place filled with books. I was immediately reminded of TNT’s The Librarians. Suffice it to say this is different, and has a decidedly more urban fantasy/ steampunk feel to it. You see, in this library time stops. So long as you’re there, you don’t age. It is filled with many, but not all, books written throughout the […]
Jim Butcher’s Storm Front, aka The Dresden Files Book One, is old, iconic, and something of a modern classic. Butcher introduced us to what is now considered a seminal twist: a wizard practicing magic in contemporary settings. Published on April Fools Day in the year 2000, it hit the New York Times Bestseller List and has been in print ever since. As I write this, its ranking on Amazon’s Kindle […]
The School for Good and Evil This time, the fairy tale got it wrong! Modern takes on fairy tales have gained popularity in recent years, notably with ABC’s Once Upon a Time, now with six seasons you can binge stream off Amazon. (ABC is owned by Disney, so many of the characters exclusive to them show up in the series.) But The School for Good and Evil offers a different […]
Clean Sweep A sleepy town, a sentient house, a big twist On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is…different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic […]
Followed by Frost Will an unexpected desire for a man she cannot touch be enough to warm her heart? Seventeen-year-old Smitha’s wealth, status, and beauty make her the envy of her town—until she rejects a strange man’s marriage proposal and disastrous consequences follow. Smitha becomes cursed, and frost begins to encompass everything she touches. Banished to the hills, hunted by villagers, and chilled to the very core of her soul, […]
Home Tears Can she survive family secrets spanning generations? Dani’s survived a lot of storms. Her mother died. Her two sisters loathed her. One aunt hated her. The other was strangely distant, but the worst storm—being dumped by her childhood best friend/high school boyfriend/first love for her younger sister. There went the one person who was hers and with that, the main reason she stuck around. So, she left for […]