Sunday, March 5, 2017

Books Read 2/25/17 - 03/04/17


This past week flew right by me.  I read more new to me authors and was very pleased to have found some real gems.  I will certainly pick up the next one in those series.  Here they are:

Strange Magic by James A Hunter - 5 Stars*****


Yancy Lazarus is having a bad day: there’s a bullet lodged in his butt cheek, his face looks like the site of a demolition derby, and he’s been saran-wrapped to a banquet table. He never should have answered the phone. Stupid bleeding heart—helping others in his circles is a good way to get dead.

Just ask the gang members ripped to pieces by some kind of demonic nightmare in LA. As a favor to a friend, Yancy agrees to take a little looksee into the massacre and boom, he’s stuck in a turf war between two rival gangs, which both think he’s pinch-hitting for the other side. Oh, and there’s also a secretive dark mage with some mean ol’ magical chops and a small army of hyena-faced, body-snatching baddies. It might be time to seriously reconsider some of his life choices.


Yancy is a bluesman, a rambler, a gambler, but not much more. Sure, he can do a little magic—maybe even more than just a little magic—but he knows enough to keep his head down and stay clear of freaky-deaky hoodoo like this business in LA. Somehow though, he’s been set up to take a real bad fall—the kind of very permanent fall that leaves a guy with a toe tag. Unless, of course, he can find out who is responsible for the gangland murders, make peace in the midst of the gang feud, and take out said magical dark mage before he hexes Yancy into an early retirement. Easy right? Stupid. Bleeding. Heart.



Crimes Against Magic by Steve McHugh - 5 Stars*****


Ten years ago, Nate Garrett awoke on a cold warehouse floor with no memory of his past—a gun, a sword, and a piece of paper with his name on it the only clues to his identity. Since then, he’s discovered he’s a powerful sorcerer and has used his magical abilities to become a successful thief for hire.

But those who stole his memories aren’t done with him yet: when they cause a job to go bad and threaten a sixteen-year-old girl, Nate swears to protect her. With his enemies closing in and everyone he cares about now a target for their wrath, he must choose between the comfortable life he’s built for himself and his elusive past.

As the barrier holding his memories captive begins to crumble, Nate moves between modern-day London and fifteenth-century France, forced to confront his forgotten life in the hope of stopping an enemy he can’t remember.


Frontier Justice (The Survivalist) by Arthur T Bradley  
4 Stars****


The Superpox-99 virus has wiped out nearly the entire human race. Governments have collapsed. Cities have become graveyards filled with unspeakable horror. People have resorted to scavenging from the dead, or taking from the living. The entire industrialized world has become a wasteland of abandoned cars, decaying bodies, and feral animals.

To stay alive, U.S. Deputy Marshal Mason Raines must forage for food, water, and gasoline while outgunning those who seek to take advantage of the apocalyptic anarchy. Together with his giant Irish wolfhound, Bowie, he aligns with survivors of the town of Boone in a life and death struggle against a gang of violent criminals. With each deadly encounter, Mason is forced to accept his place as one of the nation's few remaining lawmen. In a world now populated by escaped convicts, paranoid mutants, and government hit squads, his only hope to save the townspeople is to enforce his own brand of frontier justice.


Forever Road by Catie Rhodes - 4 Stars****



A world full of ghosts. A reluctant psychic medium. Destiny only knocks once—then it kicks down the door.

Peri Jean Mace thinks seeing ghosts is a curse, but her murdered trailer trash cousin doesn’t care. She wants Peri Jean to expose her killer.

Peri Jean figures out everyone in her one-stoplight East Texas town has something to hide. And one of them will kill to hide the truth. In over her head, Peri Jean has to face her curse or end up the next victim.

Forever Road is the first book in the Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thriller series. If you like your urban fantasy served up with a heavy dose of goose bumps, a side of gut-busting laughs, and a fist-swinging heroine who will steal your heart, you’ll love Forever Road.


Carmine by Alan Janney - 4 Stars****



The girl once known as Katie Lopez wakes up in an abandoned Walmart with no memory, possessing only the vague sense that something has happened. 

Where is her family? Where is her boyfriend? She has a faint recollection of him, a ghost of a memory. 

The world, she discovers, is staggering from the weight of rampaging Variants, victims of a bizarre surgery gone wrong. Once intended to bring about a utopia, now the victims threaten societal meltdown. 

Much to her surprise, the girl with no memory discovers she is their queen.


Rune Gate by Mark E Cooper - 3 Stars***


On the edge of sanity, can she stop a ruthless killer?

For years, Alexandra Yorke was a top police clairvoyant, but she isn't a clairvoyant; she’s a witch, and living inside the heads of serial killers has taken its toll. Unable to control her gifts any longer, she retreats from the world.

After a few months of peace, a friend in need asks for help. She reluctantly agrees. When evidence at a murder scene points to witches, Alex becomes the prime suspect.


Moonlight by Victoria Danann - 3 Stars***


The New Jersey home of the Black Swan knights is turned upside down when immortal teenage French-speaking vampires see a rerun of Animal House and try to reenact the movie while drunk on synthetic blood.

Meanwhile, Stalkson Grey, the king of the Elk Mountain werewolves has a serious problem. If he doesn't solve the mystery of why his tribe is birthing only male cubs, they could be facing extinction within a generation. Grey rankles at the suggestion of asking for help, but desperation trumps pride when the grumpy alpha grudgingly requests assistance from the Order of Black Swan.

The Order offers the services of a demon named Deliverance who brokers a deal with a human population faced with the opposite problem, too many girls. Just when it looks like the crisis may be resolved, Grey shocks even himself by kidnapping a bride. She proves to be a handful. Obstinate. Willful. And perfect in every way.


Chasing Rabbits by Erin Bedford - 2 Stars**



Alice was wrong – Wonderland wasn’t so wonderful after all.

Kat never expected to be back in her hometown, but when house sitting turns into a mad rabbit chase, Kat finds herself with a whole new set of problems.

A two headed bird with a Game of Thrones obsession, a party full of tea addicts, and a Cheshire Cat who could seduce the pants off her grandma? And if the citizens weren’t bad enough their prince was off his rocker.

This wasn’t your run of the mill Wonderland. This was the Fae world, where rules are rules, and some things are exactly as they seem.


The CIN series, bundled by Christina Leigh Pritchard
2 Stars**


Seventeen year old Lisa Brown’s life is falling apart. First, her mother and father divorce, then their house forecloses and now, her mother has decided to commit herself to a psychiatric hospital.

If that weren’t enough, she must leave sunny south Florida to attend a boarding school full of geniuses in cold, Lynn, Massachusetts. The city where the locals chant “Lynn, Lynn, city of sin; you never come out the way you went in.”

And, they aren’t kidding. Lisa must live in a tiny shack with two strange teenagers, a dog named Pig who growls when you look at him and a cat named Rat. “Mind the cat,” everyone says. What the heck is wrong with this place?

Lisa thinks she’s landed in her own house of horrors with the anti-social Alex and his facetious sister Ally. But, the real drama begins the day she is struck by lightning…

Traitor, book two:

Lisa thinks she knows everything about her new life. She can deal with the boundaries and even being torn away from her family. But Alex withheld more than she ever expected. Like, what happens when you lose control? How about when you begin to realize just how trapped you are? He leaves out a lot of stuff about himself too. He doesn’t mention the dangers of some of the others—or of what she herself can do…


So that's it for last week.  :)  All of these books were read using Kindle Unlimited.  Best Christmas gift eva!!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Michelle 


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