#BookReview: Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

Synopsis: Kamai was warned never to open the black door, but she didn't listen ...

Everyone has a soul. Some are beautiful gardens, others are frightening dungeons. Soulwalkers―like Kamai and her mother―can journey into other people's souls while they sleep.

But no matter where Kamai visits, she sees the black door. It follows her into every soul, and her mother has told her to never, ever open it.

When Kamai touches the door, it is warm and beating, like it has a pulse. When she puts her ear to it, she hears her own name whispered from the other side. And when tragedy strikes, Kamai does the unthinkable: she opens the door.

A.M. Strickland's imaginative dark fantasy features court intrigue and romance, a main character coming to terms with her asexuality, and twists and turns as a seductive mystery unfolds that endangers not just Kamai's own soul, but the entire kingdom ...

#BookReview: Legacy of Temptation (Demonica Birthright #1) by Larissa Ione

Synopsis: Eva Tennant, like everyone at The Aegis, hates demons. But she loves her job as Deputy Spokesperson for the global demon-slaying organization, and she’s excited to be in the running for Chief Spokesperson. All she has to do is not screw up the two-week exchange program with The Aegis’s rival agency, the Demon Activity Response Team. But things go horribly wrong when a murder turns her into a fugitive from justice and puts a demonic target on her back.

Logan, son of the Horseman of the Apocalypse known as Death, has dedicated his life to fighting demons alongside his colleagues at DART. He loves fighting, females, and his pet hellhound, Cujo. What he doesn’t love is The Aegis, whose leadership attempted to slaughter him at birth. Understandably, he balks when he’s ordered to protect an Aegis Guardian responsible for the deaths of his friends. Really, he’d rather feed her to Cujo.

But when an old enemy rises from the ashes, Eva and Logan find themselves giving into temptation even as they sacrifice the things…and people…they love the most.

#BookReview: The Midnight Rose by Catalina Paris

Synopsis: The Alchemyst
The Faerie
The Witch
The Warlock

Leo is a sixteen-year-old apprentice at the Alchemical Court until one night changes everything. When the castle is attacked and Leo is told to flee, he creates a new portal using the strange runes left behind in his missing master's notebook. Arriving in the mysterious Realm of the Fey, a place long forgotten by mortals and Alchemysts alike, Leo meets the enchanting Lady Lisandre, a young faerie in need of his help. Together they quickly learn both their worlds are under threat from the elusive Dark Alchemyst; unless they find the mythical Talismans of Atlantica before he does. . Along the way they encounter Flora, a charming witch on a search for the truth of her family, as well as Leo’s former classmate, a warlock with questionable intentions, Lucien. The four of them are soon drawn together as they face numerous dangers and challenges to find and retrieve the talismans. Set in an alternative magical renaissance, The Midnight Rose is a spell-binding fantasy adventure unlike any other.

#BookReview: Sanctuary of the Shadow by Aurora Ascher

Synopsis: Enter at your own risk―and discover the greatest show unearthed in this explosive, darkly imaginative debut fantasy…

For humans, the circus is a place filled with wonder and amazement. For Harrow, though, it’s a place to hide from those who slaughtered her entire clan. Disguising her abilities as part of her act has kept her true identity safe for years.

Until he arrives.

A strange new attraction with no name, no memory of who―or even what―he is, let alone an explanation for his odd yet deadly powers. But beneath the layers of anger and isolation, one glimpse into his inky eyes reveals a soul that calls out to the loneliness in her own.

And so she chooses him.

Harrow is drawn to the darkness, to her insatiable need to soothe the beast who threatens their very existence. But with every secret she unlocks from his past, another from hers whispers free as well―luring enemies who will stop at nothing to get their final revenge on Harrow. And she’s afraid she’s given them the perfect weapon against her…because he’s not what he seems.

But maybe it’s time they finally learn―neither is she.

#BookBlitz: The Very Contrary Fairy by Julia Hurley @RABTBookTours

 

The Enchanted Garden Series Book 1

Children’s books

Date Published: December 1, 2023

Publisher: Jan-Carol Publishing, Inc.

 

The very contrary fairy sure has a lot to say about what she must do each day. But when she decides to run away, will she make it home in time and stay?

#TeaserTuesday: The Pleasure Seeker by Robyn Michaels @RABTBookTours @RobynMichaels9

 

Literary Fiction

Date Published: Sept.2023

 

 

Dayal Singh is brilliant, quirky, & has Asperger's. Son of parents trafficked to East Africa from India just before independence, he knows he's Sikh, African, and calculus is the evidence of God.

He becomes fascinated by a broken piano. and is offered a piano to sell, buys it and learns to play.

Mentored by his older brothers, he follows them to Singapore to further his education, then goes to Switzerland.

He falls in love with the granddaughter of the man who bought his father. She tells him that the situation is impossible, and that he must stay in school as long as his way is paid.

His youth is fraught, being an other. In Switzerland, he is constantly proselytized to, which only defines for him how he wants to live. He's studying physics and engineering, but finds peace in playing the piano. He meets other students, they jam, and suddenly they are rock stars...which Dayal never imagined could happen.

He agrees to meet Sita, the daughter of a Sikh man his father met, and Dayal thinks they are both in agreement about how they will live and raise children, but things gradually go downhill. When Dayal learns Sita hasn't been truthful with him, he has to make a decision.

#BookReview: A Place for Vanishing by @annfrai @DelacortePress

Synopsis: A teen girl and her family return to her mother's childhood home, only to discover that the house's strange beauty may disguise a sinister past, in this contemporary gothic horror from the author of What We Harvest.

The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That's what Libby's mom said. And after Libby’s recent bipolar III diagnosis and the tragedy that preceded it, Libby knows she and her family need to find a new normal.

But Libby’s new home turns out to be anything but normal. Scores of bugs haunt its winding halls, towering stained-glass windows feature strange, insectile designs, and the garden teems with impossibly blue roses. And then there are the rumors. The locals, including the mysterious boy next door, tell stories about disappearances tied to the house, stretching back over a century to its first owners. Owners who supposedly hosted legendary masked séances on its grounds.

Libby’s mom refuses to hear anything that could derail their family’s perfect new beginning, but Libby knows better. The house is keeping secrets from her, and something tells her that the key to unlocking them lies in the eerie, bug-shaped masks hidden throughout the property.

We all wear masks—to hide our imperfections, to make us stronger and braver. But if Libby keeps hers on for too long, she might just lose herself—and everyone she loves.