Coming of Age

Chicago Blood: Detective Shannon Rourke Book 1by Stewart Matthews

You can’t bury the dead without digging up the past.

What was another murder in Chicago?

A dead man clutching a pint of whiskey on the Ashland Avenue sidewalk wasn’t new. It shouldn’t have been enough to keep troubled Detective Shannon Rourke and her brother from making their escape to Sweden.

Shannon’s plan to put half a world between herself and her checkered past in Chicago is already rolling when she arrives at the crime scene, ready to pass the case off to another detective.

But she didn’t expect the victim to be her brother’s best friend.

When her ex-mobster brother hears about it, he gives her an ultimatum: stay and solve the case or he will. Now, Shannon is determined to leash her inner demons and finish the job, but if she fails, her brother will be the one to pay the price.

Take Down (Billy Cunningham Book 1)by James Swain

Whoever says crime doesn’t pay isn’t doing it right.

There are hundreds of casinos in Las Vegas, and Billy Cunningham knows how to rip off every one. His scams are a thing of beauty–so perfectly orchestrated that onlookers believe he and his crew are winning fair and square. In a town where bosses will kill to protect their profits, Billy can’t afford to make mistakes, but even the best-laid plans can go wrong…

Desperate to keep his team out of jail, Billy agrees to help stop a legendary family of thieves from taking down a casino. But he has no intention of breaking the cheater’s code: never rat out your own kind. He’s running his own con on the casino’s psycho owner and his vicious, violent wife. Throw in a murderous drug dealer, a vengeful gaming agent, and the girl Billy’s never forgotten, and this scam artist is playing for sky-high stakes: a cool eight million, and the chance to live long enough to spend it.

The Gods of Menby Barbara Kloss

Top 10 Finalist in Mark Lawrence's SPFBO 2018
Sable hated the gods. She hated what men did in their name.

Magic is forbidden throughout the Five Provinces; those born with it are hunted and killed. Sable doesn't know her music holds power over souls–not until, at age nine, she plays her flute before the desert court and accidentally stops her baby sister's heart, killing her. Horrified by what she's done and fearing for her life, she flees north, out of Provincial jurisdiction and into the frigid land of exiles and thieves, known as The Wilds. There, Sable lives in hiding, burdened by guilt, and survives as a healer. But now, ten years later, someone–or something–is hunting her.

On the run again, Sable's best chance for survival is Jos, a lethal man from the Five Provinces, who claims to need her skills as a healer to save his dying father, and she needs the large sum of money he's offered. There's something about him Sable doesn't trust, but she doesn't have many options. A spirit of the dead is hunting her, summoned by a mysterious necromancer, and it's getting closer.

Sable soon discovers she's just the start of the necromancer's plan to take over the Five Provinces, and she's the only one with the power to stop it. But harnessing her forbidden power means revealing it to the world, and the dangerous Provincial, Jos, she's beginning to fall for.

Fans of Brandon Sanderson, Naomi Novik, and Victoria Schwab will love this dark and epic fantasy adventure.

The Language of Hoofbeatsby Catherine Ryan Hyde

From the bestselling author of Pay It Forward comes a story of the heartbreak and healing power of family. New to a small town, Jackie and Paula envision a quiet life for their kids: a young adopted son and two teenage foster children, including the troubled Star. However, they quickly butt heads with their neighbor, Clementine, who disapproves of their lifestyle and is incensed when Star befriends her spirited horse, Comet. Haunted by past tragedy and unable to properly care for Comet, Clem nevertheless resents the bond Star soon shares with the horse. When Star disappears with Comet, the neighbors are thrown together–far too close together. But as the search for the pair wears on, both families must learn to put aside their animosity and confront the choices they’ve made and the scars they carry. Plumbing the depths of regret and forgiveness, The Language of Hoofbeats explores the strange alchemy that transforms a group of people into a family.

Winner of a Rainbow Award

Crimson 37by Micah McGurk

Konstantin, a Russian agent that infiltrates the newly formed FBI in 1937 Los Angeles, struggles to determine who and what he should be fighting for.

Silent Spring – Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam Warby Patrick Hogan

WHAT HAPPENED IN VIETNAM HASN’T STAYED IN VIETNAM!
Silent Spring – Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam War is not just another book about Agent Orange of the Vietnam War. Rather it is a “silver bullet” which cuts through the heart of the circumstances and pesticides used during that war–highly toxic herbicides and insecticides which in some cases are still being used to this very day all over the world.

The book is much more than a memoir of one Vietnam veteran’s struggles over the decades after the war. It is a full-length analysis of the various conditions in Vietnam and the chemicals that were unleashed on not only the enemy but also on US service personnel. Pat Hogan, the author and the main subject in the biography portion of the book, chronicles his early life and enlistment into the war in the mid-’60s. He starts with the life story of a friend and fellow vet, Larry White, who died decades later from numerous complications of the pesticides he was exposed to while stationed in Vietnam.

Hogan returned from Vietnam in ’69 and started having minor health difficulties himself. He became a police officer and then a police academy instructor. It is this occupational skill set–his investigative and analytical ability–that truly brings a high impact to the rest of the book. As you read through the volumes of information, you will be absolutely stunned at what the US government had willingly dumped on Vietnam and its own troops. In fact, in the book’s postscript, the author even makes a case for some of those same chemicals still being used today on you and your children, not just in the U.S. but all over the globe.

Dark Dreamby Delilah Taylor

I always finish the job. Until Violet.

Violet

I think I found him. The man who doesn’t fear my father.

Xavier Dyer takes tall, dark, and dangerous to new levels. He steals my breath and sets my heart to pounding. The cold steel of his gun should frighten me.

I’d like to say I tried to stay away, but I’d be lying. He sucks me in with every breath, using his body, his hands, his voice to seduce me.

He commands me in the bedroom and leaves me wrecked.

Until I discover who he really is. And just how he came to find me.

The bastard lured me in and gave me the one thing I desperately needed. He knew I would let him do whatever he wanted to me.

Right up until that final second.

Xavier

She has no idea what I really am.

Violet Wynn is the daughter of a monster. Her billionaire father will be to blame for her death. He deserves it.

Violet started off like every other job to me. She was nothing more than a target. A paycheck. But then I touch her, taste her, and devour her. All I want is more.

As the hours tick by, I start to question whether or not I’ll be able to pull the trigger at the end.

But I must. It’s her or me. That’s the only way this can end.

And if I have to string her along?

So be it. I’m a Shade. Nobody escapes my wrath.

Not even Violet.

Dark Dream is the first book in Xavier & Violet’s story. Their story continues in Dark Lover.

Elemental Origins: The Complete Seriesby A.L. Knorr

This box set includes all six books in The Elemental Origins Series by award-winning author AL Knorr and is 2000 pages of elemental magic, adventure, friendship and romance that will keep you reading late into the night. Don’t miss these stories readers are calling their ‘new favorite’!

Don’t miss this crazy limited time deal!

Born of Water (2018 Readers Favorite Gold Medal Winner): A mysterious shipwreck could unlock ancient powers… or send her to a watery grave.

Targa feels more at home on dry land than in the realm of her mermaid ancestors. To keep her mom’s identity under wraps, she signs on for a salvage in the Baltic Sea. Her plan to blend in with the crew is spoiled when she catches the eye of a handsome local.

A freak accident attracts even more unwanted attention, putting their lives in danger. Can Targa find the courage to unleash the currents surging deep within?

Born of Fire: Welcome to the world of fire magi, where what doesn’t kill you (literally) makes you stronger.

Saxony Cagney counts herself lucky when she wins a position in Venice for the summer. She meets two Italian men…. Both are smart, successful, and sexy. When she discovers one of the boys in her charge is dying, things get a shoved into complicated…then contagious – she’ll never be the same.

Just when she’s got more than she can handle, she gets tangled with the most powerful crime family in Venice. Will she survive long enough to learn the secrets of her new abilities, or will they kill her?

Born of Earth: When the earth gives up her dead, you shall understand.

Georjie isn’t thrilled about going to Ireland for the summer, and even less thrilled when her sexy cousin Jasher (not blood-related and don’t you forget it) is as friendly as a nest of vipers.

When Georjie unearths Jasher’s terrifying secret, things she never knew about her family come to light; A woman who disappeared without a trace. A desiccated body. Strange cocoons hanging in the greenhouse. Georjie finds herself trapped in a mystery involving the power of nature itself.

Born of Aether: They say if you tell a lie long enough, you’ll eventually believe it, but Akiko will never forget who she really is.

Akiko’s life as a teen is a complete sham. The old man she lives with is not her grandfather, he’s her captor. And Akiko isn’t a teen. In fact, she isn’t even human. But Akiko isn’t allowed to share her truth with a soul. Not even her friends know the power she could wield.

When she’s sent to steal a sword, she jumps at the chance to secure her freedom, only to get caught in a game with the most deadly crime syndicate in Japan.

Can Akiko escape with her life, or is true freedom as elusive as the Aether she was born from?

Born of Air: She is a supernatural unlike any you’ve ever seen before.

All Petra wants in life is to study Archaeology. She’s got the grades and ambition, all she needs now is work on an Old World dig. When Petra spies an ad for an excavation to Africa, she knows its for her.

A heart-pounding race through the desert with Jesse-her sexy dig-mate-ends when she falls into a cave where her life changes forever.

As her powers manifest, there are those who have reason to destroy her. Will she survive long enough to learn what she’s really capable of?

The Elementals: Can they use their newfound powers to save their hometown?

The summer is over and the girls share the adventures that have gifted them with elemental powers.

When they are recruited to execute a secret project, it seems they’ll be rocketed to glory. But when they unleash a terrible force, things deteriorate rapidly…

The deadly entity seems immune to their magic and it is too late to turn back.

Reasons To Breatheby Chloe Morgan

I just needed a fresh start.

A new place to raise my little one as I worked to pull my life back together.

It’s never been an easy life, raising my kiddo alone, but I find strength in the little things.

The kind woman that I work for has been like a second mother.

And I had no clue how hot her marine son was until he comes home for a visit.

The guy is 100% alpha male. Everything I find attractive and usually fall hard for.

He’s got a decision to make. Leave the service or reenlist? Time is ticking down.

But the longer he stays, the more I want him to stay.

Where love didn’t seem like a possibility before, I feel like I’ve found a reason to breathe.

Him.