Friday, November 2, 2018

Books Read - October 2018

Bevill, C.L.
The Bureau of Extraordinaires *****
Fiction.  Steampunk story set during and just after the Civil War.  Silas underwent some scientific experiments against his will by a Dr. Morrow.  As a result, Silas has been turned into a man/beast and is called an Extraordinaire.  With the help of his cohorts and the lovely Agatha, he must stop the scientists from carrying out their evil plan.

Bronte, Charlotte
  • Jane Eyre ****
Fiction.  An orphan attends boarding school where she ends up teaching, afterwards finding a job as a governess to a young girl in the country.  The master of the house falls in love with her, but as they plan on marrying, sinister things begin happening in the home.

Cannon, Sarra
  • Sacrifice Me ****
Fiction.  First in the Sacrifice Me Seasons paranormal series.  Franki loses her job right before her birthday, and when a mysterious invitation appears at her doorstep for a club downtown, she can’t resist going.  It’s a strange atmosphere, but the strangeness is only beginning for her as her life is threatened.

Claflin, Stacy
  • Sweet Desire ***
Fiction.  First in The Transformed paranormal series.  Gessilyn is a witch on the run from her coven who are after her.  As she learns about her powers, she needs to stay one step ahead of them.

Clarke, Alexandria
  • The Haunting of Riley Watson Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  A fake medium, Lucia, is hired by a resort owner to help his young daughter who is haunted by spirits after the death of her mother.  When the resort is snowed in with only 12 people, tensions run high when one of them is murdered.  Was it by a human hand or by an angry ghost?

  • The Haunting of Riley Watson Book 1 ****

  • The Haunting of Riley Watson Book 2 ****

  • The Haunting of Winchester Mansion Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  A young couple travel the country renovating and flipping houses, and when they end up in Black Bay renovating an abandoned mansion, they get drawn into the mystery of what happened to the wealthy family that used to live there.

  • The Haunting of Winchester Mansion Book 1 ****

- The Haunting of Winchester Mansion Book 2 ****

  • Little Girl Lost Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  Bridget has been roaming the world for ten years when her best friend notifies her that her young sister is missing.  She returns home to find her sister and suddenly begins receiving telepathic messages from her begging for help.

  • Little Girl Lost Book 1 ****

- Little Girl Lost Book 2 ****

  • Witch Myth Christmas Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  Noelle Summers is a winter witch, but when someone comes to town messing with Christmas, she has to resort to her witchy powers to catch the culprit and restore balance in the town.

  • Witch Myth Christmas Book 1 ****

  • Witch Myth Christmas Book 2 ****

  • Witch Myth Wildfire Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  The Summers coven has fallen under a curse, and the sicker they become, the stronger the need for a healer, so they look outside their coven to find the particular person who can help them, then they kidnap her.

  • Witch Myth Wildfire Book 1 ****

  • Witch Myth Wildfire Book 2 ****

  • Witch Myth Yew Hollow Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a trilogy.  Morgan Summers is a medium but hates talking to ghosts.  When one seeks her help in solving a murder, she has to agree to help in order for the ghost to move on into the afterlife.

  • Witch Myth Yew Hollow Book 1 ****

  • Witch Myth Yew Hollow Book 2 ****

Du Maurier, Daphne
  • Rebecca *****
Fiction.  A paid companion meets a wealthy widower in Monte Carlo, and when they fall in love, he takes her back to his palatial home in Cornwall, where she competes with the memory of his first wife.

Evans, Holly
  • Chaos Conspiracy ****
Fiction.  First in the Sacrificial Magic paranormal series.  A mercenary witch is matched with a demon to solve the case of missing people who have disappeared into a cult.

Hayden, Roger
  • The Haunting of Bechdel Mansion Book 0 ****
Fiction.  First in a paranormal trilogy.  A young couple buy an abandoned mansion and set about renovating it when they find that it is already inhabited by a group of ghosts.  A family was murdered years ago in the house, and some of the townspeople are determined to keep the killers’ identities secret.

  • The Haunting of Bechdel Mansion Book 1 ****

- The Haunting of Bechdel Mansion Book 2 ****

Holmberg, Charlie N.
  • The Paper Magician ****
Fiction.  First in the Paper Magician fantasy series.  Ceony is apprenticed to Paper Magician Thane, and when his ex-wife attacks him, Ceony is his only hope to survive.

Morton, Kate
  • The Clockmaker’s Daughter ****
Fiction.  A multi-time period tale of a ghost and the artists who surround her and a missing rare blue diamond.

Olson, Melissa F.
  • Bloodsick ****
Fiction.  First in the Old World Tale paranormal series.  Sashi, a witch had kept away from werewolves for her whole life, but when she meets one in need of healing, she must help him.

Parrish, Kat
  • Magic in the Blood ****
Fiction.  First in La Bruja Roja paranormal series.  Aixa is a Red Witch living in a small town on the border.  When a rival witch allies with a drug lord to take over the town, Aixa uses her powers to fight back.

Pope, Christine
  • Hidden Gifts ****
Fiction.  First in the Witches of Canyon Road paranormal series.  Miranda McAllister has been sent to Santa Fe for an arranged marriage to Rafe Castillo, who she has never met.  She’s had to leave her entire life, including her family, behind to marry a man who does not seem to want her, but she’s determined to fulfill a promise her parents made, a debt that must be paid.

Reine, SM
- Caged Wolf ***
Fiction.  First in the Tarot Witch paranormal series.  Rival biker gangs invade town, and Ofelia, a stripper bartender, chases them off with the help of a werewolf.

Tate, Kristy
  • Witch Ways ***
Fiction.  First in the Witch Ways paranormal series.  Evie is a young girl who has no idea she is a witch.  But when her problems with fire get her kicked out of a private school, she starts training at a special school where she hones her powers.

Taylor, Nicole R.
  • Crescent Calling ****
Fiction.  First int he Crescent Witch Chronicles paranormal series.  Skye has been fired from her job and has no prospects when an Irish barrister arrives in Australia to let her know that her estranged mother has died and has left her a business and home in Ireland.  She accepts her inheritance and moves to Ireland, where she finds out that her mother wasn’t just an ordinary human.

van Praag, Menna
  • The Dress Shop of Dreams *****
Fiction.  Cora is a single-minded scientist, ignoring all else for her work.  When her grandmother, Etta, nudges her toward Walt, Cora is slow on the up-take.  When her parents were killed when she was a child, her heart froze and wouldn’t let anyone in.  Until now.

Webb, Wendy
  • Daughters of the Lake *****
Fiction.  Kate returns to her parents’ house on the lake to heal her wounds after leaving her cheating husband.  While there, her father stumbles across a dead body in the water, and Kate has a violent reaction to seeing the woman, making her a suspect in the death.  What she can’t tell the police is that she’s been having dreams of this very woman, dreams that seem all too real.

  • The End of Temperance Dare *****
Fiction.  A ghost story set in a former TB sanitarium.  A former reporter takes a job as manager of the renovated sanitarium cum artists retreat, and the woman who hired her dies on her first day.  She has a week to prepare before a new group of artists arrives, and unknown to her or to them, they all have ties to the sanitarium.

  • The Fate of Mercy Alban *****
Fiction.  A gothic suspense set in Minnesota.  Grace Alban inherits her family home when her mother passes away, and though she hasn’t been home in 20 years, she arrives with her teenage daughter to take charge of the home.  A lost manuscript and old love letters lead her on a chase to find the truth in the suicide of a famous author years ago.

  • The Tale of Halcyon Crane *****
Fiction.  A gothic suspense set in a remote island in Minnesota.  Hallie was raised by her father in Seattle after her family home burned down and her mother was killed.  When she suddenly finds out that her mother had been alive all this time, and that Hallie’s father had actually stolen her away and created a new life for them, Hallie returns to her family home to discover what really happened when she was a child.

  • The Vanishing *****
Fiction.  A gothic suspense set in rural Minnesota.  When Julie’s husband commits suicide after bilking investors out of their hard-earned savings, she is left with no prospects until a wealthy stranger arrives to hire her to be a companion to his elderly mother, a famed author.  Julie finds the home haunted by a mysterious force.

Weldon, Phaedra
  • Elemental Arcane ***
Fiction.  First in the Eldritch Files paranormal series.  Sam owns an occult shop in New Orleans, and when children begin changing into monstrous killing creatures, she and her friends are determined to destroy them and to find the real children.

Welling, ReGina
  • A Match Made in Spell ****

Fiction.  First in the Fate Weaver witchy series.  Lexi is a matchmaker, but when a new musician moves to town, her matches are going haywire.  Not to mention she is falling for the musician. She’s running out of time to awaken to her power, and her fairy godmothers aren’t helping at all.