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Sunday, June 5, 2016

Show the Books Showcase #13, June 5th

There are a ton of books out there! So here's a chance to organize some books and show them off in various ways!

So this week's theme is Alphabet in the Title's First Word! Well, it turns out this is actually Author's Last Name!

The Dark King by CJ Abedi
Publisher: Division Books
Published: May 6th, 2014
From Goodreads:
Darkness descends over Roanoke Island in the sequel to the young adult bestseller, FAE.

Devilyn Reilly has crossed over to the sinister world of The Dark Fae, reigning over the realm as its King. He is to fulfill a prophecy--to unite the Light and Dark Fae once and for all, but those who love him now fear that he will never be the same again, that he can no longer be trusted, that every trace of the Light he once had is gone forever. 

Caroline Ellis, the final heir of the Light Fae, must learn to survive without the protection of her one true love. She must come to embrace her own strength to evade those in the Dark court who seek her destruction—for the power is within Caroline to use Light to change Fate itself...

Caroline and Devilyn’s chemistry is undeniable. Their destiny together inevitable if only they have the will to overcome The Darkness and The Fates.

What's Interesting: Having to be King of the Dark Fae realm! To have a prophecy hanging over his head that he's supposed to unite the Fae, but that the Light in him, isn't there anymore! The heir of the Light Fae, learning to live without her love! And that they have chemistry together!

The Reckoning by Peter Bodo
Publisher: Division Books
Published: June 13th, 2012
From Goodreads:
The Reckoning is the story of a father’s love for his son – the story of Clay and Billy Underwood. Clay is a sinewy, lean, 40-ish redneck, a former rodeo wrangler who made a wreck of his life—thanks in no small part to his siren-like former wife, Billy’s mother. The book opens as Clay, freshly broken-out of an institution that might be jail—or a psychiatric ward—kidnaps Billy, bent on taking him on a backcountry elk hunt in the Rocky Mountains in Montana.

Clay is a decent but unlucky man driven by a profound desire to connect with the son he barely knows. He wants to share with Billy something of value—something beautiful—although this yearning is something he’s hard put to identify, much less articulate. In Clay’s roughneck world, and in his hardscrabble soul, that means hunting, for Clay is at his best and most competent, and he feels most in touch with his god, in the natural world.

But the hunt goes badly awry—and ultimately turns into a disaster. Clay and Billy become lost in the wilderness, ultimately stumbling onto a ranch property where they are mistaken for common poachers – and where Clay decides to make a stand that will ultimately leave his son alone, and lost in the Rockies.

What's Interesting: Clay kidnapping his son, because he wanted to connect with him! A hunt going bad and becoming lost!

The Real Prom Queens of Westfield High by Laurie Boyle Crompton
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published: January 4th, 2014
From Goodreads:
Shannon’s ‘clique’ is just her and her best friend and she has a super-embarrassing nickname that won’t go away. It is no huge shock when her classmates vote her least likely to be crowned Prom Queen. What is shocking is the new hidden camera reality show she finds herself starring in, titled The Prom Queen Wannabes! Shannon and two other Wannabes must battle to be elected Prom Queen and snag the One! Million! Dollar! prize. After a summer of makeovers and training at Prom Queen Camp, the hidden cameras watch the three of them enter their senior year equipped with secret skills to help wage war on the popular set. Things at Westfield High are about to get ugly, and Shannon must decide how much she's willing to give up for a shot at winning that tiara.

What's Interesting: Being voted least likely to be prom queen! Then staring in a hidden camera reality show! Training to become the prom queen, and developing some secret skills! Waging war on the popular people!

The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson
Publisher: Zonderkidz-Books
Published: January 22nd, 2013
From Goodreads:
A daring rescue. 
A difficult choice. 

Sophie desperately wants to get away from her stepmother's jealousy, and believes escape is her only chance to be happy. Then a young man named Gabe arrives from Hagenheim Castle, claiming she is betrothed to his older brother, and everything twists upside down. This could be Sophie's one chance at freedom—but can she trust another person to keep her safe? 

Gabe defied his parents Rose and Wilhelm by going to find Sophie, and now he believes they had a right to worry: the girl's inner and outer beauty has enchanted him. Though romance is impossible—she is his brother's future wife, and Gabe himself is betrothed to someone else—he promises himself he will see the mission through, no matter what. 

When the pair flee to the Cottage of the Seven, they find help—but also find their feelings for each other have grown. Now both must not only protect each other from the dangers around them—they must also protect their hearts. 

What's Interesting: Having a horrible stepmom, and then another situation-a guy saying that she's engaged to marry his older brother! But then the guy is attracted to her, even though she's supposed to marry his brother and he's betrothed as well! But that they feelings for each other have brought them closer together!

Becoming Alpha by Aileen Erin
Publisher: INscribe Digital
Published: December 17th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Tessa McCaide has a unique talent for getting into trouble. Then again, it isn’t easy for a girl with visions to ignore what she sees. Luckily Tessa and her family are leaving California and moving halfway across the country, giving her the perfect opportunity to leave her reputation as “Freaky Tessa” behind. 

But Tessa doesn’t realize that kissing the wrong guy in her new Texas town could land her in far more trouble than she ever imagined. Like being forced to attend St. Ailbe’s Academy, a secret boarding school for werewolves. 

Even if the wrong guy did accidentally turn her into one of “them” and doom her to attending the weirdest high school ever, Tessa can’t help her growing attraction to the mysterious Dastien Laurent.

When vampires attack St. Alibe’s and her visions pinpoint an enemy in their midst, Tessa realizes that boy drama and her newfound canine tendencies might just be the least of her problems.

What's Interesting: Being the girl who always finds and gets into trouble! Leaving behind her reputation, but kissing a guy that lands her a new one at her new school for werewolves because that kiss made her one! Having vampires attack the school and her visions pointing out a bad guy in the school!

The Gypsy King by Maureen Fergus
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Published: January 22nd, 2013
From Goodreads:
A runaway slave with a shadowy past, sixteen-year-old Persephone has spent four long years toiling beneath the leering gaze of her despised owner and dreaming of a life where she is free to shape her own destiny. Then, one night, a chance encounter with a handsome chicken thief named Azriel changes her life forever.

Sold to him for a small bag of gold coins, Persephone soon discovers what she already suspected: namely, that Azriel is not what he seems. And when she realizes that he believes Persephone has a special destiny—she is determined to escape him and his impossibly broad shoulders.

But things are no longer as simple as they once were. Torn between her longing for freedom and her undeniable feelings for the handsome thief with the fast hands and the slow smile, Persephone faces the hardest choice she will ever have to make. And no one least of all her—could have imagined the shocking truth her decision will reveal. 

What's Interesting: Spending four years with a despised owner! In a chance encounter, being sold to a chicken thief who isn't who he seems! And believes that she has a huge destiny but that she wants to get away from him! That things aren't simple and the feelings that are building between them!

The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling
Publisher: Capstone
Published: October 1st, 2014
From Goodreads:
No-one performs on the circus trapeze like 16-year-old Remy Brunel. But Remy also leads another life, prowling through the backstreets of Victorian London as a jewel thief. When she is forced to steal one of the world's most valuable diamonds, she uncovers a world of treachery and fiendish plots.

What's Interesting: Being a circus trapeze artist and a jewel thief! Being forced to steal a very valuable diamond and forced into a very treacherous and twisted world!

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Publisher: 47North
Published: Septmber 1st 2014
From Goodreads:
Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic… forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined — animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner — a practitioner of dark, flesh magic — invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

What's Interesting: Graduating top of her class but being put in paper magic unlike the metal that she wants! Strange and interesting spells! Having her teacher's heart torn out and the adventure to save him and fight the evil!

Born in Blood by Alexandra Ivy
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: December 31st, 2013
From Goodreads:
In a stunning new paranormal romance series—even edgier than her bestselling Guardians of Eternity books—New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Ivy lures readers into the dark, seductive world of the Sentinels—humans outcast by their hidden abilities, treading the line between life and death, good and evil, pleasure and pain… 

Born In Blood

Sergeant Duncan O’Conner has seen it all before. A beautiful erotic dancer is found murdered in her home—no suspect, no motive. But there’s one clue: she’s missing her heart. It’s enough to make the hard-bitten Kansas City cop enlist the help of a necro—one of the dead-channeling freaks who live in the domed city of nearby Valhalla. It’s a long shot, but desperate crimes call for desperate measures. 

Unlike the other “high-bloods” in Valhalla, Callie Brown considers her abilities a gift, not a curse. But when she reads the dancer’s final thoughts, she senses a powerful presence blocking her vision. This is no ordinary homicide. This is the work of a legendary necromancer who controls souls. A ravenous force that will put Callie’s skills to the test, O’Conner’s career at risk, and both their hearts on the line…literally.

What's Interesting: An erotic dancer murdered in her house missing her heart! When using her abilities that there's someone blocking her! That it was a necromancer-someone who controls souls! That their jobs and hearts are on the line!

Dangerous by JAX
Publisher: Kensington 
Published: September 5th, 2013
From Goodreads:
A body that won't quit
Clothes that are barely there
Eyes that openly invite him to take what he wants

Devon Candler is nothing like the helpless, vulnerable woman Liam expected when he agreed to provide security for her secluded Catskill Mountain estate. Yet her life is at risk. Her enemies monsters. Her secrets devastating.

Liam Nash is a trained killer who takes no prisoners, fears no man. But to him this woman is seductively, devastatingly. . .

Dangerous.

What's Interesting: Having to protect a woman who isn't what she seems with big secrets and monster enemies! But that there's an attraction between them!

The Genesis by K.L. Kerr
Publisher: Penrefe Publications
Published: September 12th, 2012
From Goodreads:
An Uncontrollable Power. An Unstoppable Corporation. A Vampire God.

The vampires of Dayson city are preparing for war. Having lived in constant fear of the Archway Corporation for decades, desperation has forced them into action. Their solution is to bring the First vampire, Alistair, back from the dead, a warrior famed for eradicating entire armies in the name of his kind.

For fledgling vampire Catrina Malinka, the fabled return of some unknown deity falls low on her list of concerns. Between fending off strangers trying to kill her in her dreams and trying to rein in an uncontrollable power that no one else even understands let alone shares, Catrina is forced to fight her assumed role in the war against Archway, which threatens to send her down a path she doesn't want to travel.

The first book in The Blood of Ages series, "The Genesis" is an urban fantasy about the inescapable nature of Fate and the corruption of power. 

What's Interesting: Corruption and an upcoming war! Bringing back the First vampire and fending off killer stranger! An uncontrollable power that puts her in a role she has to fight to get out of-with a cost!

The First Twenty by Jennifer Lavoie
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, Inc
Published: May 12th, 2015
From Goodreads:
Humanity was nearly wiped out when a series of global disasters struck, but pockets of survivors have managed to thrive and are starting to rebuild society. Peyton lives with others in what used to be a factory. When her adopted father is murdered by Scavengers, she is determined to bring justice to those who took him away from her. She didn’t count on meeting Nixie.

Nixie is one of the few people born with the ability to dowse for water with her body. In a world where safe water is hard to come by, she’s a valuable tool to her people. When she’s taken by Peyton, they’ll do anything to get her back. As the tension between the groups reaches critical max, Peyton is forced to make a decision: give up the girl she’s learned to love, or risk the lives of those she’s responsible for.

What's Interesting: Global disasters that almost wiped out humanity! Living in this world and surviving! Being able to dowse for water with your body which is extremely valuable, but makes her a target!

The Legend of the Blue Eyes by B. Kristin McMichael
Publisher: Lexia Press
Published: March 15th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Arianna Grace liked her boring, Midwestern, teenage life where she ignored the many unanswered questions of her childhood. Why were her parents dead? Why did she not have family? Where was she raised until she was five? When someone offers to explain it all, Arianna thinks she’s just getting answers. Instead, she is thrown into a world of night humans who drink blood.

On Arianna's sixteenth birthday, her world is thrown upside down when she changes into a vampire. Night humans, or demons, as some call them, live in normal society. Learning all of the new rules of a world she didn’t know existed might be hard enough, but it's further complicated by two former-friends that now want to help her take her role as the successor to her grandfather. 

There is a war going on between the night humans. Sides have been taken and lines are not crossed. Four main clans of night humans are struggling for control of the night. Divided into two sides, clans Baku and Tengu have been at war for centuries with the clans Dearg-dul and Lycan. That is, until Arianna Grace finds out the truth; she’s the bridge of peace between the two sides. But not everyone wants peace. With the night humans divided, Arianna is now a pawn in the war between them. She must choose a side—her mother’s family or her father’s—and for once in her life, decide her own fate. 

What's Interesting: Ignoring the mysteries of her life until her 16th birthday when she ends this new world where she's a vampire and there are various creatures! A war going on and that she could end it, that her parents were from opposite sides!

The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Published: March 1st, 2015
From Goodreads:
There is no cure for being who you truly are…

In a cottage high atop Llanfair Mountain, sixteen-year-old Clara lives with her sister, Maren, and guardian, Auntie. By day, they gather herbs for Auntie’s healing potions; by night, Auntie spins tales of faraway lands and wicked fairies. Clara’s favorite story tells of three orphan infants—Clara, who was brought to Auntie by a stork; Maren, who arrived in a seashell; and their best friend, O’Neill, who was found beneath an apple tree.

One day, Clara discovers shimmering scales just beneath her sister’s skin: Maren is becoming a mermaid and must be taken to the sea or she will die. So Clara, O’Neill, and the mermaid-girl set out for the shore. But the trio encounters trouble around every bend. Ensnared by an evil troupe of traveling performers, Clara and O’Neill must find a way to save themselves and the ever-weakening Maren.

And always in the back of her mind, Clara wonders, if my sister is a mermaid, then what am I? 

What's Interesting: Being told stories of how three babies-her, her sister and their best friend-were brought to the island! Then it turning out that her sister is a mermaid-that the tales were true! Facing trouble out in the world! Wondering what is the truth of her story!

The Forbidden Queen by Anne O'Brien
Publisher: Mira Books
Published: March 1st, 2013
From Goodreads:
An innocent pawn 

A kingdom without a king 

A new dynasty will reign… 

1415. The jewel in the French crown, Katherine de Valois, is waiting under lock and key for King Henry V. While he's been slaughtering her kinsmen in Agincourt, Katherine has been praying for marriage to save her from her misery. But the brutal king wants her crown, not her innocent love. 

For Katherine, England is a lion's den of greed, avarice and mistrust. And when she is widowed at twenty-one, she becomes a prize ripe for the taking—her young son the future monarch, her hand in marriage worth a kingdom. 

This is a deadly political game, one the dowager queen must learn fast. The players—the Duke of Gloucester, Edmund Beaufort and Owen Tudor—are circling. Who will have her? Who will ruin her? This is the story of Katherine de Valois. 

What's Interesting: Being a prize for England even though her countrymen have been killed by England! Being widowed with a young son! A deadly political game with her son and her own future at stake!

The Lost Dreamer by Elizabeth Paradise
Publisher: Indie Inked
Published: November 17th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Trelian is a boy who has dreams that tell of the past and future, but he doesn't know how to control them. He wants to lock the visions away, and throw away the key. Celeste is the girl who has traveled a long way to rescue him with her magic.

Did the witch who took him as a boy curse his mind? Or is there another reason for the chaos caused by his blackouts? Around every corner lies an obstacle they must overcome before they can finally face the witch, and the demon she summoned to stop them. 

What's Interesting: Having dreams that tell events from every time but the present!  Traveling a long way to help him! Having a witch kidnapping him! Facing the witch and the demon she summoned!


Closed Hearts by Susan Kaye Quinn
Publisher: All Night Reads
Published: May 24th, 2013
From Goodreads:
When you control minds, only your heart can be used against you.

Eight months ago, Kira Moore revealed to the mindreading world that mindjackers like herself were hidden in their midst. Now she wonders if telling the truth was the right choice after all. As wild rumors spread, a powerful anti-jacker politician capitalizes on mindreaders’ fears and strips jackers of their rights. While some jackers flee to Jackertown—a slum rife with jackworkers who trade mind control favors for cash—Kira and her family hide from the readers who fear her and jackers who hate her. But when a jacker Clan member makes Kira’s boyfriend Raf collapse in her arms, Kira is forced to save the people she loves by facing the thing she fears most: FBI agent Kestrel and his experimental torture chamber for jackers.

What's Interesting: Having your heart and emotions used against you! Having the difficulties and consequences of revealing the truth, including losing rights! Having to face the experimental torture chamber to save her family!

The Reaper's Daughter by KM Randall
Publisher: Booktrope
Published: May 9th, 2015
From Goodreads:
I’ve always felt like an average girl ... except for my strange relationship with death. You could say I like to court it. Whether I’m soaring through the air as a flyer for Specter University’s cheer squad, or speeding down the steepest mountain with only grace and balance keeping me from an icy end, I’ve always needed to feel a rush. But now Death is courting me―in more ways than one. First, there’s Rishi, a rogue death deity who has a penchant for annoying me nearly to my grave and whose intense gaze has the power to see right through me. Then there’s Hades, who I’d rather had stayed just a myth. Now that he knows I exist, he’s not going to leave me alone until I meet the same end as my mother.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention her? I spent my whole life thinking she had died when I was a baby, but now I’ve found out she’s much more than dead. Fifty years ago, Hades banished my mother from the underworld and took away her ability to cross over souls―souls that have wandered lost through the world ever since. Now she wants me to clean up the mess. You may have​ heard of her before ... 

They call her the Grim Reaper. 

What's Interesting: Having a strange relationship with death! Having Death court her! And finding out that your mom is much more than dead and is actually the Grim Reaper!

The Disappearance of Lizzy Ross by Jessica Schein
Publisher: Jessica Schein
Published: October 29th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Mimi Lerner is a Mean Girl. She and everyone else knows it, but she doesn’t care, because along with her best friend, Lizzy Ross, Mimi rules the halls of her Manhattan prep school. But once Lizzy goes MIA after a party at a posh downtown hotel, Mimi’s social status starts slipping. Desperate for attention, cocaine, and her best friend, Mimi must face facts: Lizzy Ross may not be the girl she knew, and the life of Caribbean vacations and collegiate parties she thought she'd have is going in a very different direction. 

What's Interesting: Being a mean girl, and not caring! Then her best friend disappears and she loses her popularity! That there are secrets that her friend was hiding!


The Bane by Keary Taylor
Publisher: Keary Taylor Books
Published: March 5th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Before the Evolution there was TorBane: technology that infused human DNA with cybernetic matter. It had the ability to grow new organs and limbs, to heal the world. Until it evolved out of control and spread like the common cold. The machine took over, the soul vanished, and the Bane were born. The Bane won't stop until every last person has been infected. With less than two percent of the human population left, mankind is on the brink of extinction.

Eve knows the stories of the Evolution, the time before she wandered into the colony of Eden, unable to recall anything but her name. But she doesn't need memories to know this world is her reality. This is a world that is quickly losing its humanity, one Bane at a time.

Fighting to keep one of the last remaining human colonies alive, Eve finds herself torn between her dedication to the colony, and the discovery of love. There is Avian and West – one a soldier, one a keeper of secrets. And in the end, Eve will make a choice that will change the future of mankind.

The Bane is The Terminator meets The Walking Dead with a heart-twisting romance.

What's Interesting: Technology that combined human DNA with cybernetic matter! And then evolved and spread like the common cold! That we're losing our humanity piece by piece! Trying to keep the human colonies alive!

The Moment Before by Suzy Vitello
Publisher: Division Books
Published: January 14th, 2014
From Goodreads:
"Don't get me wrong. I loved my sister. I never, not once, wished her dead."

Brady and Sabine Wilson are sisters born eleven months apart, but they couldn't be more different. Popular Sabine, the head cheerleader dating the high school hunk, seems to have all the luck, while her younger, artsy sister "Brady Brooder" is a loner who prefers the sidelines to the limelight.

After Sabine dies in a horrific cheerleading accident, grief unravels Brady and her family. Once recognized for her artistic talent, 17-year-old Brady finds herself questioning the value of everything she once held dear. Her best friend betrays her. Her parents' marriage is crumbling. And the boy everyone blames for the accident seems to be her only ally in the search for answers in the wake of her sister's death. As an unlikely friendship emerges, Brady learns more about Sabine - and love - than she bargained for.

What's Interesting: Having her sister born close in age, but be totally different! Losing your Irish twin in a horrible accident! Searching for answers with the the one that everybody blames!

The Haven by Carol Lynch Williams
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: March 4th, 2014
From Goodreads:
For the teens at The Haven, the outside world, just beyond the towering stone wall that surrounds the premises, is a dangerous unknown. It has always been this way, ever since the hospital was established in the year 2020. But The Haven is more than just a hospital; it is their home. It is all they know. Everything is strictly monitored: education, exercise, food, and rest. The rules must be followed to keep the children healthy, to help control the Disease that has cast them as Terminals, the Disease that claims limbs and lungs—and memories. 

But Shiloh is different; she remembers everything. Gideon is different, too. He dreams of a cure, of rebellion against the status quo. What if everything they’ve been told is a lie? What if The Haven is not the safe place it claims to be? And what will happen if Shiloh starts asking dangerous questions?

What's Interesting: A hospital being their home since it began in 2020! Following the rules to control the Disease that costs their limbs and memories! But not losing their memories and that everything they've been told is a lie!

Shadow Allegiance by Lacy Yager
Publisher: Aspendawn Books
Published: December 13th, 2013
From Goodreads:
A vampire hunter-turned-vampire seeks to destroy her enemies. Until she falls for one of them.

A Chaser born to kill vampires, sixteen-year-old Rachel Campton has grown up in her older brother's shadow. Until she wakes up a vampire, her own mortal foe. She's stronger, faster than her human self, but haunted by bloodlust and the loss of her beloved younger sister. Friendless and lost in enemy territory, Rachel must rely on Alex Wellington, a former nemesis and centuries old vampire who looks like a college football player.

As Rachel goes deep into vamp territory, she learns there is more to the vampire life than killing humans. She also discovers another side to Alex. He is more than a murderer, he is someone that she starts to fall for. Rachel faces the ultimate choice--her new life and unexpected love or the family she left behind, the family that may now want her dead.

What's Interesting: Being born to hunt vampires, but then turning into one, and falling in love with another! Growing up in her brother's shadow! Learning what it means to a vampire, and there's more then she thought it would! Being faced with a life and death choice-her new life or her old one!

And next week's theme is going to be Author's Last Name!

Oops, I mixed these up, so I'll do Alphabet in the Title's First Word!

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