Looking for a new book this holiday weekend? We have come up with a list of good reads for you!
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Not sure which book to pick? Why not leave it up to our Matchmaker to decide for you. Simply press play on the video below, and pause it at any point.
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The Rising: Dark Fae Hollow 3 by Eileen Cruz Coleman
Twenty-one-year-old fae, Isabel, is kidnapped and tortured by a half-vampire, half-fae hybrid who is part of an army raised with one goal: the enslavement and killing of all good fae and humans. During her captivity, she vows not only to escape but also to lead a rebellion against the dark army.
But when her rebellion is ambushed, she is recaptured and imprisoned until she can be brought to the treacherous Hollow Council for trial and punishment.
Isabel is sure she is going to die, until Adriel, the hybrid soldier assigned to her charge, helps her escape. Now on the run with Adriel at her side, Isabel must stay alive long enough to reach a secret camp of hybrids who wish to stay hidden and somehow convince them to join her rebellion
Genre: SciFi
Love Lost in Time Relativity by George G. Nyman
The night was clear and moonless. Paul was gazing out the window of the spacecraft, his work completed, and resigning himself to passenger mode for the next twenty-two minutes, allowing the 747 to carry Relativity 1 to the lower limits of the stratosphere, where it would be launched into space. Visibility was unrestricted and the stars were lit over the desert sky, almost teasing Relativity 1 to chase them. Paul felt the acceleration as the massive jumbo jet began to rumble down the runway, slowly at first, but picking up speed as the stars beckoned above.
Genre: SciFi
Mother's Nature: A Novel of Life and Death by Steven Ira
A brilliant young pharmaceutical research scientist, Dr. Sarah Mathews, is personally offended at the very idea of death, believing it to be totally “unnatural” and therefore unnecessary.
Making certain adjustments to the orthodox Biblical world view of her missionary father, Sarah sees in Nature more than a mere abstraction; she sees an “Ascendant Consciousness” which intended man, Nature’s crowning achievement, to live indefinitely in his wondrously crafted body. Death for man results from a mistake, a single flawed genetic sequence, and Sarah is convinced that flaw can be eradicated.
Sarah also believes Nature has provided defenses against the whole panoply of afflictions which arise from man’s primary genetic misfortune in the form of naturally occurring plant medicines. In fact, from Sarah’s perspective, rain forest plants are a veritable pharmacopeia just waiting to be discovered and refined. Her life’s work is to find plants from which to extract a wide range of medicines while she searches ultimately for the one which will provide the cure for mankind’s genetic death sentence.
Genre: SciFi
Strain of Resistance by Michelle Bryan
I was 12 years old when the world ended. For eight years I've survived in this shithole once known as earth. Fighting the alien parasite that mutated most of the population into blood-thirsty freaks, while the rest of us became the lunch special on their alien menu.
Now things are changing, and not for the better. The parasite is evolving. Becoming smarter, stronger and deadlier.
They've already stolen everything from me. My home. My family. Even the man I loved. It's time for this bullshit to end once and for all.
My name is Bixby and I'm the resistance.
Genre: Fantasy
Dark Experiments by Lana Campbell
Christian is the exception to Tiffany’s rule that all males are louses. For years Tiffany has lusted after Christian and of late she can’t help but wonder what it might be like to have a brief fling with him. The opportunity to explore her secret fantasy appears when Christian offers her a job as the IT person for his practice, the V clinic. She knows if he gives her the green light, she’s going to have a romp with her sexy vampire. When the night finally arrives and she and Christian have sex, the experience is so overwhelmingly powerful, Tiffany backpedals and tries to turn down the heat between them. She’s human. He’s a vampire. She can’t afford to fall in love with him.
Christian has other ideas. During their sexual encounter, he discovers Tiffany is his life mate and he vows to change her thinking. His intentions are put on hold when he gets caught up in an angel of death’s vicious plan to chemically terminate V clinic patients’ pregnancies. Tiffany herself falls victim to a lethal dose of arsenic and Christian can only save her by turning her into a vampire. She’s furious when she wakes from her turning and discovers what Christian has done. She wants nothing to do with him ever again, but when she’s kidnapped by this angel of death and used as a guinea pig for deadly experiments she only has Christian to turn to save her life.
Genre: Paranormal
The Sound of Sirens by David Carter
The ancient city of Chester, Friday night, and the weekend starts here. High summer, skimpy fashions, short skirts, tight jeans, it’s a hot night, and the town’s relaxed.
It’s 11pm and the pubs are beginning to close. The band has just finished playing; packing their instruments away, but the night is young.
A young man enters the still crowded pub. Walks up to the small stage. Pulls out a handgun and empties four shots into the lead singer. One, two, three four.
Waves the gun at the stunned and shocked crowd. Yelling, hollering and screaming, they part like the Red Sea, and he walks through the valley of death and out into the night, laughing as he goes.
The sound of sirens floats across the humid city. Inspector Walter Darriteau is soon on the scene. He lives locally, and truth is, he’d much rather be at work than lying in bed. The local crime reporter turns up too, Gardenia Floem, nice woman, nice teeth.
‘Is this drugs related?’ she asks.
How the hell do I know? Get her out of here!
Genre: Mystery
Her Other Family by Edward A. Dreyfus
HER OTHER FAMILY tells the story of Marianna Bolton, a young, married, LA woman who, after learning that she was adopted by the man she thought to be her father, sets out to find her birth father. She discovers that he is the son of a mafia capo and has a large family on the east coast.
She is caught in a moral and psychological dilemma: should she leave her husband of five years and the comfortable life they created, to become a part of the exciting, though immoral life of la famiglia? Why after living a law-and-order life, would she even consider giving it all up to become a member of an organized crime family?
The novel explores the dualities of all human personality as the protagonist struggles between the light and dark sides of her own. No one is all light or all dark, all good or evil. It is the struggle between them that creates who we become.
Genre: Mystery
The Nomad’s Premonition by Georges Benay
Eric Martin is desperate to forget his past, one that almost cost him his future. Three years ago, he discovered that the investment firm he worked for was run by a terrorist organization determined to get its hands on a predictive algorithm that promised unsurpassed success in global financial markets. Although he was able to stop the terrorists from getting the algorithm, he nearly sacrificed his life to do so.
Now working in Paris as deputy head of a bank's internal security department, Eric notices a high-speed trader's uncanny ability to predict extremely profitable trades. Even though there's nothing overtly illegal about the activity, Eric can't help but feel the trader's success is more than just luck. Yet, no one believes him. Armed with just a handful of data and a powerful instinct, Eric searches for the mysterious trader on his own. He soon suspects that the same predictive algorithm he fought so hard to protect has fallen into the wrong hands.
Genre: Mystery
Jurisdiction Terminated by Marc Debbaudt
An original crime novel involving the juvenile justice delinquency system from a true insider's viewpoint. The honest private thoughts of an experienced juvenile court judge are revealed, the various participants are exposed, and you'll witness what occurs in actual juvenile court proceedings that are closed to public scrutiny. When the Head of a major Los Angeles County official dies from a methamphetamine overdose, the curiosity of the judge lures him deeper into the maze of intrigue only to discover an insidious North Korean drug cartel's plot to distribute drugs to the young troubled children confined in probation camps and juvenile halls. Along the way the judge and his deputy district attorney, with the help of a tech savvy DEA agent, kidnap and torture a Korean gang member, spy on the cartel, and ultimately discover betrayal at the highest level of our justice system. You're sure to find this book action-packed, eye-opening, thought-provoking, well-written and an enjoyable read while you enter into an arena, juvenile justice, rarely explored in fiction today.
Genre: Mystery
Red Zone by Kelli Hughett
When Marcy Farris comes face to face with a murder victim at a high school football game, she's plunged into a game no one wants to play. Despite police assurances, she knows this wasn't a random murder. But to prove otherwise she'll have to tackle the painful memories of her husband's suicide.
Struck down by an injury in his prime, former NFL linebacker, Jack Briggs, wonders if there's life after football. His perspective changes when he meets Marcy. Though she's out of his league, Jack finds himself drawn to Marcy's “go-for-it” demeanor. Now, as the killer stalks Marcy, Jack has to prove he still has moves before the killer has a chance to exact his revenge on Marcy.
There is no overtime in the game of murder — only sudden death
Genre: Mystery
High Alert by Alex Lukeman
When an American missile submarine is sunk in the Sea of Japan, it's the opening move in a madman's plan to plunge the world into war. A day later the Chinese ambassador to Washington is assassinated. Meanwhile, the unstable leader of North Korea prepares to attack America with a terrible weapon.
The U.S. President calls in the Project, a deep black ops unit that goes places and does things others can't or won't do. They've had tough assignments before: but this time they're up against an unknown enemy, a man bent on vengeance against all of humanity. He won't rest until the world is turned into a radioactive hell… and when it comes to the Project, it's personal.
Can the Project team find him before he unleashes nuclear Armageddon?
Genre: Mystery
Heads Will Roll by Joanie Chevalier
What if, in the near future, we could choose the body we wanted? We could visit a store front, much like a neighborhood mom-and-pop shop, and we’d see all the available bodies lined up in a glass-enclosed case. We’d be able to choose the body we wanted, purchase it, have an operation, and wham bam! wake up with our new body.
Dr. Farkis begins his head transplant operations in secret in Oakland, California and Tokyo, Japan. When news filters out about his revolutionary surgery, individuals from all walks of life come forward, desperate for a new body and an improved life that only Dr. Farkis can offer. We meet: Barry, so frantic for a new body, he stalks the doctor and bargains with a menacing ultimatum; Aiko, father of 19-year-old Kaneko, who demands that she undergo the operation to become more attractive to snag a husband; and finally, Baby, who finds out the hard way that demanding a new body may end up being fatal.
Choosing the perfect physique from a smorgasbord of available bodies seems like a dream . . . or is it a nightmare?
Genre: Thriller
Gretel by Christopher Coleman
Alone. Frightened. Captive. If you hear someone approaching, RUN. She is not there to help you.
There is an ancient evil in the Back Country, dormant for centuries but now hungry and lurking. When it sets its sights on an unsuspecting mother one routine morning along an isolated stretch of highway, a quiet farming family is suddenly thrust into a world of unspeakable terror, and a young girl must learn to be a hero.
Genre: Horror
Back from 44: The Sacrifice and Courage of a Few – A Story of Heroism in the Skies Over Western Europe by Nick Cressy
Back from 44 – The Sacrifice and Courage of a Few. A B-26 crew struggle to return back to base in a severely crippled plane. The story is fiction based on a real person and events. The main character's 44th mission is described with flashbacks to his enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Force to joining the 320th Bomb Group at their Sardinia, Italy air base. He recalls the memories of basic training, advanced flight engineer training, gunnery school, saying goodbye to a new wife, and travel across the Atlantic to Sardinia. Mission experiences are highlighted in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operations. Missions were not always “Milk Runs”; they included enemy flak, German fighter attacks and the emotional impact of losing close friends.
Genre: Military
Brought To You By The Color Drab: (Teen & Young Adult Action & Adventure) by Norma Jean Lutz
It takes a blind man to show Race the way…
The moment Race heard the gunshots explode, he knew it was Vince. Somehow he just knew.
Throwing the remote across the room, he leaped over the back of the ratty couch and flew down the dimly-lit stairs out into the hot August night.
In this riveting teen novel, Race Paloma’s world violently turns upside-down after his older brother, Vince, is murdered in a drive-by. Without Vince’s strong leadership, their once-powerful, hood-ruling pack unravels at the speed of light. The Deuce Dragons threaten takeover in their Cincinnati Over-The-Rhine hood.
As life closes in, Race has nowhere to turn. Vince’s tight homie and joint-leader of their pack, Wynn, is sent off to juvie; the Deuce Dragons pressure Race to be jumped in; his mother drowns her grief over Vince’s death in extended drunken bouts; then Race is caught shoplifting and comes face-to-face with the slammer. Could his world get any worse?
Genre: Action
Reign of the Marionettes by Sheena MacLeod
Mass hysteria sweeps through the country with deadly consequences.
Beneath the wit and laughter of Charles II’s Restoration Court, political and religious tensions mount, and Countess Elizabeth Herbert tries to keep her family safe.
When Titus Oates, a minister begging on the streets, claims to have uncovered a plot to kill the King and replace him with his Catholic heir, no one is safe from accusation. When suspicion falls on her husband, Elizabeth’s life is thrown into turmoil.
As a tangled web of lies and deceit unfolds, Elizabeth realises her husband is a pawn in a much larger game. Caught up in the mass hysteria sweeping the country she’s forced to fight back to stop his execution for high treason. But, how can a woman take on the most powerful men in England?
Set at a time of religious and political turmoil, when the fate of English rule is at stake, and it’s impossible to know who to trust ‘Reign of the Marionettes’ brims with historical detail and intrigue.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Echo in the Wind by Regan Walker
England and France 1784
Cast out by his noble father for marrying the woman he loved, Jean Donet took to the sea, becoming a smuggler, delivering French brandy and tea to the south coast of England. When his young wife died, he nearly lost his sanity. In time, he became a pirate and then a privateer, vowing to never again risk his heart.
As Donet’s wealth grew, so grew his fame as a daring ship’s captain, the terror of the English Channel in the American War. When his father and older brother die in a carriage accident in France, Jean becomes the comte de Saintonge, a title he never wanted.
Lady Joanna West cares little for London Society, which considers her its darling. Marriage in the ton is either dull or disastrous. She wants no part of it. To help the poor in Sussex, she joins in their smuggling. Now she is the master of the beach, risking her reputation and her life. One night off the coast of Bognor, Joanna encounters the menacing captain of a smuggling ship, never realizing he is the mysterious comte de Saintonge.
Can Donet resist the English vixen who entices him as no other woman? Will Lady Joanna risk all for an uncertain chance at love in the arms of the dashing Jean Donet?
Genre: Historical Romance
Love, Lust, and Betrayal: The Erotic Adventures with My First Love and the Custody Battles that Followed by Ray Ross Reynolds
Part I: Love and Lust. Having met as virgins, a young couple's innocent and romantic first love evolves into highly lustful desires. Their awakening sexuality leads them on several erotic adventures as they explore life together during their marriage, and eventually puts the marriage in jeopardy. Together they experience ménages trois, her latent bisexuality, group sex, and sexual seductions. Follow their sensual journey from their first meeting on a college campus through college sex games to a highly wanton sailing on the Atlantic Ocean. Watch as they take this titillating journey through life together, experiencing new situations and new people.
Part II: The Betrayal. After the husband discovers his wife is having a secret affair with her boss, his world is shattered. Gone is their marital openness and honesty. Having become their children's primary caretaker, he then turns his attention to obtaining custody of them, and a five-year interstate custody battle begins. He has to fight a biased legal system in which mothers are almost always given custody of young children. There are three kidnappings of his son, a jury trial, a near encounter with Pinkerton detectives, and six courtroom dramas. The Uniform Child Custody Act is called into question. He acts as his own attorney in one trial and prevails. He helps pioneer one of the first fathers' rights groups. His courtroom successes pave the way for many fathers seeking custody of their children in the years to come.
Genre: Erotic
Poetry and Ponderings: A Journey of Abuse and Healing Through Poetry by Diamante Lavendar
In this rare collection of nonfiction Christian poetry and prose based on real life experiences, Diamante Lavendar, a victim of abuse, shows the reader the raw emotions of pain, hate, and denial that occur before a victim of abuse can find a way to heal from the pains of assault. Knowing herself the very difficult journey of being a victim, Diamante was abused as a child, and turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain. Many years later, she started to heal under God’s watchful eyes and was able to find love in her life again. She shares these truly inspiring, religious poems in the hopes that it may help other victims heal their hurts, as she did while writing the poetry collection.
Genre: Poetry
Twelve Stories for Spring by Linda Mansfield
Take a break!
“Twelve Stories for Spring” offers a baker's dozen of fictional but realistic short stories set at spring, that glorious season of rebirth.
If you're between the ages of teen through senior citizen and you could use a few minutes of relaxation, you'll love it! Short stories take far less time to read than a novel, and you can resume the book easily if you're interrupted.
Some of the stories take place during spring holidays like Easter and Mother's Day. Others occur during traditional spring events like a prom, a wedding, the start of fishing season, the Kentucky Derby, and the Indy 500. One depicts an international traveler dealing with delays due to a spring snowstorm. Another features an autistic boy at a therapeutic riding facility.
Genre: Holidays
The Long Way Home by Edward Duffy
Edward Duffy overcame poverty in the Arkansas Delta and institutional racism in the military to have a successful career as an educator and counselor. Despite a traumatic experience on the frontlines in Vietnam and false accusations that landed him in the brig, he overcame his experiences and set an example for generations to come.
Genre: Memoir
Dear Mr DJ by Maggie Fogarty
A radio phone in, a teenage diary and an old recipe book. Suddenly the summer of 1975 comes crashing into the 21st century, with vivid memories stirred and secrets uncovered.
Revisiting her earlier years means that Debbie McKay faces a big decision. Starting with a letter to her very first and much older boyfriend, Mr DJ.
Actions have consequences and in Debbie’s case the stakes are high. So is she brave enough to reveal her previously hidden past?
Genre: Family
The Fire Escape Stories by Chuck Cascio
Mike and his cousin, Salvatore “Sally-Boy” Boccanera are born one minute apart, in the same hospital, and it seems like they’ll never be more than a minute apart the rest of their lives.
Their experiences knocking around the city are challenging, funny, touching, and at times disturbing—all of the ingredients that define growing up.
Life lessons happen in the Italian bakery Sally-Boy’s father owns, where the boys loll and play, with ears and eyes wide open. But maybe the biggest lesson of all looms over Mike’s father, who’s determined to make drastic changes in pursuit of a better life.
Hanging in the balance, at the center of the boys’ tumultuous lives, is the fire escape. It’s a place that is uniquely theirs, and Mike best describes its spell, recalling how it reeks in the rain, blisters in the sun, and ices over in the snow. It’s where he and Sally-Boy talk and think and philosophize and plot and try to understand all they can about themselves and the world.
Genre: Coming of Age
A Pardon For Tommy by Paricia Nmukoso Enyi
On Thanksgiving weekend, the last thing Chelsea wants to do is to return home to New Orleans. It holds all of her memories of Hurricane Katrina, memories which she would rather forget. There is one thing that makes her change her mind –Tommy, her beloved pet turkey who watched the destruction of her city from Chelsea’s backpack. It’s Tommy who represents hope and life, and all the good things that a Thanksgiving can bring.
A Pardon for Tommy is a story with twists, turns and turkeys. It’s about family, friends and food.
Genre: Childrens
Self-Publishing and Libraries: What Librarians and Self-Publishers Need to Know by Denise Weldon – Siviy
Are you a self-published author ignoring the billion $$$ library market? Or a librarian missing almost half the new bestsellers because of outdated policies on self-published works?
While over 4 out of 10 bestselling books are now self-published, many libraries still relegate self-published books to a few shelves of local authors. And Indie authors frequently ignore a billion $$$ library market that accounts for up to 50% of sales in some genres. It’s time for librarians and self-published authors to come together.
This book covers the issues involved in getting self-published books into libraries from every angle – technology, cataloging issues, platforms, vendor access, librarian bias – and from the perspectives of BOTH self-published authors and librarians. Heavily researched (as part of a graduate level MLS course), this book also reflects the author’s personal experience as a self-published author and her six years’ experience in library acquisitions and collection development.
Genre: Self Help
The Warrior by Joyce Swann
James is sitting at a Ft. Worth intersection waiting for the light to change when he hears the roar of a truck speeding toward him. Before he can react, his motorcycle is crushed, and he is thrown fifty feet onto the median.
At that precise moment in Dallas, Elizabeth’s sleep is interrupted by a vivid dream in which she witnesses James’ accident. As she watches him begin to pass from life to death, she extends her hand and cries, “Don’t die if you don’t know Jesus!”
Although neither James nor Elizabeth is aware of the other's existence, they begin a ten-year odyssey in which their lives are inexorably intertwined, changing their futures and the futures of those they love most.
“The Warrior” is a moving testimony to the power of prayer and God’s desire to redeem every life.
Genre: Spiritual
