Get ready for the haunting season with ghost stories, terrifying thrillers and chilling crime reads. With Halloween just around the corner we have a selection of books to get you in the holiday spirit. If you don’t want to get a fright, we have reading suggestions for you too! Keep scrolling for romance, fantasy, memoirs and more!
Want to leave it up for fate to decide? Why not use our matchmaker video below to pick a book for you? Just press play on the video and pause at any point.
Horror
The Dead of Winter, by A.B. Gibson
Description: Four young professionals pick the wrong weekend to visit a popular Pumpkin Patch Bed and Breakfast.
It’s the last day of the season, and the weather and the farm are picture perfect. Ma and Pa Winter are the consummate hosts, and they immediately win over Dillon, Tara, Josh and Julia with their homespun authenticity.
Like the thousands of other visitors to Winters Farm and Orchard, the four are eager to pick apples and pumpkins and take the challenge of the Giant Corn Maze.
But Ma Winter has other plans.
A scary moonlight hayride spirals into a frantic twenty-four hours of deception and mayhem, and the group find themselves unwilling participants in a horrific family tradition that could ruin their lives forever.
What is the very dark secret of Winters Farm and Orchard, and can they escape before it’s too late?
The Caging at Deadwater Manor, by Sandie Will
Description: A dad with a vendetta. An unsuspecting daughter. A psychiatric hospital known for questionable acts. And staff who keep secrets in the attic.
On a cold, January evening, fourteen-year-old Jeannie Kynde is told that her beloved mother drowned in the murky waters along Florida's Gulf Coast. Her distraught father turns on Jeannie, no longer the caring father she once knew. Four years later, Jeannie is finally old enough to escape her father's clutches, but he has different plans. He imprisons her at Deadwater Manor, a psychiatric hospital with an unscrupulous past. Between endless psychiatric treatments and a hospital staff up to no good, Jeannie faces insurmountable odds as each day ticks away. Will she be locked away forever? Or can she fight against the nightmare that has now become her world?
If you like suspenseful shockers, you're sure to love this psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and stay with you long afterward. Check out the great reviews on this novel that debuted on the #1 Hot New Releases bestseller list.
The Autobiography of Satan: Authorized Edition, by William A. Glasser
Description: This is the story of Satan's many struggles, across the history of Human existence, to unshackle the Human mind, and open the gates to forbidden knowledge.
From the moment of his first emergence as a single spark in the dimness of prehistory, to the more enlightening force into which he evolves across the full span of human existence, Satan, as he now clearly illustrates, has been urging human beings to open their eyes to the world around them, and to continue seeking, with unfettered minds, for ultimate answers, yet to be found. To do so he must struggle against the persistent attempts to stifle that urge by the “spoon feeders,” as he calls them, individuals who have insisted, within every age, and often with a bloody fist, that they, and they alone, are the possessors of the only beliefs that every human being should accept and live by, without question. As Satan traces the history of their many attempts to stop human beings from thinking for themselves, he also takes his readers on a search for the ultimate source of all evil in this world. Readers will obviously enter the book with the standard concept of Satan as a supernatural figure of evil. They will leave the book, however, with a better understanding of how such mind-twisting concepts have been used to keep people away from the “forbidden” knowledge that lies beyond the borders of entrenched beliefs.
Sour Lake: Or, The Beast, by Bruce McCandless
Description: It’s 1911. Someone, or something, is leaving the good citizens of East Texas's Ochiltree County savagely mutilated and drained of blood. Slow-talking Sheriff Reeves Duncan needs to put an end to the murders, and soon. But it won’t be easy. This is the Big Thicket, dark and brooding, haunted by racial tensions and economic despair. Fortunately, Sheriff Duncan can count on the assistance of an undersized but tough-as-rawhide Texas Ranger, two physicians, a mechanical wunderkind, and a soft-spoken idiot savant who knows the sloughs and baygalls of the Thicket like his own backyard. This league of unimpressive gentlemen is about to be tested by the cunning and ferocity of an enemy that walks by night – and the tentacles of a desperate sectarian plot that threatens the very survival of the human race.
Mystery, Thriller & Crime
Amplify: A Billy Lime Crime Thriller (Billy Lime Crime Thrillers Book 1), by Mark Hollands
Description: Stage-dive into the exciting crime adventures of Billy Lime, rock music bad boy and impresario.
If you want fast-paced action, then you’ll love award-winner Mark Hollands’ latest rock n roll thriller.
In Amplify, Billy Lime bankrolls the global tour of Californian rock gods, The Pagan Virtue. On the road for more than a year, the band is at war with each other and Billy must keep them off the drugs, out of the bars and on the stage.
When lead singer Jet Kelly is poisoned, and drugs are discovered stashed in music equipment, the cops mark Billy Lime as a killer and drug-runner. In a story that twists and turns, Billy must fight for his reputation and – ultimately – for his life.
If you like Lee Child and Stieg Larsson, then you’ll love this cracking page-turner. Pulp fiction at its finest with a cracking rock n roll sound track.
Find out why Amplify is “guaranteed to get your pulse racing,” with 4.7 stars on Amazon and is celebrated by the Australian Crime Writers’ Association.
The Hollows: A Midnight Gunn Novel, by C.L. Monaghan
Description: London 1860
Midnight Gunn is no ordinary detective- born during a solar eclipse as Halley's Comet blazed a trail through the sky- his supernatural birth right is both a help and a hindrance when solving crimes.
Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge, of Scotland Yard, is the only one who knows Gunn's secret.
When the body of a young aristocrat is discovered in a backstreet alley, Gredge enlists Gunn’s help in a race to discover the identity of the notorious Spring-heeled Jack- the monster that is terrorising London.
A trail of clues and victims leads them to discover the horrifying truth behind the killing.
The Hollows, encompasses the thrill of a traditional gothic mystery with an extra twist of paranormal, a splash of romance and a hint of horror! Dive into the past and experience the thrill of the hunt as Gunn- Scotland Yard's best kept secret- chases down a dangerous killer making friends and enemies that will change his life for ever
Breathe In, by Michelle Bellon
Description: Breathe in. Breathe out. This mantra gets Tessa Benson through the day.
The man she loves walks all over her, and she just wants to get by without her heart shattering to pieces. If she could find her voice, she’d scream.
Everything changes in one night, when she’s snatched from the streets and tied to a bed, a camera set up to capture her dying moment. And the person who paid to watch her die…is still out there somewhere.
Tessa prowls dark neighborhoods in a quest for justice, but she doesn’t find the killer. Not until they strike again…in the place Tessa is least expecting, and where it hurts worst.
Twisted Doubles: Chillingly Criminal, by Joanie Pariera
Description: A young, seemingly guileless millionaire businessman, an unsuspecting, progressive, middle-class woman who meets and falls in love with him, a tortured ex-cop who gets entangled in their tragic love story, and a hardworking reporter with a never-say-die attitude – these are just some of the characters in this suspense-filled love story about what it means to hold on to everything that makes you, you.
‘Twisted Doubles’ is not just a story about double trouble. It examines human identity as it is defined for us by everyone else. It journeys through the identity trail as set by any bureaucracy, from birth to death and beyond. It explores the irony in trying to walk the legal path, whether tested, proposed, or new, in a world where humans increasingly find themselves reduced to any single thing that identifies them where it matters most.
Set in India, with the South Asian Tsunami of 2004 as a backdrop, ‘Twisted Doubles’ is a universal story of identity crises that will enthrall just as much as it will make you weep.
When Anjali AIyer wakes up in a strange place, drugged and beaten up the day of her wedding, she is devastated. Her trauma takes an absurd turn when she finally makes it back to her hometown, and is greeted by doors shutting in her face, and a family that is convinced she is an imposter. Heartbroken and alone, Anjali must find her way back to her family, her love, and her life itself.
Hemlock Jones & the Angel of Death (Hemlock Jones Chronicles), by Justin Carroll
Description: Ten doors down from the home of a world famous ‘consulting detective’ lives twelve-year-old Hemlock Jones, and her recently arrived housemate and unwitting companion, Edward Whitlow. Hired to ‘demystify’ the mystery of a man's murder by a terrifying angelic spectre, Hemlock and Edward’s investigations will lead them all over Victorian London, uncovering bizarre and deadly foes, figures from Hemlock’s hidden past, and a plot to take over the city…
Hemlock Jones & The Angel of Death is the first of the Hemlock Jones Chronicles, a series of detective adventures for children and adults, set in Victorian London.
The Child on the Terrace (Dangerous Journeys Series) (Volume 4), by Virginia Winters
Description: Anne McPhail, retired pediatrician, shattered by her experience in Bermuda, rents a tiny house in Setenil, Spain, hoping to reconcile what she learned about herself and Thomas after the gunfire in that dark room on the island.
But she sees a child on the terrace of the local cafe who doesn’t seem to belong to her minders and then Ari, the Mossad agent who saved Anne’s life, seeks her out with a plan to rescue the child from kidnappers. Should she trust him? Three days later, she is on the run with Ari and the little girl, with killers Esti and Sergio on their trail. She glimpses a man she thinks is Thomas. Is he, too in Spain? And why?
How far will Anne go to save Naomi?
From Spain to France to Italy, this is Anne’s most dangerous journey.
The Scent of Lies, a Cozy Mystery & Romance (Paradise Valley Mystery Series Book 1), by Debra Burroughs
Description: Book 1, Paradise Valley Mysteries. When 28-year-old Emily Parker's dashing private-eye husband is killed, her world is torn apart. In time, she begins to unravel clues that maybe he wasn't who he had claimed to be.
With the help of her close friends and the new police detective in town, Colin Andrews, Emily takes over her late husband's business and begins searching for answers to his murder, putting Emily's own life in danger.
A story overflowing with murder mystery, close friendships, a bit of romance, and juicy intrigue–think “Stephanie Plum” meets “Nancy Drew”.
Srepska, by Lucas Sterling
Description: When Fredric Ulrich is asked to investigate a devastating cyber-attack, he is drawn into a conspiracy that threatens not only his own life, but the entire United States' economy…
German intelligence operative Fredric Ulrich has been asked to investigate the cybercrime gang who sparked massive unrest in Kenya by taking over electronic transactions. But as he digs deeper, a wiretap on hacker communications reveals this is only the beginning.
Srepska, a shadowy criminal cabal, has launched a massive cyber-attack on the United States.
Taking off for Washington, Ulrich unexpectedly teams up with American gun for hire, Lars Christopherson, and dives head-first into a massive conspiracy that reaches all the way up to the very top of the U.S. Government.
Stock markets have gone haywire. ATMs have shuttered. And Fredric Ulrich is about to come face to face with the men he is sent to find….
From the deadly streets of Budapest to the equally perilous corridors of Washington, Srepska is an action-packed, compulsive thriller that depicts a financial scam terrifyingly close to reality.
The Devil You Know, by Alex Breck
Description: No amount of money can disguise the fact that wealthy twenty-eight-year-old Lachlan Maclean is physically and morally repugnant to all who know him.
A broken human being and a killer, only a sick mind such as his could think up the experiment that he calls The Project. His aim is to excavate the deep depravity of the human condition, to create a grisly televised record of the true blackness at the centre of our bestial heart. The ultimate reality show.
Instead Lachie unearths a treasure trove of spontaneous and unaffected joy and light. For the first time in his wretched existence he feels the power and the beauty of genuine love and perhaps even a chance at redemption.
But the beast had been lurking in the shadows after all, a brooding evil borne of one of mankind’s blackest nights.
Now in a dark race against time and tormented by the forces of good and evil, Lachie is possibly the only man on earth who can save his precious new family.
Gabrielle: An Erotic Thriller, by Randy T. Lane
Description: Michael Wesson decides to drop out of college and head to New York to pursue show business. Sure, his parents are a little worried. His sister and best pal think he's making a mistake. Still, Michael is ready to follow his dream of becoming an actor, even if he can barely afford rent and knows nothing about the city, including news of the Silk Stocking Killer. Turns out, Michael arrives in the Big Apple in the midst of the biggest manhunt in thirty years. A psychotic murderer is hunting the rich women of the Upper West Side. The victims are found bound by silk stockings with the name “Gabrielle” written in red across their chests. As the fresh-faced New York newbie struggles to find his way, the media can't get enough of the horrors happening to the rich and beautiful. Why does the Silk Stocking Killer target such high-class women, and who is Gabrielle? Soon, Michael gets sucked into the investigation as he plays the role of his life, trying to stop a vicious psychopath before more women end up dead.
Romance
The Band 4: The Air We Breathe, by Marguerite Nardone Gruen
Description: Marguerite is on holiday in London, finally free after 27 years of feeling like a hostage to her strict and overbearing parents. Also in London, and struggling with his thoughts of freedom, is Chase Martin―one fourth of the most successful band on the planet―who knows that freedom can only come at the expense of his band-mates.
They come from completely different worlds, but when those worlds collide―on a rainy night in a small coffee shop―nothing will ever be the same again. Before ever laying eyes on him, his pain and anxiety somehow reaches her, and she feels moved to alleviate it… to offer comfort, which he desperately needs. After years of performing with his band-mates, they are closer than brothers. They are a part of one another, and the compulsion he is feeling to separate from them, is tearing him apart.
The strange bond Marguerite and Chase discover goes beyond attraction or desire. It goes beyond love or lust or anything either of them have ever experienced. It is absolutely terrifying, but to walk away from its pull would be like choosing not to breathe.
This is a story of love, loss and heart-break… of family and friendship. This is their story.
The Wentworth Legacy: A Long Island Novel, by Rosalinda Morgan
Description: A telegram from his family's attorney to come home immediately interrupts Spencer Wentworth's carefree life in England. Spencer A Wentworth, a scion of an old wealthy banking family of New York Gold Coast in Long Island, returns from a three-year Grand Tour in 1927 with a big surprise waiting for him. Thus begins a series of events putting pressure on his personal life. Will he be able to handle the big responsibility given to him?
With the stock market about to collapse, he is plagued with worries that the family will lose everything including Wentworth Hall, his ancestral home. Will he and his family retain their way of life as the country gets deeper into the Depression?
Honoring his promise to preserve his legacy, he is determined to save Wentworth Hall at any cost even if it means losing the only woman he loves. A tale of responsibility, love, betrayal, suspense and redemption during the Gilded Age. It is a fascinating account of the way of life long gone.
Mistress Suffragette, by Diana Forbes
Description: A young woman without prospects at a ball in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island is a target for a certain kind of “suitor.” At the Memorial Day Ball during the Panic of 1893, impoverished but feisty Penelope Stanton draws the unwanted advances of a villainous millionaire banker who preys on distressed women—the incorrigible Edgar Daggers. Over a series of encounters, he promises Penelope the financial security she craves, but at what cost? Skilled in the art of flirtation, Edgar is not without his charms, and Penelope is attracted to him against her better judgment. Initially, as Penelope grows into her own in the burgeoning early Women’s Suffrage Movement, Edgar exerts pressure, promising to use his power and access to help her advance. But can he be trusted, or are his words part of an elaborate mind game played between him and his wife? During a glittering age where a woman’s reputation is her most valuable possession, Penelope must decide whether to compromise her principles for love, lust, and the allure of an easier life.
Life on the Porcelain Edge, by C.E. Hilbert
Description: Tessa Tarrington's life is swirling out of control. No job. No apartment. Sick Dad…And she's back in high school! Teaching at her Gibson's Run alma mater would be tolerable, except she's sharing purgatory with her mortal enemy, Ryland Jessup. But eight years post-high-school, and after tragedies she can barely understand, Ryland no longer fits her mental image of the over-sized bully he once was. In fact, much to her disgust, he's finding his way into her heart. After the sudden death of his wife, Ryland hung up his professional shoulder pads and picked up a whistle. Now he's focused on coaching the high school football team and raising his daughter. The sudden return of his childhood crush, Tessa Tarrington, has reawakened long-ago feelings. But if God's giving him a second chance to impress Tessa, the Man Upstairs has a funny way of showing it. Just when Tessa starts to lighten up, Ryland's best friend returns. Will the always-irresistible Joey Taylor stifle any hope Ryland has to ignite the dream of a relationship with Tessa?
Ruff Cut, by Kasey Riley
Description: Army veteran Sheriff Megan Holloway has a lot on her mind. A dog with a bellyful of smuggled diamonds, a terrified woman hiding at the Bailey’s Boarding House and a mafioso who is likely connected to both of them. What’s that city crook doing in her town, anyway?
Add to that, the man Megan’s been close to for the past year is flirting with another woman and, last night, she relived her personal nightmare of the war in Afghanistan, again…yeah, her life is just peachy. Her psychological trauma has kept her from committing to Aaron; maybe he’s given up waiting for her. Maybe he's begun looking for a woman with less emotional baggage…
Forced to call in the proper government agencies, Megan fights to keep control of the investigation by hook or by crook. Protecting the citizens in her town is her first priority. Fortunately, she has an ace-in-the-hole the Feds don’t. The citizens of Riverview trust her and will help her any way she needs.
.
Sci-Fi
Return of the Convict, by William Thomas
Description: Dom Tessier is a space cadet at Vancouver's Space Training Academy. Brain implants have enhanced his memory, and speeded up his learning processes. In another year he's to be fully telepathic, and take his place in the world-wide technocracy.
Lucas, the benefactor who paid for his education, is a convict who's now returned from Mars. Dom is Lucas's clone, and the brain implants provide the avenue for a mind merger.
In the struggle to preserve his autonomy, all Dom's beliefs about the society he's been raised in are called into question.
.
Fantasy & Paranormal
Their Witch Wears Plaid, by Kathleen Shaputis
Description: Even though Nell felt right at home as the palm reader at Scotland’s Baillie Castle, a romantic bed and breakfast, her own love life fell short. Surrounded daily by married and engaged couples, Nell enjoyed her independence, though there was this one sweet crush she had on a fantasy knight in shining armor.
Her delightful end of summer is shoved into a powerful hurricane of mystery when an evil druid battles for her service, throwing her into nightmares and catatonic trances. Will her infatuation with the professional knight rescue her from the darkness or is he entrenched with the dreaded Druid?
The hurricane reaches Category 5 intensity when a magic coin, the diva queen squad and a pair of witches collide at the castle. Will magic be enough to save Nell from a broken heart or cause certain death?
Fear Club: The Masquerade, by Eden Crowne
Description: Sometimes the only choices left are bad ones.
New city. New country. Lonely Lexie Carpenter finds a club online. Welcoming, beautiful, people. But they are monsters. They rip out her soul, dividing it into three pieces as prizes in the Club's occult lottery. Left for dead, Lexie is resurrected by a silver-haired young sorcerer. How ironic that he is a monster as well and may want to kill her himself.
The sorcerer's motives are Future Lexie's problem. Right now, death has only been postponed if the two of them can't find the Soul Eaters and put this broken girl back together. Lexie claws her way up the supernatural food chain collecting some odd allies on the way: a massive Shadow Hound with a taste for human flesh, a world-famous rock singer who happens to be a magical half-demon (that's a secret) and gorgeous (that's not), and two celestial Japanese spirits with too many secrets.
Lexie's paranormal learning curve quickly becomes slippery with the blood of demons and the damned. And in the battle for the first piece of her soul, Lexie learns the betrayals go deeper than she could have imagined. Blood deep.
Goddess of The Wild Thing, by Paul DeBlassie III
Description: Goddess of the Wild Thing is a dramatic tale of one woman’s spiritual journey where magical happenings, unexpected turns of fate, and unseen forces influence her ability to love and be loved. Eve Sanchez, a middle-aged woman and scholar of esoteric studies, encounters a seductive but frightening man who introduces her to a supernatural world in which the wicked powers of a surrogate mother’s twisted affection threaten love and life. In the mystic realm of Aztlan del Sur, Eve and three friends struggle with whether bad love is better than no love and discover that love is a wild thing.
Remain, by Sherrie Sushko
Description: After the sudden and tragic loss of her child, Laurie sinks into a deep depression, unable to cope with the outside world. Yearning for contact one last time, Laurie dismisses the good intentions of those closest to her and continues to reach out for the seemingly impossible, never underestimating the power of a mother's love.
Remain is a supernatural story about the bonds that we form and how they remain with us forever.
Blood and Frost, by Holly Blackstone
Description: Life is funny – people say ‘one door doesn’t close unless another one opens’. I’m too practical for metaphysical ruminations; I like concrete things, things I can observe and measure, and I don’t believe in fate. Correction – I DIDN’T believe in Fate. How is it you can go through life and not realise you need something desperately and then suddenly wake up to find out it’s vital to your existence?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I wasn’t happy but I had made peace with my life, or thought I had. It wasn’t perfect, in fact it was a bit of a mess, but it was MY mess. I had a decent job, met interesting people, was starting to make pretty good money, enough money to think about asserting my autonomy once more. Then I took a trip to northern Scotland in the middle of winter to meet a client and it changed everything.
HE changed everything. He showed me the shuttered parts of my soul, shone light on my dark, hidden desires and ignited something in me that is terrifying. Even now, there is part of me that he holds captive that no amount of distance or time will ever make free. My name is Lucretia Davison, and this is my journey.
Smolder: Book Two of Faerie Lights, by Rayna Noire
Description: A smoldering threat looms overhead, waiting to strike and alter lives.
Meara and Rosemary are on a desperate search for sanctuary as they flee war-torn England. But the refuge they seek proves to be unattainable when they realize that the evil they fled has followed them onto the shores of Ireland.
Deemed warrior queens, Meara fears fate has made a fatal mistake. Her magic eludes her, leaving her unable to decipher cryptic messages. If she fails to come into her own soon, her chance of survival will wither away.
Will the dangerous combination of inexperience and evil lead to total destruction for all?
Curse of the Ottawa, by Frank Daley
Description: A man drowned an Indian 200 years ago.
A sorceress curse: A family member will die in the river for 10 generations.
He didn’t buy it.
Ten of my family members died. Find out how and why.
GOT meets The Twilight Zone!
.
.
Memoir
Terror by Rail: Conspiracy Theories, 238 Passengers, and a Bomb Train―the Untold Stories of Amtrak 188, by Lynn Radice
Description: Terror by Rail is the compelling true story of a major catastrophic event: the Amtrak 188 accident on May 12, 2015. After the accident, Lynn’s journey and passion for answers caused her to ask questions about train safety and the bigger global issues that are challenges of the rail. A must read for anyone who travels, lives, or works near a rail system, Lynn’s Terror by Rail is a wakeup call. As the phrase goes: See Something Say Something, and Lynn is doing just that! A born connector as a recruiter, puts the puzzle pieces together, and readers are blown away by what could have been the headline for that day had the story gone just 50 feet differently. This story of a single mom’s heartbreaking journey through hell and back will give everyone facing challenges in their life a bit of hope that nothing is permanent, and it is possible to come through the pain to the other side.
Running Away to Europe: A Memoir, by Nicolette Johnston
Description: In this soul-searching story, Nicolette explores England and France. But her adventure quickly turns into a comedy of errors, leaving her trip to resemble nothing like the dream vacation she envisioned. She leaves her passport on a bus in England, gets pickpocketed in Paris, has a fender bender on a narrow village road in the Loire Valley, and realizes she is truly alone when she can’t communicate in French. Despite blogging her adventures to the world, she internally struggles with which direction in life to go next. Vowing to keep incoming communication to a minimum during her escape; she wanders thru parks, gardens, and the French country hoping to find inner peace. Yet, she knows her biggest struggle still lies ahead. Does she return to John in Florida? The kindest man she’s ever known despite his shortcomings, and why can’t she forget Jett? The man she told herself never to surrender her heart to. But first, she must remember why she ran away in the first place.
With her vacation…err, ‘run’ coming to an end, the thought of figuring out the next chapter is nearly paralyzing, but she knows she can’t avoid facing her future forever.
.
Historical Fiction
The Parthian (Parthian Chronicles Book 1), by Peter Darman
Description: When Rome transgresses upon his father's domain that lays between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Pacorus, a prince of the Parthian Empire, is sent to exact revenge. After a string of victories Pacorus and his men are captured in Cappadocia, clapped in chains and sent to Italy to live out the rest of their days as slaves. But fate intervenes and Pacorus and his companions are saved from a living hell by a renegade gladiator named Spartacus. In gratitude, Pacorus agrees to help Spartacus build his army as Rome musters its legions to crush the slave uprising. And so begins an epic adventure of glory and savagery played out across the length and breadth of Italy, as Spartacus defeats the armies of Rome and Pacorus leads his horsemen to victory after victory. But will Pacorous and the slave army escape from Italy, and will he win the love of the fierce and proud Gallia before the most powerful man in Rome, Marcus Licinius Crassus, takes the field against Spartacus?
.
Humour
The Extraterrestrials! In an Adventure with the American Army, by Ken Patterson
Description: Bored with the usual cattle mutilations and earthling abductions, The Alien Captain and his daring, gray explorers head to Kansas to participate in a crop circle contest. Unfortunately, due in part to a gray navigator’s poor self-esteem and hereditary earwax problems, another crewmate’s random Tourette’s-driven outbursts, and The Alien Captain’s obsession with meeting William Shatner at an upcoming Star Trek convention, the grays unintentionally pilot their flying saucer into The Shite Black Hole. Transported back in time the hapless travelers crash in a remote spot in America’s southwest.
Having no other options, the grays accept an offer from the Roswell Airfield intelligence officer, Major Marcel, to stay in the base’s plush, underground quarters. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Marcel’s seemingly generous offer comes with a condition: the U.S. Army wants the grays to build a working flying saucer. Initially, they accept this offer, but soon find they are not up to the task of constructing an interstellar spacecraft. The grays also quickly discover they are not actually guests, but prisoners. Their host’s promise of free room and board and all the bowling they can handle is not everything it is cracked up to be.
.
101 So Bad, They're Good Dad Jokes, by Elias Hill
Description: Dad jokes. They make you cringe, they make you groan but the one thing they have in common is they come from dad. Be it during a wedding toast or when introducing your dad to someone you want to impress, dad never fails to insert a dad joke wherever he can.
This dad joke book makes a great gift for the dad who has everything and has heard everything. Or maybe you want to buy it for yourself and come prepared the next time dad wants to have a joke off.
In any event, 101 So Bad, They're Good Dad Jokes will have your eyes rolling into the back of your head faster than dad can strip to his tighty-whities on a hot summer day!
.
Women’s Fiction
Sex Happens, by Carol Soloway
Description: Dr. Alexandra Rose has everything a woman could want. She’s the wife of a renowned cardiologist, the mother of three adorable sons, and a successful chiropractor. But on their twentieth anniversary, her husband shocks her with his affair. Her life spins out of control, and she faces the other side of marriage where dreams implode and people are not who they seem.
Alexandra wants custody of her children, but so does her husband, and he’ll stop at nothing. Thrust into a nightmare spawned by chilling deception, a custody battle erupts that’s so poisonous it threatens to become murderous.
In this stay-up-all-night portrait of a contemporary family, Alexandra’s bittersweet journey of love, loss, and sexuality leads her to a miraculous discovery of self and power. Sex Happens explores the very essence of all we value as women—marriage, motherhood, sex—and what we’ll do for each.
.
Self Help
The Lazy Girl's Guide to Life: 100+ Ways to Hack Your Look, Love, and Work By Doing (Almost) Nothing! By Jennifer Byrne
Description: This collection of humorous life hacks features 100 easy, low-commitment solutions to the everyday problems of the twenty-something woman.
Do you have a lot to do but can’t seem to bring yourself to do it? The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Life can teach you how to get things done with as little effort as possible. Learn to simplify your beauty routine, keep up with your friendships, hack the dating game, and get by in the corporate world with these easy, low-commitment suggestions. You’ll find over 100 solutions to your most common problems, including:
-Smoothing out frosting on store-bought cupcakes so they look homemade
-Hiding dirty dishes in a soapy sink before company arrives
-Washing and styling bangs (only) to avoid the limp hair look
-Faking it as a food blogger to snag a dinner reservation
-Reading the plot summary online before a book club meeting
With lazy girl–approved hacks that range from humorous advice to quick fixes, you’ll be able to find a temporary solution to simplify your life in no time!
I've Lost My Mind: How I Found It Again, Tille Bright
Description: “I was sexually abused as a young child and spent many years trying to remember and then trying to forget, while dealing with the aftermath. I struggled with relationships and intimacy, had multiple psychiatric ward stays, several different diagnoses, suicide attempts and periodic unprofessional psychiatric care. How could I become an authentic whole woman? “
I spent close to 30 years as a counselor facilitating both small and large groups. I also volunteered as a Peer Support Worker, both at the Canadian Mental Health Association at their Clubhouse and on the In-Patient Psychiatric Unit. For most of those years I was part of the “walking wounded”.
I came out to Vancouver after college, and fell in love with the West Coast. From the age of 21 I never lived anywhere else. I currently live on scenic Vancouver Island with my tortoiseshell cat among my book shelves and piles of books.
.
Young Adult
Letorian Descendants- Casey Blane Series (Book 1), by Jodi Ann Fahey
Description: Forced into an action-packed world of vampires, werewolves, and all things mystical, Casey Blane must quickly learn of the great power she possesses as she unlocks the mysteries of her nearly four hundred year old royal family’s past in order to save herself and her coven as the next Letorian Descendant.
Casey Blane Series:
Over 400 years ago, King Davalian, The Letorian King, protected the covens from the Pandions and townspeople during the medieval times of the black plague and the witch hunts. Two very gifted sorcerers were part of his army and fought alongside him. One was a woman named Lily who not only helped him to victory, but won his heart. Lily was not at all interested in King Davalian. Her love was Connell, the other gifted sorcerer.
During King Davalian’s rein, Lily discovered the secret to eternal life through a series of talismans, a reborn vampire, which she tried on herself. Connell was to be next and they were to live out their lives, each generation, with each other. Except, that night, things went terribly wrong and even though both had been blessed with eternal life their bond was never completed. Instead, in a jealous rage, King Davalian cursed Connell and forced him to a life being controlled by the moon and to never forget.
Paradise Girl, by Phil Featherstone
Description: A highly infectious and incurable virus spreads worldwide. Seventeen-year-old Kerryl Shaw and her family live on a remote farm and think they will be safe, but the plague advances. Despite deaths around them, the Shaws survive. However, this changes when a stranger arrives, and it soon becomes apparent he has brought the infection to their door. One by one the family succumbs, leaving Kerryl alone.
Kerryl is sure it’s only a matter of time before she, too, dies. She decides to record what she thinks will be her final days in a diary. She realises that it will never be read, so she imagines a reader and calls him Adam. As loneliness and isolation affect the balance of her mind, Adam ceases to be an imaginary character and becomes real to her.
Communications break down and services fail. Unexplained events build fear and menace: Kerryl hears her name called in the night; she’s attacked by stray animals; she’s molested when she visits the town; she sees a stranger outside her house, who vanishes when she tries to make contact; objects appear and disappear. The climax comes when she finds a text message on her phone. Who is texting her? How? She thinks it can only be Adam, because by now there is no one else left. Another text invites her to a rendezvous at the Bride Stones, a beauty spot popular with lovers, and she leaves for what she is sure will be a meeting with Adam…
There Be Demons, by M.K. Theodoratus
Description: After her father remarries, Britt Kelly’s life becomes a cesspit. She lives in her sister’s two-bedroom tenement apartment with her mother, two brothers, and two young nephews. She starts a new high school where she knows no one. And, even when Britt thinks she’s making friends, the church where she studies in is torn down.
Then, the field commanders of The Demon Wars draft her and her friends to aid the four Gargoyle Guardians who fight the demons invading the city of Trebridge. The fate of the city hangs on Britt’s ability to lead and learn enough self-control to manipulate the natural magic of Grace. Meanwhile, she also needs to decide what to do about Cahal, her chemistry lab partner who is as strong as her and may have interests more than just protecting Trebridge.
“There Be Demons” is a continuation of M. K. Theodoratus’ urban fantasy, “Night for the Gargoyles”. It tells the tale of Gillen and his team of Gargoyle Guardians as they defend Trebridge while teaching Britt and her friends – the untrained “reinforcements. Along the way, Gillen and Britt learn things about each other to make them stronger both together and alone.
Sepp's Epic Perils & Pitfalls: The 7 Sepp-Books Collection, by Helmut Schonwalder
Description: The Sepp’s Epic Perils & Pitfalls collection includes all 7 Sepp-Books the whole saga in epic proportion from Germany to America for one low price of $13.93.
Sepp’s Epic Perils & Pitfalls of an International Hospitality Professional takes us on a journey from the Sudeten Mountains to the West German American Zone and provides a window into Sepp growing up in a 1950-60 Frankenland, before getting his professional education in the International Hospitality Industry during the 1960s. Here he works and earns his living in restaurants and hotels. Sepp develops a strong liking for alcohol and sex. Sepp witnesses how money plays a big role. The ones who have ample cash enjoy understating, while those who do not have it, overstate by acting like being rich. Sepp spends many years in the Hansestadt before his travels and a new job in Andalusia. Moreover, from here Sepp immigrates to South Africa. After working at the Indian Ocean’s shore, he emigrates from Africa to the United States starting out in Kansas City and finally making his home among the Redwoods along the Pacific Ocean front of California.
Poetry
Splendor from Ashes: The Poetry of Emergence, by Ingrid Rizzolo
Description: From the heartbreaking ashes of abuse, a poet emerges to share a poignant collection of lyrical verse that details her journey as she moves from shame and brokenness to realize resilience and strength. Ingrid Rizzolo, a seasoned New York City educator, opens her heart and her life in her poetry, revealing an honest and authentic portrayal of the pain, fears, and confusion born out of physical and psychological abuse. With raw emotion and painful vulnerability, Rizzolo describes her transformation after she is betrayed by a handsome Romeo and led down a dark path where she must overcome many obstacles-both internal and external-in order to heal and move forward into the future as a stronger, more confident woman. Splendor from Ashes is a moving compilation of poetry that opens the possibilities and provides hope for anyone suffering from life's most complex challenges. “Dr. Rizzolo has captured the essence of true expression through her poetry that gives one an escape to flirt with their imagination, past memories, and often unspoken thoughts. A must-read for all poetry enthusiasts” -Dr. Anthony B. Spivey, DBA, professor
