Book picks similar to
Reaper vs. Ripper (Fear the Reaper Book 1) by Stacey Rourke
fantasy
ebook
paranormal
mystery
Hexes & Hot Flashes
Lisa Manifold - 2021
Six hours ago, I found out he had another family. Six minutes ago, my life changed forever.For my 45th birthday, I planned to treat myself to a spa day with my bestie. But instead, my late husband’s insurance broker drops by to let me know that not only am I still widowed, but my husband’s insurance policies are being paid to his other wife - and his other family. Happy birthday to me.Shell-shocked and still forty-five, my spa day becomes wine night as I attempt to drown my sorrows with music and dancing. The next thing I know, I'm being romanced by an Indiana Jones wannabe who arrives like a dervish to sweep me off my feet. One thing leads to another but before anything happens, Indy goes missing, the place is trashed, and I’ve got myself a glowing snake tattoo that seems to be talking to me about magic, curses, and a hex that is going to kill me. And I get to do the walk of shame - without having any of the fun.I arrive home to to find Logan Gentry, a tall, dark drink of water who seems to think I am some ancient magical being sent here to solve his problems. On any other day, I would bust out my Taser and show him who’s boss but there’s something about his story - and the fact that he knows all about my talking tattoo - that draws me in.One thing is for sure… this guy knows more about what’s happened to me than I do. If I help him, maybe I’ll find some answers along the way. Assuming the curse on my possessed tattoo doesn’t kill me first.Age is just a number, right? Especially when you're possessed by an ancient Oracle.
Wicked Betrayal
Marty Mayberry - 2020
Wizards sent there are never heard from again.The moment I arrive, I'm forced to complete a series of initiation tests with a snarky, too-hot fae. If the creatures trying to kill us don't do him in, I just might. Yet my birth father is on Darkwater Island, and while he could be just about anyone, I'm determined to track him down. He stole something from me when I was a baby, and I want it back.Once I get what I came for, there are two ways out. Survive the Challenge--another series of trials that take place in the ever-changing, magical catacombs beneath the island. Or I can fulfill the secret blood bond I made with the Master Seeker. Eliminate someone and the Master Seeker will transport me home....Except the person I must kill is the wizard I'm falling for.This book is 71,000 words.
Chosen
Jennifer Snyder - 2020
On the run from her ex-boyfriend, Tris Abbott finds herself at Gem Creek Campground. A place that unexplainably feels like home, but holds secrets. It’s here Tris’s world flips upside down when she learns shifters are real and she’s chosen to save them.Before she can come to terms with the supernatural world she’s been introduced to, her past catches up.Face-to-face with her ex again, Tris must decide between fight and flight. Round two will be different though, because this time she knows what her ex is—a shifter.
Spirit Legacy
E.E. Holmes - 2013
Jess' life has never been what anyone would call easy; doing damage control in the wake of your nomadic, alcoholic mother doesn't exactly make for a storybook childhood. But now her world has fallen apart just when it should be coming together: her mother gone—dead under mysterious circumstances; her life uprooted to stay with estranged relatives she’s never met; and there’s something odd about some of the people she’s been meeting at school:They’re dead.Aided by Tia, her neurotic roommate, and Dr. David Pierce, a ghost-hunting professor, Jess must unravel the mystery behind her hauntings. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more danger shadows her every move. An ancient secret, long-buried, is about to claw its way to the surface, and nothing can prepare Jess for one terrifying truth......her encounters with the world of the dead are only just beginning.Spirit Legacy is the first of three thrilling novels in The Gateway Trilogy by E.E. Holmes.
Reliquary
Sarah Fine - 2016
But when her fiancé, Ben, is violently abducted the next morning, her desperate quest to find him rips her away from small-town life and reveals a shattering truth: magic is real—and Ben is hooked. It’s not the stuff of storybooks. It’s wildly addictive, capable of producing everything from hellish anguish to sensual ecstasy almost beyond human endurance.Determined to find out who took Ben and why, Mattie immerses herself in a shadowy underworld and comes face-to-face with the darkly alluring Asa Ward, a rogue magic dealer, infamous hustler…and her missing fiancé’s estranged brother. Asa has the power to sense magic, and he realizes Mattie is a reliquary, someone with the rare ability to carry magic within her own body, undetected. Asa agrees to help find Ben on one condition: Mattie must use her uncommon talent to assist his smuggling operations. Now, from magic-laced Vegas casinos to the netherworld clubs of Bangkok, Mattie is on a rescue mission. With Asa by her side, she’ll face not only the supernatural forces arrayed against her but the all-too-human temptation that she fears she can’t resist.
Grim and Bear It
Paula Lester - 2020
On the outs with her boyfriend and suddenly without a job, she's scrambling to pay the rent. She doesn’t exactly have the kind of life she wants.Tessa needs a change.And the ability to afford the wet food her cat Pepper thinks she deserves at every meal.Against her better judgement but without another offer, Tessa takes a job from one of the scariest of bosses—her mother, who has a deadly sharp tongue.And just like that, she learns that the life insurance agency at the edge of Mist River isn’t what it seems to be. Plus, Cheryl Randolph isn’t simply the sharp-tongued, overly critical mom Tessa thought she was. She’s a grim reaper. One of many people tasked with escorting souls into the afterlife.And now Tessa is one too.She wasn't expecting her life change to involve so much Death.
Hidden
M. Lathan - 2012
She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday.That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches.Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her.Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, her new, handsome reason for living, are priceless to some. The locked up forever kind of priceless. And to others, they are too dangerous to allow her to live.Let’s hope she can stay hidden.
Payback's a Witch
Constance Barker - 2019
Many of her investigations take her into the normal realm where she subdues lost, ornery and evil spirits that haunt communities. Lavana has very little memory of her past, but a scar on her cheek is a reminder that something dark occurred. Will the hunt for her true past spring up during one of her quests? Her witch detective in training, Winnie, is an eye patched beauty with a way with the men. A wizard stole her eye...maybe a jilted lover? A talking raven, Alan, is Lavana's right hand man. He runs reconnaissance and poop bombs those he considers worthy. In a small town in the Midwest, the legend of Hatchet Man has swirled for decades. It's said his tombstone glows in the dark in the lonely cemetery at night, and folks have heard his labored breathing as he hunts for his next victim. Is it true? When a young woman is discovered murdered has the Hatchet Man come back from the dead to wreck havoc, is someone summoning him, or is there a flesh and blood killer on the loose? ***Find out in this first book in a new Witch Detective Series***
Chosen
Denise Grover Swank - 2011
She and Jake, her five year old son who can see the future, are running from the men intent on taking him. Emma will do anything to protect him even when it means accepting the help of a stranger named Will. Jake insists she needs Will, but Emma's never needed help before. And even though she's learned to trust her son, it doesn't mean she trusts Will. Mercenary Will Davenport lives in the moment. Hauling Emma to South Dakota should have been an easy job, but his employer neglected to tell him about Emma's freaky son and the gunmen hot on her trail. Instinct tells him this job is trouble, but nothing can prepare him for Jake's proclamation that Will is The Chosen One, who must protect Emma from the men hunting her power. A power she doesn't know she has. Will protects Emma and Jake on a cross-country chase from the men pursuing them, while struggling with memories from his past, his apprehension of Jake, and his growing attraction to Emma. Will's overwhelming urge to protect Emma surprises him, especially since it has nothing to do with his paycheck and possibly everything to do with the tattoo Jake branded on his arm. Rich and powerful men are desperate to capture Emma, and Will must discover why before it's too late.
The Soul Summoner
Elicia Hyder - 2015
For twenty-seven years, she's kept her ability a secret, but eleven young women have been murdered in the mountains of North Carolina, and Sloan may be the only hope of finding their killer. She has just agreed to help Detective Nathan McNamara with the case, when a stranger—who is as alluring as he is terrifying—shows up at her doorstep with a dark past and another puzzling mystery: she can't see his soul at all. Now Sloan is on the hunt for a deadly psychopath with two irresistible men. One of them would die for her, and the other would kill to keep her safe.
Curses & Cupcakes
Amy Casey - 2018
Murder. Cupcakes.
Meet Stella Storm. Stella lives an ordinary life. She runs a popular small-town bakery called Witchy Delights. She has a quirky dog and a moody cat. And she loves nothing more than a gossip with her closest friends.
Oh, there's one thing you should know about Stella.
Stella is a witch.
When a local girl's murder rocks the town, Stella finally sees an opportunity to put her magical skills to the test, solving the case once and for all.
But what should be a simple whodunnit fast turns into a mystery way more mind-bending than Stella could ever have imagined, as she tries to adapt to her rusty magical skills while trying to keep the handsome local detective off her case, too.
Throw in a mysterious bad boy, an eccentric bunch of residents and a cat with attitude problems, and it soon becomes clear that Stella has a lot on her plate. And that's not including all the delicious donuts.
With time running out, will Stella catch the killer before it's too late?
Packed with biting wit, glorious magic, yummy sweet treats and even talking animals, Curses & Cupcakes is the fun first book in the Stella Storm Cozy Witch Mystery series from Amy Casey. So curl up with a cake and a pet by your side. Once you enter Witchy Delights, you're never going to want to leave. Just make sure you don't criticise Stella's coffee-making skills...
Forever Road
Catie Rhodes - 2013
A reluctant psychic medium. Destiny only knocks once—then it kicks down the door.
Peri Jean Mace thinks seeing ghosts is a curse, but her murdered trailer trash cousin doesn’t care. She wants Peri Jean to expose her killer.Peri Jean figures out everyone in her one-stoplight East Texas town has something to hide. And one of them will kill to hide the truth. In over her head, Peri Jean has to face her curse or end up the next victim.Forever Road is the first book in the Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thriller series. If you like your urban fantasy served up with a heavy dose of goose bumps, a side of gut-busting laughs, and a fist-swinging heroine who will steal your heart, you’ll love Forever Road.
Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper
J.L. Bryan - 2014
Part detective, part paranormal exterminator, Ellie operates out of Savannah, Georgia, the most haunted city in the United States.When a family contacts her to deal with a disturbing presence in the old mansion they’ve recently purchased, Ellie first believes it to be a typical, by-the-book specter, a residual haunting by a restless spirit. Instead, she finds herself confronting an evil older and more powerful than she’d ever expected, rooted in the house’s long and sordid history of luxury, sin, and murder. The dangerous entity seems particularly interested in her clients’ ten-year-old daughter.Soon her own life is in danger, and Ellie must find a way to exorcise the darkness of the house before it can kill her, her clients, or their frightened young child.
Spellbreaker
Charlie N. Holmberg - 2020
But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?
The Scarlet Thread
D.S. Murphy - 2016
After I saw my little brother’s death but failed to stop it, my parents abandoned me to a juvenile detention facility. I don’t let people touch me anymore. Not my fingertips, not my skin, not my heart. I make my own clothes by stitching together the donations we get; usually a bunch of crap that fits like a parachute. My sweater is a patchwork of different shades of inky, dark squares. I make plain gray skirts that hang to my knees, with cute or funny T-shirts sewed in. They clash ironically with my unsmiling face. My Allstar high-tops are black and frayed, like my soul. I also wear a chunk of brightly colored legos around my neck. My little brother was working on it the day he died. The day I failed to save him. It’s unfinished, so I’ll never know what it was meant to be. Most days, I just try to get by. But then I got a visit from a cute guy, who tricked me into giving up my secrets. He said I was special. That he needed me. For a while, I believed him. But once I found out what I could really do, I learned everybody wanted the power I possessed. The power to destroy deities. To kill gods. To end the world... or to save it. My heart is torn, and those I loved most betrayed me. I'm trying so hard to do what's right, but nobody can tell me what that is anymore, and the moral boundaries I'd always let define my life have been shattered. Whose rules should I obey now? Or do I have to make my own? The Scarlet Thread is a dark fantasy for fans of Greek mythology and Gothic romance. Fans of Fallen and Percy Jackson will be captivated by this mashup of fallen angels and forgotten gods.