City of the Falling Sky


Joseph Evans - 2011
    But the worms aren’t the only thing that he finds. Staring at him through the darkness, with wide, innocent eyes, is something that makes Seckry’s heart almost stop.A girl.She’s shaking, petrified, and has no recollection of who she is or what she’s doing there.Floodlights bleach the area and Seckry has no choice but to grab a hold of the girl and escape with her.Suddenly the question of what Endrin were doing with a few worms becomes the last thing on Seckry’s mind. What were Endrin doing with a human?

I Hope You Find Me


Trish Marie Dawson - 2012
    Left to fend for herself with only a dog as her companion, she sets out on a journey to find others, leaving notes everywhere she goes…hoping that one day someone will come looking for her. When Riley meets the handsome yet mysterious Connor on the streets of Downtown San Diego, they form a bond unlike either has experienced before. When the things that go bump in the night turn out to be more than nightmares, the trio sets off for the mountains in search of an isolated resort where they can hunker down, away from the ominous shadows of the dead city streets. The peace and tranquility of the woods isn’t enough to keep the darkness away for long though and soon Riley and Connor are forced to accept that the World and the few people left alive in it will never be the same. The shadows of their past may haunt them forever…threatening to destroy what little dreams they have left of a future unless they fight to stay in the light and never lose their hope. 1/9 Family and Friends: The dog and I have left to find my Mom. Most of you know where her place is, the corner of 9th and F. I’ll leave a note there before I move on. Everyone here is…gone. I can’t stay. I’m not sure when or if I will come back here but leave a message anyway. I hope you find me. – Riley

Dark Expanse


Theresa Kay - 2014
    She's small. She's female. And she earned the ire of a powerful General at a young age. With hard work and the support of her friends, she achieves more than she ever dreamed possible: A position as flight squadron leader and the man that she loves by her side.Eva just got everything she's ever wanted, but how long can she keep it? This is a short story of approximately 10,500 words.

Sticks and Stones


Shawn McGuire - 2014
    Mandy’s just moved in with her. The last time Mandy Matteo broke a rule, her sister ended up dead. Since that day she’s been the perfect daughter and student, doing everything right for fear of the repercussions. Her friends want fun, not perfection, and abandon Mandy for parties and boys.Now truly alone, Mandy makes a wish to simply be happy. Nothing extravagant, just a whisper to the universe that she never expects will come true. But then Desiree, a hippie genie with her own set of issues, shows up and grants Mandy’s wish by bringing her childhood imaginary friend to life.Mandy soon realizes she should have listened to Desiree’s warning. Magic wishes have one condition: Once started, they cannot be altered or revoked. No matter how bad things get.

The Scent of Shadows


Vicki Pettersson - 2007
    By rights, she should be dead.Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset—a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow—seeking answers to whom or what she really is . . . and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure.But the nightmare is just beginning—for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own . . .

Rosetta


R.J. Johnson - 2012
    it's all in a day's work for Jim Meade: Martian P.I.In a slow orbit around the sun, just beyond Mars, a mining colony known as Rosetta houses thousands of Consortium citizens who mine the valuable ore Humanity uses for space travel. Over the last three years, Rosetta has grown exponentially, from a tiny mining colony, into an economic behemoth that threatens the delicate balance of power between The Consortium and Coalition - two nations who are still healing from a devastating nuclear war that turned Earth into a hellscape of hopelessness and despair.After a prominent scientist for The Consortium dies in an apparent accident, Jim Meade is hired by the victim's family to find out what really happened to their father Dr. Sanjay Sinjakama. There, Meade finds himself caught up in a power struggle between the diabolical CEO of Nebula Mining Dimitri Koschei, and Lazarus Rincon, the charismatic leader of a vicious cult.With the assistance of his friend and confidant (the beautiful Emeline Hunan), Meade races against the clock to find Sinjakama's murderer and prevent a catastrophic disaster that might mean the end of all life on Earth.

Slave


Cheryl Brooks - 2008
    Even filthy, chained, and beaten, he gives off an aura of power and virility and his feline gene gives him a special aura.Jacinth is an intergalactic trader on a rescue mission and she needs a man she can trust with her life.She has spent years pursuing her kidnapped sister from planet to planet. Now her quest leads her to a place where all the women are slaves. "Jack" needs a slave of her own-one who can masquerade as her master.Enmeshed in a tangle of deception, lust, and love, they must elude a race of violent killers and together forge a bond stronger than any chains. The first book in wildly popular Cat Star Chronicles, a paranormal romance series featuring heroes with a feline gene that gives them remarkable sexual powers.The Cat Star Chronicles: Slave (Book 1)Warrior (Book 2)Rogue (Book 3)Outcast (Book 4)Fugitive (Book 5)Hero (Book 6)Virgin (Book 7)Stud (Book 8)Wildcat (Book 9)Rebel (Book 10)

Slip


David Estes - 2014
    Birth authorization must be paid for and obtained prior to having a child. Someone must die before another can be born, keeping the country in a population neutral position at what experts consider to be the optimal population. The new laws are enforced by a ruthless government organization known as Pop Con, responsible for terminating any children resulting from unauthorized births, and any illegals who manage to survive past their second birthday, at which point they are designated a national security threat and given the name Slip.But what if one child slipped through the cracks? What if someone knew all the loopholes and how to exploit them? Would it change anything? Would the delicate resource balance be thrown into a tailspin, threatening the lives of everyone? And how far would the government go to find and terminate the Slip?In a gripping story of a family torn apart by a single choice, Slip is a reminder of the sanctity of a single life and the value of the lives we so often take for granted.

The Starry Child


Lynn Hanna - 1998
    Since the tragic death of her father, eight-year-old Sasha has not spoken a word. And sometimes, especially in bad thunderstorms, her behavior is strange and inexplicable. Rainey has taken Sasha to medical doctors, to child psychologists, to speech therapists. All the experts are baffled.An Extraordinary DestinyMatt Macinnes, a brilliant young linguist at Stanford University, recognizes that little Sasha's babblings are not her own invented gibberish—she is actually speaking in fluent Gaelic. Matt's understanding of Sasha opens a door to her secret world. At last someone can communicate with her, but what he discovers is both exhilarating and terrifying. Could a modern American girl really carry within her the soul of a long-ago Scottish princess?The Starry Child is a spellbinding adventure filled with the mystical power of Celtic legends and the lure of Highland heather. It is also the story of a young widow who solves the riddle of her daughter while discovering her own destiny, and the story of a timeless love held in trust in the heart of a little girl.

Gaia


Monica La Porta - 2013
    Two years later, back in Rome, she should be enjoying college life; instead, the memories of his lapis lazuli eyes and Mona Lisa smile still haunt her. Gaia longs to meet him again and unwittingly sabotages her romantic life by refusing to move on. Only her anthropological studies about the mysterious Etruscans make her feel alive. A chance to breathe new air is presented to her when she wins a full scholarship to study abroad at the University of Washington. In rainy Seattle, Gaia finally meets the man of her dreams, but he proves to be... otherworldly. Meanwhile, in her field of studies, what starts as an interesting archeological finding about a six-fingered human image, soon evolves into the discovery of the millennium, but not where Earth is concerned. Although Gaia is a companion novel of Elios, you can read these in either order. They are both stand-alone stories from different points of view. You met Gaia and Elios in his book; now hear her story.

Swept Away


Susan Kiernan-Lewis - 2012
    And a secret that would destroy her world.Ella Stevens never knew a mother's love. Her fierce independence was the keystone of her identity--unfettered by romantic involvements or family demands--until the day she moved to Germany, and her world began to unravel. There, she discovered the terrible secret her mother died to protect. There, she stumbled onto a hidden time portal that took her to 1620 Heidelberg where the brutal realities of life were not restricted to the poor and the infirm.Fighting to survive in a world she's ill-equipped to understand, Ella is befriended by a convent of nuns who stand in the shadow of the executioner's block of the Warlord Krüger, one of the bloodiest butchers in all Europe. With the aid of a sexy US Marshal, Ella is determined to help her new friends. Along the way, she learns that when it comes to the things that really matter--love, trust and friendship--sometimes the truth is the least important thing of all.

Marked


Sarah Fine - 2015
    What most don’t know—including her sexy new partner, Eli Margolis—is that while Cacy works to save lives, she has another job ferrying the dead to the Afterlife. Once humans are “Marked” by Fate, the powerful Ferrys are called to escort the vulnerable souls to either eternal bliss or unending fire and pain.Unaware of Cacy’s other life, Eli finds himself as mesmerized by his fierce and beautiful partner as he is mistrustful of the influential Ferry clan led by the Charon—who happens to be Cacy’s father. Cacy, in turn, can no longer deny her intense attraction to the mysterious ex-Ranger with a haunted past. But just as their relationship heats up, an apparent hit takes the Charon before his time. Shaken to the core, Cacy pursues the rogue element who has seized the reins of Fate, only to discover that Eli has a devastating secret of his own. Not knowing whom to trust, what will Cacy have to sacrifice to protect Eli—and to make sure humanity’s future is secure?

The Change


Angela White - 2011
    Men have been enslaved for their own protection and the only way to get a mate is to enter the Network Games and fight for one. The catch? It's a live battle to the death and the competition is fierce. Who's ready to play? Are ya? Are ya really?

I Kill Monsters


Dennis Liggio - 2015
    They're not government funded, they're not from a time-honored lineage of hunters, nor are they rich kids with lots of toys. They're two twenty-something brothers from the poor side of town who have taken it on themselves to rid the streets and underground of creatures who would prey on the innocent. Donning gas masks and using makeshift weaponry, they delve into the labyrinthine sewer system of New Avalon to grapple with snarling zombies, flesh-eating ghouls, insectoid hive creatures, and more. It's a dirty job and it rarely pays, but someone has to do it.Hired by a woman from the rich side of town who believes she's being stalked by monsters, the two brothers think they've finally gotten an easy job that will pay well. But as they follow the clues, things are not adding up. Kidnappings, jackbooted commandos, and mysterious emails are just the beginning. Soon they find themselves involved in something bigger than monsters. It's anybody's guess whether they'll come through it alive, much less get paid.I Kill Monsters is an exciting punk rock urban fantasy for those who enjoy their protagonists with a mouth on them and a weapon in their hands.

The Mine


John A. Heldt - 2012
    But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can't use, money he can't spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of swing dancing and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE is a love story that follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.