Saving Ben


Ashley Farley - 2013
    When Katherine Langley’s roommate, Emma, disappears from a house party on New Year’s Day, the only evidence left is a single set of footprints in the snow leading down to a deserted dock. Flashback sixteen months to Katherine’s first day at the University of Virginia when life is sweet. She is finally free from the drama of her parents’ dysfunctional marriage and ready to focus on studying to become a nurse. Her brother, Ben, belongs to the hottest fraternity on campus, and her new roommate, Emma, is beautiful and charming, a party girl whose answer for a hangover is happy hour. She is also a psychopath. When Katherine’s obsessive-compulsive overprotective brother succumbs to Emma’s charms and falls dangerously off-track, Katherine must save Ben from himself. From the University of Virginia campus to a cozy cottage on Carter’s Creek, Saving Ben is a haunting tale of love and loyalty, anger management, substance abuse, and betrayal.“This beautifully designed book might have come from any of the biggest publishing houses and sit shoulder to shoulder with some of the best LOOKING books to be released this year . . .The writing is exceptional and the story compelling with an emotional resonance that demonstrates a maturity to the writing that makes Ashley Farley an author to watch.”— Judge, Writer’s Digest 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards

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.

Jenny Pox


J.L. Bryan - 2010
    A lifetime of avoiding any physical contact with others has made her isolated and painfully lonely in her small rural town.Then she meets the one boy she can touch. Jenny feels herself falling for Seth...but if she's going to be with him, Jenny must learn to use the deadly pox inside her to confront his ruthless and manipulative girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.* * *Not recommended for readers under eighteen.BONUS: Includes an excerpt of Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel.

Stratagem


Christina Hagmann - 2019
    It's her job to seek out and discredit political figures. While on a high stakes mission, Meda is kidnapped by three teenage boys. It’s the last thing she needs. She’s behind schedule, and if the mission fails, her family pays the price. However, the longer she spends playing hostage, the more information she gathers on her kidnappers. Fueled by revenge, the boys are gathering intel on the Agency in hopes to take them down.Allegiance and family are tested to their limits as bullets fire from all sides. Meda finds herself caught in a political conspiracy that shakes her to her core, and it’ll take all her strength to trust her own instincts and stop following orders.

Speed of Light


Lee Baker - 2011
    He is destined to make history like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. Pierce’s idyllic world screeches to a halt when, three weeks before the historic flight, his wife is killed in a tragic car accident.Determined to carry on with the groundbreaking flight in spite of his grief, Pierce is changed forever when, during the flight, his body is transformed into light. The shock of it all puts Pierce into a deep coma and when he wakes time is not relevant to his mind. Suddenly able to step into visions of the past, Pierce struggles to make sense of what he sees as he learns that his wife’s death was not an accident, but murder and her murderers are after him. As Pierce and the beautiful attorney, Vanessa Trace, sort through the bizarre attacks on Pierce and his vivid visions of the past, they cannot substantiate any evidence to his claims. In a frantic race to stay alive, Pierce and Vanessa find themselves matching wits with a conspiracy with seemingly endless resources and a police department convinced Pierce is a murderer, while at the same time they question whether or not Pierce himself is crazy.Standing out from traditional suspense novels, Speed of Light is fast-paced, intelligent and intricately layered with mind expanding concepts.

The Thought Readers


Dima Zales - 2014
    Everyone thinks I’m a genius. Everyone is wrong. Sure, I finished Harvard at eighteen and now make crazy money at a hedge fund. But that’s not because I’m unusually smart or hard-working. It’s because I cheat. You see, I have a unique ability. I can go outside time into my own personal version of reality—the place I call “the Quiet”—where I can explore my surroundings while the rest of the world stands still. I thought I was the only one who could do this—until I met her. My name is Darren, and this is how I became entangled with all the Russians and learned that I’m a Reader.

The One True Ocean


Sarah Beth Martin - 2003
    There is one that is blue-a clean, bright Disney World blue, which simply is the mirror of a clear sky above. But look at the ocean on a cloudy day, she would say, and here lies the green ocean-the true ocean, full of algae and kelp and slimy creatures, evil lurking in the shadows.The One True Ocean is an atmospheric novel driven by suspense and tension when a twenty-something artist returns to her abandoned childhood home and begins to dig into her past. In a search for answers to her aunt's suicide and her father's identity, Jenna discovers that her seaside house holds dark secrets that will unravel her family history and shatter the truth she has come to believe.In this eloquent debut novel, Sarah Beth Martin mixes dark psychology and real emotion with breathless storytelling to explore the deep connections between past and present, love and loss, the dead and the living.

The Twilight Swimmer


A.C. Kavich - 2013
    As she mourns on the rocky beach where her sister's lifeless body washed ashore, she is unaware that a pair of haunting gray eyes is watching her from beneath rolling ocean waves.When Brandi attends a party that goes horribly awry, the mysterious owner of the gray eyes emerges from the ocean depths and comes to her rescue. She only sees him for a few brief moments, but that's all it takes to turn Brandi's world upside down. What were the strange markings on his neck that seemed to flutter with every breath? How did he possess such inhuman strength and grace? And why did he look at Brandi with such longing?Brandi's fascination with the Swimmer grows. She makes it her mission to find him again and learn who - and what - he is. Meanwhile, the Swimmer’s fascination with Brandi compels him to leave the safety of the ocean behind, to be with her at all costs. They are from two different worlds, but neither of the star-crossed romantics can resist the pull of the other.Ultimately, when her feelings for the Swimmer swell beyond her control, Brandi comes to realize that the strange young man from the sea can unlock the secret of her sister's final swim.

Breathless


V.J. Chambers - 2009
    Her biggest issue is trying to figure out why her seemingly normal boyfriend won't sleep with her. Then Jason races into her life. He won't say where he came from or who's chasing him. He's a delicious puzzle, a boy who has no problem using his fists to solve arguments or quoting Plato to justify his actions. Azazel is drawn to him. She's obsessed with finding out his secrets. What she doesn't know is that Jason's secrets are entwined with her own town's secrets. Her friends and family have conspired to use her as a pawn in a violent scheme. Soon, she will have to choose between protecting Jason and staying loyal to everyone she's ever trusted. A story about forbidden love, fate, and free will, Breathless is Rosemary's Baby meets The Da Vinci Code.

The Spookshow


Tim McGregor - 2014
    Drab even. That all that changed after an accident left her in a coma for three days. That's when the spookshow really began, when Billie realized that she could see the dead.And the dead could see her. Now, they won't leave her alone. Accompanying two friends through a haunted house, Billie uncovers a terrible secret that brings, not only the police, but the homicide detective responsible for putting her into the hospital in the first place. He's also the one man she sworn to stay away from.

Dead Voices (A Bridgeton Park Cemetery Book)


Ophelia Julien - 2014
    Because although both Cassie and Michael are receiving messages, as young Aaron Jacoby says, Dead voices are hard to hear.

Haunts Haven


Joan Sowards - 2009
    But Callie doesn’t believe in ghosts, and she plans to turn the inn into a bed and breakfast. Then things start to happen—strange, spooky things— and she begins to wonder if there is some truth to the ghost stories. If that weren’t bad enough, Callie discovers a mysterious grave in the cellar. As she confronts the inn’s tragic secrets, she also faces her lonely past and learns to embrace her heritage. But it takes a handsome cowboy and a harming rancher to prove that Callie’s long-guarded heart can love again.

Thorns (The Devious Fae, #1)


Katerina Martinez - 2021
    but I kissed him anyway, and now I'm here. My fault.Oh, where's here? It's definitely not the Blind Raccoon, one of Seattle's grungiest, dirtiest, most prestigious dive bars. No, that beautiful stranger at the bar is the reason I'm plucked out of the human world, where most things make sense, and brought to a place called Arcadia - the world of the Fae.A world of monsters.He brings me to a mansion called Emerald Hall, and while it's breathtakingly pretty, I'm a prisoner here, stuffed into a cell and warned not to be seen by the other Fae. I have to try to get out of here, using every trick I learned growing up, but I can't help wanting to know more about the man who stole me from my home and brought me all the way to his.You know, after he tried to kill me.There's something about him, about this place, and about me. Secrets just waiting to be unraveled, if only I cared to pull the threads. But who has time for that when there's escaping to do?

First Visions


Heather Topham Wood - 2012
    While unconscious, she crept into the mind of a missing boy and awoke with the knowledge of his location. Friends and family were skeptical and wary of her new ability to see into the minds of others. Their fears prompted Kate to keep her psychic powers a secret. Feeling alienated, she dropped out of college and spent most of her days holed up at her mother's home. Now another child has been abducted. Police detective Jared Corbett seeks out Kate for her help in solving the case. Reluctantly, Kate agrees and they must work together to bring 8-year-old Cori Preston home to her family. Although attracted to one another, Jared has a girlfriend with ties to the abduction case and Kate is sarcastic and guarded since her coma. With visions she can't control and an uncontrollable attraction to the detective, she wonders if she can leave the past behind and finally stop hiding from the world. Otherwise, Cori may be lost forever.

Face of Our Father


G Egore Pitir - 2014
    After winning the 2015 Best Indie Book Award for Action/Adventure and receiving the B.R.A.G. Medallion, FACE OF OUR FATHER was just awarded the Bronze Medal for Popular Fiction by the 2016 eLit Awards. This novel has it all. One part "The Bourne Identity," one part "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," and one part "The Notebook," this poignant tale leaves the reader haunted by its characters long after the novel's final page has turned. Stuart and Angela Pierce, like many disillusioned careerists, are busy reinventing their lives. Stu reduces his airline flying schedule to train for triathlons, while Angie escapes the daily horrors of a prosecutor's job to pursue pro bono work. But death threats soon prove that the only thing Angie escaped was the protective arm of the District Attorney's office. With a graphic photo of a ritual stoning Stu's only tangible clue, he sets out to protect a wife who refuses to protect herself. Obsessed with catching a murdering rapist, Angie plunges them both into a web of global intrigue. But who, indeed what, is the real enemy? Honor. Love. Life. All are at stake as the Pierces struggle to uncover the truth, both the enemy's, and their own. Sometimes the biggest enemy can be the one right next to you... FACE OF OUR FATHER is too literary to be a thriller, yet too thrilling to put down-a unique blend of action and intimacy-a thriller with a soul. How often does fiction change how we define integrity, prejudice, and evil? To get at all that, a novel needs a rollercoaster of a plot coupled with an acute understanding of identity, love, and where these intersect. Test your beliefs. Read it.