Book picks similar to
Dragons in the Clouds by David Blair


5-stars
summer-reading
great-book
recommended

Throne of Novoxos


Tyler Chase - 2014
    His life is in the hands of his mortal enemy who does the unthinkable…she saves him…in so many ways. Together the two must battle for survival against the harsh elements, deadly assassins and vicious animal attacks. But that’s only the beginning of their struggles.Once rescued, they must confront the bitter enmity that exists between their worlds, in addition to the dark family secrets threatening to destroy them. Bound by their deep bond, the two embark on a new odyssey where all forces have turned against them and are seeking their lives. But with the help of some shadowy mercenaries, the two just might make it to the throne of Novoxos to stake their royal claim and defeat their enemies.

Love is the Answer, God is the Cure: A True Story of Abuse, Betrayal and Unconditional Love


Aimee Cabo Nikolov - 2018
    In this riveting memoir Aimee Cabo shares the inside story of a young girl's courage to stand up to sexual, physical, and emotional abuse while facing her abusers in a trial the media dubbed "The Case from Hell." As she fought court battles, poverty, abuse, and addiction Aimee always turned to love and God.Love is the Answer, God is the Cure is a story of a woman who triumphed against all odds, persevered to find true love and form a family that could withstand anything.

The Sense of Touch


Ron Parsons - 2013
    A brilliant but troubled Bangladeshi physics student searches for balance, acceptance, and his own extraordinary destiny after his father disappears. When a Halloween blizzard immobilizes Minneapolis, a young woman is forced to confront the snow-bound nature of her own relationships and emotions. During an excursion to an idyllic swimming hole hidden in the Black Hills, two old friends unexpectedly compete for the affections of an irresistible, though married, Lakota woman. Like a mythical expedition to reach the horizon or the quest to distill truth from the beauty around us, the revelation confirmed by these imaginative stories - elegant, sometimes jarring, always wonderfully absurd - is that the very act of reaching is itself a form of touch.“The quiet plains of the North Country serve as a perfect backdrop for Parsons’ moving debut, a collection of short stories whose characters often live deeply solitary, if not always lonely, lives.”-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Eloquently written and replete with a continual stream of un-hackneyed twists and turns, Parsons’ collection is superbly crafted. Engaging, riveting, and at times, mind-boggling, The Sense of Touch is earmarked to become a literary classic.”-- San Francisco Book Review (five-star review)"Parsons has made himself a man to watch in the literary world. Each of these stories is as thrilling as the next." -- Portland Book Review (five-star review)"Each story is honed with purpose and infused with subtle energies. He creates delicate lines between the frigid cosmos and the warmth that can be generated among people. Parsons' writing has a strong pulse. This debut assortment heralds his promising career." -- The US Review of Books (Top-Rated Recommended Review)

A Simple Plan


Scott Smith - 1993
    In order to hide, keep, and share the fortune, these ordinary men all agree to a simple plan.

Virtual Mirrors: First Journal


Crystal Raven - 2019
    The one thing missing was what she desired the most—a male counterpart equal to her in every way. Unfortunately for Gem, the world she was born into had a shortage of the alpha male she was dreaming of. Gemma lived in a time of restricted freedom and self-determination, which sadly for her also included an almost total lack of privacy and sexual liberty. The type of man she was looking for was completely out of fashion and possibly extinct. For a woman with a seemingly unquenchable libido, the laws and moral attitudes that repressed the natural interaction between men and women made her miserable. If she couldn’t find the man she wanted the old fashioned way, then perhaps the technology of the day would provide a suitable alternative. So began Gem’s quest for personal gratification. On the invitation of her platonic best friend, Gemma went underground to an exclusive sex club. Avoiding the eyes of the law, this was a place where virtual reality sex, and even artificial humans, were designed to provide almost any pleasure imaginable. Even still, Gemma's’ basic needs were not met. She hatched a new plan: if the man she really wanted didn’t exist then she would just have to make one.

Curse of The Salute


Anastacia Moore - 2012
    Dick Frank is the skipper of the old wooden 59 foot schooner. Does she carry a curse, or is there another explanation for the strange happenings? If you are a fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, or just love a good mystery, then immerse yourself in the hauntingly eerie tale of the Salute.

Stones (One True Child #5)


L.C. Conn - 2019
    Hidden just beneath the surface are the STONES - green and still polished smooth - placed long ago by the Guardians. Still pulsating with power, they are about to bear witness to a great battle between light and darkness. Claire Drummond is in danger, her very life depends on the actions and help of her husband and family, as well as the man she thought had left her life for good, Tony Benning. Caught up once more in the heavy turmoil of good vs evil, Claire has much more to fight for than just a cluster of stones in the highlands of Scotland. This time it’s personal. This time Marcus Ryder has her daughter.

The Apprenticeship of Nigel Blackthorn


Frank Kelso - 2017
    The story relates the adventures of a thirteen-year-old English boy whose missionary parents came to convert the wild heathens to the way of Christ.Comanches slaughter Reverend John Blackthorn and his family before he preaches one word. Nigel survives by following his mother’s instructions to hide in a hollow tree. Pascal LeBrun, a roaming muleteer, rides to the smoke of the burning wagons to find Nigel, the lone survivor.Plump, lazy, and spoiled, Nigel enters an unwelcome new world–work or starve. He finds survival is the way of life on the prairie. Worse yet, English is a little used third language. Two hundred miles later, when the mule train reaches the first white settlement, Pascal gives Nigel a choice: enter an orphanage, or enter an apprenticeship on the mule train for a piddling wage.Years later, Nigel wonders if the orphanage would have been easier.

Scars and Voices: And Other Stories


Adam Carpenter Welles - 2019
    In this collection of his stories (each of which has a story behind it), you'll read about two retired spiritual leaders who experience a miracle in their nursing home, a gay relationship that must end between an American man and a Thai student, the astonishing adventures of an early mid-life failure, the thrilling chase one gay man undertakes for another intriguing, confusing, mysterious man, and a mind-blowing time-travel misadventure involving a man and a dog, as well as a few other surprises. This genre bending collection will captivate you. You might even enjoy the stories. Adam Carpenter Welles works in media in a major city in the Southeastern United States.

Black Ice


Stephen Tesher - 2014
    His parents divorced, his girlfriend dumped him, every one he knows seems to be hooking up but him. Then David meets Kris - a mysterious beauty with a dark past who actually likes him. Ignoring the advice of his privileged, drug-dealing friends - and pretty much everybody else - David pursues Kris seriously only to find that her past holds life-threatening danger for them both.

My Soul Belongs to You (Soul Mates Book 2)


C.L. Hunter - 2016
    But this pain from her past has made Kate a use 'em and leave 'em kind of girl, bypassing love and commitment to protect herself. And this system has worked----until she meets DEACON O'MALLERY, a sweet, sexy, striving Irish businessman. Deacon is known as a jammy, a lucky bastard. As second in command at the largest intel company in Europe, he has the world by the balls, leaving the orphaned boy who grew up with nothing--and everyone else--behind. Then Katlyn Reynolds walks into his life and he's smitten. Kate is his maité Sol, his soul mate; he just knows it; even his wanker can't stop thinking about her. And, for the first time, after hearing Kate's story of brutality and loss, he wants to find his birth mother, the woman who abandoned him.Kate's feelings for Deacon are confusing. She cares enough to reveal her past, but insists he find love somewhere else.Now this stubborn bloke has two missions: to find his mother and to make the girl across the ocean stand by his side forever. Ádh mór ort, Kate! Good luck, he thinks. She's going to need it to fight him off, for he has more than good looks, charm, tenacity, and money on his side. Deacon has Thomas and Calista: spirits he unwittingly beckons into his life.In the second book in the Soul Mate series the cross-continental frolics continue with Kate and Deacon. Drama blends with desire and an off-the-charts plot, creating the heavyweight champion of page-turners in this sensual romance.

Exit Rostov


Henry Virgin - 2019
    Picking up the trail in Moscow, he ventures south to the post Soviet depths of Rostov-on-Don and further into the hinterlands of the fragmented Soviet Union, where he is led deeper into the tangled fate of his oldest friend. Uncovering hidden characteristics and unexpected motives, Frederick fears that his friend, presumed dead, has been caught up in a tragic sequence of events leading to his destruction. As a rite of passage, a journey of discovery, a travelogue and a psychological portrait of friendship, the novel draws the reader into the hidden world of being which beats beneath the semblance of reality.

Vigilante


Claude Bouchard - 2009
    . . the long, hot summer of 1996. . .. . . and in the dark of night, moving like a shadowy wraith, a vigilante prowls the city's streets.The targets of his bloody rampage: the worst of the worst.Murderers. Gangbangers. Rapists.Six months. Sixteen murders. The harried police are still without a clue . . .. . . until the day they receive an email from the assassin himself.Lieutenant Dave McCall, head of Montreal's Special Homicide Task Force, needs help to crack the secrets of the killer's taunting message. He calls on an expert--Chris Barry, who runs a security firm specializing in computer communications.Together, McCall and Barry launch a grim quest to track down a man who preys on predators--an urgent quest to bring this remorseless killer to justice.But whose justice will prevail: theirs--or the vigilante's?

Phantom Wolf


Kia Carrington-Russell - 2014
    Neither dead nor alive--and rotting from the inside--she is on the edge of her curse. Once a Phantom Wolf has been created, they hunt their blood pack and slaughter all their loved ones. Except for Sia, who woke years after her death to find herself rampaging through the land on a lonely path. She continues to run from the rival pack that hunts her because she is a Phantom Wolf. Attracted to a scent, Sia finds her old best friend, who is now a grown woman. Having once saved Keeley, Sia takes the role of protector yet again, despite Keeley's involvement with the mysterious Alpha, Kiba, and his kin brother, Saith. An ambush separates the pack and the four of them blindly fight the new warriors that attack them: desperately needing to find out where the attacks are coming from, as Sia has vowed to protect Keeley. But at what cost?Now being chased, Sia finds herself conflicted by the mortal and spirit world while trying to protect her kin. Sia must confront her fears, as well as the human lover who killed her many years before. It is not only survival Sia contends with, but her own façade that must be broken so that she may find peace within herself once more.

A Sibling in Always


Ernest Gordon Taulbee - 2016
     This stylized novel uses mythology as a base for a narrative that examines the nature of life by exploring the ways we die.