Book picks similar to
The Binding by Victoria Clapton
audio-arcs-and-review-copies
paranormal
age-ya
fantasy-and-the-like
In the Shadow of the Valley: A Memoir
Bobi Conn - 2020
She remembers her tin-roofed house tucked away in a vast forest paradise; the sparkling creeks, with their frogs and crawdads; the sweet blackberries growing along the road to her granny’s; and her abusive father, an underemployed alcoholic whose untethered rage and violence against Bobi and her mother were frighteningly typical of a community marginalized, desperate, and ignored. Bobi’s rule of survival: always be vigilant but endure it silently.Slipping away from home, Bobi went to college and got a white-collar job. Mistrusted by her family for her progress and condescended to by peers for her accent and her history, she was followed by the markers of her class. Though she carried her childhood self everywhere, Bobi also finally found her voice.An elegiac account of survival despite being born poor, female, and cloistered, Bobi’s testament is one of hope for all vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls caught in the cycle of poverty and abuse. On a continual path to worth, autonomy, and reinvention, Conn proves here that “the storyteller is the one with power.”
Fast Forward
Darren Wearmouth - 2016
And somebody offers the guarantee of a better life in the distant future... Would you take the chance? After recovering from near-fatal injuries sustained on a mission, Luke Porterfield is offered a second opportunity to fight terrorism by a private venture. He is stored in bleeding-edge technology before agreeing to the deal, and wakes to an uncertain fate. In a vastly changed and advanced world, Luke is tasked to defeat a deadly and elusive terrorist group. When his mission unearths a five-decade-long conspiracy, the explosive consequences force him into risking his life to save society. Fast Forward is a thrilling science fiction adventure packed with action, unexpected twists, and technologies destined to be part of our future.
The Low Bird
David L. Robbins - 2016
Stranded in a valley teeming with enemy troops, Sol scrambles to survive and evade capture. Pararescueman Bo Bolick has been given just twenty-four hours to find Sol before a US carpet bombing destroys every living thing in the valley, friend or foe.As Bo’s search intensifies, Minh, a young Hanoi woman who entertains the fighters and travelers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, becomes inextricably caught up in the raging battle between her North Vietnamese troops and the American forces sent to rescue Sol. In the midst of heavy combat, Minh tries to find and understand love for the first time in her life.But the clock is ticking. A curtain of fire is going to descend. The desperate realities of jungle warfare are about to collide with a warrior’s code that says no man will be left behind.
The Alpha's Fire
Terra Wolf - 2015
Literally. He's travelling the country with his pack of friends in search of the one to call his, as part of a rite of passage. He is also quite possibly the single most charming, intelligent and gorgeous person to ever walk into Harper's life recently. Which is exactly what she needs, because the day leading up to meeting him was one she would rather forget. Broken mirrors and crumpled fenders were the start, but her luck managed to cap it all off with a declined mortgage. Of course, that all happened before the campground she owned burnt to the ground. Five years of her life, down the drain because some idiot forgot to pour water on a campfire. When she flees her burning dreams, desperate for a drink to numb the pain, she runs right into Jake. Things couldn't possibly be this easy for him, could they? Did his mate really just walk in, throwing open the door to the bar, and his heart? But despite their bond, Jake hasn't told Harper everything, and when she finds out, it could burn everything he's worked to build between them. This is a 25,000 word STANDALONE Romance Novella. It has NO CLIFFHANGER.
Dead College
Kent Reaper - 2013
He's confused, he's disoriented. He asks himself what's going on. But he doesn't know. It's not like anyone's alive to tell him anyway. Just a short trip to the bathroom, a welcome break from the geology class that puts him to sleep and his world is turned upside down. He sees things that defy explanation: His classmate eating his professor, his professor getting up, shrugging off fatal injuries and coming for him.Zack knows he must get out of this nightmare. But when he's inadvertently trapped in the faculty building by a fellow survivor, he soon discovers that the living may be even more dangerous than the monstrous undead.
Redemption
Cara Carnes - 2015
The so-called peace treaty between the Paraspecies and humanity is fracturing, but she must seek help from the Alpha wolf she left behind. But how can she prove an imprisonment she barely believes herself? He’ll risk anything for another chance…The Impure female from his past returns with a tale too gruesome to be false. The human government has imprisoned the genetically tainted humans they ostracized. Adrik wants to help, but the pack and Redemption are in turmoil. Dare he risk them all for one woman?
Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel
Ruth Hogan - 2019
She loved fizzy drinks, swear words, fish fingers and Catholic churches, but most of all she loved living in Brighton in Queenie Malone's Magnificent Paradise Hotel with its endearing and loving family of misfits - staff and guests alike.But Tilly's childhood was shattered when her mother sent her away from the only home she'd ever loved to boarding school with little explanation and no warning. Now, Tilda has grown into an independent woman still damaged by her mother's unaccountable cruelty. Wary of people, her only friend is her dog, Eli. But when her mother dies, Tilda goes back to Brighton and with the help of her beloved Queenie sets about unraveling the mystery of her exile from The Paradise Hotel and discovers that her mother was not the woman she thought she knew at all ... Mothers and daughters ... their story can be complicated ... it can also turn out to have a happy ending.
Imaginary Friend
Stephen Chbosky - 2019
Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out.At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six long days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Read it with the lights on.
Storm Glass
Jeff Wheeler - 2018
The privileged live in sky manors held aloft by a secretive magic known only as the Mysteries. Below, the earthbound poor are forced into factory work to maintain the engine of commerce. Only the wealthy can afford to learn the Mysteries, and they use their knowledge to further lock their hold on society.Cettie Pratt is a waif doomed to the world below, until an admiral attempts to adopt her. But in her new home in the clouds, not everyone treats her as one of the family.Sera Fitzempress is a princess born into power. She yearns to meet the orphan girl she has heard so much about, but her father deems the girl unworthy of his daughter’s curiosity.Neither girl feels that she belongs. Each seeks to break free of imposed rules. Now, as Cettie dreams of living above and as Sera is drawn to the world below, they will follow the paths of their own choosing.But both girls will be needed for the coming storm that threatens to overturn both their worlds.