Book picks similar to
Devil's Bait by Debbie Boek
contemporary
supernatural
paranormal
young-adult
The Deepest Cut
J.A. Templeton - 2011
Guilt-ridden over the belief that she’s somehow responsible for her mom’s death, Riley is desperate to see her mother’s elusive spirit to gain her forgiveness. When her father moves the family to Scotland so they can all start over, Riley believes her life couldn’t get worse––that is until the ghost of nineteen-year-old Ian MacKinnon catches her purposely cutting herself. An uneasy truce quickly turns into friendship, and soon Riley’s falling hard for Ian. Riley believes her gift could help Ian end the curse that has kept him tied to the land for centuries, but that would mean letting him go forever and she’s not sure she is strong enough to do that. As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, the spirit of the woman who killed Ian returns and she’ll stop at nothing to keep Riley from helping Ian find eternal peace.
In My Hands: Compelling Stories from a Surgeon and His Patients Fighting Cancer
Steven A. Curley - 2018
Steven Curley shares the empowering lessons he's learned over 25 years from his cancer patients' unique stories of struggle, perseverance, and triumph. As Chief of Surgical Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Steven Curley has worked with cancer patients for over two decades. While his life's work has been to help his patients live longer lives, he found that they helped him in ways he never could have expected. IN MY HANDS is a rare, often emotional look at some of Dr. Curley's real patients and real situations in modern cancer care. These stories of resilience, hope, and determination changed and inspired Dr. Curley, and he uses these same stories to encourage patients dealing with the fear and uncertainty coupled with a diagnosis of cancer. Every story in the book has a theme inspired by his patients: Hope, Courage, Strength, Determination, Wonder, Cooperation, Creativity, Diligence, Service, Perseverance, Wisdom, Grace, Consideration, Gratitude, Discernment, Reverence, Resourcefulness, Faith, Beauty, Acceptance, and Empathy. Some are positive messages, reminding us of the importance of maintaining balance between family, work, and leisure activities. Others are examples of the remarkable resilience of the human spirit when facing the reality of and the surgical risks that accompany a cancer diagnosis. Realistically, despite remarkable advances in multidisciplinary cancer care, some remind us cancer is still a potentially lethal and destructive disease affecting patients and the family and friends supporting them. While many people are told that there is no hope in their situation, Dr. Curley's patients taught him to always provide hope, to push the envelope and give people a chance, and that hope is a critical component of treatment and care. IN MY HANDS is medical narrative at its finest, and provides insight into medicine and patient care along with fascinating details about one of our most feared diseases.
Nevermore
Kelly Creagh - 2010
Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look. Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares. His life depends on it.
Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief: Spiritual Insights Expressed Through Art, Poetry and Prose
Diamante Lavendar - 2018
It is a Pandoras box of emotions, situations, opportunities, and failures, all wrapped into a package we call life. Nobody is immune, but everyone has the opportunity to grow tall or wither like a flower in harsh light. Its completely up to us how we choose to respond. Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief is a gleaning of insights from artist Diamante Lavender. For her, life has been a long, difficult road, but it has taught many poignant lessons. Her poetry collection is an exploration of the human soul, a traversing of situations that life throws at us. Diamante has always been intrigued by the ability to overcome and move on to bigger and better things. She writes to encourage hope and possibility in those who read her stories. If she can help others heal, as she has, then Diamantes work as an author and artist will have been well spent. She believes that everyone should try to leave a positive mark on the world, to make it a better place for all. Writing is the way that she is attempting to leave her markone story at a time.
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.
A Sudden Light
Garth Stein - 2014
Built from the spoils of a massive timber fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of giant, whole trees, and is set on a huge estate overlooking Puget Sound. Trevor’s bankrupt parents have begun a trial separation, and his father, Jones Riddell, has brought Trevor to Riddell House with a goal: to join forces with his sister, Serena, dispatch Grandpa Samuel—who is flickering in and out of dementia—to a graduated living facility, sell off the house and property for development into “tract housing for millionaires,” divide up the profits, and live happily ever after.But Trevor soon discovers there’s someone else living in Riddell House: a ghost with an agenda of his own. For while the land holds tremendous value, it is also burdened by the final wishes of the family patriarch, Elijah, who mandated it be allowed to return to untamed forestland as a penance for the millions of trees harvested over the decades by the Riddell Timber company. The ghost will not rest until Elijah’s wish is fulfilled, and Trevor’s willingness to face the past holds the key to his family’s future.A Sudden Light is a rich, atmospheric work that is at once a multigenerational family saga, a historical novel, a ghost story, and the story of a contemporary family’s struggle to connect with each other. A tribute to the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, it reflects Garth Stein’s outsized capacity for empathy and keen understanding of human motivation, and his rare ability to see the unseen: the universal threads that connect us all
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer - 2005
About three things I was absolutely positive.First, Edward was a vampire.Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.
Glass Houses
Rachel Caine - 2006
When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood. Will she be able to face the town's terror or will she drown like everyone else?
Halfway to the Grave
Jeaniene Frost - 2007
Then she’s captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter, and is forced into an unlikely partnership.In exchange for help finding her father, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. She’s amazed she doesn’t end up as his dinner – are there actually good vampires? Pretty soon Bones will have her convinced that being half-dead doesn’t have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her status as kick-ass demon hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side … and Bones is turning out to be as tempting as any man with a heartbeat.
The Raising
Laura Kasischke - 2011
The university was mourning the loss of one of its own: Nicole Werner, a blond, beautiful, straight-A sorority sister tragically killed in a car accident that left her boyfriend, who was driving, remarkably—some say suspiciously—unscathed.Although a year has passed, as winter begins and the nights darken, obsession with Nicole and her death reignites: She was so pretty. So sweet-tempered. So innocent. Too young to die.Unless she didn’t.Because rumor has it that she’s back.
The Interludes: A Sexual Odyssey
J.K. Duval - 2017
All the characters have only one thing in common, they’re all named Jordan. Whether they are women or men they share the same first name, but that’s where the similarities end. Seven different Jordans will take you along for almost every conceivable match-up in some seriously sexy locales. From a beach-side cottage along the warm moonlit waters of Jamaica to a shower stall in London’s famed Claridge’s Hotel, across the hills of Tuscany to a magnificent 18 room oceanfront shingle style home on the western shores of Martha’s Vineyard, these are just a few of the places that will spread out before you on this journey of erotic discovery. If you blush easily, you might want to look elsewhere for your night-table reading. Then again you may wish to share what’s behind this cover with someone you love and create your own sexual odyssey. Enjoy and here’s to la dolce vita. J. K. Duval
The Law of Moses
Amy Harmon - 2014
You will know it’s coming, and it will hurt. But you’ll be able to prepare.Someone found him in a laundry basket at the Quick Wash, wrapped in a towel, a few hours old and close to death. They called him Baby Moses when they shared his story on the ten o’clock news – the little baby left in a basket at a dingy Laundromat, born to a crack addict and expected to have all sorts of problems. I imagined the crack baby, Moses, having a giant crack that ran down his body, like he’d been broken at birth. I knew that wasn’t what the term meant, but the image stuck in my mind. Maybe the fact that he was broken drew me to him from the start.It all happened before I was born, and by the time I met Moses and my mom told me all about him, the story was old news and nobody wanted anything to do with him. People love babies, even sick babies. Even crack babies. But babies grow up to be kids, and kids grow up to be teenagers. Nobody wants a messed up teenager.And Moses was messed up. Moses was a law unto himself. But he was also strange and exotic and beautiful. To be with him would change my life in ways I could never have imagined. Maybe I should have stayed away. Maybe I should have listened. My mother warned me. Even Moses warned me. But I didn’t stay away.And so begins a story of pain and promise, of heartache and healing, of life and death. A story of before and after, of new beginnings and never-endings. But most of all...a love story.
Ninth House
Leigh Bardugo - 2019
Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
The Forbidden Game
L.J. Smith - 1997
There is something mysteriously alluring about Julian's pale eyes and bleached-blond hair. And when he places the Game into her hands, she knows their connection is something deeper.But as Jenny and her six friends begin to play the Game at Tom's birthday celebration, a night of friends and fun quickly turns into a night of terror and obsessive love. Because the Game isn't just a game - it's the seven friends' new reality, where Julian reigns as the Prince of the Shadows.One by one the friends must confront their phobias to win the Game. To lose the Game is to lose their lives. And that is only the beginning...