How to Become a Henchman: The Henchman's Survival Guide


J. Bennett - 2019
    Just another delightful day in Big Little City. As I huddle on the floor, I know I shouldn't complain. After all, the regular villain attacks keep the rent low, and the City Council even subsidizes the local college tuition. It's the only reason I can afford to get my degree.   The problem is that the heroes are better at showboating for the cameras than trying to save us hapless civilians. As if to make my point, a hero leaps through the window just above me. When the glass shower is over, I peek between my fingers and get an eyeful of glowing orange boots and a muscled body wrapped in the most highly modified suit that crypto currency can buy.   As I pick glass out of my hair, the hero bellows, "Worry not, young lady. Shine is here to save you!"    Ugh. Save your cheesy lines for a different damsel! Welcome to Big Little City, a semi-reality town where everyone who isn’t already a hero or a villain wants to become one. Well, almost everyone... Alice just needs to keep her head down, earn her college degree, and then she’ll finally be able to escape this crazy place and find a real job. Too bad a super scary villain just blew up the restaurant where she works and her paycheck along with it! Now Alice finds herself running low on funds and employment options. Her tuition bill is due, and the university doesn't take promises or tales of woe.   As luck would have it, one of the town’s most famous villains is holding henchmen auditions. The gig would earn Alice the money she needs; all she has to do is betray every instinct and play the "Fame Game" she despises.   Oh, and she’s also got to beat out the other competitors who might just kill for the limited henchmen spots.   Author J Bennett is back with a brand new, action-packed superhero series. With a keen social eye and her trademark wit, J Bennett weaves a story of a futuristic world where good and evil are both beholden to ratings. Is Alice willing to risk life, limb, and her integrity to land the role of a lifetime and the juicy paycheck it brings?   Find out why it's so much fun to root for the henchman!

The Echoes of Sol: Books 1-3


Charissa Dufour - 2017
    Jack Macleef is the captain of the ship in a world where space travel has only recently become the norm and space piracy abounds. Painful memories of prior abuse surface for Bit as she finds herself on a freighter full of rowdy, ungentlemanly merchant marines. Jack works to find a safe place for frightened Bit amongst the ungentlemanly crew, but good looks and innocent ways continually charm the men. With tension and danger running high, each begins to wonder: will they survive the pirates... and each other?Broken and Hunted Mars: a beacon of safety and refuge, unless you’re transporting the disputed embryos of genetically modified animals intended for auction to the Martian elite. Jack Macleef and his small crew of interstellar merchant marines—including “Bit,” an unexpected indentured servant—think they're on a simple cargo drop when things suddenly go awry. Dodging paint-hurling protestors and mercenaries bent on terrorizing the crew’s families, Jack and Bit have their hands full as they try to keep the crew from falling apart while still delivering the cargo on time.Profit and PerilAfter the delivery from hell, the crew of the Lenore is ready for a well-deserved rest. But just as they reach their ship, they receive an offer they can’t refuse. Desperately needing money to repair the limping Lenore, Jack Macleef takes the job, even though it toes the line of legality.To his astonishment, the crew agrees to the illegal job.Just when Bit thinks she has her male crewmates under control, a fresh wave of romantic inclinations wash through them, and Bit is forced to deal with it the only way she knows how—with a swift fist to the eye.With half the crew tripping over itself to get to Bit, Jack flies the Lenore to Nye space station with the intention of secretly installing a nuclear reactor, freeing the station from the planetary government’s control. If he can succeed, he will have the money to repair the Lenore. If he fails, more than one life will be ruined.

Renegades


Marissa Meyer - 2017
    Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies — humans with extraordinary abilities — who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone... except the villains they once overthrew.Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice — and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

Run the Risk (A Shamrock Cove Romance, #1)


Kelli Jae Baeli - 2016
    The father she has shunned for 23 years has died, leaving her his bar, The Risk, along with a slew of bad feelings. Unhappy in her law career and life in general, Sierra returns to her hometown, Shamrock Cove, to settle her father's affairs. But as a prodigal daughter, returning to possibly sell a bar filled with patrons and staff who loved her father, and resent her, she'll need to employ all her expertise and people skills. Kelsi Belmar first arrived in Shamrock Cove to complete her residency. Enamored by the little community and its people, she stayed on to take over the local clinic for the elderly doctor wanting to retire. Kelsi's heart had never been tempted by the women she dated, until Sierra Kipling stepped off the boardwalk and into the bar with a satchel in her hand, and a Siamese cat named Me-Too on her shoulder. The young doctor, grieving the loss of her father figure, will find herself fanning the flames of desire for the woman who broke Thorn Kipling's heart. Against the backdrop of a quaint harbor town in coastal Rhode Island, Sierra Kipling is about to learn the truth about her father in the testimonies of those who loved him and the journals he left behind.

Retribution Required


C.R. Daems - 2018
    There smuggling, bribes, and a wild-west live-free-or-die attitude prevails and an eye-for-an-eye is the preferred method of retribution. For Zenaida, a child of the Rim, the death of her father requires retribution. But she must first learn how to survive while trying to track down her snow leopard's stolen litter and her father's killers. But unknown to her, her father's killers spared her for a reason—a secret that could mean her death if she discovers it.

Sheltered by Love


M.E. Tudor - 2020
    The result being two hundred hours of community service at the local Humane Society Shelter. The shelter is run by Lillie Stein, who moved back to her hometown with her daughter, Chrissy, leaving behind the chaotic and uptight life that entailed being part of a United States’ senator’s family.Chrissy Stein spent most of her life being bullied because of her family. She blossomed when her mother moved her away from Washington D.C. and homeschooled her. Now, a vet tech at the shelter, Chrissy loves her life helping animals.Jericho, as Suzanne prefers to be called, finds working at the shelter is not as easy as she thought it would be, but quickly realizes cleaning the kennels and grounds is just one of many things that make life better for the animals at the shelter.Chrissy is devoted to helping animals and is not excited about having to babysit Jericho. But, as the two young women work together, they find that they have a lot in common, despite their very different backgrounds, including their love of animals.Tornadoes, hurricanes, and animal rescues bring Chrissy and Jericho closer together as their relationship builds slowly from friendship to something more. But, will Jericho’s ex ruin everything for these two young women in her effort to hurt everyone she feels has let her down?

Born of Air


R.A. Lewis - 2019
     But when she overhears that she might be a child of the Valdir, a silver-haired race of dragon riders that disappeared sixteen years ago, she chooses to leave her old life behind and venture into the unknown to discover who she is and where the dragons disappeared to. But someone has been searching for her. In a strange city, searching for answers to her past, Kalina must conquer her own fear, deal with dangers she never anticipated from a crown she never knew existed, and forge friendships with unlikely people to help her find her place in the world.   Born of Air is the first book in the Valdir Chronicles.  If you loved Eragon you will love this coming of age adventure.

Heatwave


Maggie McIntyre - 2020
    She is hired under the radar of the female CEO, Katherine Konrad, but within hours of starting, Cat discovers nothing about her new life is going to be straightforward.Raised by her hippy artist mother in Portland, Oregon, Catriona has never followed the crowd, and she certainly doesn’t fit in at Montpellier. Her colleagues dress and act like wannabe starlets, and seem to despise her on sight. Her line manager, Frankie, is a man whose career is in trouble, and it takes all her energy to keep him in his job in charge of “Montage”, Montpellier’s current affairs program. Cat begins to question why she stays.Maybe the answer lies on the top floor of the Montpellier building. Katherine Konrad, CEO, beautiful, quick-witted and a broadcasting legend, has played verbal mind-games with Cat from day one. But Katherine’s quips are often barbed and her wit acidic. She is unpredictable and her private life is a mystery.Events bind the two women together, literally as well as figuratively as they embark on a much closer relationship expected. It’s a struggle for emotional survival, but then Cat discovers the truth about Katherine. Will she run for the hills, or be drawn into the battle as her boss fights with her own past? Summer in the city, two women in love, and the heatwave is not the only thing sizzling. A seductive age-gap story of love and loss, danger and delight.

The Lilac Plague


Kristin J Dawson - 2019
    A centuries-long curse. A kingdom teetering on the edge of destruction. In a world of magic, Nicoleta is unremarkable, except for her cursed, stuttering tongue. No special powers, no renowned apprenticeship, just the terrible, stammering aftereffects of the Lilac Plague. Until she opens the ghostly blue vision from her mother. Instead of words of endearment, the vision reveals that Nicoleta’s mother was a Guardian entrusted with a magical key — a key so powerful that those who rule will do anything to find it. The burden of protecting the key now falls to Nicoleta. In a race against the crown, she must find the treasure and the true heir, the only one who can stop the curse from being fulfilled. Impossible? Almost certainly. One false step spells disaster. But Nicoleta is no fool. Where those before her died trying, Nicoleta forges a new path, relying on her wits and some unlikely allies. Do you dare face the Lilac Plague? This coming of age, young adult fantasy adventure with mysterious magic, evil emperors, and a thread of romance will leave you amazed and clamoring for the next book.

The Jrystal Sword: Knights of Aquinas Book 1


Dave Villager - 2020
    Now he and three friends must embark on an epic quest, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.A new epic fantasy story from the creator of the Dave the Villager series.

The Amplified Trilogy: The Amplified Books 1-3


Lauren M. Flauding - 2017
    Includes The Amplified, The Dissenters, and The Restrainers.

Deadly Night


Vanessa Nelson - 2021
    Someone has brutally killed a young woman and dumped her body in an empty warehouse. The only real clue left at the scene points to one of the elite – the Ageless – as being involved.The Watch might ignore one anonymous woman’s death, but when more bodies appear, killed in the same way, the deaths attract the attention of the ruling elite, and Mage Niath is assigned to work with Thea to hunt down the killer.Thea dislikes the Mage on sight, but she and Niath have to work together and her dislike grows into a grudging respect.They will have to depend on each other, and all the skills at their disposal, to hunt down and stop the killer.Deadly Night is the first book in a new series by Vanessa Nelson.

Monster


Michael Grant - 2017
    Gone. Everyone, except the kids trapped in the FAYZ - an invisible dome that was created by an alien virus. Inside the FAYZ, animals began to mutate and teens developed dangerous powers. the terrifying new world was plagued with hunger, lies, and fear of the unknown.Now, four years later, meteorites are hitting Earth with a virus that is even deadlier. Humans will mutate into monsters and the whole world will be exposed.But power corrupts. As some teens begin to morph into heroes, they will find that others become dangerously out of control and that the world is on the brink of a monstrous battle between good and evil. And there is only one thing more terrifying than the fear of the unknown: when history repeats itself.In this first of a trilogy, Michael Grant has created a stunning follow-up to the globally bestselling Gone series.

The Twelve


Victoria Perkins - 2015
    Orphaned as a baby, the only thing she has from her past is her unusual name. Now, at seventeen, she's willing to give it up if it means she can disappear. What she doesn't know is that, in the West, eleven have been sent to find her, and when they do, her whole world will change. They are the Star Riders, those chosen by Adonai to protect the worlds from the forces of darkness. All alone, they search for the one prophesied to be at their side at the end of days. A special child with unknown powers who will change everything.

Sanctuary's Aggression: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series


Maira Dawn - 2019
    Determined to save a young boy from his abusive father, Skye's plans come to a halt when a deadly rabies plague sweeps the globe. Infected, death, and destruction--nothing is the same.In a world where money will no longer help her, Skye races one step ahead of the enemy only to find herself stranded in the middle of nowhere. Struggling through this post-apocalyptic world alone may be more than Skye is prepared for.In a world of chaos, who do you trust?Dylan Cole is content to hunt and hide away in his mountaintop cabin while the world destroys itself, but when he finds Skye frantic on the side of the road, his plans change. The woman needs his help, whether she realizes it or not. And Dylan isn’t going to let a boy grow up the way he did--not if he can help it.When the world changes, can you?Skye and Dylan work together in a crumbling world. Skye holds the troubled group together while Dylan applies his survival skills to keep them alive. But will it last? Or will each go their separate ways? Is a dark future of violence, gangs, and infection all there is, or can there be more?Buy Book 1 of this thrilling post-apocalyptic survivor book series now.Formerly #1 on Wattpad in both Sci-fi and Pandemic, the Sanctuary’s Aggression Series delivers character-driven action and adventure with surprising twists and turns and is set in an alternate history.