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Not Famous


Matthew Hanover - 2021
    Instead, his girlfriend’s bombshell confession left him humiliated, alone, and distrustful. Can meeting a shy barista named Alli make Nick’s heart open again? Although socially awkward and naïve, Alli has both secrets and dreams. Her ambition, drive, and talent as a singer/songwriter could make her the next Taylor Swift. Alli, with no experience of big-city life, dives into Boston’s indie music scene, but Nick fears the motives of a man who offers her help. Can their relationship survive Nick’s jealousy and Alli’s secrets? 'Not Famous' is a funny, uplifting story about love, music, and second chances, perfect for fans of Nick Hornby, Mike Gayle, and Jonathan Tropper. Enthusiastic reviewers call it a “brilliant, uplifting debut novel” for its “pitch-perfect story” and “well-developed characters that … tug at the heartstrings.”

Next of Kin


Sue Welfare - 2015
    . . Home should be where the heart is, but for Sarah, it becomes a place of fear, menace and terrifying choices. Her new lodger seems like the dream tenant for the rambling Cambridge town house that Sarah shares with her brother, Ryan. But before long it’s clear that their guest has his own chilling plans for all of them. When Ryan finds himself in deep water, Sarah faces losing all her hopes, dreams and any chance of a happy ever after. Just how far will she go to protect the people she loves? And will even the ultimate sacrifice be enough to save them… Dark, gripping and utterly compelling, Next of Kin is guaranteed to thrill fans of The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl or Before I go to Sleep.

Dark Beginnings


Michael Robertson Jr. - 2016
     From his birth, Lance’s life has been different. With visits from lingering spirits, telepathic whispers, and an uncanny ability to solve the unexplainable, Lance has spent the first twenty-two years of his life in his small hometown, wishing only to be normal. His mother is his most trusted confidant, and together they’ve survived as Lance comes to grips with his gifts, his burdens, and the unsettling knowledge of the darkness that lives among us. But now, there’s a new evil in town. A darkly powerful duo who’ve arrived and know exactly what Lance is. And they want him for their own. As Lance’s world is quickly turned upside down and tragedy unfolds, he suddenly learns his purpose may be much larger, and much more dangerous, than he could have ever imagined. BOOKS IN THE LANCE BRODY SERIES: 0: Dark Beginnings (Prequel Novella) 1: Dark Game 2: Dark Deception

The Next World - EXISTENCE - Book 1 (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)


Jeff Olah - 2018
    Owen Mercer has battled the voices in his head for far too long. Plagued by debilitating anxiety, he was doing his best just to hold it together for his wife and his children. He wasn’t prepared for what was coming, no one was.20 days ago – Multiple reports of Intermittent Explosive Disorder Syndrome (IEDS) begin to surface from an undisclosed military installment East of Las Vegas, Nevada.17 days ago – Angered Florida man enters Miami assisted living facility and kills four elderly residents. He is said to have “Eaten the faces and necks” of his victims.13 days ago – Twenty-eight unrelated cases of cannibalism are report from thirteen states. Medical examiners are “Attempting to find a connection.”3 days ago – Death toll attributed to the mysterious outbreak of IEDS nears five thousand. News outlets warn public “Not to panic”, and that these “Random occurrences” were simply “Isolated events.”Today – The world found out just how wrong they’d been.The Next World - EXISTENCE - Welcome to the end of everything. "Jeff Olah has become a leading voice in the post-apocalyptic genre by writing spine-snapping action scenes and compelling characters fighting to survive at the end of the world." - Nicholas Sansbury Smith, USA Today Bestselling Author

The Decemites


Ramona Finn - 2021
    Inside, life is split between the rich Sky and the poor Dirt. The Decemites—carefully selected children injected with nanobots and trained to survive the search for resources—have a chance for a better life. But that life comes at a steep price, and few survive long enough to enjoy it.Myla wasn’t chosen to be a Decemite, but she’s carried a secret in her blood since birth: her parents, a forbidden Decemite match, passed along to her the same nanobots that make the chosen strong. When Myla’s foster sister, Ona, is chosen as a Decemite and goes missing on her first mission, Myla will have to brave the toxic world to find her. She’s determined to go it alone, but when Lock, the Decemite golden boy, finds her he becomes an unlikely companion in her quest. No matter how close they grow, however, she can’t tell him her secret. She’s hidden the truth about her nanobots all her life, and if Lock finds out about her, he’s sure to turn her in.But Myla is unprepared for the truth of the Outside. No human is supposed to be able to survive, but rebel Outsiders prove everything she’s been taught is a lie. And a rebel boy, Ben, shows her a life she could have never imagined as he draws her deep into the rebel world.To find Ona she’ll need to infiltrate the rebel Outsiders, where she learns the ugly truth about her home. Can she ever go back to her old life underground or is her only chance at freedom Outside?

Louise Erdrich: Tracks, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, The Plague of Doves


Louise Erdrich - 2011
    

Secrets of the Kill


Lawrence Kelter - 2014
    Mather, who’s spent fighting time in Afghanistan, is a delightful heroine. She gets on well with her live-in love, Liam, a meteorologist, and they both share a cottage in Huntington, with her mother Grace. Chloe’s feisty and smart, and it takes her no time to find out the name of the homicide victim, a young woman whose dismembered torso has been accidentally speared one night by a guy into illegal fishing. It turns out that the woman, Rachel Rabin, was working for Israeli intelligence in an office not far from JFK that fronts as a freight transport business. In reality, the place manages an operation run by The Mob, an exchange program – heroin for guns that are sent to a well-heeled sheik planning to kill thousands of Jews in New York. The most engaging parts of the novel involve put-down exchanges between her and her FBI partner, the fast-mouth, equally funny Dominic Cabrera (he calls her “Gumdrop”) who matches her, insult for insult. No romance, but lots of affection and mutual respect. Meanwhile, another kind of adventure has kicked in: an airplane in distress. The pilot of an incoming Israeli Air Force Gulfstream radios JFK that his co-pilot is ill, but soon he, too, falls unconscious. A lone passenger, a top intelligence agent on his way to find out what happened to Rachel, takes over and lands the plane. These chapters, though exciting, seem removed from the Chloe-centered ones, especially as the narrative becomes more ideological – terrorists vs. Israel. Everything is explained eventually, including some simulation technology. Secrets of the Kill is a fast-moving romp. Kelter, who has a fine comic sense, should roll it out without distraction next time and stay away from international scenarios that in real life often seem stranger – and more “secretive” than fiction. A mutilated body has been discovered; a body not meant to be found, but now that it has, Pandora’s box is open and secrets never to be learned have been revealed. An Israeli woman living in New York has been murdered. She has been raped and butchered; an outrage that ignites a fuse that burns all the way back to Tel Aviv. Enter FBI Agent Chloe Mather, a hard-charging ex-Marine who has no sympathy for the kind of maggot who could commit such a violent atrocity. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, she was one of the first woman Marines to be deployed into an active combat area. She struggles with PTSD and the consequences of a fatherless childhood, yet this is a woman who accepts no pity and operates according to a moral code that is second to none. She’ll stop at nothing to find the psychopath responsible for this unspeakable crime. In Secrets of the Kill, Mather and this code will face the ultimate test. What begins as a challenging homicide becomes more, much more, and Mather is pulled into an investigation that involves the mob, Israeli intelligence, and a radical terrorist faction. They say that blood is thicker than water but is it thicker than the bonds of patriotism? Mather will ponder this question and many others as she fights to bring an innocent woman’s murderer to justice, and prevent a geopolitical atrocity from taking place on American shores.

The Perfect Couple


Lexi Landsman - 2017
    There are secrets in every marriage . . . and some are more dangerous than others.Sarah and Marco Moretti are the perfect couple. Together they have travelled the globe building high-profile careers as archaeologists. Now, at a dig in Florence, they are on the brink of the discovery of a lifetime.However their marriage is not what it seems.On the very evening that Sarah uncovers the San Gennaro necklace – a long-lost antiquity that will bring them worldwide fame - she witnesses Marco kissing another woman. Blinded by tears, she drives home alone in the dead of night . . .When Sarah wakes up in hospital, she has no memory of the car accident that brought her there - or the 48 hours preceding it.Gone is the knowledge of her husband’s infidelity. But gone too is all recollection of finding the precious necklace.And the loss of those two crucial memories will have devastating repercussions…"Memory can be the difference between love and hate, survival and death, forgiveness and revenge."

The Book of Colors


Raymond Barfield - 2015
    Her spirit is surprising, given all the pain she has endured, and that's the counterpoint this story offers—while she sees pain and suffering all around her, Yslea overcomes in her own quiet way. What Yslea struggles with is expressing her thoughts. And she wonders if she will have something of substance to say to her baby. It's the baby growing inside her that begins to wake her up, that causes her to start thinking about things in a different way. Yslea drifts into the lives of four people who occupy three dilapidated row houses along the train tracks outside of Memphis: "The way their three little row houses sort of leaned in toward each other and the way the paint peeled and some of the windows were covered with cardboard, the row might as easily have been empty."

Unbound Justice: Australian Historical Fiction Novel


Michael Beashel - 2021
    He sails with revenge in his heart—his beloved sister has been raped by her landlord, William Baxterhouse, who escapes on another ship with even grander plans for success in New South Wales. In Sydney, hard workers like Leary and ruthless newcomers like Baxterhouse find a city fired by the Gold Rush and dedicated to creating the finest buildings in the colony. Leary has a double motive to make his construction company succeed: he has fallen in love with the beautiful Clarissa McGuire, whose family despise him, and Baxterhouse continues to rise in wealth and influence, seemingly untouchable. Meanwhile another woman, Beth O’Hare, is in love with John Leary, and he makes some hard choices—including a climactic showdown with Baxterhouse.This is the first novel in The Sandstone Trilogy: a new, magnificent view of nineteenth-century Sydney from the ground up.Three novels, Unbound Justice, Unshackled and Succession, span 37 years of Sydney life in the second half of the nineteenth century. They follow the fortunes of 20-year-old John Leary, who in 1850 leaves his rural home in Ireland and sails as an assisted immigrant to New South Wales.His trade is carpentry but his ambition is boundless. By hard work, talent and opportunism he manages to create his own construction company, never ceasing the struggle to become the biggest and the best. The building industry becomes a metaphor for his chosen city, with its mixture of squalor and grandeur, of corruption and high ideals.The Sandstone Trilogy is a historical drama with a rich cast of compelling characters. It is also a family saga, in which love, revenge and tragedy all come to influence the Learys’ destiny.‘Well-written and thoroughly enjoyable. It’s a love story with a vivid background of those early days of European settlement—and all the drinking, hard work, treachery and jostling for position that was mandatory in those times. You warm to the characters as they make their way in this new land. More of it!’Wendy O’HanlonAustralian Provincial Newspapers

It's Up to You, New York


Tess Daly - 2013
    Living in a shoebox flat and working in a windowless building on an outer London industrial estate were never quite what she'd had in mind. So when Holly is picked from obscurity to take part in Street Scout, a television series on the hunt for fashion's next big model, life finally seems to be taking a turn for the better for the happy-go-lucky twenty-something. Surely this is her big moment?But Holly knows only too well that dreams are just that and when it feels like everything - and everybody - is conspiring against her, Holly heads for New York with her best friend Meg. The magic of Manhattan has Holly in its grasp: strutting down 5th Avenue and drinking two too many cosmopolitans, taking romantic carriage rides in Central Park and standing at the top of the Empire State building she can scarcely believe how far away the real world seems. But when Holly is faced with the biggest decision of her life can she make the fairy tale become a reality?

Kiloton Threat


William G. Boykin - 2011
    Out of the house churches of rural Iran, a Christian masquerading as a Muslim gains the confidence of a high-ranking leader in the Iranian nuclear program and opens his eyes to Christianity. The man’s newfound faith stirs his desire to flee to the West, taking with him intelligence that would allow Coalition forces to neutralize his nation's devastating capabilities. But no one in such a position could ever escape unnoticed. Enter Blake Kershaw, a highly trained U.S. Special Forces officer who has already made extraordinary sacrifices for his country that include faking death and losing his true identity. His mission to infiltrate Iran and extract the high-value defector strains the relationship with the woman he loves— one of the few people on earth who knows his real story. With even more intensity, it shows the price that must sometimes be paid when political correctness fails and a man has to stand up for what is right. Praise for Kiloton Threat: "This fast-paced, ripped-from-the-headlines sequel by a founding member of the elite special operations unit Delta Force is packed with danger at every turn. It is sure to appeal to fans of Don Brown, Joel C. Rosenberg, and other authors of faith-based thrillers."Library Journal"LTG(R) Boykin has extracted his story straight from future headlines as he highlights the very serious threats posed by the Iranian nuclear rogram. This book is more reality than fiction as Blake Kershaw, a courageous young Special Forces officer, enters the dark world of espionage to try and stop the madness of the Iranian fanatics before they bring the world to the brink of a global nuclear conflict. This is a story that could unfold tomorrow."Frank Gaffney, founder and president, Center for Security Policy

The Juniper Gin Joint


Lizzie Lovell - 2018
    Home alone with her eccentric home-brewing father and a Jack Russell, she is just getting her life back on track when her job at the local museum is threatened by her first love and nemesis, Councillor David Barton, who intends to sell the beautiful old building to a pub chain. But help is at hand from her colleagues: Jackie, a former Greenham Common warrior; Tish, a flamboyant historian; and Carol, mega-flirt. Plus newcomer and former campaigner, Tom. Who happens to be a widower. And quite sexy. And also the owner of a Jack Russell. The key to saving the day and putting the town back on the tourist map could lie just within reach—when reaching for a cold gin and tonic, that is. Mother's Ruin to some, gin is the making of Jen when she comes together with her friends and family to save the museum and open an artisan distillery in the basement. With its debauched local history of smuggling, can gin be the town's savior and bring love back into Jen's life?

Making It


Jamie Scallion - 2013
    The RockAteers are born. It must work, and not just for Burt’s sake. Egg has spent his life on the outside looking in, Tea needs to evade a tough future and Clipper wants more than a fast track to football academy. When Egg reveals his song-writing genius, the only way is up… But can they function as a band?Who will win the race to sign them? And who will win the girl?

The Twelve Wishes of Christmas


Ruby Basu - 2021
    Arriving in Pineford, it’s everything she’d ever hoped for and more.But she’s in for another surprise, because Thomas has left her with one last request: if she completes his Christmas wish list of festive activities, her chosen charity will receive a big donation. Or so Sharmila thinks.…He’s there to reclaim his family’s legacyLittle does she know, she’s set to inherit Thomas’s estate too, much to his nephew Zach’s disbelief. Determined not to see his family’s legacy left to a stranger, he’s come to Pineford to do whatever it takes to stop Sharmila from fulfilling that list.When Sharmila and Zach meet, neither are prepared for sparks to fly. For Sharmila’s sworn off love, and Zach doesn’t trust her. But with every passing wish they find themselves growing closer. And amongst the twinkling town lights and fallen snow, Sharmila can feel her heart opening up to Zach. But when she learns he’s been keeping a secret from her, can Sharmila forgive him and get the happy-ever-after she’s always wished for this Christmas?