TheRaged
by Jacqueline Druga
The good of the many versus the good of the few.
John Fichner is past his prime. He has one more chance to achieve his dream of playing in the major leagues, so he leaves his farm for open tryouts in Pittsburgh. But his dreams are trampled when the city is hit with a biological attack. The weapon causes a viral outbreak that spreads out of control and turns its victims into mindless, raging killers.
Pittsburgh is quickly shut down. Now, John must find his way through a sea of death and get out before it's too late.
This was based around my old stomping ground in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. It was easy to imagine the places the author was describing. The plot was strong with an easy-to-read style writing. The characters were well thought out and everyday kind of people that were put in impossible situations. This story is before, during and after the apocalypse. I am starting a new genre, and this fits perfectly. A cozy zombie apocalypse story which means it’s quick, easy to read, plot driven comfy reading.
Horror
Science Fiction
Pre-Apocalypse
Apocalypse
Post-Apocalypse
Dystopian
Humor
Young Adult
Abigail
by Daemon Manx
So this is what love feels like…
Strange things come in small packages. Adrian Billard believes he knows what it's like to be different, and has nearly given up hope of ever finding happiness. But, a strange package left on his doorstep is about to turn his entire world upside down. Everything Adrian thinks he knows is about to change. He is about to meet...Abigail.
It was the most remarkable and unforgettable story I have ever read. A quick short fast read. It is easy and straightforward. Well imagined and descriptive. New and fresh with a twist.
A gay man has a life changing experience with a 1 in a billion baby. Throughout his life he has felt like “less than” or “othered” until he meets Abigail. She is one of God’s most special creation and Adrian Billard falls in love with her.
Demon genealogy
Succubus
Nephilim
Paranormal
Mystery
Horror
Science Fiction
Fantasy
LGBTQ+
Dead Road: A Zombie Series
(Dead Soil Book 2)
by Alex Apostol
The group of wanderers in the wilderness of Northwest Indiana and the group of survivors at the Dune Ridge apartment complex have come together in this thrilling tale of zombie apocalypse survival. With the scientist, Liam, gone only his journal is left to give hope for a cure to the zombie plague. Christine, Zack, and the others band together to deliver the journal to the disease research center in the heart of downtown Chicago, but it is not an easy road ahead of them.
Ok. I’m calling it. Cozy zombie apocalypse story. Once again the same people left over from the first book that are on a mission. I just can’t get enough of Alex Apostol’s writing.
The next book in her series Dead World will be out in October 2021. I so can’t wait.
Apocalyptic
Dystopian
Horror
Zombie
Dead Soil
A Zombie Series
by Alex Apostol
What happens when civilization falls and the dead rise?
The devastating outbreak of a new strand of fatal flu has the world concerned. As every lab in the country tries to come up with a vaccine to stop humanity from being wiped out, another threat rises---the dead. While some ignore the warning signs and fall victim to the wandering hordes of zombies, others band together in small groups in a desperate attempt to survive. Many struggle to understand, as they watch their friends and family die, whether this is a challenge to overcome or a new, permanent reality. Christine and Liam are building a life together in a small town in northwest Indiana. They live in a nice apartment, both have promising careers in respectable fields, and are about to take the plunge into matrimony. When the zombie plague devastates the couple by taking what small amount of people they love in the world, they have to make the choice to step up or hide behind closed doors. It's a good thing Liam has been practicing with a bow and arrow since he was five years old. Zack Kran is the couple's next-door neighbor and Liam's best friend. He owns a comic book and gaming store in the heart of Chesterton, Indiana---a small town on Lake Michigan. It was his dream to share his love of comic art and epic fantasy battles with the world. But as debt weighs on his shoulders with no one coming into the shop, he struggles with the decision to sell or not. The only ray of light to shine through the hovering gloom is a young woman named Anita, who comes in the stores simply to flirt. When the zombies overrun the town, Zack vows to find this woman he barely knows and spend the rest of his short life making sure she survives. Will the hours he spent maneuvering collective swords in front of the mirror be enough to get to her? Carolyn Bock is a HR representative at the local steel mill. Eternally on the quest for a suitable husband, she is blindsided when she finds her neighbor eating someone. She seeks shelter with Luke Benson, the librarian across the hall whom she always had he eyes on, only to be betrayed and locked inside her apartment under suspicion of being bitten. When the only person who knows she's in there flees the building, she has no choice but to find her own way out before the dead find a way in. Gale, Gretchen, Lonnie, Rowan, and Mitchell are a group of misfits wandering the expansive wooded area of the Dune's State Park to hide from the growing hordes of zombies. Lonnie Lands was appointed group leader from his acts of heroism that saved the other members. But as his head swells with power, will he become the new threat to their survival? The "Dead Soil" trilogy is not only about the horror of living in a world overrun with rotting, but shambling corpses also out to eat everything with a pulse. It's about the changes that many need to make in order to survive a world that's out to get them.
I liked how it was so comfortable to read. I’m not saying the story is boring. Not in the least. It’s a cozy zombie apocalypse story. The characters are your everyday people. It was well written and an easy fast read. It is a story about before, during and after the apocalypse. It was fun and entertaining. Now onto the next book in this series. Stay tuned.
Mungwort
by James Noll
Everything’s fresh on Lilith’s Farm. Especially the bodies.
Welcome to Spotsylvania, Virginia, a perfect place to raise a family. Unless you’re Cece Stone. Cece ran away from Spotsy a long time ago, choosing the life of the road dog overstaying anywhere close to home. Tough and independent, she makes her living all over the country, picking strawberries in Salinas, pipefitting in Prudhoe, hauling lumber in Longview. But a mysterious postcard from home brings her back to Spotsy, specifically to Lilith's Farm. The work is hard, and her bosses are jerks, but at least the food is good.
Then strange things start to happen. The fence that borders the farm seems like it's under attack from the forest. Toxic fungus balls keep popping up on the tree trunks. And one by one, her fellow workers go missing.
Anybody else would try to escape, but escape isn't possible. Besides, Cece's on a mission to find her missing father, and nothing, not the forest, not the fungus balls, and certainly not her creepy bosses, will stop her.
An interesting story. Descriptive and entertaining. Easy to read and kind of gross visions of farm life.
Horror
Suspense
Thriller
Seeder Shadow Wars (Seeder Wars)
by J. Houser
Dating and High School: Hard Enough. Now Add Assassins.
Avoiding assassination wasn’t on Mel’s to-do list for her junior year. Learning she wasn’t human hadn’t made the list, either.
An only child with overprotective parents, Melody Walters just wants a drama-free year—and to be able to date. She gains the interest of more than one suitor but doesn’t realize any one of them could be an enemy on the hunt. For her, the dating scene could prove deadly.
Mel discovers she’s a member of a botanical race, forced to hide their daughters in the human world until they mature enough for their powers to bloom. Something goes wrong with her blooming process, breaking her cover and jeopardizing the lives of her protectors and the large family she’d never known about.
With the enemy threat ever-looming, in a rush to master her new powers before she’s stranded in the human world forever, Mel struggles to decide who she can trust and if the sacrifice being asked of her is too great.
Modern take with Fantastic and vivid world building. The plot is strong, creative, understandable, and entertaining. It is an easy read and centered around the lives of typical teenagers or is it? The characters are complex but relatable so much, so you become involved in their decisions and root for them. They are young adults making adult decisions. There is a coming-of-age theme, but it is not what you would expect.
Teen
Young Adult
Paranormal
Romance
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Coming of Age
Realm of Lost Souls:
Chronicles of The Supernatural
Book Two
by JM Hart
She helped save the world. But to keep her father alive, she’ll have to bring down a demon all on her own…
Jade is bone-tired from battling a shape-shifting plague. While the 16-year-old knows she was chosen to protect the world, she wonders if she’s the weakest of all her heroic friends. But when she receives nightmarish visions of her demon-possessed father, she is convinced that only she can save his soul.
Enlisting the help of her portal-master friend Kevin, she’s terrified to discover her dark hallucinations are all too real. Now her only hope of banishing the life-draining demon is to unlock her native ancestors’ secrets and enter the treacherous Realm of Lost Souls. If she cannot conjure the full force of her abilities in time, she’ll lose her life, her father and unleash a new host of horrors upon the world.
Can Jade trust her spirit to outwit a demon before she loses everything she loves?
Realm of Lost Souls is the second book in the Chronicles of the Supernatural fantasy series, a paranormal post-apocalyptic adventure. If you like steadfast heroines, dystopian settings, and a dash of blood-curdling horror, then you’ll love JM Hart’s riveting tale.
This is the second book in this series. The first book The Emerald Tablet: Chronicles of The Supernatural Book One is well explained so that you are up to speed. The story building is beautifully detailed. The plot is frightening and surreal. The characters are young adults but with special powers and are easily relatable. Everything clicks into place between the world, story, and characters. It’s the age old good versus evil with demons thrown into the mix.
Action
Adventure
Science Fiction
Paranormal
Fantasy
Post-Apocalyptic
Dystopian
Horror
Static
by Jacqueline Druga
On Kindle Vella Today
For dust you are and to dust you will return....
On Memorial Day afternoon, the skies above Carthage, Missouri brighten as if the sun explodes. It lasts a few seconds. Everyone believes it to be a fluke. But it doesn't just happen in Carthage, it happens all over. While delayed, the aftereffects of the event are brutal to all those who were exposed to the flash. Those not exposed like Alana Cross are helpless to do anything. There is nothing that can be done but watch as humanity crumbles and extinction looms on the horizon.
What a freakishly chilling take on an apocalyptic event and post-apocalyptic survival story. Jacqueline Druga has no bounds to where her imagination will take us. I was immediately scared thinking of the “what ifs.” Easy to read page turner that is thought provoking in so far as what would you do? I love the everyday characters put in extraordinary circumstances with a choice to decide. There is always a choice. What would you choose? I found myself wondering which character I would be. Which choices I would make.
No Shift, Sherlock: A Vampire Hunter Urban Fantasy Mystery (The Legend of Nyx)
by Theophilus Monroe
As if bloodsuckers weren't frightening enough...
whatever killed these people consumed their souls...
Leaving their bodies completely unscathed.
The victims had only one thing in common.
They were all attacked at my club.
But when you mess with my fans, Nicky's fans... well, you'll unleash Nyx and soon regret it.
The Grimoire of the Nazarene is still missing.
If the Order of the Morning Dawn finds it first, Mina will unleash a legion of angels to wipe out everything she deems unnatural: vampires, witches, me... and good people like me, people in my community.
Is there a connection between these killings and the missing grimoire?
I have reason to believe it's all connected.
With everybody that turns up at my club I suspect that Mina gets a little closer to acquiring the Grimoire of the Nazarene and ending us all.
Nyx is a badass, trans woman. And every vampire, and supernatural killer’s, worst nightmare. She refuses to allow bias and prejudice to define her and would rather not focus on any negative energy sent her way. Life for Nicky is uncomplicated, until it suddenly isn't. She has her famous club; she has the devotion of Devin and she's even taken a young witch under her wing. So far as Nicky's concerned, life is great. Then suddenly a death occurs, then another and Nicky, Devin and Malinda are forced into action. More death and a heart is broken, but Nicky must now solve the mystery of the deaths AND stop evil from killing more.
I really loved the complex characters and their actions. It was a neat easy to read story with so much action and adventure that I had a tough time putting it down to do other stuff. The author has a real feel for making you understand, like and love the characters. I invested so many emotions into this story that I feel like we’re family. I highly recommend you read all the books.
Wild Refuge: A Yellowstone Shifters Novel
by K. Panikian
Sienna has come to terms with who she is or what she is a puma shapeshifter.
Due to a treaty between the territory alphas, the national parks and national forests were off-limits to the packs. No alpha could enter them, and no shifters could patrol them. After learning to control her puma shifting abilities, Sienna, a Yellowstone Park Ranger, finds peace for the first time in her life.
Except there is a murder of an exiled elk shifter, Daniel found by Soren, a West Yellowstone pack beta. Here to help her investigate the murder is
Nick Ryan a law enforcement ranger in Yellowstone and her sort-of on again off again boyfriend. Also helping is her friend, Jordan who is also a backcountry ranger like her, and a lynx shifter. Not to make things any easier is her old boyfriend Logan Black wanting back in the picture after leaving her long ago over his fear of her beast. Add in an old enemy and tormentor named Blair sticking in her nose where it doesn’t belong, and you got a messy murder. Oh, Did I mention the sexy alpha, August that leaves her wild beast wanting.
She knows that if an alpha saw her Beast form, a powerful hybrid of human and puma, with enormous claws and teeth and unparalleled strength, she would be forced into the life of some kind of super soldier or executed for being too monstrous. So, who does she trust?
Now someone from her past is back under suspicious circumstances, and the competing packs that surround her home are threatening open war.
When the fires start, Sienna knows that she must intervene, even if it risks exposure of her rare power. If she doesn’t figure out the hidden connections, she may lose everything. But is the truth worth her freedom?
The backdrop is Yellowstone National Park with different kinds of shapeshifters. The characters are unique with miles of personality. There’s mystery and shifters and sexual tension and shifters and action and shifters. Get my drift. It was an easy read that was entertaining with drama, suspense, and action. I am looking forward to the next book in this series. And I hope the author writes this series for a long time to come. You got my vote.
