"Simultaneously compelling, intriguing, and effortlessly entertaining
read. De Soprontu imparts views on themes of poverty, race, identity,
strength, and deliverance, all tightly bound within this intricate
psychological opera." KIRKUS REVIEWS
"VICES/VIRTUES is a beautifully written, strikingly moving, look at
the interacting lives and diverse backgrounds of women in an unconventional
profession" Indie Reader
Cristela had a childhood shrouded in secrets. Ashamed of their circumstances, her mother told lies and encouraged her daughter to do the same. As Cristela grew, she unraveled the lies, but found that deception is a hard habit to break. Now, as an adult, Cristela creates a secret alter ego as the dominatrix Mistress Clara.
By day, Cristela is a good-girl poster child. By night, Mistress Clara masters the hidden erotic realm of an S&M dungeon. With her knack for duplicity things should work smoothly except for one complication – friendship. The quirky array of fellow dominatrices at the dungeon are nothing like the stereotypes she expected. Divided between her affection for the girls at the dungeon and her desire to keep her fetish activities secret, Cristela fears her two worlds are colliding. Can Cristela break her history of deceit? In a world of vices and virtues, salvation isn’t something you find, it’s a path you make.
About the Author. . .
Beatrice De Soprontu began writing at the age of four, when she scribbled on the walls with a crayon. Now an adult, she mostly scribbles on her home computer surrounded by her noisy children and their less noisy father. Born and raised in New York City, (which includes: Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, maybe even Staten Island – a.k.a. the real New York and not the tourist trap that is Manhattan), she enthusiastically travels the world on a budget whenever she gets the chance.
A woman searching for her past. A sheriff hiding in his present. Their future together threatened by murder.
Forty-three years after the airplane crash she survived killed her parents, Lacy Dahl is looking for answers. When her research uncovers secrets about the mother she never knew and disputes the identity of her father, someone is willing to murder to keep her discoveries hidden.
Sheriff Chance Meadowlark is still haunted by the death of his wife and the revenge he unleashed in the name of justice. When he meets Lacy, he is determined not to become involved, but their pasts make that impossible saving Lacy may be his only redemption.
Just as she begins to believe the present is more important than her past, Chance's connection and a murder spin her deeper into danger and further from love. When the truth is revealed, will the revelations free Lacy and Chance…or destroy them?
Writing murder mysteries is all in a day's work until an obsessed fan brings Phoebe’s stories to life.
Mystery writer, Phoebe Anderson, owes her success to killing her first husband on paper seventeen years earlier. Now, someone has actually done it. Taking a few days to re-group on an isolated ranch, she doesn’t expect romance…or murder…to find her.
Mason Meadowlark is happy with his wild cowboy ways, avoiding love since the death of his baby and the end of his marriage twenty years before. When Phoebe shakes up his routine, he fights to control his emotions, fearing the pain of opening his heart again.
With an obsessed fan close on her heels, Phoebe is thrown into her own murder mystery…and the next target on the psychopath’s list is Mason.
Penny’s secrets can ruin the presidential contender who ordered her family’s murder…and mark her as the next hit.
Penny Spark’s desire to reconnect with family this Christmas exposes her true identity—a secret she’s hidden for thirteen years from the political powers that murdered her family.
Jake Winters is out of rehab and coming to grips with his demons. When he meets Penny, he believes this holiday season could be the start of life after rock star status…until her secrets blow up his world.
With a government agent turned hit man closing in on her, Penny and Jake race to expose the presidential contender who targeted her family. Even if they win the race with death, the murder that stands between them could end their hopes for a new life…and love.
A vengeful ex-husband and bloody fight for land threaten a love-struck couple’s happiness.
After an abusive childhood and bad marriage, Laura Katz has finally found a home, stability…and possibly love. But her blissful refuge as nanny on the Meadowlark Ranch, miles from Flagstaff, shatters when her ex is released from prison, determined to reclaim her.
Randy Silva, the Argentine foreman, has plans for his own ranch, but a brutal land grab is underway. As the battle escalates, Laura steals his heart, but there are outsiders who stand in their way. He’s in a vicious battle for his land—and the woman he wants by his side.
Stakes are high, as the attacks on Randy and his ranch draw blood. While the vengeful ex-husband stalks Laura, a mob-backed land developer teams with a desperate gambler. Uncertain where the next attack will come from—will their love be caught in the crossfire.
Inheriting an Austrian Castle is an Alpine fairytale for August, until someone begins targeting the heirs.
August Myer arrives in Austria to meet her great-grandfather and explore his castle estate filled with priceless art, only to find he’s died under suspicious circumstances. As one of his heirs, her life is in danger, turning her Alpine adventure into a nightmare of veiled threats, unexplained accidents, and murder.
Inspector Tobias Wolf splits his time between catching criminals and fighting the spread of neo-Nazism. But when the beautiful, intriguing American crosses his path during a murder investigation, ensuring her safety challenges his priorities…and his heart.
When August learns the handsome inspector is concealing secrets, and the death of her great-grandfather is somehow connected, she takes the investigation into her own hands. Can Wolf save her before the killer strikes again?
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Brenda Whiteside is the award-winning author of romantic suspense, cozy mystery, and romance. After living in six states and two countries—so far—she and her husband have settled in Central Arizona. They admit to being gypsies at heart so won't discount the possibility of another move. They share their home with a rescue dog named Amigo. While FDW fishes, Brenda writes.
Colton searches for the surrogate mom he hasn't seen since the day he was born
Blurb
Colton is on a quest to meet his surrogate mom who might help him navigate being a Black teenager in today’s America. The woman who gave birth to him is Black. His dads are not. His diverse community of family and friends includes lots of LGBTQ+ people, though his first love is a girl of mixed race like him. Colton’s dads reluctantly introduce him to his birth mother, but she doesn’t turn out to be the person he hoped for. On his journey of falling in love, nearly losing one of his dads, and confronting a racist cousin, he learns about love, non-traditional families, community, and what is important in life. The biggest challenge of all is something he discovers about his birth, causing friction with his dads. But like every difficulty in his life, the love of his dads ultimately carries him along and lifts him up.
Excerpt
I can pinpoint the day my life started getting strange, and by strange, I mean grown-up. My parents had just picked me up at the police station. It was the first time I had gotten in trouble with law enforcement and my dads (yes; I have two dads) were upset and, I suppose, embarrassed, and a bunch of other emotions. Let me just say, my dads are the coolest people on earth and probably don’t deserve the hard time I sometimes give them when I do stupid things and say stupid things and they get mad, and I get mad back. I don’t even want to think about all the times we ended up in tears because, you know, life is hard, and I really love them, and they really love me.
Those times the three of us ended up blubbering idiots were the worst but later turned out to be the best when we finished the evening on the couch eating ice cream and watching a movie that we all agreed was terrible and laughed and cuddled under a blanket because evenings are always cold in San Francisco, including in the summer. And, even if they weren’t, I loved the warmth and comfort of being in a family that wasn’t afraid to show affection.
But coming home from the police station was tough. I walked into the house in front of my dads and was headed for my room, my happy place, feeling like everything would be okay if I could get to my room and close the door on all the bad stuff. But before I was halfway down the hall, I heard my dad’s raised voice. “Where are you going?” That’s my dad, Augie, August actually, who I call Dad.
It was pretty obvious, but I said, “To my room.”
And my other dad chimed in. “No, you’re not.” His name is Ruben, but I call him Papi. He was born in Los Angeles, though his parents are from Mexico.
“Why not?”
“Did you think that was the end of it?” said Dad. “You’ve lost your screen time for a week and you will come home directly from school until further notice.”
“I said I was sorry.” I think I actually groaned like I was the most unfortunate teenager in the world, which I knew was a long, long way from the truth.
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. There have to be consequences.” That was Dad with the dreaded c-word, a favorite with parents, teachers, and, I guess, adults in general.
Here’s the deal. My two best friends, Fer and Josh, and I went downtown after school and ended up in the Target store. It’s not something we do a lot because we often have basketball practice or Fer has to go home and take care of his younger sibs because both his parents work or Josh has to do something because whichever one of his divorced parents he’s with on a particular day is on his case. And Dad is now home all the time because he took a leave of absence from his job at the Mission Branch of the public library so he could pursue writing full time. If I’m not home by a certain time, I get the third degree. But the way the stars lined up that day, we didn’t have basketball practice. Fer’s mom stayed home because the clients she cooks for were out of town; it was the part of the week Josh was with his dad and his dad was working late; and my dad went to some writing event in Berkeley and wouldn’t be home until dinnertime. We were free. It was amazing how rarely that happened on a weekday.
About the Author. . .
Vincent Traughber Meis grew up in Decatur, Illinois where he got his start writing plays for his younger sisters to act in for a neighborhood audience. He graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans and worked for many years as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, publishing many academic articles in his field. He published travel articles, poems, and book reviews in publications such as, The Advocate, LA Weekly, In Style, and Our World in the 1980’s and 90’s. He finally arrived at his true writing love: novels and short stories. Five of his seven published novels are set at least partially in foreign countries and his book of short stories focuses on countries around the world. Several of his novels have won Rainbow Awards and The Mayor of Oak Street was awarded a Reader Views Silver Award. He has published short stories in a number of collections and has achieved Finalist status in a few short fiction contests. He lives in San Leandro, California.
2022 Royal Dragonfly Award Winner for Science Fiction/Fantasy
"This is dark fantasy at its best ... "—The Book Commentary
A gripping, award-winning debut for lovers of traditional high fantasy, set in the dying world where humanity is likened to weakness, and the only path to salvation is the same path which might lead to death.
The Blight. The end of Mankind. The Bridge that may be salvation or the final betrayal.
In this grimdark fantasy, Elika, an orphan on Terren's streets, hates and fears the bridge that spans the great chasm to the Deadlands. Like everyone else, she clings to the hope that purging every lingering echo of magic from the world can stop the Blight.
Then she discovers that magic is hiding within her, and through her it seeks to enact the will of its own. Everything Elika knew about her past shatters, as long-buried secrets about her true birth emerge. Accused of being a mage, many doubt her loyalties. Her gang turns against her. The one man she thought she could trust and love, abandons her. Elika must soon decide: Either destroy the magic inside her or cross the bridge to her own uncertain end. But what awaits them in the Deadlands where the enemy of mankind roams wild? Her future or her end?
The Bridge to Magic is a story of a life between two deaths and an impossible choice to make. It is a story of finding hope, love and survival in a world where none seems possible.
Praise for The Bridge to Magic
"A magnificent high fantasy debut...stunning page-turner...original, captivating, and readers may be surprised to find this is the author’s debut novel. The storyline is absolutely mesmerizing, and Thornbury has a knack for telling a dark story. And I do mean dark."
Reader Views⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
"This was a really great introduction into the Sundered Web series. Alex is wonderfully skilled in world building and this book is a prime example of that. Her wonderful descriptions creates beautiful and vivid imagery. It's almost like the reader becomes Elika."
NetGalley Reviewer ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
"This is dark fantasy at its best... The more creative descriptions of the darkness that threatens humanity pull the narrative somewhere between horror and fantasy... A delightful read with a voice that works and prose that is bold and enticing. But it is the immersive world of this creation that will have most readers turning the pages."
The Book Commentary ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
"A sensational work of fantasy fiction that will captivate YA readers and adult fantasy fans alike... An accomplished tale with a fascinating core concept, great character development, and gorgeous, spine-tingling dark fantasy styling. A series not to be missed."
Readers' Favorite ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
"A wonderful fantasy story for teens and adults... The author has a great imagination and whilst this book is a complete story in itself I look forward to the sequel."
Booksprout Reviewer
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
"Shut your windows. Draw your curtains. Lit a candle and let the pages suck you in. This is a gritty chilling, and dark story set in a fascinating world. The plot has many pleasant twists and the characters can surprise with unexpected actions that reveal more about their hearts... Despite all of the desperation the end of the world brings, there is a sense of beauty and coziness. Occasionally even humor. And it all creates an engaging balance."
BookSirens Reviewer ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
"Expertly crafted and highly readable… Mesmerising." The Prairies Book Review
"... thought provoking ... enchanting novel." Sally Altass - Author of the Witch Laws
"The Bridge to Magic is well written and draws you in from the start. Well-paced and filled with good characters... a quality entry into the fantasy genre." Christian Warren Freed – Author of The Lazarus Men
Alex Thornbury grew up in Cheshire UK, and developed a deep love of history and fantasy thanks to the many castles she visited as a child. Though she grew up to be an Alchemist by trade, she never stopped fantasizing about other worlds, dragons and epic battles. She has abandoned her Alchemy and potion making career, and is now a full time author of high fantasy. After all, who does not love to build new worlds and meet its wondrous inhabitants?
Joe Mack and his friends head to Pittsburgh to deal with a surge of disappearances, all people with psychic abilities going missing under highly questionable supernatural circumstances. That’s enough to keep anyone hopping, but Joe can’t ignore the feeling that there’s something even bigger going on behind the scenes.
Joe, West, and Sarah Grace team up with new allies to fight a whole new level of danger—and uncover the secrets behind why people with special abilities are vanishing and who’s taking them. What they learn could change the paranormal balance of power—permanently. It’s their job to keep the worst from happening, whatever it takes.
From the steel mills to the coal mines, Joe Magarac is the man to call for supernatural problems. After all, he does have a little help from Krukis, the god of blacksmiths, but immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Magarac left his old life behind him and now lives as Joe Mack, a literal man of steel and magic.
Spellbound is full of paranormal adventure, murdering mediums, creepy circuses, a theater full of vampires, malicious mesmerists, found family, secret supernatural agencies, dark magic, and loyal friends.
It’s the fourth in the Joe Mack series of Shadow Council Archives from Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin, the duo that brought you Spells, Salt, & Steel. The Shadow Council Archives are urban fantasy novellas set in the universe of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter and featuring folk heroes throughout history.
Haunted hotels, old gods, mobsters, molls, and monsters are abroad in Chicago, and it’s up to Joe Magarac to protect the innocents from them. But how can he protect the city when he might not be able to keep himself alive? The mad ramblings of Alastair Crowley and the tales of horror imagined by HP Lovecraft have nothing on the magic etched into the walls of a secret room below Chicago’s Lexington Hotel.
Deep in the coal and ash tunnels beneath the city, workers are being murdered, their bodies left in shreds, and with Al Capone out of the picture, the criminal underbelly in Prohibition-Era Chicago is teetering on the edge of all-out chaos. Now it falls on Joe Mack, the steelworker-turned-nigh-immortal man of steel, to bring Chicago back from the brink before all is lost for good.
Can Joe Mack, along with his companions West and Sarah, determine what mysterious creature is causing the deaths? But more importantly, will Krikus’s magic be enough to keep Joe alive when the chips are down and they go toe-to-toe with their foe?
Chicagoland is the third book in the Joe Mack Shadow Council Files by award-winning author team Gail Z. & Larry N. Martin, authors of the Spells, Salt, & Steel series and the Wasteland Marshals novellas. The Shadow Council Case Files are historical fantasy novellas set in the world of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter that tell the true stories behind the tall tales surrounding some of the world’s most famous (and infamous) folk heroes.
From the steel mills to the coal mines, Joe Magarac is the man to call for supernatural problems. After all, he does have a little help from Krukis, the god of blacksmiths, but immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially as the anniversary of his “death” looms near. Magarac left his old life behind him and now lives as Joe Mack, a literal man of steel and magic.
Now Joe teams up once again with Jack West and Sarah McAllen to fix a problem, this time leaving Cleveland behind for Reading, Pennsylvania. Witches are being murdered, secret societies are brewing more than illegal bathtub gin, and someone is trying to summon creatures from Lovecraftian lore from deep within the mines. Again.
Black Sun is the second in the Joe Mack series of Shadow Council Archives from Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin, the duo that brought you Spells, Salt, & Steel. The Shadow Council Archives are urban fantasy novellas set in the universe of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter and featuring folk heroes throughout history.
When you ask a god for favors, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
Josef Magarac was a brave man, a strong man, a hard-working immigrant who only wanted a better life for his family.
Instead he got a bloodbath.
From the bloody steel mill strikes of Pennsylvania rose a true man of steel, a steelworker transformed into something more by the power of the Old Gods. Now Joe Mack is in Cleveland, and he’s working to protect those who can’t protect themselves. When a friend asks him to look into disappearances in a largely immigrant neighborhood, Joe takes an interest. When his interest leads him to a vampire stalking the streets of his adopted home, he takes more than an interest. He takes on a mission.
Cauldron is the first in the Joe Mack series of Shadow Council Archives from Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin, the duo that brought you Spells, Salt, & Steel. The Shadow Council Archives are urban fantasy novellas set in the universe of Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter and featuring folk heroes throughout history.
Gail Z. Martindiscovered her passion for science fiction, fantasy and ghost stories in elementary school. The first story she wrote at age five was about a vampire. Her favorite TV show as a preschooler was Dark Shadows. At age 14, she decided to become a writer. She enjoys attending science fiction/fantasy conventions, Renaissance fairs and living history sites.
Larry N. Martin is the author of the new sci-fi adventure novel Salvage Rat. He is the co-author (with Gail Z. Martin) of the Spells, Salt, and Steel/New Templars series; the Steampunk series Iron & Blood; and a collection of short stories and novellas: The Storm & Fury Adventures set in the Iron & Blood universe. He is also the co-author of the upcoming Wasteland Marshals series and the Joe Mack Cauldron/Secret Council series.
The Martins have three children, a Maltese, and a Golden Retriever.
All her life, Winnie passed for White, using it to her advantage, and climbing the social ladder. When her child is born Black, she asks Jolene to raise him. "If you can't ask your sister, who can you ask?"
The Sexy Nerd's Review. . .
When I first started reading this story, I was impressed. I thought this is pretty good for an author that I’ve never heard of, but have you ever seen a person you thought at first glance was so beautiful only to notice the more you stared how unattractive they really are?
If you said, ‘yes,’ then half the battle is won with this review. This story is sort of all over the place and I’m not exactly sure where to begin. Our story takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. I believe the period was during slavery, but near the end of slavery because some of the slaves were free in this book. The years are a bit hazy at best. That’s the first problem. The back stories of Jolene and Winnie and how they came to know each other. When I read the synopsis for this story, I thought the two women were biological sisters, but it turns out they were sold to a school that groomed pretty young slave girls into “fancies.” You were considered a Fancy when you were of lighter skin. The darker skinned slave girls were sold as cooks and maids, although a few did manage to become fancies.
I mention this part because the author felt the need to inundate the reader with what a ‘fancy’ is and the importance of how she can become one. That began to grate on my nerves. To me, once you’ve established the characters’ lives and back stories, there wouldn’t be a need to continually advise the reader of it, correct? Once Winnie graduated from the finishing school, she met and fell in love with what would eventually become her husband, Jonathan. Winnie carried a dark secret and she loved Jonathan so much that she told him the absolute truth that she was a black woman passing for white. She was prepared to walk away because she knew her lover wouldn’t stay with her knowing she was really black, but to her surprise, he married her anyway because he loved her so much.
And let’s talk about that ‘love.’ Winnie is the same woman who loved Jonathan so much that when she got pregnant, she immediately became frightened because even though she was extremely fair skinned, her parents were as dark as night. What if her unborn child is born of darker skin? What will this do to her husband and his standing in the legal community? Her secret would be known throughout the land. So, Winnie, who loved her husband so much and kept no secrets from him ever makes the decision to give her unborn child to her sister, whom she met in finishing school, to raise him as her own since Jolene could not pass, but was still light skinned enough to be a fancy.
Are you following where I’m going with this, Nerds? What annoyed me is if Winnie and Jonathan loved each other so much and kept nothing from each other and she braved the news that she was black to him, why would it never occur to her husband that their child could come out brown or dark skinned? And, more importantly, if he loved her as much as he said it throughout the story, would he have cared what his son’s color was? Jonathan was so ignorant to this fact and believed the lies his wife told him when he traveled to see the Governor on business to run for mayor, Winnie gave birth and gave her son to Jolene to raise. Oh, but wait a minute. Jolene was only to raise Winnie’s son for a short period of time. She was going to eventually bring him back to the big house to live with her and her husband. Hmm, what lies would Winnie concoct to explain this to Jonathan?
So, readers, this is where my problems with this story really began to frustrate me. This story started out so good and had such promise. I could see a hundred different scenarios play out through my mind’s eye, but none of what I read ever came to fruition. The author took us down a completely different rabbit hole. But the absolute worst part of this story for me was the ending. The ending angered me to no end. Thank God this Kindle version was only 267 pages because if I would have vested any more time in this book, I think I would not have finished it. To think, I originally gave this book four stars, but I chopped off a star when I got to the very end. OMG! Yeah, I wanted to slit my wrists.
I am not a fan of this story. Amazon advised there were other books in this series from this author. Eh, I think I’m good. Umm, not going to go any further with this story. I might have considered that, had the ending not been so devastatingly gruesome. My, my, my!
The Sexy Nerd gives Sisters three additional friends to pal around with. As I mentioned, I’m not a fan of this story. It started off strong and gave lots of promise, but the more I read, the more questions I had and the more problems I had with the continuity and time period and things that just weren’t explained and left me hanging. Ugg, it was all over the place. This was not the way I wanted to end my Black History Month reading, but at least most of it was awesome reads. Until next time, Nerds, you know what to do.
Kodiak must protect Tamaska against vampires who want her dead.
The leader of the vampires wants to capture Tamaska. She needs someone to protector her against a world she has no idea about. That someone is Kodiak, but she doesn’t trust him.
If Kodiak fails at protecting Tamaska and the vampires kill her, they will cause death and destruction on earth. His alpha disagrees, and forbids him from protecting Tamaska. The pack must be committed to each other against the vampires and not be distracted by a human.
There's a bond forming between Kodiak and Tamaska and he is compelled to protect her.
Who will he choose, his pack or Tamaska? Or will Tamaska break his heart and risk everything he is trying to protect?
Fans of Twilight, Shadow Hunters, and The Winx Saga will devour Lilliana Rose’s world of unexpected adventure and dark imagination.
Scroll up and click to begin the journey in this opposites attract series set in a dark, urban fantasy world.
Lilliana Rose is an Amazon Bestselling author, who writes romance in the subgenres of contemporary and paranormal romance. She enjoys helping characters overcome problems or issues, and the misunderstandings that often plague relationships, to help them fall in love. Whether it’s city heels being replaced with country work boots, or some magic beyond this world, each story shows how love can prevail. She has poetry, middle grade, picture book, novellas, and novels published under various pen names.
