Spirits & Sleuths (The Harper Quinn Book 1) (affiliate link)
A haunted mansion, a missing sister, and spectral clues push Harper to uncover her family’s dark past.
When Harper Quinn returns to the charming but eerie town of Willow Haven to clean out her grandmother’s mansion, she expects to face memories and ghosts from her past.
But what she doesn’t anticipate is her sister Ely’s sudden disappearance on the first night they arrive.
With the local police dismissing her concerns and her only lead pointing to the enigmatic and possibly dangerous Vince, Harper’s search for Ely becomes desperate.
The mansion holds secrets Harper must unravel. As she digs deeper, she encounters long-buried family mysteries and an otherworldly presence that seems intertwined with her fate.
End Times I: Rise of the Undead (affiliate link)
New Year’s Day: midsummer in Australia. In Perth, twin brothers Aaron and Matt have graduated high school and are enjoying their last few months of summer holidays before adulthood – while on the other side of the country, something has fallen from the sky, heralding the dawn of a new age.
As a terrifying plague spreads across Australia and the world, Aaron and Matt find themselves scrambling to survive, fleeing the city, refugees in their own country. Tormented by strange dreams and beset by violence, they must struggle to find the remnants of their family and survive the Rise of the Undead.
Loser: A Dark College Bully Romance (Hillcrest University Book 1) (affiliate link)
The legacy of Hillcrest University starts out just like any other. A girl, some boys, a bit of mystery…a noose. Actually, it all begins with the noose. A noose, a note, and a corpse. And a pretty one at that…
I thought coming to HU would help me move on from my past, help me get a good start on my future. A school for rich boys? Please. I’ve dealt with worse than them before. If they want to use me for whatever games they’re playing, they’ll have to try a lot harder than they’re used to. They think I’ll willingly walk into their feud, choose sides.
Declan is the tortured soul, the cute, depressed roommate who I’m supposed to watch over. Sawyer is the king of the school; everyone follows his command—and his money. Travis is…my kind of trouble: sexy, tattooed, a bit mysterious. Sawyer blames Declan for his sister’s death, but me? I know sometimes the ones pointing their fingers are the worst of all.
No Time Like the Past (Star Trek: The Original Series) (affiliate link)
An original novel set in the universe of Star Trek: The Original Series that reveals long-held secrets about Captain Kirk’s past for the first time!
STARDATE 6122.5. A diplomatic mission to the planet Yusub erupts in violence when ruthless Orion raiders attempt to disrupt the crucial negotiations by force. Caught in the midst of a tense and dangerous situation, Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise finds an unexpected ally in the form of an enigmatic stranger who calls herself “Annika Seven.”
STARDATE 53786.1. Seven of Nine is taking part in an archaeological expedition on an obscure planetoid in the Delta Quadrant when a disastrous turn of events puts Voyager’s away team in jeopardy—and transports Seven across time and space to Yusub, where she comes face-to-face with one of Starfleet’s greatest legends.
STARDATE 6122.5. Kirk knows better than most the danger that even a single castaway from the future can pose to the time line, so he and Seven embark on a hazardous quest to return her to her own era. But there are others who crave the knowledge Seven possesses, and they will stop at nothing to obtain it—even if this means seizing control of the Enterprise!
An Abbreviated Life: A Memoir (affiliate link)
Ariel Leve grew up in Manhattan with an eccentric mother she describes as “a poet, an artist, a self-appointed troublemaker and attention seeker.” Leve learned to become her own parent, taking care of herself and her mother’s needs. There would be uncontrolled, impulsive rages followed by denial, disavowed responsibility, and then extreme outpourings of affection. How does a child learn to feel safe in this topsy-turvy world of conditional love?
Leve captures the chaos and lasting impact, and explores how the coping mechanisms she developed to survive later incapacitated her as an adult. There were material comforts, but no emotional safety, except for summer visits to her father’s home in Southeast Asia—an escape that was terminated after he attempted to gain custody. Following the death of a loving caretaker, a succession of replacements raised Leve—relationships that resulted in intense attachment and loss. It wasn’t until decades later, when Leve moved to other side of the world, that she could begin to emancipate herself from the past. In a relationship with a man who has children, caring for them yields a clarity about what was missing.
The Violinist’s Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code (affiliate link)
In The Disappearing Spoon, bestselling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table. In The Violinist’s Thumb, he explores the wonders of the magical building block of life: DNA.
There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, and why some people survive nuclear bombs. Genes illuminate everything from JFK’s bronze skin (it wasn’t a tan) to Einstein’s genius. They prove that Neanderthals and humans bred thousands of years more recently than any of us would feel comfortable thinking. They can even allow some people, because of the exceptional flexibility of their thumbs and fingers, to become truly singular violinists.
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