Wander in the Dark by Jumata Emill

 

“Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers. Chloe is rich, and hot, and fits right into the perfect life Marcel inherited when their father left Amir’s mother to start a new family with Marcel’s mom. But Chloe is hot enough for Amir to forget that for one night.

Does she want to hook up? Or is she trying to meddle in the estranged brothers’ messy family drama? Amir can’t tell. He doesn’t know what Chloe wants from him when, in the final hours of Mardi Gras, she asks him to take her home and stay—her parents are away and she doesn’t want to be alone.

Amir never gets an answer to his question, because when he wakes up, Chloe is dead—stabbed while he was passed out on the couch downstairs—and Amir becomes the only suspect. A Black teenager caught fleeing the scene of the murder of a rich white girl? All of New Orleans agrees, the case is open and shut.

Amir is innocent. He has a lawyer, but unless someone can figure out who really killed Chloe, it doesn’t look good for him. His number one ally? Marcel. Their relationship is messy, but his half brother knows that Amir isn’t a murderer—and maybe proving Amir’s innocence will repair the rift that’s always existed between them.

To find Chloe’s killer, Amir and Marcel need to dig into her secrets. And what they find is darker than either could have guessed. Parents will go to any lengths to protect their children, and in a city as old as New Orleans, the right family connections can bury even the ugliest truths.” - taken from Goodreads.

Who killed Chloe Danvers? I love a good, suspenseful mystery and this book succeeds on all levels. Amir, the oldest son of Martin Trudeau, is resentful of his younger half brother Marcel. Their father left Amir’s mother for Marcel’s mother and became a famous restaurateur. Marcel throws an extravagant sixteenth birthday party that Amir has no desire to attend, that is until he receives a text from Chloe Danvers, a hot girl from their school. At the party, Amir leaves with Chloe when she asks him and stays the night at her house since she is afraid to be alone. Amir agrees. Falling asleep on her couch, he wakes up to go home before his mother comes home from work. Unfortunately Amir finds that someone has killed Chloe. Fleeing her house, Amir’s life is turned upside down when he is charged with murder. Feeling hopeless, Amir finds that the brother he doesn’t want to be around is the one person determined to prove his innocence. Can Amir and Marcel repair their relationship in order to find the real killer? 

Visit Jumata Emill’s website.

The Wicked Within by Kelly Keaton (Gods and Monsters book 3)

"No one is safe for her fury."

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read the first two books in the series, A Beautiful Evil and Darkness, Stop! I don't want to ruin the series for you.

Two weeks have passed since Ari stabbed the goddess Athena during their battle in the ruins. With just three and a half years until her twenty-first birthday, Ari is desperate to stop the centuries old curse on her family and becoming a gorgon forever. For the first time in her life, she no longer feels lost and alone. Ari has found a home and family in New 2.

With Henri and Violet, they travel to the swamp to visit the River Witch. He tells Ari that she must locate the Hands of Zeus or everything she holds dear; her family, friends and New 2 will be destroyed by the wrath of Athena. The destruction of New Orleans by her hand fifteen years earlier will be child's play compared to what she will unleash. The Hands of Zeus are actually Athena's child, frozen in stone. It will be their only chance at survival. Athena wants Ari to resurrect her child but she also knows that Athena would not spare her life. If Ari finds the Hands and brings them to him, the River Witch will lift Ari's curse. It is known that Josephine Arnaud, a Novem council member, head of the Arnaud family of vampires and Sebastian's grandmother, has knowledge of the whereabouts of the Hands. It seems that Josephine has something against Athena. The River Witch knows too much about the situation for Ari to trust him, but he did teach Violet some things when she was younger. Before they leave, the River Witch tells Violet that her day is coming and to face fear head on. Ari is frightened by his words.

Sebastian has changed as well since Athena turned him to stone and Ari resurrected him. Now that he has drunk blood and turned towards his vampire side, he has withdrawn from Ari and the rest of the kids at the GD house. Now he will always need blood to live. Part vampire and part witch, his powers have manifested since he was brought back to life. Not wanting Ari and his friends to see how the blood lust has changed him, he has lied to and kept things from them. Sebastian is determined to help Ari and find the Hands of Zeus, especially when Athena offers the Novem a deal. Knowing where the Hands are, it is not long before they are found to be missing. The race is on to find the Hands before someone else's agenda can be fulfilled.

Can Ari find the Hands of Zeus before Athena or someone else? Are the Hands really Athena's child frozen in stone? Why did Josephine hide the Hands and what does she have against Athena? How is the River Witch connected to Athena and the curse? Will Ari know her destiny when the time comes? What is Violet's part in the ultimate showdown? Will Ari be able to break free from Athena's curse? Can Sebastian accept what he has now become? Can Ari and Sebastian live happily ever after?

Visit Kelly Keaton’s website.

 

Infinityglass by Myra McEntire (Hourglass book 3)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first two books in the hourglass trilogy, Hourglass and Timepiece, Stop! I don’t want to ruin one of my favorite series for you.

“The dead have come back to life. Time has been rewritten. The space time continuum has been damaged. Anyone with the basic time gene could see ripples; imprints of people from the past, which had turned into entire scenes, streets full of people, even buildings. These rips were getting worse.”

The Hourglass will need to locate the legendary Infinityglass if it has any chance of fixing the space time continuum. Jack Landers is still on the loose and now Teague, the supposed head of Chronos, is looking for it as well but for her own purposes. When Lily, who has the ability to locate things, senses the Infinityglass, the member of the Hourglass are stunned. Always believed to be an object, it turns out that it is actually a person, seventeen year old Hallie Girard of New Orleans. She is the daughter of Paul Girard, a dealer of special artifacts on the black market. He uses time travelers to retrieve objects. Hallie would describe her father as a “magical mafia boss”, but never to his face. Girard Industries has many businesses under their umbrella, including Chronos. Paul is the true head of Chronos and Teague is his estranged wife. She has pretty much abandoned her family.

Liam Ballard has sent Dune Ta’ala to New Orleans to further his research on the Infinityglass. Meeting with Paul Girard, he will pose as Hallie’s bodyguard in order to stay close to her. Dune is not happy to find out that he will be staying with Poe Sharpe. Liam reassures him that Poe believed that he was working for Chronos when in actuality Teague was lying to him. Jack Landers also manipulated Poe’s memories. When he realizes the truth, Jack stabbed him. Dune needs to remember that a gravely injured Poe rescued Michael and Emerson from the rip. Liam tells Dune that Poe can be trusted. Dune asks Poe to tell him what Hallie is like. A genius he says who takes college courses on line and dances seriously. Hallie is like her father, you are better if to stay on her good side. Poe warns him to be prepared; Hallie has a sexy way about her and uses it to get what she wants. Poe asks him not to tell Hallie is in back in town. Dune asks if the two of them are together, No, just friends now but the less Hallie knows the better. Teague has lied about everything.

Hallie is not happy to learn that Dune is her new bodyguard, especially since he will have unprecedented access to her. Pulling one of her old stunts, she climbs out of her window and goes to an old bar in the French Quarter. Sipping her drink, she is surprised when Dune comes to retrieve her. The attraction between the two of them is mutual and Hallie attempts to use it to her advantage. She is tired of her father keeping her in an ivory tower and just wants to get out and have a little fun. Dune is worried about keeping his job after her father finds out she left home. Trying to get her out the door, he makes comment about how she could slip past him by changing her appearance. She demands to know what her father has told him. Only that she has “an uncanny knack for appearances.” Suddenly, Hallie morphs her facial features back to their original form. Dune doesn’t react and Hallie is furious. She wants to know exactly who he is. Just then, multiple time rips appear in the bar and Hallie realizes that Dune can see them. They step out of the bar and into the courtyard to escape the noise and talk.

Once outside, Hallie is cold. Dune takes off his jacket and wraps it around her shoulders to keep her warm. She notices that he isn’t carrying a weapon and his flimsy excuses aren’t working on her. Scrambling for answers and a way to get her back home, he confesses to knowing about her transmutation ability. She pushes him for more answers and he reluctantly reveals that he also has time related abilities. She asks if he works for Chronos. No he says and then she remembers hearing her father talking about the Hourglass. He tells her that he is the only person capable of helping her and that he was hired by her father. Being her bodyguard is just his cover. He is like a historian and the Infinityglass is his area of expertise. Dune admits that she is in fact the Infinityglass and he is there to help her. Not knowing enough about her abilities, she doesn’t immediately accept his offer of help. She turns to leave and accidentally walks into a rip. Once inside, her body merges with a man inside. His memories become a part of her. All Dune can do is stand back and watch. Finally, she pushes herself out and the rip closes. Dune catches her before she can fall when she reemerges. Hallie is ready to accept Dune’s help and learn what being the Infinityglass is about.

What powers does the Infinityglass possess and what is their purpose? Will Hallie and Dune be able to figure them out? Do the two of them act on their mutual attraction? How did Hallie become the Infinityglass? What secrets is Teague keeping? How will Teague attempt to use her daughter? Can Dune keep Hallie safe? Will she be able to mend the space time continuum to right the wrongs of Jack Landers?

Even though each book of the Hourglass series is told from two alternating POVs that change with each installment, fans will be glad to know that all six main characters are reunited in this book.

Visit Myra McEntire’s website.

Visit Murphy’s Law, the Official Hourglass Series Website.

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

Josie Moraine wants nothing more than to leave her past behind. Her mother works as a prostitute at Willie Woodley’s establishment on Conti Street in the French Quarter. Josie has been left to fend for herself because her mother didn’t want to be tied down by a child. Now she resents her for being a younger version of herself. Her dreams of college have been put aside as she works between cleaning Willie’s house of a morning and at Marlowe’s bookshop. Years ago, Mr. Marlowe made Josie a small apartment above the store for her to live in after he found her sleeping under his desk one morning. Now crippled by dementia, she helps care for him along side of his son, Patrick. She and Patrick keep some distance between them.

Josie’s mother met Cincinnati, a mobster, o the job. He had a thing for her and she fell head over heels for him. He showered her with gifts and said she reminded him of Hollywood starlet, Jane Russell. Josie and Willie despise Cincinnati. On his last visit to New Orleans, he beat up Josie’s mother and put her in the hospital. Willie ended up kicking in the door and Josie shot him in the leg. Josie so was galled that he had the nerve to show up at the hospital, she threw hot coffee on him. He left but not before promising to return. “Just you wait. I’m going to get you, Josie Moraine.”

Not wanting to be from two worthless parents, Josie keeps a list of names of men she meets that she wished would be her father. When a gentleman comes into the bookshop on New Years’ Eve to buy a gift for his wife, Josie is taken aback by him. She knows that he is a southerner but not from New Orleans. No, Memphis he says. A former Vanderbilt football player, he is in town for the Sugar Bowl. He picks out a book of Keats’ poetry for his wife and a copy if David Copperfield. He quotes Copperfield and makes a comment about his background being similar. Making conversation, he asks both of them if they go to Tulane. Patrick says he just graduated from Loyola but Josie remains quiet. Patrick tells him that the colleges are fighting over her. She is grateful. Carrying a wad of cash, Josie isn’t able to make change for him so he writes a check. She asks what he does and responds that he is an architect and developer. From his check, she later adds his name, Forrest L. Hearne, Jr. and other details to her list.

Josie and Willie are not happy to hear that Cincinnati is back in town. Her mother has once again fallen under his spell. Josie tries to stay under his radar, but isn’t successful when he threatens her in the bookshop. On New Year’s Day 1950, several things occur. Josie learns that a rich tourist died in a club down in the Quarter. She is saddened to learn that it was Forrest Hearne and sends Willie’s driver, Cokie, to find out what happened. She later learns that it was a heart attack. Josie then goes to clean up the mess at Willie’s. She goes to her mother’s room only to find it empty. Cleaning up, Josie finds a bullet. She takes it to Willie and tells her that her mother is gone. Willie places the bullet into the cylinder of her own 38 and lets her know that her mother has probably disappeared with Cincinnati.

Josie’s dream of leaving town and going to college is sparked even more when Charlotte Gates, a Smith College student in town visiting relatives, comes into the bookshop. After talking with Josie and Patrick for a while, she invites them to a party. She gives them the address and leaves. Josie is contemplating not going until Patrick tells her she can finally go to as party uptown that she is always reading about in the paper.

Josie meets with her mother at a diner. She is in a nice dress and covered with jewels that Josie knows are stolen. She has a dinner date with Cincinnati at her favorite restaurant that evening. Her mother is just letting her know that she is going to California with Cincinnati to become a star. She makes Josie promise not to tell Willie until after they have left the next morning. She doesn’t say a word when Willie asks her about their meeting later. At the party, Charlotte is welcoming but it isn’t long before her relatives are looking down at her. She and Patrick leave as a drunken woman begins sobbing about her cheating husband. Then she starts in about the heart attack story they told poor Mrs. Hearne. Josie is intrigued.

The next morning, Josie picks up a newspaper to take to Willie’s. The headline is about Hearne dying from a heart attack. The atmosphere at Willie’s is charged when she arrives. Willie is on a rampage. She has an appointment with her attorney that morning but she is more upset that Josie didn’t tell her that her mother was leaving. Willie screams that she isn’t taking her down and let Cincinnati fill her full of holes. She finishes tearing into Josie and leaves. One of Willie’s girls wants Josie to clean out her mother’s room so that she can move in. Josie realizes that she just wants to get out of New Orleans and go to Smith College.

While cleaning her mother’s room, Dora, another one of Willie’s girls, comes to talk with Josie. She lets her know that she cannot control her mother’s life. These are the decisions she has made. Josie needs to move on because everyone, especially Willie, knows that Josie is better. Josie confides her dreams of college but Dora isn’t very supportive. Dora leaves and Josie finishes cleaning under the bed. Her broom catches on a sock. It’s heavy and Josie shakes out whatever is inside. A gold watch falls out that is startling familiar. The back is engraved F.L. Hearne.

Can Josie get out of New Orleans and pursue her dreams of attending Smith College? Will Josie be able to avoid Cincinnati? What happens when her mother returns to town? How will Willie, her girls and the Marlowes impact her life? Was Forrest Hearne murdered and if so who did it? What part does his watch play in the investigation? What happens when the police question Josie? Will Josie be able to make something of her life?

Visit Ruta Sepetys’ website.
Visit the Out of the Easy website.

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

"First came the storms.
Then came the fever.
And the wall."

Before

A series of six progressively worse hurricanes struck New Orleans over five years. The causalities quickly mounted while the number of survivors soon fell to an estimated 10,000. A devastated society began to crumble when the quarantine was declared by FEMA and the CDEC to stop the spread of Delta Fever. Just five years later, the United States government withdraws from the affected regions of the Gulf States to protect the rights of the majority of its citizenry.

After – 31 years later

Now a primitive society isolated from the United States by a wall, Orleans is divided by blood, type that is. Sixteen-year-old Fen de la Guerre is living with an O positive tribe led by its chieftain, Lydia Moray. Lydia is eight months pregnant and the tribe is hosting a powwow with the O negatives at their camp in an attempt at unity. After the feast, Fen decides to check the camp’s defenses. Soon she runs into trouble and the camp is under attack by a group of Abs. fen finds Lydia but she is unable to help. She has gone into labor and Fen struggles to get them to safety. Away from the attackers, Lydia soon gives birth to a baby girl but quickly bleeds out. Fen is left alone without a tribe to care for Lydia’s newborn.

Daniel’s younger brother Charlie was a victim of the Delta Fever. He made it his mission to find a cure. After college, Daniel went to work for the military because it allowed him access to the best laboratories and samples of the virus. Hoping to find a way to make the virus attack itself, Daniel only succeeded in making it deadlier. Unwilling to destroy years of work, Daniel decides to break the quarantine and go into Orleans. He hopes to find the missing link to make his version of the virus into a cure. Daniel wants to save the world and ventures beyond the wall.

The city formerly known as New Orleans is not anything like Daniel imagined. Quickly becoming terrified, he decides to leave and return back over the wall. Despite his disguise as a leper, he is soon captured by a group by men and chained. Fen is hiding in a foxhole with Baby Girl after narrowly escaping from Mama Gentille and her blood camp. They both fall asleep and night has fallen when Fen is awoken by a hungry baby. Trying to quickly fix a bottle, she hears the rustle of blood hounds and knows there is no escape. She is chained and tries to stay away from the leper that they have also captured.

Back at the blood farm, Fen and Baby Girl are allowed to stay together for the time being. They place the two of them along with the leper in a cell. Remembering the advice her father gave her on escaping, Fen assesses their situation and realizes the leper is really in disguise. She asks him if he is a smuggler and she is disappointed to learn he isn’t. Daniel is looking for a guide to take him to the Institute of Post-Separation Studies. Fen is unwilling until Daniel says he will take the baby back over the wall with him. Fen begins to formulate a new plan. As morning dawns, they are able to escape by pretending to be lepers and aren’t followed.

Will Fen and Daniel make it to the Institute and what will they find there? What secrets is Fen keeping? Can Daniel locate the information he needs to create the cure for Delta Fever? Will he be able to get back over the wall undetected with Baby Girl? And what will happen to Fen?

Visit SherriL. Smith’s website.

A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton (Gods and Monsters book two)

“A power she can’t deny. A destiny she’s determined to fight.”

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Darkness Becomes Her, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.


For Ari Selkirk, coming to New 2 has presented new opportunities and answered some questions about who exactly she is. With all of the good things occurring in her life; a home, friends, including the gorgeous Sebastian, and school, some truly horrify facts are uncovered. Ari is the latest in a long line of women descended from Medusa; the beautiful maiden priestess of Athena who was raped by Poseidon in the temple and was changed into a gorgon by Athena as revenge. Ari’s destiny will be that she gives birth to a daughter and becomes a monster herself at the age of twenty-one, if she doesn’t commit suicide first, like her mother. With the legacy of her father’s lineage, Ari is capable of tapping into her powers sooner. A showdown in an old New Orleans cemetery between Ari and Athena, leads to the capture of Ari’s father and her young friend Violet. Ari is desperate to get them back.


Going to class and training at the Novem school, Presby, Ari is attempting to prepare for the inevitable showdown with Athena. Appalled by what she will become, Ari doesn’t want to tap into her powers and resists. With unprecedented access to the Novem’s secret library, Ari seeks answers to her questions. She uncovers a clue and when the opportunity presents itself to find where Athena’s secret temple is; Ari and Sebastian go to check it out. Under attack by rogue vampires, Ari and Sebastian accidentally go into Athena’s temple, woefully underprepared.


What are Athena’s plans for Ari? Can her father and Violet be rescued? Will Ari be able to stop Athena? Can Ari trust the Novem? And will Ari and Sebastian be able to create a happily ever after or will Ari fall to Athena’s curse?


Visit Kelly Keaton’s website.

As for book 3, Ms. Keaton has siad she is not currently under contract but will write and publish the next in the series for her readers.

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

”A curse beyond her darkest fears.”
New Orleans and the southern half of Louisiana have been destroyed by two back-to-back Category Four hurricanes. No one was prepared for the devastation and no one returned. Thirteen years later, “no one in their right mind ventured past The Rim.” Now known as New 2, the once grand and now decaying city is privately owned and “A sanctuary for misfits and things that went bump in the night.” The Novem, composed of nine of the oldest families in New Orleans, created what is believed by most to be a sanctuary for the paranormal.
Ari Selkirk has gone to Rocquemore House to find information about her mother who gave her up to the state of Louisiana social services just after her fourth birthday. What Ari was not expecting to find out is that her mother was schizophrenic, had a delusion about snakes under her scalp and committed suicide six months after her self-admittance, on the eve of her twenty-first birthday. Even more surprising to Ari is that family claimed her mother’s body and buried her in Greece. The doctor she speaks to, Dr. Giroux, offers to give her a box of her mother’s things. She is a little disappointed by the light weight of the box.

At seventeen, Ari has teal-colored eyes and hair that is “the bane of her existence.” Light in color it looked silver in the moonlight and was full, glossy and unnaturally straight. Her hair brings her unwanted attention and always grows back no matter what Ari does to rid herself of it. Her current foster parents are bail bondsmen and Ari is employed in the “family business.” They are supportive of her desire to find out more about her birth mother. So when Ari finds a letter her mother wrote to her, she is surprised it tells her to run and stay away from New Orleans and those who can identity her. She decides to make a quick solo trip to New 2 to find her birth records, even though she knows it’s dangerous. Ari is attacked by a man who is intent on killing her. When she finally gets the upper hand and delivers a fatal blow, he fingers a strand of her hair and ‘so beautiful” before dying. Before she can regain her senses, a truck halts and asks Ari if she is alright.

Ari realizes that it is actually a mail truck from New 2 and she decides to hitch a ride with the driver, twelve-year-old Crank. Crank also offers Ari the opportunity to stay at her family’s house and she accepts. Crank tells Ari that her brother can help her locate the information she is looking for. When Ari meets Henri she immediately notices his eyes are like her own, not quite normal. After seeing the rest of the family, Ari decides to leave. But before she can, a guy walks in the door and looks at Ari “like he could see inside her and says, ‘They’re already looking for you, you know.’” The guy turns out to be Sebastian and he agrees to help Ari find her birth records. When she goes back through her mother’s box of things, she finds an old newspaper clipping and a letter her grandmother wrote to her mother. Their family is cursed. The women don’t live to the age of 21 and always leave a young daughter behind. Unfortunately her birth records bring more questions, including a link to a member of the Novem who happens to be Sebastian’s grandmother. Ari’s day gets worse when a voodoo practitioner refuses to remove the curse from her.

Join Ari on her journey of self-discovery as she tries to find out her family history and why she fits in in New 2. Who wants to kill her and what do the Novem want with her? And why is everyone she meets terrified of her? Nothing will stop Ari even when the stakes are too high or too dangerous. Just who or what is Ari?

Part paranormal, part mythology with a bit of mystery and romance thrown in, Darkness Becomes Her is the first in Kelly Keaton’s Gods and Monsters series.

Visit Kelly Keaton’s website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZoW82HrIt8