Fiction – Page 10 – Book Reader Magazine

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The Seduction of Emy and Other Stories

About The Seduction of Emy and Other Stories:

35 crisp, literary short stories, packed with human drama, quirky sex, nutty religion, and lots of not-gonna-take-it-anymore women, both human and otherwise.

Hi, I’m Emy, the nannybot from the title story in the literary short story collection “The Seduction of Emy and Other Stories.” No, they’re not sci-fi stories, though some contain some near-future technology. And I’m a nannybot, not a sexbot. Many of the stories have some sex, but only the right amount. Many have some religion too. But what’s any bunch of stories about the human train wreck without religion? Psychospeculative is how I would describe most of the stories in this 35-story collection. And oh yeah, there’s lots of can-do, “won’t take it anymore” women in the stories, both human and otherwise — like me, Emy.

Engaging characters in quirky situations, for example:
• Sarah says they need a more versatile nannybot. Roger agrees.
• Too full-of-himself Jack picks the wrong cocktail waitress to play with.
• An old billionaire does the unthinkable to live forever.
• Her invention might change the whole male/female dynamic.
• The Young Crusaders’ poster boy is as quick with a gun as with a Bible verse.
• Even female robots have had enough of the male crap.
• An in-the-closet senator tries to prove himself worthy of his hot young wife.
• The legend of a heroic monster is born in the Deep South.
• An extragalactic mischief maker finds the perfect Earthling accomplice.
• An out-of-control contortionist faces reality.
• A moody hitman must be babysat till the bosses need him.
• And much more

With story title page illustrations by the author.
See “The Seduction of Emy” trailer on YouTube.

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The Tales of Zren Janin by M.L. Dunker

The Tales of Zren Janin by M.L. Dunker

Box set is discounted to $1.99 from September 26- October 1, 2023.

Three strangers race across two countries with only one goal: to survive.
Kerek, Matasi, and Vikland are three countries squabbling like quarrelsome siblings. The Kerek King has allowed banditry against anyone with a different language or skin color, and the Vikland Empress has had enough of her travelers injured and killed outside of her borders. Matasi has also suffered from Kerek’s brutality but has the money and power – or so the Triune Council believes – to break Kerek without bloodshed.
In a war of words and weapons, who will win? For when blood is shed, it is always the young and the poor who pay the greatest price.
The Tales of Zren Janin are stories of adventure, political intrigue, soldiers, spies, and bravery where no one is safe, promises are casually broken, and justice demands a price.
For readers who like great worldbuilding in a South Pacific setting, heart-pounding escapes, stories about spies, saboteurs, and survivors when the odds are never in their favor.

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Margaret’s Last Prayer

About Margaret’s Last Prayer:

Fourteen-year-old Margaret Laemmer’s path crossed with two gypsy boys in a daring rescue. Little did she know that it would set a chain of events spanning generations in motion. As a reward for her selfless act, Margaret receives a pair of amulets from the boys’ grateful mother, promising good fortune for those who possess them.

Years later, as Margaret’s sons set out on their journeys, she passes down the amulets to them, instilling her deep longing for family unity into these precious talismans. The amulets become more than just trinkets – they become carriers of hope, love, and the desire for reunion.

In a twist of fate, as the world is engulfed in the turmoil of the Second World War, two soldiers from opposing sides find themselves on the banks of the Elbe River in Germany. Unbeknownst to them, they bear identical amulets, forever linking their destinies. These amulets passed down through generations, hold the power to bridge divides and bring loved ones back together.

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Second Chances by Miriam McGuirk

About Featured Book: Second Chances by Miriam McGuirk

Embark on an unforgettable journey from the vibrant streets of India to the picturesque landscapes of Kent, UK, where destinies collide and lives are forever transformed in ‘Second Chances.’ Meet Molly, a tenacious woman determined to rebuild her life after her husband, Rory, walks away, leaving her and their son Jamie to pick up the pieces. But when Jamie mysteriously vanishes on the day of their new beginning, Molly’s world takes an unexpected and thrilling twist.

Settle into the tight-knit community of Kent alongside Molly as she forges heartwarming connections with her neighbors, the enigmatic Florence and the dashing Colonel Bryce Beckwith. Within the walls of their charming cottages, secrets unravel, tales of love and loss resurface, and the yearning for redemption beckons.

In this sweeping, multigenerational narrative, ‘Second Chances’ is a testament to the indomitable human spirit, reminding us that even in our darkest hours, hope shines like a beacon. Join Molly, Florence, and Colonel Beckwith as they grapple with their past regrets, discover newfound courage, and prove that it’s never too late to take a leap of faith. This poignant tale weaves a tapestry of interwoven lives, proving that the road to redemption is paved with second chances.

This Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print

The Cedar Tree by Heather Reyburn

About The Cedar Tree by Heather Reyburn:

Grace Campbell agrees to accompany her husband to a run down, sun scorched sheep and cattle station in outback Queensland, believing the isolation and rural peace will save her marriage and provide a good life for her family.

A ramshackle old homestead, shaded by an ancient Cedar Tree, becomes her new home, and, while Grace is swept up in the harsh beauty of the outback, long-held secrets slowly unravel. Falling in love with the station’s colourful characters is easy, but when the handsome new owner of “Tullagulla” shows up, Grace is thrown into turmoil.

Torn between the gentle stranger and her hot-headed husband, Grace is forced to confront her feelings and question her loyalties, while her passion for Tullagulla further challenges her ability to make a life changing decision.

Tragedy strikes, and Grace is forced to leave the property—until an olive branch and a century old ghost provide unexpected answers.

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Eva by Diane Solomon

About Featured Book: Eva: a riveting romantic suspense with a supernatural twist by Diane Solomon

Limited time, new release price: only $2.99!

Eva discovers she has a powerful, magical gift. But it might be a curse. When her secret gets out, the media jackals hound her and she’s forced into the limelight she’s avoided all her life. The internet lights up with wonder… and accusation.
And someone wants her dead.

This Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print

This book is in Kindle Unlimited!

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Autumn’s Ghost by Cricket Rohman

Autumn’s Ghost by Cricket Rohman

Autumn has been a very good girl for twenty-two years until a dream-come-true opportunity lands in her lap, thanks to the ingenuity of her book club friends. Her wealthy, overprotective parents fall for her escape plan. Although her boldness came easier than expected, Autumn wonders how long feelings of guilt might haunt her.

Still, this gift from the Fantasy Maker—a vacation to New Hampshire a few weeks before Halloween—might prepare her for a graduate program in photography. However, nothing could have prepared her for Ranger, the handsome Forest Service pilot.

Fate takes over quickly. Autumn snaps fantastic fall photos and helps Ranger with his odd, spooky inheritance project. Sparks fly, and so do their ghosts. A page-turner for readers who enjoy a little mystery with their romance wrapped up in a holiday theme and a quaint New England setting.

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Birds of a Feather: A Cold War Book 3

About Birds of a Feather: A Cold War Book 3:

Birds of a Feather, the third installment of the Cold War Trilogy, follows the journey of William and Mina as they attempt a fresh start in life and raise a family in an ever-changing America, following their escape from Russia.

As Mina and William successfully start creating a new life for themselves, a request from President Kennedy and a letter from someone they thought was long gone rattle any semblances of peace and stability they thought were within their grasp. The two find themselves taking a trip to Vienna, along with their daughter Beth, to carry out a new mission and find answers to their questions.

Let Birds of a Feather take you along with Mina and William as they endeavor to root themselves where they must, amidst the challenges of building a family and existing in the thick of cunning politics during one of the most crucial times in history.

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Katarina’s Dark Journey by MJ Krause-Chivers

About Featured Book: Katarina’s Dark Journey by MJ Krause-Chivers

.99 Limited Time: September 1-17.
When darkness falls, faith prevails.
Inspired by true events, Katarina’s Dark Journey is a faith-based coming-of-age novel that offers a gripping exploration of trauma’s effect on the human spirit. With a dual time-line set in Ukraine during the Russian civil war and post-war Germany, this suspense-filled epic saga carries a poignant lesson about the fragility of freedom.

1918 Ukraine. When the Bolsheviks set fire to their Mennonite village, Katarina and her pregnant sister, Anna, flee across the lawless steppes. Will they find safety before the baby is born? Can Katarina trust God to provide?

1952 Munich. Peter’s life is falling apart. Fuelled by painful memories, he struggles to find closure with his parents’ deaths. Will the secrets within Katarina’s diaries provide the hope he needs to move forward?

A riveting tale of survival, perseverance, and enduring faith — this story is a must-read for historical fiction fans.

Fans of The Memory Keeper of Kyiv (Erin Litteken) and Women Talking (Miriam Toews) will appreciate the characters’ transparent and heart-wrenching struggles to survive injustice and overcome trauma.

This Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print

This book is in Kindle Unlimited!

Under the Java Moon: A Novel of World War II

About Under the Java Moon: A Novel of World War II:

Based on a true story, this gripping WWII novel captures the resilience, hope, and courage of a Dutch family who is separated during the war when the Japanese occupy the Dutch East Indies.

Java Island, 1941
Six-year-old Rita Vischer cowers in her family’s dug-out bomb shelter, listening to the sirens and waiting for a bomb to fall. Her charmed life on Java―living with other Dutch families―had always been peaceful, but when Holland declares war on Japan and the Japanese army invades Indonesia, Rita’s family is forced to relocate to a POW camp, and Rita must help care for her little brother, Georgie.
Mary Vischer is three months pregnant when she enters the Tjident women’s camp with thousands of other women and children. Her husband, George, is somewhere on the Java Sea with the Dutch Navy, so she must care alone for her young children, Rita and Georgie, and her frail mother. The brutal conditions of the overcrowded camp make starvation, malaria, and dysentery a grim reality. Mary must do everything she can to keep her family alive.
George Vischer survives the bombing of his minesweeper but feels little hope floating on a small dinghy in the Java Sea. Reaching the northern tip of the Thousand Island would be a miracle. Focusing on the love of his life, Mary, and his two children, he battles against the sea and merciless sun. He’ll do whatever it takes to close the divide between him and his family, even if it means risking being captured by the Japanese.

Under the Java Moon highlights a little-known part of WWII history and the impact of war on Indonesia, its people, and the more than 100,000 Dutch men, women, and children who were funneled into prison camps and faced with the ultimate fight for survival.

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Jewels of the Crown by Robert Henricks

About Featured Book: Jewels of the Crown by Robert Henricks

As he led the king’s wagon train through the coastal muck of Norfolk’s eastern shore, Norman Gervase found himself engulfed by the tidal surge that swallowed up the entire caravan.
But he was unwavering in his dedication to the king, a principled man of faith, and loyal in his obligations.
So, when he realized that all would soon be gone forever, he acted with alacrity and removed the trunks containing the crown jewels and secured them to one of the sturdy draft horses to prevent their irretrievable loss.
That was just the beginning.
He did not know that this feat of selflessness would initiate a life-long journey into a world of thirteenth century intrigue in his quest to preserve King John’s treasure.
Eight hundred years later, the organization that Gervase had founded, the Patriciate, continued to maintain the founder’s guiding desire for secrecy until the macabre slaying of a prominent attorney and the deciphering of a fifteenth century map brought the Patriciate into the crosshairs of both law enforcement and historians.
No one knew what conundrums lay buried beneath the dust of the ages, or to what extent a foray taken by three resolute sleuths would expose into a covert world of pseudo-occultists.

This Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print

Like a Lily Among the Thorns

About Like a Lily Among the Thorns:

There are those who are born into loving families and then there are the less fortunate who must forge their own families through strong friendships. At a local small library in New York City, one such family was born. And just like so many capricious happenstances in life, this family unit embraced newcomers and grew exponentially. But this clan was also charged with far more than spreading love and joy and a sense of belonging. This clan was formed by divine Providence to help save the planet.

Gabrielle Bernstein, the MC of Like a Lily Among the Thorns, is a woman in her twenties and has started her career as a librarian at a NYC public library. Abandoned by her father as a young girl and now orphaned by her deranged mother, Gabby longs for a family connection. Coincidentally, she finds this connection at the same time she inherits a B&B in Vermont from her estranged and now deceased father. This enchanted inn is under the watchful eye of goddesses of myth and legend who have been tasked to save mankind from destroying itself and this planet. These goddesses will use their powers to try and stall the onslaught of the effects of droughts, floods, and rising temperatures. But as a safety net they have collected human saviors all over the planet to erect safe havens at high altitudes away from flood waters and blistering temperatures.

This one group of saviors are ordinary people who have some extraordinary abilities and enjoy a higher consciousness. They are brought together to join forces in Vermont to create one such refuge. Along the way there is romance, misunderstandings, conflict, and internal growth. Locations are Manhattan, London, Brooklyn, and Rutland, Vermont. Woven through this tale is Gabrielle’s inherent understanding that she must be grateful, mindful, and present in this journey called “life.”

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The Commandments of the Templar by Tom Melley

About Featured Book: The Commandments of the Templar by Tom Melley

The Holy Land in the year 1193. Guillaume de Born, an unscrupulous Templar Knight on a secret mission to meet with the Assassins, acquires in Jerusalem what he believes to be the holiest relic of Christianity: the fabled Ark of the Covenant. On his way back to the port city of Acre, he is ambushed by his Templar brothers. They rob him of the treasure and leave him badly wounded in the mountains of Galilee. Deeply humiliated, he swears revenge. With the help of a young Muslim man, an unconventional Jewish woman and two daring Christian knights, he sets out to reclaim the sacred relic from the powerful Order. But the precious artefact is now in an impregnable Templar fortress, guarded by a ruthless enemy…

This Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print

This book is in Kindle Unlimited!

No, You’re Crazy by Jeff Beamish

About No, You’re Crazy by Jeff Beamish:

When sixteen-year-old Ashlee Sutton’s home life falls apart, she is beset by a rare mental illness that makes her believe she’s clairvoyant. While most people scoff at her, she begins demonstrating an uncanny knack for sometimes predicting the future, using what could either be pure luck or something more remarkable. And when she helps her drug-addict father win enough casino cash to accidentally overdose, she becomes the target of violent people determined to exploit her, and she goes on the run. Ashlee reaches out to a distant relative, traumatized war journalist Mike Baker. Soon, at least in Ashlee’s eyes, they are both plunging dangerously into an existential rabbit hole where their core belief, that humanity and personal connections are a blight, will be put to the ultimate test.
No, You’re Crazy is a multilayered novel that examines the many ways a family can wound and heal us. A page-turning thriller and a sensitive look at faith and neurodiversity, it ultimately dares to ask, Who gets to decide what’s real?

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How I Became the Real-Life Nurse Jackie

About How I Became the Real-Life Nurse Jackie:

Lyndsey is not your average everyday nurse. She has secrets that could destroy everything. Based on actual events, How I Became the Real-Life Nurse Jackie is a roller coaster of emotions, and a story unprecedented. You’ll begin to question if we are victims of fate or if we mold our own existence and witness the resilience of the soul while discovering how the consequences of our actions create wisdom we never thought achievable.

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The Ericksen Connection

About The Ericksen Connection:

The Ericksen Connection is a spy thriller about betrayal, PTSD, corruption, conspiracy, terrorism, and murder. Mark Ericksen, the former Navy SEAL Team-Six operator and executive vice-president of EyeD4 Systems, a biometrics defense contractor based in Wilsonville, Oregon, was all about duty, honor, and country. He resigned from his commission in 2002 and worked for three defense contractors over the next several years, maintaining his top-secret security clearance while hiding his PTSD.

In 2009, the CIA received actionable intelligence about a Saudi terrorist mastermind aided by Russian arms dealers who needed a classified biometrics encryption communications system from EyeD4 Systems to direct his sleeper cell operatives in launching a horrific nuclear attack on American cities.

When America urgently needs his services again, the CIA tasks him with Operation Avenging Eagles to sabotage the plot. Can Ericksen avoid discovery and thwart the nuclear attack before a network of terrorists achieves their plans?

Barry L. Becker is a retired marketing consultant with experience in biometrics technology. From 1984 to 1991, he served as vice president of international marketing and sales for Eyedentify, a company specializing in eye-retinal biometrics scanning technology for positive ID in sensitive installations. In 1987, his article “Eyedentify Counters Security Threat” appeared in the Journal of Defense and Diplomacy. The Ericksen Connection is A Mark Ericksen Thriller Book 1. He resides with his wife in Portland, Oregon.

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Third Wheel

About Third Wheel:

Las Vegas, 1982. Brady Wilks, a teenage transplant from the Midwest, navigates life in the dusty suburban outskirts of an aberrant 24-hour town built by the Mob. Outcast as a newcomer, Brady forges a brotherly bond with an older teenage neighbor, Mick, and his friend, Brett. But when Brett unexpectedly moves away, Mick invites a new kid into their pack, squeezing out the last remnants of their childhood in favor of a new world laced with cartel-supplied drugs and the deal of a lifetime.

Third Wheel is a powerful novel about belonging, betrayal, and breaking away from paths laid out by others, even when it means grasping at an uncertain future. It is the story of a boy trying to find his identity without the benefit of a role model by taking chances on random and fragile relationships forged in the predawn hours of a future boomtown.

Desolate and gritty, Third Wheel is a triumphant debut novel, and Brady Wilks is remarkable as a transformative protagonist. Four-time award-winning author Richard R. Becker once again shares his unique insight into the human condition.

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Terror in Brief by D. T. Adams

About Terror in Brief by D. T. Adams:

A collection of 200 chilling horror stories that are just two sentences long. Though these horrific stories are very short indeed, they may still give you the creeps. Encounter corrupt people of pure evil, come face to face with bloodcurdling monsters and beings and bear witness to deadly phenomena.

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