Fiction – Page 23 – Book Reader Magazine

A Beautiful Land by Susan Beth Miller

About A Beautiful Land by Susan Beth Miller:

A Beautiful Land is a story of menace, the maternal imagination, and the forest primeval.

Raissa, middle daughter of three, watches her family flee their violence-torn homeland. But she stays behind, bound to her birthplace by memories of a sweet young man.

Driven by danger and grief, Raissa struggles toward a mysterious forest and imagines solace through the unexpected allure of a child.

Raissa joins many who have fled their beautiful homeland. Each speaks in turn as they parse their tangled stories and consider whether they dare return to what once was home.

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Chocolate-Covered Chaos

About Chocolate-Covered Chaos:

They can’t trust him with their shoes, but they can trust him with their hearts.

Since Nick Marshall’s wife died, he’s been struggling to keep a lid on his PTSD and raise his stepdaughter Chloe and her younger half-sister, Abby. He’s always run a tight ship, but when he learns that Chloe’s flunking out, he becomes even more rigid and controlling: no extracurricular activities, just chores and schoolwork until she brings her grades up.

It’s only after she gets into a fight at school that he realizes there’s a deeper problem that he has no idea how to handle. Worse, his late wife’s sister is working with Chloe’s biological father to take custody away from him.

Out of desperation, he takes her teacher’s suggestion and brings home a dog from the Pretty Paws Shelter named Max. The girls bond with Max, but the dog’s playful enthusiasm drives Nick crazy — he craves calm, not chaos.

Can Max help Nick reconnect with Chloe before her meddling aunt and deadbeat father split the family for good?

Chocolate-Covered Chaos is the third book in the Soul Mutts series, heartwarming stories of lost dogs finding new homes with the humans they were born to heal.

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Secrets My Mothers Kept by Rebecca Tucker

Secrets My Mothers Kept by Rebecca Tucker

***$2.99 for a limited time, Oct 5 – Oct 11. 2021***

“Tucker exhibits mesmerizing story-telling skills in this heartfelt, honest story of love and betrayal…Fluid dialogue and a tightly formatted storyline set this novel aside in a refreshingly unique category all its own.” – Readers’ Favorite

“Tucker has delivered an evocative, poignant read that lovers of literary fiction won’t want to miss.” – The Prairies Book Review

Austin Nobel is preparing for a summer trip to France, which includes obtaining a passport. However, when she receives her birth certificate in the mail with the wrong name on it, Austin uncovers that she was adopted, something her parents had kept secret from everyone.

Austin pursues more information about her birth parents and their complicated history against the wishes of her family, while struggling with the impact this revelation has on her status within the Reform Jewish community. Is she really Jewish in the eyes of her community? In her own eyes? The support of a new romantic interest and an old family friend helps Austin find strength, resilience, and forgiveness as she searches for answers about her own origins and identity.

“Her thoughts, half-formed, tumbled over one another, nonsensical and overwhelming. Images of her parents, her mom mostly, flickered through her mind as a realization grew within her, rising from the pit of her stomach, finally forming the coherent thought that there were going to be repercussions for the conversation she’d just had with Jeremy. Her world would change—it had already, though she couldn’t yet feel it and couldn’t fathom what those changes might be. The foundation built of all she knew was shifting beneath her feet as she wobbled.”

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Alice Black by J. Schlenker

Alice Black by J. Schlenker

At eighteen, right out of high school, Alice Black leaves her clinging mother in Queens, New York to live with a rebellious Columbia University law student in rural West Virginia. After five years, she returns home to take care of her mother as well as to seek answers before her mother dies regarding her father’s disappearance years ago. Her mother takes the secret to her grave. Alice is ready to give up hope of ever knowing what happened to him until she receives a visit from a detective and a cryptic message from a fortune cookie.
Finalist in the 2019 Wishing Shelf Book Awards and a 5-Star Readers’ Favorite

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Floating Underwater by Tracy Shawn

About Floating Underwater by Tracy Shawn:

Part psychological fiction and part mystical fiction with a dash of magical realism, Floating Underwater follows a woman’s astonishing journey through the extraordinary and, ultimately, to her own self-actualization and power.

Fearful that her lifelong premonitions not only predict the future but can also change its very course, Paloma Leary is devastated when her latest vision foretelling a third miscarriage comes true.

Falling into a mystifying world of increasingly bizarre phenomena, including a psychic connection with her mysterious neighbor, out-of-body experiences, and visits from her long-dead mother, Paloma grows desperate for answers. She is also desperate to start a family. But when a life-changing vision reveals a tragic secret from the past, Paloma learns to accept her gifts and embraces a far different future than she ever could have imagined.

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A Life for a Life by Lynda McDaniel

A Life for a Life by Lynda McDaniel

“My life was saved by a murder. At the time, of course, I didn’t understand that. I just knew I was having the best year of my life. Given all the things that happened, I should be ashamed to say it, but that year was a blessing for me.” ~Abit Bradshaw

That’s how this story of suspense and self-discovery begins in 1985 in the small mountain town of Laurel Falls, N.C. After decades as a crime reporter in Washington, D.C., Della Kincaid thinks she’s moved away from all the violence. But a walk in the woods changes everything when she finds a body.

The sheriff calls for what amounts to a coverup. Not so fast, Della argues. She’s spent her life searching for the truth, and she’s not about to stop now. Without her usual sources, she teams up with new friends, including her neighbor–Abit Bradshaw, a teenager struggling to find his rightful place in the world. Along the way, they encounter all kinds of interesting characters, including the best one of all–the lush natural setting of the N.C. mountains.

Will they find the truth before they become the next victims?

Can they find peace in their own lives?

You’ll love this suspenseful story because who doesn’t dream of second chances?

Find out why critics and readers are praising Lynda McDaniel’s unique voice in murder mystery novels.

Get it now.

A Life for a Life is the first novel in the Appalachian Mountain Mysteries series. If you like atmospheric settings, fascinating characters, and suspenseful investigations, you’ll love this series.

“A real treat, highly recommended for its fine attention to both detail and the psyches of investigators who confront themselves as much as the threat at hand.” ~Midwest Book Review

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THE ETERNAL DARKNESS: 159 TALES OF TERROR

About THE ETERNAL DARKNESS: 159 TALES OF TERROR:

159 tales from the deepest depths of the psyche. Vampires, werewolf’s, zombies, axe wielding serial killers and other creatures that go bump in the night. Are you ready to read this book in the comfort of your warm bed with the lamp casting its fleeting ethereal light? Did you hear that? A creature of the night prowling outside your bedroom window? What was that? Something downstairs? Are you ready to read this book…?

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Butter and Whiskey: The Ballad of Maggie Doyle by Judith S Glover

Butter and Whiskey: The Ballad of Maggie Doyle by Judith S Glover

The time – the late 1970s; the place Southern Ireland.
After an affair with a local priest, Maggie Doyle, an unhappily married woman, gives birth to a baby with tiny wings. Is it a miracle or some freak of nature? One thing is for sure, The Vatican means to take control of the infant and Father John has left for the mainland in disgrace. Alone and friendless, the horrific course of action Maggie is forced to take will send her spiraling into madness and despair, but which ultimately sets the course of her life off in a direction, she could never have imagined. Yet, can Maggie ever truly recover and can Father John overcome the sense of guilt he feels for his part in her suffering?
Years later and unbeknownst to either, they both find themselves in London where their fates become once again entwined. Each pursues a new life against the backdrop of eighties London and each finds love and friendship in unexpected places. Back in Rome, however, forces in the Vatican cannot forgive Maggie for cheating the Catholic Church out of establishing the truth about the apparently miraculous birth and are biding their time.
On the night that their paths finally cross, the past too catches up with them in a shocking denouement. The situation seems bleak, yet will it finally afford Father John the opportunity to atone for having abandoned Maggie, in her hour of greatest need?
Butter and Whiskey: The Ballad of Maggie Doyle is a story of courage, love, friendship and redemption – served up with warmth and humor. Oh! and of angels, though they may not always be so easy to spot! It is a stand alone novel, though Maggie’s story continues in the sequel – What Cannot be Cured: The Continuing Ballad of Maggie Doyle

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The Last Sketch by Gosia Nealon

The Last Sketch by Gosia Nealon

They both hold tight to a terrible secret. When they cross paths in war-torn Europe, will their destinies lead to ruin… or victory over evil?

Poland, 1944. Wanda Odwaga will never stop resisting. As the Nazis occupy her beloved homeland, the twenty-three-year-old artist vows to do whatever it takes to help the underground movement mobilize against Hitler’s forces. But she’s devastated when the Gestapo storms her house in search of rebel leaders, killing her heroic father and leaving the face of his murderer forever etched in her mind.

New York. Finn Keller longs to balance the scales. Having escaped Germany with his mother as a teen, he’s disgusted his estranged twin brother has become a ruthless Nazi henchman with a vicious reputation. So when a covert government agency approaches him with a dangerous undercover mission, Finn willingly risks his life to play his part in turning the tide of war.

Still grieving her unforgivable loss, Wanda’s thirst for revenge takes an unexpected leap forward when she once again encounters her father’s killer. And as Finn dives deeply into the role of impersonating his cold-hearted sibling, he’s captivated by the beautiful Polish woman frozen in front of him… her eyes blazing with the promise of murder.

Can these two players in a deadly game survive the ravages of a sadistic conflict?

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The Essence of Nathan Biddle by J. William Lewis

About Featured Book: The Essence of Nathan Biddle by J. William Lewis

Only $0.99 for the month of October!

Protagonist Kit Biddle is a rising prep school senior who finds himself tangled in a web of spiritual quandaries and intellectual absurdities. Kit’s angst is compounded by a unique psychological burden he is forced to carry: his intelligent but unstable Uncle Nat has committed an unspeakable act on what, according to the Uncle’s deranged account, were direct orders from God.

The tragedy haunting his family follows Kit like a dark and foreboding cloud, exacerbating his already compulsive struggle with existential questions about the meaning of his life. When the brilliant, perhaps phantasmic, Anna dismisses him, Kit quickly spirals into despair and self-destruction. But when his irrational decision to steal a maintenance truck and speed aimlessly down the highway ends in a horrific accident and months of both physical and emotional convalescence, Kit is forced to examine his perceptions of his life and his version of reality.

In this exquisite bildungsroman, calamity leads to fresh perspectives and new perceptions: it focuses Kit’s mind and forces him to confront the issues that plague him. Readers will empathize―and celebrate―as the darkness lifts and Kit comes to terms with the necessity of engagement with life’s pain, pleasure . . . and absurdity.

An intelligent, clever, and captivating tale, The Essence of Nathan Biddle soars in the spaces that exist between despair and hope, darkness and light, love and loss. Beautifully written, profoundly moving, and resplendent with characters destined to remain with you long after the last page is turned, The Essence of Nathan Biddle is unforgettable.

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

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The Alice ’65 by Kyle Michel Sullivan

About Featured Book: The Alice ’65 by Kyle Michel Sullivan

A romantic comedy about an English lad, an American girl, a rare book worth millions, and a lonely guard panther…not your typical day in LA.

Adam Verlain loves his careful, cloistered world of rare and antiquarian books. But when an American celebrity offers her very valuable 1865 copy of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” to his university, he has to be all but forced to travel from London to Los Angeles to close the deal. Then after a disastrous flight, he is taken aback when the actress refuses to give up the novel unless he escorts her to her latest film premier for reasons that seem…well, rather odd.

Subjected to a radical Hollywood makeover, Adam is mistaken for a British actor, dragged to a goofy party, has to dodge an overly affectionate guard panther, and is shocked to learn the actress has lost the book.

Can he escape the spotlight shenanigans to save a true treasure from falling into the wrong hands? And keep himself from falling for a woman who is way beyond his reach in this zany quest to rescue a priceless classic?

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

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Son of the Moon: A Quest for the Perfect Woman by Amo Sulaiman

About Son of the Moon: A Quest for the Perfect Woman by Amo Sulaiman:

He’s but a boy still, in his late teens, exotic, charming, a naïve stranger in a strange land with an unquenchable thirst for pleasure. Saddled from birth with a name that takes people aback, El Nobis von Albion sets out on a noble mission in life: to unite with his missing other half. And for a while, his strategic wit and his habit of poetically praising women’s sensuality right to their faces win him one homerun after another.
But, unfortunately, his high-spirited foster mom never taught him that Pretty is as pretty does, so when he finally meets the Perfect Woman, the tables start to turn. He finds himself being sucked down into a situation that could threaten his freedom…and even his very life.

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Picasso’s Motorcycle by Marc Sercomb

About Featured Book: Picasso's Motorcycle by Marc Sercomb

$0.99 from 9/24 to 9/29/21!
France, 1940. An unexpected gift of an old motorcycle with a tragically romantic past hurls a young orphan into the thick of things as war breaks out and his life changes forever. Half-French/half-German Daniel must find a way to survive in a world that mercy seems to have abandoned. This book transports the reader to Nazi-occupied France, where Daniel unwittingly and unexpectedly finds himself working for the Resistance, and ultimately to the Russian Front in a twist of fate so startling that no one can see it coming. In turn quirky, heartwarming, beguiling and uncompromising, author Marc Sercomb weaves together many moods and colors to tell young Daniel’s story. Beyond engaging, Picasso’s Motorcycle has been hailed as a genuine “page-turner” by those who have so far encountered it.

This Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook

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They Called Him Marvin: A History of Love, War and Family by Roger Stark

About They Called Him Marvin: A History of Love, War and Family by Roger Stark:

“They were the fathers we never knew, the uncles we never met, the friends who never returned, the heroes we can never repay. They gave us our world. And those simple sounds of freedom we hear today are their voices speaking to us across the years.” Bill Clinton

Such a man was 1st Lt Dean Harold Sherman, B-29 Airplane Commander.

“They Called Him Marvin” is a history. A history of war and of family. A history of the collision of the raging politics of a global war, young love, patriotism, sacred family commitments, duty and the horrors and tragedies, the catastrophe that war is.

A reviewer explains: “I am a fan of historical fiction and this story did not disappoint. It was sweet, tragic, personal, and moving. Gradually and almost imperceptibly, the story of two wartime sweethearts begins circling the drain of a tragedy you know is coming. The book begins with the ending, but by the time you get there you have convinced yourself that it can’t possibly be the case. I enjoyed every moment, even the ones that left me in tears.

The letters between Connie and Dean provided a fascinating glimpse into wartime life. Reading the experiences of people both at home and abroad was very engaging. I found myself eagerly awaiting the next letter, right along with the young couple!

Lastly, the book left me with an overwhelming acknowledgement of the universal trauma and tragedy of war. The Sherman’s are not the only family we meet in the book and the weaving together of several different narratives added a depth to the story that’s hard to put into words.
I definitely encourage anyone to read this book, especially if historical novels are not something you typically read. This is a story about people and you won’t want it to end.

Roger Stark presents us with a very human experience of WWII. This is the kind of book that should be on every high school curriculum. It is awash with facts, but expressed in such a way as to grip the reader and hold their attention. Packed with historical content, and portrayed with a vibrant pen, They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark comes very highly recommended!!

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COLORADO TAKEDOWN: A Romantic Western Adventure by Cricket Rohman

COLORADO TAKEDOWN: A Romantic Western Adventure by Cricket Rohman

A vegetarian from the city and a cattle-raising rancher sounds like a match made in hell. But what if they need each other more than they realize?

When Hannah Hudson finds herself abandoned on a Rocky Mountain ranch, even a lottery win doesn’t change her bad-luck life. Not when it lands her stuck with a cowboy who seems bent on “helping” her.

Trace McAllister needs only his horse and wide-open spaces, but it’s clear his new neighbor needs much more. If only she wasn’t so stubborn, he could help her. Unfortunately, it seems to take an accident – or is it a murder? – before she lets him into her life. They have one thing in common: zero talent for handling their feelings. Trace’s amazing cattle dog, Oatie, plays a part in bringing this unlikely couple together.

From day one, Hannah’s unique relationship with her new horse keeps her grounded despite mysterious conflicts, secrets, and a relentless, unidentified villain. Now her life hangs in the balance, and it’s up to Trace to face his greatest fear to rescue her.

Colorado Takedown will be free on 9/9, 9/22, 9/23, and 9/26

Cricket added a note to readers at the end of this book that explains why she re-wrote the ending and other insights about the creation of this book.

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Listening to Her Own Voice by Colleen Bonnett MacFarlane

Listening to Her Own Voice by Colleen Bonnett MacFarlane

Historical fiction about the life of a young woman, Rosa, who immigrated to Chaska, Minnesota in 1866 with her parents and siblings. Rosa, her father and brothers are famed musicians and teachers. Rosa also possesses skills as a pianist and teacher, but she also feels a calling to join the convent. The Sisters of Christian Charity and she form a lifelong relationship which impact Rosa forever. In Chaska, the family faces many hardships as well as joys. The fate of her sister, Agnes, has a most profound and permanent impact. Overall, is a very touching and heartwarming read of 250 pages. Rosa’s life is one lived without regret, but only after she learns the life lesson that she must listen to her own voice.

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Canawlers by James Rada Jr.

Canawlers by James Rada Jr.

Hugh Fitzgerald is a proud canawler. For ten months a year, he and his family live on their canal boat, working hard to earn enough to get them through the lean winter months when the canal is drained.

The year 1862 is a hard year to live on the canal, though. To this point, the Confederacy has stayed south of the canal, but now the Confederate Army intends to go on the offensive and take the war into the north.

Not only are the Fitzgeralds’ lives endangered by the increased activity of warring armies and raiders on the canal, but the Fitzgeralds’ secret activity as a stop along the Underground Railroad only endangers their lives all the more.

Then fate takes Hugh away from his family, leaving his wife, Alice, to hold the family together. With the help of her children; Thomas, George, and Elizabeth; Tony, an orphan from Cumberland; and David Windover, a disillusioned Confederate soldier, they will face the dangers presented by the war, nature, and the railroad together.

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The Hauntings of Old Liberty High

About The Hauntings of Old Liberty High:

Three people in the Old Liberty High community die – two students. Everyone mourns; then they try to move on. The dead won’t have that, though: they come back, scared and angry and wanting revenge against a moral community that may have mistreated them. Check out this horror novella by schizophrenic author Dalton Lewis.

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Nite Fire: Flash Point by C. L. Schneider

Nite Fire: Flash Point by C. L. Schneider

For fans of Supernatural, and the Dresden Files, comes a different kind of dragon story…
Shapeshifter, Dahlia Nite hunts what lurks in the shadows, protecting an unsuspecting human race. But when a supernatural serial killer strikes Sentinel City, light is shed on what should never be seen. Centuries of secrets are in danger of being exposed. And the little bit of peace she’s found in this world begins to crumble. Murder, mystery, mayhem—and dragons!
Flash Point is the multi-award-winning first book in the Nite Fire Series.
*Books 1 & 4 are ONLY .99 on Kindle from 9/16 – 9/23.

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They Called Me Margaret by Florence Osmund

They Called Me Margaret by Florence Osmund

Cozy mystery writer Margaret Manning fears her husband is mimicking the behavior of some of her book’s shadier characters, even though he claims to have never read any of them. When several pieces of her jewelry go missing, she wonders if he’s responsible for it, he’s trying to make it look like she’s losing her mind, or she’s losing her mind all on her own. Disturbing actions of friends and family coupled with bizarre health issues complicate things and cause her life to go into a downward spiral.

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