I love anything to do with seas, oceans, and lakes…add to that a creature feature and I am all in. Below will take us to the depth of the oceans, facing a creature that compares to Jaws. Once they figure we are a good meal, there is no stopping them…or is there? There will be a trail of blood and guts and I love a gory adventure filled with danger and death. What I don’t like is being trapped under water…
Below is Ryan Lockwood’s debut novel and I want to congratulate him on a job well done. I look forward to what comes next.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
In all his years as a professional diver, Will Sturman has never encountered a killing machine more ferocious than the great white shark or as deadly as the piranha. Now, off the coast of California, something is rising from the deep–and multiplying. Voracious, unstoppable, and migrating north, an ungodly life form trailed by a gruesome wake of corpses. With the help of the brilliant and beautiful oceanographer Valerie Martell, Will finds himself in a race against time to stop the slaughter–by a predator capable of devastating the world’s oceans.
Ryan Lockwood experienced many interesting outdoor jobs before writing his first novel, requiring him to assist with mountain lion capture, scrape barnacles off submerged boat hulls, fight Western wildfires, and measure storm runoff in the middle of the night. He holds degrees in technical journalism and environmental science, and has been employed as a biological research assistant, professional editor and public relations coordinator. When not writing, Lockwood scuba dives, climbs mountains, hunts to fill the freezer, and strives to become a better sailor. He currently lives in Colorado with his family and assorted four-legged friends.
The gorgeous, eye catching cover is only the beginning of the deliciousness of Golden Blood: A Vampire Story by Tim Vee. I grab any vampire books that come my way and Golden Blood is a fresh take of a familiar tale. It’s pretty hard to come up with a new slant, seeing there are thousands of books out there. Good job ,Tim.
Balthazar Jiménez de Quesada’s greed has him transformed into a vampire, one of the most grotesque I have ever come across. He’s definitely not sparkly. He turns the wrong person when he slaughtered Yvette’s family and left her for dead. She plots her revenge.
She devotes her vampiric life to finding Golden Blood, the rarest type of blood. It can break the vampire curse, turning her back into a human. There are some bloods that can give a vampire the human feeling for a short period of time, but she wants Golden Blood. So does Balthazar, after he gets his first taste. He wants to kill her and take over her ‘company’.
I love what Tim Vee has done with Golden Blood. I would not change anything. These are not your Twilight vampires. Tim has some of the most vivid descriptions and I can see the flies buzzing, skin sloughing off…
We have a bit of a history lesson with our horror and I was all in. The more I read, the more engrossed I was in the story. I would have read it in one sitting, if I could have, but I did read until the wee hours of the morning.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
In 1540, conquistador Balthazar Jiménez de Quesada embarks on a quest for gold but encounters an ancient evil in the jungles of Colombia, La Pastola, transforming him into an immortal vampire. Centuries later, as Napoleon’s army clashes with the British in 1815, a brutal massacre near Walloon births a new vampire desperate to break her curse. In present-day Los Angeles, a man with the rarest blood type—Golden Blood—enters a dangerous world where the line between predator and prey blurs, as a secret society of vampires hunts for the key to their salvation…or their destruction. Golden Blood is a gripping tale of horror, history, and the eternal struggle for redemption, spanning from the New World’s blood-soaked jungles to the underbelly of modern L.A.
Golden Blood is the story about one vampire’s search for Golden Blood that can reverse the vampiric curse and her need for revenge against the vampire that slaughtered her family and turned her into a vampire centuries before. Set in the jungles of Colombia in the 1500s, the Caribbean in the 1700s, Europe in the 1800s and 1900s, and present-day Los Angeles, Golden Blood is a dark, bleak, and gothic story.
Tim works in digital marketing in Toronto and is well-traveled, having visited over 80 countries. When he is not working or writing he likes to spend time with his family and German Shepherd – and to go cycling.
Tim has written ten books; The Secret Policemen and The Secret Service – both dystopian dark comedies; as well as seven science fiction novels – Extinction, Annabelle, Fission, The Children of the Third Reich, The Child of Mars, and The Children of Andaalwaald.
Tim has also written Magpie – a dark and intense journey into the world of international espionage and terrorism.
Tim mostly enjoys writing transgressive fiction – mainly about aliens and psychopaths.
I have seen a lot of recommendations for Blake Crouch novels, but Run is my first one. I want to thank NetGalley and Random House/ Ballantine Books.
Jack Colclough hears his name called over the radio and knows that ‘they’ are coming to kill him and his family. He has no other option than to run.
They run through deserts and mountains, searching for gas, food and water. All the things necessary when an apocalypse hits. They do their best to avoid anyone else, not knowing who can be trusted…no one. Blake definitely puts his characters through hell.
Riveting. Engrossing. Suspenseful. Unputdownable. I’ll definitely be checking out more of his work.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
5 D A Y S A G O A rash of bizarre murders swept the country… Senseless. Brutal. Seemingly unconnected. A cop walked into a nursing home and unloaded his weapons on elderly and staff alike. A mass of school shootings. Prison riots of unprecedented brutality. Mind-boggling acts of violence in every state.
4 D A Y S A G O The murders increased ten-fold…
3 D A Y S A G O The President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace…
2 D A Y S A G O The killers began to mobilize…
Y E S T E R D A Y All the power went out…
T O N I G H T They’re reading the names of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. You are listening over the battery-powered radio on your kitchen table, and they’ve just read yours.
Your name is Jack Colclough. You have a wife, a daughter, and a young son. You live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People are coming to your house to kill you and your family. You don’t know why, but you don’t have time to think about that any more.
You only have time to….
R U N
This 80,000-word novel also contains a bonus interview with Blake, and excerpts from his other work.
Blake Crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of the forthcoming novel, Dark Matter, for which he is writing the screenplay for Sony Pictures. His international-bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy was adapted into a television series for FOX, executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, that was Summer 2015’s #1 show. With Chad Hodge, Crouch also created Good Behavior, the TNT television show starring Michelle Dockery based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. He has written more than a dozen novels that have been translated into over thirty languages and his short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Crouch lives in Colorado with his family.
N J Gallegos’ real life medical knowledge comes in handy in The Fatal Mind.
Shawn Gilbert’s NBA career ended when he suffered a head injury. The constant migraine headaches are relentless, ruining any semblance of a normal life…until…
Dr Absinthe has created an experimental chip that inhibits migraines and as soon as Shawn learns of it, he’s on board, FDA approval or not. I have headaches, but Tylenol does the trick for me. Would I want an experimental chip implanted into my brain? I don’t think so.
Some of Dr Absinthe patients don’t react so well to the implant. I figured her patients couldn’t all survive, otherwise we wouldn’t have a story. I am just along for the ride, letting the author take me where they want, instead of trying to anticipate the characters’ every move.
I was shocked, yet I smiled, at the brutal conclusion of Shawn and Rachel’s story. I never saw that coming, and I love it. N J Gallegos kept the pacing at a steady rate, keeping me reading page after page. I had to know how she would end the story.
That last sentence…well…
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Fatal Mind by N J Gallegos.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Dr. Aldea Absinthe’s experimental chip-implant procedure inhibits the migraine pain of her patients, releasing them from debilitating chronic pain. When she performs her new procedure on Shawn Gilbert, a former NBA superstar whose career was cut short by headaches, Gilbert becomes her biggest advocate, launching the brilliant and beautiful neurologist to national stardom. But when Gilbert’s wife Rachel sees Gilbert’s personality become darker by the day, it becomes a race against time to uncover the deadly secret behind Dr. Absinthe’s miracle cure in this Black Mirror meets Frankenstein medical horror thriller.
Genre: Fiction, Horror
Format: 236 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication: October 15, 2024 by Winding Road Stories
ABOUT N J GALLEGOS
N.J. Gallegos is an Emergency Medicine Physician who enjoys horror, medicine, and wicked women looking for revenge. Put all three together? Now we’re talking! She lives in Illinois with her wife and two cats. In her spare time, she enjoys binging reality trash tv, brewing beer, and running while listening to EDM so she can drink said brewed beer.
I want to thank Timber Ghost Press for the opportunity to read The Space Person by Catherine Kuo. As soon as I saw the cover, I had to have it. It’s a quick read, at 77 pages.
Human civilization had immigrated to Mars after using up all the resources on Earth and the Moon. Now they are in search of resources that can keep civilization going. They think they are in luck when they discover a moon that has the life sustaining fuel they so desperately need. Sometimes things are too good to be true.
It’s not long before the crew begins suffering affects from The Space Person. No one is safe.
Horror runs rampant before the story is over and I love when an author is not afraid to kill off their characters. Will anyone survive? You’ll have to read it to see.
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Deep in the waters of uncharted space, Captain Annie Chou and First Officer Jasmine Donnelly pilot the exploration ship Shiro Oni in search of resources to sustain the remnants of human civilization back on Mars. Humanity has already been driven from Earth by its own hubris, and now it faces the threat of extinction. By an enormous stroke of luck, the Shiro Oni crew discovers a moon they can mine containing life-saving fuel, and it almost seems too good to be true. Not long after they begin drilling, anxiety, restlessness, and agitation plagues the crew with no discernible cause. The only thing they have in common is a recurring dream involving a mysterious and unsettling “space person.” Driven by Captain Chou’s ambition for fame and glory, and Donnelly’s desperate bid for her people’s salvation, the crew presses on even as the afflicted begin turning to violence. As blood flows through the corridors of the ship, the survivors must ask Is it worth it?
Genre: Horror, Novella, Science Fiction
77 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication December 10, 2024 by Timber Ghost Press
The Crone by Kevin Bachar is one of the best horror novels I have read in a while. It’s part of his stand alone Houses Of Horror series. Most people think of their home as places of comfort and safety. Not so, Kevin Bachar’s homes. They are filled with horror and terror.
The fabulous cover hints at the horror awaiting new homeowners Paul and Tina Nimos. They are house flippers. Buying homes, fixing them up, and then selling them. This time, the house is in good shape and they are going to make it their forever home…Or so they think. The Crone will have something to say about that.
A sharp piece of wood, a drop of blood, and The Crone is released. What started out as hope for their forever home quickly feels like a curse. But the Crone never faced anyone like Tina before. Tina had served in Afghanistan, and she will put up one hell of a fight to protect her family and claim the house as their own.
I had moments of familiarity, like when she goes to the grocery store and has to put items back because she didn’t have enough money. I’m happy those days are over for me, I just hope it’s over for Tina too. It is small moments like this, that make the characters relatable and realistic…even The Crone…if you believe in that sort of thing.
I found myself smiling at the cute dialogue between Tina and her daughter, Katie.
“How about the Daddy doll? Does he listen to the Mommy?”
“No, he never does…..”He’s always in time out. Not very good at listening.”
Thrills and chills abound in The Crone by Keven Bachar. Sometimes the horror is subtle and anticipatory, other times it’s in your face. To add to the ambience, cozy up in your favorite reading place, turn out the lights, and read The Crone.
The Crone was unpudownable and has a great ending. I was soon flying through the pages, I read The Crone in one sitting, so take note, once you start you may not be able to stop.
5 Star
GOOREADS BLURB
Paul and Tina Nimos are like a lot of young married couples, they’re madly in love but finances are putting a strain on their relationship. Their home renovation business is struggling, and with a new baby in the house, bills are piling up. When Paul finds a cheap house to buy and flip, he thinks their problems are solved. It’s an older New England home, with plenty of history and once it’s repaired it should command a great price.
But as Paul and Tina begin the daunting task of restoring the new house, they struggle with the reconstruction. It seems the home doesn’t want to be repaired. As they fall behind in their renovation they realize that unexplained forces are conspiring against them and that helpful friends might not be who they seem.
Soon the couple realizes that a Crone could be the source of their troubles. But it might be too late, as the house and the Crone prepare to extract a horrific toll from Paul, Tina, and their baby. Will they be able to fight back against a centuries-old evil? The Crone, don’t ever let her in.
Genre: Fiction, Horror
266 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication October 30, 2024
ABOUT KEVIN BACHAR
Kevin Bachar is a national EMMY award-winning natural history documentary filmmaker and WGA writer. The elevated horror film he wrote – The Inhabitant – https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/the-inh… – was released through Lionsgate and is available on most streaming services.
If you’ve watched National Geographic, PBS, or The Discovery Channel over the years you’ve seen his work. He’s the idiot in the water filming sharks or crawling into caves to photograph vampire bats. You can see Kevin at work filming sharks here – https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2703407897/…
The natural world has always captured his imagination and the supernatural world inspires his stories. Through his journeys, he’s interviewed scientists who’ve enlightened him, heard folk tales that have frightened him, and seen quite a few things that have challenged his skeptical mind.
His collection of short stories that weaves together the natural world and the supernatural world entitled, DREAD, is available on Amazon. He’s currently working on his second collection entitled – CREEP.
I’ll Be Waiting is one of the best Kelley Armstrong novels I have read in some time.
“I’ll Be Waiting”, were some of Anton’s last words. Nicola had thought their short time together would be because of her illness, Cystic Fibrosis. She cannot accept that he is gone, so she hops from one seance to another.
Don’t we all know, don’t go in the basement. Yet, she does.
I didn’t trust the right person and did trust the wrong person. That’s some great writing. Sucked me right in.
I love that Kelley Armstrong had my head spinning. I couldn’t figure out if Nicola was being played or if it was true. I do love a convoluted ghost story. One that I am not able to figure out for myself. I was fooled and when I found the truth, I loved the book all the more. It’s nice to be surprised. I couldn’t figure out who to trust and was sucked into the ghostly mystery.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood…
Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future… together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press—the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.
Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium—a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned.
The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter…in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she’s haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn’t her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn’t her real name.
That’s when she finds the first body….
In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong’s full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life–if she can.
Expected publication October 1, 2024 by St Martin’s Press
ABOUT KELLEY ARMSTRONG
Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers’ dismay. All efforts to make her produce “normal” stories failed.
Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She’s the author of the NYT-bestselling “Women of the Otherworld” paranormal suspense series and “Darkest Powers” young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.
In the year 2040, a mysterious
creature is unleashed at the world’s biggest music festival…
Pulse
Book
One
by
B.A. Bellec
Genre:
Dystopian SciFi Horror
In the year 2040, a mysterious
creature is unleashed at the world’s biggest music festival…
“Bellec’s
descriptions are phenomenal, brutal, and heart-stopping. There were
parts that made my skin crawl, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. . .
I needed more!”
–
Jessica Scurlock, Author of the Pretty Lies Series
& Pulse Beta Reader
Pulse is
a plot-driven multi-POV dystopian sci-fi horror thriller set in 2040,
centered around a corporation, a creature, and a music festival.
Think Fyre Festival, Black Mirror,
and X-Files combined. The story deals with
themes of capitalism, consumerism, business, politics, pandemics,
climate change, activism, and technology while bouncing between a
diverse group of characters sure to entertain almost anyone. The book
is already being praised for its fantastic use of horror, engaging
world-building, and genre-bending approach utilizing some
screenplay-like formatting. This is the first entry in a new series
with the sequel well underway.
B.A.
Bellec writes with a unique, modern, minimalistic voice. He is the
author of Someone’s Story, his award-winning debut
novel called a masterpiece by multiple reviewers. Never afraid of a
challenge, Bellec switched genres to bring you this dark vision that
simmered in his mind for years.
Awards:
IAN Book of the Year
Finalist Horror (Nov 2022)
B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
(Apr 2022)
The Wishing Shelf Adult
Fiction Finalist (Apr 2022)
**Check
out the author’s
music
on Youtube
that is either
inspired
or tied to his novels!**
Pulse
Book
Two
by
B.A. Bellec
Genre:
Post-Apocalyptic SciFi Horror
The fate of humanity rests in the
hands of a few.
Pulse: Book Two is the
conclusion of B.A. Bellec’s dystopian sci-fi horror duology. This
time around we are tapping into iconic stories like The
Stand, Station Eleven, Cloud Atlas, Contact,
and The Road to add elite and ambitious scale. Our
chaotic journey picks up moments after the first book ends with
action from the second you start turning the pages, but if you
thought you knew where the story was going, leave your expectations
at the door and ask yourself this one question: how would an
autonomous droid defeat a monster?
In his literary debut, B.A. Bellec
writes an endearing coming-of-age tale about a group of weirdos that
find and save each other from the dark depths of their minds.
Someone’s Story is literally Someone’s story, as in a
first-person narrative of a teenager that calls himself Someone. As
he struggles to find a new footing in a new space, we encounter the
many ups and downs of modern teenage life, the difficulties that
adjusting to adult feelings brings, and a few tear-jerking surprises
along the way.
Littered with music, mental health,
friendship, loss, meditation, advice, pop culture, and even inspiring
an EP, there is so much nostalgia, inspiration, and depth here it is
hard to absorb it all. Cozy up somewhere warm and enjoy!
Awards:
Reader
Views Reviewer’s Choice Young Adult Book of the Year (March 2021)
B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree
(Apr 2022)
Readers’ Favorite Young
Adult Book of the Year Finalist (Sep 2021)
Next Generation Indie Book
Awards YA 17+ Finalist (May 2021)
Bryan
“B.A.” Bellec’s debut
novel, Someone’s
Story, won the Reader
Views Reviewer’s Choice Literary Award for Young Adult Book of the
Year. Someone’s
Story is a
coming-of-age novel about teen mental health. One of the aspects that
makes Bellec’s projects unique is he includes musicians in his
novels and then he actually produces the songs as his book goes
through the editing stages. You can find that music on his YouTube
channel. His second novel, Pulse,
was released in 2021 and has been receiving strong reviews. That
novel is a genre flip with dark dystopian sci-fi horror peppering the
pages. Pulse is
the start of a new fictional universe Bellec will write in for years
to come!
Corpse Whisperer Sworn by H R Boldwood is the third book in the Corpse Whisperer Series and I am fortunate to have them all, thanks to the author. The books are quick reads, because it’s hard to stop myself from racing through the pages.
With a gun in one hand and a blade in the other, Allie Nighthawk searches the streets of New Orleans for the necromancer, Toussaint. Who will win the face to face confrontation?
She can raise the dead, but spends most of her time putting down the freshies, flesh eaters and corpsicles with the help of her hotty, wantta be boyfriend, Ferris.
As I picture the zombies from The Walking Dead, I am laughing most of the way through the blood and guts, the zushi. The writing is humorous, even when they are shooting, slashing and stabbing, and their lives are on the line.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Corpse Whisperer Sworn by H R Boldwood.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Follow Allie Nighthawk to exciting New Orleans where she raises the dead, puts down rotters, and dabbles in the mystical world of hoodoo. She’s on the trail of an evil necromancer who will stop at nothing to rule the world with his army of deadheads. Is her magick strong enough to save the day? Or will this necromancer from her past kill her before she gets the chance? She figures she’s got a fifty-fifty shot. Make that forty-sixty.
H.R. Boldwood, author of the Corpse Whisperer series, countless short stories, and Imadjinn Award finalist, is a writer of horror and speculative fiction. In another incarnation, Boldwood is a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the 2009 Bilbo Award for creative writing by Thomas More College. Boldwood’s characters are often disreputable and not to be trusted. They are kicked to the curb at every conceivable opportunity when some poor unsuspecting publisher welcomes them with open arms. No responsibility is taken by this author for the dastardly and sometimes criminal acts committed by this ragtag group of miscreants.
There’s something very, very wrong with the children.
Feral
by Bryan W. Alaspa
Genre: Historical
Horror
For Garland, the move to California is just what his family needs to
finally find comfort and success. After years of failed businesses,
this may be their last chance. However, making the journey across the
dangerous Sierra Nevadas is potentially deadly business in the 1800s.
The journey is long and arduous.
This time, though,
Garland’s friend Silas says he met a man who has found an easier and
safer way to make the journey. Little does he know that his son is
having ominous dreams about their trip and that something lurks deep
within the woods. The long trek becomes harder and more difficult,
taking longer than promised. Soon, the entire train of wagons,
horses, and people is trapped in the mountains.
Then, the
snow comes and buries them. As a small party sets off for rescue, no
one knows that the thing within the woods that has been calling to
the children is ready. Beneath the snow, as the travellers fight off
starvation, a true nightmare starts—an ancient nightmare with sharp
teeth that affects the children. Now, the screaming starts, and the
true horror begins.
Bryan
W. Alaspa is a Chicago born and bred author of both fiction and
non-fiction works. He has been writing since he sat down at his
mother’s electric typewriter back in the third grade and pounded out
his first three-page short story. He spent time studying journalism
and other forms of writing. He turned to writing as his full-time
career in 2006 when he began writing freelance, online and began
writing novels and books.
He is the author of dozens of books in both fiction and
non-fiction and numerous short stories and articles.
Mr. Alaspa writes true crime, history, horror, thrillers,
mysteries, detective stories and tales about the supernatural.
