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Editorial Content for A Fire in the Sky

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

Sophie Jordan is a prolific writer whose creativity spans genres. In this new romantasy series, she returns to a fantasy world filled with dragons, witches and other magical creatures. It will enchant newcomers and bring back fond memories for those who read the Firelight books that inspired Jordan to create this prequel, which is, due to some steamy scenes, very adult in nature. Dragons have disappeared from the skies of this alternate world, killed by mankind. After they were all slain (or so everyone thought), the people killed the witches. Read More

Teaser

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous, especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard, though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship. When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind. The wedding night begins with unexpected passion --- and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed.

Promo

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous, especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard, though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship. When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind. The wedding night begins with unexpected passion --- and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed.

About the Book

New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan returns to the high-stakes, sweeping world of dragons, romance and drama first evoked in her bestselling young adult Firelight series, in a brand-new epic adult romantasy series.

Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.

But human lust for power is immortal.

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous, especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard, though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.

When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.

The wedding night begins with unexpected passion --- and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride. But can he accept the dark secrets she harbors --- secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.

Magic is not dead, it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.

Audiobook available; read by Karen Cass, Fiona Hardingham, Joe Jameson and Will Watt

Editorial Content for Death Stake: A Trasker Thriller

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

DEATH STAKE is professional magician Andrew Mayne’s second novel with Brad Trasker, following last year’s NIGHT OWL. The magic that Mayne works on the reader is that he turns a series based on corporate military espionage into a spy thriller worthy of the Jason Bourne books. Read More

Teaser

Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly a million dollars in investment money. Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one --- not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs or the Royal Thai Police --- is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die. Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders.

Promo

Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly a million dollars in investment money. Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one --- not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs or the Royal Thai Police --- is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die. Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders.

About the Book

The trail of missing coders leads a spy into an international underworld of treachery, double agents and digital espionage in a propulsive thriller by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly $1,000,000 in investment money.

Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one --- not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs or the Royal Thai Police --- is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die.

Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders. As the line between ally and enemy blurs, and the stakes become life and death, Trasker must navigate the dangerous intersection of modern intelligence and old-school spy games to survive.

Audiobook available, read by James Anderson Foster

Editorial Content for The Fabled Earth

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1932. The last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family enjoy their gorgeous mansion every summer at Plum Orchard. An appealing debutante expecting to be engaged by week's end and a promising female artist who thinks she is related to the wealthy hosts help entertain a battery of eligible sons of the wicked and famous. As temptations flare, an evening of fun and fancy leads to death and reputations squashed, with consequences for generations of the families involved. Read More

Teaser

Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape. Faced with a changing world, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect where a folktale meets the truth to reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along.

Promo

Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape. Faced with a changing world, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect where a folktale meets the truth to reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along.

About the Book

Sometimes the truth is found in a folktale.

1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families who come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide, a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.

1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly 30 years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist who has come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend --- and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost --- someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.

Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide in this sweeping story inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island when a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape. Faced with a changing world, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect where a folktale meets the truth to reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along.

Audiobook available, read by Cassandra Campbell

Editorial Content for Leave the Girls Behind

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Christine M. Irvin

Ruth-Ann Baker is a bartender in New York City who dropped out of college years ago. Instead of attending classes, she now “investigates” stories of children who have been abducted.

"There’s a major twist near the end of the book that I didn’t see coming. It gives a whole new dimension to the tale and is why LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND is one of my favorite books of 2024."

Teaser

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender --- and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald when another young girl goes missing from the same town. And when she uncovers startling new evidence that suggests Oswald did not act alone, she is determined to find his deadly partner in crime. Embarking on a global investigation, Ruth becomes close to three very different women --- one of whom just might hold the key to what happened to the missing girl. And her childhood friend, all those years ago.

Promo

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender --- and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald when another young girl goes missing from the same town. And when she uncovers startling new evidence that suggests Oswald did not act alone, she is determined to find his deadly partner in crime. Embarking on a global investigation, Ruth becomes close to three very different women --- one of whom just might hold the key to what happened to the missing girl. And her childhood friend, all those years ago.

About the Book

The acclaimed author of the “tour de force” (The New York Times Book Review) BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME returns with a fresh suspense novel about a woman haunted by a serial killer and the ghosts he left behind.

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender --- and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald when another young girl goes missing from the same town. And when she uncovers startling new evidence that suggests Oswald did not act alone, she is determined to find his deadly partner in crime.

Embarking on a global investigation, Ruth becomes close to three very different women --- one of whom just might hold the key to what happened to the missing girl. And her childhood friend, all those years ago.

From an author who “pushes the boundaries of crime fiction in all the right ways” (Alex Finlay, author of THE NIGHT SHIFT), LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND is another spine-chilling thriller that will linger long after you finish the last page.

Audiobook available, read by Stephanie Cannon

Editorial Content for Murder Town

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Australian author Shelley Burr, whose first novel WAKE was an international bestseller, returns with MURDER TOWN. Once again, the story is set amidst the less popular areas of Australia and is ideal for readers who have enjoyed the work of Jane Harper and Candice Fox. Read More

Teaser

Gemma Guillory has lived in the Australian Outback enclave of Rainier her entire life. Her once charming town is now remembered for one reason and one reason only: three innocent people died there at the hands of a serial killer. The last stop on the Rainier Ripper’s trail of deaths 15 years ago was her picturesque little tea shop. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her policeman husband and their marriage to this day, and some of her neighbors are desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier’s notoriety as the “Murder Town.” When the tour guide is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer’s wake explodes into the light, and Gemma is drawn into the investigation.

Promo

Gemma Guillory has lived in the Australian Outback enclave of Rainier her entire life. Her once charming town is now remembered for one reason and one reason only: three innocent people died there at the hands of a serial killer. The last stop on the Rainier Ripper’s trail of deaths 15 years ago was her picturesque little tea shop. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her policeman husband and their marriage to this day, and some of her neighbors are desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier’s notoriety as the “Murder Town.” When the tour guide is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer’s wake explodes into the light, and Gemma is drawn into the investigation.

About the Book

For fans of Jane Harper and true crime, a dark and gripping thriller set in a small town in the Australian Outback, by the author of the international bestseller WAKE.

Gemma Guillory has lived in the Australian Outback enclave of Rainier her entire life. She knows the tiny, red-dust town’s ins and outs by heart, knows the people like they are her family, their quirks as if they were her own.

She also knows her once charming town is now remembered for one reason and one reason only: three innocent people died there at the hands of a serial killer. The last stop on the Rainier Ripper’s trail of deaths 15 years ago was her picturesque little tea shop. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her policeman husband and their marriage to this day, and some of her neighbors are desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier’s notoriety as the “Murder Town.”

When the tour guide is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer’s wake explodes into the light, and Gemma is drawn into the investigation. Unbeknownst to her, so is a prisoner named Lane Holland, a former private investigator who earned a living cracking cold cases before he ran afoul of the law.

Gemma knows her town. She knows her people. Doesn't she?

Audiobook available, read by Jacquie Brennan

November 8, 2024

When we left off last week, I was trying to figure out how to spend the extra hour that Standard Time brought. I confess that I slept. Then I spent a whirlwind couple of hours cooking, making a double helping of butternut squash soup, as well as pumpkin muffins. And I roasted a batch of poblano chili peppers. I am not sure where this fever to cook and bake came from! Did I feel like November meant that it was time to gear up for the holidays with kitchen time?

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger

November 2024

Mothers! They are the subject of Susan Rieger’s terrific novel, LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER. Here we get a look at three generations of mothers.

Lila Pereira is the first mother we meet in a section called “Lila.” She has spent her life in the limelight as the renowned executive editor of The Washington Globe. She’s been a rather absentee mother --- the kind who bore three daughters and seems to drop in and out of their lives, there when summoned but perhaps in body only and ready to zip off to another program or event. For the steadying force in their lives, her children rely on their father, Joe. He nurtures them and is their main rudder.

What to Give, What to Get 2024

We at Bookreporter.com know that readers crave ideas for gift-giving --- and getting --- at the holidays. With this in mind, we are offering a "What to Give, What to Get" Guide with four "Reader Perfect" suggestions.

Week of November 25, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of November 25th include NEVER GIVE UP, a moving story from Tom Brokaw that chronicles the values and lessons he absorbed from his parents and other people who worked hard to build lives on the prairie during the first half of the 20th century; BETRAYAL by Phillip Margolin, a twisty thriller in which attorney Robin Lockwood finds herself defending her old nemesis in a multiple murder case with too many suspects; THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS, Erika Johansen's gloriously transportive reimagining of "The Nutcracker" that tells the tale of twin sisters, divided by envy and magic, set against each other one fateful Christmas Eve; and Sam Wasson's THE PATH TO PARADISE, the definitive account of Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-long dream to reinvent American filmmaking, if not the entire world, through his production company, American Zoetrope.

Week of November 18, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of November 18th include HELLO BEAUTIFUL by Ann Napolitano, a poignant and engrossing family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?; BAUMGARTNER, a taut yet expansive novel of love, memory and grief from the late Paul Auster; Katherine Howe's A TRUE ACCOUNT, a daring first-hand account of one young woman's unbelievable adventure as one of the most terrifying sea rovers of all time; DEAD MAN'S HAND, a propulsive and topical edge-of-your-seat thriller from former special forces officer Brad Taylor, whose protagonist, Pike Logan, goes head-to-head with Vladimir Putin’s henchmen; and the paperback original SHELL GAMES by Bonnie Kistler, a dazzling work of psychological suspense about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind --- and the daughter can’t tell where the truth lies.