Reviews
The Madman’s Daughter (The Madman’s Daughter #1)
Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.
Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.
The Least Envied (Songs Unsung #2)
Cast back in time to a perilous wasteland, Andrew is tasked with recording the fate of an individual history has chosen to ignore. Threatened by knee-high creatures called Wogs, an enigmatic beast known as the Forest Monster, and the man orchestrating the slow annihilation of the world, Andrew discovers all hope for salvation and survival rests with a boy without a history.
Never Let Me Go
As a child, Kathy – now thirty-one years old – lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.
And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed – even comforted – by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.
The Lotus Effect (Rise of the Ardent #1)
An improbable partnership. An unforgettable love.
Lily Emerson, daughter of the Head of Council and Mistress of Science, has lived a privileged life. It’s Lily’s 18th nameday, the day she is to follow in her mother’s footsteps, becoming the next Mistress of Science—the most powerful woman in all of City Prosper. The Architect and designer of Prosper’s future.
During the night of her Coronation, the corruption of the Council spreads before her . . . opening her eyes to the cruelty that resides in the Council, even within her own parents. Lily realizes now the title of Mistress only comes with superficial power, that to truly save the citizens—she has to fight.
Fight in the Barrage—the mechanical gladiatorial tournament in which one chosen pair of volunteers from each Sector fights, armor-clad and as a team, utilizing unique weapon specialties: the Gatling gun, the Cestus, Klaives, Crescent Knives, mechanically engineered beasts—in the hope to win the right to change the Law. A law that has remained unchanged since its creation almost eighty years ago.
The Antithesis: Bellum Alpha
A storm has swept across The Atrium, fueled by famine, fear and the desperation for survival. Hell has declared war on Heaven, and Argent Commander Yahweh Telei is left without any time to prepare.
Leid and her guardians face exile from The Atrium, as the end of the Contest means the end of their contract. With expiration quickly eating away at her, it won't be long before Calenus Karim and the Court of Enigmus come to drag Leid back to Exo'daius. But she won't go without a fight.
As everything unravels at the seams, Qaira Eltruan is forced to face his crimes and all the consequences they have brought. The Atrium isn't his home anymore, yet something calls him back. His thirst is unclear. Vengeance or forgiveness?
Repossession (The Keepers Trilogy #1)
Skylla only knows that she has been kidnapped and held prisoner by the foreign invaders and their human allies. And that the world is ending. Or so the humans think. The invaders have made it clear that their arrival is one of hostile intent, and as their takeover spreads, so does the panic across the globe. No one knows how to defeat them, or if it’s even sane to try.
Jet, Skylla’s human captor, is up for the challenge, though. A traitor in Skylla’s eyes, he is working with them. But Jet has his own agenda; one that doesn’t include babysitting Skylla or helping the enemies. And as the human race struggles to keep the invaders from achieving their goal, Jet and Skylla’s paths collide to reveal the truth behind Skylla’s abduction.
The invaders are headed for the water. Jet is headed for the water. But that’s the last place Skylla wants to be. That’s where the future of humanity lies, and where the bridge to their yesterdays was burned. On a mission to take back what is rightfully theirs, Earth’s population is determined to make sure this isn’t the end. But some endings were never theirs to begin with.
The Antithesis: Decus Beta
Sanctum is lost. The angels have won.
Regent Qaira Eltruan is cornered. Surrender or stand to lose everything--everything being Advisor Leid Koseling and his sanity.
As his people await news of their fate, the Court of Enigmus circles Sanctum, ready to deal swift punishment for Leid's contract breach. All fronts look bleak, and now there's much more at stake than Qaira's world.
Except Qaira isn't willing to hand Leid over, nor is surrender part of his vocabulary.
All bets are off in this stunning conclusion of Decus.
Shade's Children
The key to survival rests in the hands of Shade's Children. In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machinelike creature whose sole purpose is to kill.
The mysterious Shade -- once a man, but now more like the machines he fights -- recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power -- and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become...
A Portrait in Time
A contemporary thriller that delves deep into a surreal psychological drama complete with art, love, ancestry and time travel.
A beautiful naked woman and the grotesquely crushed body of a man mysteriously appear in the main gallery of the Musée d’Orsay, the famed Paris art museum. There’s no trail of blood and no external clues. The man is naked and has no I.D.—but the body appears to have been crushed by tremendous external forces. The man’s fingerprints turn up nothing: he doesn’t seem to have ever existed.
The only clue Paris detectives have is a fleeting glimpse of someone else on the museum’s surveillance video. Someone who looks identical to the museum’s own assistant director, Susanne Bruante, a woman with a sterling reputation in the art world. And a rock-solid alibi, but one she may not want to make public: Susanne is involved with the museum’s own executive director, a married man, a relationship meant only to further her own career.
With Inspector Michèle Crossier of the Police Judiciare on her trail, Susanne finds herself a prime suspect in a murder mystery that grows more bizarre by the hour. Who is the mystery woman, if it isn’t Susanne herself, and where is the woman hiding? Where did the body come from, and how could it have been crushed within the museum without leaving any other evidence behind? And how does the apparent murder tie in with Susanne’s news-making and controversial theory about a certain nude model in the nineteenth century—a theory that, if proven, could make Susanne’s career?
Forced to come up with answers or face more scrutiny from the police, Susanne must call in favors from some of the people she’s loved and left, including an old boyfriend who happens to be doing research—on time travel.
The Antithesis: Decus Alpha
Qaira Eltruan leads the fearsome Sanctum Enforcers, a specialized military sect designed to eradicate angel terrorists. Oldest son of the Nehelian Regent, he has large shoes to fill. But Qaira's father and his people don't know the sordid deeds it takes to keep the angels from invading.
He has blood on his hands; so much that it has stained his skin forever.
As the Regent slips into early-onset dementia, Qaira is forced to take the throne. He's never been a leader, always a soldier, and the war against the angels is getting fiercer every year. The enemy is taking apart their city, piece by piece, all the while his people rot from perpetual-war poverty and malay addiction.
The Regent's appointed council contracts an otherworldly Scholar to oversee and advise Qaira's rise to power. If Qaira can find a way to put up with her opinionated, stubborn attitude, this Scholar has knowledge,secrets, that can serve to sway the battle in their favor. But Scholar Leid Koseling has secrets of her own...
Secrets that may kill them all.