Excerpt: Tough Karma: A Race Against Time (The Karma Series Book 1) by Laura Simmons +giveaway

A chilling tale of loss, tragedy, psychic warfare, and eternal love.

Tough Karma: A Race Against Time (The Karma Series Book 1)
by Laura Simmons
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

“Tough Karma - A Race Against Time took my preconceived idea and previous experience of Paranormal Romance, rolled it into a tight little ball and slam dunked it in the bin of old experiences.” The International Review of Books

A chilling tale of loss, tragedy, psychic warfare, and eternal love.

Amber Macklin’s world is cruelly shattered when she loses her baby girl three months after her husband’s sudden death. Her cousin, Bryce, comes to her rescue, moving her into his home for fear she will kill herself from the grief. He provides solace and a shoulder to cry on, and he has loved her as more than a cousin for a long time. Amber and Bryce soon discover they are not blood relatives, which opens the door for romance as he pulls her through her darkest hours. When Mike, a college friend of Bryce’s, stops by to visit, Amber senses a deadly secret behind his nice guy persona. She has a frightening dream that Mike is trying to kill her and recurring sleepwalking episodes where she draws detailed pictures of him torturing her. Deeply troubled, Bryce uses his ability to astral travel to investigate Mike and uncover his terrifying past. Mike has had his eye on Amber for some time, and when he learns that Bryce and Amber have become lovers, he is furious. Mike abducts Amber and takes her to his rural Georgia hideaway, and Bryce must rely on his astral abilities to track her down. But will he be too late?
Tough Karma is a stand alone novel. The astral adventures continue in Dark Karma: Sword of Vengeance.

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 Seven hours had passed since Mike shot her up with benzo, and they were a little over half-way to his hideout. As the effects started wearing off, she had a vivid dream . . .

. . . She is running through the woods, terrified because Mike is chasing her. She calls out frantically for Bryce over and over, trying to outrun her pursuer, “BRYCE, WHERE ARE YOU? HELP ME! HE’S GOT ME. PLEASE HELP ME!” She hears his voice echoing through the woods, “Amber, baby, I’m on my way to get you. Hang in there; I WILL find you”. . .

A sudden back-handed smack in the face jolted her awake. “SHUT UP!” Mike yelled. “Do you know that you talk in your sleep? Bryce isn’t coming to rescue you. He will never find you. Get that through your head right now.”

He’s surrounded by black, is that his aura?! That’s why I felt a dark heaviness around him and from the pictures I drew . . . the drugs are making me see things. Don’t backtalk, don’t let him know that Bryce knows where to find me . . . I have to survive this; I don’t want him to kill me . . . she thought and looked down at her hands. He had put the handcuffs back on . . . If I weren’t afraid of dying in a car crash or worse, I would attempt to hit him right now. I can do more with my arms and hands in front of me . . . “I have to pee again,” she stated choking back the tears and still feeling the sting from his slap.

“There’s a rest stop ten miles ahead. We’ll stop there. It’s time for another shot of benzo. If you try to put up a fight, I’ll make sure you hurt the rest of the way, badly,” he said coldly.

“Why are you doing this? Why me? Do you really think that you can abduct a woman and make her fall in love with you?” she asked trying to stay calm and thinking of Bryce’s voice from her dream . . . I wonder if that was really him communicating with me. I want to believe it was. Mike didn’t respond to her question and kept his eyes on the road. He wasn’t used to women behaving so calmly. Then again, he was handling her differently than the others and hoping for better results.

Ten miles seemed like forever to her, and they finally arrived at the rest area. She debated different scenarios of getting away from him and screaming for help. Her legs weren’t shackled, and her mouth wasn’t duct taped, yet. He seemed to read her mind and threatened her as he pulled into a parking space close to the restrooms. He drew a handgun from a side compartment in the door, shoving it into her stomach and said, “If you try ANYTHING, including screaming for help, I will gun down everyone I see, and innocent people will pay for your selfish behavior. I’ll make sure you’re killed along with the rest of them,” he threatened with the coldest look in his eyes she had ever seen.

She was getting angry and even though he had a gun shoved into her stomach she responded with disdain, “I don’t want anyone killed because of me, except for you!”

He just laughed and pushed the gun deeper into her stomach, making her wince in pain. “Keep talking like that and I’ll kill you before we get there,” he said. She decided to cooperate and try to escape at a later time. She didn’t think he would kill her this soon, but she was going to play it safe. He shot her up with more benzo and helped her walk to the restroom while he stood outside and waited. In her drugged state she looked longingly at the small windows in the restroom and briefly contemplated how she might escape through them, knowing that she would never make it. When she was finished, she stumbled out the door and he caught her before she hit the ground.

“Come on, honey, let’s get you home,” he said kindly putting his arms around her to help her stay upright. I hate you and your ugly aura . . . she thought and passed out a few seconds after getting into the Jeep.

Dark Karma: Sword of Vengeance (The Karma Series Book 2)
“Dark Karma is a fascinating story that would surely be loved by any fan of fantasy and romance. Simmons proved herself a competent author in writing a tale of angst, magic, and determination." Reader Views

What would you do if you woke up one morning and your world was inexplicably changed in the worst way imaginable?

Banished by his enemy into a hellish alternate dimension, Luke Decker fights to understand why his world has suddenly changed, and why is he on trial for the murder of his beloved Nina? What he doesn’t know is she’s not dead. Nina watches him vanish into thin air and is completely bereft, struggling to find out how and why he disappeared. Using all of her psychic talents and traversing the astral realm, she frantically searches for him to no avail. She owns a secret item which holds the key to his salvation, but will she figure it out before he’s condemned to live the rest of his life in a realm of darkness?

This remarkable tale of vengeance, time travel, and dark magic is even more enjoyable if you read Tough Karma: A Race Against Time first.

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Karma: The Resolution (The Karma Series Book 3)
This story picks up where Dark Karma left off. Enjoy the next thrilling adventure into alternate dimensions!

“From the first time I saw you back in the 14th century to the day I was imprisoned in the dark realm, you have lived in my dreams and my heart,” David said to Maddie. He knows that she is the reincarnation of his beloved Cara. Can he convince her that they shared a past life? Will she still want him once she learns the truth? And what about the evil immortal who wants her dead?

“If I can pull a cat from a dream, I can rescue Mori from where she’s being held prisoner,” thought Noah Colton. Each night Mori comes to him on the astral plane, begging for him to save her and vanishing before he can follow. Terrified that she will soon be killed, he travels to another dimension to rescue her and bring her to his home. But what will happen when her captors track her down?

Two, out-of-this-world romantic fantasy stories unfold as David and Noah battle dark forces to save the women they love. Find out what happens when the unexpected intervenes and changes everything in these interconnected stories.

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Little Bits of Karma (The Karma Series Prequel)
A captivating reincarnation romance of redemption and forgiveness.

Even though Holly O’Rourke is having problems with her longtime significant other, James, she has never entertained thoughts of infidelity…that is, until the day she has a chance encounter with Charlie, a handsome coworker. James promises he will change and work on their relationship, but Holly’s feelings for Charlie just won’t go away. Distressed by her mixed emotions, Holly schedules an appointment for a reading with a psychic medium, where she discovers her adulterous past lives and their tragic consequences. Holly learns to do her own past life regression through self-hypnosis and uncovers not only lives that she shared with James and Charlie, but how the other people in her present life have been with her in the past—the threads of their lives interwoven for centuries. Holly is stunned by recurring themes and the issues of karmic justice that need to be addressed. Where will her karmic path ultimately lead? Find out in Little Bits of Karma, an entertaining new book about spiritual cause and effect.

**Only .99cents!!**
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Laura Simmons grew up in northern Virginia and spent most of her career working for various Department of Defense contractors in the Washington, DC area. She has a fascination with all things metaphysical and mysterious. She enjoys adult coloring books, writing, jigsaw puzzles, arts and crafts, and vacationing at the beach.

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Cover Reveal: Daemones ex Machina by Russell Anders - Cyberpunk / Fantasy

 

Daemones ex Machina
by Russell Anders
Release Date: July 23rd, 2025
Genre: Cyberpunk/Urban Fantasy Fiction
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
If you make a deal with the Devil, don’t forget to read the fine print.

Three operatives find themselves on the run after a corporate sabotage job goes awry. Now, their predatory employer, a heavyweight weapons-tech firm, wants its elite A-team dead at all costs. Jon is a smooth-talking charmer. Friedrich is a hacker prodigy. And Guion is the ice-cold tactician who keeps them all in line.

Backs against the wall, the men strike separate infernal pacts to stay alive. They vanish into the urban badlands of New York’s Five Hives, vowing to lie low and figure out why they’ve become targets. Meanwhile, Jon suspects there’s an insidious evil possessing his friends, and he wonders if they all got more than they bargained for.

Amid an escalating war between local gangs and the firm’s private shock troops, the fugitives uncover a conspiracy that threatens to destroy everyone they know and love. But can they stop the destruction before their inner demons seize control?

About the Author
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At the age of four, Russell Anders started telling stories, often interrupting his mother during bedtime reading to ask, “Then what happened?” She always answered, “You tell me,” and his imagination conjured fantastical tales of dragons and dinosaurs.

He gravitated toward a career as a technical writer and writing coach for software companies. He also briefly served as a columnist for Dragon Magazine. One of his favorite hobbies includes tabletop role playing, especially as the game master. And yes, he's as cruel to the characters in his games as he is to the characters in his books; his players love him for it.

Russel lives with the constant canine companionship of whip-smart but goofy Sigurd, an English Mastiff (the best breed ever).

Daemones ex Machina is his debut novel.

New Release: The Ghost Woods by C. J. Cooke

C.J. Cooke has delighted readers and reviewers time and again for deftly weaving history, folklore and suspense into suspenseful tales that center women’s lives. Her international bestseller, THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES, released to wide acclaim, garnered both Edgar Award and ITW Thriller Award nominations. In her 2024 horror thriller A HAUNTING IN THE ARCTIC Cooke explored the haunting effects of trauma and grief wrapped in a chilling ghost story and in her second book last year, THE BOOK OF WITCHING, examined the unshakable bond between mother and child, past and present, showcasing just how far a mother will go to protect her children.

The Ghost Woods
by C. J. Cooke
April 29, 2025
Genre: horror, ghost, thriller
A young woman sent to stay in a crumbling gothic manor will find haunting secrets creeping out of the surrounding dark woods in this new, chilling novel from the acclaimed author of The Lighthouse Witches.

In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who is not quite a child.

Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed.

Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something. Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live on the grounds—and together they begin to unpack the secrets of this place. As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew—and risk what she holds most dear.

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Praise for the novels of C.J. Cooke

“Pure spooky pleasure.”—Stephen King on THE NESTING

“An unnerving tale full of ghosts, selkies and plenty of mystery, which Cooke deploys not only to craft the novel’s frights but also to probe ideas of grief and retribution…haunting.”
—The New York Times on A HAUNTING IN THE ARCTIC

“[A] nail-biting, Gothic suspense novel.”—OK! Magazine on THE NESTING

“Truly scary.”—Book Riot on THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES

 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I

Then

Mabel

Dundee, Scotland

May 1959

I have a ghost in my knee. There's a small pocket just behind the kneecap and she's hiding in there, all tucked up in the soft mattress of cartilage. She's very small and terrified, so I'm sitting with that leg slightly straightened so I don't disturb her. I've not said a word about this to anyone. They'd think I'm mad.

"Mabel? Are you listening?"

Ma's eyes are wide, as if she's trying to wake herself up, but her hands tell a different story. She's holding on to the strap of her handbag, knuckles white, as though we're on a fairground ride.

"Did you hear what Dr. McCann just said?"

I nod, but I didn't hear, not really. I'm always doing this-sliding off into a daydream. I look over the file on the desk beside us. I can see my name. Mabel Anne Haggith. Date of birth 12 March 1942, ninety-eight pounds, five foot two. Dr. McCann peers down his spectacles, his fat red fingers laced together like a sea creature. The air in the room pulses with the sense that I've done something wrong.

"When was the date of your last menstrual period, Miss Haggith?" he asks.

"I'm not sure." Embarrassment hits me like a slap. Nobody has ever asked me that before. It's a private thing.

"Do try and recall," he says wearily. Ma nudges me as though I'm being rude.

"My . . . my monthlies have always been irregular," I stammer.

"I only need to know about one menses, Miss Haggith." Dr. McCann sighs. "The last one."

"Just before Christmas," I say, remembering how the ground seemed to tilt that morning in the bakery when I was putting in the first batch of mince pies. A strong twist in my groin, and I knew what was happening. Unlike now.

Dr. McCann scribbles something down before flipping through the calendar on his desk. More scribbling, and muttering. The ghost in my knee gives a cough.

"Five months," Dr. McCann announces suddenly. "Which suggests a due date around the end of September." He licks his finger and thumb and plucks a leaflet from a pile on his desk. "Here," he says, passing it to Ma. "I expect you'll wish to make inquiries as soon as you can."

Ma takes the leaflet with a sob. The ghost is restless, unable to sleep now. I rub my kneecap furiously until Ma pulls my hand away, irritated.

"Who was it?" she snaps, her eyes flashing. "Was it that awful boy, Jack?"

"Jack?" I say, frowning. "I don't understand. What's wrong with me? Am I dying?"

"Dying?" Dr. McCann starts to laugh. "Come on, Mabel. You're seventeen. You're not a child."

". . . would have thought you'd keep your legs crossed," Ma hisses, angry tears wobbling in her eyes. "And that dirty, disgusting boy. I knew it would come to this. I knew it."

It's only when I see the title of the leaflet that it dawns on me, a slow realization like creeping fingers along my neck. St. Luke's mother and baby home. The front of the leaflet bears a picture of a woman sitting in bed, a man and woman beside her. They're all smiling, and she's handing a baby to them. A subheading reads, Adoption is the best option for unwed mothers.

They think I'm expecting a baby. That's what this is.

"I'm not having a baby," I protest loudly, and I almost go to tell them about the ghosts that sometimes sleep in my lungs or hide in my gums, and that maybe there's a ghost in my womb and they've mistaken it for a baby. But instead, I say, "I'm a virgin," which causes Dr. McCann to splutter into a laugh. But it's true-I am a virgin. I've never had sex, not even the type you do with your hands.

Dr. McCann looks at Ma, whose face is tight, lips pursed. A fact I heard once drifts into my mind-the average person tells one or two lies a day, but is lied to up to two hundred times a day. I know I've told the truth. So is Dr. McCann lying?

My stepdad, Richard, is waiting for us in the car when we go outside. "Everything OK?" he asks Ma, and she presses her face into his chest as though we've just fled a war.

He narrows his eyes and looks from her to me. "What did you do?" he says.

I keep my knee straight for the ghost, but she's moved. I can feel her in my tummy now, dancing.

"It's that Jack," Ma whispers, stricken. "He's got Mabel in trouble."

Jack's my friend from two doors down. We've been seeing each other, but we've never gone further than kissing. "It's not Jack!" I say, afraid that she's going to pin blame on him when he's innocent.

"Mother of God," she hisses, crossing herself. "There's a squadron of potential fathers."

Richard stares at me, his face darkening. My heart flutters in my chest. I don't know what I've done wrong.

We pull off for home. Our house is a four-story terrace on Rotten Row. There are nine bedrooms, seven of which are usually occupied by strangers. It's only been a guesthouse since Dad died ten years ago. It's how Ma met Richard. He came to stay six years ago and never left.

We stop outside Mr. McGregor's butcher shop. Richard winds down the window and the smell wafting from the shop door is like an open crypt. I scramble for the door handle, certain I'm about to be sick.

Adoption is the best option for unwed mothers.

"You can go for the mince, Mabel," Ma says, handing me some coins. "A quarter pound and not half an ounce more, do you hear? On you go."

I press the lapel of my coat to my nose and walk into the butcher's. An inch of sawdust carpets the floor, plucked chickens are strung up by their necks, and a row of dead pigs hang upside down along the back wall.

Mr. McGregor's son Rory is working today. He's a little older than me, and he's deaf. When Rory's working, they use a notepad and a pencil for the customers to write down what they want. Sometimes Rory writes back little messages, like "Nice day for a BBQ!" or "You're looking well today, Mrs. Haggith!"

What was I to order again? A dead chicken? When I reach the top of the queue, Rory has been replaced by an older man I've never seen before. He must work for Mr. McGregor because he's wearing a bloodstained striped apron and he's wiping his hands on a towel and staring at me. He has a tattoo on the side of his face. A spider's web.

"What'll it be?" he says. "Got a great deal on pork sausages today. A pound for ten pence."

I'm still too deep in my body to speak to him. I pick up the notepad and pencil.

Chicken, was it?

I take a fresh page on the notepad and write, but the words don't make sense. They say:

There's a man in the car with a knife to my ma's neck. He'll kill her if you don't give me everything in the till.

I hand the note to the man with the spider's web tattoo. He looks up at me with a look of wild confusion, and suddenly I'm relieved because he's every bit as green about the gills as I feel after what happened in Dr. McCann's office. Why did I write that? One of the ghosts must have written it. I can feel one of them lengthening along the bone of my index finger, fidgeting.

The shop is empty. The man glances again at Richard's car parked outside, and whatever he sees must convince him because he makes a quick dash for the till and starts stuffing handfuls of money into a plastic bag. He hands it to me with a grim nod, the bag full of coins and notes swinging in the foul stench of the dead things. I find my arm lifting, my fingers unfolding from my palm, the bag jangling in my hand, my feet turning and cutting a fresh path through the sawdust. And then I'm outside, and I get into the car and hold on to the bag of money. I'm not sure what's going on.

"Pass me the mince," Ma says, snapping her fingers at me. "And the receipt. He better not have overcharged you. Always adding on a few more ounces than I asked for, that McGregor."

I hand her the bag. She opens it and stares down at the cash. There's a moment of complete silence, when all the ghosts inside me are still and Ma's too bewildered to say anything at all. But it doesn't last. She turns sharply and stares at me in alarm.

"Mabel?" she says.

Now

Pearl

Scottish Borders, Scotland

September 1965

1

This place is in the middle of goddamn bloody nowhere. It's getting dark, and I swear my bladder is going to explode if I don't pee in the next two minutes.

"Do you think we could pull over?" I ask Mr. Peterson. He's the Church of England's Moral Welfare Officer.

"Oh no, is it that time?" he says, tearing his eyes from the road to glance at me with horror. "Do we need to find you a hospital?"

"What? No!" I say. "I'm not in labor. I just need to empty my bladder."

The car wobbles slightly as Mr. Peterson decides what to do with this information. He flicks the indicator-a pointless act, given that we're the only car for miles-and slams the brakes on, pulling to the side of the road in a cloud of gravel dust.

I burst out of the car and scramble through the bushes at the roadside, arranging my heavily pregnant body before squatting down with relief. It's only when I'm finished that I realize I'm ankle-deep in a bog, and my attempts to yank my feet free of the sucking mud flicks up enough of it to ruin the expensive dress my mother bought for me to impress the Whitlocks. Fat chance they'll be anything but disgusted now.

"Oh dear. Did you have a fall?" Mr. Peterson asks when I return to the car. I had to reach into the bog to retrieve one of my shoes, so I'm now sleeved and socked in black slime. He produces a handkerchief from his breast pocket, and I use it to scrub off the worst of it, but the smell makes me gag.

"Let's go, shall we?" I say.

"Right." He clears his throat and turns the radio on before heading back to the road. The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" comes on, and he moves a hand from the wheel to change the station.

"Oh, can you not?" I say. "I love the Beatles."

He's miffed, but leaves the radio as it is.

"I went to see them, you know," I tell him. "Last April. When they came to Edinburgh."

"Did they?" he says, and I laugh. As if anyone on the planet didn't know this.

"I signed the original petition to get them to come to Scotland."

"You must be quite the fan," he says.

I tell him how Lucy, Sebastian, and I camped out for two nights on Bread Street to get tickets. It was freezing cold, a long row of sleeping bags huddled together on the pavements, but I never laughed so much in my life. And then, the night of the concert, the sight of the four of them on the small stage of the ABC Cinema, all in gray suits. When they played "I Want to Hold Your Hand," you could barely hear them for the hysteria. Everyone around us immediately burst into tears, even Sebastian. It feels like a hundred years ago that we did that.

"I'm more of a Glenn Miller man myself," Mr. Peterson says, and he gives in to the urge to flip the station to the eight o'clock BBC News.

I wonder how often he makes this trip, driving knocked-up girls to mother and baby homes-although the place we're headed to isn't a mother and baby home, per se. It's a residential home. Lichen Hall, a sprawling sixteenth-century manor house owned by the Whitlock family, who lovingly take in girls like me on occasion to spare them the indignity of entering an institution. I'm grateful for this, really I am. But I'm so anxious, I've broken out in hives. Lichen Hall is situated on the Scottish Borders, half an hour from the little fishing village of St. Abbs-or, like I said, in the middle of goddamn nowhere. What am I going to do all day? I should have asked if they have a record player, or, at the very least, a television. I'm used to being busy, up at five to start my shift at the hospital, then straight out to dinner or a nightclub with friends.

"I don't suppose you know if this place has a television?" I ask Mr. Peterson.

"I'm afraid I don't."

"They'll have a phone, won't they? I'll be able to ring my family?"

"You didn't find that out before you agreed to stay?"

Truth be told, I was too ashamed to do anything other than resign myself to whatever fate my parents planned out for me. Pregnant and unmarried at twenty-two. I'm such a disappointment.

"It's not too late to apply for a place at an institutional mother and baby home," he says, hearing the fear in my silence. "They've changed, you know. Not as Dickensian as they used to be."

I don't believe this for a moment. I visited a mother and baby home last month. It was one of the smaller ones, in a terraced house on Corstorphine Road, run by the Salvation Army. The atmosphere inside chilled me. The matron was charming, but the walls were cold and bare, and from the pale, fearful expressions of the girls there I suspected she ruled the place with an iron fist.

"Ma says she knows the owners of Lichen Hall," I tell him. "She says they're my kind of people. Mr. Whitlock's retired. He was a scientist. A pioneering microbiologist, if I'm correct."

"A microbiologist? And they own a mansion?"

"He held professorships at Edinburgh University and Yale. Mrs. Whitlock's father bought Lichen Hall, back in the day. I'm sure they'll have a telephone." I say this more for myself than for Mr. Peterson. "And anyway, how would it look if I canceled so late in the day?"

He arches an eyebrow. "Your mother is a friend of the Whitlocks?"

"Well, friends of friends." I try to read his look. "Why? And don't even think about telling me the place is haunted. My brother's already tried that one."

About the Author:
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C J Cooke (Carolyn Jess-Cooke) lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. C J Cooke's works have been published in 23 languages and have won many awards. She holds a PhD in Literature from the Queen's University of Belfast and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. Two of her books are currently optioned for film. Visit www.cjcookeauthor.com

Ghost and Tell (Ghost Detective Book 10) by Jane Hinchey + giveaway

A dead teacher.
A scandalous secret.
And a PI who’s way too caffeinated to quit.

Ghost and Tell (Ghost Detective Book 10)
by Jane Hinchey
Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
A dead teacher. A scandalous secret. And a PI who’s way too caffeinated to quit.

Being a private investigator—and a ghost whisperer—means juggling the dead, the murderous, and an espresso addiction I refuse to acknowledge.

When the ghost of schoolteacher Sandra Greaves crashes my morning coffee, she’s not here for small talk—she needs me to find her killer. Problem is, her memory is patchy at best, and the only thing she’s sure of? Someone wanted her silenced.

The trail leads straight to shady school financials, questionable payouts, and a scandal involving an angry parent and a morally bankrupt school board member. Now I’m knee-deep in hush money, buried secrets, and motives worth killing for.

Meanwhile, my smokin’-hot husband is trying (and failing) to keep me out of trouble, Thor, the talking cat, won’t shut up about his diet, and Bandit, my cereal-stealing raccoon, is plotting her next snack heist.

But someone out there thinks I’m getting too close to the truth—and they’ll do anything to keep it buried.

Join Audrey Fitzgerald in Ghost and Tell, a paranormal cozy mystery featuring a talking cat, a mischievous raccoon, a ghost with unfinished business, and a murder to solve!

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**Don’t miss the rest of the Ghost Detective Series!**
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Jane Hinchey delivers snort-worthy cozy mysteries and sizzling paranormal romances that grab readers from the get-go. With tenacious heroines, lovable sidekicks, and heroes who are more than just a pretty face, her books are an irresistible mix of humor, magic, and heart. From witches cracking cases to vampires in love, she offers an adventure where the extraordinary is the norm and love bites in the best way.

Living in Adelaide, South Australia, Jane crafts stories that promise an escape to a world brimming with mystery and passion. Get ready to be whisked away into tales where every page promises a thrill, a laugh, or a heart-thumpingly good romance.

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Romantasy: The Secret Girl: Book One of The Lonely Raven Trilogy by Erika Fair

The Secret Girl: Book One of The Lonely Raven Trilogy
by Erika Fair
February 11, 2025
Publisher: Clay Bridges Press
Fallon has received premonitions since she was a child—visions that have driven her to steer countless strangers and acquaintances from looming dangers. But these powers have come at a great cost. After enduring heart-wrenching losses during her teenage years, Fallon has lived a solitary life for over a decade, her only anchor being her childhood best friend.

That is, until a series of intense premonitions draws a group of new people into her life, people who start to feel like family. But something deeper is stirring. The raven tattoo on her wrist has begun to tingle, and a raven has started appearing in her visions. Worse still, Fallon is haunted by the memory of someone from her past, someone she loved, and she believes abandoned her—a person to whom the raven seems inexplicably tied.

As the visions grow more urgent, Fallon must decipher their meaning to protect those she cares about. But the question lingers: Is the raven a guide or a harbinger of doom?

In this gripping first installment of “The Lonely Raven Trilogy,” Fallon must face the shadows of her past to safeguard the future of those she loves—and discover whether the raven is an ally or a threat.

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Erika Fair was born and raised in Texas, where she lives with her husband and son. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and stayed in Austin as long as she could. When she is not forcing her favorite music upon her family or writing, she can usually be found hiking or planning future travels. “The Secret Girl” is her first novel.

Image Comic Graphic Novel Love Everlasting will be adapted for film from Sony Pictures Entertainment

The epic, time-bending Eisner and Harvey Award nominated graphic novel series, Love Everlasting by Eisner Award winning writer Tom King (Batman, The Vision, Mister Miracle) and fan-favorite artist Elsa Charretier (November, The Infinite Loop) will be adapted for film from Sony Pictures Entertainment. According to last week’s exclusive scoop at DEADLINE on the news, “Room helmer Lenny Abrahamson attached to direct and Jane Goldman writing the script. Emma Watts and Element’s Ed Guiney are producing.”

Love Everlasting Volume 1 Paperback
by Tom King (Author), Elsa Charretier (Artist), Matt Hollingsworth (Artist)

Image Comics
February 14, 2023
A terrifying, time-loop. A bad romance. An unforgettable, genre-bending mashup from boundary-pushing creative duo Tom King and Elsa Charretier!

From multiple Eisner Award-winning writer Tom King and up-and-coming artist Elsa Charretier comes the first volume of a thrilling, genre-bending romance/horror mashup. Joan Peterson discovers that she is trapped in an endless, terrifying cycle of “romance”—a problem to be solved, a man to marry—and every time she falls in love she’s torn from her world and thrust into another tear-soaked tale. Her bloody, time-looping journey to freedom and revelation begins in this breathtaking, groundbreaking debut volume. Collects Love Everlasting #1-5.

Select praise for Love Everlasting:

“King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) and Charretier’s (Department of Truth, Vol. 3) gripping mystery subverts the romance-comic genre but still delivers genuine romantic melodrama.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Charretier’s thick-line cartoony character design, reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke, perfectly depicts this genre crossover, and Matt Hollingsworth’s colors capture the eeriness, avoiding primary colors with suitably subdued secondary palettes for each chapter. This series launch piles on the thrills and leaves tantalizing questions open. Readers will be eager to see the next volume.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The expressive strokes of Charretier’s art here have nostalgic warmth, but they're more connected to the retro-modern cartooning of, say, Batman Adventures than actual art from any of those doe-eyed comics of yesteryear. This feels like then, but it's deeply rooted in now, which makes it the ideal aesthetic for this meta take... King’s interest, as it’s often been, is deconstruction, and the narrative necessarily takes some repetition to achieve it. However, certain chapters function as gripping romances on their own merits, even as they advance toward a conceptual, distressing, but ultimately compelling culmination." ―Booklist

"While much of the story is told in a dead-on, entertaining style that pays homage to the romance comics of the 1950s, the elements of mystery and horror that emerge make the book much more than a nostalgic indulgence. The writing is clever and builds tension throughout, while the art is impeccable in its blend of colors, linework, and style, covering settings from World War I era France to the Old West in America well. Rich themes and deep questions underpin Joan’s adventures, as about the true nature of love, the need for it, and the desire for independence and self-realization...Love Everlasting Volume 1 is a fascinating romantic horror story about a woman who shifts between lives." ―Foreword Reviews

 

Love Everlasting, Vol. 2 trade paperback (ISBN: 9781534398481, Lunar Code 0923IM359)
 

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Love Everlasting, Vol. 3 trade paperback (ISBN: 9781534330702)

Supernatural Thriller: Rare by Patrick de Moss

Welcome to the tour for Rare by Patrick de Moss. The perfect read for people who enjoy the inexplicable and things that go bump in the night!

Rare
by Patrick de Moss
Publication Date: March 2, 2025
Genre: Thriller/Supernatural
Some songs aren’t meant to exist.
When sixteen-year-old Emma receives a mysterious Beatles record—a cover of The Girl Can’t Help It, a song they never recorded, her life changes in ways she never imagined. Grieving her grandmother’s death and lost in the heavy fog of depression, Emma doesn’t expect much from the strange package. But the moment the needle drops, magic ripples through the world.

Angels shiver. Dragons stir in their hoards. Vampires feel an ancient hunger awaken. The song calls to them all, and it calls to Emma too. For the first time since her grandmother’s death, Emma feels something spark inside her: hope. But magic has a price, and the Dark has heard the song as well.

To protect the record, Emma must venture into the Hidden States of America—a surreal, shadowed version of the country where myth and reality blur. It’s a country shaped by the stories we tell and the secrets we keep, where ordinary towns hide extraordinary truths.

As Emma struggles to carry the song to where it belongs, she’ll have to confront her grief, face her deepest fears, and discover if she has the strength to resist the pull of the Dark.
From Patrick de Moss, the acclaimed author of Kings of Nowhere, comes a darkly magical tale of loss, courage, and the power of music to heal even the deepest wounds. This is a story that explores the fragile beauty of hope and the strength it takes to face the shadows.

Rare is a spellbinding modern fable. Every note of the song of this story echoes with both wonder and danger. Some songs can change the world. Some songs can change you.

Trigger Warnings:
Suicidal Ideations, racial themes, gun violence victims, attempted kidnapping.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

About the Author:

website

Playwright, poet, prose writer, as well as former gravedigger, hotline psychic, line cook, chef, waiter and a few other things in between, Patrick de Moss lives and works in St. John's, Newfoundland.

IG: @rrbooktours
Tags
#rrbooktours #rrbtRare #paranormalbooks #supernaturalthriller #vampires #magic #darkreads #dragons #booktours

Happy Easter from I Smell Sheep! Horror Style

 Happy Easter from I Smell Sheep!

Gotta love the titles