A week ago, I was the perpetual screw up of the Bannister coven and a probationary agent for the Arcane Bureau of Investigation. Somehow, I’ve managed to get myself mated to an Acosta Alpha, pissed off my family, and gotten on the radar of a dark Fae.
As much as I’d like to bury my head in the sand, I have a badge to secure—and with a new case on my proverbial desk—a job to do. Because I’m not the first witch that the Fae has tried to steal, but I will definitely be the last.
Annie Anderson is a military wife and United States Air Force veteran. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she is a southern girl at heart, but has lived all over the US and abroad. As soon as the military stops moving her family around, she’ll settle on a state, but for now she enjoys being a nomad with her husband, two daughters, an old man of a dog, and a young pup that makes life… interesting.
Mermaid of Venice Jincey Lumpkin (Mermaid of Venice, #1) Publication date: March 15th 2021 Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
IndieReader Approved with 4.8 of 5 stars: “MERMAID OF VENICE is an electrifying series starter that immerses readers in a world filled with glamor, sex, murder, and mermaids.”
Dive into the extremely glamorous life of Gia Acquaviva, an ultra-rich Venetian mogul with a portfolio of clubs and casinos around the globe. Gia harbors dark secrets––and an underwater graveyard filled with the bones of her former lovers.
Her family’s roots descend from the mythological sirens of ancient Greece, but she’s taken every precaution to protect her anonymity and the existence of other mermaids. Gia lures in men with a beguiling façade, but inside lurks a deeply troubled soul, severely damaged by a mysterious past.
Despite her sinister desires, she longs for true intimacy and believes she may have found her match in Cameron Langley, a successful London-based banker and dead ringer for Chris Hemsworth. He offers Gia her first real opportunity for lasting love. They share an intensely passionate, deeply sensual connection… but is her growing affection for new lover enough to lull the murderous cravings she feels building within?
Fans of Killing Eve and Big Little Lies will love Mermaid of Venice, a sexy psychological thriller with lush fantasy elements. The setting is modern day Europe with all the chic locales, hot spots and vistas of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley and a juicy splash of the lavish lifestyle in E. L. James’s 50 Shades series. This is not the Little Mermaid you grew up with. Gia’s out for blood.
Mermaid of Venice is the first installment in a series of 6 books about Gia Acquaviva.
The full series is out NOW! Get started on it today!
EXCERPT (book 1):
In a dark corner of the canal, Gia Aqcuaviva sat on the curved wooden edge of her Riva doing what most locals did during the Venice Film Festival: She observed celebrities. Mega-yachts littered the Grand Canal—no doubt there were many billions in global currencies floating on the water.
She was not a star-struck teen. On the contrary, she’d crossed paths with her fair share of the glitterati on the floors of her casinos and in the VIP rooms of her clubs in Paris and Berlin and Monte Carlo. Gia preferred the shadows, though. On this particular evening, she was staked out for one particular star, Nicolás Ángel Fernández, her lover.
Nico was scheduled for the red carpet at five o’clock, a prime slot for maximum exposure to the paparazzi. His handlers would make sure he hit every mark and, then, that he would be smuggled out of the theater’s side door just as the lights went down. He couldn’t stand the sight of his own famous face on the screen. Never mind that he’d attained “Sexiest Man Alive” status several times over.
He didn’t even like to see himself on directors’ monitors. The lack of vanity, the self-loathing, it was all part of his appeal. He preferred, instead, to look at Gia. Her deep brown hair, nearly waist long. Her pearly skin. She was almost fifty, but he didn’t know that—almost no one did. Those fortunate enough to meet her assumed that she was a rich woman in her late twenties or thirties. Her beauty defied logic, except that it didn’t.
Author Bio:
Jincey Lumpkin is a writer who splits her time between NYC and Lisbon. She has been profiled by Dateline NBC, Vice, and GQ, among others. Out Magazine listed her in its “OUT 100,” naming her as one of the world’s most influential LGBTQ+ people, alongside celebrities like Laverne Cox and Ricky Martin. Sign up for exclusive content at JinceyLumpkin.com
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
How it works:
Jana from That Artsy Girl assigns each Tuesday a topic and then posts her top ten list that fits that topic. Anybody is welcome to join and create their own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. You can put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you!
Todays’s Topic:
Typographic Book Covers
1 You Should Have Seen It Coming by Shani Mitchel
2 Carrie Soto is back by Taylor Reid Jenkins
3 The Crows by Anders Fager and Peter Bergting
4 Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James
5 The Weather Weaver by Tamsin Mori
6 City of Saints&Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson
7 Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley by Lyndall Clipstone
8 Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
9 How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
10 In the Woods by Tana French by Naomi Novik
Have you read any of these books? If yes, did you like or hate them? Would you recommend them?
Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Topics:
October 4: Favorite Bookstores OR Bookstores I’d Love to Visit (The UK celebrated National Bookshop Day on October 1, so I thought it would be a fun topic!) October 11: Books I Read On Vacation (bonus points if you tell us where you were!) (Submitted by Dedra @ A Book Wanderer) October 18: Favorite Words (This isn’t so much bookish, but I thought it would be fun to share words we love! These could be words that are fun to say, sound funny, mean something great, or make you smile when you read/hear them.) October 25: Halloween Freebie November 1: Unlikable Characters You Can’t Help but Love (These are villains, criminals, jerks, etc. that make you fall in love with them anyway, perhaps because they evolve by the end or they’re secretly wonderful and have been all along.) November 8: Series I’d Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish November 15: Favorite “Aww” Moments In Books (Share those sweet/cute moments in books that give you warm fuzzies.) November 22: Thankful Freebie November 29: Cozy Reads (Share books that give off a cozy vibe, whether through atmosphere, setting, or some other factor. Please tell us why they’re cozy for you, too!) December 6: Freebie December 13: Books on My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List December 20: Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year December 27: Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection (What books did you get as presents this holiday season? Or what did you buy with gift cards?)
Thank you for stopping by and reading the post! Have a wonderful Tuesday!
So many great new releases today! Happy Publication Day!
From the Blurb:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends comes the first book in a captivating new duology following an ill-matched pair of spies posing as a married couple to investigate a series of brutal murders in 1930s Shanghai.
It’s 1931 in Shanghai, and the stage is set for a new decade of intrigue.
Four years ago, Rosalind Lang was brought back from the brink of death, but the strange experiment that saved her also stopped her from sleeping and aging—and allows her to heal from any wound. In short, Rosalind cannot die. Now, desperate for redemption for her traitorous past, she uses her abilities as an assassin for her country.
Code name: Fortune.
But when the Japanese Imperial Army begins its invasion march, Rosalind’s mission pivots. A series of murders is causing unrest in Shanghai, and the Japanese are under suspicion. Rosalind’s new orders are to infiltrate foreign society and identify the culprits behind the terror plot before more of her people are killed.
To reduce suspicion, however, she must pose as the wife of another Nationalist spy, Orion Hong, and though Rosalind finds Orion’s cavalier attitude and playboy demeanor infuriating, she is willing to work with him for the greater good. But Orion has an agenda of his own, and Rosalind has secrets that she wants to keep buried. As they both attempt to unravel the conspiracy, the two spies soon find that there are deeper and more horrifying layers to this mystery than they ever imagined.
In this breathtaking second book in Lyndall Clipstone’s duology, following Lakesedge, Leta learns the cost of the bargain she made with the Lord Under.
The curse that haunted Lakesedge Estate has been broken, but at great cost. Violeta Graceling has sacrificed herself to end the Corruption.
To escape death, Leta makes a desperate bargain with the Lord Under, one that sees her living at his side in the land of the dead. And though he claims to have given her all he promised, Leta knows this world of souls and mists hides many secrets.
When she discovers she is still bound to Rowan, Leta goes to drastic lengths to reforge their connection. But her search for answers, and a path back home, will see her drawn into even more dangerous bargains, and struggling to resist the allure of a new, dark, power . . .
Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.
The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about, the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.
And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out–and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me, and Orion, and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: we saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves of the world.
Ha, only joking! Actually it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war on the horizon. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously got out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.
“Lush with secrets, magic, and a past that won’t stay where it belongs, this novel is (quite fittingly) spellbinding.”—JODI PICOULT, author of Wish You Were Here
From New York Times bestselling author Adrienne Young comes a deeply atmospheric story about ancestral magic, an unsolved murder, and a second chance at true love.
Emery Blackwood’s life changed forever the night her best friend was found dead and the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her. Years later, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence on the misty, remote shores of Saoirse Island and running the family business, Blackwood’s Tea Shoppe Herbal Tonics & Tea Leaf Readings. But when the island, rooted in folklore and magic, begins to show signs of strange happenings, Emery knows that something is coming. The morning she wakes to find that every single tree on Saoirse has turned color in a single night, August returns for the first time in fourteen years.
August knows he is not welcome on Saiorse, not after the night everything changed. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother’s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from his past that has never healed—Emery. But the town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises spanning generations threaten to reveal the truth behind Lily’s mysterious death once and for all.
It’s Monday! What are you Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Kathryn from Book Date, a place to share and discuss what we’ve read in the past week and what we’re in the middle of or are planning to read this week.
What I read / listened to last week:
Daggers at the Country Fair (A Martha Miller Mystery) by Catherine Coles
and then my library purchased The Last Graduate and I went on an improvised Naomi Novik-readathon 😂😂😂
A Deadly Education (The Scholomance#1) by Naomi Novik
The Last Graduate (The Scholomance#2) by Naomi Novik
What I am reading/listening to now:
The Change by Kirsten Miller
You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry
What I’m reading /listening to next:
Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
The Resting Place by Camilla Sten
How did your last week go and what are you reading this week?
The Shadows We Make Jo Allen Ash Publication date: July 14th 2022 Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Grace Irese, sixteen-year-old desert warrior with a chip on her shoulder, is gifted in ways she does not yet realize. Duncan Oaks, teenage member of the Grif-Drif Con-Artist Guild, is a boy who has made one bad choice too many. When they are both remanded to an off-world juvenile facility with lifetime sentences. Grace and Duncan plot an escape into the horrific environment beyond in order to save Duncan’s sister from Grace’s war-torn world. Will they and their unlikely companions survive unscathed or find themselves forever altered?
Set in dark alien words and told in the first person with three separate voices, The Shadows We Make is a young adult tale filled with bravery, magic and the binding power of friendship.
I have been traditionally and self-published with books released by the former Warner Books, Kensington, and indie companies under my own name and pseudonyms. Once and Always (written as Alyssa Deane), was translated and sold in various European countries. I self-publish the Connor Falls Christmas series as Robin Maderich, but I have always wanted to return to writing for the young adult reader. Perhaps this is why The Shadows We Make, penned as Jo Allen Ash and my debut as a YA author, is the accomplishment about which I am most excited.
The Shadows We Make is a young adult tale of dystopian sci-fi/fantasy filled with complex and compelling characters. In The Shadows We Make, I burrow down into dark themes such as addiction, hopelessness and loss, countered by the strength and unexpected sweetness of forged friendships. The next book in the planned series, The Thrice-Gifted Child, continues where The Shadows We Make leaves off, with the same cast of characters and a few more besides.
The Mystery of Alan Norman McBride Sarah Fader Publication date: November 30th 2018 Genres: Mystery, Young Adult
Pam and Emily are two sisters who live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Emily is a born investigator and is notorious for eavesdropping on conversations she hears on the streets of New York City. One Saturday, the sisters happen to overhear two gangsters planning the murder of millionaire Alan Norman McBride. They decide it is their duty to warn McBride and stop the murderers in their tracks!
Sarah Fader is the CEO and Founder of Eliezer Tristan Publishing Company, where she is dedicated to sharing the words of authors who endure and survive trauma and mental illness. She is also the CEO and Founder of Stigma Fighters, a non-profit organization that encourages individuals with mental illness to share their personal stories. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Quartz, Psychology Today, The Huffington Post, HuffPost Live, and Good Day New York.
Sarah is a native New Yorker who enjoys naps, talking to strangers, and caring for her two small humans and two average-sized cats. Like six million other Americans, Sarah lives with Bipolar type II, OCD ADHD, and PTSD. Through Stigma Fighters, Sarah hopes to change the world, one mental health stigma at a time.
The Sleeping Giant Tammy Lowe (The Acadian Secret, #2) Published by: The Wild Rose Press Publication date: September 21st 2022 Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Time-Travel, Young Adult
When a tormented man begs 17-year-old Elisabeth London to travel back in time to save his life, she reluctantly agrees. Assuming Scotland is the destination, she ends up in Ancient Rome instead. The good news is she finds the man; now a bold 17-year-old named Aquarius. The bad news is he’s an indentured slave, sentenced to death in the arena, and doesn’t even know her yet. Elisabeth helps Aquarius escape and becomes an outlaw herself. Armed with her wits and his rock sling, the new friends are on the run from a relentless slave dealer, Rufus Leptis.
Elisabeth soon realizes she’s not here to save Aquarius from Rufus, but from the doomed city of Pompeii. Although trying to be brave, the thought of remaining in Aquarius’ swashbuckling world a minute longer than necessary is inconceivable.
At least, it used to be.
Before that darn, happy-go-lucky slave stole her heart.
An adventurer at heart, Tammy has explored ruins in Rome, Pompeii, and Istanbul (Constantinople) with historians and archaeologists.
She’s slept in the tower of a 15th century castle in Scotland, climbed down the cramped tunnels of Egyptian pyramids, scaled the Sydney Harbour Bridge, sailed on a tiny raft down the Yulong River in rural China, dined at a Bedouin camp in the Arabian Desert, and escaped from head-hunters in the South Pacific.
I suppose one could say her own childhood wish of time traveling adventures came true…in a roundabout way.
History, magic, and adventure collide in this riveting middle-grade fantasy novel about an unusual boy who unlocks an ancient relic—and with it, a forgotten world. Befriended by a band of young witches, Archibald Finch must quickly adapt to survive in Lemurea, where a battle born in the Middle Ages is still unfolding . . .
Archibald is a risk-averse boy with quirks that earn him plenty of eye-rolls, especially from his older sister, Hailee. Things get worse when his parents move the family from London to his grandmother’s creepy manor in the English countryside. Now he has to deal with hairless dolls in the library, weird stone creatures on the roof, and a spooky forest at the edge of the backyard. But these turn out to be the least of Archibald’s problems . . .
One day, as he’s exploring the cavernous house, he finds a curious globe that whisks him away to a secret world, hidden for 500 years. Archibald finds himself on a thrilling adventure full of medieval magic, mysterious symbols, and the strangest beasts, while Hailee—who witnessed her brother’s disappearance—embarks on a daring quest to find him.
9-12 y.o.
Publication Date: October 19, 2021
Publisher: Andrews McMeel
352 pages
9781524867720, 1524867721
Juvenile Fiction / Fantasy & Magic
My thoughts: I loved this magical adventure so much that after listening to an advanced copy, I went on to buy my own copy. This proved to be an excellent decision because the illustrations are absolutely marvellous and add so much to this already fascinating story. After the funeral of his much loved grandmother Celestine (although Archie does have a bone to pick with her- she was the one responsible for giving him his rare and old-fashioned name!), eleven-year-old Archibald and his family. move into a mansion in a small town half an hour away from London. Archibald is a nerdy (he literally knows every single thing his teachers ask him and has no idea how or why), but confident and adventurous kid and he starts exploring his new home straightaway. This is how he finds an odd object that looks like an antique globe, which transports him into a magical world populated by strange looking ferocious beasts and … kind and resourceful tween and teenage girls who turn out to be witches.
At this point the story splits into two, as Archibald’s thirteen-year-old sister Hailee launches her own investigation, helped by an antique dealer’s son Oliver, and together they will do everything possible to save the world from mysterious villains (religious fanatics and witchhunters?) and bring Archie back home.
Archibald is thrown into his adventure and has to hit the ground running. Luckily for him, he is a strong and, I daresay, opinionated character. I loved the supporting characters of witches, especially down-to-earth Faeryday, who manages to expand Archie’s already impressive vocabulary (I sure didn’t know what a topiary was at Archie’s age) by teaching him endless archaic synonyms for common insults. The second plotline was even better as you can see Hailee go through so much development- she stole the show for me.
I liked the concept of a globe as a magic portal and the magic system of using stone golems as ingredients for a limitless range of new, situation-specific spells. Steve Hendrickson does a wonderful job as the narrator. He had me hooked on the story from the word go until the last minute. A perfect audio version for 9-12 year-olds.
Can’t wait to read and listen to the sequel Archibald Finch and The Curse of the Phoenix which is coming out in May 2023.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy, provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
A Lady Never Surrenders Bronwen Evans (Sisterhood of Scandal, #1) Publication date: September 22nd 2022 Genres: Adult, Historical Romance
From USA Today Bestselling Author, Bronwen Evans comes her new Sisterhood of Scandal series. A group of ladies whose friendship is based on ensuring they can take on the world dominated by their men folk. No male relative is going to choose their destinies.
Shhh. Blue Stocking Miss Tiffany Deveraux has a secret. The poor orphan is not so poor. But she does not want that information to become common knowledge. Being a plain Jane, any hint of money would just bring fortune hunters to her door. No. In society’s eyes she will remain the poor orphaned ward of the Earl of Marlowe. Only then will she ensure the man who eventually professes his love for her is genuine.
Lord Slade Ware, the Marquess of Wolfarth also has a secret. He’s a renowned investment guru with everything he touches turning to gold. Or is he? Society may think so, but mostly his investments have been blind luck, and he’s pretty sure his luck is about to run out. Help comes in the form of his best friend’s ward. He’s learned Miss Tiffany Deveraux’s secret. She’s an investment guru who has accumulated a considerable sum. Marriage would seem a sensible option with so many dependents relying on him. But what’s a man to do when the one thing a woman wants isn’t his looks, title or money—it’s his heart and Wolfarth’s heart is shattered beyond repair.
PLUS! Grab your copy the FREE short story, A Lady Never Concedes, a prequel to A Lady Never Surrenders!
uthor Bio:
Waving from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
USA Today bestselling author, Bronwen Evans grew up loving books. She writes both historical and contemporary sexy romances for the modern woman who likes intelligent, spirited heroines, and compassionate alpha heroes. Evans is a three-time winner of the RomCon Readers’ Crown and has been nominated for an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. She lives in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand with her dogs Brandy and Duke.
You can keep up with Bronwen’s news by visiting her website
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