Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.
In this companion short-story to Matt Archer: Monster Hunter, fifteen-year-old Matt Archer finds himself in the Australian Outback on the trail of his latest targets…and hunting hyper-intelligent, mutated Dingoes is not his idea of a great summer vacation.
Making things more complicated, Matt’s Uncle Mike–aka Major Tannen–is his C.O. for this mission. To Matt’s consternation, the major’s new fiancée, Captain Julie Hunter, is also along for the trip.
When Captain Hunter disappears during a routine scouting trip, it’s up to Matt to help his uncle find her before it’s too late.
Goodreads Ratings: 4.10 249 ratings19 reviews
I added Matt Archer: Monster Summer 3.14.13, but had grabbed a copy on 1.30.13. I’m not sure what made me grab a copy, but I do like the cover, love the paranormal, and it will be a quick read, at 41 pages.
I don’t read a lot of fairy tale retellings, but when one comes my way by an author I enjoy, bring it on. That is the case with Only Until Midnight by Michael B Chikondi. It’s always fun to see what kind of spin an author can put on an oft told tale and Michael did a great job.
The mice running around the house added a fun touch.
There is not a lot to say on a subject that has been written about so much, but Michael added this and that, making the story his own. The Prince…that was nice touch, even though I had immediately caught the twist.
A quick, fun story that is sure to entertain, and it left me with a smile on my face.
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
There are battles in this world which most people never see.
Sometimes the need to preserve our spirit, hope and dignity is the trial that we face, and love just the prize. This is one such tale.
Retelling the classic fairytale, this story focuses not on the quest to win the handsome prince, but on Cinderella before the ball, and the reality of life with a narcissist – the stepmother in whose ‘care’ the young girl is left after she becomes an orphan.
How does a person maintain their optimism and their sense of self in a hopeless situation that they cannot control, when even other people living in the house cannot see what is going on right under their noses? Some conflicts are fought over many years, lost and won without anyone knowing that a war was happening at all.
Only Until Midnight is at once a return to the traditional values of the fairytale and an unflinching look at the reality behind it, making the magical princess more relatable than ever as a woman in an impossible situation.
Genre: Fairy Tales and Folklore, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance
193 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 15, 2024
ABOUT MICHAEL B CHIKONDI (from Amazon)
Michael B. Chikondi is not to be trusted, but the creature agrees to a meeting in its burrow. We enter with trepidation, given that the thing has no doorbell. As we crawl through the narrow tunnel, gored out by its own teeth, by the texture, we hear what can only be described as a hacking cough.
“Can we approach?” we call.
“No soliciting.” the voice returns.
“You sent for us; you told us to ask you questions. You know, for promotional reasons.”
“Ask.” the dread voice responds.
“Alright, who are you?” we try.
“A creature of mist and shadow, half-mad, I used to go out, I did, and know those…humans. Not now, not since…the pen.”
“You found a pen? That’s why you became a writer?” we ask, now terrified, trying to gauge how fast we can leave the burrow. The photographer has already left us, chewing off his own watch, caught on a tree root.
“Yes, but now…I hunger…”
We are not proud; we turn tail and flee, before it can leave its den. We aren’t paid enough to get a full bio. We can only pray someone buys its books, so that the thing never comes out on its own.
Ed. What the hell is this? This isn’t what we requested. Just some nonsense and an artist’s rendition of what one of my people saw before he contracted rabies? Eh, whatever. Plenty more writers in the sea.
Most Eligible Killer Daria White Publication date: June 4th 2024 Genres: Adult, Cozy Mystery, Mystery
Love, lies, and a lethal reunion.
In the heart of Edenville, Texas, Bianca Wallace’s life is blooming—her business is thriving and her romance with Detective Lamar Sims is heating up. But when her high school crush, Eddie Talbert, becomes the prime suspect in a murder case at her mother’s matchmaking event inspired by ‘The Bachelor,’ her world spirals into chaos.
Reluctantly drawn back into Eddie’s life, Bianca must sift through past feelings and present dangers, as Lamar races to solve the crime. Torn between her blossoming love and a past flame, Bianca’s loyalties are tested—does she trust her heart or the evidence stacking up against Eddie?
As secrets surface, Bianca realizes she might be closer to the killer than she ever imagined. Will her quest for truth be her last?
Dive into Most Eligible Killer to discover if Bianca’s pursuit of justice will salvage her future or sever her deepest ties forever.
Daria has lived in Texas for most of her life. She never liked reading as a kid. In fact, she almost hated it. However, as she grew up that all changed. Though she received her degree in healthcare management, Daria kept her writing as a hobby. She meant it to be private and her own way of expressing herself. It never crossed her mind to publish until she was in college. So, she took a chance and self published. It worked! Starting off as a sweet romance writer first, Daria branched out in 2020 with books in cozy mystery and Christian fiction. She even has nonfiction titles in the works, reflecting her Christian faith and work in ministry.
I really mean it nowadays too. Life has a way of taking us on journeys that we didn’t want and maybe didn’t even need. but those journeys make up the essence of who we are. I, for one, will always look back and remember those fragments of time. Those pieces of memory.
The quote was at the end of the book, but I thought it was so pertinent to life, that I had to share it in the beginning.
Richie Sterling comes from a broken home. He felt he was on the outside, looking in, until…
A group of boys, in a Trailer Park, become fast friends and discover that life is not always as it appears to be. Richie, Jose, Roberto and Frankie are on the adventure of a lifetime.
The rumor is, the old man next door is a vampire. Of course, curious kids are intrigued and their imaginations run wild. Jose begins to act differently and the kids are on the case. They never could have anticipated what they would discover. I feel I should have known what Mr Rosen was all about, but I never stopped reading long enough to figure it out. A bit of a rhyme there. Maybe I could be a rapper too. :-).
When Richie’s dad comes clean and starts rapping, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Trailer Park by C D Kester is perfect for teen and young adult vampire lovers. A light, yet gruesome adventure sure to peak their imagination.
C D Kester’s writing is amazing. He can write some of the most in depth, gruesome horror for adults, and some of the most fun and adventurous mystery horror for teens. We have a great ending that is not all unicorns and rainbows. Trailer Park was a quick read but chock full or horror goodness and I couldn’t put it down. I thought of two ratings, a four for adults and a five for teens and young adults, so a five it is and I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Sometimes blood isn’t family, and family isn’t blood.The boys at Los Hermanos Trailer Park are no strangers to a good urban legend. The legends and reality collide when they begin to notice strange activity with Val Rosen in the trailer down the street. As times grow harder Richie, Jose, Frankie, and Roberto are getting sucked into some things that they probably shouldn’t. Sometimes that’s the way that it goes when you’re passing the time with your brothers in the trailer park.
ABOUT C D KESTER
C. D. Kester is an author of fiction who does most of his work in the horror genre. He lives in Kingwood, Texas with his wife and two children. Kester recently published his first full length novel, Chasing Demons. His first self-published work is a novella titled The Bunker. He has also had many stories published in anthologies, ezines, and read in podcasts and YouTube videos.
Riot by L. L. Ash & Pax Sinclair (Hard Rock Girls Series, #1) Publication date: May 12th 2024 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Synopsis:
“He saved me in that group home when everything I’d ever loved was stripped away. He saved me with his smile, his kindness, and his guitar.”
Tayler
I’m the leftovers that nobody wanted; a casualty of the foster system. Now that I’m 18, I have nowhere to go. No job, no home, but I have my bestie Haze by my side, and together we’re going to make it. I love music. Yeah, everybody says that, but I know I have what it takes. We’re going to find a way to reach the top. Kind of like Dakota, the front man for Kings of Ash, except not as a-hole-ish and muscley as him. Ugh, the muscles. We were in foster care together, me, Dakota, and Haze. That’s where I fell in love with him. But, he was older than me and got kicked out of the group home when I was only fifteen. The guy ripped my effing heart out as he walked out that door. It’s a shame, really. He’s the only person in the world who ever really understood my love and need for music. He saved me in that group home when everything I’d ever loved was stripped away. He saved me with his smile, his kindness, and with his guitar. Since then, Dakota has changed and hardened in more ways than one. I’ve been trying my best to avoid him, but our paths have crossed and now he’s back, famous and hotter than ever.
Dakota
I gaze at Tayler for the last time while my mind repeats the same mantra: she’s your foster sister, you can’t be in love with her. But every part of me screams otherwise as I walk out of that group home. Aging out of the foster system at 18, I left behind a 15-year-old girl who knew I couldn’t stay. It broke her heart, but it’s better to be hated than to be in jail for loving her. Letting go of her was the toughest thing I’ve ever done, but I had to chase my music and put her behind me. Plenty of women came and went in my life, but none could fill the void that she left behind. It was always the music that drove me forward, pushing me to become a part of the punk Seattle music scene as the front man for Kings of Ash. Just when I thought I had moved on from Tayler for good, she blows back into my life–smoking hot and determined to make her mark. Even though she despises me for abandoning her all those years ago, I can’t help but admit to myself that I still want her. No, I don’t just want. I need.
L.L. Ash is a Washington-born writer who has traveled and lived across the western coast of the US. Ash has been writing fiction since she was a pre-teen, and while her writing has improved since then, her love for literature has not changed.
Oftentimes you can find Ash reading an indie romance or enjoying a historical fiction. Dabbling in culinary arts and music, Ash has been an artist for decades but found her true love and passion in romances.
Keeping Janie is the sequel to Call Her Janie by S R Fabrico. It takes place in Southport, North Carolina. Lizzie Levine has just been reunited with her daughter, Janie. Her relationship with Gray Stone is riddled with problems. Will they get married or are their problems insurmountable? I’m not telling.
The past tends to follow you everywhere you go, and that is no different for Lizzie. I swing back and forth on whether she will end up with Gray, or if her ex husband can lure her away, claiming he is a different guy than he used to be. The danger lurking in the background has me on edge, so I hope they are staying alert.
I never saw the ending coming and I love when an author can surprise me. I was shocked, not sure how to feel. I had to think about it for a while.
Keeping Janie is filled with danger, mystery, love, secrets, lies, deception, and so much more.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Keeping Janie by S R Fabrico.
4 Stars
BLURB
Embark on an exhilarating journey with Lizzie Levine, the beloved character from the award-winning novel Call Her Janie. In this riveting sequel by S.R. Fabrico, set against the picturesque backdrop of Southport, North Carolina, the stakes soar, twists abound, and the drama intensifies.
Reuniting with her daughter, Janie, should be the start of Lizzie’s picture-perfect life. Behind the scenes, however, is a different matter. The happiness of having her daughter back is overshadowed by the fear and distrust of her ex-boyfriend, billionaire Gray Stone.
Amidst the tapestry of wedding preparations, the custody fight looms. The story unfolds in a battleground of secrets, lies, and deception. In this gripping narrative, love and lies entwine, danger lurks in the shadows, and the courage to confront one’s past becomes paramount. Can Lizzie gain custody of her daughter, marry the man she loves, and have her happily-ever-after, or will the mistakes of their past destroy them all?
S.R. Fabrico is a 16-time award-winning author. Her debut novel The Secrets We Conceal was published in March 2022. She has also written a series of sports journals for athletes, including the Amazon best-selling My Dance Journal.
A 25-plus-year professional in the business, marketing, and sports world has taken her to numerous places throughout the course of her life and provided countless life experiences. She is a World Champion Dance Coach, coach of the year recipient, and speaker and various conferences across the United States.
S.R. Fabrico works and writes from her home in Knoxville, TN, where she lives with her husband and two children. She appreciates the beauty of the mountains, but her favorite place to visit is the beach. She is a lifelong math nerd and enjoys good puns. When she isn’t writing, she likes to read books, wife hard, and mom hard.
**images are linked to Amazon (I am an affiliate)**
Hi Everyone and Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there. It’s a beautiful day. I am back from taking two and half months off of blogging. I didn’t even pick up a book to read for 70 days. I went into the Emergency Room in early February and didn’t get out until the 16th of April. It was days of Hell. At times I was wondering if I was going to make it. One step forward and three steps back totally wore me out. I lost weight and am having trouble putting it back on. I may go in depth and share some pics later, but for now….
Have a wonderful week.
COMING UP ON fundinmental
Review – Keeping Janie by S R Fabrico
$25 Gift Card – Hard Rock Girls: Riot by L L Ash
Books From The Backlog – Matt Archer: Monster Summer by Kendra C HIghley
Review – Grimmworld: The Witch In The Woods by MIchaelbrent Collings
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception – Carl Sagan
I remember watching Carl Sagan’s TV program, and I am not even a science nerd. His sultry voice made the information he shared entertaining, yet educational. So, let’s dive into some science…fiction.
What do you think? How much genetic engineering is going on? And how much is too much? Do you believe…just because we can do it we should? I sure don’t. And when I read Extinction by Douglas Preston, we can see a fictional version of why sometimes, playing God, is going to backfire.
Olivia and Mark were on the honeymoon of a lifetime, visiting Erebus Resort, where woolly mammoths and other megafauna from the Pleistocene Age have been de-extincted. BUT, they will get much more than they bargained for and it will be a bummer for them. Someone has to be sacrificed and I love an author that has no problem killing off a character or two.
Douglas Preston has created a multilayered mystery that was not easily solved. There were many moving parts and it was hard to decide who was the villain, or villains. Entering into caves, with thousands of tons of rocks overhead doesn’t appeal to me and added an extra layer of fear and creepiness, leaving shivers running up and down my spine. There is more in those caves than rocks.
Cannibalism:
Survival cannibalism
Ritual cannibalism
Sacrificial cannabalism
A tool of terror
Have I totally creeped you out yet? Are dinosaurs not scary enough?
The characters are many and run the gamut. Heroes, villains, cowards, sacrificial lambs, animal and human, weak and strong, those who take credit for the work of others, those who play God, movie stars, egotists, and the innocent.
Could this be a cautionary tale for us and our future? I mean think about it. Dinosaurs had their moment and are extinct for a reason. Evolution is a fact of nature. Is the clock ticking on humanity?
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
With Extinction, #1 New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston has written an epic thriller in the Michael Crichton mode that explores the very real effort to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other extinct megafauna from the Pleistocene Age.
Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire’s son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators.
As killings mount and the valley is evacuated, Cash and Colcord must confront an ancient, intelligent, and malevolent presence at Erebus, bent not on resurrection—but extinction.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Expected publication April 24, 2024 by Forge Books
ABOUT DOUGLAS PRESTON (from amazon)
Douglas Preston is the author of thirty-six books, both fiction and nonfiction, twenty-nine of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with several reaching the number 1 position. He has worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. His first novel, RELIC, co-authored with Lincoln Child, was made into a movie by Paramount Pictures, which launched the famed Pendergast series of novels. His recent nonfiction book, THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, is also in production as a film. His latest book, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD, tells the true story of the discovery of a prehistoric city in an unexplored valley deep in the Honduran jungle. In addition to books, Preston writes about archaeology and paleontology for the New Yorker, National Geographic, and Smithsonian. He is the recipient of numerous writing awards in the US and Europe, including an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Pomona College. He currently serves as president of the Authors Guild, the nation’s oldest and largest association of authors and journalists.
I read another book by Sulari Gentill that didn’t work for me, but that doesn’t mean I write the author off…and I’m glad I gave her another chance with The Mystery Writer. I love a good conspiracy novel and the mystery grew the more I read. Books about books add another level of interest.
Theodosia Benton left her career path as an attorney behind and came to the United States, showing up on her brother’s doorstep. She wants to be a writer, but she never anticipated the path she would travel to become successful…and neither did I. I knew there was a conspiracy, but those behind it and the way it unraveled, took me by surprise.
The characters came from colorful backgrounds and I fell in love with Mac’s wacko family. Sure, they were off the charts, but when it comes to family, they have their backs.
“…genetic predispostion to lunacy…”
Theo’s instincts are correct when it comes to Veronica and Day Delos and Associates. To save her brother from being charged with murder, she takes drastic action. The pacing creates a tension that had me racing through the pages
I want to tell you so much, but I don’t want to spoil the twists and turns hinted at in the synopsis. I will tell you…if you love a conspiracy, a mystery that has you scratching your head, and some danger to keep the thrills coming, you might want to give The Mystery Writer by Suleri Gentill a read.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
There’s nothing easier to dismiss than a conspiracy theory―until it turns out to be true When Theodosia Benton abandons her career path as an attorney and shows up on her brother’s doorstep with two suitcases and an unfinished novel, she expects to face a few challenges. Will her brother support her ambition or send her back to finish her degree? What will her parents say when they learn of her decision? Does she even have what it takes to be a successful writer? What Theo never expects is to be drawn into a hidden literary world in which identity is something that can be lost and remade for the sake of an audience. When her mentor, a highly successful author, is brutally murdered, Theo wants the killer to be found and justice to be served. Then the police begin looking at her brother, Gus, as their prime suspect, and Theo does the unthinkable in order to protect him. But the writer has left a trail, a thread out of the labyrinth in the form of a story. Gus finds that thread and follows it, and in his attempt to save his sister he inadvertently threatens the foundations of the labyrinth itself. To protect the carefully constructed narrative, Theo Benton, and everyone looking for her, will have to die. USA Today bestselling author Sulari Gentill takes readers on a rollercoaster ride in The Mystery Writer , a literary thriller that turns the world of books and authors upside down and where a writer’s voice is a thing to be controlled and weaponized, to the peril of everyone who loves a good story.
Expected publication March 19, 2024 by Poisoned Pen Press
ABOUT SULARI GENTILL
Once upon a time, Sulari Gentill was a corporate lawyer serving as a director on public boards, with only a vague disquiet that there was something else she was meant to do. That feeling did not go away until she began to write. And so Sulari became the author of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries: thus far, ten historical crime novels chronicling the life and adventures of her 1930s Australian gentleman artist, the Hero Trilogy, based on the myths and epics of the ancient world, and the Ned Kelly Award winning Crossing the Lines (published in the US as After She Wrote Hime). In 2014 she collaborated with National Gallery of Victoria to write a short story which was produced in audio to feature in the Fashion Detective Exhibition, and thereafter published by the NGV. IN 2019 Sulari was part of a 4-member delegation of Australian crime writers sponsored by the Australia Council to tour the US as ambassadors of Australian Crime Writing.
Sulari lives with her husband, Michael, and their boys, Edmund and Atticus, on a small farm in Batlow where she grows French Black Truffles and refers to her writing as “work” so that no one will suggest she get a real job.
I don’t read a lot of historical fiction that deals with war and politics and more, but every once in a while one slips in, such as The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen. There were elements about the story that struck me personally and it helped me to see the possibilities.
I loved Anne Lemire, because she does not back down. She puts herself front and center, digging and investigating, making herself a target. She writes for The Rumor Clinic, disproving harmful rumors. I thought for sure she was going to get her or someone close to her killed.
FBI Special Agent Devon Mulvey,….caught between a rock and a hard place. His job is to find those working against the government and sabotaging the war effort. I tried not to be judgmental, but….and I didn’t see the choice he would make, but I saw the reason why he made it.
I had to keep telling myself that this is 1943. Things were different then, yet current events prove that history repeats itself, over and over again. I find it puzzling, how those who were treated so badly when they immigrated to the United States could turn around and do the same thing to others. Why are they not more empathetic, seeing they can relate?
Everything felt so real. Whether it’s the Irish chasing and beating Jews or underground organizations printing hat sheet pamphlets inflaming the populace against those different from them and against the war in general, ration stamps, chauvinism, sexism, the union meetings, discrimination and threats in the factories, the USO dances, even religious leaders contributed to the discontent, police corruption, custodial detention, fascism, communism, murder…
….entrenched economic system forced people into roles….Negroes are lazy. Irish are drunks. Italians are criminals. Jews are bloodsuckers.
I found The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen very disturbing…because it felt so real and made me think….too much…making my brain hurt, or at least giving me a headache. AND…that is why I don’t read a lot of historical fictional war and politics stories.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
A determined reporter and a reluctant FBI agent face off against fascist elements in World War II-era Boston.
June, 1943. Wartime tensions are running high, and an atmosphere of distrust and unease is dividing friends and neighbors. The two protagonists of Thomas Mullen’s gripping historical thriller find themselves at the center of a dangerous tinderbox, trying to douse the sparks before flames engulf the city.
Reporter Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a newspaper column that disproves the many harmful rumors floating around town, some of them spread by Axis actors and others just gossip mixed with fear and ignorance. She’s getting tired of chasing rumors about Rosie Riveters’ safety on the job, or whether the Nazis have poisoned lobsters off the coast of Maine. She wants to write about something bigger.
Special Agent Devon Mulvey, one of the few Catholics at the FBI, spends his weekdays preventing sabotage in the war industries and his Sundays spying on clerics with divided loyalties—and he spends his evenings wooing the many lonely women whose husbands are off at war.
When Anne’s story about Nazi propaganda being handed out by local businesses intersects with Devon’s investigation into the death of an immigrant factory worker, the two are led down a dangerous trail of espionage, organized crime, and domestic fascism—one that implicates their own tangled pasts and threatens to expose a larger pattern of conspiracy than either of them could have imagined.
With incredible attention to detail, vibrant historical atmosphere, and a riveting mystery that illuminates still-timely issues about disinformation, power, and influence in a society plagued by division, Thomas Mullen delivers another powerful thriller.
Expected publication February 27, 2024 by Minotaur
ABOUT THOMAS MULLEN
Thomas Mullen is the author of Darktown, an NPR Best Book of the Year, which has been shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Southern Book Prize, the Indies Choice Book Award, has been nominated for two Crime Writers Assocation Dagger Awards, and is being developed for television by Sony Pictures with executive producer Jamie Foxx; The Last Town on Earth, which was named Best Debut Novel of 2006 by USA Today and was awarded the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction; The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers; and The Revisionists. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and sons.
