Books Under a Dollar - 4/12/11

Hollowland - the first book in the young adult dystopian series The Hollows.. "This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door." Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies. This is a young adult title with some language, violence, and mild sexual situations recommended for ages sixteen and up. When high school student Derrick Booker, the only black student at a posh Orange County high school, is accused of killing his white girlfriend, ex-college football hero and detective Jim Knighthorse is hired to dig a little deeper into the murder. It doesn't take long for Knighthorse to realize that not all is as it seems at tranquil Huntington High, from a band director who preys on the innocent to a vice-principal with a secret agenda of her own. Not to mention someone's hired a professional killer to keep Knighthorse permanently off the case. As the investigation continues, Knighthorse's personal life is shattered by the discovery of new evidence relating to his mother's unsolved murder, a murder dating back twenty years. Reeling from the discovery, a determined Jim Knighthorse sets out to bring two killers to justice.

“We vampires are focused and tend to shape our own realities.” My name is Katrina Rawlings, and I am a vampire. I declare that with neither pride nor ego. I am simply nature’s most dangerous predator. On occasion, it’s a very valuable quality. It helped me protect Caleb Taylor one day when he was very young. But that single, traumatic day is behind him now; wiped from his memory, or so I hope. Caleb has finally matured into a rather striking young man, and believe me, I like what I see. I’ll readily admit that there are issues for us to confront and overcome, though a sense of mutual commitment isn’t one of them. I’m feeling hopeful for our future together, in fact. But an adversary from my past has returned to haunt me, and she’s trying to get back at me through Caleb. That was her first...and last...mistake. I’ll protect my Caleb at all costs, and I’ll make her regret the day she was born. So, I suppose that I’m not just a vampire. I’m about to become someone’s worst nightmare!

Becoming a vampire is easy. Living with the condition... that's the hard part. Alyssa was having the worst day of her life: she just lost her job, her friend ditched her, and while walking home, she was brutally mugged. Beaten, bloody, and moments from death, she thought her life was over, but this was only the beginning. Rescued by the most unlikely hero, Lysander, a two thousand year old vampire, Alyssa is initiated into a frightening, eternally dark world she never knew existed. Stricken with cravings of blood, and forced leave behind all she knew, Alyssa is struggling with the change. And Lysander, her sexy but aloof sire, is the only one who can help guide her. There's no turning back now. It's either, Carpe Noctem, or final death.

When tall, dark, and mysterious Chaseyn Lear arrives in the small town of Evergreen, Colorado, high school senior Lia Jameson’s life is turned upside-down. An unexpected twist of fate unravels a long-time family curse that puts Lia in the center of a supernatural drama and threatens her life.

Books Under a Dollar - 4/10/11

A self-deprecating witch with the unique ability to reanimate the dead. A dangerously handsome warlock torn between being her boss and her would-be lover. A six hundred year old English vampire with his own agenda; one that includes an appetite for witches. The Underworld in a state of chaos. Let the games begin. Life isn’t bad for psychic Jolie Wilkins. True, she doesn’t have a love life to speak of, but she has a cute house in the suburbs of Los Angeles, a cat and a quirky best friend. Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists she’s a witch and who just might turn her life upside down. Rand hires her to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client who also happens to be a ghost. Jolie not only uncovers the cause of the ghost’s demise but, in the process, she brings him back to life! Word of Jolie’s incredible ability to bring back the dead spreads like wildfire, putting her at the top of the Underworld’s most wanted list. Consequently, she finds herself at the center of a custody battle between a villainous witch, a dangerous but oh-so-sexy vampire, and her warlock boss, Rand. The murder of a dark arts warlock. A shape-shifting, ravenous creature on the loose. A devilishly handsome stranger sent to investigate. Sometimes working law enforcement for the Netherworld is a real bitch. Dulcie O’Neil is a fairy. And not the type to frolic in gardens. She’s a Regulator—a law-enforcement agent who monitors the creatures of the Netherworld to keep them from wreaking havoc in the mortal world. When a warlock is murdered and Dulcie was the last person to see him alive, she must uncover the truth before she’s either deported back to the Netherworld, or she becomes the next victim. Enter Knight Vander, a sinfully attractive investigator sent from the Netherworld to work the case with Dulcie. Between battling her attraction to her self-appointed partner, keeping a sadomasochistic demon in check, and fending off the advances of a sexy and powerful vampire, Dulcie’s got her hands full. As the body count increases, Dulcie finds herself battling dark magic, reconnoitering in S&M clubs and suffering the greatest of all betrayals.

When she isn't getting into trouble with her oddball companions—a vicious pair of bunny slippers and a frustrated ghost who haunts her sports car—hot-tempered witch Jazz Tremaine earns money lifting hexes and driving limos for Southern California's All Creatures Limo Service. When the vampire cop she's loved and hated for centuries, Nikolai Gregorivich, seeks her help in catching a serial vampire slayer, Jazz fends him off to focus on her own problems (the sleazeball limo service owner; a client who generates supernaturally disgusting odors). She can't resist her sexy vamp lover for long, though, especially as clues in the killings point to an evil figure from her past. With clever writing, a high sensuality factor and an unfettered imagination, Wisdom makes a sparkling entry into lite urban paranormals.

Foxy Anders has a list of problems as long as a shopping spree receipt from Neiman Marcus. She’s a retail spender with no money to spare and a former beauty queen with no man in her life. After a nightmare divorce she’s left with one asset, a building off Washington, D.C.’s classy DuPont Circle. By turning the ground floor into an antique shop, Foxy figures she has an excuse to spend money … that she doesn’t have. Foxy also has a teenaged daughter, Amanda, who likes to blog secretly about her biggest problem – Foxy. At least, she thinks Foxy is her biggest problem. But that’s all about to change when she hooks up with Nick, a cute guy at school who evidently has a gift for attracting older women. Amanda just doesn’t know HOW much older they really are. When Foxy rents the garden apartment to stylish, shoe-fettishista Knot, who turns out to have a knack for talking wealthy Washington A-listers into Foxy’s antiques, it looks as if Foxy will make it on her own after all. Except that Knot is also a genius at creating problems … in his love life. They’re a quirky threesome to be sure, but when mysterious, bumbling, Myron Standlish arrives on the scene with a suitcase full of Yiddish-isms, he brings along his own set of problems, larger and stranger than all of theirs put together. Oy vey. How will Myron’s personal journey affect their lives? Well … that’s Foxy’s Tale. A comic, chick lit, coming-of-age, vampire tale (sort of) where family triumphs over adversity and mother and daughter learn how to face the world as grownups – together.

When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn't until eleven years later that Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - a world both beautiful and frightening, and Wendy's not sure she wants to be a part of it.

Books Under a Dollar - 4/8/11

School is over for the summer! All Jared wants to do is sleep, swim, and delve into as many computer and video games as possible. Life has other plans for him, however, and everything transforms one fateful afternoon when Jared accompanies his mom to an antique shop. He is inexplicably attracted to a magnificent silver dragon statue with eyes that glow like precious rubies. When Jared brings the statue home, he initiates a chain of events that catapults him and his friends Griffin and Chase into a great adventure solving the mystery of the crimson-eyed dragon. Joined by Chase’s sister Amber, the teens discover that the statue holds a vital clue to the previous owner’s life. They embark on an innocent quest, but the secrets that unfold lead them into unimaginable danger that could ultimately destroy all of their lives.

Every choice is played out in a world unto itself, and so the only Nathan who needs to be saved is the only one who can’t be. A supernatural spirit holds all of these worlds together, bending fate from her place outside of time. When eighteen-year-old Nathan Wheeler sacrifices himself to provide for his orphaned sister, this entrancing spirit goes back to when the death of his mother forced him to quit college and attempts to make his life better before his inevitable death. But for all she knows about the future, assuming human form is not as easy as she thought it would be, and getting close to Nathan comes with consequences she could never expect. Inevitable is approximately 61,000 words long. The second book in the trilogy, Impossible, is now available on Amazon.com!

Since her divorce a year ago, Susan Caraway has gone through the motions of life. Now she is finally coming out of her shell. Just when she decides on a makeover and a new career, her family members decide she's crisis central. First there’s her sister DeLorean who has come back from California with a baby, a designer dog, and no prospects for child support or a job. As soon as DeLorean settles in at Susan’s home, Susan’s son Christian returns from college trailing what Susan’s mama refers to as “an androgynous little tart.” Then there’s Mama herself, a southern lady who wrote the book on bossy. A secret from Mama’s past threatens to unravel her own peace. But not before Mama hurts her ankle and has to move into Susan’s home with her babies—two Chihuahuas with attitude. Susan would like to start her new job as a ghost tour operator. She would like to renew her relationship with Jack Maxwell, a man from her past. But Jack isn’t going to stand in line behind her needy family.

Detective Inspector Lorne Simpkins comes up against her long-time nemesis, The Unicorn. After leading Simpkins and her partner into a trap, in which Pete is killed, Lorne comes to the conclusion the criminal is obtaining insider information, enabling him to stay one step ahead of them. Can Lorne uncover who the mole is before The Unicorn harms her daughter? Film lover Barbara Marr is a typical suburban mom living the typical suburban life in her sleepy little town of Rustic Woods, Virginia. Typical, that is until she sets out to find the missing link between a bizarre monkey sighting in her yard and the bone chilling middle-of-the-night fright fest at the strangely vacant house next door. When Barb talks her two friends into some seemingly innocent Charlie’s Angels-like sleuthing, they stumble upon way more than they bargained for and uncover a piece of neighborhood history that certain people would kill to keep on the cutting room floor. Enter sexy PI Colt Baron, Barb’s ex-boyfriend who would love to be cast as new leading man, filling the role just vacated by her recently estranged husband, Howard. When Colt flies in from out of town to help Barb, events careen out of control and suddenly this mini-van driving mother of three becomes a major player in a treacherous and potentially deadly FBI undercover operation. It’s up to her now. With little time to spare, she and she alone, must summon the inner strength necessary to become a true action heroine and save the lives of those she loves. The question is can she get them out alive before the credits roll?

Character Interviews: Alexis Stanton of Color Me Grey

BB: Tell us your name and a little bit about yourself.

AS: My name is Alexis Stanton but I prefer to be called Alex. I used to be a data processor but just recently quit my job in favor of something much more exciting.

BB: What role do you play in your book?

AS: Well, I'm the main character. The book revolves around me, for the most part.

BB: How did you meet your author?

AS: I just popped into her head one day while she was reading another book.

BB: Do you get along with your author?

AS: Of course I do. She wants to BE me so why wouldn't I like my author. It's nice to be envied from afar.

BB: Is this your first role in a publication?

AS: Yes.

BB: Do you plan on returning in other books?

AS: Yes. I am already out there in two other books, Shades of Grey and Reflections of Grey. My author is working on another in the series, but I've been absent lately and just don't feel like sharing all of my private and inner most feelings right now.

BB: Do you like how you were written?

AS: For the most part. My author could have kept some of my failings in the background. No one wants the whole world to know when you're being petty or selfish.

BB: What is the most interesting thing that happened to you in this book?

AS: I got to go cave diving!

BB: Who is your favorite character in your book, besides yourself? Why?

AS: My best friend, Colin, is always my favorite. But he was my favorite before the book so I'll say Mr. White. He's a bit scary and quite a challenge to get to know.

BB: Is there anything we should know about you that we haven't been told in your book?

AS: Not really. My author doesn't hide much of my feelings or actions. Even if I'd like her to be more discrete, she isn't.

BB: How do you feel about the way your story ended?

AS: My story hasn't ended. It has just begun!

BB: Thanks for spending time with us Alexis. Good luck in your future adventures!

For more on Alexis Stanton and her story, check out Color Me Grey by J.C. Phelps.

Description: Meet Alexis Stanton, a 5' 4" petite young woman with a yen for adventure. She grew up as a tomboy wishing she could have all the adventures boys could have. She has since decided that being a boy instead of a girl has its advantages, but being a woman is much better. Raised in a family with money, she was able to pick and choose her education. She had been schooled in everything from being a lady to courses with Special Forces instructors. Her desire for adventure and her boredom with her current employment and a strange 'HELP WANTED' ad causes her to quit. She finds that job she could "just die for"... and it looks like she just might!

Books Under a Dollar - 4/6/11

Meet Alexis Stanton, a 5' 4" petite young woman with a yen for adventure. She grew up as a tomboy wishing she could have all the adventures boys could have. She has since decided that being a boy instead of a girl has its advantages, but being a woman is much better. Raised in a family with money, she was able to pick and choose her education. She had been schooled in everything from being a lady to courses with Special Forces instructors. Her desire for adventure and her boredom with her current employment and a strange 'HELP WANTED' ad causes her to quit. She finds that job she could "just die for"... and it looks like she just might! A creepy mansion house might not be everyone's idea of the perfect vacation, but to Ashlyn it's exactly the peace and solitude she's been looking for. Arriving in the middle of a thunderstorm, she imagines Dracula coming to greet her but has no such luck. As the storm passes, she heads out into the moonlit garden and discovers a mysterious man, handsome enough to rival Dracula. Tristan is as otherworldly as they come. With an old way of speaking and antiquated dress, his aura of mystery is only enhanced by the fact he claims to know Ashyln and only appears at night. Spending her days thinking about him, Ashlyn realises that she does know his face, but she can't remember where she's seen him before. One fateful evening, she's walking the grounds of the house when she comes across a statue in the garden and the mystery of Tristan is revealed when the moonlight touches it. When he explains that he was cursed centuries ago by a relative of hers because he didn't love her and that it was Ashlyn's touch years ago that made him able to walk under moonlight, Ashlyn decides to do everything in her power to free him, even if that means falling in love again.

The World is at risk; not the ordinary risk seen every night on prime time news, but a horrific one that portends the possibility of total annihilation. Mysterious but silent objects have been found buried deep in the murky depths of the ocean. However, something has suddenly happened. These objects wake up and start sending messages to outer space. Mike, pulled back into a clandestine world that he thought he had left behind to help decipher these messages, is attacked by gangs of ordinary looking Americans and must fight for his very life. Who are these attackers? Why have they targeted Mike and his colleagues in the secret agency? On top of these interwoven threats, Mike learns that a revered friend has died. With the death of this friend, is mankind's last hope for understanding the signals lost forever in the silt and muck of the ocean bottom?

Professor Simon Cross has spent his life searching for evidence of vampires and avoiding emotional entanglements. When a mysterious accident transports Simon and his new assistant, Elizabeth West, back in time, Simon finally finds both the proof that he's been looking for, and the romance that he hasn't. In 1920s Manhattan, there are more than mobsters vying for power in the city's speakeasies. Will Simon and Elizabeth's developing relationship survive the vampires' teeth? Will they survive to make it back? Or will they be forever out of time?

Spunky, down-on-her-luck Laurel Mayfield didn't believe in vampires. She didn't believe in the supernatural. Not until she met the enigmatic and darkly alluring Sebastian Thorn, a man shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Discovering he was a Prince turned out to be only the beginning of a harrowing journey that took them back to the Tudor Court during the reign of King Henry the Eighth. Caught up in the conspiracy of Whitehall, Laurel's love and devotion were put to the ultimate test. Would she return to the future to find her Dark Prince waiting? Or had the executioner's blade taken more from her than just Sebastian's head? Find out in Bound by Blood, a new time travel, paranormal romance by authors Kimberly Hoyt and Danielle Bourdon.

Books Under a Dollar - 4/4/11

Jane thought a loveless marriage was as bad as it could get. Steve thought life was perfect with a hired man to do his chores. They were both wrong. Jane Havelock is coping a day at a time in a bad marriage when her husband Steve hires handyman Rob Manteo for a never-ending series of odd jobs around the house. At first Jane is repulsed by Manteo, a huge, muscular man with primitive communication skills. But revulsion reluctantly gives way to curiosity and even fascination as loneliness drives her into a precarious friendship with Manteo. He’s morose and mysterious, but there’s definitely more to him than meets the eye. He seems to be hiding something. As her marriage and her husband’s career crumble around her, Jane digs into Manteo’s past and uncovers a horrible secret. She knows now that it was more than chance that brought Manteo into their world, but it may be too late. Come Find Me Two Years Ago... Six words that propelled ice hockey playing tomboy, Arizona, into an alternate dimension. She suddenly found herself in the past. In one moment she went from being an ice hockey playing teenager in New Jersey to a glamorous cheerleader in California. She found herself transported from a happy life with her dad, Dillard, to a new, strange one living with her mother whom she hates. Apparently it's a life she's always lived in. Everyone knows her as Arizona Darley, but she isn't. She is Arizona Stevens. As she struggles to find answers she is certain of one thing- that her mother Olivia, a brilliant physicist, is somehow responsible. . PORTAL is the story of the repercussions of Olivia Darley's attempt at creating a perfect world for herself and her children. Arizona's quest for answers threatens to undermine the seemingly perfect world that her mother has so carefully constructed. PORTAL is the first book of the Portal Chronicles. Fans of time travel, romance, and the supernatural will enjoy Arizona's quest for answers

Angel Fire: The First Book of Fallen Angels ++++++++++ My name is Darcy Anderson, and I am cursed with a dark power: Whenever my life is in danger, something inside me summons elemental fire to protect me. I cannot control this. One night, I was attacked in my home. The fire ... it raged out of control. I survived the inferno, but my house burned to the ground - with my parents inside. I was at a loss to explain to the courts what happened, and so they sent me to prison for ten years for manslaughter. Now I'm out on parole, and all I want is to return to my home town and rebuild my life; but the man who attacked me is back to finish the job he started. I can sense the power in me growing. If I can't control it, it will control me and destroy everything - and everyone - I love. ++++++++++ This is the first of five novels in the Fallen Angels saga.

Lucinda Dent never planned to call demons. She wasn’t stupid, after all. She’d seen what the addiction had done to her mother. But her mother has been gone for ten years, sucked into hell by a demon, and all Lucinda has left is her grandmother and the house she grew up in. Who could blame her for using the only thing her mother gave her, a talent for demon calling, to save them? Lucinda teams up with an old friend and together they set up business, calling demons. But soon things go terribly wrong. Demons are loose in Caldera High, and not only is Lucinda responsible, she just might be in love with one of them. Can love conquer all or is Lucinda about to lose everything--her home, her new love, and her soul? Authors Note: This novel is dark urban fantasy with romantic elements. It contains both swear words and sexual situations. It is not squeaky clean.

You know him, but you can't remember his name. He is the one that is always there, in the background, all but invisible to those roaming the hallways. What if he had a secret? What if it was a secret that even he didn't know? Test Davis has always been a blur to those around him. He's a shadow like a million other kids--not smart enough for the academic team, not beast enough for the football team, not extroverted enough for the drama crowd. In all things Test is just...not, which is why no one ever notices him. But what happens when someone does notice him-- Nicole Paxton, a cheerleader, no less? What happens on the night that Test finds out there's nothing average about him and that a powerful gift has been hidden within, secretly waiting to be set free and alter his life forever? The question is, will that power save him and those he loves or tear them apart?

Books Under a Dollar - 4/2/11

If you live LONG enough... love (and danger) will find you. A new family has just arrived in the isolated mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. Welcome the Johnstons - Jason (a doctor), Rachel (a designer), and their niece Emily (a current High School Senior). Emily has lived the life of a quiet loner in the past, trying to go unnoticed. But with Telluride being such a small and welcoming town, she finds a group of friends at school almost immediately. When Emily meets Link (another new transplant in town) her world turns upside down. She doesn't understand why she feels a magnetic pull toward him, or why she unknowingly lets her guard down around him. Link is just as confused by his own need to be with her. Emily knows she is playing with fire. She should be doing whatever she can to keep herself isolated, to keep Link from getting too close. Danger has a way of finding Emily's family - that is what keeps them on the move. They arrive in a new town every few years - it is safer that way. Because... Emily isn't really Emily... her real name is Charity - and Charity has an even bigger secret. Charity and her family are not like other people, they have "skills" that mere mortals cannot begin to comprehend. Before long, Charity is struggling with the reality that her two lives are coming closer to each other with each passing day. Soon Link will find himself wrapped in a supernatural world that he never knew existed - and discover that mortals are not the only beings that walk this earth.

The Yellowstone Caldera has erupted once every 600,000 years. We’re 40,000 years overdue. A LAND OF ASH Lava flows stretch for hundreds of miles. A cloud of ash billows east, burying the Midwest, destroying crops, and falling upon the Pacific Coast like a warm, dead snow. The remnants of the United States flees south as the global temperatures plummet. Amid this total devastation are stories of families, friends, sons and fathers and wives: the survivors. Within are eleven stories focusing on the human element of such a catastrophe, from an elderly couple gathering to await their death to a father sealing his shelter in hopes of keeping the air breathable for his daughter. Contributing to this collection include many popular and up-and-coming independent authors, including David McAfee, Daniel Arenson, and more.

Khalida is a five thousand year old vampire. As technology and national security become more prominent, it becomes harder and harder for her to hide her secret from the world. In order to remain undetected by humans, she creates a network of people whose only job is to hide her identity. But these aren't just any group of people. They are the best of the best, brought to her by chance; tied to her by a bond stronger than any she's ever known before. Being discovered by the human world isn't Khalida's only concern, however. She has made enemies in the vampire world. When she makes a mistake that exposes her to those who want to take revenge on her, she is tossed into a whirlwind of death and destruction. She has to find out who is killing the humans who have become her family, and save those who remain. Khalida has spent her entire life trying to protect the people she loves, but ultimately, she will have to decide between the ghosts of her past and the people who have put their lives on the line for her. Her decision may haunt her for the rest of her life.

Seventeen short horror stories from the author of 33 A.D. and Saying Goodbye to the Sun. The Lake - Five college boys answer an ad to spend Spring Break by a remote lake in northern Maine, only to find out they should have gone to Panama city like everyone else. The Spider and the Fly - A deranged old man leads a young boy into a trap, but who is really hunting who? Exhibit A - Listen to a budding serial killer as he explains himself to his first victim. Plus 14 mini horror “bites.”

Thriller writer J.A. Konrath, author of the Lt. Jack Daniels series, digs into the vaults and unearths a technohorror tale from the depths of hell... 1906 - Something is discovered by workers digging the Panama Canal. Something dormant. Sinister. Very much alive. 2009 - Project Samhain. A secret underground government installation begun 103 years ago in New Mexico. The best minds in the world have been recruited to study the most amazing discovery in the history of mankind. But the century of peaceful research is about to end. BECAUSE IT JUST WOKE UP. Book Description: When linguist Andrew Dennison is yanked from his bed by the Secret Service and taken to a top secret facility in the desert , he has no idea he's been brought there to translate the words of an ancient demon. He joins pretty but cold veterinarian Sun Jones, eccentric molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and a hodge-podge of religious, military, and science personnel to try and figure out if the creature is, indeed, Satan. But things quickly go bad, and very soon Andy isn't just fighting for his life, but the lives of everyone on earth... ORIGIN by J.A. Konrath All hell is about the break loose. For real.