I have over 600 books on my TBR pile! Here is one book per letter of the alphabet (by author surname).
A – Sarah Ashwood – Aerisia: Land Beyond the Sunset
Blurb: The mystery of other worlds is not one Hannah Winters ever dreamed she’d solve. She also never counted on meeting an elderly stranger bearing an enchanted moonstone during her evening run; a stranger claiming to have crossed from another world in search of that realm’s promised deliverer.
Her.
Protests have no sway with the visitor, and Hannah finds herself transported to Aerisia, a mysterious land beyond Earth’s sunsets. Here, Hannah is believed to be the Artan, a legendary heroine prophesied to oppose the dreaded Dark Powers. Majestic fairies, the immortal Simathe, and the peaceful Moonkind are all willing to help her discover her true identity, but Hannah’s just an ordinary college student from Earth. She doesn’t have any latent magical abilities and she’s not the Artan.
Unfortunately, her allies aren’t seeing it that way. Neither are her enemies. In fact, Hannah’s life is in jeopardy from the moment she arrives in Aerisia,which means becoming the Artan may be the only way to survive…
B – Nicholas Bowling – Witchborn
Blurb: It’s 1577. Queen Elizabeth I has imprisoned scheming Mary Queen of Scots, and Alyce’s mother is burned at the stake for witchcraft. Alyce kills the witchfinder and flees to London – but the chase isn’t over yet. As she discovers her own dark magic, powerful political forces are on her trail. She can’t help but wonder: why is she so important? Soon she finds herself deep in a secret battle between rival queens, the fate of England resting on her shoulders…
C – Garrard Conley – Boy Erased
Blurb: The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality.
When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness.
By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.
D – Katerina Diamond – The Heatwave
Blurb: One summer. One stranger. One killer…
Two bad things happened that summer:
A stranger arrived. And the first girl disappeared.
In the wake of the crime that rocked her community, Felicity fled, knowing more than she let on.
But sixteen years later, her new life is shattered by the news that a second girl has gone missing in her hometown.
Now Felicity must go back, to face the truth about what happened all those years ago.
Only she holds the answers – and they’re more shocking than anyone could imagine.
The heatwave is back. And so is the killer.
E – Thomas Emson – Maneater
Blurb: Laura Greenacre is not what she seems. Her tortured past is mistaken by some for aloofness – but they don’t know about her family, her predators, and, her prey. This book is a werewolf novel.
F – Sarah Fine – Marked
Blurb: In a broken landscape carved by environmental collapse, Boston paramedic Cacia Ferry risks life and limb on the front lines of a fragile and dangerous city. What most don’t know including her sexy new partner, Eli Margolis—is that while Cacy works to save lives, she has another job ferrying the dead to the Afterlife. Once humans are “Marked” by Fate, the powerful Ferrys are called to escort the vulnerable souls to either eternal bliss or unending fire and pain.
Unaware of Cacy’s other life, Eli finds himself as mesmerized by his fierce and beautiful partner as he is mistrustful of the influential Ferry clan led by the Charon—who happens to be Cacy’s father. Cacy, in turn, can no longer deny her intense attraction to the mysterious ex-Ranger with a haunted past. But just as their relationship heats up, an apparent hit takes the Charon before his time. Shaken to the core, Cacy pursues the rogue element who has seized the reins of Fate, only to discover that Eli has a devastating secret of his own. Not knowing whom to trust, what will Cacy have to sacrifice to protect Eli—and to make sure humanity’s future is secure?
G – Stephen Gately – The Tree of Seasons
Blurb: When Josh, Michael and Beth Lotts catch sight of some mysterious lights one summer’s evening, they are drawn into a dense forest near their home where no one dares ever go. What they find there is incredible.
The Tree of Seasons is a doorway into another world. There are four kingdoms in this world, each forever stuck in spring, summer, autumn and winter and each with its own ruler. The tree and the world it conceals have existed for hundreds of years and have never been uncovered by anyone, until now.
The Lotts find that peace has been shattered in this magical world. One ruler, who bears a remarkable resemblance to their aunt is intent on power at all costs. She causes destruction and suffering that threaten to tear worlds apart. Josh, Michael and Beth have arrived just in time to take part in the battle that the other three kingdoms have to fight in order to survive.
The Tree of Seasons is a beautiful story of good and evil and a vividly imagined portrait of a world beyond our own.
Have you read any of these books? Which one would you read if you could only choose one? Join me tomorrow for Part 2!
