Friday, September 28, 2012

Free Contemporary Fantasy Kindle Books 9-28-2012

These ebooks were listed as free downloads at the time of the post. These are usually only free for a few days at most. Always double check the prices before downloading.     

The Book of Souls (The Inspector McLean Mysteries)
by James Oswald
4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Paranormal Mystery


At the turn of the Millennium, Detective Constable Anthony McLean’s fiancée was abducted, raped and murdered by antiquarian book dealer Donald Anderson, the notorious Christmas Killer. Every winter since has been a time of nightmares. So when in the space of a few short weeks Anderson is killed in prison, McLean’s tenement building is burned down, and a young woman’s body is found murdered using Anderson’s MO, it’s hardly surprising that McLean starts to go off the rails.

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Short-listed for the prestigious Crime Writers Association (CWA) Debut Dagger prize, this is the second of the Detective Inspector McLean Mysteries.

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For ten years, leading up to the turn of the millennium, the Christmas Killer worked his evil on the city of Edinburgh. Every year, in the run-up to the festivities, a young woman would go missing. Then, in the week between Christmas and Hogmanay, her body would be found, throat cut, stripped naked, washed clean and laid out in running water. Ten years, ten women. And the last of these was Kirsty Summers, fiancée to Detective Constable Anthony McLean.

No one is quite sure how he found Donald Anderson, least of all McLean himself. But something took him to the old man's antiquarian bookshop, and something else made the Christmas Killer let down his guard. In a cellar under the shop they found his torture chamber. Anderson went to prison and the murders - or at least those murders - finally stopped.

Twelve years on, Anderson is killed by a fellow inmate. Christmas is coming, and the body of a young woman is found, naked, washed, laid out in running water, her throat cut. She has been missing for a week.

Detective Inspector McLean had finally put his past behind him. Now it seems it wasn't ready to let him go.




Keys to the Coven (Demonic Intervention Series)
by Vicky Loebel
4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Paranormal Romance


To become a demon, you must die in complete and utter despair. Three hundred years ago, Max passed that test with flying colors and joined the afterlife resolving never again to have innocent blood on his hands. Now a successful Demonic Intervention Agent, Max has been given the job of breaking a young woman's family curse. But what she doesn't know, what Max can't bring himself to tell her, is that completing his mission almost certainly means her death.

When Felicity Woodsen inherits her mother's coven, she learns each firstborn Woodsen daughter must become the consort of an evil-arch demon. Felicity's only hope is to ally with the mysteriously charming Max. But is saving her body from one demon worth the price of losing her soul to another?

Roxashael became a demon when his Roman captors sent his family, one by one to be devoured by lions. The lesson was clear: power is good; lots of power is better. Two-thousand years later, Rocky has power. He's purchased hundreds of souls, and he's created the Minsk Homunculus, a magic artifact that, by binding a human witch as his consort, turns him into an arch-demon and places him above the goody-two-shoes laws of karma.

Unfortunately, Rocky made a mistake. He fell in love with Felicity's mother and in a moment of weakness promised to give up his demon-consort charm. Now Felicity's mother is dead, the Minsk Homunculus is slated for destruction, and Rocky's power as an arch-demon is about to end.

No demon can break a promise. If Rocky refuses to give up the Minsk Homunculus, he'll become the lowest, most abject slave in Hell.

But then, why break promises when they're so easy to corrupt?
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*Caution: This book contains violence, strong sexual themes, moderately explicit sex between consenting adults, (unfulfilled) threats against children, and one completely gratuitous reference to unicorns. Not intended for readers under 18.




Winged Descent
bu Heather Allen Dencker
4.9 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Paranormal Romance



Winged Descent is centered around three very different people whose lives intertwine without warning when mythology and reality collide in a small town in South Carolina.

Kendrick is a direct descendant of the god Apollo, and the future ruler of his planet, Centaura. He is one of a mixed breed comprised of centaur and human, and has just arrived to Earth with others of his kind. His race is intent on finding human mates after discovering they cannot reproduce with one another.

Savannah is the owner of a beachside shop that caters to tourists in Folly Beach. Her life is forever changed when she takes a walk on the beach one morning and meets Kendrick, a person she never dreamed could have existed.

Conner is a high school English teacher in Atlanta who has been Savannah's best friend for the past six years. He looks forward to spending every summer vacation with her, but discovers that this will be no ordinary summer when he sees that Savannah already has a houseguest- one who Conner immediately dislikes and distrusts.

Relationships are threatened, lives are thrown into upheaval, and the battle for the right to be on Earth ensues as the centaurs find that the decision to come to Earth is not without its consequences.

Told from all three characters' viewpoints, Winged Descent brings the ancient mythical battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths to the modern world.



The Old World (The Old World Series)
by Jill D. Hidy
4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Paranormal Romance



The Old World: Where modern day Greece, meets old world mythology.

Still reeling from the sudden and tragic death of her parents, 22 year old Aria escapes to her family’s vacation home in Greece. But when a simple dream opens a portal into another dimension, Aria finds herself immersed in a world her parents sacrificed everything to keep her from. A world ruled by vengeful gods but where love can be measured by a mere touch.

Guided by the family she never knew existed, Aria begins to learn of a prophecy with the power to turn gods against one another in a war that could seal not only her fate but the fate of the man she is forbidden to love – a man who’s identity alone can change her life forever.

Some say love is blind but in The Old World, bloodlines run deep and family comes first…even if it means sacrificing your own.


Thursday, September 27, 2012

Free Contemporary Fantasy Kindle Books 9-27-2012

These ebooks were listed as free downloads at the time of the post. These are usually only free for a few days at most. Always double check the prices before downloading.    

Poisoned Soil
by Tim Young
4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Dark Contemporary Fantasy


Combine Barbara Kingsolver's pastoral perspective with the dark writing style of Stephen King and Dean Koontz and you'll likely end up with:

Your Dinner Locally Grown: On Poisoned Soil

Set in the mountains of Georgia, Poisoned Soil is a harrowing, cinematic novel that follows a small-town man who risks it all for a chance to make his fortune. College football star Blake Savage could almost taste NFL fame, until an accident shattered both his knee and his future. When Blake meets famous, egocentric restaurateur Nick Vegas, he realizes he has one more shot at glory. Nick offers Blake more money than he can fathom to produce a delicacy for his ultra-exclusive network of underground supper clubs. The job sounds easy enough but there’s a catch: it’s illegal.

Blinded by greed, Blake conceals his sins from his wife, Angelica, and enters Nick’s gilded world. But when the foodies take their first bites of the illicit delicacy an ancient disease resurfaces, unleashing a trail of black death that points back to Blake. As Angelica desperately clings to mystical Cherokee traditions to save her family, a mysterious youngster named Ozzie finds himself trapped in Blake’s deadly game.

Poisoned Soil is a shockingly real drama about what can go horribly wrong when greed entices otherwise good people to make bad decisions.




Nightworld
by Maureen Noel
4.2 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Paranormal Romance


When night falls, Sapphire enters a world that leaves her body cut, bruised, and inexplicably swollen with child. There, in a place densely forested and deathly cold, Sapphire becomes Safire — a trained assassin who must kill or be killed. But when her nightmare demons start walking the streets of her peaceful little town in broad daylight, Sapphire must hurry to unravel the mystery of this Nightworld. For her sanity, her unborn baby, and the fate of future generations.



TAKERS
by Chris Davis
4.9 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Vampire Dark Fantasy


There's a new kind of vampire in the City of Angels.

Los Angeles Police Detective Kel Langston finds that out the hard way when he survives a brutal attack in a dark alley only to realize he's been turned into a monster. Stuck halfway between the living and the dead, his existence becomes a nightmare war for control between his human side and the burning hunger that gnaws at him, urging him to do things no human should ever want to do.

And as if that isn't enough, Kel finds himself forced into hunting the creatures that did this to him, a new kind of vampire humans don’t even know exist...a kind of vampire known only as Takers. Something he hates…and can't resist…and doesn’t know how to kill.

Takers… Your blood is only the beginning.



Roads of Madness (Island of Fog, Book 5)
by Keith Robinson
4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon
YA Contemporary Fantasy Adventure



Emily Stanton was sick. They all knew it was a matter of time before she became too sick to walk, and after that -- well, it didn't bear thinking about. Walking into the night was their only option. The sickness was worsening by the hour, and by morning she might not be able get to her feet. They had to make it to safety soon. But where was it safe? The city? Their old island?

Roads of Madness pits Hal and his friends against an enemy worse than dragons -- people! But not just ordinary people. Driven crazy by a terrible, unseen infection more than a decade before, and eking out a semblance of life in the bleak, deserted streets ever since, the only way for these people to survive is to hunt and scavenge. Their skin still burns and itches after all these years, a suffering that just won't end. The biosuited military calls them scrags. Marked by lesions and scars, they're easy to recognize... and best avoided.

Hal, Robbie, Abigail, and a very sick Emily know their island is farther along the coast, just beyond the city. There they hope to find a way back home. But they have a long road to travel; the city stands in their way and Emily might not last that long, for she carries with her a sickness of a different kind. Could things be any more dire?

Unfortunately, yes. Under normal circumstances, the journey would be fairly simple. As dangerous as the scrags are, they're no match for a fire-breathing dragon, an ogre, and a naga. And there's no way they could catch a nimble faeire! But magic has fled the land after the recent phoenix rebirth, and the shapeshifters find they can no longer transform...

The first three books of the series formed a trilogy, a three-part story that wrapped up at the end of Mountain of Whispers. Then Lake of Spirits started a new chain of events for the shapeshifters and left some of the children in a terrible situation. ROADS OF MADNESS continues the story...



Ljubljana Witch
by Stavrogin
4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Humorous Contemporary Fantasy



A mysterious e-mail:

‘Come to Ljubljana. Stay with me forever.

D’

With his friend Jay along for the ride, and others picked up along the way, Billy arrives in Ljubljana and quickly finds that things are a lot stranger than he could’ve possibly imagined. An art commune run by a man in a bear costume. A castle surrounded by continual snow, with ancient gods and 80s board games, famous writers and forbidden rooms.

And Daisy…his beautiful, unpredictable host.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Free Contemporary Fantasy Kindle Books 9-26-2012

These ebooks were listed as free downloads at the time of the post. These are usually only free for a few days at most. Always double check the prices before downloading.   

Dark Union (The Descent Series)
by S.M. Reine
4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Urban Fantasy


Every fifty years, the most powerful ethereal and infernal beings convene on Earth to resolve conflicts with mediation by kopides--humans born to police relations between Heaven and Hell. They're meeting in Elise Kavanagh's territory this year, and she used to be the greatest kopis in the world. But she's not invited.

An old friend, Lucas McIntyre, asks her to attend the summit in his place. But when she arrives, she discovers that a human faction called The Union has taken charge of the summit, and they're not playing nice. Worse yet, someone has killed a prominent Union member, and now they're demanding blood.




Death's Hand (The Descent Series)
by S.M. Reine
4.1 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Dark Fantasy


Elise Kavanagh doesn't want to hunt demons anymore. It's been five years since she killed her last enemy, and life has been pretty good since then. She went to college. Got a job, and then lost it. Made a friend or two. Lived a normal life.

Now her former partner, a powerful witch named James Faulkner, wants Elise to fight one more time. The daughter of a coven member has been possessed, and Elise is the only exorcist nearby.

Doing the hero thing again would mean risking discovery by old enemies. But digging into the case reveals that it might already be too late--bodies are disappearing, demons slither through the night, and the cogs of apocalypse are beginning to turn. Some enemies aren't willing to let the secrets of the past stay dead...



The Darkest Gate (The Descent Series)
by S.M. Reine
4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Dark Fantasy


When Elise Kavanagh retired from demon hunting, she swore it would be permanent. But an attack from a powerful necromancer forced her back into the business, and now she's trying to balance her normal boyfriend and normal job with everything supernatural.

Mr. Black is a demon hunter gone rogue. He's enslaving angels and stealing ethereal artifacts in pursuit of forbidden immortality, and an old grudge drives him to make his final stand in Elise's territory. Destroying her life and killing her friends isn't the goal, but it's a definite perk.

A demonic overlord offers to join against Mr. Black and protect Elise's loved ones. All she needs to do is ally with the demons she's sworn to kill, at the cost of her morals--and maybe her immortal soul. But once she crosses that line, there's no turning back.

Nothing is sacred when Heaven and Hell collide on Earth...



Death's Avatar (The Descent Series)
by S.M. Reine
4.3 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Dark Fantasy


For five years, Elise Kavanagh and James Faulkner have policed relations between Heaven, Hell, and Earth with blood and blade. They're notorious as heroes and killers--the greatest demon hunting team in history. But they're getting tired of fighting.

Now a Goddess of Death is driving the world toward destruction. When her doomsday clock reaches twelve, the barriers between Hell and Earth will be ripped away and bring humanity to extinction.

The clock just struck nine. The world is running out of time.



Gray Moon Rising (Seasons of the Moon, Book 4)
by S.M. Reine
4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Werewolf Dark Fantasy



It's been almost a year since Rylie Gresham was bitten by a werewolf on Gray Mountain. Now something is beckoning her back to the place she was attacked, along with every other werewolf in the world. But they aren't the only ones heeding the call. A group of hunters notices them gathering and sees it as their chance to wipe out the entire species.

Seth is about to graduate high school when he learns of the final hunt. He secretly plans to save Rylie and his werewolf brother even though he has to play along with the hunters to do it. But Rylie doesn't want to be saved. She's already decided to solve her problems with a silver bullet if answers aren't waiting on Gray Mountain.

One way or another, everything is about to end--whether it means Rylie's liberation or the end of her life...
               
GRAY MOON RISING is a dark fantasy novel for young adult readers who enjoy a splash of horror with their paranormal romance.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Free Contemporary Fantasy Kindle Books 9-25-2012

These ebooks were listed as free downloads at the time of the post. These are usually only free for a few days at most. Always double check the prices before downloading.    

Children of the Fallen
by Maya Lassiter
5.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Angel Urban Fantasy


Seven haunted and talented half-breeds, not knowing who they are or what they can do, grow up in a city full of fallen angels. Only Old Abe knows them all, helping them and hiding them from their glorious and terrifying parents who call them abominations.

A homeless musician, a blind painter, a boy who can photograph angels, a fiery cellist, a tarot card reader--all lovers, children, or grandchildren of fallen angels, and just a few of Abe's charges.  Fallen angels with wings of fire, wings of stone, wings of night--or dawn, or mirrors, or music--they walk invisibly through the city, just a few of Abe's enemies.

At first the half-breeds are unaware of each other, seven unique people muddling through their troubled, intertwined lives alone.  Until a young man, raised by angels, finds them all and they begin to spill their secrets.  Because only by coming together will the half-breeds be able to save Abe from those of the fallen who wish to kill him for his audacity.




The Fireball Rebellion
by Eric Priuska
4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon
YA Super Power Adventure


Twelve-year-old Frankie Lenten never asked to be swept up into a rebellion against the secret superpowered society known as Artemin, but she has no choice after being hit by a rebel fireball that gives her superspeed. And even though she agrees with the rebellion that Artemin's rulers are overbearing and they should let everyone use their powers, a terrifying encounter with one of their psychotic leaders convinces her that there is true evil on the rebel's side. Now, caught between the rulers and the rebels, Frankie must find her own way to fight back. Luckily, she has the help of two true friends--the wickedly funny Eliza, who can move things with her mind, and the philosophical Shaun, who is not supposed to know about their secret lives. But as the trio races to stop an all out war, one question remains. Between her friends and her family, her principles and her power, her life and the lives of thousands around the world just like her, what will Frankie have to sacrifice to become a real hero?

The Fireball Rebellion--a fantasy adventure novel for ages 11 and up--is the first book of the Fireball Rebellion series. Look for the second book, Hurricane Frankie, to blow into your town soon.



Charlotte's Feathers
by Matthew Fish
4.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Contemporary Fantasy


A young man named Benjamin Strong has just lost everything after the death of his parents and girlfriend. After a failed suicide attempt, Benjamin wakes up to find an angelic version of his girlfriend, Charlotte, sitting by the edge of his bed. She tells him that he has seven days left to live- and that he has a very important decision to make: Die alone, or take all of humanity with him.



Savage (Daughters of the Jaguar)
by Willow Rose
4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Paranormal Romance


The year is 1983. Christian is 22 years old when he leaves his home in Denmark to spend a year in Florida with a very wealthy family and go to med-school. A joyful night out with friends is shattered by an encounter with a savage predator that changes his life forever. Soon he faces challenges he had never expected. A supernatural gift he has no idea how to embrace. A haunting family in the house next door. A spirit-filled girl who seems to carry all the answers. An ancient secret hidden in the swamps of Florida. One life never the same. One love that becomes an obsession. Two destinies that will be forever entangled.



Avow (A Last Selkie Short Story Prequel)
by Elizabeth A. Reeves
5.0 out of 5 stars on Amazon
Paranormal Romance



A Last Selkie Short Story.

A tragic life cut short.

What could be crueler than facing death alone?

Twenty years before Adrift, a young man named Ethan Tanner found out he had a inoperable malignant brain tumor and had less than a year to live.

Impossibly, help comes in a mythical form.