Friday Finds #3

What great books did you hear about / discover this past week?

Share with us your Friday Finds!

Here are my finds:

 "Lamentation" by Ken Scholes

An ancient weapon has completely destroyed the city of Windwir. From many miles away, Rudolfo, Lord of the Nine Forest Houses, sees the horrifying column of smoke rising. He knows that war is coming to the Named Lands.
Nearer to the Devastation, a young apprentice is the only survivor of the city - he sat waiting for his father outside the walls, and was transformed as he watched everyone he knew die in an instant.
Soon all the Kingdoms of the Named Lands will be at each others' throats, as alliances are challenged and hidden plots are uncovered.
 "Canticle" is sequel to "Lamentation" and the second book in The Psalms of Isaac series.

"Such a Girl" by Karen V. Siplin


Nine years ago, Kendall Stark ended a relationship with the love of her life. As her college friends never tired of telling her, Jack was going nowhere fast. Now Kendall is thirty-one, working as an operator at a prestigious New York hotel and listening in on the personal calls of the celebrity guests, while she carries on a doomed affair with a married colleague. And while deep down she knows she should be leading a more fulfilling life, Kendall believes she is content with the choices she has made.
Until the morning Jack reappears. Only now, Jack is the wealthy owner of a New England brewery, and he's staying in the hotel where Kendall works. His unexpected return leads her to rethink all the assumptions she ever made about success, love, and happiness and forces Jack to decide if he can ever forgive the woman who broke his heart so many years ago.
Just as Bridget Jones's Diary did for Pride and Prejudice, Karen Siplin here updates (and shakes up) the premise of Jane Austen's Persuasion, placing the characters in a modern, multicultural landscape.

"The Reef" by Mark Charan Newton


Has-jahn: a continent of exotic cultures, cities and long-forgotten technology. Two members of a race once thought extinct wash up on the shores near the city of Escha. In their possession is a call for help from a human living on the little-known tropical island of Arya, where their race is being murdered. A crew of freelance explorers, led by the charismatic Santiago DeBrelt, travels to discover the mystery behind the killings. However, Santiago's controversial nature leads to him being accompanied by government agents — who wish to explore Arya and find out why Eschan naval vessels have disappeared in the seas surrounding it.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Rhoam, a city in central Has-jahn, a band of terrorists are embarking upon an epic journey to the very same waters. Still angry from an old war with Escha, they've gathered explosives and weapons, and will allow nothing to interfere with their quest for a phenomenal revenge. But secret pasts are revealed and soon all eyes turn to the coral reef off the coast of Arya.

"Nights of Villjamur" by Mark Charan Newton


The ancient city of Villjamur is threatened by a long-expected ice age, and thousands of refugees from the coming freeze are camped outside its gates, causing alarm and the threat of disease for the existing population. When the Emperor commits suicide, his elder daughter, Rika, is brought home to inherit the Jamur Empire, but the sinister Chancellor plans to get rid of her and claim the throne for himself. Meanwhile an officer in the Inquisition, in pursuit of a mysterious killer, also uncovers a conspiracy within the Council to solve the refugee crisis by wholesale slaughter, and a cultist magician is causing a trail of havoc in his search for immortality and his obsessive quest to gain access into another world. To the far fringes of the Empire is despatched military commander to investigate a mysterious new race of undead that seems intent on genocide of the most gruesome nature. Gradually the separate strands of romance, jealousy, political intrigue and dark violence converge in a superb new action series of enthralling fantasy.

"City of Ruin" by Mark Charan Newton


Viliren: a city of sin that is being torn apart from the inside. Hybrid creatures shamble through shadows and barely human gangs fight turf wars for control of the streets. Amidst this chaos, Commander Brynd Adaol, commander of the Night Guard, must plan the defence of Viliren against a race that has broken through from some other realm and already slaughtered hundreds of thousands of the Empire's people. When a Night Guard soldier goes missing, Brynd requests help from the recently arrived Inquisitor Jeryd. He discovers this is not the only disappearance the streets of Viliren. It seems that a serial killer of the most horrific kind is on the loose, taking hundreds of people from their own homes. A killer that cannot possibly be human. The entire population of Viliren must unite to face an impossible surge of violent and unnatural enemies or the city will fall. But how can anyone save a city that is already a ruin?

"Never Bite a Boy on the First Date" by Tamara Summers

1. I've got a few issues:
2. I'm a vampire now.
3. One of my classmates was found dead, with telltale fang marks.
4. I didn't do it! (really!)
5. Nobody believes me, so . . .
6. I'm going to have to find the real killer. I've already got three suspects. (three very cute suspects.)
7. One more problem: I am seriously falling for one of them . . . but what if he's the killer?

 

 "Save the Date" by Tamara Summers

Victoria Finnegan to marry Kevin Ork in the Rose Bower of Cynthia Flair Botanical Gardens
Sunday, June 17, 3 p.m.
Dress: very flowery.
Yay.
Paris Finnegan is marrying Jiro Kuan on the beach at Huntsville National Park
Saturday, August 11, 1 p.m.
Dress: Um . . . she's not really making me wear overalls, right???
Hideous bridesmaid dress fitting #6
Calm Victoria down
Try not to kill Paris
Try not to think about wedding planner's hot son
Do not date wedding planner's hot son
Stop kissing wedding planner's hot son!!!

"The Red Wolf Conspiracy" and "The Rats and the Ruling Sea" 

                          by Robert V.S. Reddick

The Chathrand - The Great Ship, The Wind-Palace, His Supremacy's First Fancy - is the last of her kind - built 600 years ago she dwarves all the ships around her. The secrets of her construction are long lost. She was the pride of the Empire. The natural choice for the great diplomatic voyage to seal the peace with the last of the Emperor's last enemies. 700 souls boarded her. Her sadistic Captain Nilus Rose, the Emperor's Ambassador and Thasha, the daughter he plans to marry off to seal the treaty, a spy master and six assassins, one hunderd imperial marines, Pazel the tarboy gifted and cursed by his mother's spell and a small band of Ixchel. The Ixchel sneaked aboard and now hide below decks amongst the rats. Intent on their own mission. But there is treachery afoot. Behind the plans for peace lies the shadow of war and the fear that a dead king might live again. And now the Chathrand, having survived countless battles and centuries of typhoons has gone missing. This is her story.
"The Rats and the Ruling Sea" begins where "The Red Wolf Conspiracy" ended...