April 2024 Reading List

Fewer books than last month, even though 12 is still a lot, it feels less stressful. I'm especially looking forward to trying Engines of God by Jack McDevitt, Foreigner by CJ Cherryh, and the next Echoes Saga book, Empire of Dirt.

 

 Reading at Fantasy Buddy Reads-

 

Humans call them the Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues on distant planets in the galaxy. Each relic is different. Each inscription defies translation. Yet all are heartbreakingly beautiful. And for planet Earth, on the brink of disaster, they may hold the only key to survival for the entire human race.

 

 

 

A young woman navigates a web of politics, assassination attempts, and romance in the first book of a new series set in the world of the House Witch trilogy.

Katarina Ashowan was not made for courtly life. Sure, her father is the famous house witch of Daxaria so she was raised among majestic castles, proper manners, and royal expectations. But Kat is also a mutated witch whose power aligns predominantly with fire. She’s more comfortable riding horses or learning to fight than she is making polite conversation and wearing fancy dresses. Which is why her upcoming assignment—serving her best friend, Alina, the soon-to-be crowned Troivackian queen—is anything but ideal.

Even worse, Kat is forced to make the long journey from Daxaria to Troivack with Alina’s extremely irksome brother, Eric, the crown prince of Daxaria. Kat and the formerly missing prince are constantly at each other’s throats—until, that is, they begin to form an unexpected kinship . . . with perhaps something more flickering beneath the surface. Now Kat must contend with the strictures of Troivackian court, mysterious assassination attempts, and her unsettling new feelings for Eric, all as her fiery powers are becoming harder and harder to control.

 

 

 

The first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race. From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.

 

THE ECHOES OF FATE WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN. THE WORDS UTTERED A THOUSAND YEARS AGO WILL COME TO PASS, AND A NEW AGE WILL DAWN…

War is set to ravage Illian. The elves sail from the east. The savage Darkakin rise from the south. Valanis, the dark elf, is finally free of his prison and eager to see his work finished. Only then will he be free of the gods who still haunt him.

A new hope rises in The Red Mountains. There, the last remaining dragons have been discovered. Gideon and Galanör, human and elf, will have to work together if they are to convince Adriel, the last of the Dragorn order, to intervene in the coming war.

Devoid of hope and unsure what road to take, Asher and his companions must decide what role they will play as the realm unravels into bloodshed. The only weapon known to rival Valanis’ power is in a place the ranger has avoided for a long time, a place where, until now, neither man nor elf would dare to tread.

Civil war has shattered the empire in The Arid Lands as the slaves make their stand against the highborns. But, while revolution brews, a greater threat looms. As a thunderous cacophony of steel and savagery marches through The Undying Mountains, who will stand before this army of death…

 

Reading with the Mystery Book Club-

 

At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man--the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family's killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim's not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man.

Jim soon begins to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won't give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first ...

 

 

 

How far would you go to bury the truth?

While searching for a missing hill walker, Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team uncovers a body - just not the one they were looking for.

Still dealing with the fallout from their last case, DCI Jack Logan and his team venture south from Inverness to investigate a brutal, gangland-style execution in the wilds of the Highland countryside.

As the victim's dark secrets are gradually revealed, Jack uncovers the rot lurking beneath the stunning scenery, making himself the target of a criminal more dangerous than any he has faced before.

If he isn't careful, it won't just be a murder he's dealing with in Glencoe. 

 

 

 

Sera’s curiosity is finally satisfied about the Repository of Forgotten Things. Just not in the manner she desired. While she staves off boredom confined in her cell, Lord Rowan finally reveals his hideous plan, and Sera is not having any of it.

The shadow of the old mage’s conspiracy is cast over all of England and even King George. Sera holds the key to unraveling the web of treachery, but first she must escape her magical confinement and rekindle trapped powers. From the depths of the Repository, she weaves a tapestry of friendship and loyalty with unlikely allies.

With every passing day, the stakes grow higher, but time is running out for both England and Sera. The fate of the kingdom rests in her hands. The time for her to rise and claim her destiny is now. Only by escaping the Repository and unlocking the full potential of her magic can Sera hope to rewrite the fate of a nation and secure her own freedom.

 

 

Pick it for me book-

 

New beginnings take courage…
She’s a fifty-five-year-old widow feeling like she’s lost herself.
On a whim of her aching heart, Alice McIntyre buys the Star Gazer Inn and is looking for a fresh start…something to put a spark back into her life.

But first she has to tell her four sons, who have problems of their own but have smothered her with their protective instincts. She’s lived on the huge South Texas ranch just outside of Corpus Christi since their father carried her over the threshold. She’s raised them on the massive McIntyre Ranch—one of the largest, wealthiest in Texas. It’s been her home and theirs. Will they understand that it’s time for her to leave? Time for her to move on?

Jackson McIntyre is shocked by his mother’s announcement. Guilt-ridden in the aftermath of his father’s accident, Jackson is determined to do whatever it takes to help his mother find her way to move forward. But this new idea of hers has him reeling.

Nina lives next door to the inn and is living a quiet life, keeping a low profile. She has her reasons. Will the opening of the inn and her new neighbors, especially the oldest son of the new innkeeper, tempt her to step back into the light and out of the shadows of her past?

Lisa, Alice’s best friend and recent divorcee, has been traveling the world since the breakup that left her shaken and feeling just as lost as Alice. A brilliant cook with a flair for entertaining, she loves Alice’s idea and joins her to open the inn. But Lisa has her own secrets.

Can these two friends, and their new neighbor Nina, find fresh starts as they ready the Star Gazer Inn for its new beginning?

Will Nina find the courage to take one more chance on love with her new friend’s son?

 

 

 

The Hercule Poirot Book- 

 

A revolution in the Middle East has a direct and deadly impact upon the summer term at Meadowbank, a picture-perfect girls' school in the English countryside. Prince Ali Yusuf, Hereditary Sheikh of Ramat, whose great liberalizing experiment -- 'hospitals, schools, a Health Service' -- is coming to chaos, knows that he must prepare for the day of his exile. He asks his pilot and school friend, Bob Rawlinson, to care for a packet of jewels. Rawlinson does so, hiding them among the possessions of his niece, Jennifer Sutcliffe, who is bound for Meadowbank. Rawlinson is killed before he can reveal the hiding place—or even the fact that he has employed his niece as a smuggler. But someone knows, or suspects, that Jennifer has the jewels. As murder strikes Meadowbank, only Hercule Poirot can restore the peace.

Reading for Book Club-

There he was in his sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic, all alone and loving it. Well, there was a US Navy carrier group on his southern horizon, but he was a Navy guy himself, so he didn't mind. Then came the UFOs, hurtling in from the Outer Black to overfly the carriers at Mach 17. Their impossible aerobatics were bad enough—but then they started shooting at each other. And at the Navy. With nukes. Little ones at first, but winding up with a 500 megatonner at 90 miles that fried every piece of electronics within line-of-sight.Richard Ashton thought he was just a ringside observer to these now over-the-horizon events. Until the crippled alien lifeboat came drifting down and homed in on his sailboat; suddenly he has his hands full of an unconscious, critically wounded and impossibly human alien warrior who also happens to be a gorgeous female.That's when things got interesting.

 

 

 

Other Books I would like to get to-

  

Myra Whitlock has a gift. One many would kill for.

She’s an artist whose portraits alter people’s real-life bodies, a talent she must hide from those who would kidnap, blackmail, and worse in order to control it. Guarding that secret is the only way to keep her younger sister safe now that their parents are gone.

But one frigid night, the governor’s wife discovers the truth and threatens to expose Myra if she does not complete a special portrait that would resurrect the governor's dead son. Desperate, Myra ventures to his legendary stone mansion.

Once she arrives, however, it becomes clear the boy’s death was no accident. Someone dangerous lurks within these glittering halls. Someone harboring a disturbing obsession with portrait magic.

Myra cannot do the painting until she knows what really happened, so she turns to the governor’s older son, a captivating redheaded poet. Together, they delve into the family’s most shadowed affairs, racing to uncover the truth before the secret Myra spent her life concealing makes her the killer’s next victim.

 

Every year in the United States there are fifteen thousand murders, give or take a few hundred. Of those, nearly forty percent go unsolved.

In this six-part audio series, Christina Walsh is determined to change that. After struggling with the loss of her father, she sets out on a journey to bring the justice that has eluded her to the families of other victims. And she starts with a particularly strange case. The murder of world-renowned violinist Leona McPherson who mysteriously disappeared years ago after a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. As Christina digs deeper, the story gets stranger. Leona was a prodigy, someone too good to be forgotten, but that’s exactly what has happened. She’s been forgotten. Entirely. By everyone who knew her. From the gushing music critic in her hometown to the detectives investigating her murder, even her own mother.

So Christina embarks on a cross-country mission, with her roommate Sophie, to figure out what happened to Leona. In the process, she uncovers a trail of similar victims who have suffered the same fate. But if no one can remember the victims, how can the killer possibly be caught? Christina’s only leads come from a crazed homeless man’s ramblings, a mysterious glass eye, and an otherworldly totem. Is Christina crazy or has she stumbled upon something so implausible it must be true?