Title: The Final Play Author: Amie Knight Genre: Contemporary Sports Romance
As a professional linebacker, I lived and breathed football.
The only thing I loved as much as the game was my twin brother, Max, who kept me almost as busy cleaning up his messes.
The most recent of which landed him behind bars.
So, it shouldn’t have surprised me when a beautiful woman showed up on my doorstep, claiming to be pregnant with Max’s baby.
Glory was unexpected, infuriating, and flat-out crazy most of the time.
But no matter how hard I tried to deny it, that tiny spitfire slammed into my boring life with the strength of a Category 5 hurricane, blowing through my defenses until she’d carved her name in my heart—permanently.
I feared we would never work. She was a single mom, my brother’s ex, and one more chance for me to fail yet another person I loved. But if football was my church, then Glory was my heaven
Amie Knight has been a reader for as long as she could remember and a romance lover since she could get her hands on her momma’s books. A dedicated wife and mother with a love of music and makeup, she won’t ever be seen leaving the house without her eyebrows and eyelashes done just right. When she isn’t reading and writing, you can catch her jamming out in the car with her two kids to ’90s R&B, country, and showtunes. Amie draws inspiration from her childhood in Columbia, South Carolina, and can’t imagine living anywhere other than the South.
Title: Type X Author: M.A. Phipps Series: Project W.A.R. #2 Genre: Young Adult Dystopia
Feared by many. Frightened of few. Torn between humanity and the monster she’s become.
When Wynter surrendered to the DSD two years ago, she thought she was protecting her friends. Lured by the promise of a cure, she hoped she might finally be rid of her devastating disease or, at least, be on the path to controlling it. But Dr. Richter was never interested in curing her.
With a collar around her neck keeping her unstable powers in check, Wynter is transformed into an unstoppable weapon. Compelled to do the State’s bidding, she kills without feeling, remembering nothing of the people she gave herself up to protect. Her only thought is to obey.
When a mission goes wrong, triggering suppressed memories, Wynter finds herself determined to piece together her past. But as she uncovers the truth, she realizes it’s no longer clear who the real enemy is, and with the threat of war looming, she must again make a choice. Can she escape her role in the impending destruction?
A grunt resonates in the back of my throat as the toe of a boot kicks my legs out from beneath me. Wincing, I drop to my knees in the dirt.
Through a scalding veil of tears, I stare down at the ground. How could I have allowed us to wind up like this? Why did I just sit by and do nothing?
Rough hands pin my arms behind my back, binding my wrists in thick, metal shackles. I don’t struggle because I already know from experience there’s only one sure-fire way out of this. One way to undo the mistakes—my mistakes—that got us into this mess in the first place.
That nagging voice of doubt returns, holding me still. What if using my power here results in the one outcome I’ve sacrificed so much to avoid? What if it endangers the very lives I allowed myself to become a weapon to protect?
My eyes dart between Ezra and Jenner as they’re both forced down onto their knees beside me. I could do it. I could save them. I could get us all out of here alive. But I also know that my plan could go horribly wrong. One wrong move, that’s all it would take. One split second of hesitation or miscalculation and they would be dead because of me.
Then again, if I do nothing at all, we all die now, on our knees in this field. When I look at it that way, the decision is easy.
I only have one option.
Footsteps plod along the overgrown earth, pacing back and forth behind me. Three sets of tramping boots reverberate in my ears.
One armed guard per hostage, I note.
There were more than that when Nolan left us, but Quinn ordered the others to go on patrol. It shouldn’t surprise me that Nolan left the ex-Enforcer in charge of overseeing our executions. Quinn has hated me from the first moment we met. Of course, he would want the honor of slaying the monster himself.
Considering his motivation for joining PHOENIX, I wonder if his conscience is at all conflicted about gunning down unarmed hostages, or if he sees our deaths as just punishment for the crimes I committed on behalf of the State. He wouldn’t be wrong. I’ve done horrible things to protect the people I love and even worse things out of fear of what might happen if I didn’t. Every step I’ve taken, every move I’ve made, was selfish. I can own up to that.
But Ezra and Jenner… They shouldn’t die, not like this. They’ve done absolutely nothing wrong except love a broken girl who doesn’t deserve to be loved.
They shouldn’t have to pay the price for my sins.
I swallow the rising lump in my throat, asking myself the one looming question I’ve considered at least a thousand times before.
Can the future be changed?
If I had believed that it couldn’t, I wouldn’t have handed myself over to Richter two years ago. If I had thought the future was set in stone, I would’ve spent what little remaining time I had left with the two people in this world who mean everything to me. I wouldn’t have forced myself to forget them. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to inflict so many untold horrors on so many innocent people.
Even now, after everything I’ve been through, I have to believe I can still make things better.
M. A. PHIPPS is an American author who resides near the ocean in picturesque Cornwall with her husband, daughter, and their Jack Russell, Milo. A lover of the written word, it has always been her dream to become a published author, and it is her hope to expand into multiple genres of fiction.
Title: A Moment After Dark Author: Janey Raye Stevens Genre: Paranormal Historical Suspense
She sees the future with a touch. A powerful gift in a time of war. The enemy wants her. The Allies need her.
Addie Brandt is cursed. When she touches someone, or an object that belongs to them, she sees their future, and it’s rarely good. Mocked and teased her whole life, Addie hides from the world in her family’s funeral home. But when her second sight shows her a horrific vision of an attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval base, the gruesome images are too intense to ignore, and she tries to raise the alarm. Will anyone listen?
Federal agent Jack Dunstan needs a miracle. He’s still reeling from the betrayal that nearly decimated his team of agents with paranormal powers, a vengeful Nazi spy with a terrifying ability of his own is out to destroy him, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before America is drawn into the war raging around the world. Hearing rumors of Addie’s vision, he seeks her out, hoping she could be the miracle he’s looking for.
Addie’s not sure she trusts Jack Dunstan. He’s rude, cocky, and insists on calling her curse of second sight a “gift.” But if she wants to save lives and prevent a terrible disaster, she must put aside her fears and doubts and learn to embrace her ability.
With the US on the brink of war and an enemy agent hunting her for her power, Addie must learn to trust Dunstan—and herself—to stop an attack that could change the course of history forever.
Addie Brandt can see the future with a touch. She’s had a horrific vision of an attack on Pearl Harbor. After failing to warn the police, she goes to a diner where her friend Rosa works and meets Jack Dunstan, who claims to be an insurance salesman, but is really a federal agent who’s
Looking to recruit people with paranormal powers.
“Your last name is Brandt?” Dunstan said. “That’s German, isn’t it?”
Addie choked on a mouthful of minestrone. She remembered what Father had said about the growing animosity toward German Americans.
“It might be,” she said warily. “Though I fail to see why my name should interest you.”
“Because of that.” He stabbed a finger at his newspaper, and the headlines full of war news. “We’ll soon be in this war. People will have to choose a side. Are you one of those German nationalists who think Herr Hitler is the bee’s knees? Or are you red, white, and blue through and through?”
Maybe just red, as in seeing red. This man’s impertinent questions had gotten her dander up. “You certainly are curious, Mr. Dunstan.”
“I’m a curious fella, or so they say.” He flashed another boyish grin. “So, which side will you stand up for, Addie? Your ancestral people? Or will you help Uncle Sam win the fight that’s coming?”
She put down her spoon, fully annoyed now. “Why don’t you take me downtown, officer, where you can grill me properly?”
He laughed, a deep rumble, like a wave crashing into a cave. “Fair enough. I may be pushing too hard.”
She should ignore him. He was rude and strange. Yet, something about this back and forth with him seemed to…irritate her, yes, but also excite her. Engage her. She’d never had a conversation like this with a man before. The few times she’d spoken with a man close to her age, the subject was a corpse. Certainly no man had ever asked for her opinion, about anything.
“If I tell you where I stand, Mister Dunstan, do you promise to leave me alone?”
“Doubtful.”
Her lips twitched. “At least you’re honest. Well, then, speaking for my German side and my Irish side, and the American I’m proud to be, I don’t want us to fight at all. War means death and I hate death.”
“That seems ironic, coming from a woman who works in a funeral home. You’re surrounded by death every day.”
She blinked. “How do you know where I work?”
“You have a chatty friend.” He tipped his head toward the kitchen window. Rosa bent down, bottom thrust out, yelling through the opening at Sal. “She tells me you see things.”
Addie cringed. She’d told Rosa about the picture show that played in her head, but Rosa had never laughed or teased her about it. It stung to discover she’d been spreading gossip about her.
“I’m sure you’re mistaken,” Addie said.
“I’m sure I’m not. Rosa says you’ve seen her future. That you tried to save a boy’s life long ago. I know you tried to warn the police about something yesterday. Something bad. What was it, Addie? What did you tell them?”
Addie pushed the minestrone away, no longer hungry. And no longer amused. “Mr. Dunstan, just what line of insurance are you in?” she asked, nearly breathless.
He held out his hand. “Why don’t you find out?”
She looked at his palm, crisscrossed with so many lines a palm reader could be employed for months studying them. What did he want her to see? Was it worth the risk? The terrible images of the Pearl Harbor attack had haunted her for days. Why would she touch him and invite yet another horrific Sight?
“Addie, look at me,” he coaxed. She did, surprising herself. He held her in his gaze. “You can trust me.”
His voice rolled over her in a gentle wave. Trust, a heavy word. She’d never allowed herself to trust anyone. Least of all a man she barely knew. And yet… She couldn’t deny she felt drawn to him. Felt at ease looking into his golden-brown eyes. Should she take the risk?
Meet award-winning author Janet Raye Stevens – mom, reader, tea-drinker (okay, tea guzzler), and teller of fun, adventurous, occasionally heartbreaking, and stealthily romantic tales.
Derringer Award nominee and winner of the Daphne du Maurier and RWA’s Golden Heart® awards, Janet writes mystery, time travel, WWII-set paranormal, and the occasional Christmas romance with humor, heart, and a dash of suspense. She lives in New England with her husband, who’s practically perfect in every way, and their two sons, both geniuses and good-looking to boot.
