This is the eighteenth in this new series of updates about formerly featured Debut Author Challenge authors and their works published since their last update. The year in parentheses after the author's name is the year that author was featured in the Debut Author Challenge.
| Part 1 here | Part 11 here | Part 21 here | Part 31 here | Part 41 here |
| Part 2 here | Part 12 here | Part 22 here | Part 32 here | Part 42 here |
| Part 3 here | Part 13 here | Part 23 here | Part 33 here | Part 43 here |
| Part 4 here | Part 14 here | Part 24 here | Part 34 here | Part 44 here |
| Part 5 here | Part 15 here | Part 25 here | Part 35 here | Part 45 here |
| Part 6 here | Part 16 here | Part 26 here | Part 36 here | Part 46 here |
| Part 7 here | Part 17 here | Part 27 here | Part 37 here | Part 47 here |
| Part 8 here | Part 18 here | Part 28 here | Part 38 here | Part 48 here |
| Part 9 here | Part 19 here | Part 29 here | Part 39 here | Part 49 here |
| Part 10 here | Part 20 here | Part 30 here | Part 40 here | Part 50 here |
Darynda Jones (2011)
The Curse of Tenth Grave
Charley Davidson 10
St. Martin's Paperbacks, December 6, 2016
Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Hardcover and eBook, June 28, 2016
If one door closes and another one opens,
your house is probably haunted.
-Bumper Sticker
As a Part-time PI and fulltime grim reaper, Charley Davidson has asked a lot of questions throughout her life: Why can I see dead people? Who is the hot supernatural entity following me? How do I get gum out of my sister’s hair before she wakes up? But, “How do I trap not one malevolent god, but three?” was never among them. Until now. And since those gods are on earth to kill her daughter, she has little choice but to track them down, trap them, and cast them from this dimension.
There’s just one problem. One of the three stole her heart a very long time ago. Can the Razer, a god of absolute death and destruction, change his omniscient spots, or will his allegiances lie with his brothers?
Those are just a few of the questions Charley must answer, and quick. Add to that a homeless girl running for her life, an innocent man who’s been charged with murdering the daughter of a degenerate gambler, and a pendant made from god glass that has the entire supernatural world in an uproar, and Charley has her hands full. If she can manage to take care of the whole world-destroying-gods thing, we’re saved. If not, well…
Eleventh Grave in Moonlight
Charley Davidson 11
St. Martin's Press, January 24, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages
My entire life can be summed up in one sentence:
“Well, that didn’t go as planned.”
—T-Shirt
A typical day in the life of Charley Davidson involves cheating husbands, errant wives, missing people, philandering business owners, and, oh yeah...demons, hell hounds, evil gods, and dead people. Lots and lots of dead people. As a part time Private Investigator and full-time Grim Reaper, Charley has to balance the good, the bad, the undead, and those who want her dead.
Now, Charley is learning to make peace with the fact that she is a goddess with all kinds of power and that her own daughter has been born to save the world from total destruction. But the forces of hell are determined to see Charley banished forever to the darkest corners of another dimension. With the son of Satan himself as her husband and world-rocking lover, will Charley be able to defeat the ultimate evil and find a way to have her happily ever after after all?
J.A. Kazimer (2012)
A Very F***ed-Up Sugar & Spicy Tale: A Mother Hubbard Mystery Novella
F***ed-Up Fairytales 6
Obscure Publishing, April 1, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 42 pages
Do you like your reads filled with sugar and spice and everything nice? Then this book isn't for you. Instead enter a very f***ed-up fairytale world where the tales of your youth come to life in a real and messed up way.
From the author of the bestselling F***ed-Up Fairytale series comes A Very F***ed-Up Sugar & Spicy Tale.
Nothing is as sweet as it seems at the Sunrise Senior Living Community, especially the Red Velvet cake.
A murderer is killing available bachelors as fast as kittens can lose their mittens. But Mother Hubbard is on the case, along with her wooden-legged lover, Geppetto.
Follow them down the rabbit's hole and into the twisted fairy tale known as senior living and dying.
Beyond the Wall
Obscure Publishing, May 23, 2016
eBook, 221 pages
From the bestselling author of CURSES! comes a quirky, dark world divided by genetics and a concrete wall, a filled with complex loyalties and loves.
Beyond the wall, Indeara Adair survives by kicking the occasional gnome ass, a job her half-human, half-mutant cells make her terrifyingly skilled at.
Life is good with a few exceptions, namely, an elite force of cops who have Indeara in their sights, not to mention the reappearance of Quinn Daniels, a man who betrayed her three years ago to dwell among the human race.
A man she must now protect in order to save those she loves.
Yet these are the least of Indeara's concerns, for somewhere, a plague destined to destroy mutants everywhere is scheduled for release, a plague developed by Indeara's own grandfather.
With the help of a ragtag group of mutants and humans alike, a group led by the mysterious leader of the rebel cause, Jake McClain, she slips beyond the wall and into the human world to unlock the truth behind her own genetic code in order to save thousands of lives.
The Assassin's First Date
Camel Press, July 1, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 108 pages
Not all first dates end with a magical kiss.
Sometimes they end with a bullet.
Benjamin Miller and Hannah "Six" Winslow have a date, but no one's going to "get lucky," at least not in the common sense of the phrase. The partners kill bad guys for the secret government organization known as OPS. And although they are dining at an elegant restaurant, their goal, and that of fellow assassin Nate Taylor, is to assassinate a dangerous arms dealer.
"The target" dies early in the evening, though not by the hand of any of the three assassins.
His death by poison means yet another assassin got to him first, one who did not leave any obvious clues. In fact nothing is as it seems. Have they been betrayed by OPS? Is the mysterious assassin lingering in their midst, waiting to pick them off? Ben, Six, and Nate have only a few hours to solve the mystery, using only their wits and whatever evidence they can gather by cell from Nate's analyst H.
But Ben and Six are unusually distracted by each others' sexy-date personas. With no one but Nate in top form, the slippery outside assassin may put them all on ice.
The story in the novella The Assassins' First Date predates the novels, The Assassin's Heart and The Assassin's Kiss. Each can be enjoyed separately, but you can follow the tale sequentially by reading this story first and ending with The Assassin's Kiss, which features Nate and his estranged wife Julia (coming in August, 2016).
The Assassin's Kiss
Assassins 2
Camel Press, August 15, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 258 pages
The Assassin's Kiss, book 2 of the Assassins' Series by J.A. Kazimer
Julia abandoned Nate Taylor on their wedding night after finding him in the arms of her stepsister, Sara. Now she is set to marry again, this time to a man who shares her upper-crust background. But Nate won't sign the annulment papers.
Ready to resort to murder if necessary, Julia storms Nate's houseboat in the Florida Everglades, just in time to survive an attack by a group of assassins Nate believes are targeting her. He should know; he's an assassin himself--a little detail he never shared with his ex. Nate works for a secret government agency known as OPS. With the help of his fellow assassins, Nate tries to identify the attackers and the reason for their deadly quest.
Meanwhile, the reluctant travel companions flee north to Nate's eccentric hometown of Gibsonton, and later to a comfy cabin in the woods. Julia becomes better acquainted with her mysterious ex, the true man behind the gun.
Seeing this new side of Nate, will Julia continue to resist the powerful chemistry between them? Will they solve the mystery before one of them is killed trying?
The Assassin's Kiss is the second book in the Assassins series, which began with The Assassin's Heart. The prequel to The Assassin's Heart is a novella titled The Assassins' First Date.
Lee Kelly (2015)
A Criminal Magic
Saga Press, January 31, 2017
Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Hardcover and eBook, February 2, 2016
In Lee Kelly’s “electric” (Publishers Weekly) fantasy novel, two young sorcerers experiment with magic and mobsters in 1920s Prohibition when a new elixir is created that turns their lives upside down.
Washington, DC, 1926. Sorcery opponents have succeeded in passing the 18th Amendment, but the Prohibition of magic has only invigorated the city’s underworld. Smuggling rings carry magic contraband in from the coast. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters’ crime sprees. Gangs have even established “magic havens,” secret venues where the public can lose themselves in immersive magic and consume a mind-bending, highly addictive elixir known as “the sorcerer’s shine.”
Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from the backwoods of Norfolk County, accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious crime syndicate, The Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws. When Joan meets Alex at the Shaws’ magic haven, she discovers a confidante in her fellow partner and he begins to fall under her spell. But when a new breed of the addictive sorcerer’s shine is created within the walls of the magic haven, Joan and Alex are forced to question their allegiances as they become pitted against one another in a dangerous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.
Darin Kennedy (2015)
Pawn's Gambit
The Pawn Stratagem 1
Falstaff Books, October 14, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 316 pages
Steven Bauer always thought chess was just a game…
Until the sultry brunette in the little black dress did her best to incinerate him.
Yesterday, he was just an ordinary guy. Today, he is the White Pawn, a combatant in a nightmarish game of chess where people are the pieces, and the world is at stake. To survive the deadly Black Queen, Steven must pull together the rest of his Pieces.
The Knight, a grieving teenage boy caught up in a web of gang violence.
The Queen, a young woman at death’s door, her body ravaged by leukemia.
The Bishop, a disgraced priest haunted by visions of the Game.
The Rook, a suicidal drunk reeling atop a storm-ridden skyscraper.
But Steven isn’t the only one looking for his team, because the Black Queen already has her Pieces assembled…
Pawn’s Gambit is the first book in The Pawn Stratagem, a new contemporary fantasy series from author Darin Kennedy (The Mussorgsky Riddle).
Lisa Kessler (2011)
Blue Moon
Moon 6
Select Otherworld (Entangled), June 20, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 326 pages
Falling for her means losing everything…
She’s his muse, his mate, and she’s completely off-limits.
He’s a jerk, a recluse, and her newest assignment.
Until he broke her heart, Vivianna Lopez loved Logan Reynolds.
Five years later, she’s an aspiring music journalist and he’s the camera-shy lead singer of Logan and the Howlers.
Armed with a backstage pass, Vivi’s back in her hometown of Reno, nestled in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada mountains. She must score an interview with Logan to land her dream job – otherwise it’s back to Boston, with no scoop and no job. It’s just business–at least that’s what she keeps telling herself.
Logan still loves Vivi, his soul mate, but there’s something even she doesn’t know about him: He turns into a werewolf every full moon and a secret organization is hunting down his Pack.
Vivi may not have Logan’s senses, but she can sniff out that he’s hiding something. He knows it’s only a matter of time before the truth about him – and his Pack – is revealed.
And then he really will lose her.
Lure of Obsession
The Muse Chronicles 1
Lisa's Lair, August 1, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 266 pages
"Another beautiful series from an unbelievable author. She gets me every time." #1 NYT Bestselling Author Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Prophecy - "Every generation the nine daughters of Zeus are reborn, and with their rebirth are also nine Guardians. They will be marked by the gods, and given gifts to protect his treasure. Their abilities will only be unlocked when they find their muse."
Melanie Jacoby teaches English at Crystal City High School. She's also the reborn Muse of Tragic Poetry, but she isn't prepared for the tragedy of finding her roommate dead at the bottom of the stairs.
Nate Malone is the detective assigned to the case, but as the evidence points to an accidental fall, the visions begin. He sees a killer in a gold Kronos mask.
Mel is the next target.
The Order of the Titans are eager to bring about the return of the Golden Age of Man, and they're prepared to kill the Muses to complete their mission. But Nate's desire to protect Mel is almost as strong as his hunger for her.
And tragedy isn't part of his plan.
Legend of Love
The Muse Chronicles 2
Lisa's Lair, December 5, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook
The Prophecy - "Every generation the nine daughters of Zeus are reborn, and with their rebirth are also nine Guardians. They will be marked by the gods, and given gifts to protect his treasure. Their abilities will only be unlocked when they find their muse."
Callie O'Connor's life has never been the same since the Muse of Epic Poetry came alive inside of her. Now she's on the other side of the country, working as civilian psychologist for the Navy, and leading her Muse sisters in their quest to reopen the Theater of the Muses.
But nothing could have prepared her for Hunter Armstrong. He's a Navy Seal, driven, confident, and dangerous. And he plans to do more than just protect her.
The gods couldn't have picked a better Guardian. But as Hunter soon discovers, Callie has some skeletons of her own in the closet, and loving her could lead to his destruction.
