Your Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Bargains for November 17, 2017

A dastardly spell. Mysterious billionaires. An ordinary girl thrust into an extraordinary world.

Lucy O’Connor is more IT girl than “it girl” but even though she’ll never fit in, the scholarship to elite Amaris High is an opportunity she can’t refuse.

The day Lucy arrives at Amaris, she sees her best friend, Sam Spencer. But Sam had died three years ago, on the night that had changed Lucy’s life forever. The more Lucy looks for answers, the worse things get for her, as she makes an enemy of the richest, most popular boy in school, Tennyson Wilde.

When the entire school is hit by a truth spell, it seems like the perfect chance to find out what Sam and Tennyson are hiding, but the closer Lucy gets, the more she realizes that the truth is stranger than she ever imagined.

Markal, an apprentice wizard, is thrust unexpectedly to the head of his order when his master is decapitated by a gray-skinned assassin. The order’s walled gardens have the power to restore their dead master to life, but only if the apprentices can protect his body long enough for their sanctuary to work its magic.

When a barbarian warrior named Bronwyn invades the gardens wielding a soul-binding sword and accuses the order of harboring a powerful sorcerer, Markal thinks she is another assassin come to finish the job. But Bronwyn is a paladin, a holy warrior from across the mountains, and her presence is a harbinger of a greater threat than Markal had imagined, a necromancer with the power to command the dead.

Together, they must join forces before the necromancer destroys Markal’s order and overruns Bronwyn’s homeland.

Category: Fantasy – Epic

After the death of the paladin captain and the defeat of the sorcerer’s attack, apprentice wizards Markal and Nathaliey flee their homeland with the red sword in the hopes of carrying it to safety in the barbarian homelands. They must cross the mountains ahead of the sorcerer’s marauders while avoiding the giants and griffins that infest the high passes.

But before they can cross, the two companions are taken prisoner by a band of paladins who are convinced that Markal and Nathaliey are lying about their captain’s death. The sorcerer has invaded the paladin lands, and they have begun a desperate campaign to throw back his forces.

Meanwhile, the pursuing marauders have been joined by more servants of the enemy: the sorcerer’s dark acolytes, who are eager to test their growing magic against the two young wizards they have been sent to kill.

A colony world goes dark.

When the crew of the Tyche are hired to deliver a new transmitter for a downed Guild Bridge, they find the Absalom Delta colony deserted, its people turned into slaves by the insect-like Ezeroc. The aliens have descended like locusts on humanity, consuming all in their path. No one is safe. Even the Republic Navy is powerless against them.

Facing an impossible foe, odds are stacked against the Tyche. The ship and her crew need to test their skill and their luck to survive. Will they be able to work together to get away? Or will fears and rivalries from the past destroy humanity’s hopes, ceding victory to the Ezeroc?

Category: Science Fiction – Space Opera

Bound by fear, by fire, by destiny.

When Phoenyx Blake meets Sebastian for the first time, it’s in a dungeon where they and two others have been imprisoned. Together these four strangers discover that each one of their souls are attached to an element of nature. Fire, Water, Earth and Air. Their abductors belong to an ancient society that plans to sacrifice them for their powers during the upcoming solar storm. What’s more, Phoenyx and Sebastian find that their souls have a special history that spans centuries. Destined to love, fated to die, doomed to repeat.

Phoenyx and Sebastian, along with the other elementals, must learn to master their powers to escape. But Phoenyx is hiding from a painful secret. If she can’t find the strength to face it, she and her new friends will lose not only their lives but their souls–forever.

Category: Fantasy – Paranormal & Urban

Nothing good comes from this book. It has magic, mayhem, theft, murder, sass talk, demons, animals committing felonies, gleeful revenge, and bad things happening to good people for no reason. It won’t encourage good habits and probably fine tune bad ones. The only lesson learned is don’t lie unless you know the rules.

Life is tough in the Great Depression, but Peter Whistler has one gift, a magical ability to lie. Drawn into a nefarious plot to unleash a demon, Peter leads a little blind girl named Esther and an enchanted terrier on a desperate escape to New Orleans. He meets Amelie Marchand. Like all well-bred southern girls, she’s trained in deadly martial arts, but with a murderous step-mother, Amelie has problems of her own. Their one chance for survival is to find the Mad Frog King of the bayou.

Welcome to an alternate 1930s where both jazz and magic fill New Orleans’ air.

Category: Fantasy – Alternative History