Books Tagged With potential trigger - traumatic past

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Summary: “Ye never ken what beasties lurk in the water…” The white and red dragons have been spiritual soulmates for as long as anyone can remember. Finally, their human vessels Stewart and Michael are together once more—except one of them has a hard time remembering or believing that he’s a dragon. As his mysterious family’s past starts revealing itself, Stewart Rygby has been made aware of his responsibility to manage and protect vast estate holdings that are in his care—which includes the local fairy village. There is also the impending problem of a lake resort planned to be built dangerously close to the dragons’ ancient lair. While Father Aron has the power to prevent this egregious trespass, it may take some angelic intervention to convince him to accept such a crusade on faith. Join us as our dragons come together for another lifetime in Green Hills and Dragon Tales—the momentous second book in the Green Hills Series by Celyn Kendrick!

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Summary: “You probably shouldn’t stop to talk to strange men, dragons or fairies…” Stewart Rygby and Michael Dougal are looking forward to a new chapter in a new lifetime together, but the waiting is driving them mad. It also doesn’t help that Stewart’s mother is prone to random outbursts of poetry punctuated by the pealing of bells in the local fairy village. Whilst visiting Michael in Scotland, Stewart also gets to meet his fiancé’s cousin and the future mother of their children—Shannon Anderson. After getting dumped by her girlfriend of ten years by sticky note, she’s sick of pretences and vows to live life differently and by her own rules. Meanwhile, back in Llwyncudd, there’s a new vicar in town. Father Aron Lewis tries to look at retirement and the odd turn his life has taken as a positive—and one quite possibly fated by God. But God seems to have a twisted sense of humour. Join us for a puppy poppy tea party pealing parade in Green Hills and Fairy Bells—the prophetic third book in the Green Hills Series by Celyn Kendrick!

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Summary: “Who but God could have created such a bewitching creature?” In the 6th century, Brother Elis was simply trying his best to serve God during a time of relative political peace and prosperity. But in a world full of rules written by man, how can he be at peace with the life that God has set before him? Now, in the 21st century, for the first lifetime in their ancient dragon memories, Stewart Rygby and Michael Dougal are free to marry one another. Is this finally their time to shine? When a messenger from the other side arrives on their doorstep, he brings more news from the fairy realm than the simple tidings from the Grand High Council of y Pentref Cudd. His presence demonstrates how little everyone truly knows about fairy society. As the mysterious and inexplicable spirit realm is revealed, retired vicar Father Aron is finally getting some very literal answers to his spiritual questions. Will he be able to keep such secrets to himself so that Stewart and Michael can live in anonymity? Join us for a wedding as esoteric mysteries are revealed in Green Hills and Holy Wells—the fourth book in the Green Hills Series by Celyn Kendrick!

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Summary: A brutal war left Volos Perun with physical and emotional scars and with a reputation as a hero. Now he’s a soldier stationed at the palace, desiring Prince Berhanu while receiving only loathing in return. But when Berhanu foolishly refuses the king’s request to let Volos accompany him on a peace mission to the neighboring country, Berhanu is kidnapped and brutalized. Now Volos must risk his life as he works to save Berhanu and help his country avoid another devastating war.

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Summary: "...an apocalyptic survival story that moves with the speed of a raging river..." This is how the world ends. For one man, this is how it begins. Donald Kerston's life up to now could only be described as a nightmare. But what he wakes up to suddenly becomes much worse. Struggling for his very survival, for the first time he finds friends and a future - only to be confronted with the one thing he didn't ever want to face.  

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Summary: Flynn Keahi has had a rough year. His nightmares are starting to manifest in reality, but no one believes him. Terrifying creatures are trying to cross out of dreams into the physical realm. Only Flynn can stop them – but doing so might cost him his life. Complicating matters further, one of these creatures cannot help wanting him — in every forbidden way. Will she be able to save him from his fate? Can she even protect him from herself? Book 1 in The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi What People Are Saying!   “A twisted descent into arousal, madness and mad arousal, Happiness and Other Diseases pulls no punches as it peels back the layers of the human experience to reveal our soft, creamy centers. Take that how you want, but if you are looking for a disturbing, sexually charged read with solid writing, Sumiko Saulson delivers.” -- Angela Yuriko Smith, Bram Stoker Awards® Nominated author of In Favor of Pain   "If you enjoy unsettling dark paranormal romances that place power dynamics in sexual relationships under the microscope, look no further. Sumiko Saulson gives us body horror, what feels like an insiders look at mental illness and the mental health system, dysfunctional families, semi-obscure mythological characters, and an excellent depiction of how many of us teeter on the fence between sex and death. Happiness and Other Diseases is a sexy, funny, disturbing, and unflinching tale of the insane lengths people will go to in search of love and acceptance." -- Michelle Renee Lane, Bram Stoker Award Nominated author of Invisible Chains   "In this entertaining novel, Saulson incorporates mythology into what might appear to be normal, everyday life. However, characters, Flynn and Charlotte, are far from normal. I enjoyed how Saulson keeps their relationship lively but honest – even sweet, but not in a saccharine way. Buy this book! For sheer enjoyment, it’s a keeper!" – Marge Simon, multiple Bram Stoker winner, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner   “It is a very unconventional book that offers a supernatural dimension to the mysterious, sometimes mind-bending world of psychological pathological conditions, psychosis, and disorders.” Justin Boyer, bibliophilesreverie.com

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Summary: Left for dead behind enemy lines, prince Dominel seeks refuge in an abandoned stronghold of the slaughtered wizards. There he is recruited and trained by undead mages in the once forbidden magics so that he can close the doors into the world of man and halt the advance of the horde of monsters known as the storm. Can the strength of a lone wizard stand against a god of evil bent on ruling all the worlds of monsters and men. Will other races stand as friends or foes in Dominel’s quest? Can Dominel open himself to memories of his past lives without fracturing his sanity and becoming a worse threat than the monsters he seeks to halt? And what of the man who is prince, king and wizard? What space is left for him in a life of crushing duty and wondrous enchantment? For the answers read on

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Summary: A baby’s laughter. A mind uncaged. Lance is known as Scourge, the warrior in the black armor, the dog of the warlord Ulfr Blackwolf. He was just a boy when Ulfr found him and molded him into the perfect weapon. He slaughters and pillages on command, merciless and numb, devoid of emotions. Then a baby girl laughs at him during a raid. And everything changes. When Gust, a talented healer, is out deer hunting and stumbles across a magnificent horse bearing a mortally wounded rider, he has no idea that his life is about to change forever. Gust applies all his skills to his patient, determined to save the rider’s life, and is rewarded when the man opens his eyes. As friendship, and more, bloom between warrior and healer, so does the danger over the horizon. Ulfr has not forgotten, and Lance must take his first steps on the long road to redemption.

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Summary: Doran had a problem, and it wasn't that he'd been stabbed. Iole City is in turmoil. Doran Ó Seanáin, leader of the Black Lung Gang, is determined to challenge the Archon, Arajon’s tyrannical ruler, for his brutal treatment of the miners. But Doran has more to deal with than getting stabbed and a city-wide lockdown that’s seeing his gang of ex-miners slowly starved out of their base. His daughter Grace has turned against him, and the death of his wife haunts them both. Although he finds reprieve in Nathaniel Morgenstern, the apotheker with a mysterious past to whom he owes his life, the clock is ticking. The fate of the mines hangs in the balance and the Archon is closing in. Doran’s plan to break the cycle may very well be his last.

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Summary: Kaede Hiyashi is sick and tired of living in the shadow of his father, supervillain Doctor Terror. Brilliant but crazy, Doctor Terror sends his son to Corwyn, California, for reasons Kaede can’t imagine. Sent to accompany and protect him is Ash, a genetically modified supersoldier raised and trained by an infamous death cult. Corwyn is lousy with superheroes, led by the obnoxious Dark Justice. Kaede finds himself dancing around Dark Justice as he digs into his father’s mysterious business and teaches his socially awkward—but physically lethal—bodyguard to acclimate to “normal” life. Can these two wacky supervillains figure out what Doctor Terror wants them to do, solve the riddle of the villain known as Black Hand, and keep Dark Justice from raining on their bloody parade? The course of love—and world domination—never did run smooth.

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Summary: Another spaceship, another explosion. Harold Galahad would love to wake from this particular nightmare that is so eerily similar to the events that cost him his beloved wife and destroyed his soul. But the only way out is by saving the ship and its entire crew. If you ask Harold Galahad, he isn’t fit to lead a crew or command a ship. But nobody is asking Harry. Instead, he finds himself back on the bridge, on a ship stranded in space, no help in sight, only kept alive by remnants of a gradually failing life support system. His crew? A nurse running out of tentacles and eyes to care for all the wounded, a chief engineer who knows all about her systems but struggles with people, a chief of security who thinks everything can be solved with paragraphs from the Company’s handbook, a cursing chief of logistics, an anxiety-ridden communications officer, and a first officer who stays mysterious and feigns ignorance. This ship needs a captain to avert a complete disaster that includes the death of everyone on board. Can Galahad overcome his trauma? Can he find solutions where there are none? And worst of all, can he unravel all the mysteries surrounding the ship, its crew and the system they all work for? If you enjoy a complex tale that brings a human element to all species that travel space, combined with a multi-layered mystery, and starring a broken hero, Herald Petrel by Strange Seawolf will deliver. Warning: contains adult language and a considerable amount of swearing -- it is a cargo space ship in a desperate situation, after all.

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Summary: The sun and moon have been devoured by the cosmic wolves Skoll and Hati. Fimbulwinter has enveloped the world in the cold and darkness. Men prey on each other in order to survive. Amid the chaos, in the struggle for the throne, comes a war between brothers. Hakon, the illegitimate heir to the throne of Norveig, has obtained a horn that can summon a terror from the depths of the ocean. This monstrosity has been sinking the vessels of his half-brother, Jarl Erik Bloodaxe. Erik sends a company of untried heroes to infiltrate Hakon’s stronghold and steal the horn. As with all things political, there are other agendas. Fjorn, the leader of the team, is Erik’s half-brother who could challenge Erik for the throne. Erik's wife Gunnhild is a powerful sorceress with her own ambitions- could her goals derail the heroes? In life, sometimes a Jarl wins, and other times a Jarl wins.

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Summary: For Evangeline “Evan” Miles, Honeycutt Academy is more than just a prestigious school of magic. It’s home. Before graduating, it was the first place they’d ever felt comfortable enough to be themself. Now, as a school librarian, it’s also where Evan might have finally found the promise of love - with Mimi, the bright and bubbly potions professor. But when Evan meets Hester, the half-sister they never knew they had, everything suddenly changes. Hester is being stalked by their murderous, vampiric father - an experience Evan remembers only too well. United, the two siblings agree that their days of running and hiding from their father are over - and it’s time to finally end his wretched existence. But to do so, they must turn to Svenja - a witch, a wolf-shifter, and the only creature they know powerful enough to take down their monstrous father. However, the paranormal private investigator is also Evan’s former lover - and as the hunt for their father draws them closer together, the flames of their romance begin to rekindle. Evan feels forced to choose between their chemistry with Svenja, and their commitment to Mimi - and that distracts them from a dangerous truth: That as Evan and Hester prepare to confront their centuries-old father, they’ve forgotten he’s also had decades to prepare for them. I Think of You Often is the first installment of the St. Acton series by Sienna Eggler - a small town sapphic PNR by an author praised for writing “engaging tales of emotions and struggles” and “sweet, realistic romance between two people figuring their way in life.”

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Summary: In Sacrum Umbra you were treated to tales from the shadows, the literary darkness that lives within all of us. Here you will find tales of another sort, the type you might find in the less wholesome end of the collective unconscious and the very depths of the gut. From stories of childhood gone horribly wrong to sex and madness with an impossible cost, this is where you'll find the more gruesome end of the spectrum.

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Summary: “A must-read for fans of strange, surreal horror.” —The New York Times In a frozen tundra, one man fights for redemption as monstrous creatures ravage a community already struggling to survive. Sebastian Pana is a “sin-eater,” a shaman-like figure who can absolve the dead of their transgressions before they move on to the afterlife. But when Sebastian’s small arctic town is invaded by hideous, otherworldly beasts, he must wage battle with them the only way he knows how: by unleashing the power of sin itself. From an author who has been compared to Lovecraft, Bradbury, and Gaiman, Incarnate is a masterpiece of contemporary arctic horror—both an epic confrontation between the forces of good and evil and a profoundly redemptive tale about our eternal quest for forgiveness.

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Summary: In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds. The murder of a former cop draws Roan into an odd case where an unidentifiable species of cat appears to be showing an unusual level of intelligence. He juggles that with trying to find a missing teenage boy, who, unbeknownst to his parents, was “cat” obsessed. And when someone is brutally murdering infecteds, Eli Winters, leader of the Church of the Divine Transformation, hires Roan to find the killer before he closes in on Eli. Working the crimes will lead Roan through a maze of hate, personal grudges, and mortal danger. With help from his tiger-strain infected partner, Paris Lehane, he does his best to survive in a world that hates and fears their kind… and occasionally worships them.

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Summary: A remote resource planet. A mysterious illness. And a rescue team frighteningly out of their depth. It was supposed to have been an easy job: go in, kidnap or kill his mark, get out. Shine's done plenty of jobs like this before, no problem. But when it all goes suddenly wrong, he has only one option left to save his skin. He finds himself an unwilling volunteer on a medical mission to a remote resource planet. It sent in a distress call a week earlier, and then promptly went silent. No one knows why, and no one can contact them to find out. And, Shine is increasingly beginning to realize, every person on this mission is politically unimportant--a perfect crew of disposables. Their mission is to go in and figure out what happened, and save whoever they can. But he's smart enough to realize that anything that could cause an entire mining colony to go silent is probably not something accustomed to leaving its victims alive. And after meeting the rest of the crew, he's not sure that they're any safer than what's waiting for him out on the planet ... Set in the world of The Devil and the Dark, Inhuman is the first book in R.M. Olson's gripping new space-horror series, The Dark Between Stars.

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Summary:

“Is blood thicker than water?”

The answer seems obvious until a half-millennium-old blood feud ignited between twin brothers of a 16th century Scottish Reiver clan revisits violence generation to generation, pursuing their descendants from island to island and finally onto a new continent ,where the familiar proverb is ultimately pitted against this fluid tale of guilt, blood, water, and time.

Rich with magical realism, Is Blood Thicker taps millennia-old folklore to spin a modern fable of love, pain, and family wisdom consumed by a lived code:

‘Drink, Pray, Fight, Feck’ … and a fox.

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Summary: Morgorth and Aishe must contend with a deadly threat that could spell disaster for their world. Payshthas were the first of the Mother’s intelligent children. It is rare for true friendship to form between them and another species—which makes Morgorth’s bond with Enfernlo unique. And it is due to their friendship that Morgorth doesn’t hesitate to answer Enfernlo’s plea for help. A thief has stolen something vital from Enfernlo’s colony—a stone of power. Their hunt for the stone leads them to a war torn kingdom, and Aishe can hardly stomach what he sees. The devastation urges him to assist however he can, no matter the risk. Meanwhile, Morgorth is faced with reminders of the monster he used to be, and contemplates how far he’s come, and yet how far he still has to go. And when his estranged mentor joins them on their search, Morgorth is forced to confront his resentment and sense of betrayal, and use Master Ulezander as a tool to save the payshthas. Forced into a deadly quest where trust is in short supply, and faced with challengers for the stone, Morgorth must put his faith in those he loves and in himself... and become a champion not just of the Mother but for Karishian itself.

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Summary: Never look a mannequin in the eyes! Edi has collected antiques and ghost stories for as long as they can remember. Some old objects buzz with history, and when Edi touches them, they see fragments of the item's story. But are the visions real? Edi desperately wants to believe in the supernatural until a mysterious ghost transforms their mom into a mannequin. Helped by Delilah, a thirteen-year-old psychic, Edi researches local hauntings to untangle how and why their mom became a mannequin. When Edi finally employs their ability to see an artifact’s history, they learn the terrifying truth. The ghost that turned Edi’s mom into a mannequin wants to resurrect herself, and she doesn’t care how many people she murders in the process. If Edi doesn’t put her spirit to rest by the end of the summer solstice, dozens of people will be forever mannequinized, including Edi and Delilah’s moms. Find out what happens in Junk Junction by Sara Codair!