What's On My Kindle?: Indie Authors

Welcome to the sixth installment of What's On My Kindle?

What exactly is What's On My Kindle?  This is my own little thing that I am going to be getting out every Sunday.  Within this post I'll list a few of the books that are currently on my TBR list on my Kindle.  Some are freebies (or were when I bought them), and others I paid for with gift cards, or had a few spare bucks to spend on a book.

All of them, I fully intend on getting to, at some point (and taking a massive chisel to my to-read list and hopefully hack it down to under 1000, again).



I love, love, love, and did I mention LOVE finding Indie authors, self published, or gone through a smaller publishing company.  I've met one of these authors (and knew her before she was published!).  Others are just names on Facebook or Goodreads, but I adore them all, and will be getting to their books within the next couple of weeks (because I've promised reviews!).

First up is T.R. Stoddard who I knew back when I first started at McDonald's and she was in high school.  Now, she is a published author.

The books that I have for her are:
1. Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Don't Ask, Don't Tell is an anti-gay policy sweeping the Bible Belt portion of the nation. Freshman journalism student Rachael Ainsley goes undercover as a high school senior named Cassie Rae for a tell-all expos, hoping to drastically alter the Gay Rights Movement. She instantly befriends the gayest boy in school. Imagine his surprise when he finds out who she really is. Can she stick to her deadline, or will she be discovered before she has a chance to change the lives of the students attending Mooreville High?

2. Finding Sanity - Waking up in solitary confinement is never fun for anyone, and Randall is no exception. He is subjected to relive crucial moments from his past until he finds himself out on his own, free. Deciphering what is real vs. fantasy is half the fun. He finds new love, but as always an old flame complicates things. His reality and fantasy worlds collide putting him in a very compromising position. Can he make it out with his relationships intact?

3. Delightfully Departed - Ten wasted years, a woman with blood on her hands, and the consequences of actions converge in this short story of undeserved love and opportunities missed.

4. Dark Hearts (her newest publication) - In the Dark Hearts chat room, a predator lurks amid damaged souls looking for someone to relate with. Fifteen year old Kara is certain that she's found Mr. Right and vows to meet him after one month of online chatting. Can you really know someone connected only by an internet connection? Or is love universal?

After losing the love of his life to suicide, a man becomes a twisted vigilante against suicidal young girls. A fixed game of chance delivers his justice. Can true love break his cycle of death, or will a twist of fate let his crimes catch up with him?

Up next, there is Griffin Hayes, who writes creepily wonderful horror, mystery, thriller and suspense novels.  I first met Griffin through Goodreads when I'd signed up to read one of his stories in exchange for an honest review, when I'd started blogging near religiously.  His stories are fantastic and if you love a good book that gets in your head - Griffin Hayes definitely has something for you.

His books on my Kindle are:

1. Primal Shift (A Post-Apocalyptic Serial Thriller) - A mysterious geomagnetic event sweeps the globe, leaving a powerful amnesia in its wake.

The human race is robbed of the most basic skills learned in childhood: reading, writing and the ability to speak. Civilization crumbles, plunging the world into an age of unparalleled barbarism.

2. Fatherland - Paranormal investigator Harry Thomson has never seen a ghost or a ghoul or anything he hasn't been able to explain away in down-to-earth prosaic terms.

But all that is about to change when he and his partner agree to meet with a boy who might just be the reincarnation of history's most infamous mass murderer. Young Donald looks like a sweet, innocent little boy. But sometimes looks can be deceiving and before the night is through, two will die and the fate of the world will hang in the balance.

3. Malice - Welcome to Millingham, MA, pop. 5000... 4997... 4993...

The sheriff has convinced himself and others that the recent rash of deaths in the town are just suicides. Lysander Shore knows different. He knows the townsfolk are being hunted. He knows they face an evil as old as the town itself. He knows it's something that can't be killed, can't be reasoned with.

And he knows that the evil knows about him, too. It's waited centuries for Lysander to come home. Now it wants to make him pay.

4. Hive - Nearly two hundred years after the planet was ravaged by millions of undead Zees, the human race is still struggling to rebuild. The Zees may be long gone, but so too are centuries of scientific advancement.

A group calling themselves The Keepers of Knowledge have set out to retrieve and protect what little technology survived the fall. When four of their Prospectors go missing, the Keepers turn to a no-nonsense mercenary named Azina and her eclectic crew of hardened veterans to find them.

The search leads the group to a crumbling underground city. But what looks like just another ruin from a bygone era isn’t nearly as deserted as it appears. Soon, a simple rescue mission becomes a slippery descent into hell as Azina and her men unwittingly awaken a savage, bloodthirsty world. Who will stand and fight, and who will be lucky enough to stay dead?

5. Hive II - After her capture by the Hive Leader, Azina discovers that he isn't just another mindless Zee. He's got plans for her. Big ones. The kind Azina wants nothing to do with. But escaping the Hive Leader and dealing with her own infection aren't Azina's only problems.

Back in Sotercity, Prior Skuld has thrown Bron, Ret and Oleg behind bars and plans on executing them the following day. Skuld wants to cover his tracks. Turns out those discs Oleg salvaged from the decaying complex contained a frighteningly powerful piece of old world technology. One capable of ending the human race once and for all and it may have just fallen into the wrong hands.

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Who are some of your favorite Indie Authors? Have you met them in person? Gotten any nifty 'swag' from them?

Muse Hunt Stop: Riddle me this, Riddle me that...

Alright ladies and gentlemen, it is that time!

You need a riddle...I'm giving you one!

Can you figure out the riddle? *grins impishly*

Review: The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Title: The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things

Author: Carolyn Mackler

Format: E-book (Kindle Edition)

Read: July 15-17

Rating: 5/5

Recommend: OMG Yes!

Summary: Virginia Shreves is fifteen. She is larger-than-average, and has the plus-size inferiority complex to go with. Her best friend has moved to Walla Walla, Washington (as far from NYC as you can get) and she's just gotten to second base with Froggy Welsh the Fourth (yeah, that's his real name). There are moments of light-heartedness, and moments of seriousness that will take your breath away.

Review: This book has appeared numerous times on the American Library Association's banned/challenged book list for a variety of reasons, most of which are 'unsuitable to age group,' however that is a load of crap.

Find me one teenage girl who is the 'fat girl' and tell me she doesn't have self-esteem issues. I know, I was that teenage girl. I was the 'fat girl,' 'the nerd,' and pretty much anything else you could call me. No, my life was not as tragic as Virginia's is, but I still dealt with my fair share of weight bashing from my peers, I had the places that I could 'hide' when I didn't want to be seen, that sort of thing. It took me ages to finally accept myself, accept who I was, and learn what -I- had to do to change things.

After Virginia's brother, Byron, falls from grace and comes home from Columbia for a semester. Things are tense and at the most a failed attempt to be 'picture perfect' in the Shreves household. A trip to Seattle and other life changing events continue to open up Virginia's eyes until she is completely (or as close to completely) at ease with herself. There is a happy ending, and purple hair, and an eyebrown piercing, and even a forbidden public display of affection (that goes against the Fat Girl Code of Conduct!).

All in all, this is a very well written story of every overweight teenage girl who strives to 'fit in' in high school and fill a role that was originally carved out by their older siblings in a picture-perfect family.

I recommend this to anyone who has ever had self-esteem issues for weight, or whatever other reason, and ultimately needed to learn to be true to themselves no matter what others may think of them.

Quickie Update

Good evening lovelies!

It has been an active day for me, at least in adding thing to my review pile! Seriously!

I've got seven books that I will be reviewing from some awesome Indie authors!

These authors and books are, with pending review dates (as RL can tend to be a royal pain in the butt!):

T.R. Stoddard

1. Finding Sanity - Review coming 7/19
2. Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Review coming 7/22
3. Delightfully Departed - Review coming 7/25
4. Dark Hearts - Review coming 7/31

E.L. Farris

1. Ripple - Review pending 8/5

Toni Dare

1. One Night With You - Review pending 8/10
2. Rial - Review pending 8/12

A. Katie Rose

1. In a Wolf's Eyes - Review pending 8/17
2. Catch a Wolf - Review pending 8/20

Definitely looking forward to delving into these awesome books by these fantastic Indie authors! 

I highly recommend checking them out.  They are fantastic people!

What's on My Kindle? - The Mortal Instruments

Welcome to the fifth installment of What's On My Kindle?

What exactly is What's On My Kindle?  This is my own little thing that I am going to be getting out every Sunday.  Within this post I'll list a few of the books that are currently on my TBR list on my Kindle.  Some are freebies (or were when I bought them), and others I paid for with gift cards, or had a few spare bucks to spend on a book.

All of them, I fully intend on getting to, at some point (and taking a massive chisel to my to-read list and hopefully hack it down to under 1000, again).

I am crazy for YA Series, and this one ranks amongst my top ten YA series.  The Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare will be the next book to movie series, that will be turning up in theaters soon. 

This series at the moment has five books in it, and the sixth book is currently in the works and slated for publication in 2014.  I've not read books two through five yet, but they are definitely on my TBR list at the moment and I'm delighting in getting back to the series.  Here are the titles and a bit of a blurb on them, blurbs taken from Goodreads.

1. City of Bones: When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

I will probably begin reading this one toward the end of the year, I'll re-read it before I read further into the series because it's been a little over a year since I last read this book. 

2. City of Ashes: Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

This one, I am definitely looking forward to, to see how Cassandra Clare progresses her series and I know several people who are greatly invested in this series and highly recommend this series.

3. City of Glass: To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

Again, I've met people who love this book and who hate it.  I love hearing from other people before I read  books, but ultimately I do not let their opinion impair my own opinion of the books that I read because I don't need anything coloring my reviews.  

4. City of Fallen Angels: The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And - most importantly of all - she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

The end of the Motal War - always a good thing right?! I mean really, and the best part is - Clary can finally call Jase her boyfriend.  YAY for love! Love is awesome! Isn't it? But there is always, always a price. 

5. City of Lost Souls: What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

Love has its price.  Finally together, and yet torn apart, when they meet again Jase is now a servant of evil.  However, can he be freed without the ruining of Clary's brother Sebastian?  Even still, is there anyway that Clary can trust Jace again?  Again, mixed reviews on this book, so ultimately when I get to it, we will see how things progress and if I'll enjoy it as much as some of my friends have. 

6. City of Heavenly Fire: Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary’s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him — must they journey to another world to find the chance? Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world changed in the sixth and last installment of the Mortal Instruments series!

2014! That is the publication date of this sixth and final installment of this series.  Already people are anxiously awaiting the conclusion, to see if the Nephilim will be able to destroy and rid the Shadowhunter world of the greatest evil they have ever faced, Sebastian. Nailbiter to be certain.

This series is definitely on my TBR list and one of those that I'm giving into the hype to dip my toes into the waters of yet another fandom!