Summer's Opus

Title: Still Author: Camilla Monk Genre: Adult Fantasy Rating: Five Stars! On a whim, twenty-year-old Emma books a vacation to Rome, intent on finding her absent father, who she hasn’t seen since one-long-ago day on Coney Island. It really isn’t the best time in her life to pick up and travel halfway across the world, especially because Emma has a unique problem — she can stop time — so she’s a bit leery of traveling. She’s never been able to control her ability and worries about what could happen if time stops while she’s overseas. Despite her fears though, she goes ahead with her vacation, deciding that if she never works up the courage to confront her father, she’ll still make the most of her trip anyway. Rome is everything she imagines it to be: touristy, ancient, and full of old stuff. It’s nice though, and just as she starts to get excited about her newfound journey, she unexpectedly bumps into her stepsister. It’s a bit of a shocker, really, since she h...

  Title: Keeper of the Dragon’s Tears — Book 3 of the Knights of Kismera Series Author: Tamara H. Hartl Genre: Adult Fantasy Romance Rating: Four Stars! Egyptologist Maggie Shaffer finds more than antiquities when she discovers a mysterious tomb in a hillside excavation site on the edges of the Giza Plateau. Tomb raiders have since pillaged all of the artifacts, but Maggie can’t shake the nagging feeling that there’s something there worth discovering — the problem, of course, is that time is money, and the museum that’s partially invested in her journey is growing impatient. So, to make sure that she’s truly staying on task, the museum sends in Ted Maxwell, a fellow Egyptologist who just so happens to be Maggie’s abusive ex-boyfriend. At first, all seems well; Maggie keeps things professional while Ted keeps his temper in check, but as time drags on with no discoveries, tensions begin to flare, and when Maggie sneaks off to the dig site in the middle of the...

Title: The Haunting of Dove Cote House – Cat Fletcher ParaInvestigations – Book 1 Author: Rachel Jordan Genre: Adult Paranormal/Supernatural Mystery Rating: Three and A Half Stars! Following the death of her parents, Cat Fletcher returns to her family home, where she hasn’t been since she left for college. It isn’t as if she never wanted to visit when her parents were still around, but something deep in her gut always warned her to stay away — and it didn’t help that Cat's memories of her past were fuzzy, at best, and that when she did recall the manor, it was by way of nightmares. Still, with her parents gone, she knew it was time to leave the big-city life she had built for herself in London and return to the small town of her roots. At first, all seems normal and her homecoming is routine — and with the furniture in place and the boxes unpacked, Cat finally begins to settle in, which is exactly when things start to get weird. Initially, there are s...

  Title: The Severed Wings Book Series — Books 1 - 4 Author: Kelly Carrero Genre: YA Supernatural/Paranormal Romance Rating: Five Stars! In this intriguing, four-book series, we meet Luciana, a suicidal girl who thinks she’s crazy, but who soon discovers that she’s anything but. In fact, even though most people have her labeled as nuts, she really is an empath, and a cursed one at that! Doomed to repeat her life of suffering over and over again — like some twisted version of Groundhog Day — Luciana soon discovers that this lifetime is different. Somehow, she’s remembering her past lives, and as she begins to piece together the mysteries of her jaded, tortuous pasts, she also learns that her story is intrinsically tied to a handsome man who haunts her dreams. Marcus is the drop-dead gorgeous, strong, silent type, which isn’t usually Luciana’s thing, but there’s something dark and alluring about him that calls upon her soul, and whenever he’s around, all of ...