Books Everyone Should Read

I've had this post hanging around for like a week. I made it when I was sick because I was slacking on writing reviews. But now I'm all better and it has ended up getting pushed around and moved around to make room for either new reviews or other posts that I feel are more important than this one. But I'm tired of looking at it just sitting there. It has some good books that I've written reviews on before, though not on here. I'll be posting links to each book at the end so that you can hurry up and read them without the hassle of having to do more then click a button. . .and if your feeling super great today you can even look up those reviews I wrote that I was telling you about.

• Nefertiti's Heart by: A.W. Exley

London, 1861. Impoverished noble Cara has a simple mission after the strange death of her father - sell off his damned collection of priceless artifacts. Her plan goes awry when aristocratic beauties start dying of broken hearts, an eight inch long brass key hammered through their chests. A killer hunts amongst the nobility, searching for a regal beauty and an ancient Egyptian relic rumored to hold the key to immortality.

Her Majesty's Enforcers are in pursuit of the murderer and they see a connection between the gruesome deaths and Cara. So does she, somewhere in London her father hid Nefertiti's Heart, a
fist sized diamond with strange mechanical workings. Adding further complication to her life, notorious crime lord, Viscount Nathaniel Lyons is relentless in his desire to lay his hands on Cara and the priceless artifact. If only she could figure out his motive. 

Self-preservation fuels Cara's search for the gem. In a society where everyone wears a mask to hide their true intent, she needs to figure out who to trust, before she makes a fatal mistake.


-Steampunk, I don't think many people know what it is. I've been asked to explain it before and I had a really hard time doing just that. I haven't been able to find many books that are worth reading in this genre, but Nefertiti's Heart is one of them. 

• Isle of Wysteria: Make Like a Tree and Leaf by: Aaron Lee Yeager

Ever since she was little, Athel has dreamed about finally escaping her home island of Treesingers and joining the Federal Navy to see the world. When her nose wasn't buried in adventure novels, she was bribing the palace guards to teach her swordplay in her spare time.

Now that the day has finally arrived, her mother arrives with a condition: Athel can leave so long as she takes her new fiancé with her. Alder is the complete opposite of everything Athel ever imagined in a house-husband. She is free-spirited and crude, while he is formal and polite. What's worse, he is like a head shorter than she is. I know, right? He ruins every chance she gets to wallow in her new-found freedom, and she gives him every embarrassing chore she can think of to get back at him.
The worst part of all is that they really are perfect for each other, but how can you admit to your mother that she picked a good match for you? You just can't.

Together they traverse the vast twelve seas of their island world. Each island is home to a unique race of people that each specialize in a different kind of magic. The seas that separate them are wild and acidic, reaching out to snap up any who venture too close, so the world is traveled by massive airships. Wooden vessels that rely on the power of The Federal Navy to protect them from pirates, privateers, and mercenaries.

When war is declared between her island and the rest of the league, Athel becomes the target of kidnappers, pirates and shape-shifting assassins. Even the crew of her own ship is tempted by the price on her head. It is going to take a lot more then luck to get her and her twiggy fiancé out of this one.

-This book was awesome. I remember thinking it wasn't going to be anything special when I first starting reading it. I couldn't have been more wrong, I think it was one of the only times I was okay with being wrong.

• Indigo & Iris by: C.M. Stunich

Rule One: Gold protects but doesn't prevent.

Rule Number One Hundred and Eighteen: Do not discredit any information for all things are, in time, inherently useful.

Rule One Hundred and Eighty Seven: Remember the Rules.

They sound more like fortune cookies than bits of advice, but Indigo Lewis is going to have to get real used to 'em if she wants to survive. After eight years on the lam, her maniacal twin sister has finally caught up with Indigo and taken away everything she's finally built for herself. On the coattails of that tragedy comes Lynx, the man with the goofy grin and the gold epaulettes, who brings with him a train that travels without tracks and an arsenal of weapons that shouldn't reasonably exist. And all of it for a broken spyglass. Indigo thought she'd seen it all. She was wrong.

-This one is steampunk as well. But where the Nefertiti's Heart takes place in the Victorian Era, this one is more modern. It has a whole lot of "what the heck!" moments going on in it, and is one super crazy ride.

• Lucky Stiff: Memoirs of an Undead Lover by: Tonia Brown 

Meet Peter Lyles, a young man unremarkable in life but unforgettable in un-death. After he accidentally overdoses while on spring break, Peter's friends do him the dubious favor of bringing him back to life. Or rather, they turn him into a zombie with the help of a little old fashioned Voodoo. Peter's journey through the unlife takes him from the homebrewed sex magic of a mysterious swamp-dwelling Madam, to bouncing from bedroom to bedroom all across the globe, and finally leaving him with a career as the hottest gigolo not alive. All the while, he must deny his hunger for human flesh while sating his passion for, well, human flesh. At turns humorous, at times touching, but always sexy, sexy, sexy. "Lucky Stiff" will leave you wanting more Peter. He's just that good. 









-I know what you are thinking already. Zombie that has sex, no thank you! I thought the same thing. But this book is so much more then that. I'm someone that loves zombies, but I'm really picky about them. I like classic zombies, none that this running and talking crap you see now a days. So usually when I come across a zombie book like that I pass it up. I'm so happy I gave this book a chance, it was a really good read.

• Eville by: Holand Peterson

Serene Necrosia is a brilliant scientist, on the brink of creating something that will change the lives of every living thing on the planet. The only problem is that she has been vaporizing, incinerating, and generally decimating her staff at an alarming rate- all in the name of progress, naturally. But now the Hunchback Union has had enough, and is refusing to supply the woman additional labor. What’s a mad scientist to do? Search for a desperate, poor sap who doesn’t know any better to fill in the vacancy.

Alex Hobbs is down on his luck. He’s lost his job, is dead broke, his girlfriend just dumped him, his car died, and the turkey baking in his neighbor’s oven detonated and burned down his apartment. It’s been one of those weeks. Desperate, he turns to the local employment agency for a job- any job to keep him from starving on the street. When a rather odd fellow working at the agency tells Alex about an exciting entry level position, vaguely described as being in the scientific/medical field, he jumps at the opportunity. Sure, it sounds too good to be true, but a guy’s luck has to turn around sometime, right?

Alex now finds himself stuck in an insane mansion deep in the countryside, bordering the mysterious community of Eville, populated by a colorful cast of volatile inventors, the worlds’ surliest hunchback, stately werewolves, goblin barbers, and the lonely, disembodied brains of ex-husbands whose only form of communication is a worn out Etch-A-Sketch. With free room and board and an exceptionally generous salary, Alex figures he can stick through the madness long enough to get back on his feet. That is, of course, if Serene doesn’t inadvertently kill him off with one of her crackpot inventions before payday.

-I don't even know where to start with this one. It is awesomely hilarious. Everything from Alex right down to Moody is amazing. I know as soon as I finished this book I went and got the second one right away. 

I need to add that while trying to clean this post up I had a kitten climbing all over me purring as loud as she can. She managed to walk on the keyboard, click random spots, and just in general be a pain in the booty the entire time. But dang if she isn't super freaking cute at the same time.

All these links will take you to Amazon:

• Nefertiti's Heart
• Isle of Wysteria: Make Like a Tree and Leaf
• Indigo & Iris (An Indigo Lewis Novel)
• Lucky Stiff: Memoirs of an Undead Lover
• Eville