I'm excited to be joining in on the Bookish Blog Hop! 

Each day, bloggers answer questions about themselves and the books they are reading. 

Today's question is: Do you take part in reading challenges?

Six stories of not-so-merry Yuletide whimsy from the authors of Black Spot Books. 

A woman so cold she hardens to ice on a winter's eve. 

Risen from his grave before his time, a winter god alters the balance between seasons. 

A wolf's holiday season is interrupted by a strange curse. 

From a murder at the Stanley Hotel to demons of Christmas past, present, and future, and a mad elf and Santa's Candy Court, the authors of Black Spot Books share their love for winter holidays in this collection of dark winter tales, destined to chill your bones and warm your heart for the Yuletide season.

 

A Midnight Clear is a collection of six varied stories of dark yuletide cheer. This was a very diverse mix of holiday-themed stories perfect for the season. While they varied in personal ratings, each was well written and matched my desire for a great wintery read. Short story collections are so much fun because the tones and themes can vary greatly from author to author. This perfectly fantastical group of stories did not disappoint!

The Dauntless by Sam Hooker

This one was definitely unexpected. A puzzling story of courtroom justice in...the North Pole? Yes, you read that right. There's a submarine, some elvish killings, and a coal delivery to a Lovecraftian being sleeping away obvious to its Christmas stocking filling up. I probably struggled the most with this one, but Lovecraft has never been my thing. 

Tidings of a New Moon by Alca Leyva

What happens when werewolves are the civilized ones and human bites are to be feared? This was a fun read. I enjoyed seeing the tables flipped. 

Movin' on Up by Laura Morrison

In a Dante ordered hell, three inhabitants are given the opportunity for improving their circumstances (or put in time in the gladiator pits). They crawl back up from Hell in a sort of twisted Christmas Carol to show a heaven-bound human the error of her ways in attempting to show that her good deeds actually sent others on their paths downstairs. 

The Poetry of Snow and Stars by Cassondra Windwalker

Here we revisit the Stanley hotel and have a murder mystery to go along with it. I enjoyed the main character but it seemed a little too neatly wrapped up to me. There wasn't a lot of mystery, just an ah-ha moment and some romantic pining that felted a little immature. It was just ok for me. 

Sleep, Sweet Khors by Dalena Storm

One of my favorites out of the bunch! Ripe with Slavic mythology, Lisa is devastated at the forthcoming death of her favorite uncle. In an attempt to keep death from coming, she creates a horrible world where death doesn't come and life is stuck in a sort of half death. Its grotesque symbolism about life and death and the inability to halt the progression was well done. It's also a great anecdote on children and explaining death. 

Snow Angel by Seven Jane

Haven't we all tired of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season? This one follows a wife and mother that is disenchanted by all the errands and to-dos of the season and for whom Christmas has lost its glow. It's a bit heavy and morose but I enjoyed the prose of Snow Angel. It's beautifully written and has wonderful imagery. 

Steamy romance, a bad-ass female protagonist, and vampires! What more can you ask for? Fans of the Goddess with a Blade series, wait no more! Blood and Blade is almost here, and if you're getting really antsy, you can get a sneak peek right here!

There's also a chance to win a print copy below!

Expected Publication Date: December 30, 2019

Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Urban Fantasy/ Vampires

Publisher: Carina Press

Rowan Summerwaite is ready to finish what she started in Blood and Blade , the next installment in the Goddess with a Blade series by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Dane.

The coven’s under investigation. Its future is in peril. And for one troubled young psychic, the coming battle will threaten her newfound freedom—and brings back a dangerous desire . . .

Exploited as a child medium, Emily Adams escaped to grow up on the streets—and hit rock-bottom. She took shelter with the prestigious Northern Circle, intent on staying only long enough to get back on her feet. But the Circle is still reeling from a devastating supernatural attack and betrayal. And vengeful High Council of Witches investigator Gar Remillard is determined to make Em surrender the truth—and disband the Circle forever.

When Em’s psychic ability allows her to see Gar is haunted by a formidable ghost, her attempts to free him challenge Gar’s rugged French Canadian heart and rancorous loup-garou instincts. But even as their new alliance and past connection kindles into raging desire, a malevolent 

force rises up to destroy them—the Circle and even the High Council.

With all she’s grown to love on the line, Em must draw on her darkest nightmares and alliances with the dead to outwit and out magic a force who can imprison souls with a flick of the fingers and command legions of wraiths with one word. . . 

Philip is a good boy, a really good boy, who accidentally gets sent to Hell to become the Devil’s heir. The Devil, Lucifer, is dying and desperately in need of a successor, but there’s been a mistake and Philip is the wrong boy. Philip is terrible at being bad, but Lucifer has no other choice than to begin the difficult task of training him in the ways of evil. Philip gets both friends and enemies in this odd, gloomy underworld—but who can he trust, when he discovers an evil-minded plot against the dark throne?


Even though the story (mostly) takes place in Hell and deals with themes like evil, death and free will, it is also a humoristic tale about good and evil seen from a different perspective. A tale that hopefully will make the reader – young or old, boy or girl – laugh and think. – Kenneth B. Andersen

Sometimes the difference between reality and insanity is only a matter of absurdity.

There is nothing Milo Bishop fears more than the thought that he is going insane.

Having grown up hearing his Uncle Jay’s stories about the strange mermaids Milo never had a reason to believe they were actually true. But when a near-death experience gives Milo a vision of a mermaid calling to him for help, Milo is forced to test his uncle’s claims. And when he winds up in Rasulka, the mermaid community tucked away, deep under the southern California seas, the question of his uncle’s sanity is the least of his concerns.

For in the heart of Rasulka, a growing whirlpool in the ocean-sky and the terrarium’s changing climate — along with a discarded prophecy that says their end will come when humans appear — all suggest that the end is near. Along with his uncle and best friend, Moss, and Eluia, a young mermaid who grew up hearing myths about humans, Milo has only hours to sort through his doubts and insecurities and face down unimaginable terrors if he is going to find his way home — before Rasulka, and everyone in it, is lost forever.

Can Cassidy and her friends find the demon box, stop the killer ghosts, and break the Pendlewood curse before Beckford’s murderous cousins and the vengeful demon destroy them all?

Book four in the Deadly Curiosities series. Cassidy Kincaide runs Trifles & Folly in modern-day Charleston, an antiques and curio shop with a dangerous secret. Cassidy can read the history of objects by touching them, and she teams up with friends and allies who use magic and paranormal abilities to get rid of cursed objects and keep Charleston and the world safe from supernatural threats.

Caribbean ghosts terrorize Charleston and start racking up a body count. Then Beckford Pendlewood, the heir to a powerful family of dark warlocks, shows up raving about a bound demon locked in a lost box and begs sanctuary. Can Cassidy and her friends find the demon box, stop the killer ghosts, and break the Pendlewood curse before Beckford’s murderous cousins and the vengeful demon destroy them all?

Will she follow the pack…or destroy them?

A dead mother. A violent father. A missing brother.

When Mia’s father is murdered, it’s her estranged uncle that comes to the rescue, but what he offers her in return for his help could be worse than the life she is leaving behind.

Taken to Hood Academy, a unique school deep in the forest, she discovers friendships, love, and the courage to stand on her own.

Mia takes the oath that seals her future as a werewolf hunter, but not everyone wants Mia to succeed.

Screams in the night. Secret rooms. Hidden letters. Mia becomes an important piece in a game she doesn’t want to play.

Loyalty, friendships, and family bonds are tested as Mia discovers her true identity, but will the truth set her free, or will it destroy her?

In post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, dreams come true. So do nightmares.

Ever since a shift in reality twenty years ago, peoples' dreams and nightmares come alive, spreading chaos and destruction. Monsters ravage cities, bottomless chasms split roads, and gold rains from the sky - the possibilities are limitless, unpredictable and often deadly.

Eden Maybrey is a hunter of these "shades". When a friend tasks her with tracking down and eliminating an evil shade, the hunt threatens to expose Eden's deepest, darkest secret. To find her prey, she is forced to team up with Vaughn Taylor, a hunter who hates shades with a passion - and who won't hesitate to put a bullet in Eden's head should he figure out the truth.

Book 1 in a new urban fantasy series with a twist: no vamps or weres - instead, dreams and nightmares coming alive.

Would you really want your dreams to come true?