Bark At The Ghouls

Head Over Heels by Susan Andersen Contemporary Romance, Audiobook Who said "you can't go home again"? In Veronica Davis's case, who'd want to---especially when you hail from Fossil, Washington? But now she's back among the good-ol' boys who think she's fair game just because she's in a waitress uniform. The truth is, Veronica's the boss---at least until she can sell the family saloon and skip town again as fast as her feet can carry her---and nobody knows that better than Cooper Blackstock. From behind the bar, the ex-Special Forces Marine sees all. And his undercover agenda has made the feisty boss-lady's troubles his own. And her troubles are considerable, what with a family in turmoil, a pseudo-bartender with dangerous secrets, a murder investigation, and death threats. Though the town surprisingly rallies in support, it's still a good thing that Cooper will be there to catch Veronica if she stumbles---if he doesn't st...

Joe Hill's The Fireman has inspired me to start a new feature where I'll take my most recently finished read, pick an aspect from it and create a list of other books I've read and recommend that have similar traits. I hope you find it useful and would love for you to add titles in the comments that I've missed and need to get to reading! Most of the reviews will jump link you to Goodreads until I get everything archived here. In no particular order: The Fireman by Joe Hill Death by spontaneous combustion starts killing off the majority of the population! Ugh, what a way to go.  People do what people do and start turning on each other and showing their true evil. This book was overly long but the audio read by Kate Mulgrew was fantastic. See my review here . Meat by Joseph D'Lacey I read this book several years ago and it still haunts me. It is one of the most horrific books on this list. An apocalypse of some sort has occurred and the unlucky surviv...

Crawl by Edward Lorn Thriller, Unabridged 1 hour 45 minutes You’re out in the middle of nowhere. You’ve been crippled and left for dead.  There’s something in the woods.  It’s coming.  There’s only one thing you can do… CRAWL Juliet and Colton were once madly in love but Colton ruined it all when he decided to diddle the dog sitter (better than the dog, I suppose!). Juliet is fuming mad and who can blame her? When the story begins this is all fresh and told from Juliet’s POV. Her emotions are red hot as they are driving together to drop her off at her mom's house and you really “get” her. Her husband is a selfish dolt. Bad luck befalls them as their car is sideswiped and Juliet awakens dazed to find herself shackled to a post and things only get worse from there. Damn, and I thought my luck was bad! The best thing about Juliet is that she is not a whiner. She acts. The narrator is pure perfection for this tale. She conveys Juliet’s emotion...

Circus of the Damned by Cornelia Gray M/M Romance, Dark Fantasy Magician Gilbert Blake has spent his entire life conning drunkards in the seediest pubs in the darkest towns, careful to hide the true depths of his power. But when he spends a little too much time in Shadowsea and the infamous slumlord Count Reuben gets wind of his abilities, hiding within the Circus of the Damned may be Gilbert’s only chance at survival. But there’s more to the Circus than meets the eye. Every time a performer dies, a new one must take his place, or the entire circus suffers the consequences. And while the handsome ringmaster Jesse isn’t one to coerce unwilling performers into giving up their souls to the devil, a recent death in their ranks makes Gilbert exactly what they need. Yet the longer Gilbert stays with the Circus, the more danger he seems to bring them. Being with Jesse is more than Gilbert could have hoped for, but as Count Reuben’s men continue to search for Gilbert and the Circus...

Lovely Wild by Megan Hart, Dark Fiction, 346 pages From New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart comes a haunting and insightful novel about a woman trying to find her place in the world…  Brought up in the savage captivity of her unstable grandmother's rural Pennsylvania home, Mari Calder once yearned for rescue. Now she struggles every day to function as an adult in the confines of normal society. Left with only a foggy recollection of her childhood, she's consumed with being a dutiful wife to her husband, Ryan, and mother to their two children. But an unexpected twist of events returns her to that long-forgotten house in the woods. Soon, Mari is greeted with reminders of a past life, the clarified memories only inviting a new level of strangeness into her fragile world. To protect her family, she must find the beautiful, powerful strength hidden in her inner chaos. Because someone is bent on exploiting Mari's trauma, and as normal and wild begin to blend, a...

The Fireman by Joe Hill Unabridged Audio (22+ Hours!), Horror Fiction No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.  Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to liv...

T he Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey Audiobook, Horror Fiction  460 Pages Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius." Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be taken to class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad. The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman. I listened to this as an unabridged audiobook loaned out via Overdrive and read by Flinty Williams who has the most lovely, lilting accent...

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie Mystery, 288 pages The first Miss Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction. “Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,” declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, “would be doing the world at large a favor!” It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later–when the Colonel is found shot dead in the clergyman’s study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe. I'm giving it a 3 because I didn't hate it and I didn't love it. It's one of those books that falls right in the middle but first I need to get something out of the way. I have never read an Agatha Christie novel. There, it has been said. I received this audio free from the SYNC summer reading program last year. Apparently it’s the first b...