Sunday Surprise!

Sunday Surprise is a feature that showcases three random novels that have either caught our eye, have received for review or is just not getting enough attention. Hopefully we’re able to introduce you to a new fabulous read or even remind you of what you’re missing. So…did we catch your eye?

Surprise! It’s Nikki back for another offering of Sunday Surprise! This week I’ve selected a plethora of fabulousness to entice you with.

PBriggs-Dead HeatFirst up I bring you Dead Heat, the much anticipated fourth installment to Patricia Briggs Alpha & Omega series. Filled with dark & seedy Fae shenanigans, paired with the abundance of feels sparked by Anna & Charles, it left me happy sighing all over the place. While I always highly recommend reading in order to get full enjoyment out of any series, for those who do not have a sequential hang up as I do, take note that Briggs does a great job of providing back details and rehashing prior events so that it can be read as a stand alone if one wants to just jump right in!

For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles’s role as his father’s enforcer. This time, their trip to Arizona is purely personal, as Charles plans to buy Anna a horse for her birthday. Or at least it starts out that way…

Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae’s cold war with humanity is about to heat up—and Charles and Anna are in the cross fire.

RHobb-Assassins ApprenticeFor my second offering I bring you Assassin’s Apprentice, book one in the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. I’ve heard many good things about Hobb in the past, so when I was recently looking for a good fantasy book to take to the beach while on vacation, I grabbed this one. I’m kicking my own butt for waiting so long to read a Hobb book. I was instantly enthralled with the characters and the world, intriguing and complex all built in elegant prose. A must read for any die hard fantasy reader. And, as a total unintentional bonus at the time of this posting, it is currently on sale for only $1.99!!

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.

MBrook-Here There Be MonstersAnd lastly, I offer you my most favorite novella ever read to date – Here There Be Monsters by Meljean Brook. This is a powerfully packed punch of 125 pages of awesome! I can’t even put into words how much I LOVED this introdution to Brook’s steampunk Iron Seas series (which I happen to equally love!) There’s a pirate and a blacksmith and throw in The Kraken! It’s simply all around badass. Seriously, just read it. Trust me!

Desperate to leave London, two years ago Ivy Blacksmith secured her overseas passage by striking a provocative bargain with the domineering pirate Mad Machen. Saved from his bed at the last moment, Ivy fled the city, but Mad Machen vowed to come after her…

Eking out a living in the little town of Fool’s Cove, Ivy never expected that her impetuous offer would continue to haunt her. But the beautiful blacksmith owes Mad Machen the price of a voyage, and the pirate captain is determined to collect.