Sunday Surprise!

Spellwright by Blake Charlton

Imagine a world in which you could peel written words off a page and make them physically real. You might pick your teeth with a sentence fragment, protect yourself with defensive paragraphs, or thrust a sharply-worded sentence at an enemy’s throat.

Such a world is home to Nicodemus Weal, an apprentice at the wizardly academy of Starhaven. Because of how fast he can forge the magical runes that create spells, Nicodemus was thought to be the Halcyon, a powerful spellwright prophesied to prevent an event called the War of Disjunction, which would destroy all human language. There was only one problem: Nicodemus couldn’t spell.

Runes must be placed in the correct order to create a spell. Deviation results in a “misspell”—a flawed text that behaves in an erratic, sometimes lethal, manner. And Nicodemus has a disability, called cacography, that causes him to misspell texts simply by touching them.

Now twenty-five, Nicodemus lives in the aftermath of failing to fulfill prophecy. He finds solace only in reading knightly romances and in the teachings of Magister Shannon, an old blind wizard who’s left academic politics to care for Starhaven’s disabled students.

But when a powerful wizard is murdered with a misspell, Shannon and Nicodemus becomes the primary suspects. Proving their innocence becomes harder when the murderer begins killing male cacographers one by one…and all evidence suggests that Nicodemus will be next. Hunted by both investigators and a hidden killer, Shannon and Nicodemus must race to discover the truth about the murders, the nature of magic, and themselves.

Can’t Teach an Old Demon New Tricks by Cara Lockwood – March 30, 2010

Get an east Texas girl good and mad,and there’s going to be hell to pay!Rachel Farnsworth doesn’t believe in the paranormal—she can find plenty of evil forces right in Dogwood County, like the Mega-Mart that’s driving her family’s hardware store into the ground. Then there’s her own little hell-raiser—a rowdy toddler who can turn his birthday candles into a blazing inferno with just one breath. But when her marriage goes up in smoke, Rachel discovers her husband, Kevin, isn’t just a deadbeat, he’s also a demon (a sloth demon, no less, which explains why he never helped around the house) with a renegade bounty hunter—a fallen angel named Sam—chasing down a powerful secret Kevin has kept for a millennium or two. Sam’s downfall was a beautiful mortal woman . . . and now, the heavenly attraction zinging between them has down-to-earth Rachel believing in celestial magic. But will it be enough to save her and her son from the dark forces Kevin has unwittingly unleashed on Dogwood County?

A Knight’s Persuasion by Catherine Kean (Knight’s Series #4) – May 5, 2010

When Edouard de Lanceau, son of Moydenshire’s great lord Geoffrey de Lanceau, finds an unconscious wounded woman lying in a river, he’s shocked to recognize Lady Juliana de Greyne, to whom he was once almost betrothed. Years ago, his bet with a friend to win her kiss went awry, and the betrothal never went forward. But Edouard has never forgotten Juliana. Taking her in his arms, he vows to find out who would want her dead, and why, while he rides on to an important meeting on behalf of his ill father.

Lord Geoffrey’s enemies, Veronique Desjardin and her grown son Tye, have returned to Moydenshire to destroy him. Alerted to Edouard’s mission, they take him prisoner and chain him in a tower. Now a hostage, he must fight not only for his life, but for Juliana’s as well.

When Juliana wakes, she has no memory of who she is or what has happened to her. All she knows is she’s captive in a chamber along with a man in chains insisting he knows her and begging her to set him free. For reasons unknown, her feelings for this stranger run strong. Were they once lovers—or is he really a cold-blooded killer? Determined to regain her memories and know the truth, Lady Juliana discovers an inner strength she’s never known and the power of A Knight’s Persuasion.