Tag Archives: Supernatural

by | October 19, 2012 · 8:36 am

Kay Hooper. Haven. New York: Berkley Books, 2012.

Jessie Rayburn is having nightmares. Which is even worse than one might think, because as a psychic, all of Jessie’s experiences with human emotion are amplified. She’s safely ensconced in Haven, the FBI’s Special Crimes Unit headquarters in New Mexico, but visions of young women being tortured in Baron Hollow, North Carolina are leaping out at her as clear as if she were really there. Unsurprising, perhaps, since Baron Hollow is her hometown, but Jessie knows something is wrong. Disguising her intent by arranging for a vacation home, Jessie drives across the country to the town, and sister, she ran away from fifteen years ago.

Emma Rayburn is surprised when Jessie announces her visit. They never had much in common, especially since Jessie, the elder, was psychic. Two sisters with wildly different personalities under one roof is hard enough, but when one sister can read the other’s thoughts? That’s a recipe for disaster. Since Jessie left, Emma has turned their palatial ancestral home into a popular bed and breakfast, and has been running it with a steady hand. But a riding accident a few weeks ago has disturbed Emma’s peace– she’s been having horrible nightmares about young women being tortured, and has no way to explain their existence. Jessie is the psychic one, so these dreams can’t mean anything…can they?

The first rule all psychics know is that coincidences are rare. While the sisters’ relationship may be fraught with tension, a black cloud rests on Baron Hollow, and that supersedes all other concerns. Young, female hikers have been mysteriously disappearing for years, and somehow no one has noticed. Could it be that the killer is not only very careful but also skilled in more subtle modes of mental deception? Could it be that the killer is also a psychic? Emma and Jessie, along with several other Haven operatives,  work to solve the case before anyone else goes missing, but this killer is smart, deadly, and tangled in their own personal histories.

Kay Hooper provides a thrilling continuation in this, her thirteenth novel in the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series. Divided into sub-trilogies featuring different psychics on the team, each novel can be enjoyed independently, as a part of its own trilogy, or as a part of the overall series. Haven is a fast-paced, exciting addition this repertoire.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2012, Hooper, Kay, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Suspense/Thriller

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by | October 10, 2012 · 4:03 pm

Brenda Tetreault. Then, Now, Forever. Baltimore, MD: PublishAmerica, 2011.

Molly Sinclair has shut herself away from human connection over the last six years. She has her twin sister Natali and her five-year-old son, Jack– so far, those relationships have met her needs. But when Chance Younger walks through the door of her flower shop one day, Molly finds herself unexpectedly caught up in a whirlwind romance that not only been destined…it’s already happened once before.

Chance Younger can’t explain why he’s immediately, viscerally attracted to the young, hazel-eyed florist. He’s only in Bounty Cove for a short time to visit his cousin Nick “Devil” Damien and his family, but Molly Sinclair makes him want to stay much longer. Molly makes it clear she isn’t interested in a short-term relationship, but after one evening together, Chase feels like he has no choice but to leave– although in the process of divorce, he’s technically still married to his mean-tempered wife, making any relationship with Molly impossible. Still, he’s drawn back, as is Molly, by this inexplicable feeling that they’ve known one another before. Unfortunately, both admit that they have a terrible feeling that their past relationship, while passionate, was not a happy one, and ended in blood. Were they married in a past life? And more importantly, is it possible to change the pattern, and live happily ever after?

While the first book of the Bounty Cove Chronicles focused on ghosts and the second gave us a glimpse of life with a hyperempathetic individual, this third paranormal romance from Brenda Tetreault delves into the world of reincarnation and past lives. Are we all just living the same pain over and over again? And can we ever change?

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog, where you can also find the first two novels in the series, The Witcher Legacy and The Devil’s Own Angel.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Coast, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Romance/Relationship, Tetreault, Brenda

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by | October 5, 2012 · 3:26 pm

Brenda Tetreault. The Devil’s Own Angel. Baltimore, MD: PublishAmerica, 2010.

When last we visited Bounty Cove, a fictional small town on North Carolina’s coast, we followed Melissa Witcher as she reclaimed her family home from mold, neglect, and a serious infestation of malignant ghosts. Now Melissa is happily married to local boy Michael Kemper, but there’s always something going on in Bounty Cove. This time Angeline “Angel” Carston, a petite beauty on the run from an abusive ex-fiance, brings the trouble with her. Dogged by her stalker ex across the country, Angel is just looking for any safe place beyond his wealthy, possessive reach. She stops in Bounty Cove when she’s too tired to drive anymore, never thinking that something might tempt her to stay for the rest of her life.

Nick Damien is known as Devil due to his unfortunate surname, but the moniker fits. Bounty Cove’s resident playboy, Devil has logged a lot of time with the majority of the women around, which isn’t many to begin with in such a small town. When he happens to see a petite blonde unloading her car in front of the local bed and breakfast, Devil goes on the hunt. Unfortunately, he fails to realize that he is the prey, quickly falling hook, line, and sinker for Angel Carston and her silvery eyes. But there’s more than just physical beauty to Angel– she has a dark secret, one that is far more dangerous than her stalker ex-fiance. Although they’re deeply in love, will Devil and Angel be able to overcome the darkness that threatens the sleepy, seaside town? Meant for readers 18 and up, this series will delight those who like a healthy dose of the supernatural mixed in with their romance.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

The Library also holds the first book in this planned series of six, The Witcher Legacy. 

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Romance/Relationship, Tetreault, Brenda

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by | October 1, 2012 · 8:37 am

Cindy Ponds Newell. Don’t Say Her Name. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2012.

Gardenia Hall is a stately plantation set snugly in the center of North Carolina. In the 1860s, it is home to the aristocratic Delmoore family, whose youngest daughter Olivia is waiting patiently for her fiance William to come home from the war. The dashing William returns just long enough to marry tender Olivia and leave her pregnant, but by the time he makes his way back again, she and the baby have both died in childbirth. Olivia’s death begins what many see as a curse on Gardenia Hall, or as it comes to be called, the Delmoore House: if someone dies there, or dies violently, his or her spirit is forever linked to the property.

Luckily, the spirits trapped in Gardenia Hall are mostly benevolent. Until one frightful night in 1927, when Penelope, a truly evil woman, is lured to her death by a spirit trying to prevent Penelope from committing infanticide. Now Penelope’s wicked soul is also trapped in the Delmoore House, and every time someone speaks her name out loud, she gains power and control over the physical world around her. The families who move in quickly move out, at least those who are lucky enough to survive the encounter. But Penelope knows that more families will come, lured by the large house and grand property, and she has a diabolic plan to suck the energy from the strong husbands while killing the wives the same way she died, and finally be free to wreak havoc in the world at large. Will anyone be able to stop her, and end the curse of Gardenia Hall?

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2012, Horror, Newell, Cindy Ponds, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont

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by | September 7, 2012 · 3:52 pm

Brenda Tetreault. The Witcher Legacy. Baltimore: PublishAmerica, 2009.

After a childhood spent moving all over the country with her restless mother, Melissa Witcher inherits her family’s ancestral home in Bounty Cove, North Carolina.  In Bounty Cove, she finds many things she yearns for: a chance for a relationship with the father she never knew and an immediate attraction to the handsome Michael Kemper, a local contractor who has been taking care of the abandoned Witcher house. But not everything is perfect.

Michael has just recently broken off his engagement to the two-timing Jessica, and he doesn’t want to rush into a serious relationship. Both he and Melissa are frustrated by taking things so slowly, but Michael insists. His last relationship ended so poorly because it was based on physical attraction and not true love, and something about Melissa is so special that he can’t afford to ruin what they might have. But while Melissa and Michael work on their budding romance, evil is afoot. The Witcher family has a dark history of murder, madness, and abuse, and restless spirits still linger around the venerable homestead. In addition to winning over the reluctant Michael, Melissa is determined to exhume her family’s ghosts, but this might prove more difficult (and dangerous) than she thinks. Strange phenomena have always been a part of the house: sometimes malevolent, sometimes beneficial. Will Melissa and Michael survive long enough to build a new future for the Witcher name?

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Coast, Horror, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Romance/Relationship, Tetreault, Brenda

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by | August 7, 2012 · 4:32 pm

Jennifer Estep. Touch of Frost. New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 2011.

Gwendolyn Frost doesn’t think she’s anything particularly special. Sure, she’s a Gypsy: like all the women in her family, she has a special gift related to knowing secrets. Her grandmother can see the future, her mother could tell if someone was lying or not, and Gwendolyn can learn things about a person by just touching them or objects belonging to them. But Gwen doesn’t think this gift adds up to much, at least not compared to her classmates. Because Gwen attends the prestigious Mythos Academy, high in the mountains north of Asheville, North Carolina, and her classmates are all descendants of warriors or mythical beings: Spartans, Romans, Valkyries, Amazons…the list goes on and on. The only thing they can’t do, it seems, is befriend an awkward Gypsy girl. The only one who seems to pay any attention is Logan Quinn, the most gorgeous, and the baddest, guy in school. Gwen isn’t sure what she’s done to earn his scrutiny, but she’s more frightened than flattered.

But something odd is going on at Mythos Academy– something bigger than Gwen’s friend problems. One night, working late in the Library of Antiquities, Gwen finds Jasmine Ashton murdered. Jasmine was one of the most popular, and powerful, Valkyries at the Academy, but no one seems to care that she’s dead. Academy students die all the time– with their talents come great risks. But Gwen doesn’t see it that way. To this sensitive Gypsy girl, every life matters. Additionally, whoever murdered Jasmine stole the powerful Bowl of Tears, and may be trying to wake dark forces that will threaten Earth. Gwen decides it’s up to her to figure out who murdered Jasmine and bring him or her to justice, and to find the Bowl of Tears before it’s too late. Now if only she would stop running into Logan Quinn…

Young adult readers ages 13 and up will enjoy this mythological urban fantasy series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Buncombe, Children & Young Adults, Estep, Jennifer, Mountains, Novels in Series, Science Fiction/Fantasy

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by | July 30, 2012 · 5:00 pm

Travis Thrasher. Temptation. Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2012.

Junior year is over for Chris Buckley in the small town of Solitary, North Carolina, but school isn’t out. Forced to attend summer classes at Harrington High in order to graduate, Chris can think of about a million things a normal teenager would rather be doing than listening to Mr. Taggert drone on about literature and algebra. But Chris isn’t a normal teenager, not after the past year in Solitary. There are much darker, scarier things abroad in this seemingly sleepy mountain town than algebra.

This third installment in The Solitary Tales finds our teenage hero worn down. After the murders, satanic rituals, and strange phenomena he has witnessed over the course of just twelve months, all Chris wants is for it to stop. His friends have moved away or died, his mother is an alcoholic mess, and he has no one to stand with against the darkness. The enigmatic Pastor Jeremiah Marsh assures him that he has an answer to Chris’s pain– all Chris has to do is give up and give in. Pastor Marsh and his friends need Chris Buckley: they need him to fall in line, to stop fighting, and to stop falling in love with the wrong sort of girls. But what they need most of all is for Chris to trust them that he has powers he doesn’t fully understand– powers related directly to the founding of Solitary, and to what makes it such a hotbed of demonic activity. It’s very tempting: Chris is only sixteen, and what kind of sixteen-year-old takes on the Devil? But as Chris learns more and more about his true identity and his family’s history with Solitary, his horror grows, and it becomes more difficult for him to accept Pastor Marsh’s proposal. Chris craves the relief of a normal life, but is it worth his soul?

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2012, Children & Young Adults, Henderson, Horror, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Thrasher, Travis

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by | July 16, 2012 · 10:07 am

Faith Hunter. Raven Cursed. New York: Roc, 2012.

The fourth book in the Jane Yellowrock Series, Raven Cursed sees the hardened vampire killer return to her home state of North Carolina. Jane Yellowrock, a Cherokee skinwalker bonded to the soul of a mountain lion called simply Beast, has been living and working in New Orleans for the past few years. At first she was a one-woman operation, hunting down rogue vampires, but lately she’s been working for Leo Pellissier, the vampire master of New Orleans and the entire southeast. While suspicious of her true nature (which Jane hides), the vampires see the value in her hunting down those rogues that threaten their uneasy peace with humans.

What brings Jane back to the Old North State is a vampire parley– a powerful vampire named Lincoln Shaddock wants to form his own clan in Asheville, but has to petition Jane’s boss for the right to do so. Jane is in charge of security, and while she isn’t thrilled, she has reason to hope that the parley will be over quietly and quickly with minimal fuss. But when Jane arrives in Asheville, she finds more than she bargained for: a pair of werewolves out for revenge, a pissed off grindylow, a coven of witches whose leader has gone insane, and something far more dark and dangerous that knows all about Jane. Will Jane and Beast survive their return to the Appalachians? Readers of the Southern Vampire Mysteries and fans of True Blood will be excited to find a modern, gutsy heroine in this supernatural thriller.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2012, Buncombe, Hunter, Faith, Mountains, Novels in Series, Science Fiction/Fantasy

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by | June 22, 2012 · 4:36 pm

Laura S. and William L. B. Wharton. Monsters Below. Mount Airy, NC: Broad Creek Press, 2012.

School is finally over, and vacation stretches ahead! Jock Avery has just finished fourth grade, and is looking forward to spending the whole summer at his grandparents’ lake house on Longleaf Lake in Moore County, NC. Jock has spent many happy summers there learning to swim, fish, water ski, and sail, but this summer he is a little sad. His busy parents won’t be able to join him much, and none of his cousins or friends will be able to visit. Jock figures he’ll be spending a lot of time with his favorite intrepid (fictional) adventurer, Sam Justice, when he discovers that a new family has just moved in next door: a single mom with two kids around his age!

Jock is excited to share the lake with his new friends Lyanna and Chip, but Chip is convinced there is a monster in the lake, and won’t have anything to do with it. Jock is sure there isn’t a monster in Longleaf Lake, but he has been hearing some strange screeching noises recently. Could there be a monster? Additionally, the kids have spotted their grumpy neighbor Mr. Harrison doing something mysterious out on the lake at night. If there is a monster…is Mr. Harrison feeding it? The trio decide to investigate, but their curiosity about what lies beneath the lake waters could end up with them in hot water. Or worse, eaten by a monster!

Co-authored by seasoned novelist Laura S. Wharton and her young son William, this first installment in the  Mystery at the Lake House series is a great chapter book for children ages 6-12. It also includes a wealth of information on bird watching for children, as well as recipes for some of the characters’ favorite foods.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

 

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2012, Children & Young Adults, Moore, Mystery, Novels in Series, Piedmont, Wharton, Laura S., Wharton, William L. B.

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by | June 15, 2012 · 4:42 pm

Stacey Cochran. The Loneliest. Raleigh, NC: Stacey Cochran Books, 2011.

Jason Roberts is a small-time author who has just tragically lost his wife to cancer. Following a struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide, he sells their home in Arizona and hits the road. His travels take him all the way to Little Switzerland, deep in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. Jason eventually finds a small cabin to rent, and attempts to settle in and write his next novel. But something isn’t right– his landlord, a taciturn man named Cyrus, gives him the creeps, and while hiking in the woods, Jason  discovers a concrete slab that just may be covering the entrance to Hell itself. Worst of all, his wife may be trapped there, and Jason is the only one who can rescue her. But is it all a delusion?

As the tormented author writes his novel, he discovers that his fiction seems to be accurately predicting reality. Is art imitating life, or is it the other way round? Hounded by a curious local news reporter and the voices in his own head, Jason might be losing his mind…or seeing clearly for the first time. Is Cyrus really who he says he is? Is his wife truly dead? Do ghosts exist?  Described by Cochran as “part psychological thriller, part paranormal romance,” The Loneliest is a mind-bending exploration into the nature of how we construct reality.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Cochran, Stacey, Horror, McDowell, Mitchell, Mountains, Suspense/Thriller

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