Every two months I receive my box of stories and sometimes it can be a mixed bag. This month it was the extra book one where you get 5 books instead of 4. Today’s box is a good one, although I may not have bought each of the books in a shop when reading the synopsis I am intrigued enough to want to read them. (god knows when I will get a chance as I have that many books)
So, without delay, these are the books in this box:
The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill (Synopsis from publisher Titan Books website)
Tak O’Leary is a Japanese-American television host who vanished off the grid after a failed suicide attempt. Samira Moheb is an Iranian-American military translator suffering from PTSD as a result of her time in the Iraq War. They have been in love from the moment they met, and because they never told each other, they are destined to be apart forever. But thanks to a mysterious invention buried deep in the Australian Outback, they now have one more chance to get it right
The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley ( Synopsis from publisher Unsung Stories website)
When people shed their skin every seven years, it’s just a fact of life that we will cast off all the attachments of our old life. And when our loves are part of us, those memories of love can be bought, if you know the right people.
Introducing the new drug, Suscutin, that will prevent the moult. Now you can keep your skin forever. Now you never need to change who you are.
But it’s not so simple for celebrity bodyguard Rose Allington, who suffers from a rare disease. Her moults come quickly, changing everything about her life, who she is, who she loves.
Meanwhile, her former client, superstar actor Max Black, is hooked on Suscutin, because he knows moulting could lose him everything. When one of his skins is stolen, and the theft is an inside job, he needs the best who ever worked for him on the job – even if she’s not the same person.
The Loosening Skin peels away the layers of these stories, exploring our definitions of love, sex and friendship, and what it means to love.
Obsidian by Sarah J Daley ( Synopsis from publisher Angry Robot website)
Obsidian follows Shade Nox – an abomination and a wanted criminal. She wears her tattoos openly as any bloodwizard would, and carries obsidian blades at her hips.
Shade scratches out a dangerous living in the broken Wastes, but now that they are growing more unstable and dangerous, she and her people need a Veil to protect them. Shade vows to raise one – a feat not accomplished in over a hundred years, and never performed by a woman.
The Veils are controlled by the Brotherhood, who consider them sacred creations. They would sooner see them all collapse into dust than allow a witch to raise one.
With the help of her friends and allies, and her own indomitable will, Shade stays one step ahead of her enemies. But when she learns the true sacrifice required to raise a Veil – a secret even the centuries-old Brotherhood has forgotten – it is too high a price to pay. Nevertheless, she must pay it, or she will lose everything and everyone she loves…
The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong ( Synopsis from publisher Angry Robot website)
Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon. Here, everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job. When the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him, or face vivisection.
With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down together. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better.
Equinox by David Towsey ( Synopsis from publisher Head of Zeus website)
In this world, two souls inhabit a sole body, one by day, one by night. But though they live alongside one another, their ends do not always align. For Special Inspector Morden, whose hunt for a dangerous witch takes him far away, this will be a problem…
Christophor Morden lives by night. His day-brother, Alexsander, knows only the sun. They are two souls in a single body, in a world where identities change with the rising and setting of the sun. Night-brother or day-sister, one never sees the light, the other knows nothing of the night.
Early one evening, Christophor is roused by a call to the city prison. A prisoner has torn his eyes out and cannot say why. Yet worse: in the sockets that once held his eyes, teeth are growing. The police suspect the supernatural, so Christophor, a member of the king’s special inspectorate, is charged with finding the witch responsible.
Night-by-night, Christophor’s investigation leads him ever further from home, toward a backwards village on the far edge of the kingdom. But the closer he gets to the truth, the more his day-brother’s actions frustrate him. Who is Alexsander protecting? What does he not want Christophor to discover?
