Pride X Familiar - ReVamp

Pride X Familiar - ReVamp, By Albert Ruckholdt, Free

Caelum Desanto, Caprice Steiner, Simone Alucard, and the Student Council of Galatea Academy are back in this the previously unreleased original version of the story of one high-school boy attending a school dominated by Aventis students, while steadily coming to terms with his abilities as a Familiar, and the power contained in the Fragment gifted to him by his Aventis Guardian, Arisa Imreh Lanfear.

In the wake of the Cataclysm which ended the lives of billions and brought about the demise of the First Galactic Age, human civilization fell into two camps. The Aventis, humans that are host to the Symbiote which makes them physically superior to the Regulars, who are humans incompatible or rejected by the Symbiote. Ruled by the eight Aventis clans known as Prides, humanity has settled into an age of quiet, gentle prosperity that veils an undercurrent of tension and discontent between the two races.

Living aboard the immense asteroid colony of Pharos, Regular high-school student, Caelum Desanto thought he was happy being incompatible with the Symbiote. Rejected by the organism for three years running, he is shocked to learn that Haruka Amiella, his gorgeous childhood friend, classmate, and unrequited crush of many years, is so compatible she’s joining the vaunted Avenir Pride. Instead of confessing his feelings to her, he falls victim to his resentment and turns a lunchtime, school rooftop encounter with Haruka into a catastrophe.

If he thought life couldn’t get any worse or any stranger, he was dead wrong. Suddenly stabbed in the chest by a knife-wielding girl dressed in the tatters of a school uniform, Caelum is promptly resurrected as a Familiar, neither Regular nor Aventis, when she injects him with the blood of Arisa Imreh Lanfear, a not-so-highly ranked member of the Lanfear Pride who over-estimates her nonetheless formidable position within the Pride.

Gifted by Arisa with one of the enigmatic relics known as Fragments, devices of unknown origin and great power that only Familiars can wield, Caelum serves out the remaining high-school year at his old school, before Arisa enrolls him into Galatea Academy, a prestigious establishment catering almost exclusively to Aventis students. With the knife-wielding girl for a classmate, and his reunion with Haruka ending up less than stellar, Caelum’s antics draw the ire of the female student body who quickly label him Public Enemy Number One.

To make matters worse, he is pulled into the machinations of the Student Council who are aware he possesses a Fragment, and have chosen to enter into a shadow conflict fought out in microcosm between those that serve the Prides, and those seeking to topple them from power. While suffering at the hands of irate female students, Caelum falls into the clutches of the wanton Student Council Vice-President, who has chosen to make him her latest conquest while thinly veiling her ulterior motives.

But when the discord between the ruling Aventis and those that oppose them rears its ugly head, putting the lives of his friends in danger, Caelum is forced to shelve his resentment for the Aventis and draw upon the power of his Fragment to protect the Academy and its students from the people responsible for the deaths of hundreds, including his parents, and the disappearance of his older sister.

Omega Beginnings Miniseries (#1 - Alessandra, #2 - Mismatch, #3 - Phoibe, #4 - Lantos)

Series: Omega Beginnings Miniseries

By Lizzy Ford, free (all four books)

#1 - Alessandra
Five-year-old Alessandra is obsessed with Disney movies, tea parties and just wants a real birthday party for once in her life. But normal kids don’t bring their toys to life for afternoon tea or see the colorful threads of magic and energy clinging to everything around them. 

Normal kids don’t know that gargoyles feel pain, either, or invite one to live in their closet. 

On her sixth birthday, Alessandra begins to learn the truth. She’s special, and the men in the black van are coming for her.

#2 - Mismatch
Mismatch hasn’t always been a statue standing guard over the Temple of Artemis. Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, he was a man who led a privileged life. Like the Greek monarchs before him, he fell victim to the family curse: he was turned to stone and forced to keep watch over the temple of a Greek god or goddess. 

Out of the blue, five-year-old Alessandra breaks the spell. Mismatch seeks out the shy, young crown princess next in line to the family curse and warns her about her fate in the hopes of saving her from the living death. 

He returns when Alessandra is in danger, but the powers behind those seeking her are prepared for anything.

Even the grotesque prince.

#3 - Phoibe
With a speech impediment and learning disability, the frail six-year-old Crown Princess of Greece is constantly being told she’ll never live up to the woman her mother was. She’s the only descendent of the sacred Bloodline, the royal family touched by the Greek Gods ten thousand years before, and protected by international law. 

But Phoibe doesn’t care about any of that. She wants to be loved by someone, and that someone is a mysterious shadow named Lantos who talks to her when no one else will.

Before leaving, the gargoyle Mismatch made her promise never to speak aloud again, or she’ll seal her fate, and the family curse will claim her. She obeys him – and faces the wrath of cruel caretakers sworn to ensure the curse comes to pass. 

When Mismatch doesn’t return to save her, young Phoibe must make her first grown-up decision: accept the curse or trust the shadowy creature who tries to help her.

#4 - Lantos
Lantos is a demigod, the orphaned son of the Titan of the Unseen and a human mother raised on the streets of Washington DC. His sole mission in life: to be worthy of his father’s attention and hopefully one day, shed his human weakness and win his father’s love. 

In his haste to help Princess Phoibe, Lantos stumbles upon a discovery that changes his life and destiny forever. Not only does he find someone capable of shoring up his very human weaknesses but he also uncovers a secret he believes will win over his father. 

However, to use both to his advantage, he risks disobeying his father. Lantos is forced to decide how far he’s willing to go to get what he wants in life.

Final Education - A Novel of Empires Both Vapid and Grand

Final Education - A Novel of Empires Both Vapid and Grand, By Dean Marden, free

CHOSEN to partake in a government initiative known only as 'the Program', Cawdor High's graduating students are quick to find their old rivalries and alliances playing out on a scale grander than any one of them could have ever imagined. Given control of fourteen ancient civilizations within an immense virtual world, the hundred teenagers must engage their foes, protect their allies, and safeguard their own interests leveraging all the powers of human history.

In high school, Lex Ryerson had never been outgoing, outspoken or even remotely popular, but as a member of the fledgling Blue faction, he finds himself emerging as a powerful player in a world forged by the capricious nature of the teenage psyche. The Blues rise to early prominence as they and their neighbouring nations find themselves embroiled in political intrigue and worldwide conflict that could spell doom at any moment for one or all.

Spears and swords make way for cannons and guns, with warships and nuclear power thrusting the Program down an increasingly hazy path of warfare and politics. In a world birthed by the collective consciousness of a hundred teenaged minds, how many will be able to tread its narrow paths between sweeping glory and utter decimation?

For its enablers, the answer will be their final education.

Ruin's Wasteful Entrance Series: Marius Besshaven, Book 1

Ruin's Wasteful Entrance

• Series: Marius Besshaven, Book 1

By Ray Stickle, free

House of Atreus, meet the House of Frost. The rambling estate in the wooded hills of southern Ohio hides secrets. Murder begetting murder. Wickedness leading to more wickedness. It’s a story as old as time itself.

Cast into this world after the death of his parents, young Marius Besshaven seeks the truth about his mother’s past, about his own identity. Cryptic messages in unlikely places, the fractured memories of unreliable survivors, the haunting voices of ghosts--from these elements Marius will have to piece together his family’s history. And what will become of him? Will he find ruin, like so many who came before him? Will he find resolution? Or will the curse continue?

From loudspeaker-muted atrocities on the killing fields of Nazi-occupied Poland to lavender-scented murder in the estate’s hidden garden, the tragedies of the past touch the lives of the present and no one will ever be the same.

Gang Of Losers

Gang Of Losers, By Chris Lynton, free

Gang of Losers is a coming-of-age drama set in the summer of 1983.

Sixteen-year-old Theo Hanlon's main interests are drinking, girls, clothes, and most importantly playing the drums. He dreams of stardom, and can’t believe his luck when he is asked to drum for a local band on the verge of signing a record deal. But when he gets sacked in unceremonious circumstances, Theo starts a chain of events that sees him step from behind the drum kit and into the spotlight. 

Gang of Losers is a heartfelt and offbeat novel that captures the excitement of growing up and experiencing the intoxicating lure of music, sex, alcohol and independence for the first time.

A Wizard of Dreams (Myrddin's Heir Book 1)

A Wizard of Dreams (Myrddin's Heir Book 1), By Robin Chambers, free

Gordon Bennett’s special powers first manifest themselves when he is five months old. He has an alter ego / guardian angel named Zack who knows a lot. The opening chapters exemplify the way his powers grow. He is ace at dealing with bullies. He travels in dreams through time and space. He goes wherever truth has found a cunning place to hide…

In his eleventh year he’s called to a particular holiday cottage in Cornwall, where the ghost of his sixteen greats grandmother offers him an interesting theory concerning the origin of his amazing abilities. From her he acquires Mabon’s ring, and is told how to find the Tara Torque. On his eleventh birthday he is transported by the torque to Avalon (Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Forever Young, and of the Dead, where Frodo, Bilbo and Gandalf sailed off to with the Elves at the end of The Lord of the Rings). There he meets King Arthur and The Army of the Slain, and Myrddin reveals what is planned for him...

Book 1 ends on Gordon’s first morning in secondary school, where he meets a girl with powers similar to his own…

Amazing Grace, The Quality of Mercy, Gifts from the Gods, and When the Cat's Away, Books 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Myrddin's Heir series are now available.