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The Time Traveler's Passport collects six short stories commissioned by Amazon or their Prime readers. I recently read/reviewed a collection of horror stories written/published in this same vein. This collection centers around - you guessed it - time travel. While I recognize a couple of author names in this collection, the only author I've read prior to this is John Scalzi. If this collection were a shopping mall, Scalzi would be the anchor store - the one that gets people interested in looking through the whole thing. It is interesting, then, that his work would lead off the stories. "30 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years" by John Scalzi While I do really like reading Scalzi's work, I wasn't sure, going in, how this would go. I've not read much of his short fiction and I was afraid it was going to be gimmicky. It was quite straight-forward, nearly all of it an info-dump, setting us up for the gotcha ending. But I liked it. It was a fun, quick read. Entertaining, a...

 I am (slowly) working my way through a very long backlog of old (decades, in some cases) ARCs. I want these books off my Kindle and off my dashboards on the different book sites I log into. Every book was something I wanted to read, but for one reason or another (and in some cases, for many reasons) the book(s) fell off my reading radar. Followers of my reviews may note a number of older books appearing this year. Credara: Rise of the Kraylen by J E Henderson is one of these above noted books.  The Kraylen are fallen angels. They were cast out of heaven and now act as part of Lucifer's army. The Kraylen, led by Licronus - evil incarnate that rivals Lucifer himself - are angry about how they've been treated and seek revenge on God and all His chosen creatures. They are prepared for a battle to end all battles and take back heaven One man - a MAN, not the Archangels Michael or Gabriel - is God's chosen leader. Agean is a simple monk and hardly prepared for such a holy war, b...

Sarah is an adopted member of the powerful Price family. The Price family have a long history of giving aid to InCryptids ("An animal or other being whose existence has been suggested but is not scientifically proven.") and adopting many into the family.  The Price family also has a long, Hatfield/McCoy type battle going with "the Covenant" - an anti-InCryptid 'Klan'-like group. Of course Sarah is a Cryptid, of a species known as "cuckoos" and she is a very powerful telepath. She is also now the Queen of Cuckoos.  But in the process of becoming the queen, Sarah made a lot of enemies, hurt a few people, and generally caused some damage - including erasing/changing/overwriting Artie's identity. As a result, those on her home planet - known as the Johrlac - aren't too happy and they bring her back to stand trial for her crimes. They also grab Artie to be witness against Sarah for what she's done. But she's a Price family member now and...

He was an army scout, and outlaw, a hero, and a legend. Has-kay-bay-nay-ntayl - aka Ohyessonna, aka Apache Kid - grew up the product of two very different cultures. He worked, through his own great efforts, to be a respected leader in both his Apaches and his white, military communities.  As an Apache he has to compete with a brother to be the best among his community, and even though the odds are against him, he keeps calm and proves the victor. His skills are unparalleled for a boy his age and the legendary Al Sieber of the white military takes him under his wing and trains him so that the boy is even stronger and better than his natural skills. The Apache Kid has great respect for what Sieber does for him and he becomes a scout - one of the greatest scouts of all time - for the U.S. Army.  The Apache Kid becomes a leader of Army scouts and it is through his work that the Army maintains peace between the Apache and the San Carlos Reservation. But blood is thicker than unifor...

It is 1966 and three women - Beverley, Elsie, and Margot - have formed an unlikely social group in Southern California. They are the wives (or ex-wives) of three of California's most notorious serial killers of their day. Their individual personalities couldn't be more different - from compulsive Beverly trying to control everything around her, to the beautiful Margot putting all her effort into trying to appear as though everything is fine, to Elsie who fights to make a name for herself among the testosterone-filled newsroom.  But each fights daily with their own (and others') perception of 'how could they not have known?' They carry a guilt that no one should ever have to be burdened with. They meet often - a therapeutic group that few would understand - when news hits Southern California of a new string of murders which they women see as definitely linked and pointing to a new serial killer. The police, on the other hand, are focused on pinning some of the murder...

Selene was orphaned as a child and subsequently taken in by the caretaker of the L'Opera du Magician. Here she is encouraged to develop her own magical talents. There is much talk that one of the students will be selected by the king to be the new king's mage. The selection of the new mage will be chosen through competition, each student of magic will show what they can accomplish by putting together a performance of song, dance, and magic - creating a magical, entertaining illusion. Selene doubts her own abilities among the many talented students, but finds help (and unrequited passion) in a mysterious figure - a magician, trapped inside a mirror inside the opera. I actually started to read this book a few months ago, but I had also just started Wild as the Stars by Kerry Chaput which, rather ironically, has extremely similar themes and story line, so I put this one away for a bit, though honestly, much of the previous mentioned book came back to me as I read this and I had t...