Blog Archives
Dead and Buried: The Last Kitsune Book 2
Dead and Buried picks up with Tai trying to hold her life together while everything supernatural around her spins out of control. The book follows her attempts to manage her unstable kitsune magic, the chaos caused by her two-tailed nekomata Magoo, a strange psychic attack, a dream that might not be a dream, and the frightening discovery that her supposedly dead father, Viktor, may still have a grip on the world of the living. As Tai and her friends confront new dangers, including zombie-like creatures, restless spirits, and a growing conspiracy tied to the Key of Wealth, the story widens into a mystery that reaches from woods to clubs to interdimensional threats. It all builds into a story about identity, legacy, and the messy courage needed to face old shadows.
What struck me right away was how alive the writing felt. The opening scene with undead mice skittering across the floor pulled me in with a laugh and a grimace at the same time. Tai’s voice is sharp and funny, but it carries this constant undercurrent of vulnerability that made me root for her before I even realized it. The book throws wild supernatural moments around like confetti, and yet the emotions always land. I kept feeling this push-and-pull between humor and fear. One moment I was laughing at Magoo acting like a furry little menace and the next I felt a knot in my stomach when Tai described her dreams about Sunreaver or the shock of hearing Viktor whisper that things were not over. The mix worked for me. It felt raw and very human, even when things got weird.
I also loved how the story handled relationships. Ash brings warmth into scenes that would otherwise feel too heavy, and Xunie’s mysterious and chaotic energy adds a spark that made me grin every time she appeared. The club scenes with Nico cracked me up, especially when the supposedly impossible ghost activity starts up again. At the same time, the book digs into Tai’s trauma in a way that is emotionally resonant. Her guilt about Sunreaver, her fear that she might not be in control of herself, and her anger at being treated like a fragile resource instead of a person. I felt those things right alongside her, and the writing did not sugarcoat any of it. It made the fun moments brighter and the frightening ones sharper. If anything, the emotional whiplash made the story feel more real to me.
By the time I closed the book, I felt like I had been on a wild ride through magic, danger, grief, and a whole lot of found family chaos. I enjoyed that messy thrill. I enjoyed the heart in it even more. If you like supernatural stories that mix humor with fear, action with real emotional weight, or if you simply enjoy following a character who stubbornly keeps getting back up no matter what is thrown at her, then this book is absolutely worth your time. Fans of urban fantasy, paranormal mystery, or character-driven supernatural drama will have a blast with Tai and her world.
Pages: 339 | ASIN : B0FBJ89ZZV
Literary Titan Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Talthybius by Jessie Holder Tourtellotte and Nathaniel Howard
Golem Mine by Donald Schwartz
A Trail in the Woods by Mallory O’Connor
Messenger of the Reaper Part 2 by Jimmy Straley
Missing in Lincoln Park by Staci Andrea
Medusa: Or, Men Entombed in Winter by Kyle Farnworth
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
Literary Titan Silver Book Award
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
The Moments Between Choices by Harris Kamal
Secretos De Familia by Diego Uribe
Once Upon A Time In The Big Easy: Down On The Bayou by Wilson Jackson
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
What Happens Next?
The Countess and the Spatula follows a disheveled noblewoman who finds solace in baking after her husband’s death until her peaceful life of flour and philosophy is upended by a melodramatic opera singer. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The Spatula of Power came first. The characters of the countess; Claudio, the Man with the Black Mustache; and Isabella of Alberthane followed.
What inspired your characters’ interactions and backstories?
Once you know the characters, their interactions follow more or less logically.
I found this novel to be a cutting piece of satire. What is one thing that you hope readers take away from your novel?
I hope readers take away the desire to read the sequel and find out what happens to the countess next.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
The sequel to THE COUNTESS AND THE SPATULA is called NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION. It’s about an inquisition that is also a soap opera.
Author Links: X
Heritage Mountain
Heritage Mountain is a heartwarming blend of cozy fantasy and wilderness adventure, following botanist Anita and survivalist Marco as they reunite for an archaeological expedition in the Adirondacks. Alongside their close-knit friends, Maria and Chase, and a delightful cast of supernatural beings like pixies, elves, and a telepathic cat, the group embarks on a journey that’s as much about discovery as it is about connection, both with nature and each other. The story gently weaves folklore, love, mystery, and magic into the everyday, creating a world where firepits reveal ancient tools, and a simple forest walk may bring you face-to-face with stargazers or nymphs.
I genuinely enjoyed reading this. There’s a quiet, comforting kind of magic in the way author Karen Black writes. She gives the characters space to breathe, laugh, stumble, and grow close. I loved the humor between Chase and Maria. It felt like watching old friends tease and support each other without missing a beat. Marco’s protective, grounded energy made him instantly likable. And Anita. I loved Anita. Her blend of practicality and wonder, her quiet strength and openness to magic, made her feel real and relatable. And the worldbuilding? It’s so gentle and subtle, the supernatural just slips in like a whisper. Nothing is overexplained or flashy. And that makes it feel real.
Everything feels safe, and sometimes I find myself wishing for a little more tension or stakes. But then again, that’s probably the point. Heritage Mountain tells a different kind of story. One about trust, connection, and ancient magic hidden in plain sight. It’s quiet but rich, like the kind of story you’d tell around a fire under the stars. It made me want to go hiking. Or at least take a walk and keep an eye out for little footprints in the moss.
I’d recommend Heritage Mountain to anyone who loves stories about found family, soft magic, and wilderness tales that feel like a warm blanket on a chilly morning. If you liked Practical Magic or The Bear and the Nightingale, or just need a break from the world, this book will meet you gently and invite you in. Fans of cozy fantasy, magical realism, and wilderness adventure will find Heritage Mountain a gentle, enchanting read full of heart, hidden magic, and unforgettable charm.
Pages: 264 | ASIN : B0FGVT464K
Embrace the Darkness
Lilly Gayle’s Embrace the Darkness is a heady blend of crime thriller, paranormal romance, and psychological suspense. The story follows Detective Amber Buckley, a battle-scarred Iraq veteran turned cop, as she dives into a string of eerie murders tied to a medical research company in Asheville, North Carolina. What starts as a routine investigation into missing persons and blood-drained bodies quickly twists into a world of genetic anomalies, ancient secrets, and forbidden desire. At the heart of it all stands Gerard Delaroche, a mysterious, brooding man with an unearthly charm and secrets that blur the line between man and monster.
This book surprised me. The writing is straightforward yet atmospheric, painting tension with just enough detail to make the hair rise on the back of your neck. The dialogue feels snappy and relatable. Gayle doesn’t drown you in gothic language or purple prose; instead, she uses small, vivid moments to pull you into Amber’s mind, her trauma, her skepticism, her growing attraction to Gerard. The pacing is tight in the early chapters, almost cinematic. The mix of crime procedural and supernatural tension feels fresh, even though vampires in fiction are well-trodden ground. I found myself flipping pages faster than I expected, caught up in that blend of fear and curiosity that makes for a good late-night read.
The romance, though passionate, can lean into melodrama, and some of the dialogue between Amber and Gerard feels like it was lifted straight out of a classic paranormal romance novel. But even with that, I couldn’t put it down. There’s a pulsing emotion beneath the clichés, a raw honesty in Amber’s pain and Gerard’s guilt that kept me rooting for them. I liked that the book didn’t just use darkness as a metaphor for vampires, it used it as a mirror for trauma, for secrets, for the parts of ourselves we try to hide. It’s messy and human and oddly touching.
Embrace the Darkness is more than a story about blood and lust. It’s about trust, redemption, and the strange ways two broken people can find light in each other. It’s gripping, emotional, and full of heart. I’d recommend it to readers who love their mysteries with a supernatural twist, especially fans of shows like Bones or The X-Files. If you like crime stories spiced with danger, romance, and a little bit of the uncanny, this book is worth diving into.
Pages : 303 | ASIN : B0FRYLWCVX
The Demon’s Deceit
The Demon’s Deceit is the first book in Andria Carver’s “Divine Evolution” series, and it throws you straight into a gritty, supernatural underworld where addiction, trauma, and power all mix with the occult. The story follows Jeanie Bennett, a washed-up addict who wakes up to find herself under the control of Ms. Cummings, a wealthy, manipulative demon. Cummings offers her a deal, freedom from pain and fear, in exchange for becoming her unwilling assassin. What follows is a twisted dive into the world of the “Divines,” beings who exist beyond humanity, feeding on power, blood, and chaos. The story blends dark humor, philosophical reflection, and raw, uncomfortable honesty in a way that makes you both wince and laugh.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how real Jeanie felt. Her sarcasm, her self-loathing, the way she drifts between wanting to die and wanting to live again. The writing is sharp and punchy, and Carver knows how to make even the filthiest alleyway feel alive. There’s grit under every word, and I loved that the book doesn’t try to glamorize the supernatural. Instead, it makes demons bureaucratic, vain, and disturbingly human. Sometimes the dialogue felt very real, like overhearing someone’s breakdown in a dive bar. I liked that rawness, though. The pacing dips now and then, mostly when the lore gets heavy, but the character work keeps it grounded. I found myself laughing at Jeanie’s bleak humor and then suddenly feeling a lump in my throat when her grief crept through the cracks.
Carver’s ideas about divinity and morality are what really stuck with me. The book doesn’t hand you clean answers, it muddies everything. Who deserves redemption? What’s the price of feeling nothing? And can survival be noble if it’s built on someone else’s pain? These questions hum beneath the action and the blood. I liked how Carver never lets Jeanie off the hook; she’s messy, flawed, and maddening, but she’s trying, and that made me root for her. The mix of horror, dark comedy, and emotional honesty gave the book an unpredictable rhythm that made it feel alive.
The Demon’s Deceit feels like a gritty mashup of Neil Gaiman’s dark whimsy in American Gods, Gillian Flynn’s raw, damaged characters, and the cynical bite of Chuck Palahniuk’s storytelling, all wrapped in a supernatural noir that’s entirely its own. The Demon’s Deceit is a wild story that I heartily enjoyed. I’d recommend it to readers who like their urban fantasy dark, their humor twisted, and their characters broken but fighting.
Pages: 273 | ASIN : B0FLVVHS8J
A Trail in the Woods
A Trail in the Woods follows Epiphany Mayall, a psychic counselor in her sixties who sets off with her son and granddaughter for a summer retreat in Lenox, Massachusetts. What begins as a family getaway turns into a haunting journey filled with mystery, loss, and spiritual reckoning. The story drifts between realism and the supernatural, weaving ghosts, psychic visions, and tangled histories into a tale of grief and renewal. O’Connor paints both Florida and New England with lush, sensory detail, and her characters are written with the quiet melancholy of people trying to understand both the world around them and the worlds beyond.
I found the writing to be smooth and deeply atmospheric. The author’s voice has that old-fashioned warmth, steady and patient, but it also hides sharp edges. I loved how the conversations between Epiphany and her son capture that mix of affection and frustration that defines family life. Some scenes, especially those with the ghosts, felt almost cinematic. Others lingered on explanation, and I caught myself wanting the story to move faster. Still, the pacing fits the theme. It’s a book about healing, and healing never happens in a rush.
Emotionally, the novel caught me off guard. It isn’t scary in a horror sense, but it’s haunted in a quieter, sadder way. I felt the weight of regret, the pull of memory, and that fragile thread of hope that keeps people going after loss. O’Connor’s use of dreams, coincidences, and spirit encounters makes the reader question where grief ends and magic begins. I admired that. It made me think of how every family carries ghosts, visible or not.
A Trail in the Woods isn’t just a ghost story; it’s a meditation on love, forgiveness, and the strange ways the past reaches into the present. I’d recommend it to readers who like slow-burning mysteries with a spiritual twist, to anyone drawn to stories about mothers and sons finding common ground, and to those who don’t mind a few eerie chills mixed with heartfelt emotion.
LITERARY TITAN 