BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: Echoes of the EtherStone by Lucy A. McLaren

 

Beth lives a seemingly perfect life of luxury in the city of Alpinside. Her upcoming betrothal to the eligible Lord Ashford is all she can focus on… until she meets El, a young woman from the slums whose father was a victim of the Scrubbers’ Stalker, the ruthless killer haunting the city. 

Thrown together by the dreadful murders, the two decide to investigate. The catch? The evidence points towards Beth’s own brother as the Stalker. Their new-found friendship is tested as their investigation begins to reveal far deeper secrets than either of them were prepared for, uncovering a truth which rots the very core of Alpinside.

BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: Dogged by Michael R. Fletcher

 

WARDOGS ARE BORN TO DIE.

In the final days of the Demon Empire a lone wardog goes in search of the answer to the only question she cares about: Who murdered her mate?

Utterly unqualified to solve a mystery, Dogged Determination has but one advantage: She never, ever gives up.

From the heart of a massive empire to the deepest foreboding jungles, Dogged is an unstoppable force of will.

BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: Devil Inside by Tom Lloyd

 

My name is Eve Carnell. I’m 29 years old, single and have a devil in me. It’s not as cool as you might think.

My entire world fell apart when I was sixteen. Now all I want is a normal life, but that’s not easy when you’re on every “usual suspects” list going. And normal goes out the window the day MI5 come to ask me about my dead grandfather. They’re hunting a spy and while I may be the absolute worst choice for the job, apparently I have a very particular set of skills. Who knew, right?

BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: Corruption by Alexander Verbeek-van den Toren

 

Trapped on an island, surrounded by lava...with a secret.

When their ability to connect to the magical Flow disappears, Revan and the other students at his college’s island are stranded, surrounded by fiery seas separating habitable regions. Revan can’t retreat to his home island, only in contact with people who don’t know his true identity.

While most people only have one of the five crystals in their torso lit up—determining their role in society—Revan is among the few with more than one lit-up crystal. If anyone finds out, he’ll be considered Othercrystalled, and cast from society.

Torn between his feelings for his male best friend and a female classmate, with his secret close to being revealed, Revan discovers evidence the magic might not have been cut off naturally. Someone might be using the chaos to hunt Othercrystalled. Someone full of Corruption.

BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: Clipped by KQ Watson

 

Heaven was perfect, until they came for his son.

When angel engineer Zak's infant son is cast down for being born without wings, he faces Heaven's cruel mandate: forget, or fall. Clipped, Zak plummets to a broken Earth, where false prophets exploit the faithful, drug lords rule dead cities, and every truth comes with a price.

Pursued by ruthless angel hunters through decaying urban wastelands and corrupted mega-churches, Zak uncovers a conspiracy that reaches from Earth's grimmest gutters to Heaven's highest chambers. What begins as a father's desperate search becomes a brutal quest for vengeance that will expose Heaven's most devastating lies - and make them remember his son's name.

AVR Weekly News ~ 670th Edition

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by 
Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. 
~ Recap the past week ~ 
~ Show what's upcoming ~ 
~ Share news ~ 
~ Display book hauls ~

BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: Child of the Dragon by Ashley N.Y. Sheesley

 

Our only hope is the hope we forge ourselves.

Kat always thought her grandma's stories of Rhaegynne—shapeshifting dragons—were just fairytales. But that all changes when her grandma is killed, and she learns that not only are they real, but she is one.

A prophecy and a curse set in motion ages ago, have now turned Kat’s quiet senior year into chaos. What was supposed to be a gift becomes a tool for breaking a curse that forces others to serve tyrannical kings who will use them to wage war and destruction across Earth.

But hope . . . is more stubborn than a curse.

Fighting alongside friends new and old, Kat must learn to harness the heart of the dragon in order to break the curse, destroy the kings, and save the dragons. All before succumbing to the curse herself.

Honestly? It'll be a breeze compared to calculus.

BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: Awakening: Book One Between the Birches by KP Roberson

 

Between the Birches trilogy is a romantic, suspenseful journey of friendship, love, and magic. A cautionary fictional folk tale about how easily we can be lost in the darkness without the ties that bind, and of monsters who are hungry for chaos, and who devour human souls.

Deep beneath the hills of the Appalachian mountains, an ancient evil stirs. For a millennium, Ja'azul has delved into our dreams and fed off the souls of innocents. Soon, he will finally be freed from the magical prison the Goddess, Circe, trapped him inside. What he didn't expect was how resilient the human race could be.

Beth Harper-Newman can't wait to spend her 25th birthday on a weekend hike on the Appalachian Trail with her two favorite guys: Tom (her husband) and Grady (their best friend). To her surprise, a couple of estranged friends are waiting when they arrive, and day one seems to go downhill the further into the mountains they go. After the sun sets, the woods where Beth used to find peace turn sinister with talks of death cultists, witches, and cosmic horrors not native to this planet. Truths worm their way to the surface, lifting the veil covering Beth's life until she's stuck deciding what to believe or who to trust in an unfamiliar part of the forest. And, just when Beth thinks her weekend couldn't get worse, she learns her role in this messed up hike.

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ The Write Reads Blog Tour: The Connection in Everything by Rich Marcello

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

BBNYA2026 Semi-Finalist Spotlight: An Absence of Artificers by Emma Bradley

 

Workshop owner by day and spy for the Menagerie by night, Molly dreams of swapping the Faerie citadel for the wider realms of Faerie.

The citadel isn't safe and escaping it is rare, so when one of the recently missing Fae from the Artificers' Guild turns up dead, Molly is determined to dig right to the core of the rot infesting her home.

But in a self-contained city where the enemy knows all the same routes she does, it won't be long before they're hunting her in return.