BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Book Review ~ 3rd Place Finalist ~ Trial of the Alchemist by Trevor Melanson

Aurora’s greatest entrepreneur has been murdered, and only the truth will save Alchemist Ortez from the gallows.

Facing a heated courtroom of strangers, he must now recall the events that brought him here as a fellow alchemist probes his memory. Such is the job of alchemists: administering elixirs in order to see into the minds of men. Their dreams. Their nightmares. Their secrets.

But while everyone believes him guilty, Alchemist Ortez knows what they do not.

He was hired by the victim for a job unlike any they could imagine. Nor would they ever guess what other mysteries lie buried beneath the mountain metropolis of Aurora, a cave-enclosed city where countless gas lamps illuminate the endless night.

The Night Circus meets Inception in this mind-bending fantasy mystery. Ranked one of the 20 Best Completed stories on Royal Road and both a SPFBO and BBNYA semi-finalist, Trial of the Alchemist is "a beautifully written tale of memory and murder... that will keep readers glued to the pages until the final twist is revealed." (Before We Go Blog)

2024 BBNYA Book Tour Round Up

 

These books were the 2024 Winner and Finalists that had 

BBNYA Blog Tours this year. Many genres represented!

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Spotlight ~ 2nd Place Finalist ~ A Necromancer Called Gam Gam by Adam Holcombe

A grandmotherly necromancer seeking resolution for her past with the help of her loyal entourage: an undead cat and a spectral knight.

A girl on the run from the Eternal Empire for the mysterious power she possesses.

When a chance encounter pulls them together, Gam Gam will do what it takes to protect Mina from the rogue sergeant hounding her–including raising the dead. As long as they're dressed for the occasion.

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tour: WINNER! ~ Clues to You by Claire Huston

 

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Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tour: Finalist 2 - Runner Up!

 

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Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tours: Finalists 4 & 3

 

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Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Spotlight ~ 5th Place Finalist ~ Madame Eldridge's Wayward Home for Unruly Boys by Benjamin Ryan

Deep in the heart of Virginia’s dense backwoods, the Wayward Home for Unruly Boys hides more than just troubled youth. Under Madame Eldridge’s watchful eye, three strict rules govern their behavior

1. What happens here stays here.

2. You must complete all eight steps—no exceptions allowed.

3. Forget your name; you’ll be known only by your problem.

But, there’s one unspoken rule that sends shivers down the boys' never enter the forbidden third-floor bedroom of the boy who vanished, leaving nothing behind but whispers.

When Vandalize and Stealer defy this warning, they uncover a treasure trove of bewitched artifacts, each with a strange and powerful ability. Using these relics, the boys tackle Madame Eldridge’s whimsical—and often bizarre—challenges, only to learn magic always demands its price.

Amidst the chaos, Fibbsy stumbles upon a peculiar object that sends him hurtling back in time, revealing an unfathomable truth about Madame Eldridge, the eerie town, and the missing boy’s fate. But who will trust the words of a liar?

Bound by the house’s darkest mysteries, Fibbsy, Defiance, Slob, and Secret form an unlikely friendship as they race to unveil the shrouded secrets surrounding the Wayward Home. Together, they confront their deepest fears, uncovering that the real magic lies in facing their own personal demons—and each other.

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Spotlight ~ 4th Place Finalist ~ Bad Grains by Susanne Schmidt

In the quaint German town of Fels, Halloween takes a dark turn for eleven-year-old Jo when her annoying older brother, Hektor, goes missing. Jo suspects he's playing a prank, but then both her father and grandma forget Hektor's name, and his stuff mysteriously disappears from his room.

With the adults of no help whatsoever, Jo starts her own investigation and uncovers a gruesome legend: A monster lives in the rye fields and it has been preying on the children of Fels for centuries, ensnaring them into its world under the roots. Now Jo will have two days until the gates between worlds closes on Halloween night.

Armed with a trusty turnip lantern, and her brother's obnoxious best friend as her only ally, can Jo outsmart the ancient monster, or will the rye fields claim even more innocent victims?

Join Jo an experience a spine-chilling adventure that combines the darkness of German folklore with the magic of spooky season.

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tours: Finalists 6 & 5

 

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Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Spotlight ~ 6th Place Finalist ~ The Fall Is All There Is by C.M. Caplan

All Petre Mercy wanted was a good old-fashioned dramatic exit from his life as a prince. But it's been five years since he fled home on a cyborg horse. Now the King - his Dad - is dead - and Petre has to decide which heir to pledge his thyroid-powered sword to.

As the youngest in a set of quadruplets, he's all too aware that the line of succession is murky. His siblings are on the precipice of power grabs, and each of them want him to pick their side.

If Petre has any hope of preventing civil war, he'll have to avoid one sibling who wants to take him hostage, win back another's trust after years of rivalry and resentment, and get an audience with a sister he's been avoiding for five years.

Before he knows it, he's plunged himself into a web of intrigue and a world of strange, unnatural inventions just to get to her doorstep.

Family reunions can be a special form of torture.

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tours: Finalists 8 & 7

 

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Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Review ~ 8th Place Finalist ~ The Magdalenes by Jeanne Skartsiaris

The Magdalenes is a story of redemption and reinvention.

Jude Madigan is a successful plaintiff's attorney who lived out a nightmare and spent years keeping it hidden. After being raped and impregnated by a Catholic priest when she was fourteen, she has spent years creating a new life, now driven to get justice for her clients.

She buries her past, and her emotions, under a solid veneer of ambition, but just as she's about to bring her biggest litigation case to trial, a strange assignment is forced upon her. Her law firm is given a huge commission to handle the estate of a recently deceased woman, with the catch that Jude, and no one else, must act as trustee. The terms require her to oversee the construction and finances of a Catholic halfway house for prostitutes.

Jude fights against this agreement since she turned her back on the church years ago and intends to keep it that way. Her boss insists she complies, not knowing about her past—or the pain of having her daughter taken from her arms minutes after the birth by a nun.

Damaged and patched together with anger and shame, Jude is reluctant, but becomes involved with a group of nuns and the prostitutes they're trying to help.

But the mystery remains as to why the stranger specified her, a litigation attorney, not an estate attorney, to handle the case. Though Jude struggles both personally and professionally, she discovers that what she feared most was what she needed to heal. Every belief is tested, and a lost dream is realized.

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tours: Finalists 10 & 9

 

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Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Spotlight ~ 9th Place Finalist ~ Skylark in the Fog by Helyna L. Clove

So when the universe falls to pieces, it doesn't mean your life has to, right? That comes later.

Jeane Blake, captain of the spaceship Skylark, makes her living by looting dead worlds, planets fallen prey to naturally occurring wormhole-like rifts plaguing the cosmos. She survives the only way she knows how: avoiding commitment and arguing with her dead foster father's ghost. But when her crew stumbles upon an alien device that could collapse the wormhole network and wipe out all sentient life, they catch the hungry eyes of the Union, a tyrannical empire hunting the sinister tech.

As she flees the Union's brainwashed agents, Jeane is forced to take on a shady mission and gets stuck assisting the runaway monarch of a technocrat planet. Queen Maura Tholis is seeking the aid of an interstellar resistance to reclaim her war-torn world, with another trouble-magnet device as her bargaining chip: a glove that allows her to command AI systems. Jeane couldn't care less about the whole deal, but things become personal when the Union annexes the place she calls home. And it might be her fault.

Reluctant to become weapons in the hands of power-hungry militants and desperate rebels, smuggler and queen join forces. But to save their homes, they must redefine themselves, work with the enemy, and face personal traumas they'd buried long ago-and only stars know which challenge might break them in the end.

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour Spotlight ~ 10th Place Finalist ~ The Last Lunar Witch by S.F. Henne

I only wanted to control my magic, but a single potion catapulted my life into chaos…

I’m Nyssa Thornheart, a witch with broken magic. I escaped to the big city to pursue my passion for alchemy, and hide from my coven until I fix my powers.

If my unstable gifts are exposed, they will be stripped away. To live without magic, that’s a fate worse than death. So I drank a long-forgotten potion in a desperate bid to harness my volatile powers.

But when I’m cornered by thugs, I unleash a rare and dangerous magic, tearing the veil between our world and a demonic realm. My new powers are growing stronger and resist every attempt to subdue them.

Now I’m a hunted witch, pursued by both demonic creatures and authorities determined to protect our realm from the threat I pose.

Can I master my magic, or will I have to sacrifice my powers before the city falls to demons?

For fans of Heather G. Harris and Lindsay Buroker, The Last Lunar Witch is the first book in the Lunar Order Chronicles. An urban fantasy series filled with strong women, found family, inner growth, and cozy vibes mixed with heart-pounding action. Dive into S.F. Henne’s gripping adventure now!

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tours: Finalists 12 & 11

 

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Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour ~ 11th Place Finalist ~ The Half-Life Empire by Shami Stovall

Hacker Kita Yamasaki would do anything to escape the post-apocalyptic landscape that was the result of the Forever Winter. But for a normal person, the only options are the war-hungry nation-state of Ex Cathedra or the isolationist United California. Fortunately, Kita is anything but normal.

When she finds a faded brochure for the BC Oasis—an underground greenhouse capable of sheltering a quarter million people—she jumps at the opportunity, even going so far as to steal a fission battery the oasis requires to operate at full capacity. There’s just one problem . . . The battery belongs to the ruthless judges of Ex Cathedra.

Now Kita finds herself the target of a deadly chase. In her race to safety, she picks up three fellow travelers: Dallas; his mute daughter, Crouton; and Bishop, a junk hunter. But will they betray her and take the battery for themselves? Is one of them a member of the cultist Iron-Blooded who worship the few remaining alien invaders scattered across Earth’s wasteland?

Faced with certain death if they’re caught by the judges’ power-armored soldiers, Kita must put aside her suspicions and make a headlong dash for sanctuary—and the promise of a new life.

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour ~ 12th Place Finalist ~ Undine's Blessing by Tessa Hastjarjanto

A dutiful daughter, a mystical archipelago, and a hidden power waiting to command the tides...

Marella spends her days caring for her sick mother and selling her father's fish. Bound by duty and love, she dreams little of adventure. But when her mother must travel to the city for treatment, her father takes her out to sea, despite her fear of water.

A storm steers them to Emberrain, home to a tribe of magical nymphs and a place of secrets, where Marella discovers a startling truth: her father is a frequent visitor to these mysterious islands. Soon she learns that Emberrain isn't the only secret he had kept from her.

Marella has the power to control water and communicate with aquatic animals.

Overwhelmed by the magical but dangerous islands, and the secrets of her father, Marella must learn to harness her powers to save herself and her new aquatic friend before they are separated from their parents forever.

Undine's Blessing is a journey of wonder, where fears are faced and mysteries unravel, and a young girl learns that true adventure begins when you dare to embrace who you truly are.

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ BBNYA2024 Blog Tours: Finalists 14 & 13

 

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Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

BBNYA2024 Blog Tour ~ 13th Place Finalist ~ Yellow Tape and Coffee by Pat Luther

Four intertwining stories. Four points of view of a single large event. Four people from different backgrounds with different ideals.

And a secret society of werewolves is unveiled in Portland, Oregon.

For four hundred years, they have kept their secret. Some will do anything to reveal it. Others will sacrifice everything to keep it.

Alliances will be forged and shattered. Friendships will be made and betrayed. Conspiracies within conspiracies will unravel as conflicting agendas clash across the city.

And by the end, nothing will be the same.