C Gockel Writes

Featured Fantasy: Fate of the Darkmages by Orlando A. Sanchez

by

Featured Fantasy: Fate of the Darkmages by Orland A. Sanchez

START THE SERIES FREE—
Book 2 & Book 3 only $3.99 Each
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

Sometimes the safest place is in the midst of danger.

Darkmages die.

Everyone knew this.

Everyone accepted it…except her.

Meet Valentina, the last member of the Forza bloodline, a darkmage and granddaughter of Alfonse Forza—one of the most powerful and infamous Darkmages to walk the earth.

Until he disappeared without a trace.

The last known location of the Eclipse was inside the Mage Directorate Headquarters. She must now infiltrate the Directorate, locate the missing Eclipse, and somehow escape with her life.

Everything was going as planned, until her plan ran into Xander Ashford—Enforcer Xander Ashford, who has sworn to kill darkmages.

Now, Valentina must unleash her dormant darkmage powers, find and recover the Eclipse all while evading the Directorate and Inquisitor Emery, the lead mage who controls a relentless group of mage enforcers who follow only one law when it comes to darkmages.

Darkmages die.

Featured Sci-fi: Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson

by

$1.99 as of May 17, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, Canada (Full-price: United Kingdom, Australia, Germany)

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

From the “finest science fiction writer now writing,” a sci-fi thriller about researchers cut off from the rest of the world while studying alien life (Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly).

Robert Charles Wilson “writes superior science fiction thrillers” (The New York Times). Now Wilson tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.

At Blind Lake, a large federal research installation in northern Minnesota, scientists are using a technology they barely understand to watch everyday life in a city of lobster-like aliens upon a distant planet. They can’t contact the aliens in any way or understand their language. All they can do is watch.

Then, without warning, a military cordon is imposed on the Blind Lake site. All communication with the outside world is cut off. No one knows why.

The scientists, nevertheless, go on with their research. Among them are Marguerite Hauser and the man she recently divorced, Raymond Scutter. They continue to work together despite the tension between them. Ray believes their efforts are doomed; that the aliens will forever be an enigma.

Marguerite believes there is a commonality of sentient thought, and that our failure to understand is our own ignorance. The behavior of the alien she has been tracking seems to be developing an elusive narrative logic—and she comes to feel that the alien is somehow, impossibly, aware of the project’s observers.

But her time is running out. Ray is turning hostile, stalking her. The military cordon is tightening. Understanding had better come soon. . . .

“Wilson builds suspense superlatively well, to a resolution that packs all the emotional wallop anyone could wish.” —Booklist

Featured Fantasy: A Drizzle of Magic (The Pobyd Perfections Bakery Series Book 1) by S. Usher Evans

by

Featured Fantasy: A Drizzle of Magic (The Pobyd Perfections Bakery Series Book 1) by S. Usher Evans

99¢ as of May 17, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

Sweet treats, friendly service, and a proprietor who’s not afraid to be a little devious to do the right thing. Welcome to the Pobyd Perfections Bakery.

Magical baker Lillie Dean has moved to the idyllic town of Silverkeep in search of a fresh start. Magic is once again legal, and Lillie’s ready to show the world what a pobyd (a creature with a penchant for baking delicious sweets) can do unfettered. But Silverkeep is in an uproar, with the magical creatures who’d fled the queen’s reign returning to find their homes occupied by the nonmagical who’d been invited to fill the nearly-vacant town. To make matters worse, Lillie’s just received a letter threatening to reveal her mildly-villainous past if she doesn’t pack up and leave.

Lillie’s not one to blink in the face of a threat, nor is she going to take a note like that lying down. There’s an entire town full of suspects, including Julian Globe, the son of Lillie’s landlord and the owner of a rival bakery, who isn’t too pleased his father’s bankrolling his competition. But who would know about what Lillie did in Lower Pigsend, and why would they want her to leave?

[Read more…]

Book Review: City of Storms (Nightmarked Book 1) by Kat Ross

by

Featured Fantasy: City of Storms (Nightmarked Book 1) by Kat Ross

FREE as of May 17, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

C’s review: A delightfully complex blend of action, adventure, and romance in a unique fantasy setting. Think post-magic apocalypse “utopia.” If it has any flaw, it is that it might have been written in a serial style and the author wasn’t quite sure how to put the episodes together. The last 1/3 of the book could have been in book 2—erm, I may have had that issue before! It didn’t keep me from stopping at book 1, and I just bought book 3 last night.

Winner of the 2022 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A city simmering with repressed urges…

A fallen angel bent on chaos…

And a conspiracy that could destroy them all.

Can one woman harness her own psychic power to stop it?

In a world with three layers of ever darker magic, few dare to wield the most dangerous. And those who try can fall prey to violent madness.

The Church keeps a tight leash on its citizens. It tests every child for psychological deviancy.

If you pass, you’re given a Mark. A tattoo that lets you use the ley power—and shields you from your most primal desires.

For the lucky ones, the world is at their feet. The rest suffer a life of menial jobs and hopelessness.

When tarot reader Kasia crosses paths with a young priest who hunts deviants, her own ugly secret is dragged into the light. Will they learn to trust each other in time to stop a greater evil from corrupting their world?

You’ll love the first book in this epic fantasy series because the lush weaving of intrigue, action and slow-burn romance will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Get it now.

[Read more…]

Featured Fantasy: Mystic Brews Mysteries by Alyn Troy

by

Featured Fantasy: Mystic Brews Mysteries by Alyn Troy

START THE SERIES FREE—Book 2 and Book 3 only 99¢ Each
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

A magical café where the deceased demand answers, cats are snarky, and chickens ghostly!

When my quirky Aunt Rose asks me, an American barista, to help open a hip espresso café near the Welsh and English border, I jumped at the chance. What better way to celebrate my 36th birthday and try to ignore the second anniversary of my boyfriend’s death?

Misty Valley isn’t just your average Welsh village. This one is full of fae like pixies, orcs, and leprechauns, and now me. My special power, other than making great espresso? I can see and hear ghosts.

So, when the spirit of my ex-boyfriend Jake shows up with more than the ghostly chickens he died with (don’t ask, it’s complicated), I find out just how strange my new life in Misty Valley is.

Jake’s new ghostly friend, Sir Reginald, disappeared a year before I arrived. Now that I’m here, the deceased cricket player wants me to figure out who murdered him. And figure out why. Everyone agrees he’s the most cricket of all cricket players. Who’d want to do in a chap like him?

First I find out I’m a witch, now I have to be a supernatural detective? I’d worry about that, but my new bestie seems to be a top secret agent for the fae queen. Yeah, I told you this is a weird little village.

And, since I’m a new witch, I’ve inherited not only a wand, but also a snarky talking cat named Punkin who is addicted to coffee beans. Seems that he had an incident with too many beans and the fae queen’s ball gown. Now I’m stuck with him.

And our attempt to solve the mystery of Sir Reginald’s death, is making the killer very nervous.

My new friends and I find ourselves in hot water right away. Just locating the car wreck that killed Sir Reginald reveals an escaped infernal that wants to eat my new cat, then eat the rest of us.

Can we serve up justice before a brewing disaster boils over? Lattes and Spirits is the first book in the delightful Mystic Brews paranormal mystery series. If you like high-stakes mysteries, sassy heroines, quirky characters, and a side of spells with your cuppa joe, then you’ll love Alyn Troy’s otherworldly adventure.

Featured Sci-fi: Grid Wars The Complete Series by Daniel Young

by

Featured Sci-fi: Grid Wars The Complete Series by Daniel Young

99¢ as of May 14, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

WAR IS COMING TO THE GRIDS. It started the moment Hobbes made the worst decision of his life.

He’d come to steal a jewel. Clean job, clean exit. Then he tripped over a dying man on a cargo platform — filthy, barefoot, shooting like nothing human — and made the mistake of dragging him aboard.

Hobbes should have left him there.

The man knows things he shouldn’t. He whispers the name of a planet that doesn’t exist, in fragments that are starting to make a terrifying kind of sense. And now every powerful faction in the sector is sending warships after the Infiltrator. They want the stranger back badly enough to burn the Grids to get him.

Hobbes is a thief. Not a soldier, not a hero. He doesn’t do causes.

But the stranger saved his life. Some debts you don’t walk away from. This one might cost him everything.

[Read more…]