C Gockel Writes

Featured Fantasy: The Game of Hearts (Otherworlds Book 2) by Courtney Millecam

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Featured Fantasy: The Game of Hearts (Otherworlds Book 2) by Courtney Millecam

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Win the game, change your fate. Lose the game, lose your life.When Alice Liddell runs away on the night of her engagement party and stumbles into a shadowy pub on a forgotten street, she thinks her life is ruined. Her parents are furious, her reputation is destroyed, and her fall from society will be printed in all of London’s gossip columns. Then a mysterious stranger gives her an unexpected solution to all of her problems: A yearly game inviting mortals into the land of Faerie to play the queen’s infamous Game of Hearts. To win is to gain a wish of your heart but to lose means sacrificing your freedom.

Alice quickly realizes the game is far more intricate and deadly than she was led to believe and teams up with the rebellious and irreverent cat-shifter Ches. Together they must outwit the other players by solving the obscure riddles given as clues and get out of the queen’s enchanted hedge maze unscathed. It also means staying far away from Maddox, the queen’s champion player and Alice’s fiercest competition. He’s determined to win at all costs, but Alice suspects his motives may not be his own.

The deeper Alice goes inside the world of cunning fae, bloodthirsty beasts, and vengeful queens, the more she fears that winning means betraying those closest to her. And in this Game of Hearts, Alice needs to guard hers.

This 1920’s Alice in Wonderland reimagining is the second book in the Otherworlds Trilogy and is perfect for fans of fairytale retellings with dark twists, atmospheric settings, and slow burn romance that’s swoony, not spicy.

Feature Sci-fi: The Henry Gallant Saga Books 1 – 3 by H. Peter Alesso

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Feature Sci-fi: The Henry Gallant Saga Books 1 - 3 by H. Peter Alesso

FREE as of April 13, 2024
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As the last starfighter, only Henry Gallant can stop the alien invasion.

In an era of genetic engineering, Henry Gallant is the only Natural left in the United Planets’ fleet.

With the space fleet on the verge of annihilation from the alien invasion, analyzing the captured computer in Gallant’s possession is critical to stopping them. He can expect no help as he navigates through threatening aliens on his way to Mars, and his shipmates doubt he is up to the challenge.

But as the last starfighter in Squadron 111, the lives of his shipmates, as well as a good many others, depend on Henry Gallant. The struggle for the galactic empire hangs in the balance.

For fans of Honor Harrington and Horatio Hornblower.

Featured Fantasy : Ivy & Bone (A Hades and Persephone Romance) by R.L. Perez

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Featured Fantasy : Ivy & Bone (A Hades and Persephone Romance) by R.L. Perez

FREE as of April 13, 2024
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A dangerous deal with the devil gives one witch more than she bargained for…


Prue is an earth witch, blessed with power from the Triple Goddess. Still mourning the loss of her twin sister, Prue summons the devil himself from the Underworld, intent on bringing her sister back from the dead. But when she meets him—a handsome man named Cyrus—he is more deadly and alluring than she anticipated. Prue tricks him into binding his blood with hers, granting her access to his powers over the dead.

But the bond also unlocks the gates to the Underworld, unleashing the spirits within.

Now Cyrus is bound to her in more ways than one.

Desperate to close the gates and save the mortal realm from unholy destruction, Prue and Cyrus must work together to undo their bargain. But against her better judgment, Prue is enthralled by his seductive nature, and she finds herself falling for the devil himself.

This fantasy romance is a Hades and Persephone retelling with a twist, full of steamy romance, dark paranormal themes, and allusions to Greek mythology. Perfect for fans of Kingdom of the Wicked and A Touch of Darkness.

Featured Fantasy: Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles Book One) by Kevin Hearne

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Featured Fantasy: Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles Book One) by Kevin Hearne

$1.99 as of April 13, 2024
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The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Iron Druid Chronicles—the hilarious, action-packed tales of a two-thousand-year-old Druid pursued by ancient gods in the modern world

“A page-turning and often laugh-out-loud-funny caper through a mix of the modern and the mythic.”—Ari Marmell, author of The Warlord’s Legacy

Atticus O’Sullivan is the last of the ancient druids. He has been on the run for more than two thousand years and he’s tired of it. The Irish gods who want to kill him are after an enchanted sword he stole in a first-century battle, and when they find him managing an occult bookshop in Tempe, Arizona, Atticus doesn’t want to uproot his life again. He just wants everything to end one way or another, but preferably the way in which he can continue to enjoy fish and chips.

He does have some small hope of survival: The Morrigan, the Irish Chooser of the Slain, is on his side, and so is Brighid, First Among the Fae. His lawyer is literally a bloodsucking vampire, and he has a loyal Irish wolfhound with opinions about poodles.

But he’s facing down some mighty enemies: Aenghus Óg, a vengeful Irish god, plus a coven of witches and even the local police. On top of all that, Aenghus has a direct line to the firepower of hell. Atticus will need all the luck of the Irish and more if he’s going to stay alive.

Featured Sci-fi: The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh

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Featured Sci-fi: The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh

99¢ as of April 13, 2024
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I haven’t read this series, but I loved her Foreigner series. I’m picking this one up!

The first in a series of “lively tales of swashbuckling capitalism in space,” featuring a fascinating alien culture based on the social structure of lion prides (Locus)

Chaos breaks out when the captain of an all-female alien crew agrees to rescue a human male wanted by their enemy . . .

No one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company of humans―a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown―and he was a prisoner of his discoverers and captors―the sadistic, treacherous kif―until his escape onto the hani ship, The Pride of Chanur.

Featured Science Fiction: Outlaw Rising (Parse Galaxy Prequel) by Kate Sheeran Swed

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Featured Science Fiction: Outlaw Rising (Parse Galaxy Book 1) by Kate Sheeran Swed

FREE as of April 13, 2024
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Secretly, Sloane Tarnish has always admired her outlaw of an uncle, and his tales of not-so-legal adventures across the galaxy–but she never thought she’d be asked to help with one of his heists.

When Uncle Vin shows up on her med school campus with a plan to steal a chip full of Fleet intelligence–and the baffling idea to have her play a key role in the scheme–Sloane’s got her doubts. Uncle Vin doesn’t seem to realize that her top skills involve the kind of shots you drink, not the ones you fire.

But Vin’s convinced the Fleet’s got plans to install empirical rule across the free galaxy, and that this data could stop them before they can begin. When a bunch of rogue delivery drones start taking shots at her–and not the liquid kind–she has to figure he’s onto something.

To prove it, all she needs to do is steal the data key from the middle of a Fleet ball… and right out from under the Commander’s nose.

Too bad she’s got absolutely no idea what she’s doing…

Outlaw Rising is the prequel novella to the Parse Galaxy space opera adventure series.