Onyx Webb Book 1 by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz

Description: Delectably Creepy. Gripping. Fascinating. Onyx Webb is a multi-genre mash-up that combines supernatural suspense, crime, horror, romance, and more. So the story... Onyx Webb is a ghost. Billionaire playboy Koda Mulvaney becomes obsessed with a girl he sees inside a mirror. Juniper Cole is on her way to the prom and... well, we don't want to spoil anything - we've probably told you too much already. How all these events are related is part of the mystery that is, Onyx Webb. The Onyx Webb series follows the unusual life of Onyx Webb along with a central group of characters in various locations and times. The billionaire Mulvaney family, piano prodigy Juniper Cole and her brother Quinn, paranormal show hosts Cryer and Fudge, and a few others make up the core of the series. Written like a book version of a supernatural soap opera (think: American Horror Story) each character’s story moves forward with most every episode. It may appear that the characters are entirely unrelated and yet episode by episode, the connections will become clearer. Like being an inch away from a spider web, with each book, the web will move further and further away revealing the full story of every character and most importantly, the stunning conclusion for Onyx Webb herself.

First of all, oh my goodness that cover! I was so glad I was reading this on my Kindle instead of actually holding a physical copy because this spidery cover just undoes me!  Luckily the story itself is not full of spiders, at least not yet, though who knows what is in store for us in future episodes!  This books collects the first 3 episodes into 1 book, there are 10 books in all with 32 total episodes.  They are available through Kindle Unlimited currently if you have that, or for around $3.99 each book.

I picked up the first one on hearing how much a friend was enjoying them, and though skeptical (she's much more into horror than I) gave it a try this week, it being the Halloween season and all.  There are many characters, all of them very different and well written, so that even though it is a lot to keep track of, they are all different enough that I didn't get confused.  You quickly get a feel for each scenario.  Add to that the fact they are occurring in different time periods throughout a roughly hundred year time frame, which adds another level of curiosity at how they are related to each other. 

I appreciated the very short, action packed chapters, and the ability of the authors to keep you hooked while doling out the tidbits of story.  As a non-horror fan I can report this was not too much for me, yet, and while murdery and twisty things happen, I was more intrigued than squeamish.  I'm in for the rest of the story because I need to find out how all of these people end up related!

Good find DragonGoddess! Thanks!

Onyx Webb Book 1 on Amazon

Star Nomad by Lindsay Buroker

From Goodreads: They have her daughter. She will stop at nothing to get her back. When system-wide civil war broke out, fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko left her family and accepted a commission in the Alliance Army to battle the empire’s tyranny. Four years later, the empire has been toppled, but chaos and anarchy now rule the system. Alisa, after being injured in the final battle, is stranded on a dustball of a planet billions of miles from home. She learns that her husband died during the bombings, leaving their daughter on Perun, a planet that has become the last imperial stronghold. Alisa must find a way to Perun, even if she has to steal a dilapidated ship from a junkyard overrun by murdering savages to do it. She’s ready for the challenge. She did not, however, count on finding an elite imperial cyborg soldier squatting in the ship and planning to use it for a mysterious mission of his own. Alisa can’t let him or anyone else stop her, or she'll never see her daughter again.

This was a fun read that I discovered through Kindle Unlimited. I actually had a few other titles by this author on my list, a few as kindle freebies, but not in the Sci-Fi genre, they were her fantasy novels. So this one was marketed for fans of Firefly and Star Wars, and while normally I don't like it when books try to ride the coat tails of bigger hugely successful things because I feel like they can't possibly live up, I could see the influence of both in this story. There is much wit and banter between characters, each having their own quirks, a la Firefly. And there is the grand setting of the aftermath of a big war which has the feel of the Empire and the Rebels, a la Star Wars.  But our characters here are not the top brass or the last Jedi, they are people caught in the crossfire, and believing they were fighting for the right side, but then coming to know each other and find out they are still all humans, with feelings, and honor, regardless of the side they started out on.  They are the ones who somehow got left behind now that the whole thing is over and have to figure out what to do next, how to get home, how to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. 

I enjoyed the characterization, and found myself imagining The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, as the Cyborg Soldier, every time the eyebrow quirk was mentioned, though he is much more outspoken and animated in his roles than the reserved Cyborg we here. By author admission the science part of the sci-fi is pretty general, but still sets the scene well.  I look forward to more in this series, and also sampling others by this author.  4/5 stars.