War of the Damned Series, Book 1 Resurrection Of The Damned / Michael Todd & Michael Anderle / 230 pages

Three months ago, there was a demon invasion. Due to that, old rules are thrown aside as the world figures out just who the enemy really is. A mercenary named Katie is trying to take a much-needed vacation in Los Angeles but  unfortunately, both friends and foes want her in the worst possible way. While trying to enjoy her vacation she is kidnapped, has to help deal with a demon incursion, and exorcises a ghost at the hotel she’s staying at. The government wants Katie either to experiment or dissect to figure out why she is stronger than all the other damned.  Damned are humans possessed by a demon, this gives them abilities to fight and send other demons back to hell. Then the leader of the demons that caused the demon invasion also wants Katie for what, Katie doesn’t know.. Katie's Killers a mercenary group of damned that fight the demons are facing a new reality, one where they are needed more than ever now that the world's eyes have been uncovered. Narrated by Emily Beresford 5h 41min. 

Guild Codex: Spellbound Series, Book 5 The Alchemist And An Amaretto / Annette Marie/ 296 pages

As a guild bartender, Tori can handle pretty much anything thrown her way, mages, sorcerers, druids, witches, the occasional demon. But anything family-related and she’d rather run for the hills. So why on earth did she agree to spend the holiday with her three best guy friends Aaron, Ezra, and Kai at Aaron family’s home, which is a giant castle that is also a school.  Meeting his famous parents is already terrifying enough, but there are bigger problems. Students of Aaron’s family's renowned mage academy are being attacked on the grounds and somehow no one has seen a single assailant. Unexplained tracks litter the nearby woods, rumors of forbidden alchemy are circulating the campus, Ezra has been acting strangely since they arrived, and Aaron is falling back into his old way surrounded by the upper class elite at the school.  Something deadly is brewing in the shadow of Sinclair Academy, and the longer Tori and her friends take to uncover it, the more dangerous it becomes. But no matter the risk, they’re determined to protect the students. And Aaron's parents too, If they have to. Narrated by Cris Dukehart 6h 55min.

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 6 The Stubborn Advocate/ Michael Anderle & Sarah Noffke / 282 pages

Liv is a Warrior of the House of Seven after the mysterious deaths of her parents and older siblings and she is charged to uphold justice in the magical world by the Council of Seven. Things are not as they should be, Liv and her friend Rory the Giant have been looking into what is wrong in the magical world, they discovered everyone is missing memories of a war that happened between magicals and humans, and there is something making humans forget about magic when they were originally part of, the House of Seven that used to be the House of Fourteen. Without  humans in the House, the Council has been unbalanced without an outside perspective. But how is it possible that everyone's memories of that event are missing and how come humans can’t see magic, perhaps there are answers on the mountain where her parents died? Adler, a member of the Council who hates Liv and who Liv and her family think might be behind or helping the one responsible for the changes in the House, the one who caused humans to forget about magic, and perhaps even responsible for her parents and siblings deaths, brings back an ancient evil to distract Liv and prevent her from finding out the truth.  As she digs deeper and takes on her missions, Liv must be even more careful or else she might end up like her parents and siblings. Narrated by Dara Rosenberg 5h 33min. 

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 5 The Loyal Friend / Michael Anderle & Sarah Noffke / 314 pages

Book five in the Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series.  Liv Beaufont is a Warrior of the House of Seven since taking over the position after her parents and older siblings mysterious deaths and she is charged to uphold justice in the supernatural world by the Council of Seven.  However things are not as they seem, the Council seem more concerned with their laws than doing what is right. She and her friend Rory the Giant have been looking into what is fundamentally wrong with the supernatural world and discovered that it seems that all species are missing memories of a war that happened  between magicals and humans and there is something making humans forget about magic when they were originally part of, not the House of Seven but the House of Fourteen. That is what’s wrong in the House, it is unbalanced since there are no longer any humans with an outside perspective to help keep the balance, it was never meant to be just magicians on the Council.  But how is it possible that everybody's memories of that event are gone? On Liv’s latest mission for the council she is sent to Romania to find out who all the members of a werewolf pack are and deal with them, since tourists in the area have been going missing and the Council suspects the wolves of eating humans. However since wolves can sense magic the Council decides to bind her magic so that they won’t be able to tell she is a magician and think her human.  Liv knows that certain members of the Council suggested this because they want her dead, after all she’ll be defenseless in the werewolf town without her magic. As she digs deeper for the truth and takes on her missions, she must be extra careful. Narrated by Dara Rosenberg 6h 44min. 

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 4 The Triumphant Daughter / Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle / 312 pages

Liv Beaufont is a Warrior of the House of Seven ever since taking over the position after her parents and older siblings died and she is charged to uphold justice in the supernatural world by the Council of Seven.  However things are not as they seem, the council seem more concerned with their laws than doing what is right. She and her friend Rory the Giant have been looking into what is fundamentally wrong with the supernatural world and discovered that it seems all species are missing memories of a war that happened a while ago.  But how is it possible that everybody's memories of that event are gone? On top of that Liv’s latest mission from the council is hunting demons and she is trying to help another Warrior who has been infected by a demon without the council finding out. If she doesn’t find the demon and get it’s blood to create a cure for the Warrior, he will become a demon.  Then there is the mission to the Giants’ Isle that she volunteered for to prevent another Warrior from going and finding out that the Giant Sword she stole from a museum, because it belonged to her friend Rory’s family, is there on the Isle. The mission happens once every 100 years, the council is obligated to send someone to offer the giants a place in the treaty they have with all other magical creatures besides demons, however the giants hate mages and normally kill those that go. As she digs deeper for the truth and takes on her missions, she must be extra careful. Narrated by Dara Rosenberg 6h 51min.

Blood And Magick Series, Book 2 Demon's Kiss / Katerina Martinez / 275 pages

Now that Madison has settled into living in the New Orleans French Quarter she didn’t think she would be having so many problems but since exposing Remy, the now ex-coven leader of New Orleans of using some kind of dark magic to make himself stay young and for his part in the vampire purge 200 years ago, she and Nicole, her friend and neighbor have dissolved the old coven and have now created a new democratic kind of system made up of smaller covens.   But when things go wrong as they have been lately everybody keeps coming to her since she was the one who exposed Remy. She just wants to write her books not deal with Imps that have been stealing magic. On top of that Jean-Luc, the man of her dreams, took the vampires that were sleeping in her house and disappeared and she hasn’t seen him in three months. Nicole thinks she been cooped up in her house writing and wallowing for too long, and now Madison has to deal with something even worse than the imps, a blind date.  Narrated by Carly Robins 6h 9min.

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 3 The Defiant Magician / Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle / 322 pages

Liv Beaufont is a Warrior of the House of Seven, charged with bringing justice, set by magicians in the magical society and imposed upon on all magical creatures.  Where the other Warriors do as they are told by the Seven Councilors Liv is more set about doing what is right instead of what is easy. The Council used to send her on wild-goose chases for stupid cases just to keep her busy, but now they are sending her on more and more dangerous cases and she and her brother Clark, one of the Seven Councilors, think that someone on the Council is trying to get rid of her as she works with her brother secretly so they don’t target him too, to find out more about the mysterious deaths of their parents, brother, and sister.  Liv is determined to prove that she’s a capable and strong Warrior and try to decode the mysterious message left to her and Clark by their sister as well as the ancient language of the Founders and the mysterious hidden door in the Library of the House of Seven. Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg 6 h 55 min.

Unstoppable Liv Beaufont Series, Part 2 The Uncooperative Warrior / Sarah Noffke & Michael Anderle / 302 pages

Oliva "Liv" Beaufont has been getting used to her new position as Warrior of one of the Seven as well as having her magic unlocked.  The Council has been assigning her stupid cases to keep her busy and out of the way. However she’s been working her own cases trying to find out more about her parents, older brother, and sister’s deaths and the secrets that are going on inside the House of Seven.  Her friend, the giant who has been helping her train her magic, asks her for help recovering his grandfather’s sword which is in a public museum guarded by magic wards that make it so he can’t take it. She gets a lead on the magic container she found during a case and then someone stole from the House of Seven, and she thinks it was someone from the House. Liv makes friends with a bunch of Brownies that like to clean places, her boss human John at her electronic repair shop job is getting suspicious of her activities and Liv strikes up an unlikely partnership with an annoying Elf.  Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg 6 h 36 min.

Sensor Series, Book 2 Darkness Taunts / Susan Illene / 437 pages

Second book in the Sensor series.  Melena used to avoid supernaturals and hide who she was like the plague. Because if supernaturals found out that she was a Sensor, someone immune to magic and could sense the supernaturals around her they would kill her because of the war between her people with the angels help against supernaturals, that did not end well for Sensors.  But now her secret is out, she had gone to Alaska to save her friend and to do so ended up having to save Nicholas, a vampire under a sleep spell for 5 years and help him put down a rebellion that a witch had caused to take over his region. She hasn’t been allowed to leave Fairbanks since and is now living in one of the vampire, Nicholas's homes with her teenage charge that she took in when she found out the girl was a Sensor too. Now Lucas, the half angel Nephilim, and her nemesis has come to call in the favor she owes him. Lucas needs Mel’s help to take care of a demon possession outbreak in another town nearby.  In the past Mel always hated Lucas, for killing her guardian, he was always there threatening to kill her one moment and then saving her from life and death situations the next. But after learning he was protecting her from her guardian selling her to supernaturals the dynamics of their relationship begin to change. She always felt that there was some deep connection between them and working so close to Lucas on the Demon outbreak is causing her to feel things for him she would have never admitted to in the past. Narrated by: Cris Dukehart 9h 59min.

Codex Blair Series, Book 2 Blood Hunt / Izzy Shows / 293 pages

It’s been a year since Blair Sheach found out she was a mage and since she stopped the dark ritual that the necromancer tried to use to destroy the city.  It’s been pretty quiet, she’s gotten used to her powers and patrolling the city protecting the mundane from the supernatural. Shawn the ex-military medic that Fin once introduced her to to stitch her back up after the dark ritual has been flirting with her, which is weird, she’s not used to such attention and he doesn’t know about the supernatural world.  But things are heating up in her city, she has to kill a vampire to save a woman and that could be bad news if Dudley, the vampire in charge, can’t keep his grip on his people or if a rogue vampire is moving in on his turf. Then there’s her friend Fin, he works for the police department and he’s one of the only officers in the know about the supernatural world because of his high up position.  Fin’s not suppose to tell others about magic but he tells some of his subordinates because people are dying, five bodies have shown up around the city drained of blood and be-headed and Blair suspects there’s a bigger problem with the vampires than she first thought. And if this isn’t settled quickly then the secret about the supernatural world will be blown wide open and neither supernaturals or mundanes will be safe, not to mention what will happen if the Order of Mages finds out about her or that mundanes know. They keep tight control of human mages if they found out about her powers there’s only one thing they’d do to contain her, they would kill her.  Narrated by: Gemma Dawson 9h 19min.

Codex Blair Series, Book 1 Grave Mistakes / Izzy Shows / 335 pages

Blair Sheach can never keep down a normal job and anything that runs on electricity seems to break down on her at inconvenient times, like elevators when she’s in them.  But if she doesn’t pull some money together soon she’ll be out on the streets, her landlady has given her till the end of the month to pay the rent, only four days. She gets a job from a lady who saw one of her P.I. flyers (when she was trying that job) and beggars can’t be choosers.  She takes the unusual job the ladies husband has gone missing and apparently he’s cheating on her with a ghost, yeah right the lady has obviously read too many paranormal romance books. But as Blair delves into the case she finds out that magic really is real, that the case is more complicated than she thought because it  involves necromancers, and that she also has magic. Narrated by: Gemma Dawson 9h 23min.

Bone Coven Chronicles Series, Part 2 Witch's Storm / Jenna Wolfhart / 306 pages

Second book in the Bone coven Chronicle series. Zoe is no longer in the con business she is now working part time as an enforcer for the Bone Coven as well as her part time job at the bar.  As an enforcer she uses her gifts to protect humans from supernatural attacks. Even though her vampire, warlock partner Dorian knows that she isn’t really a bone witch at all but a shadow witch, Zoe still hasn’t completely come to terms with her shadow abilities, that black magic calls to her and she doesn’t trust herself to use it and not fall to the dark powers.  The tenant above her bar seems to have a demon problem at her workplace and asks Zoe for help and then there’s the murder that happens right outside her bar that all but screams supernatural attack, and the victim happens to be someone from the Blood Coven who aren’t on good terms with the Bone Coven right now. And to make matters worse, banishment runes don’t seem to be working on demons which is so not good. If witches all over suddenly can’t banish demons out of this realm back to their own, then veil between our two realms could weaken which could lead to another Demon War. Narrated by: Piper Goodeve 7h 13min.

Bone Coven Chronicles Series, Part 1 Witch's Curse / Jenna Wolfhart / 322 pages

Ever since Zoe’s parents died in the demon war she’s made ends meet for herself and her ailing grandma by using her magic gifts to con people (it’s not like she wants to do it but she really needs the money for rent so she and her grandma aren’t kicked out of their apartment).  If people think they are haunted she uses her gift to “banish” the spirit, ghost, or demon that’s bothering them, and pretty much every time she does this they’re not really being haunted it’s just their imagination or desperation (not that’s she’s going to tell them that). Except one night right after finishing a job and just as she’s leaving the building she gets stopped by angry mages as a murder suspect.  Someone actually summoned a demon to kill her last employer right after she left, she didn’t think the guy was being serious about his demon problem and now because she had treated his concerns as trivial the man was dead and she was suspect number one. Now she has to find the real killer so she can clear her name. Narrated by: Piper Goodeve 7h 50min.

Guild Codex: Spellbound Series, Part 4 Demon Magic And A Martini / Annette Marie / 312 pages

Tori is not just the bartender at the Crow and Hammer, a magic guild, she is also now an official guild member.  Tori wasn’t born with magic but she can use magic artifacts and has a familiar bond with a fairy. After what happened with the rogue guild trying to enslave a Fae Lord, Magipol found out about Tori, but due to her guild leader, Darius’s smooth talking and knowledge of all the loopholes in the law Tori is considered a witch (even though she’s really not) because she has a familiar bond.  Things are going great (except her relationship with her police officer brother, who due to his job also knows about the about mystics and doesn’t like that Tori is hanging out with them and now isn’t talking to her) and somehow she has been pushed into throwing a massive Halloween party at the guild for all the members and their families. But the day before the party, Magipol sends out an alert, all guilds are to stop what they are doing and help with a demon hunt. The one class of magic everyone is a little leery of is Demonica, mages who summon demons, if a demon where to get loose of a summoning circle before being bound to their contractor is could wreak havoc and kill hundreds of people and that’s exactly what just happened.  And now secrets that her three best mage friends have been keeping are coming to light. Narrated by: Cris Dukehart 7h 16min.

Magic Blood: The Warlock Series Book 1, Demons And Deception / Katerina Martinez & Tansey Morgan / 211 pages

Hailey used to be a mage, she would take odd jobs for people and kill demons with her sister but after her sister is killed she decides to retire and move from the United States to London, England.  Now she’s working at a University as a Librarian and she loves her quiet life with no more danger and death. Then one night as she’s closing up two creatures summoned by a demon come to steal a book from her library, only she knows her collection and doesn’t remember this book.  She defeats the creatures, but barely. Someone else wants the book too, Levi, he was hired to get the book and now won’t leave her side without it, but it’s her job to protect it. Narrated by Rachel Dulude 4h 1min.

Blue Exorcist Vol. 1 / Kazue Kato (Japanese author) / 202 pages / Color in the title

Rin Okumura was always a rebellious orphan, but when he’s jumped by a gang, a blue flame he never knew he could use reveals that not only is he half-human-half-demon, but he is the illegitimate son of the Devil himself.  After his father kills someone close to him, Rin vows to get his revenge on him and joins the True Cross Academy to become an exorcist.  His teacher is his more intelligent, somehow-whole-human, younger twin brother Yukio; hilarity ensues (for the most part).  The first demon they had to exorcise was within a girl’s legs, making her immobile, because it had tricked her into thinking it was her grandmother’s spirit.  This girl, Shiemi, joins the True Cross Academy alongside Rin thanks to a kind conversation they had with each other.

Another recommendation I got, and my first impression was more towards Miss Kato’s illustrations and the careful detail she put into them, especially with the architecture—that alone is worth a peek into the book.

The Dead House / Dawn Kurtagich / 448 pages

This book is disturbing.  The book is a collection of evidence - diary entries, transcripts of video clips, interviews with students and a psychologist - surrounding a fire at Elmsbridge school.  The only suspect is a girl with Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities) who also died in the fire.  While the book keeps counting down to "The Incident," there are many traumatic incidents that happen before the beginning of the book and during the countdown.  The main character's (Carly/Kaitlyn Johnson) parents died before the beginning of the book.  The main character is checked into a mental hospital of some sort and then sent to Elmsbridge boarding school.  A student goes missing, several students die, the misery is nonstop.  This is reminiscent of Shutter Island in that you can't trust the information from the main character as she devolves into psychosis - or demon possession, depending on the interpretation you prefer.


Amazon states this book is YA.  I personally wouldn't let a child under the age of sixteen read the version I listened to on audiobook. There is apparently an alternate paperback edition for grades 8 and up.  Parents will want to preview this before giving to a child - language, disturbing themes, occult/magic/demon possession, sexual situations, violence.


There is a companion novella The Dead House: Naida.

House / Frank Peretti / 386 pages / October Challenge

This redemption tale features 4 of the most unlikable characters you will ever meet.  Jack and Stephanie are on their way to a marriage counselor.  Jack feels that Stephanie blames him for every little thing wrong in her life.  Stephanie seems to feel defensive and guilty, but we don't find out until much later what she feels guilty about.  They spend the car ride arguing and muttering under their breath until they run over a spike strip in the road and have to walk to the nearest shelter.  By the time Jack and Stephanie reached the House, I was hoping a monster would put a quick end to them.  Instead they meet Randy and Lesley, two even more unlikable characters who had been stranded after running over a spike strip several miles on the other side of the house.  The House is set up to be a bed and breakfast, but the owners can't be found.  The four of them rummage around the house looking for flashlights and other supplies until they find the owner in the pantry.  She and her sons are even worse than the four who have been stranded and are called the "inbreeds" for the rest of the book.


This book is reminiscent of a slew of "living house" movies (House on Haunted Hill, for example).  There is some originality to the quirks of the house, but many of the features are found in other books and movies.  It wasn't until about chapter 25 when the Christian themes began emerging that I started to like the book. 


The novel is the basis for the 2008 movie House.

Unforgotten Coat / Frank Cottrell Boyce 42 p.

Sarah Coomes narrates with story of two boys, immigrants from Mongolia. Julie becomes their "good guide" through the soccer, British slang, school dress-down days. The brothers are fleeing a demon who makes you vanish. They takes different ways home every night. They have piqued her interest in Mongolia, so she studies up. Though Julie tries to learn where they live, she fails until her mother helps when Julie needs to return a coat. A very telling happening occurs when Julie cannot get anyone to answer the door. Finally after pounding and pounding, a brother appears to take the coat. Julie sees fear in everyone's face. Poignantly, one brother calls to say goodbye when the authorites find them and send them back to Mongolia.