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Nolander by Becca Mills
Beth Ryder knows she’s different. In a tiny rural town, being an orphaned and perpetually single amateur photographer crippled by panic disorder is pretty much guaranteed to make you stick out like a sore thumb.
But Beth doesn’t understand just how different she really is.
One day, strange things start cropping up in her photos. Things that don’t look human. Impossible things. Monstrosities. Beth thinks her hateful sister-in-law, Justine, has tampered with her pictures to play a cruel joke, but rather than admitting or denying it, Justine up and vanishes, leaving the family in disarray.
Beth’s search for Justine plunges her into a world she never knew existed, one filled with ancient and terrifying creatures. Both enemies and allies await her there—a disturbingly sexy boss, a sentient wolf with diamond fur, body-snatching dinosaur-birds. Separating the allies from the enemies is no easy chore, but in this strange new world, allies are a necessity. A plot is afoot, and Beth—whose abilities no one seems able to explain—may well hold the key to solving it.
Nolander is the first novel in the fantasy series Emanations. The second novel, Solatium, and a short story, Theriac, are also available.
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Solatium (Book 2 of Emanations) by Becca Mills
Beth Ryder’s dangerously sexy and seemingly all-powerful boss has disappeared, leaving an increasingly desperate group of Nolanders — and one inept Second — in charge of policing other-worldly activity across much of North America. What better time for a legendary monster to emerge from the Second Emanation and make New York City its hunting ground? But little does Beth know that dealing with the voracious Thirsting Ground will pale in comparison to a shocking betrayal that threatens to destroy her new life among the Nolanders.
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MY REVIEW – Nolander (Book 1)
Anyone that has read my reviews know that I am a world-creationist lover. Give me a new world, solid and levels deep and I am in heaven.
The world of Nolander delivers, a new magic/psonic system, a new alternate reality system, and all wonderful.
Plus the book defies convention – New Adult about a girl, but no romance, is it urban fantasy or alternate reality or sci fi or fantasy – doesn’t matter. What matters is this book a very, very good – just shy of perfection.
Characters either had too much hidden or were too predictable, a lighter hand is needed there to match the complications of the world. (And having read the next book of the series, the author’s skill with character creation does get better.)
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MY REVIEW – Solatium (Book 2)
Book 2 of the series (book 1 is free, as is the short story) and the world-building just keeps getting better. The character building does as well, and the plot, and the complications. For fairly new readers this may be the best book you have ever read (for those of us who have been gobbling books for decades, this is a surprising gem).
I believe these worlds – the way each splits off the First Emanation provides millions of years of dinosaurs throughout the Second Emanations – so I believe the biology and geography of the alternate universes. I believe the sociology – on the First Emanation, the biggest and strongest kept going until eventually systems of humans were shown to work better and safer and were more beneficial (even for the biggest and strongest). The problem in the Second Emanations are the Powers are not only bigger and stronger, they are also nearly all either half-mad, all-bored or both and learning the benefits of a parliament or republic system doesn’t work for them.
Then Beth, the new girl, maybe a power, is added to the mix.
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… and then the series ends. (sad face) Becca Mills released all these stories in 2014 but recently updated Nolander at the end of 2015. Maybe she will be working on more soon!