On my Nightstand is a new post to highlight what book or books I might be reading. I’m not going to call it a weekly post or even a monthly. It will pop up any time I’ve started a new book, like today.
#1
The Demon Trapper’s Daugther by Jana Oliver (Feb 2011)
Seventeen-year-old Riley, the only daughter of legendary Demon Trapper, Paul Blackthorne, has always dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps. The good news is, with human society seriously disrupted by economic upheaval and Lucifer increasing the number of demons in all major cities, Atlanta’s local Trappers’ Guild needs all the help they can get – even from a girl. When she’s not keeping up with her homework or trying to manage her growing crush on fellow apprentice, Simon, Riley’s out saving distressed citizens from foul-mouthed little devils – Grade One Hellspawn only, of course, per the strict rules of the Guild. Life’s about as normal as can be for the average demon-trapping teen.
But then a Grade Five Geo-Fiend crashes Riley’s routine assignment at a library, jeopardizing her life and her chosen livelihood. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, sudden tragedy strikes the Trappers’ Guild, spinning Riley down a more dangerous path than she ever could have imagined. As her whole world crashes down around her, who can Riley trust with her heart – and her life? (via Goodreads)
- I’m reading this as a part of Library Thing’s Early Reviewer Program.
#2
State of Decay by James Knapp
What if your level of citizenship depended on your answer? To gain a chance at a better life, or feed your family, which would you choose then? Or would you choose neither, and accept a life of hardship and poverty?
What if you came face to face with your own death, and realized too late you had made the wrong decision?
Nico Wachalowski is a war veteran. That makes him a first-tier citizen. Formerly a police detective, he has reintegrated into civilian life as an agent in the FBI. During his time in the war, he encountered the reanimated soldiers known as ‘revivors’ many times. When they begin to turn up inside the city, he is tapped for his expertise in a field he’d rather leave behind.
Faye Dasalia is a police detective. She and Nico worked together long ago, but while he decided to serve, she opted to be wired for reanimation. That makes her a second-tier citizen. In the course of investigating a string of murders, she stumbles on a situation that brings her face to face with the revivors she will one day become herself.
Calliope Flax refused to serve. She also refused to be wired for reanimation. That makes her a third-tier citizen. As a result, she ekes a living in a housing project which has been mostly abandoned. Highly taxed, and with few rights, she seems to be on a path of self-destruction until circumstance drops her in the middle of the biggest terrorist plot the country has ever known.
Zoe Ott is a third-tier citizen as well, but unlike Calliope, she was born with a gift. Zoe can manipulate the thoughts of others. This ability allows her to live above the poverty line, but just barely. The gift also comes at a price; she is constantly assaulted with visions from both the past and future, with no way of knowing which is which. In the depths of late-stage alcoholism, she has long since stopped trying to make sense of it all when a particularly persistent vision prompts her to contact Nico just as events begin to unfold.
The four are drawn together by circumstances which at first seem unrelated. By the time they realize their fates are connected to a fifth, unseen enemy, that enemy has nearly gathered the power to strike a blow that has the potential to change everything, forever. (via Goodreads)
- I received this book from the author, who graciously offered to send it to me after I won the sequel, The Silent Army!
Amanda Makepeace's Imagination Run Amok 