Free! “The New Sense” by John B. Dutton

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Psychological Mystery, Chick-lit
What if the man you love isn’t who he says he is? Or worse… he really is.

Summer, 2002. Single, carefree Montreal waitress Sara meets an intriguing out-of-towner whom she calls B― in her quirky private journal. They hang out. They get close. He’s like no one she’s ever met. In fact… there’s something very strange about him, almost as though he’s psychic. She probes deeper. He finally opens up to her: he’s a genetic oddity with an extra sense acquired through a twist of evolutionary fate. Although initially skeptical, she soon falls in love with him and starts to believe his story.

Shortly after Sara unexpectedly becomes pregnant, B― reveals that a former friend is pressuring him to undergo genetic testing at a pseudo-governmental research lab outside Chicago. B― is tempted to go there. What if there are others like him? Could their unborn child have the same “new sense”?

Suddenly, B― disappears without a trace. Sara puts her journal online as a blog in the desperate hope that someone, somewhere can help her find him. As her pregnancy progresses and the days turn into weeks, she is forced to ask herself if anything she knows about him is really true, and whether their son will ever know his father. Realizing that the lab’s shady operatives are now following her every move, Sara begins to fear for her own safety. The suspense mounts as she wonders: is it me they’re after… or my baby?

Part journal, part blog, part email chain, The New Sense is an unusually structured page-turner with a unique mystery told from the perspective of an engaging female character.

“Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact” by Andrew Vu

Genre: Science Fiction

In the twenty fourth century, a scientific experiment gave a few species the gift of intelligence, and after much struggle, they’ve carved out a place in society. By the thirtieth century, humans find themselves co-existing, negotiating, and residing on Earth with these animals as equals.

Maya Lawton is a lonely prostitute living in this world. She gives birth to the first halfkinds, creatures who are half animal-kind, and half mankind. Since interspecies breeding is illegal, she is forced into seclusion and raises them alone. Then one day, without warning, she dies, and her death leads to their discovery. Abandoned and lost, this family of halfkinds plan to escape to a terraformed moon. But the law is after them. The order is to kill, sent by the highest authority, the United Species Alliance.

What separates the Halfkinds series from the rest isn’t only its unique premise, but also its structure. Chapters shift between the first person POV’s of key characters and are presented in a non-linear fashion in order to create a mounting suspense that will keep the reader riveted until the end. Various plot twists occur within the story, and the different character viewpoints help alter the tone as you go along to give an unbiased presentation of their motives and actions. The setting allows a diverse cast of characters, some human, many not, to send a message that intelligence is a power that we take for granted, and when given to other species, the world becomes a dangerous place.

“Dragon Wars: A Dragon Wars Novella I” by Rich Scribes

Genre: Scifi & Fantasy, YA

Two realms collide in this epic introduction of Dragon Wars: A Dragon Novella. Bryce, has always believed himself to be average with one slight exception: he’s a genius. He doesn’t think this makes him special. At times he feels like a social out-cast. Yet he could do anything he puts his mind to, except talk to his neighbor, Ziora. The exceedingly pretty cheerleader captivates him, and ties his tongue in knots. By a convienient twist of fate Bryce is assigned to help Ziora with her final assignment for English.

Bryce dares to be cautiously optimistic until he starts receiving anonymous emails warning that his life is in danger. At first he thinks it is a fellow classmate playing a prank on him, but he quickly finds out that it isn’t. Bryce processes the gravity of the situation, but then he is attacked at school by a stranger. A figure that is glowing red at the arms that shoots fire balls from his hands.

Bryce hopes that this is all a bad dream, but soon realizes that it isn’t. What he is told is the ‘truth’ is beyond even his elevated comprehension. Now he must learn about a place he doesn’t even know about, and try to save the world that he knows and loves.