SPFBO X is now underway and the books allocated.  I’ve divided my books into three sets of five.  Hopefully tackling one batch of five per month for the next three months.

For those who don’t know about SPFBO (the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off) – this is a competition created and run by Mark Lawrence.  The competition is now in its tenth year and you can find more about all the other entrants and judges over on Mark Lawrence’s blog.  This year I am again teaming up with the Critiquing Chemist.

This year I am planning on reading the first 25% (or for those larger books the first 100 pages) of all the books in my allocation.  This way I will quickly gain an idea of the books that I want to continue to read.

I’ve read the first 25% of my first and second batch of books.  This month I will be doing the same for my final five after which I will be making some tough decisions and some cuts.  I’ve changed my tactics slightly this year, I usually make cuts as I go along.  There was no particular strategy behind this, it was more of a spur of the moment decision based on the fact that I hadn’t made any firm decisions at the time.  So, hopefully, in the next few weeks, with my final batch checked out, I’ll be starting to move forward.

Without further ado let’s take a look at my final batch of books.

The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle by Steve Hugh Westenra

Tyler Kyle doesn’t believe in monsters.

A washed-up thirty-year-old actor and reluctant cryptid investigator, Tyler is used to playing the Scully to his best friend Josh’s Mulder on their stupidly popular YouTube channel. But when Tyler receives previously unseen footage of the B movie bombshell mother who abandoned him eighteen years ago—footage linked to an isolated island in the Canadian wilderness—the mystery is one conspiracy he’s determined to investigate. The fact that following the scent gives Tyler an excuse to run away from the “straight” Josh, whom he drunkenly made out with, is just the cherry on the shit sundae.

But Echo Island isn’t what it seems. Its eerily scenic veneer hides a twisted secret buried in its roots as a gay conversion camp, and as Tyler retraces his mother’s footsteps, he discovers a supernatural connection between the residents and the island—one they seem to think Tyler and his mother share.

Even worse, the footage of Tyler’s mom came from someone on the island–a stalker whose obsessive fascination with both Tyler and Josh is about to make Tyler wish he hadn’t gone this one alone. Puppeteered by his stalker, searching for his mother, and debating whether it’s possible to queerbait yourself, Tyler comes to realize that it doesn’t matter so much whether you believe in monsters, if they believe in you.

THE ERSTWHILE TYLER KYLE is an adult horror comedy for fans of GHOST FILES, BUZZFEED UNSOLVED, and TWIN PEAKS.

Content warnings available on Steve Westenra’s website (see Goodreads Profile).

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Sidetracked by SK Kelly

Jayde Palmer considers herself a typical college student, but life is messy.

The day before her 19th birthday, a chance meeting with a beautiful young man named Ice Monroe disrupts Jayde’s plans for a quiet, relaxing summer. She assumes he’s too good to be true—until he calls. Jayde takes the bait, and things go well at first, but the relationship takes a bizarre turn when Ice drops a bombshell secret:

He is a magical human-feline shapeshifter, known as an immortal.

As Jayde comes to terms with the existence of immortals and struggles to work out Ice’s true intentions in dating her, a series of unexpected and uncomfortable encounters with a figure from his past leave Jayde increasingly unsure who she can trust or what she should do next.

Even so, it’s clear that something is wrong, and she may have no choice but to act on instinct.

Sidetracked is part one of a four-part series about dark secrets, difficult decisions, strange dreams, a secret government program, and mental illness.

With cats and a little bit of magic!

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Smile and be a Villain by Yves Donlon

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark… and that ‘something’ is magic.

HELSINGØR, 1536.

Ophelia is a disgraced handmaid to the queen, the cast-off lover of Prince Hamlet.

She is also a witch, and a good one at that. And she can see that Denmark is rotting from the inside out, afflicted by dark magic.

WITTENBERG, 1536.

Hamlet is a useless son, a failed heir. He is the prince of a nation about to fight a war they won’t win.

He doesn’t know about magic, but if he did he would use it to destroy their enemies—no matter the consequences.

As Hamlet and Ophelia find themselves increasingly torn apart, they must decide: how much are they willing to sacrifice in order to save Denmark?

And, by the end of it all, will they be beyond saving?

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Fortitude’s Prize by Ceril N Domace

The Master of Fortitude, the largest city in the Flying Isles, has been robbed.

Normally, this wouldn’t concern Edward Bardsley. He’s an alchemist and surgeon on a small privateering vessel, and there are much larger and better equipped ships in Fortitude. It only becomes his concern when his crew is commissioned to retrieve the master’s stolen property. Between storms, injuries, and secrets that could see Edward exiled from the skies the way his father was, just getting to the thief’s hideout is enough to test the hardiest crew.

Thrust into the middle of an adventure that will take him from one end of the Flying Isles to the other, Edward must use every ounce of his alchemical and sailing knowledge to keep the crew intact as they inch closer to their goal.

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The Hybrid by EK Frances

Sebastian Parker is thirteen. He thinks he is just an ordinary alpha off to join the Academy to refine his skills, but ‘the test’ shows something different. It turns out he is a Hybrid – a Quad-brid to be exact – and will grow up to be the most powerful alpha in more than two millennia.

Forced to join the Dark side of the Academy, Sebastian faces fear, rejection, and brutality. Making some unlikely friends and finding adventure, he strives to keep to the Light. However, in a final twist, unsure of who to trust, and what is real, Sebastian is faced with the ultimate decision of whether to embrace the Darkness …

Dark, brutal, and gripping, The Hybrid is the first novel in The Hybrid series. The series is set in a dark vision of the future where some humans, known as alphas, have developed abilities.

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Good luck everyone