As mentioned in my post here as part of the SPFBO competition I’ll be randomly choosing six books per month for the next five months, I will then aim to check out at least the first 30% of each book during that month – this is my fifth and final month.  Each month I’ve posted information about the first three books chosen at the start of the month and then about the remaining three during the mid way point with a conclusion around the end of the month about which books will be going forward or which will be eliminated.  The conclusion for my first, second, third and fourth month’s reading can be found here, here, here and here. Ultimately, the aim is to choose one book from the thirty I’ve been assigned – that chosen one will then be my finalist.

I’m taking a slightly different approach to my next batch of books – not in terms of the reading element, just that I’m posting my final six books as one batch and I’m aiming to post my outcome of the final batch by the 10th all going well (and I have already made a start).  This gives me plenty of time then to go through those books I’ve rolled forward and decide upon my final book.

Books 1-6 in my fifth batch of books are as follows:

High Barrens by Alice Sabo

Seeing into a soul is easy for Flint.

She can change a life or even the world with her words.

She should have kept her mouth shut.

Flint thought that having six older brothers and growing up in a dangerous frontier town would prepare her for anything. She soon discovers that the world is a lot more complex than she expected, and it’s going to take more than a strong back and good intentions to achieve her goals.

When it comes to magic, all the wishes in the world won’t change who you really are. And sometimes that’s okay

• Goodreads: author page
• Website: http://www.alicesabo.com
• Twitter: @Alice_Sabo

Paragon by K.D Wloch

The future is uncertain. The era of god-slaying heroes like Kato is gone, and the people of the Four Realms have spent years recovering from war. But now, thanks to the ruins of the vanished Forerunners and close to unlocking their secrets, they are on the cusp of a new age.

It is now that Dan finds himself dismissed from the militia without reason. At the same time a village has been burned and his home is no longer safe. Ruins have been discovered, people are disappearing, and a man claims to be the reincarnation of Kato himself. People wait to see if he will be captured, killed – or become famous. But as Dan flees the danger, he starts to learn why Kato’s legacy is so dividing, why it is linked to the fall of an entire people – and why, now of all times, he is having dreams of a life he had never live

• Goodreads: author page

Deadmarsh Fay by Melika Dannese Lux

Flesh and bone and hearts unknown, lead to the rath and your fate will be shown…

Deadmarsh. The name struck terror into the hearts of all who heard it. But to Roger Knightley, neither Deadmarsh the house, nor Deadmarsh the family, had ever been anything to fear. Nearly each summer of his young life had been spent in that manor on the moors, having wild adventures with his cousin, Lockie, the Deadmarsh heir. This year should have been no different, but when Roger arrives, he finds everything, and everyone, changed. The grounds are unkempt, the servants long gone. Kip, the family cat, has inexplicably grown and glares at Roger as if he is trying to read the boy’s mind. Roger’s eldest cousin, Travers, always treated as a servant, now dresses like a duchess and wears round her neck a strange moonstone given to her by someone known as Master Coffyn, who has taken over the teaching of Lockie at a school in Wales called Nethermarrow.

And soon after he crosses the threshold of Deadmarsh, Roger discovers that Coffyn has overtaken Lockie. The boy is deceitful, riddled with fear, and has returned bearing tales of creatures called Jagged Ones that claim to be of the Fey and can somehow conceal themselves while standing in the full light of the moon. What they want with Lockie, Roger cannot fathom, until the horror within his cousin lashes out, and it becomes savagely clear that these Jagged Ones and the Dark Wreaker they serve are not only after Lockie and Travers, but Roger, too.

Joining forces with an ally whose true nature remains hidden, Roger seeks to unravel the tapestry of lies woven round his family’s connection to the death-haunted world of Everl’aria—and the Dark Wreaker who calls it home. The deeper Roger delves into the past, the more he begins to suspect that the tales of dark deeds done in the forest behind Deadmarsh, deeds in which village children made sacrifice to an otherworldly beast and were never seen or heard from again, are true. And if there is truth in these outlandish stories, what of the rumor that it was not an earthquake which rocked the moors surrounding Deadmarsh sixteen years ago, but a winged nightmare attempting to break free of its underground prison? Enlisting the aid of a monster equipped with enough inborn firepower to blast his enemies into oblivion might be as suicidal as Roger’s friends insist, yet the boy knows he needs all the help he can get if there is to be any hope of defeating not only the Dark Wreaker and his servants, but an unholy trinity known as the Bear, the Wolf, and the Curse That Walks The Earth.

And then there is the foe named Blood Wood, who might be the deadliest of them all.

Racing against time, Roger must find a way to end the battle being waged across worlds before the night of Lockie’s eleventh birthday—two days hence. If he fails, blood will drown the earth. And Roger and his entire family will fulfill the prophecy of fey’s older, more lethal meaning…
Fated to die.

• Goodreads: author page
• Website: http://www.booksinmybelfry.com
• Twitter: BooksInMyBelfry

Songs of Insurrection by J.C Kang

Only the lost art of evoking magic through music can prevent Cathay from descending into chaos.

Blessed with an unrivaled voice, Kaiya dreams of a time when a song liberated enslaved humans from their orc masters. Maybe then, the imperial court would see the awkward, gangly princess as more than a singing fool.

When members of the emperor’s elite spy clan uncover a brewing rebellion, the court hopes to appease the ringleader by offering Kaiya as a bride.

Obediently wedding the depraved rebel leader means giving up her music. Confronting him with the growing power of her voice could kill her.

• Goodreads: author page
• Website: http://www.jckang.info
• Twitter: @JCKang804

Argenterra by Donna Maree Hanson

Every one hundred years a woman comes to Argenterra through the Crystal Tree Woods. This time two women came…

While on a ghost tour in Castle Crioch, Sophy and her best friend and foster sister, Aria, are sucked into the world of Argenterra, where they encounter a strange Crystal Tree. Two leaves fall from it, one of which Aria catches and the other mysteriously delves into Sophy’s chest.

Met by Dellbright, the prince of Valley Keep, and Oakheart, the high king’s ambassador, the girls learn they are expected. Aria has beauty and talent with the given, the land’s native magic. She finds a home and a husband in Prince Dellbright and is revered as the legendary Gift of Crystal Tree Woods.
Sophy is out of place as anything made with the given makes her ill.

Sophy accompanies Oakheart to the capital to find out why the crystal leaf is in her chest. A sinister force is tracking her—trying to snatch her away or kill her. Only Oakheart suspects her importance: she is the talisman that can cause great harm to the world of Argenterra if she falls into the wrong hands.

The Silverlands Series Overview
In a land where oaths can’t be broken be careful what promises you make.
To break the binding oath is to risk the very magic of Argenterra.

Vorn and the first comers fleeing death and destruction came to Argenterra through the Crystal Gate. On arrival, they made a binding oath to not kill and in return the land gave them the given, a native magic. For over a thousand years they have prospered but now the ancient evil seeks Vorn’s descendants and reaches a hand into the land.

Oaths are bound with the given and every promise must be kept or the land’s magic will compel completion of the oath or prevent its breaking. Only a murder can sunder the binding oath. In his later years, Vorn prophesied that a time would come when the land would be ungiven. That time is near.

• Goodreads: author page
• Website: http://donnamareehanson.wordpress.com
• Twitter: DonnaMHanson

Heart of the Destroyer by Kent Corlain

A disturbing tale of dark fantasy.

Ashley is not a hero living in a world of darkness.
She is the worst person you could ever meet.

This is the story of her life, and of the death of others.

She has been trained as an assassin, but killing is not just a profession for her. Not when she gets to kill pretty girls. Has she met her match in a wayward princess with venomous habits, or will unimaginable terror from beyond the stars destroy them both?

This is not a typical fantasy adventure, so this book is not recommended to people who are against graphic descriptions of immoral debauchery. This is a nasty story about nasty people in the realm of swords and sorcery.

• Goodreads: author page
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KentCorlain