Thursday teasers from your favorite bestselling authors
BestSelling Reads authors are a prolific bunch. Here are some short teasers from their latest books.

Once Upon a [Fallen] Time
Samreen Ahsan
There was a dreamlike rightness and magic to this moment—incomprehensible madness. Her kiss flooded into every pore of my existence—wrecking all the fortresses and tombs I had built around me throughout my life. Though it was a cold rain, the heat emanating from her body seared deep in me.
She pulled away and spun again in joy. She had an air of giddiness about her, as she laughed in the rain. I could get drunk just watching her.
2015: When video game model Myra Farrow enters the cursed Hue Castle doors, she awakens dark powers, travelling through a cursed mirror, torturing her present, and rewriting her future.
1415: Edward Hue, the last of the Hue royal bloodline, has never stood in the sunshine, nor felt the rain, or held a living flower. Edward’s one hope is the mysterious woman, who walks into his life through a cursed mirror, out of his dreams, and introduces him to love.
Past and future collide in a tale of love, obsession, betrayal, and the hope for redemption.
The Children of the Seventh Son
Scott Bury
Javor’s eyes locked on the snake’s deep green iris, bisected by a horizontal slit. Not like a cat’s—a cat’s pupil is vertical.
And a cat’s eye does not have beautiful, naked women inside it. Women reaching for me, calling to me, singing …
The darkest years of the Dark Age: Wielding two special weapons made from the Bones of the Earth, Javor has become the favourite monster-killer of the secret Gnostic Order. Every mission brings more questions than answers—until Javor finds the greatest danger comes from the civilization he defends.
HauGHnt
David C. Cassidy
Haughnt held his cane at the midpoint with long-nailed fingers. The handle was now a sharp, curved blade dripping with blood. The woman’s womb had been sliced open, revealing an unborn child.
Book 1 of the Dark Shapes, Dark Shadows series
As his estranged father lies on his deathbed, horror novelist Paul Steele is stunned by the old man’s admission: years ago, he committed a ghastly crime and bartered his freedom bartered with black magic. With his last breath, he warns Paul: “He’ll be coming son. A dark man. A man from the shadows.”
What Had to be Done
DelSheree Gladden
I start to say something, then chickened out. I try again, even getting my mouth open a little before backtracking. This isn’t my strongest area. Apologizing, or being honest about my feelings. Both try to strangle me every time I attempt it.
Everyone has bad days. Anna Elizondo is going on three years of bad days. It started with her mother’s illness and eventual death, continued with a decision that ruined a friendship, and culminated in her father announcing they were broke and moving away right before her senior year of high school. Maybe a fresh start will turn things around.
A young adult classic by a USA Today bestselling author.
Take No More
Seb Kirby
I pushed against the door. It would hardly give; there was something behind the door, stopping it from opening.
I pushed harder until the door gave. I forced my way inside.
It was Julia. She’d collapsed against the inside of the door trying to escape the apartment. There was blood everywhere.
The first book in the James Blake mystery series.
When James Blake discovers his wife murdered in their London home, he is determined to avenge her, and bring her killer to justice.
As the prime suspect, he flees England and sets out on a journey that takes him to Florence, Venice and into a shadowy underworld of death and corruption.
The trail that will lead him to the killer is filled with terrible danger, and will reveal a shocking conspiracy, behind both her death and a lost fortune.

Motive
Alan McDermott
She drove around the back of what had once been a thriving industrial estate to open space. Today, most of the buildings had no roofs, and the remaining walls were covered with graffiti. It was perfect because few people came here.
The last thing she wanted was an audience.
Motive: The latest thriller from the author of the explosive Tom Gray and Eva Driscoll series.
Scott Davison is recovering from a traumatic incident when Kelly Stone walks into his life. Is it a chance meeting, or is she part of the past Scott is trying to escape?
Karen Harper has killed before, and she’s planning to kill again…and again.
Their lives are entwined, and it’s up to Detective Inspector John Latimer to unravel the threads before it becomes personal.
The Hunt for Xanadu
Elyse Salpeter
Visitors milled all around her, sometimes turning to stare in her direction and not at the display. She ignored them. People always stared at her and she was used to it. She twirled her dark brown braid in her fingers, turning her head this way and that, as if she were deep in thought, but she was really waiting for the stranger who had been stalking her for the past two days.
Book 1 in the Kelsey Porter supernatural thriller series
At twenty-two, Kelsey Porter has been trying to avenge her parent’s death for years. She had nothing to lose. Or did she?
For the Win
Raine Thomas
Will’s smile eased as the full irony of this discovery struck him. After spending fourteen months and thousands of dollars on doctors and therapists, it appeared his daughter’s savior had come in the form of a perfect stranger.
One he’d vowed to press charges against if he ever saw her near Katie again.
Determination: It’s what gets Jasmine Li out of bed every morning to overcome the injury that has derailed her ballet career.
Commitment: It’s what makes Will Campbell a successful Major League pitcher and a dedicated single dad to a little girl with trust issues.
Will knows what he wants and what his daughter needs, and he’s going to get it. Jasmine Li has met her match… and he’s playing for the win.
A Case of Sour Grapes
Gae-Lynn Woods
“I need to find my ex-husband. Not that I want to find him, but if I don’t find him soon and get him straightened out, I’ll have to kill him. We’re between white and red harvest and I don’t have time to hide a body right now.” Her voice carried a silky huskiness that sounded like pure sex, and I wondered what kind of man could walk away from that.
Wine, women and song—what could go wrong?
When expensive shoe- and purse-loving Maxine Leverman secretly takes a missing husband case on her first day at a detective agency, she stumbles into a high-stakes game of blackmail and murder. Maxine must unravel the links between a forgotten folk punk band, an international drug cartel, and the tangled history of the missing husband to keep the women in his life alive.