New month, new giveaway! In September last year, Holly released The Dragon Next Door. Despite what the title might lead you to believe, it’s a contemporary story.
Adrian lives in an apartment, and one day Lorcan moves in next to him. Adrian has a lively imagination and is convinced Lorcan is a dragon, werewolf, or some other kind of shifter. Why else would he growl when Adrian talks to him through the mail slot on his door?
I love Adrian, but I’m glad he’s not my next-door neighbour.
I don’t have a good match for this story, but I thought Banger Challenge. Zen might not be as forward as Adrian, but there are some similarities – not many, but he’s also bubbly and positive. Banger Challenge isn’t a clear Grumpy/Sunshine story like The Dragon Next Door. Fred is more shy than grumpy, but ah well.
If you want in on the draw, hop on over to Kingsumo and type in your email address. You’re not subscribing to anything, but make sure you use an address you check since it’s the one I’ll contact you on if you’re the winner.
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Adrian Green’s new next-door neighbor isn’t really a dragon, but he does snarl an awful lot.
The first time Adrian saw Lorcan Walsh, he knew he needed Adrian’s help. Lorcan has a fractured leg and an empty apartment. Luckily, Adrian doesn’t mind helping him fill his lair with gems, and Doris’s second-hand shop has everything a dragon could possibly want.
The problem is, Lorcan doesn’t seem to want his apartment decorated, and sneaking presents past a grumpy dragon isn’t easy.
All Adrian wants is to cheer Lorcan up, but when Lorcan’s ex appears at the door, Adrian fears not even vintage coffee cups will get them their fairy-tale ending. What if the way to a dragon’s heart isn’t lined with treasures?
14,488 words
Fred Munson likes his job as a traffic cop. He’s good at it. It’s his personal life that could use some improvement. With no friends, and being too shy to talk to anyone while out of uniform, when Fred is forced to use some of his vacation time, he has nothing to fill his days. At least not until he comes home to find his driveway blocked by a stranger with car troubles.
A month after losing his father, Zen Zeppelin Cave has also lost his place in the world. The only thing holding him together is focusing on a charity junk car race to raise money for cancer research. And he’s crossing that finish line even if he ends up replacing every part of the car along the way.
Zen had planned on completing the race on his own, but a spur-of-the-moment decision changes that when he invites the adorable, blushing police officer whose driveway he’s blocking to tag along. Going with a stranger on a road trip is completely out of Fred’s comfort zone, so when he accepts the invitation no one is more surprised than himself.
Together, Zen and Fred are heading south. But will the old junk car hold together long enough to reach their destination? And will crossing the finish line mean the end of the road for a budding romance, or will they find there’s more to their journey?
31,122 words
In which we meet Duncan: professional nobody who presents himself to the public as a scowling, smoking pile of contempt. Against his will, he meets Sam: a less than professional coal miner who inspires the worst in men. Together they take on one malicious train and a most insidious re-animator, and along the way Duncan remembers a few things that he’d previously forgotten.
Marushka loves pretty things: lace and velvet, porcelain and pearls. She sews elaborate costumes for all of her dolls, and she spends hours arranging their hair just so. Her collection is growing; she’s added a very pretty trinket, and his name is Michael. She can’t wait to dress him up.
Magical bonds can move mountains…or at least keep the magichanical appliances running.
One night. One truck. Two very different bears. Xavier only wants one of them to eat him.
A werewolf walks into a vampire bar… ouch.
I googled and I can’t find a translation for this story, but it’s one of those I read when in school, then again when I studied to become a teacher, and then I had my students read it. En hjätes död is directly translated as A Hero’s Death. It was released in 1924, and it’s 638 words long.
Nineteen stunning, disturbing short stories delve into the complex relationship between mothers and daughters.
So, this is a gardening book that has just about everything, and I’ve read it from cover to cover, and I look up things in it all the time. Directly translated the title is Handbook for the Kitchen Garden, so pretty straightforward. I don’t expect anyone of you to have much use for it. It’s in Swedish, and all planting dates etc are with a Nordic climate in mind, but it’s one of the books I’ve read the most times, so…
Ofelia Grand 