Showing results by author "Matthew S. Cox" in All Categories

Sarah Wright woke up a few times after parties in strange places - but the morgue's a first. At 18, she's eager for a taste of independence, moving out of state to attend college. A change of scenery is extra-needed due to a bad breakup with her boyfriend, Scott. However, soon after escaping the body cooler, she makes two startling realizations: vampires are real and she is one. There's nothing quite like an untimely death to ruin plans. California's sunny beaches aren't the best place for vampires to chill, and worse, she winds up stuck in Seattle, living with her parents.

Princess Oona Talomir enjoys the little things that come with her station: a handmaiden, her lavish bedchamber, and scores of fancy dresses - the duty to win a decades-long war, not so much. Oh, did I mention assassins? Seers foretold the conflict would end by her hand. From the moment she drew her first breath, the neighboring kingdom has been trying to kill her so she could not grow powerful enough to destroy them. The burden of her crown becomes too much to bear, yet one thing lifts her spirits amid the gloom. Her servant girl, Kitlyn. Alas, in a kingdom obsessed with the god of purity, she is terrified to confess her forbidden love.

Samantha Moon hadn't always been a vampire. Once, she had been a wife and mother, happily married to her soul mate and raising two adorable kids. Once, she had been a federal agent investigating a world teeming with sophisticated scams, drugs, human trafficking, and violence. That is, until she caught the eye of something evil....

Alexis Silver was ahead of her time, a woman too smart to fit into society at the turn of the century. She gave up her dreams of higher education for love, marrying young. But her husband, and the life she wanted, perished in World War I, soon after. Heartbroken and restless, she booked passage on a cruise along the West Coast in search of adventure, but adventure found her.

Brooklyn Amari knew not to get in a car with a stranger. When a man tried to lure her - she killed him. As if taking a life at the tender age of ten wasn’t bad enough, her childhood home burned to the ground two years later. She doesn’t remember how she survived, but she’s felt a pull toward the conflagration ever since. After a troubled patch in her teens, she’s become a respectable firefighter, rushing again and again into the inferno that almost killed her.

Two weeks after waking up as a vampire, Sarah Wright is starting to feel comfortable in her fangs. She’s doing okay, if you don’t count wicked mood swings, crushing guilt, and a pervasive sense of existential dread. On the upside, her family is adjusting to the new normal of supernatural in stride, and she’s even testing the waters with a new guy.

In the wake of a 20-year war, the people of Lucernia struggle to believe their former enemies aren’t demon-loving savages. However, that’s easy compared to the more alarming change: accepting their nation now has two queens. Many citizens in a land devoted to the God of Purity view the love between Kitlyn and Oona as unnatural, but the young women have earned guarded acceptance in the wake of their heroic deeds. Alas, unrest stirs in the shadows. Worse, Oona thinks the Talomir family line is cursed. All who have worn the crown before her have met with untimely deaths.

Detective Madeline Wimsey tends to stand out with her wild red hair, pentacle amulets, and offbeat methods, but she has a tool few other cops use - magic. After a man turns up dead in a grisly satanic rite, her fellow detectives are quick to crack jokes. Since they can't tell a pentacle from a pentagram, Maddy's happy to get the case. She suspects the ritual to be the work of amateurs, a theory that pans out when they track down the pack of clueless high school students who made the shrine in the woods. But then Maddy learns that the Devil's Eye is watching her....

Solstice Winters has spent most of her life halfway between normal society and the world of her magical parents. However, when getting caught between two worlds becomes more than metaphorical, being able to summon light or open locks might not be enough.

Samantha Moon isn’t prepared to handle the scariest moment of her life - her daughter’s turning 18. Facing the truth her children are powerful in their own right is the door to a scary new reality, worse than her dread of what Elizabeth is planning. The dark masters are still out there, but it almost feels trivial compared to having an empty house...at least until the phone rings....

Samantha Moon spent the past 13 years fighting the evil trying to consume her, but at least she knew where it lurked. With the dark masters unleashed, her life has become one of constant vigilance and sleepless nights. One upside, though: She's on speaking terms with the sun again. Allison's vision of a ticking supernatural time bomb wiping out civilization sends them racing out to the Arizona desert. After hastily gathering reinforcements, they confront the harbinger of the end times before it can strike.

Samantha Moon's newest friend turns out to be a supernatural the world has never seen before, not for real - a zombie, or at least something similar. The young woman isn't rotting or mindless, but no self-respecting dark master would want such a shell. Fearing this poor woman is the spearhead of the apocalypse, Sam rushes to find the source of the infection before humanity is doomed.

Monarchs often face the consequences of a predecessor’s actions - but death is asking too much. Kitlyn and Oona never wanted power, only to love each other...a potentially deadly desire in a kingdom obsessed with a twisted notion of purity. After years hiding the truth, even from themselves, they sit on the throne together as queens. It only took bringing an end to a horrible war - and the direct intervention of a goddess - for the citizens to accept a marriage between two young women.

At long last, Samantha Moon’s learned the truth behind her vampire sire and why he turned her. But with that comes a revelation about an ancient evil that preys on innocent young witches. Turns out Sam has a unique connection to the fiend, but it might not be enough to help her find the monster. Of course, it’s not like she doesn’t have all the time in the world. That changes when the Red Rider abducts a 10-year-old girl, intending to devour her unusually strong magic.

Alexis Silver has always defied convention: In the 1920s, she tried to attend college. Oh, by the way, she’s also a mermaid. When a well-to-do woman hires her to find her missing adventurer brother, Alexis feels like she’s landed straight in the middle of the sort of action movie they just don’t make anymore. The man’s trail leads all over the globe, but she suspects he’s not dead - yet. An international mining conglomerate evidently wants whatever the missing explorer has found, and they’re more than willing to kill anyone who gets in their way. Even mermaids.

Coping with being attacked and left for dead isn't easy, but Samantha Moon is grateful that she survived - until she suspects she didn't. Vanishing from mirrors is only the first of a series of bizarre events that defies explanation, even to her trained investigative mind. A severe allergy to the sun, alertness at night, inability to eat food that isn't blood, and worst of all: She can't remember the last time she needed the bathroom.

Harper Cody used to worry about the SATs or a getting a new laptop for Christmas...but now, she only wants to keep her little sister alive. At 5:59 a.m. early in September, life as she knew it came to an end with a nuclear flash ninety miles away in Colorado Springs. For two months, her family sheltered in the basement of their home, surviving on whatever canned goods Dad could scavenge. Passing evacuees told of a safe haven in the mountains, but her father refused to leave. He thought their home was safe...until a gang of looters kicked in the door.

Samantha Moon is back and doing what she does best: solving crimes, finding killers, and helping those who can't help themselves. For years, Samantha Moon has wanted to be normal. It seemed an impossible dream...right up until it happened. Well, sort of. Normality is a relative thing for an immortal former vampire. Now, with the final defeat of Elizabeth firmly in the past, Sam's world changes yet again. A seemingly routine case walks in the door of her new office and soon proves that in her life, nothing is ever simple.

The universe holds various immutable constants: death, gravity, taxes...and the Wright family road trip. Every summer, Dad plans a vacation-by-car somewhere across the country. Lameness has increased each year, but Sarah blames that on growing older. She thought dying might get her out of going, but her father’s not about to let something that trivial put an end to the tradition. Of course, as a vampire, Sarah can’t seem to go anywhere without attracting the weird...and the deadly.

Sarah Wright has experienced no shortage of stressful situations since becoming a vampire, but she’s about to face the most terrifying one yet - being the adult in the room. Nine months into undeath, Sarah’s found her stride. She’s comfortable in her fangs, managing family and school, and relatively content. Treating her parents to a weeklong vacation in Iceland sounded like an awesome idea back in December, but the reality of being responsible for her siblings while they’re away is terrifying.