Welcome to the Snatching Party for January 2024!

A few words before we start. Firstly, we're changing the chapter titles to the current month instead of Roman numerals in the hope that this will be clearer for everyone (us included!)

Despite the busy season, everyone has completed their tasks for this month!  

IMPORTANT — To be eligible for the February 2024 Snatching Party, you must have finished your commenting and reviewing and informed us with comments on both your assigned stories in Announcement before the party begins at 22:00 UTC on 27 Jan. Note the new time. You still have until the end of each month to finish your assignment, but by being a bit late, you lose the right to early snatches.

Guidelines - Please, make sure you read our guidelines. We ask for a minimum of three inline comments and one final comment in both chapters of both stories. Those comments shouldn't be vague. Always add the what and the why. Do you think something could be improved? Again, tell the author what and why. Writers appreciate being told what works and what does not. Amazing reviews - last but not least, we would like to thank all of you who took the reviewing a little further and helped your fellow book club mates. Now let's move on to the PARTY.

Rules recap: The rules are simple: First grabs = First keeps

Below, you'll find the list of available stories for the next month with a short description. To let us know which stories would you like to review, all you have to do is make an in-line comment next to the title of the story you wish to claim. Comments in the blurb do not count as a pick. We don't care what the comment is. You can make a + sign, you can yell ME ME ME, you can politely say I'd like to review this story — whichever way you prefer. Keep in mind:

>> You may choose only two stories, but you must choose two.

>> If a story has already been chosen by two members, that story is claimed for this month, and you have to select from those which remain unchosen.

>> Once you have chosen the two stories, be sure to visit the authors' dedicated chapters to see what they wish you to look out for while reviewing their work.

>> This chapter will be up for only five days. Be sure to comment on stories you want to review during this time.

>> We will choose for everybody who hadn't made their choice by the last day of the month.

>> If you've reviewed a story you particularly enjoyed, you can use this opportunity to snatch it for yourself again when we reopen this chapter for the following round. Most importantly, have fun!

CLAIMERS' LIST

The Craving – Marooned by RainerSalt

After a plane crash, Megan is marooned with a group of survivors on an uninhabited island in the Pacific. They find a dead man's body, and the next day it's gone. And then someone of their group disappears, too. They realize that there's something with them. Something that might be lethal.
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Not having much to head home for, Megan doesn't care when her plane takes off with a delay of several hours. She is bored, and the strange, dark man at her side isn't much of a talker--yet their conversation gets interesting once the plane's engines stop working.

They crash. Many die, but a small group of survivors makes it to the shore of a deserted, volcanic island in the middle of nowhere. They feel lucky to be alive as they wait for the rescue teams. But they're not.
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A thriller/adventure story, with elements of mystery, and some surprises.

Mature: NO

~*~

Red Flag by ZonderZorg

Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Kate and Lorne face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime's infiltration of the fine dining scene.

Kate is a novelist and a wine & food columnist. Lorne is a lawyer, a prominent wine columnist and an incognito restaurant reviewer who, since his teens, has believed he's asexual.

Playmates when they were toddlers and friends ever since, they are now thrown together by increasingly dangerous circumstances, the intensity and closeness triggering Lorne's deeply buried sexuality. Will they be able to set this aside and focus on entrapping the Mob?

Mature: YES

~*~

The Shady Adventures of Fabian by Wuckster

Fabian is a legendary hero and adventurer... in his own mind. People should have heard of his brave and noble exploits far and wide, except of course for the fact that they haven't. He is a pretty skilled thief though, even if he does have delusions of grandeur. Those dreams of being a hero are about to be put to the test in a major way as Fabian embarks on his biggest and most epic quest yet: finding some rich broad's missing cat. Dungeons will be explored. Fantastical creatures will be encountered. Monsters will be battled if they seem like they're weak enough to actually be defeated. And Fabian will attempt to lie, cheat, and steal from virtually everyone he meets. After all, that's what a thief does.

Mature: NO

~*~

Ten Years by FMM2310

Edward and Leïla, two twenty-somethings from different continents meet on a long-haul flight. They laugh and flirt and share their hopes and dreams persuaded they'd never meet again. Upon arrival, they part ways wishing they didn't have to.

Fast forward ten years as they meet again on the top of a hill overlooking the London skyline. But is it possible for Edward and Leïla to pick up where they left?

Mature: NO

~*~

Mind the Gap by EvelynHail

Two strangers on separate trains, divided by uncaring glass.

A bond forms between them.
But will it hold when their trains are bound for different destinations?

Evan's heart has been bleeding since his little family was torn apart by divorce, and his nose runs with a cold. Trying to pick up the pieces of his life, he has changed cities, and he's about to change jobs. And he has run out of tissues.

A woman's blue hair catches his eye at a train station. And her smile, fortified by braces, catches his heart.

Sitting in her train, Iris revels in her future perfect. Her work is finally getting published and she has found Mr. Right. Nothing could go wrong now.

Gazing out of the window, she sees the stranger. He looks miserable and sneezes, but her hands want to tousle his bed hair.

A random encounter at a subway station. But both of them are caught in their tracks and when their trains pull apart, they don't expect to meet again.

Mature: NO

~*~

Section F: The Arse-Kickers by Reffster

Defenceless, its heroes all gone, the world faces a new threat from the unlikeliest of sources.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and desperate measures call for Section F. But even with their world-saving and/or carb-handling credentials, Agents Peregrine and Fields can't tackle this situation on their own. They're going to have to find new heroes. And, just maybe, give the definition of the term something of a stretch..

Mature: NO

~*~

Love at Spain's Iron Cross by williamtgeary1

A man and a woman with broken hearts & uncertain futures begin 1000 miles apart, hiking paths built by Rome's Empire, hoping to learn and heal during two months pilgrimage in Spain. International, historical & cultural topics, love scenes.

Mature: NO

~*~

Ninety Degrees Out by uschibear

Earth has tumbled and shifted ninety degrees on it's axis. Alaska is now close to the equator. The novel explores one family's journey through the environmental disaster that follows.

Mature: YES

~*~

Nikki's Test by NIKBENJAMIN

Confronted with the results of his daughter's DNA test, a man embarks on a journey of self-reflection and forgiveness.

Mature: YES

~*~

Crimson & Clover by sMayer11

Have you ever wondered why you're haunted by random thoughts? Maybe, just maybe they aren't random. "Why me? That is my question to whoever is up there pulling the strings...why me? " This was the question that tormented Adam Baker as he sat in his car on the side of the road contemplating the ultimate sacrifice, taking his own life. Two simple words, why me.

Adam Baker's struggles were the result of his past actions, misdeeds that his mind never let him forget. The only problem was that they weren't actions he remembered being a part of. It was as if they were someone else's memories with Adam suffering their karmic debt. Stranger still was that those memories were from a time before Adam was even born. We start back in 1968 where it all began. Crimson & Clover is Adam's story.

MATURE: NO