[COVER ART] Keri Arthur’s MOON SWORN & Rachel Caine’s KISS OF DEATH

Apologies if these have already been plastered all over the blogosphere – I’m out of touch with the community, so I don’t know if they’ve been pimped yet.

Anyhoo, US covers for Keri Arthur’s Moon Sworn and Rachel Caine’s Kiss of Death. Enjoy.

[COVER ART] Mark Del Franco’s UNPERFECT SOULS; Keri Arthur’s FULL MOON RISING & KISSING SIN

Cover for Mark Del Franco’s Unperfect Souls. Piatkus in the UK and Australia will be re-releasing the first six Riley Jenson books (written by Keri Arthur) with new covers, starting from March. Here are the new looks for Full Moon Rising and Kissing Sin.

Lili St. Crow’s third Strange Angels novel, Jealousy, is due for release on 24th June 2010.

[REVIEW] Undercover – Lauren Dane

Lauren Dane
Undercover (Federation Chronicles, Book 1)
Penguin Berkley Heat (US & CA: 2nd December 2008)
Cover design by Rita Frangie
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

The Federation Military Corps is sending a team undercover to Nondal, to find out who’s leaking information to the Imperialists. Sera Ayres and Ash Walker had a mega falling-out ten years ago, but the sexual tension is still there…and it also blossoms between Sera and the third member of their team, Brandt Pela.

Sera starts off as a total bitch, but as the story progresses we learn why. She calms down a bit, but only in regards to Brandt and Ash. Otherwise…Nah, she’s all right She even makes a friend – Rina, of whom I’d love to read more, to find out what she did after the events in Nondal. With three more Federation novels following (Relentless has already been published, but I haven’t read it yet), hopefully she’ll show up. Meanwhile, Kira Pela-Walker is a stereotypical rich bitch who never seems to come out of her cardboard cut-out – she could’ve done with more shades of grey.

The triad of Ash, Sera and Brandt is definitely more interesting than if this had just been an m/f, but I felt like it wasn’t quite complete. Ash and Brandt clearly love Sera more than they love each other, and Sera loves them both equally. Whilst Sera definitely expresses her fantasy (and readers’) of watching the two men shag each other, they don’t. There’s some hot stuff, but not full-on shagging. Kind of a disappointment. The explanation of the men both being Dominant seems reasonable, but I’m not sure.

The Family laws of the Known Universes are completely fecking annoying, and thus totally understandable why Sera is so pissed off that people treat her as if below them because she’s unranked. But the ‘Verses themselves are rather fascinating. Nondal has some kind of artificial environment, being under a dome…kind of reminds me of the Diamondillium in one of those multi-part Futurama specials. Only there’s no genticles here But despite Nondal being mentioned as a tourist haven for its space light phenomenon, that event doesn’t actually occur during the novel. Which is a damn shame, because I wanna see it! Or, in this case, read about it. (Hey, I’ve never even seen Aurora Borealis – I live below the equator.)

I very much so understand why this won the 2008 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice for Best Futuristic Erotic Romance – it’s pretty darn good.

Lexxie Couper’s THE SUN SWORD

Just found the summary for this one. Sounds darker than her usual fare, but our Lexxie is a mysterious one

Lexxie Couper
The Sun Sword
Samhain (17th November 2009)
Torin Kerridon, the last warrior from an ancient order, is drawn to an abandoned, dying Earth, where he finds a forgotten young woman. A woman forged by the Immortals to wield the ultimate weapon – the Sun Sword. A woman capable of commanding the power of the suns. A woman with no past and no memory, the body of an angel and the spirit of a demon. He will train her. Prepare her. Hunted all her life, Kala Rei has endured more than one woman should. Sheer grit, and a dangerous skill with a lead pipe, are the key to her survival. But nothing threatens her sense of safety more than dominance-oozing Torin. He wants her, but not for what’s between her legs. For what he believes her to be – some ludicrous saviour from some absurd prophecy. No matter…his offer to take her away from Earth is too good to refuse. But when a savage desire begins to burn between them, both Torin and Kala are in danger – and so are the worlds of man.

[COVER ART] Mind Games – Carolyn Crane

Cover art for Carolyn Crane’s Mind Games, due for release 23rd March 2010 by Random House Spectra. Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

October 2009 Releases

Done buying September 2009 Releases? Now time for October’s list, with books from the US, Canada, UK and Australia. As always, I don’t include anything – just the ones I’ve heard of and am interested in. Covers and release dates are subject to change, so if I’m wrong, blame my sources

[COVER ART] Heather Davis’s THE CLEARING & Carrie Ryan’s THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH

Cover for Heather Davis’s The Clearing, and the US paperback cover for Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth (I really like the redesign!).

Mead in Melbourne

I think I should’ve been posing on the other side of the table. Oops. Thanks to Penguin staff member Felicity for photographing – you’re a gem Yes, kids, I am wearing hobo gloves, but these are from Germany, which makes me Euro hobo-chic Even covered in lint balls and cat fur. Please excuse my lack of make-up, and lack of product in my hair – my ‘do looks much better today.

Monday 14th September 2009: Knox Civic Centre hosted Richelle Mead’s first official Australian readers event, and I proved why I am not fit for public consumption I offered my copy of Eternal Lover up for signing – the same book that I’d won in a contest and was already personalised by the lovely Jackie Kessler. (Richelle contributed to that anthology, so she didn’t just sign another author’s book. That would be weird. Even by my standards )

I’m not good at small talk (I’m good at rambling blog posts, but that’s the power of gobshite passed down to me via Irish ancestors), and I think I mentioned that Jackie is awesome. And that I’m looking forward to reading Hunger (to be published under the name Jackie Morse Kessler). And the thank-you note I left was written on a Jackie Kessler sticky-note. Written with a Jackie Kessler pen.

So I probably came across as a mega-weird Jackie Kessler fangirl. Let’s clear things up: Jackie is indeed awesome. Awesome enough to allow internationals like me to enter her contests to win books and post them out here. Along with the finest author swag I’ve come across. Seriously, this The Road to Hell pen is fabulous. And the sticky-notes came in handy at ARRC09, because I thought it would be decent etiquette to pass out thank-you notes to some authors for attending. Thus why I also gave Richelle a thank-you note.

And I’ve only read one of Jackie’s novels, plus a novella that was in an anthology (A Red Hot Valentine’s Day – I haven’t read Eternal Lover yet). While they are good reads, and Jackie is a darl, I wouldn’t say I’m a fangirl. It’s not nice to weird-out internationals

For the record, of Richelle’s books I’ve read Succubus Blues and Vampire Academy, with the others waiting on my shelf to be read. Why I didn’t bring them to be signed? Authors can’t be expected to remember all their readers, so I figured no one else had a copy of Eternal Lover already signed by one of the contributors.

lolcatz photographed Richelle and I whilst Felicity did, so that photo may emerge on the Internets. I don’t think he photographed every reader. Anyway, as I was packing up to go I asked him if this was his first visit to Australia. It was. I said “have a good one”, whilst giving a thumbs-up. Don’t ask me why. I’m not one to draw attention to my fingers. And I’m not usually one to talk to strangers, either.

Thanks to Richelle, Felicity and lolcatz for being polite creatures, and tolerating dear Tezzy.

As far as I know, the next author event I plan to attend is WorldCon 2010, which will take place in Melbourne. Have heard that Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant and Laura Anne Gilman will be attending, and my copy of Staying Dead needs signing and personalising…

P.S. Woke up this morning to hear Richelle on Nova 100, chatting with Hughesy, Kate & Ed. The whole interview is available in audio, if you look below the “From the Show” heading. And there’s a 1-minute video excerpt. The caption refers to female vampires “flowering” every 28 days, but I really think Kate’s question referred to vampires ingesting menstrual blood, as well as regular blood from people’s necks. I don’t think vampires themselves actually menstruate. But maybe I misunderstood. Australians generally aren’t good at subtlety (we’re straight-talking, like Family Guy‘s Ollie the weatherman), so when we try it, things get weird…even weirder than our straight-talking Bless Kate and her chutzpah for asking!

[COVER ART] Laurell K. Hamilton’s DIVINE MISDEMEANORS (AU), & Gayle Ann Williams’s TSUNAMI BLUE (US)

Australian cover for Laurell K. Hamilton’s Divine Misdemeanors, and US cover for Gayle Ann Williams’s Tsunami Blue – I’ve been wanting this book for ages, but we have to wait until April 2010

[REVIEW] The Better Part of Darkness – Kelly Gay

Kelly Gay
The Better Part of Darkness (Charlie Madigan, Book 1)
Simon & Schuster Pocket (US & CA: 24th November 2009; UK: 26th November 2009; AU: 1st January 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Detective Charlie Madigan of the Integration Task Force was resurrected from the dead. Though she has no memory of exactly how that happened, her nightmares may very well be inspired by real life occurrences. As a divorced mum of a pre-teen, Charlie is level-headed. However, tremendous anger whilst working leads her to kill, and a demotion to a desk job is imminent. But first she has investigate the manufacturing and distribution of the otherworldly drug ash, which has already damaged Charlie’s daughter’s baby-sitter.

Drug investigation and repressed memories are fascinating enough, but what tops them here is the intriguing world-building. Kelly Gay’s vision of Atlanta is richly imagined, and far more memorable than any other author’s attempts to immortalise this city. The Better Part of Darkness hosts some awesome characters I’m looking forward to encountering again: namely Hank and Rex, and on a lesser note Sian. Charlie faces some harsh truths, but she also manages to get the freaking job done. I’m eagerly awaiting information on the author’s next novel.