Done with April 2011 Releases? Here are May 2011 Releases. To see further into the future, check Reading Wishlist.
Lauren DeStefano
Wither (The Chemical Garden, Book 1)
HarperCollins (AU: 1st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape – before her time runs out?
Rebecca Lim
Exile (Mercy, Book 2)
HarperCollins (AU: 1st May 2011)
Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
All Mercy knows is that she is an angel, exiled from heaven for a crime she can’t remember committing. So when she “wakes” inside the body and life of eighteen-year-old Lela Neill, Mercy has only limited recall of her past life. Her strongest memories are of Ryan, the mortal boy who’d begun to fall for her – and she for him. Lela’s life is divided between caring for her terminally ill mother and her work as a waitress at the Green Lantern, a busy city cafe frequented by suits, cab drivers, strippers, backpackers and the homeless, and Mercy quickly falls into the rhythm of this new life. But when Mercy’s beloved, Luc, reappears in her dreams, she begins to awaken to glimpses of her true nature and her true feelings for Ryan. How can she know that her attempts to contact Ryan will have explosive consequences? Meanwhile, “the Eight” – responsible for her banishment – hover near, determined to keep Mercy and Luc apart, forever…
Megan McCafferty
Bumped
HarperCollins (AU: 1st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food. Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job. Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from. When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realise they have so much more than just DNA in common.
Caragh M. O’Brien
Birthmarked
Simon & Schuster (AU: 1st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live outside. Following in her mother’s footsteps Gaia has become a midwife, delivering babies in the world outside the wall and handing a quota over to be “advanced” into the privileged society of the Enclave. Gaia has always believed this is her duty, until the night her mother and father are arrested by the very people they so loyally serve. Now Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught, but her choice is simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.
Veronica Roth
Divergent
HarperCollins (AU: 1st May 2011; US & UK: 3rd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue – Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is – she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are – and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves…or it might be what destroys her.
Rachel Caine
Bite Club (Morganville Vampires, Book 10)
Allison & Busby (UK: 2nd May 2011); Penguin (AU: 2nd May 2011; US & CA: 3rd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
After discovering that vampires populate Morganville – and surviving a number of adventures – Claire Danvers has come to realise that for the most part, the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else has other ideas. There’s a new extreme sport being broadcast over the Internet: bare-knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against one another – or, worse, against humans. Tracking the signal leads Claire and her friends to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville. And if they want to survive, they’ll have to do a lot more than fight…
The Lost Saint (The Dark Divine, Book 2)
Hardie Grant Egmont (AU: 2nd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. She was infected with the werewolf curse while trying to save him, and lost her beloved brother in the process. When Grace receives a haunting phone call from Jude, she knows what she must do. She must become a Hound of Heaven. Desperate to find Jude, Grace befriends Talbot – a newcomer to town who promises her that he can help her be a hero. But as the two grow closer, the wolf grows in Grace, and her relationship with Daniel is put in danger – in more ways than one. Unaware of the dark path she is walking, Grace begins to give into the wolf inside of her – not realising that an enemy has returned and a deadly trap is about to be sprung.
Richelle Mead
Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5)
Penguin Razorbill (AU: 2nd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
After a long and heartbreaking journey to Siberia, Dimitri’s birthplace, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir’s – and to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir. It’s graduation, and the girls can’t wait for their real lives outside the Academy’s cold iron gates to finally begin. But even with the intrigue and excitement of court life looming, Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri. He’s out there, somewhere. She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won’t join him, he won’t rest until he has silenced her…forever. But Rose can’t forget what she learned on her journey – whispers of a magic too impossible and terrifying to comprehend. A magic inextricably tied to Lissa that could hold the answer to all of Rose’s prayers, but not without devastating consequences. Now Rose will have to decide what – and who – matters most to her. And in the end, is true love really worth the price?
Janni Lee Simner
Faerie Winter (Bones of Faerie, Book 2)
Random House (AU: 2nd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The war has been over for 40 years, and finally Liza’s town is accepting children born with fairy talents. Then a nearby town is destroyed, and Liza discovers that the war might not be over after all. It seems some faeries survived and have crossed over into the human world to continue the fight. And the most powerful and merciless of them all – the Queen herself – may be among them… Liza is a Summoner. She can draw life to herself, even from beyond the grave. And because magic works both ways, she can drive life away. Months ago, she used her powers to banish her dangerous father and to rescue her mother, lost in dreams, from the ruined land of Faerie. Born in the wake of the war between humanity and Faerie, Liza lived in a world where green things never slept, where trees sought to root in living flesh and bone. But now the forests have fallen silent. Even the evergreens’ branches are bare. Winter crops won’t grow, and the threat of starvation looms. And deep in the forest a dark, malevolent will is at work. To face it, Liza will have to find within herself something more powerful than magic alone.
Emma Holly, Lauren Dane, Megan Hart & Bethany Kane
Three to Tango (Anthology)
Penguin Berkley (US & CA: 3rd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In Emma Holly’s FLIPPING FOR CHELSEA, Shay and Liam shared an unforgettable night with their lifelong friend, Chelsea, awakening a rush of forbidden feelings – feelings they have to reckon with when the three reunite, and the unrequited lust between them is too much to bear. Though Ava left her hard-knock Georgia childhood behind, she never forgot Luca and Angelo. Together they were best friends with a bond that could never be broken. But when she returns, the three must decide whether to face the fires that burn between them, or forgo their desires forever in Lauren Dane’s DIRTY/BAD/WRONG. In Megan Hart’s JUST ONE NIGHT, fun-loving couple Kerry and Jeremy find themselves in a triangle of trouble when Kerry’s old crush, Brian, returns for a school reunion, and Jeremy gives her his enthusiastic approval to seduce him. But while Jeremy has no trouble sharing Kerry, Brian isn’t sure he can handle what’s coming. Years ago, Walker walked out on Madeline when she needed him most. Now, the ex-Secret Service agent is back – hired to protect Madeline by her billionaire boss, Tony. Madeline is determined to make him pay for denying her desires – and she’s not above bringing Tony in to sweeten the deal in Beth Kery’s ON THE JOB.
Jackson Pearce
Sisters Red
Hachette Hodder (UK: 3rd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Scarlett and Rosie March are two highly-skilled sisters who have been hunting Fenris (werewolves) – who prey on teen girls – since Scarlett lost her eye years ago while defending Rosie in an attack. Scarlett lives to destroy the Fenris, and she and Rosie lure them in with red cloaks (a colour the wolves can’t resist), though Rosie hunts more out of debt to her sister than drive. But things seem to be changing. The wolves are getting stronger and harder to fight, and there has been a rash of news reports about countless teenage girls being brutally murdered in the city. Scarlett and Rosie soon discover the truth: wolves are banding together in search of a Potential Fenris – a man tainted by the pack but not yet fully changed. Desperate to find the Potential to use him as bait for a massive werewolf extermination, the sisters move to the city with Silas, a young woodsman and long time family friend who is deadly with an axe. Meanwhile, Rosie finds herself drawn to Silas and the bond they share not only drives the sisters apart, but could destroy all they’ve worked for.
Jeri Smith-Ready
Shift (Shade, Book 2)
Simon & Schuster Pulse (US & CA: 3rd May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Aura’s life is anything but easy. Her boyfriend Logan died, and his slides between ghost and shade have left her reeling. Aura knows that he needs her now more than ever. She loves Logan, but she can’t deny her connection to the totally supportive, totally gorgeous Zachary. And she’s not sure that she wants to. Logan and Zachary will fight to be the one by her side, but Aura needs them both to uncover the mystery of her past – the mystery of the Shift. As Aura’s search uncovers new truths, she must decide whom to trust with her secrets…and her heart.
Melissa Marr
Graveminder
HarperCollins William Morrow (CA: 6th May 2011; US: 17th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn’t a funeral that Maylene didn’t attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words “Sleep well, and stay where I put you.” Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Claysville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker – in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past – can set things right once the dead begin to walk. Although she is still grieving for Maylene, Rebekkah will soon find that she has more than a funeral to attend to in Claysville, and that what awaits her may be far worse: dark secrets, a centuries-old bargain, a romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility – to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.
Amanda Grace
But I Love Him
Llewellyn Flux (US: 8th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
At the beginning of senior year, Ann was a smiling, straight-A student and track star with friends and a future. Then she met a haunted young man named Connor. Only she can heal his emotional scars; only he could make her feel so loved – and needed. Ann can’t recall the pivotal moment it all changed, when she surrendered everything to be with him, but by graduation, her life has become a dangerous high wire act. Just one mistake could trigger Connor’s rage, a senseless storm of cruel words and violence damaging everything – and everyone – in its path.
Megan Hart
Seeing Stars [previously published under the title Anything You Want]
Samhain (US: 10th May 2011) [eBook only]
Buy (US) Buy (UK)
Only one week, and Milla Sulay will start her lonely new life on the Homestead planet Selkca. In anticipation, she’s booked passage aboard the Pleasure Princess, where she intends to make use of every amenity – including the Pleasurebots. Mandroids specially designed to give her whatever she wants. For as long as she wants it. Except there’s something decidedly unbot-like about the mouth-watering unit sent to her cabin. Jarden’s surgical enhancements give him advantages over standard-issue human men, with one exception: he’s tired. Weary of servicing an endless parade of horny, arrogant women. Except his beautiful client can’t quite hide her vulnerability behind the disdainful diva act. Before he can figure it out, the cruiser makes an unscheduled stop in Newcity airspace. Not good. In Newcity-speak, he’s a “mecho”…and not exactly legal. After years of working aboard the Princess to earn his freedom, the only place he’s headed is prison. Then Milla unexpectedly makes him an offer he should refuse. Within minutes of having his dream snatched away, Jarden must decide if life as her field husband on Selcka is a way out – or simply trading one form of servitude for another.
Ann Aguirre
Shady Lady (Corine Solomon, Book 3)
Hachette Orion Gollancz (UK: 12th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Whenever Corine Solomon touches an object, she immediately knows its history. But her own future concerns her more and more. Now back in Mexico, she’s running her pawnshop and trying to get a handle on her strange new powers, for she might need them. And soon. Then former ally Kel Ferguson walks through her door. Heavily muscled and tattooed, Kel looks like a convict but calls himself a holy warrior. This time, he carries a warning for Corine: the Montoya cartel is coming for her – but they don’t just pack automatic weapons. The Montoyas use warlocks, shamans, voodoo priests – anything to terminate trouble. And Corine has become enemy number one…
Vicki Pettersson
The Neon Graveyard (Signs of the Zodiac, Book 6)
HarperCollins Voyager (CA: 13th May 2011; US: 31st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Once she was a soldier for the Light, the prophesied savior who would decide the outcome of the eternal conflict raging unseen in the dark corners of her glittering hometown. Now Joanna Archer is just another mortal – still born of an impossible union of Shadow and Light…still hunted by both – and carrying the unborn child of a lover held captive by a depraved demon goddess. Joining forces with a band of rogue Shadow agents, Joanna’s ready to storm the stronghold of her demonic foe, risking everything to enter this ghastly, godforsaken realm where the price of admission is her eternal soul. Because in a world that has stripped her of her power, identity, and fortune, Joanna has nothing left to lose – except her baby, her future, and the epic war poised to consume the city.
Michele Lang
Lady Lazarus
Macmillan Tor (US: 24th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The saga of Magdalena Lazarus unfolds. Descended from the legendary witch of Ein Dor, she alone holds the power to summon the angel Raziel and stop Hitler and his supernatural minions from unleashing total war in Europe. The Nazis have fighters more fearsome than soldiers, weapons more terrifying than missiles, and allies that even they are afraid of SS werewolves; the demon Asmodel who possesses a willing Adolf Hitler, and other supernatural creatures all are literally hell-bent on preventing Magda from possessing the Book of Raziel, a magical text with the power to turn the tide against Hitler’s vast war machine. Magda, young and rebellious, grew up in the cosmopolitan city of Budapest, unaware of her family’s heritage. When her mother dies, Magda – ready or not – is the Lazarus, who must face the evil that holds Europe in an iron grip. Unready to assume the mantle of her ancient birthright, but knowing that she must fight, she sets out across Europe searching for the Book. Magda is desperate enough to endanger her soul by summoning the avenging angel Raziel. When she sees him in the glory of his celestial presence, her heart is utterly, completely lost…
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
City of Ruins (Diving into the Wreck, Book 2)
Pyr (US: 24th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Boss, a loner, loved to dive into derelict spacecraft adrift in the blackness of space… But one day, she found a ship that would change everything – an ancient Dignity Vessel – and aboard the ship, the mysterious and dangerous Stealth Tech. Now, years after discovering that first ship, Boss has put together a large company that finds Dignity Vessels and finds “loose” Stealth Technology. Following a hunch, Boss and her team come to investigate the city of Vaycehn, where fourteen archeologists have died exploring the endless caves below the city. Mysterious “death holes” explode into the city itself for no apparent reason, and Boss believes Stealth Tech is involved. As Boss searches for the answer to the mystery of the death holes, she will uncover the answer to her Dignity Vessel quest as well – and one more thing, something so important that it will change her life – and the universe – forever.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Trial by Fire (Raised by Wolves, Book 2)
Quercus (UK: 26th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
At seventeen, Bryn is has the usual schoolgirl worries: a new boyfriend, a new school and a new home. But she has one major concern that her friends don’t have: she is an alpha – a human girl in charge of her own werewolf pack. When Bryn and her closest friends, Dev and Lake, broke from the werewolf Callum’s pack, it had all felt right. Together with Chase, Bryn’s new love, they had rescued some newly made female werewolves from a despicable master and established their own pack, with Bryn as leader. Yet Bryn has always resented the rules of Pack life – the constant bowing to authority, the submission to the alpha. And she is determined to live differently, to run this pack openly and justly. Then one night, a badly beaten werewolf shows up on her territory. He needs help, sanctuary, care. But taking him in could violate inter-pack rules, and no one knows better than Bryn the costs of challenging those rules. Obedience is law in Pack life, but Bryn is going to break the rules, again.
Trisha Telep (ed.)
Corsets & Clockwork (Anthology)
Constable & Robinson (UK: 26th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
13 steampunk romances which bend and blend the old and the new in dark urban fantasies. Young heroes and heroines battle evil, in various forms with the help of super-technological or supernatural powers, while falling in and out of love. Contributors include: Ann Aguirre, Tessa Gratton, Jaclyn Dolamore, Lesley Livingston, Frewin Jones, Caitlin Kittredge, Dru Pagliassotti, Dia Reeves, Michael Scott, Maria V. Snyder, Tiffany Trent, Kiersten White, and Adrienne Kress.
Anya Bast
Dark Enchantment (Dark Magick, Book 3)
Penguin Berkley (AU: 30th May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Tax consultant Charlotte Bennett isn’t the type to lose control. Until she’s seduced in a dream by a handsome, rugged man named Kieran. In her dream state, she decides to let loose, letting pleasure and desire lead the way. But she quickly discovers her “safe” night of passion has dangerous repercussions. The lust-driven dream was in fact a magick illusion that’s left Charlotte indefinitely bound to a controlling fae named Kieran. Under his order, she must find the last piece of a powerful relic. Only Charlotte knows the location of the bosca fadbh, but the knowledge is hidden deep within her bloodline – and only wicked magick can draw it out. Forced to work with the enticing Kieran, she finds it hard to escape their seductive chemistry. Even though he’s harbouring a deadly curse, one that puts Charlotte in danger – and could make this attraction fatal…
Jes Battis
Infernal Affairs (OSI, Book 4)
Penguin Ace (US & CA: 31st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
A dead body on the beach turns out to be a live demon on the run from some of the nastiest bounty hunters in this dimension – or the next. Protecting one demon from another, Tess gets wrapped up in a case that’s as dangerous as it is mind-boggling, especially when it begins to involve her own past.
Mira Grant
Deadline (Newsflesh, Book 2)
Hachette Orbit (US: 31st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organisation he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has. But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news – he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead. Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.
Stacey Jay
Dead on the Delta
Simon & Schuster Pocket (US & CA: 31st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Once upon a time, fairies were the stuff of bedtime stories and sweet dreams. Then came the mutations, and the dreams became nightmares. Mosquito-size fairies now indulge their taste for human blood – and for most humans, a fairy bite means insanity or death. Luckily, Annabelle Lee isn’t most humans. The hard-drinking, smart-mouthed, bicycle-riding redhead is immune to fairy venom, and able to do the dirty work most humans can’t. Including helping law enforcement – and Cane Cooper, the bayou’s sexiest detective – collect evidence when a body is discovered outside the fairy-proof barricades of her Louisiana town. But Annabelle isn’t equipped to deal with the murder of a six-year-old girl or a former lover-turned-FBI snob taking an interest in the case. Suddenly her already bumpy relationship with Cane turns even rockier, and even the most trust-worthy friends become suspects. Annabelle’s life is imploding: between relationship drama, a heartbreaking murder investigation, Breeze-crazed drug runners, and a few too many rum and Cokes, Annabelle is a woman on the run – from her past, toward her future, and into the arms of a darkness waiting just for her…
Yvonne Navarro
Concrete Savior (Dark Redemption, Book 2)
Simon & Schuster Pocket (US & CA: 31st May 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
They say no good deed goes unpunished. Brynna Malak is living proof. A fallen angel in human form, Brynna is trying to earn another chance at heaven. So far, her road to redemption is littered with casualties, especially since Lucifer’s minions are intent on dragging her back to hell. And being mortal only got more complicated since Brynna became involved with Detective Eran Redmond. Still, Brynna’s relationship issues – like the fact that one glimpse of her can drive men crazy with desire – may have to wait. A mysterious “hero” is saving Chicago’s citizens from certain death, with strange and sinister consequences. Brynna knows too much about demonkind to believe in coincidences. Some dark force is at work here, and Brynna may be the only one who can stop it…
Tez Says 