Another One Bites the Dust - Jennifer Rardin “Ever experience blackouts, and regain consciousness to find yourself holding a gun to your own head? This makes for fascinating reading…”

Jennifer Rardin
Another One Bites the Dust (Jaz Parks, Book 2)
Orbit (12th December 2007)

Ever experience blackouts, and regain consciousness to find yourself holding a gun to your own head? This makes for fascinating reading, even though it happens long before the novel is over.

With characters working for the CIA, this series is ripe for social commentary on what it means to work for the government, and how to deal with conflicts between their ideals and yours. Unfortunately, the author hasn’t picked up this golden opportunity to create fiction that would really resonate with readers. And I think this is why I’m not connecting with this series – it isn’t doing what it could. So I find myself judging it for what it’s not, rather than what it is. However, within the pages of Another One Bites the Dust are right-wing conservative Christians who piss me off, but I’m not keen on right-wing conservative Christians in real life.

I’m continuing with this series, and hope it’ll serve up what needs to be read. But right now I feel somewhat unfulfilled.

From RachelCohn.com (updated 12th May 2008): Upcoming Appearances: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: August 25-28, 2008: Melbourne Writers’ Festival

Yayayayayay!

When I first saw the cover of Marta Acosta’s Midnight Brunch at Casa Dracula, I thought it seemed familiar. Sure enough, when I whipped out Keri Arthur’s Embraced by Darkness and compared the two…I’m sure that’s the same photo, though mirrored. Or at least a different photo from the same shoot, with the same models. Never mind that Riley Jenson is a redheaded Australian and Milagros de los Santos is a raven-haired Latina hottie…

Your say: Am I onto something, or am I still as dim as I’ve always been? You can answer “yes” to both

Your Linguistic Profile:

40% General American English 30% Yankee 20% Dixie 5% Upper Midwestern 0% Midwestern

What is the four wheeled contraption you push around your groceries in? My answer was “trolley”, but that’s not an option in this quiz. And…wait, does my score only equal up to 95%? Where’s the other 5%?

Have you got your May shopping list sorted? (If not, check May 2008 Releases.) Good. Now to sort out June. Authors, titles, series, publishers, release dates, editions, formats, cover art and summaries: June 2008 Releases.

Have you got your May shopping list sorted? (If not, check May 2008 Releases.) Good. Now to sort out June:

Jennifer Armintrout
All Souls’ Night (Blood Ties, Book 4)
MIRA (1st June 200 - Mass Market Paperback
I have reached my breaking point. And now I will not, cannot be stopped. With the Soul Eater on the verge of god status, it’s time for me to take a final stand, even if it means losing everything I love. Even if it means losing my life. I’ve got plenty of power on my side, and some I didn’t know I could count on in the first place. But it’s nothing compared to the army of the undead the Soul Eater is building up. And time is running out. They say that good always triumphs over evil. I hope that’s true. Because the odds aren’t in our favor, and the fate of the world is in our hands.

Vicki Pettersson
The Scent of Shadows (Zodiac, Book 1)
HarperCollins (2nd June 2008 - UK Edition) - Paperback
When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert. By rights, she should be dead. Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset – a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow – seeking answers to whom or what she really is…and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure. But the nightmare is just beginning – for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful Shadows want her for their own…

Vicki Pettersson
The Taste of Night (Zodiac, Book 2)
HarperCollins (2nd June 2008 - UK Edition) - Paperback
Even mortal, Joanna Archer was nobody’s idea of a victim. But now, infused with the supernatural power to alter the battle between Shadow and Light forever, what she’s become is a target. And when a toxic virus invades the valley, her allies are targets are well. To find the cure that will save them, Joanna must embrace her Shadow side…even if it leads her into an all-out battle with the demons of her past.

Rachel Caine
Feast of Fools (Morganville Vampires, Book 4)
Penguin (3rd June 200 - Mass Market Paperback
In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in relative peace. Student Claire Danvers has never been convinced, though — especially with the arrival of Mr. Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing about harmony. What he wants from the town’s living and its dead is unthinkably sinister. It’s only at a formal ball, attended by vampires and their human dates, that Claire realizes the elaborately evil trap he’s set for Morganville.

J. R. Ward
Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 6)
Penguin (3rd June 200 - Mass Market Paperback
Fiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood’s bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished. As his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body but his heart for herself - she sees the emotionally scarred male behind all his noble responsibility. But while the war with the Lessening Society grows more grim, and tragedy looms over the Brotherhood’s mansion, Phury must decide between duty and love.

Phaedra Weldon
Spectre (Zoë Martinique, Book 2)
Penguin (3rd June 200 - Paperback
Zoë Martinique has the extraordinary ability to travel outside her body at will. When she is drawn into an investigation of a series of bizarre murders, in which the victims are missing body parts, Zoë hopes to help her boyfriend, Atlanta homicide detective Daniel Frasier, stop the killer — one she’s sure is from the darkest levels of the astral plane — without letting him find out about her special abilities. Then danger strikes close to home when Zoë’s mother disappears, and Zoë must use all the powers at her command to save her — even though Zoë knows that, in doing so, she may make herself into something no longer entirely human.

Patricia Briggs
Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1)
Orbit (5th June 2008 - UK Edition) - Paperback
Mercedes Thompson runs a garage in the Tri-Cities. She’s a mechanic, and a damn good one, who spends her spare time karate training and tinkering with a VW bus that happens to belong to a vampire. Her next-door neighbour is an alpha werewolf - literally, the leader of the pack. And Mercy herself is a shapeshifter, sister to coyotes. As such, she’s tolerated by the ‘wolves but definitely down the pecking order. As long as she keeps her eyes down and remembers her place, the pack will leave her in peace. Hardly a normal situation, but then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself…and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

Laurell K. Hamilton
Blood Noir (Anita Blake, Book 16)
Orbit (5th June 2008 - UK Edition) - Hardcover
Jason is a werewolf. He’s also one of Anita Blake’s best friends and sometimes her lover. And right now he needs her - not to be a vampire hunter, or a federal marshal, or a necromancer, but because his father is dying. Anita can make him look like an everyday guy, helping him say good-bye to the abusive father he never loved. The fact that Jason is not ‘everyday’ and Anita is far from being just a pretty woman is something they figure they can keep under wraps for a couple of days in a small town. How hard can that be? Really, by now, Anita Blake should know better. And this is the weekend that Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks to make a move. Somehow she has cut the connection that binds Anita and vampire Master of the City Jean-Claude, leaving them vulnerable. Dangerous even as she sleeps, buried in darkness for a thousand years beneath the old country of Europe, Marmee Noir reaches out toward power - she has attacked Anita before, but never like this. Anita has what she wants - and now she’s going to take it.

Marie Brennan
Midnight Never Come (Onyx Court, Book 1)
Orbit (9th June 2008 - US Edition) - Trade Paperback
England flourishes under the hand of its Virgin Queen: Elizabeth, Gloriana, last and most powerful of the Tudor monarchs. But a great light casts a great shadow. In hidden catacombs beneath London, a second Queen holds court: Invidiana, ruler of faerie England, and a dark mirror to the glory above. In the thirty years since Elizabeth ascended her throne, fae and mortal politics have become inextricably entwined, in secret alliances and ruthless betrayals whose existence is suspected only by a few. Two courtiers, both struggling for royal favor, are about to uncover the secrets that lie behind these two thrones. When the faerie lady Lune is sent to monitor and manipulate Elizabeth’s spymaster, Walsingham, her path crosses that of Michael Deven, a mortal gentleman and agent of Walsingham’s. His discovery of the “hidden player” in English politics will test Lune’s loyalty and Deven’s courage alike. Will she betray her Queen for the sake of a world that is not hers? And can he survive in the alien and Machiavellian world of the fae? For only together will they be able to find the source of Invidiana’s power - find it, and break it…

Ekaterina Sedia
The Alchemy of Stone
Prime Books (20th June 200 - Paperback
Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets - secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. However, this doesn’t sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart…literally.

Marta Acosta
Midnight Brunch at Casa Dracula (Casa Dracula, Book 2)
Simon & Schuster (24th June 200 - Mass Market Paperback
Hip, funny Milagro de los Santos thinks she’s finally found love and a home at the California ranch of fabulous Oswald Grant and his urbane relatives, who have a rare genetic disorder that some call vampirism. But Milagro is bewildered when she’s excluded from an ancient and mysterious midnight ceremony whose participants include Oswald’s unfriendly parents, a creepy family elder, and Milagro’s ex-lover, the powerful and decadent Ian Ducharme. What skeletons are the vampires keeping in their designer closets? When Milagro’s life is threatened by a rogue family member, she flees to the desert to hide. Instead of solitude, she encounters an egomaniacal actor, a partying heiress, a sly tabloid reporter, and a lavish spa full of dark secrets - all of which might help her find a way home.

Kim Harrison (ed.)
Hotter Than Hell
HarperCollins (24th June 200 - Mass Market Paperback
Beyond the boundaries of the everyday is an unseen realm where anything you imagine is possible. Your demon lover is waiting for you in the shadows, ready to fulfill your secret wishes and most dangerous fantasies. Here passion has a face and form both titillating and terrifying—and love has teeth and claws. Get ready to give in to your craving for something exquisitely dark…and different. Hotter Than Hell gathers together a baker’s dozen of today’s boldest and best authors of supernatural fiction and paranormal romance in a breathtaking anthology that blends black magic with red-hot desire. From the tantalizing tale of a conflicted psychic vampire driven by a powerful, savage love to the strange saga of a Greek warrior woman battling to save the world, these are stories outside the limits, as hypnotic as the full moon…and hotter than the sun.

Marjorie M. Liu
The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss, Book 1)
Penguin (24th June 200 - Paperback
Demon hunter Maxine Kiss wears her armor as tattoos, which unwind from her body to take on forms of their own at night. They stand between her and her enemies, just as Maxine stands between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veils. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment — and one man — changes everything.

Ellen Schreiber
The Coffin Club (Vampire Kiss, Book 5)
HarperCollins (24th June 200 - Hardcover
It’s tough for love-struck Raven to imagine what’s keeping her nocturnal boyfriend from returning to Dullsville. So there’s only one thing to do — find Alexander. Along the way, Raven can’t resist the spot where she feels most at home, the Coffin Club. But when she stumbles upon a secret door in the club, she descends into a dim catacomb — to a hidden hangout where the house drink happens to be type A or B. Drawn to one of its shadowy members, Raven suspects she’s in over her head. But exploring the covert club is too tempting, even after coming face-to-face with Alexander’s trouble-stirring enemy. Can Raven delve further into the Underworld unbeknownst to Alexander — and also solve the mystery of her true love’s own secrecy?

Claudia Gray
Evernight (Evernight, Book 1)
HarperCollins (June 200 - Hardcover
Bianca wants to escape. She’s been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn’t fit in. Then she meets Lucas. He’s not the “Evernight type” either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful — even when it comes to caring about him. “I couldn’t stand it if they took it out on you,” he tells Bianca, “and eventually they would.” But the connection between Bianca and Lucas can’t be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart…and to make Bianca question everything she’s ever believed.

Bite the Bullet, the second novel in the Crimson Moon series. Due to be released 30th September 2008.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Jennifer Rardin “An urban fantasy featuring the CIA and a sense of humour… Quite interesting. Indeed, Chapter Twenty is memorable, so keep your eye out for that… Jennifer Rardin is an author to watch.”

Jennifer Rardin
Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Jaz Parks, Book 1)
Orbit (18th October 2007)

An urban fantasy featuring the CIA and a sense of humour – this novel shares things in common with my writing work-in-progress, so I wasn’t all that comfortable reading this at first. However, as our differences piled up, I settled in just fine.

But at times Jaz Parks seems so much like me (not just my characters, but me) that it’s scary. Minus that she’s American, works for the government and kicks arse: our “voice”, humour, mannerisms and coping mechanisms are so similar that reading essentially a fictionalised version of yours truly was off-putting.

When a joke isn’t shoved into every paragraph (ie. When the humour isn’t overpowering the story), the novel is quite interesting. Indeed, Chapter Twenty is memorable, so keep your eye out for that. But as the plot got more outlandish with out-of-body experiences, I couldn’t easily picture the scenes in my mind’s eye and thus my attention somewhat waned. But Jennifer Rardin is an author to watch, and I’m already reading Book 2 in the series.

Got a BookMooch alert for a book I really wanted, and the sender was willing to post worldwide - huzzah! So I sent my request, but then I saw something along the lines of: Reserved for [NAME]. If you’re not her, please don’t mooch from me.

That really grinds my gears. If you’re going to gift a specific person, don’t do it in a public forum such as BookMooch. Because you’re just leading the rest of us on, thinking we may have a chance to score a free book. But obviously it was done through BookMooch so the sender could get the points, and we could all pretend that it’s a regular Mooch, but it’s not.

In short, if you only want to give a book to a certain person, don’t do it via BookMooch. Please.

P.S. My Reading Wishlist has been updated with work-in-progress titles from Jenna Black, Jim Butcher and Rachel Vincent.