Done with February 2011 Releases. Here are March’s. To see future titles and dates, check out Reading Wishlist.
S. A. Bodeen
The Gardener
Macmillan Square Fish (US: 1st March 2011)
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Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children’s book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds. Mason learns she is part of a horrible experiment intended to render teenagers into autotrophs – genetically engineered, self-sustaining life-forms who don’t need food or water to survive. And before he knows it, Mason is on the run with the girl, and wanted, dead or alive, by the mysterious mastermind of this gruesome plan, who is simply called the Gardener. Will Mason be forced to destroy the thing he’s longed for most?
Marianne de Pierres
Burn Bright (Night Creatures, Book 1)
Random House (AU: 1st March 2011)
Retra doesn’t want to go to Ixion, the island of ever-night, ever-youth and never-sleep. Retra is a Seal – sealed minds, sealed community. She doesn’t crave parties and pleasure, experience and freedom. But her brother Joel left for Ixion two years ago, and Retra is determined to find him. Braving the intense pain of her obedience strip to escape the only home she’s ever known, Retra stows away on the barge that will take her to her brother. When she can’t find Joel, Retra finds herself drawn deeper into the intoxicating world of Ixion. Come to me, whispers a voice in her head. Who are the Ripers, the mysterious guardians of Ixion? What are the Night Creatures Retra can see in the shadows? And what happens to those who grow too old for Ixion? Retra will find that Ixion has its pleasures, but its secrets are deadly. Will friendship, and the creation of an eternal bond with a Riper, be enough to save her from the darkness? Listen well, baby bats. Burn bright, but do not stray from the paths. Remember, when you live in a place of darkness you also live with creatures of the dark.
Megan Hart
Passion Model
Samhain (US: 1st March 2011)
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For Recreational Intercourse Operative Gemma, patrolling Newcity’s Lovehuts and Pleasurebots isn’t much of a pleasure. But it’s work she clings to after an accident destroyed her marriage and left her with half her body made of replacement parts. She keeps her head down and her mind on her job, waiting for the proverbial hammer to fall. The head of the ruling council is out to make those like her illegal. If anyone finds out she’s mecho, she’s toast. A routine inspection of a Pleasurebot turns into a strictly forbidden – and mind-blowing – sexual encounter. Then she realises it isn’t an “it” at all. He’s human, and despite the sweet-hot climaxes he gives her, she buries her report to save them both from the consequences. Except he can’t seem to stay away from her, and for a time life seems almost…normal. Until Gemma uncovers Declan’s own deep, dark secret. A secret that could get her fired from R.I.O. Or both of them killed.
Eileen Rendahl
Dead on Delivery (Messenger, Book 2)
Berkley (US & CA: 1st March 2011)
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There are two men who have bitten the dust after a delivery from Messenger Melina Markowitz. As she tries to put together the pieces of this puzzle, she discovers that the two victims share common friends, common unexplained absences, and a common crime. Now, dark forces from the local community have been unleashed, drawing Melina into the web of a powerful woman, her voodoo, and her vengeance…
Kelley Armstrong
The Reckoning (Darkest Powers, Book 3)
Hachette Little, Brown Atom (UK: 3rd March 2011)
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My name is Chloe Saunders. I’m fifteen, and I would love to be normal. But normal is one thing I’m not. For one thing, I’m having these feelings for a certain antisocial werewolf and his sweet-tempered brother – who just happens to be a sorcerer – but, between you and me, I’m leaning toward the werewolf. Not normal. My friends and I are also on the run from an evil corporation that wants to get rid of us – permanently. Definitely not normal. And finally, I’m a genetically altered necromancer who can raise the dead, rotting corpses and all, without even trying. As far away from normal as it gets.
Beth Revis
Across the Universe
Penguin Razorbill (UK: 3rd March 2011)
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Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to wake up on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed‘s scheduled landing, Amy’s cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed. Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed‘s passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir. Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed‘s hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.
Carrie Ryan
The Dead-Tossed Waves (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Book 2)
Hachette Orion Gollancz (UK: 3rd March 2011)
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Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She’s content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she’s ever known and, and all she needs for happiness. But life after the Return is never safe and there are threats even the Barrier can’t hold back. Gabry’s mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but, like the dead in their world, secrets don’t stay buried. And now, Gabry’s world is crumbling. One night beyond the Barrier… One boy Gabry’s known forever and one veiled in mystery… One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry knows only one thing: if she has any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother’s past.
Alexander Gordon Smith
Execution (Furnace, Book 5)
Faber & Faber Kids (UK: 3rd March 2011)
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The whole world has become a prison, and Alfred Furnace is its master. Monsters rule the streets, leaving nothing but murder in their wake. Those who do not die become slaves to Furnace’s reign of cruelty. I am a monster too. I am the only one who can stop him, but in doing so I could destroy everything. Am I the executed or the executioner? Who will die? Me, Furnace or the entire human race? All I know is that one way or another, it all ends today.
Bree Despain
The Lost Saint (The Dark Divine, Book 2)
Egmont (UK: 7th March 2011)
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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.
Saundra Mitchell
The Vespertine
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (US: 7th March 2011)
Review
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It’s the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset – visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. However, a forbidden romance with Nathaniel, an artist, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own – still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him. When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia’s world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she’s not the seer of dark portents, but the cause.
Sara Creasy
Children of Scarabaeus (Scarabaeus, Book 2)
HarperCollins Voyager (CA: 11th March 2011 & US: 29th March 2011)
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Edie Sha’nim believes she and her bodyguard lover, Finn, could find refuge from the tyranny of the Crib empire by fleeing to the Fringe worlds. But Edie’s extraordinary cypherteck ability to manipulate the ecology of evolving planets makes her far too valuable for the empire to lose. Recaptured and forced to cooperate – or else she will watch Finn die – Edie is shocked to discover the Crib’s new breed of cypherteck: children. She cannot stand by while the oppressors enslave the innocent, nor can she resist the lure of Scarabaeus, the first world she tried to save, when researchers discover what appears to be an evolving intelligence. But escape – for Edie, for Finn, and for the exploited young – will require the ultimate sacrifice…and a shocking act of rebellion.
Donald Maass
The Breakout Novelist: Craft and Strategies for Career Fiction Writers
Writer’s Digest (US: 14th March 2011)
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Inside, veteran agent, Donald Maass brings together the most innovative and practical information from his workshops and previous books to lead you through every aspect of setting your novel apart from the rest. Maass shares examples from contemporary writers across all genres to equip you with the strategies great writers use to craft great fiction – from core fiction-writing elements like character, setting, description, and plot, to more advanced techniques including point of view, voice, and suspense. Plus, you’ll find over 70 practical exercises to help you move your writing from blah to breakout. You’ll also learn from Maass’ experiences over more than three decades in the publishing industry. Get straight talk from an insider about agents, contracts, how the industry is changing, and how to be the kind of author who builds a successful career book after book.
Carol Lynch Williams
Miles from Ordinary
Macmillan St. Martin’s Griffin (US: 15th March 2011)
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Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother’s ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control…
Jordan Dane
In the Arms of Stone Angels
Harlequin Teen (US: 22nd March 2011)
Review
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Two years ago, Brenna did the unthinkable. She witnessed the aftermath of a murder and accused her only true friend – the first boy she ever loved – of being a killer. Now sixteen, Brenna returns to Oklahoma only to discover that Isaac “White Bird” Henry isn’t in juvie. The half-breed outcast is in a mental hospital, frozen in time, locked in his mind at the worst moment of his life. And when Brenna touches him, she’s pulled into his hellish vision quest, seeing terrifying demons and illusions she doesn’t understand. Feeling isolated and alone, she’s up against the whole town, targeted by bullying former classmates, a bigoted small town sheriff, and a tribe who refuses to help one of their own. But when Brenna realises she’s as trapped by the past as White Bird is, this time she won’t turn her back on him. She’s the only one who can free them both. Even if she has to expose her secret – a “gift” she’s kept hidden her whole life.
Lauren DeStefano
Wither (Chemical Garden, Book 1)
Simon & Schuster Children’s (US & CA: 22nd March 2011)
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Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb – males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden’s genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape – to find her twin brother and go home. But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden’s eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.
The Dark and Hollow Places (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Book 3)
Random House Delacorte (US & CA: 22nd March 2011)
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There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister’s face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters. Annah’s world stopped that day, and she’s been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn’t feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again. But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it’s up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return’s destruction?
Lora Leigh, Ava Gray, Michelle Rowen & Jory Strong
Primal (Anthology)
Penguin Berkley (AU: 28th March 2011)
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Desire that cannot be controlled – and passion that will not be tamed. Lora Leigh explores just how far a man is willing to go in the name of desire. Ava Gray tells a tale of an ordinary man – blessed and cursed with extraordinary powers – who gets a second chance at life…and love. In Michelle Rowen’s Nightshade universe, an innocent woman is drawn to a seductive vampire’s promise of eternal love. Jory Strong’s novella tells of an angel who commits the ultimate sin when he falls desperately in love with a mortal female.
Lili St. Crow
Defiance (Strange Angels, Book 4)
Penguin Razorbill (AU: 28th March 2011); Quercus (UK: 31st March 2011)
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Sixteen-year-old Dru’s worst fears have come true – Sergej, the deadly nosferat, has kidnapped her best friend Graves and she must now go on a suicidal rescue mission to bring him back in one piece. That is, if she can put all of Christophe’s training to good use, defeat her mother’s traitor, Anna, once and for all, and manage to survive another day…
Francine Pascal
Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later
Macmillan St. Martin’s (US: 29th March 2011)
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Iconic and beloved identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are back and all grown up, dealing with the complicated adult world of love, careers, betrayal, and sisterhood.
Richelle Mead
Iron Crowned (Dark Swan, Book 3)
Random House Transworld Bantam (UK: 31st March 2011)
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Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land’s queen, she’s fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful fear… But who can she trust to help her? Fairy king Dorian has his own agenda. And Kiyo, her shape-shifter ex-boyfriend, has every reason to betray her. To control the Crown’s all-consuming powers, Eugenie must confront an unimaginable temptation – one which puts her soul and the fate of two worlds in mortal danger…
Tez Says 