Happy Release Day to:
Marta Acosta
Dark Companion
Macmillan Tor (US: 3rd July 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of friends. She even starts tutoring the headmistress’s gorgeous son, Lucien. Things seem too good to be true. They are. The more she learns about Birch Grove’s recent past, the more Jane comes to suspect that there is something sinister going on. Why did the wife of a popular teacher kill herself? What happened to the former scholarship student, whose place Jane took? Why does Lucien’s brother, Jack, seem to dislike her so much? As Jane begins to piece together the answers to the puzzle, she must find out why she was brought to Birch Grove – and what she would risk to stay there…
Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan
Team Human
HarperCollins (US: 3rd July 2012)
Review
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Just because Mel lives in New Whitby, a city founded by vampires, doesn’t mean she knows any of the blood-drinking undead personally. They stay in their part of town; she says in hers. Until the day a vampire shows up at her high school. Worse yet, her best friend, Cathy, seems to be falling in love with him. It’s up to Mel to save Cathy from a mistake she might regret for all eternity! On top of trying to help Cathy (whether she wants it or not), Mel is investigating a mysterious disappearance for another friend and discovering the attractions of a certain vampire wannabe. Combine all this with a cranky vampire cop, a number of unlikely romantic entanglements, and the occasional zombie, and soon Mel is hip-deep in an adventure.
Kate Locke
God Save the Queen (Immortal Empire, Book 1)
Hachette Orbit (US: 3rd July 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Queen Victoria rules with an immortal fist. The undead matriarch of a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath), Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day, and leeches are considered a delicacy. And a world where technology lives side by side with magic. The year is 2012 and Pax Britannia still reigns. Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it is her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But when her sister goes missing, Xandra will set out on a path that undermines everything she believed in and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire. And she is the key – the prize in a very dangerous struggle.
Kat Richardson
Downpour (Greywalker, Book 6)
Penguin Roc (US & CA: 3rd July 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died – for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker, treading the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she’s discovering that her new abilities are landing her all sorts of “strange” cases. After being shot in the back and dying – again – Harper has lost many of her powers. Now, if the Greywalker dies one more time, she won’t be coming back. Harper’s only respite from the chaos is her work. But while conducting an investigation in the Olympic Peninsula, she sees a ghostly car accident and finds a victim who insists he was murdered, blaming the nearby picturesque community of Sunset Lakes – called “Blood Lake” by locals. Harper soon learns that beneath the icy waters of the lake hides a terrible power and a host of hellish beings – both of which are held under the thrall of a sinister cabal that will use the darkest of arts to achieve their fiendish ends…
Diana Rowland
Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues (White Trash Zombie, Book 2)
Penguin Daw (US & CA: 3rd July 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she’s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that’s right – the zombie mafia. Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel’s going to need all of her brainpower – and maybe a brain smoothie as well – in order to get through it without falling apart.
Dani Worth
After the Crux (Crux Survivors, Book 1)
Samhain (US: 3rd July 2012)
Seventeen years after the Crux Virus wiped out most of the world’s population, Ross is doing what he can to keep his small community safe from raiders in a self-contained artist retreat in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. He’s made a habit of collecting survivors and they’ve all become family, but the most important members have always been Jenna and Dorian. At fourteen, Ross stumbled into the basement where the nine-year-olds were hiding and the three have been together ever since. Years later, Jenna and Dorian became lovers. Now, at thirty, Ross hopes to find a love of his own on supply runs, but he suffers incredible guilt because his heart has long been snagged by his two best friends. Alone with his tangled emotions, Ross is about to discover that his friends have their own ideas about their relationship…and how it is about to change.
Tez Says 