For Kira Solomon, normal was never an option.

Kira’s day job is an antiquities expert, but her true calling is as a Shadowchaser. Trained from youth to be one of the most lethal Chasers in existence, Kira serves the Gilead Commission dispatching the Fallen who sow discord and chaos. Of course, sometimes Gilead bureaucracy is as much a thorn in her side as anything the Fallen can muster against her. Right now, though, she’s got a bigger problem. Someone is turning the city of Atlanta upside-down in search of a four-millennia-old Egyptian dagger that just happens to have fallen into Kira’s hands.

Then there’s Khefar, the dagger’s true owner—a near-immortal 4000-year-old Nubian warrior who, Kira has to admit. looks pretty fine for his age. Joining forces is the only way to keep the weapon safe from the sinister Shadow force, but now Kira is in deep with someone who holds more secrets than she does, the one person who knows just how treacherous this fight is. Because every step closer to destroying the enemy is a step closer to losing herself to Shadow forever. . . . (Juno Books…)

Both Amazon and Borders list Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass as releasing on Jan. 26, 2010.

My name is Alexia Williams. In my world, North America is divided between north and south but not the way it’s taught in the history books. After losing my family to the shifters, I joined the Combined Human States Army. Now I find myself on the front lines, defending the wall between my species and theirs. My mission is simple: keep the animals on their side by whatever means necessary and I’m good at it.

I don’t talk to them. I don’t sympathize with them. I sure as hell don’t admire them until one saves my life. Andor isn’t like any shifter I’ve ever met. He’s a three-hundred-year-old golden eagle asking for help finding missing shifters who may be in my lands.

I just have to decide between helping the animals or ignoring signs that my fellow humans aren’t what I thought they were. But how can I help a species I hate and fear? Even if Andor makes me feel alive again? In the land of the shifters they call me Death.

They Call Me Death by Missy Jane is published by Samhain Publishing and is  slated to be released Dec. 1, 2009, according to Amazon.

I haven’t read the Archie comics in years, but I always knew who would win the love triangle. Betty of course! So when I heard about the newest Archie comic hitting comic book stores on Tuesday I was pissed. Then I became absolutely furious.

It’s crappy that the bad girl wins, and the good, girl next door  gets screwed. I hope that in the end Archie marries Betty, and that this is all an advertising technique. If so, it’s working on me because I’m getting the comic.

Do you have an opinion? Who should Archie marry?

Halloween is coming and the Witch Elders Council needs a new High Priestess. Despite her Nana’s disapproval and her still-secret vampire stain, Persephone Alcmedi reluctantly joins the competition — but only to keep a corrupt contender from winning.

Meanwhile, Seph’s mind-blowing intimacy with sexy rock’n’roll werewolf Johnny makes her fear the stain’s grip on her is tightening.

Misunderstanding her reaction, Johnny moves out and slakes his lust with band groupies.

A heartbroken Seph can’t properly prepare for the tournament and, worse, Sebastien, the vampire-wizard whose stain she bears, turns up to judge.

When finalists start turning up dead, the competition becomes a quest for survival.

Coming December 29, 2009!

If you read Midnight’s Daughter by Karen Chance, you prob. are looking forward to the second book in the series, death’s Mistress. Here’s a blurb about the book.

Dorina Basarab is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire. Subject to uncontrollable rages, most dhampirs live very short, very violent lives. So far, Dory has managed to maintain her sanity by unleashing her anger on those demons and vampires who deserve killing.

Back home in Brooklyn after the demise of her insane uncle Dracula, Dory’s hoping her life is about to calm down. But then she gets some visitors. A friend wants Dory’s help in finding a magical Fey relic, and the gorgeous vampire, Louis-Cesare, is desperate to find his former mistress Christine.

Dory and Louis-Cesare quickly discover that the same master vampire Christine is bound to is also rumored to be in possession of the relic. But when the master vampire turns up dead, they realize that there’s more at stake than a missing mistress. Someone is killing vampire Senate members, and if Dory and Louis-Cesare can’t stop the murderer, they may be next…

Death’s Mistress comes out Jan. 5, 2010!

Favorite Lines: “You asked my price. That is it: a pound of silver…and you. I’ll take you wherever you wish, so long as I can take you whenever I wish.” (p. 24)

Immortal Outlaw is a paranormal, historical romance about Steinarr and Marian, a take on the old Robin Hood story. Steinarr was cursed to become a lion shifter at night and Marian is the daughter of a nobleman. The two are trying to follow the clues so that Marian’s ‘cousin’ can take his rightful position as the lord of Huntington and their journey leads them all around Nottinghamshire.

On their journey cheese and bread is eaten a lot, so I figured it would be the perfect meal to go along with the story.  While you eat, read the book or start with my review of Immortal Outlaw at Scooper Speaks. Check the author’s site for an except of the story. Immortal Outlaw will be released in June 2009.

I love the Chronicles of Elantra series written by Michelle Sagara. Next up in it is book 5, Cast in Silence, set to be released in August.

A member of the elite Hawk force that protects the City of Elantra, Kaylin Neya has sacrificed much to earn the respect of the winged Aerians and immortal Barrani she works alongside. But the mean streets she escaped as a child aren’t the ones she’s vowed to give her life guarding. Those were much darker…

Kaylin’s moved on with her life–and is keeping silent about the shameful things she’s done to stay alive. But when the city’s oracles warn of brewing unrest in the outer fiefdoms, a mysterious visitor from Kaylin’s past casts her under a cloud of suspicion. Thankfully, if she’s anything, she’s a survivor….

Amanda Downum is the author of The Drowning City, which will be released in September 2009.

Symir — the Drowning City. home to exiles and expatriates, pirates and smugglers. And violent revolutionaries who will stop at nothing to overthrow the corrupt Imperial government.

For Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and spy, the brewing revolution is a chance to prove herself to her crown. All she has to do is find and finance the revolutionaries, and help topple the palaces of Symir. But she is torn between her new friends and her duties, and the longer she stays in this monsoon-drenched city, the more intrigue she uncovers — even the dead are plotting. As the waters rise and the dams crack, Isyllt must choose between her mission and the city she came to save.

I found this jewel on the Orbit Book website. Nicole Peeler, a debut author, has signed a three book deal with Orbit Books. The first book will be released in November 2009. It sounds pretty good.

“In the tiny village of Rockabill, Maine, Jane True-26-year-old bookstore clerk and secret night swimmer-has no idea that her absent mother’s legacy is entry into a world populated by the origins of human myths and legends. It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: vampires are not quite what we think; dogs sometimes surprise us; and whatever you do, never-ever-rub the genie’s lamp.

For Jane, everything kicks off when she comes across a murder victim during her nightly clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean. This grisly discovery leads to the revelation of why she has such freakish abilities in the water: her mother was a Selkie and Jane is only half human.

With this knowledge, Jane soon finds herself mingling with supernatural creatures alternately terrifying, beautiful, and deadly-all adjectives that quite handily describe her new friend Ryu.

When Ryu is sent to Rockabill to investigate the murder, he and Jane fall hard for each other even as they plummet into a world of intrigue threatening to engulf both supernatural and human societies. For someone is killing half-humans like Jane.

The question is, are the murders the work of one rogue individual or part of a greater plot to purge the world of Halflings?”–Orbit Books

Book four in the Saintcrow’s Kismet series, Flesh Circus, is slated to be released in December of 2009. Here’s the blurb:

The Cirque de Charnu has come. They will clean out the demons and the suicides, and move on. As long as they stay within the rules, Jill Kismet can’t deny them entry. But she can watch–and if they step out of line, she’ll send them packing.

When Cirque performers start dying grotesquely , Kismet has to find out why, or the fragile truce won’t hold and her entire city will become a carnival of horror. She also has to play the resident hellbreed power against the Cirque to keep them in line, and find out why ordinary people are needing exorcisms. And then there’s the murdered voodoo practitioners, and the zombies.

An ancient vengeance is about to be enacted. The Cirque is about to explode. And Jill Kismet is about to find out some games are played for keeps…–Orbit Books