Favorite Lines: “But what stunned me into stillness was the god-like being lying on the hospital bed secured in a series of straps. He was male, a red-haired throwback to the time of Viking warriors. A being so perfect he could be no other than Adonai, an Elysian divinity.” (p. 124)  

Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim — but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined? 

Read my review of The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay at Scooper Speaks!

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.

Favorite Lines: “Her father was dead, really dead and long before he’d died he’d sold her to a demon. Given her up, tried to get rid of her, traded her life for whatever success he’d had in some podunk town that nobody else gave a fuck about. His only daughter. the little girl he’d once read bedtime stories to.” (p. 271)

Hanging out with demons can be hell….

It’s been three months since psychologist Megan Chase made the stunning discovery that the world is filled with demons, and once more the situation is too hot to handle.

Ironically, Megan — the only person in the world without a little personal demon sitting on her shoulder — has become the leader of a demon “family,” but now some unknown arcane power is offing her demons in a particularly unpleasant fashion. And while her demon lover Greyson Dante is still driving her wild with desire, he’s also acting strangely evasive. Then there’s the truth about Megan’s past — the truth she’s never known.

Caught between personal problems and personal demons, Megan is having one hell of a hard time. Will the help of her Cockney guard demons and her witch friend Tera be enough so that Megan can finally resolve the past, survive the present, and face the future?

Read my review of Stacia Kane’s Demon Inside and be like Greyson in Demon Inside by sticking your fork into a pie plate of apple crisp. Check out Rhodes website for the recipe for this plate of yummy cinnamon roll apple crisp.

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!

“I hope you like General Tso’s Chicken!” (p. 81) Me too, because that’s what you’ll be eating while you read Linda Robertson’s Vicious Circle, a story about a witch involved in werewolf business who is targeted by vampires. You can read my review of it at Scooper Speaks.

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.

Favorite Lines: “There is a Door to Hell in the basement of my diner, right next to where we stack the boxes of food from deliveries.” (ARC p. 1)

Salt and Silver went on sale today. Read the review at Scooper Speaks.com

Favorite lines: “I do love you Abigail Beatrice Edmunds. I love you through all the twists and turns of the river. I love you beyond the borders of the bank and back.” (ARC p. 394)

Senior year of high school is usually a time of endings and beginnings, the best time of a teenager’s life. And so it is for Abby. She’s the assistant director of her school’s play, got the perfect boyfriend, two best friends, and a perfect family. While her life is very boring controlled, she is preparing herself for college and shrugging off all feelings of anxiety.

One day an exchange student from Italy, Dante Alexander, starts taking classes at her school and becomes an extra in the school’s play. It’s up to Abby to bring him up to snuff for his role, but Abby can’t help feeling something more when she’s around him. He’s adventurous, fun, and hiding secrets that threaten to pull Abby into a secret straight out of the sixteenth century.

Mrs. Mangum bursts onto the scene with The Hourglass Door, an exciting, wonder filled ride about a teenager growing into herself and finding love.

Abby is the perfect child. She does what is expected of her and never rocks the boat. That is  until she sends a college application to Emmery College and decides to live up to the school’s motto, “Live without Limits.” Suddenly she’s spending time with the new student, Dante, and learning that somethings in life worth having require effort.

When I started I was a little disappointed because the prologue is vague and doesn’t seem to match the summary on the back of the book. Then I became intrigued. As I continued reading and meeting characters I began to understand the purpose. It ties everything together and hints at what’s to come. In other words, it does its job.

The story is a directed at young adults, so there’s a lot of kissing, hugging and hand holding, but no actual sex.

The Hourglass Door is book one in a new series (of I don’t know how many books), and revolves around an ancient invention. The lead characters were engaging and interesting, but most of the secondary characters fell flat for me. They lacked depth.

While I read the book I kept thinking that The Hourglass Door would make an excellent movie. When all is said and done, Mrs. Mangum proved to me (again) that young adult books are not just for teens. They can be fun, have a great plot and characters that I want to succeed, and be well written.

The Hourglass Door will be released May 13. Visit the author’s blog.