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!

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: “They cut me, and then themselves, and mingled our blood. Then they forced me to suck their wounds and swallow the blood.” (p. 231)

Last Vampire Standing goes on sale tomorrow, so go read the review at Scooper Speaks.

Wanna know who said my favorite line? Then highlight right now: Deke Saber.

When I heard that Dove was looking for bloggers to try its newest product, Dove ultimate and visibly smooth deodorant, I jumped at the chance. The other day I received my kit: full size stick of rose scented deodorant, a pamphlet and a shit load of coupons.

I’ve decided that I’m going to experiment with it. I’ve washed and shaved my armpits and just put on the deodorant. I’ll put the deodorant on every day and once a week blog about what is under my arms. If it’s hard stubble, if my skin seems better conditioned and if it is smoother. Once a week I’ll post a small update.

In the meanwhile, if you’d like me to mail you a coupon (it’s a little pamphlet with two $2 off coupons inside) leave a comment and I’ll get with you to find out snail mail info. First come, first served until the coupons are gone.

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