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!

If you didn’t catch the Vampire Diaries series pilot you sure missed out on an hour of entertainment. I haven’t read the books that the series is based on written by L.J. Smith, so it’s not necessary to have read them to enjoy the series.

A quick summary: Good vampire is attracted to girl who is spitting image of a woman from his past. Bad vampire is good vampire’s brother and they are rivals. Bad vampire is determined to ruin good vampire. Town and its people are collateral damage.

Favorite Lines: “There were nights when I let no one near me, when I knew that the boys who came to try their luck were just taking an opportunity, and I’d fight them, kick and scratch in a silent battle under the harsh fabric coverings. There were nights when I hadn’t the strength to fight and would reach down, moving my hands fast to get the encounter over with as quickly as I could. There were nights when I’d lie unresisting and close my eyes, slipping my fingers under boys’ clothing in case I might find succor there…Fewer friendships come out of the creches. We do too much to one another within them.” (p. 170-71)

Read the review of Benighted by Kit Whitfield at Scooper Speaks. This story isn’t one that you’ll want to read while you eat or immediately following, so before reading Benighted make Potato and Sausage Hash with Moroccan Flavors.

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: “One human hand, black and rough, tipped in claws and backed in feathers, snaked up and grasped the wire mesh. Then came another, curving with yellow talons on the fingertips. Two silver wings unfolded to fill the whole space of the cage with feathers. An androgynous, human face rose from the shadows: a great crown of plumes above; a thick ruff of down beneath. It stared at her with an eagle’s unblinking gaze.” (p. 90)

Read Scooper Speaks’ review of  Ghost Ocean by S.M. Peters. Then if you decide to buy this book visit.

Make sure you’re eating some fried chicken. In the book Te’s aunts serve it cold, but that’s up to you.

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.

“Hermod watched mournfully as she plucked away at his muffin.” (p. 105)

Before you pick up Greg van Eekhout’s Norse Code and read about a Valkyrie and a Norse God’s attempt to change fate and save the world, check out Scooper Speaks and read my review.

You’ll want to have some muffins and tea while you read the story.

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.