Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Urban Fantasy Picks for March

So, I've been trying and not succeeding to get better about posting my newsletter stuff here on my blog... it's a work in progress :) Anyways, click here for this month's issue. Also, I'd love to get more interviews/reviews/fun stuff going on with the newsletter, so if you are an urban fantasy writer and/or reader and have an idea or want to be featured, I'd love to hear from you.

These are the books I'm stoked about this month:


Newly-bitten tattoo artist Riley Poe feels herself changing in unimaginable ways. Eli Dupre, her vampire lover, has seen the change in her and fears for her humanity. His rival, Victorian, tells her she must see the patriarch of the vampire cult that attacked her to save her soul. In the vampire cult's fortress in Romania, Riley will face her worst fears-and the dark powers threatening to destroy her. And she'll have to do the one thing she's been determined not to do-put her trust in Eli.

I love the tattoo artist thing here. Fun! But this author should know I already have claim to the names Riley and Eli :)


Rayne would do anything to save her twin sister, Sunny, from the Vampire Consortium dictator who wants her dead. Instead, she's been commissioned by Slayer Inc. to find Sunny and Magnus and deliver them to the Consortium...which Rayne knows means certain death. She also knows that if she and her boyfriend, Jareth, disobey orders, they are signing not only their own death warrants, but also those of every vampire in the Blood Coven.

As a rival slayer with a personal vendetta moves in, Rayne and Jareth must do something to stop her. So they embark on their most dangerous journey yet, deep beneath the streets of New York City and through the Gates of the Underworld. But when a greedy god demands the ultimate sacrifice, will Rayne be forced to choose between her sister...and the vampire she loves?

Gorgeous cover, right? Gates of the Underworld... rad.

 

Okay, so honestly? I just picked this one because Damon's yummy. Not even putting the description in. Haven't read these books. Addicted to the TV show. Enough said.


Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure. He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

This just sounds super fun. Plus, the MC and I share a nickname.
 

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

Sounds like a neat plot. And I swear, I just realized this one has a Lex in it, too. Not doing this on purpose :)

So, what are you dying to read this month?

15 comments:

  1. I like the sound of Croak - it's not your usual urban fantasy fair. Nice!

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  2. How fun! I tried to read the Vampire Diaries novels because I LOVE the TV show, but I couldn't get into them.

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  3. I'm new to this genre...sounds like some good ones.

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  4. Croak is going in my TBR pile!!

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  5. These sound like good clean fun, although that first book had me reconsidering the wisdom of my desire to get a tattoo!

    Jai

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  6. Yeah! A tattoo-artist vampire would be very different. :) I've never watched the Vampire Diaries cuz we don't get TV channels (just use Netflix for entertainment), but my daughter watches it. Ha, oh WOW--CROAK has a very unique premise! Now I've seen everything. :) Intriguing!

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  7. Ohhh, I like tattoos. Which is weird since I don't have any. But I think it would be cool to read a story about a vampire tattoo artist ;)

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  8. I love your newsletter...though I haven't gotten my March one yet so thanks for this:)

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  9. This month I'm going to read May B. Can't wait! Thanks for all those great books on this post, now I'll keep an eye out for them. :)

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  10. All the books sound great. I will check them out on Amazon.

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  11. Ohh all the books sounds awesome... Really want to read Croak... sounds so good.

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  12. That's a great list. Croak is really standing out to me, too. Thanks for highlighting these picks! :)

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  13. I just tagged you on my blog...:) Check it out.

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  14. New to your blog - thanks to tfwalsh. :)

    Croak also seems interesting to me. That IS a new one - which is hard to find these days.

    I have not read any Urban Fantasy. Though I write supernatural women's fiction - and I am not quite sure how it is different than UF, but I think it is.

    I am looking forward to reading Katherine Howe's new book The House of Velvet and Glass as well as my guilty pleasure, C.S. Harris's new Sebastian St. Cyr series mystery When Maidens Mourn

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