Posted July 23, 2013 by Carmel in Fresh Meat / 4 Comments
Urban Fantasy:
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Carniepunk (Hell on Earth)
by Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep +
Anthology
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[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]A star-studded urban fantasy anthology featuring bestselling authors Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Estep, and Kevin Hearne, whose stories explore the creepy, mysterious, and, yes, sometimes magical world of traveling carnivals.
The traveling carnival is a leftover of a bygone era, a curiosity lurking on the outskirts of town. It is a place of contradictions—the bright lights mask the peeling paint; a carnie in greasy overalls slinks away from the direction of the Barker’s seductive call. It is a place of illusion—is that woman’s beard real? How can she live locked in that watery box?
And while many are tricked by sleight of hand, there are hints of something truly magical going on. One must remain alert and learn quickly the unwritten rules of this dark show. To beat the carnival, one had better have either a whole lot of luck or a whole lot of guns—or maybe some magic of one’s own.
Featuring stories grotesque and comical, outrageous and action-packed, Carniepunk is the first anthology to channel the energy and attitude of urban fantasy into the bizarre world of creaking machinery, twisted myths, and vivid new magic.[/learn_more] |
Steampunk:
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A Darkness Strange and Lovely
(Something Strange and Deadly #2)
by Susan Dennard
Steampunk
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[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Perfect for readers Libba Bray’s The Diviners and Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel series, this spellbinding sequel to Something Strange and Deadly delivers a mix of intrigue, supernatural forces, intense romance, and revenge, all set against the enchanting backdrop of nineteenth-century Paris.
With her brother dead and her mother insane, Eleanor Fitt is alone. Even the Spirit-Hunters—Joseph, Jie, and the handsome Daniel—have fled to Paris. So when Eleanor hears the vicious barking of hounds and see haunting yellow eyes, she fears that the Dead, and the necromancer Marcus, are after her.
To escape, Eleanor boards a steamer bound for France. There she meets Oliver, a young man who claims to have known her brother. But Oliver harbors a dangerous secret involving necromancy and black magic that entices Eleanor beyond words. If she can resist him, she’ll be fine. But when she arrives in Paris, she finds that the Dead have taken over, and there’s a whole new evil lurking. And she is forced to make a deadly decision that will go against everything the Spirit-Hunters stand for.
In Paris, there’s a price for this darkness strange and lovely, and it may have Eleanor paying with her life.[/learn_more] |
Young Adult:
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Undercurrent
by Paul Blackwell
Young Adult
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[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]In Undercurrent, Paul Blackwell’s fast-paced YA thriller, sixteen-year-old Callum Harris survives a plummet over a waterfall, but wakes to find himself in a life that’s totally different from the one he knew.
His parents were separated. Now they’re together. His brother Cole was a sports star. Now he’s paralyzed. And Callum, who used to be quiet and sort of unpopular, is suddenly a jock with two hot girls after him.
But there’s one difference that matters more than all the others combined: His former best friend wants Callum dead. And he isn’t the only one.
Tense and original, Undercurrent is a psychological thrill-ride with sci-fi elements that will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman and Neal Shusterman.[/learn_more] |
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Of Beast and Beauty
by Stacey Jay
Young Adult
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[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret…
In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.
Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.
As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.[/learn_more] |
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Secret Histories
(Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files #4-6)
by Pittacus Lore
Young Adult
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[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The perfect companion book to the New York Times bestselling I Am Number Four series!
I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: Secret Histories is a collection of three action-packed novellas that share stories the Mogadorians don’t want you to know about the inner workings of their regime as well as how they engineered the attack on Lorien. Originally published as e-novellas, now, for the first time ever, they are together in one print volume.
You already know the truth about the Garde and the Mogadorian invasion, yet there is still so much to learn. The stories in Secret Histories will help you get the answers you seek, but they will not help you stop the coming war. Only the Garde can save our planet.[/learn_more] |
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Shadows of Glass (Ashes Trilogy #2)
by Kassy Tayler
Young Adult / Dystopian
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[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Wren’s world has changed. The thing that she fought for, escaping the dome has come to fruition, but it’s not the paradise she thought it would be. Most of the shiners have died, and according to James, she is to blame for many of the deaths, a burden which sits heavy on her shoulders. Still some have survived and Wren is determined to keep them safe as they fight to establish a home outside while hiding from the rovers who have weapons that can kill from far away. But as long as she has Pace she knows everything will be fine. Still Wren wonders, as she sees the smoke that continually pours forth from the dome, how did her friends inside fare? Will they ever find out if Lucy, David, Jill and Harry, along with Pace’s mother survive the explosions?
Meanwhile, someone else has also seen the smoke. A band of explorers from across the sea arrive in an airship, curious about the dome, and offering help to those who survive. When Wren meets the handsome Levi Addison, she suddenly questions her love for Pace as Levi offers to show her the world from his airship. Does she really love Pace? Or was it just the circumstances that made her think she did? Meanwhile, word arrives from inside via Pip, and Wren is forced to go back inside the dome, a thing that terrifies her more than anything else, to save her friends. Once she’s back inside will she be able to escape again?
A whirlwind of adventure, romance, conspiracy and the struggle to stay alive in a dystopian world where nothing is as it seems.[/learn_more] |
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Starglass (Starglass #1)
by Phoebe North
Young Adult / Dystopian
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[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Terra has never known anything but life aboard the Asherah, a city-within-a-spaceship that left Earth five hundred years ago in search of refuge. At sixteen, working a job that doesn’t interest her, and living with a grieving father who only notices her when he’s yelling, Terra is sure that there has to be more to life than what she’s got.
But when she inadvertently witnesses the captain’s guard murdering an innocent man, Terra is suddenly thrust into the dark world beneath her ship’s idyllic surface. As she’s drawn into a secret rebellion determined to restore power to the people, Terra discovers that her choices may determine life or death for the people she cares most about. With mere months to go before landing on the long-promised planet, Terra has to make the decision of a lifetime–one that will determine the fate of her people.[/learn_more] |
Tags: Fresh Meat, July 2013
I know you’re a Jennifer Estep fan. She has an Elemental Assassin e-novella that came out this week, Kiss of Venom, from Owen’s POV.
Oh yes, I know! It came out yesterday. I usually only list actual Tuesday releases because otherwise there are just too many of them! Thanks for the reminder though, I need to d/l that eBook asap!
I won Undercurrent in a giveaway, and it looks really good! I loved Ashes of Twilight, so I’m looking forward to Shadows of Glass. Great list, Carmel!
Darlene you’re a reading MACHINE!!