Fresh Meat: January 11-17th Speculative Fiction Releases

Posted January 13, 2015 by Carmel in Fresh Meat / 38 Comments

Paranormal Romance:

Wicked Wolf
Wicked Wolf (Redwood Pack #8)
by Carrie Ann Ryan
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The war between the Redwood Pack and the Centrals is one of wolf legend. Gina Eaton lost both of her parents when a member of their Pack betrayed them. Adopted by the Alpha of the Pack as a child, Gina grew up within the royal family to become an enforcer and protector of her den. She’s always known fate can be a tricky and deceitful entity, but when she finds the one man that could be her mate, she might throw caution to the wind and follow the path set out for her, rather than forging one of her own.




Quinn Weston’s mate walked out on him five years ago, severing their bond in the most brutal fashion. She not only left him a shattered shadow of himself, but their newborn son as well. Now, as the lieutenant of the Talon Pack’s Alpha, he puts his whole being into two things: the safety of his Pack and his son.




When the two Alphas put Gina and Quinn together to find a way to ensure their treaties remain strong, fate has a plan of its own. Neither knows what will come of the Pack’s alliance, let alone one between the two of them. The past paved their paths in blood and heartache, but it will take the strength of a promise and iron will to find their future.[/learn_more]


Hunger’s Mate Part 1
(The Shadow Shifters #5)
by A.C. Arthur
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Half man, half animal, a Shadow Shifter must walk the line between predator and prey. Love and lust. And pure, blind hunger…




A natural-born hunter proud of his birthright, Ezra Preston agrees to hide his true identity and pretend to be human to learn what his enemies know of his kind. But even undercover, it’s not in his nature to play games with a woman. Especially when he discovers a creature as mysterious—and utterly delectable—as Jewel Jenner. Can she be trusted? The only thing Ezra knows for sure is that she cannot be resisted…in Hunger’s Mate: Part 1 by A.C. Arthur.[/learn_more]



Urban Fantasy:

Carniepunk: The Werewife
by Jaye Wells
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]One week after she is bitten by the dog-faced boy at a traveling carnival, a mild-mannered housewife gets a sudden, unrelenting craving for raw meat. She doesn’t remember eating the cat or running naked through the park under the full moon, but her husband’s getting strange calls from concerned neighbors. When he takes her back to the carnival a year later, looking for a cure, it’ll either get better…or a whole lot worse.[/learn_more]


Owl and the Japanese Circus
(The Adventures of Owl #1)
by Kristi Charish
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Ex-archaeology grad student turned international antiquities thief, Alix—better known now as Owl—has one rule. No supernatural jobs. Ever. Until she crosses paths with Mr. Kurosawa, a red dragon who owns and runs the Japanese Circus Casino in Las Vegas. He insists Owl retrieve an artifact stolen three thousand years ago, and makes her an offer she can’t refuse: he’ll get rid of a pack of vampires that want her dead. A dragon is about the only entity on the planet that can deliver on Owl’s vampire problem – and let’s face it, dragons are known to eat the odd thief.




Owl retraces the steps of Mr. Kurosawa’s ancient thief from Japan to Bali with the help of her best friend, Nadya, and an attractive mercenary. As it turns out though, finding the scroll is the least of her worries. When she figures out one of Mr. Kurosawa’s trusted advisors is orchestrating a plan to use a weapon powerful enough to wipe out a city, things go to hell in a hand basket fast…and Owl has to pick sides.[/learn_more]


The Last American Vampire
by Seth Grahame-Smith
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]New York Times bestselling author Seth Grahame-Smith returns with the follow-up to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter–a sweeping, alternate history of 20th Century America as seen through the eyes of vampire Henry Sturges.




THE LAST AMERICAN VAMPIRE




In Reconstruction-era America, vampire Henry Sturges is searching for renewed purpose in the wake of his friend Abraham Lincoln’s shocking death. It will be an expansive journey that will first send him to England for an unexpected encounter with Jack the Ripper, then to New York City for the birth of a new American century, the dawn of the electric era of Tesla and Edison, and the blazing disaster of the 1937 Hindenburg crash. Along the way, Henry goes on the road in a Kerouac-influenced trip as Seth Grahame-Smith ingeniously weaves vampire history through Russia’s October Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, and the JFK assassination.




Expansive in scope and serious in execution, THE LAST AMERICAN VAMPIRE is sure to appeal to the passionate readers who made Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter a runaway success.[/learn_more]



Sci Fi / Fantasy:

The Providence of Fire
(Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne #2)
by Brian Staveley
Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Brian Staveley’s The Providence of Fire, the second novel in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, a gripping new epic fantasy series.




The conspiracy to destroy the ruling family of the Annurian Empire is far from over.




Having learned the identity of her father’s assassin, Adare flees the Dawn Palace in search of allies to challenge the coup against her family. Few trust her, but when she is believed to be touched by Intarra, patron goddess of the empire, the people rally to help her retake the capital city. As armies prepare to clash, the threat of invasion from barbarian hordes compels the rival forces to unite against their common enemy. Unknown to Adare, her brother Valyn, renegade member of the empire’s most elite fighting force, has allied with the invading nomads. The terrible choices each of them has made may make war between them inevitable.




Between Valyn and Adare is their brother Kaden, rightful heir to the Unhewn Throne, who has infiltrated the Annurian capital with the help of two strange companions. The knowledge they possess of the secret history that shapes these events could save Annur or destroy it. [/learn_more]


The Just City (Thessaly #1)
by Jo Walton
Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]“Here in the Just City you will become your best selves. You will learn and grow and strive to be excellent.”




Created as an experiment by the time-traveling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community, populated by over ten thousand children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future—all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past.




The student Simmea, born an Egyptian farmer’s daughter sometime between 500 and 1000 A.D, is a brilliant child, eager for knowledge, ready to strive to be her best self. The teacher Maia was once Ethel, a young Victorian lady of much learning and few prospects, who prayed to Pallas Athene in an unguarded moment during a trip to Rome—and, in an instant, found herself in the Just City with grey-eyed Athene standing unmistakably before her.




Meanwhile, Apollo—stunned by the realization that there are things mortals understand better than he does—has arranged to live a human life, and has come to the City as one of the children. He knows his true identity, and conceals it from his peers. For this lifetime, he is prone to all the troubles of being human.




Then, a few years in, Sokrates arrives—the same Sokrates recorded by Plato himself—to ask all the troublesome questions you would expect. What happens next is a tale only the brilliant Jo Walton could tell.[/learn_more]


Unbreakable
by W.C. Bauers
Sci Fi
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The colonists of the planet Montana are accustomed to being ignored. Situated in the buffer zone between two rival human empires, their world is a backwater: remote, provincial, independently minded. Even as a provisional member of the Republic of Aligned Worlds, Montana merits little consideration—until it becomes the flashpoint in an impending interstellar war.




When pirate raids threaten to destabilize the region, the RAW deploys its mechanized armored infantry to deal with the situation. Leading the assault is Marine Corps Lieutenant and Montanan expatriate Promise Paen of Victor Company. Years earlier, Promise was driven to join the Marines after her father was killed by such a raid. Payback is sweet, but it comes at a tremendous and devastating cost. And Promise is in no way happy to be back on her birthworld, not even when she is hailed as a hero by the planet’s populace, including its colorful president. Making matters even worse: Promise is persistently haunted by the voice of her dead mother.




Meanwhile, the RAW’s most bitter rival, the Lusitanian Empire, has been watching events unfold in the Montana system with interest. Their forces have been awaiting the right moment to gain a beachhead in Republic territory, and with Promise’s Marines decimated, they believe the time to strike is now.[/learn_more]


The Deep
by Nick Cutter
Sci Fi
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget—small things at first, like where they left their keys…then the not-so-small things like how to drive, or the letters of the alphabet. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily…and there is no cure. But now, far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, deep in the Marianas Trench, an heretofore unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered—a universal healer, from initial reports. It may just be the key to a universal cure. In order to study this phenomenon, a special research lab, the Trieste, has been built eight miles under the sea’s surface. But now the station is incommunicado, and it’s up to a brave few to descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths…and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine.[/learn_more]



Young Adult:

The Darkest Part of the Forest
by Holly Black
Young Adult / Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.




Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.




At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointy as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.




Until one day, he does…




As the world turns upside down and a hero is needed to save them all, Hazel tries to remember her years spent pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?[/learn_more]


Unmade (Entangled #2)
by Amy Rose Capetta
Young Adult / Sci Fi
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Cadence is in a race against time and space to save her family and friends from the Unmakers, who are tracking the last vestiges of humanity across the cosmos. As the epic battle begins, Cade learns that letting people in also means letting them go. The universe spins out of control and Cade alone must face the music in the page-turning conclusion to Entangled.[/learn_more]


Unleashed (Unremembered #2.5)
by Jessica Brody
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Seraphina has escaped the compound.




The president of Diotech has fallen gravely ill.




Now, Dr. Alixter rests his last hope on a genetically enhanced soldier.




A boy designed to apprehend her. A boy incapable of failure…




Set in the thrilling sci-fi world of Jessica Brody’s Unremembered trilogy, this sinister and suspenseful novella recounts the untold story of what happened on the Diotech compound after the shocking ending of Unremembered. Told from Kaelen’s point of view, Unleashed also includes a special sneak peek of Unchanged, the long-awaited conclusion to the series.[/learn_more]


When
by Victoria Laurie
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.




Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client’s young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.




Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie’s whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it’s too late?[/learn_more]



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Carmel Signature

Owner, designer and main blogger behind Rabid Reads. Avid book reader, snowboard bunny, video gamer and Supernatural fan. I love all things paranormal, werewolves especially. Oh, and I’m Canadian, eh!

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38 responses to “Fresh Meat: January 11-17th Speculative Fiction Releases”

  7. E.J. Stevens  

    More Fresh Meat! Owl and the Japanese Circus by Kristi Charish and The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black are both on my wish list. Ah, and I see they’re releasing the individual short stories from the Carniepunk anthology…which has been lingering inside my Kindle. Have you read the Carniepunk short stories? Some of my favorite authors in that anthology, so it looks promising.
    E.J. Stevens recently posted…Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Dublin, Ireland with Ruth Frances Long

  9. Jenny from Supernatural Snark  

    I’ve been seeing Owl and the Japanese Circus around a lot lately, that one definitely has me curious. The Darkest Part of the Forest was a very unusual read for me, one of those where you’re not entirely sure how you feel when you’re done, but it was my first Holly Black book and I think I need to try one of her others:)

    • Carmel  

      Owl and the Japanese Circus is making the rounds; Jessica’s review is scheduled to post soon-ish. The Darkest Part of the Forest is another popular title this week. Can’t wait to check-out the reviews!

  17. Kim { Book Swoon }  

    I really enjoyed Owl and the Japanese Circus and thought it was a great start to a new series. I hope to get my hands on The Darkest Part of the Forest because I usually love Holly’s writing.
    Thanks for sharing more goodies, Carmel! : )