Fresh Meat: February 28 to March 5 — 39 Speculative Fiction Releases

Posted March 1, 2016 by Carmel in Fresh Meat / 5 Comments

Urban Fantasy:

The Courrier
The Courier
by Gerald Brandt
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]A far-future science fiction debut set in San Francisco—action adventure with a cyberpunk tone.




Kris Ballard is a motorcycle courier. A nobody. Level 2 trash in a multi-level city that stretches from San Francisco to the Mexican border, where corporations make all the rules. A runaway since the age of 14, Kris struggled to set up her life, barely scraping by, working hard to make it without anyone’s help. Witnessing the murder of one of her clients changes everything. Now she’s stuck with a mysterious package that everyone seems to want.




Now the corporations want Kris gone, and are willing to go to almost any length to make it happen. Hunted, scared, and alone, she retreats to the only place she knows she can hide: the Level 1 streets. Running from people that seem to know her every move, she is rescued by Miller—a member of an underground resistance group—only to be pulled deeper into a world she doesn’t understand. They work together to stay ahead of the corporate killers, until Miller falls into their hands. Kris realizes being alone isn’t the answer, and she’s willing to do anything to get him back.[/learn_more]


Midnight Marked
(Chicagoland Vampires #12)
by Chloe Neill
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]As the Chicagoland Vampires series continues, Merit and Ethan find themselves in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, where winning may require the ultimate sacrifice…




A vampire’s grudges don’t stay dead long…




Merit is one of Chicago’s most skilled vampire warriors; these days, she doesn’t scare easily. But she and Master vampire Ethan have made a new and powerful enemy, and he won’t give up until he owns the Windy City.




With his last plan thwarted, he’s more determined than ever to watch Cadogan burn. Ethan has put the House’s vampires on high alert, but their enemy will stop at nothing, including pitting vampire against vampire…




In this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, the stakes are life or death—and winning might mean sacrificing everything…[/learn_more]


Chaos Choreography (InCryptid #5)
by Seanan McGuire
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Fifth book in Seanan McGuire’s funny and fast-paced urban fantasy InCryptid series featuring ballroom dancer and monster expert Verity Price.




Verity Price is back on the West Coast and getting back into the swing of the family business: cryptozoology. She’s rescuing cryptids from bad situations, protecting them from monster-hunters, and generally risking life and limb for the greater good, with her ex-Covenant partner/husband, Dominic, by her side. Her ballroom dance career is behind her—or so she thinks. When Verity gets the call from the producers of Dance or Die, the reality show she almost won several years before, she finds the lure impossible to resist, and she and Dominic are off to L.A. for one last shot at the big time.




Of course, nothing is that simple. When two contestants turn up dead, Verity will need every ally she can find with the investigation, without blowing her cover…[/learn_more]


Borderline (Arcadia Project #1)
by Mishell Baker
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.




For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.




No pressure. [/learn_more]


The Brotherhood of the Wheel
by R.S. Belcher
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]A unique new urban fantasy by the author of The Six-Gun Tarot, exploring the haunted byways and truck stops of the U.S. Interstate Highway System.




In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon–a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order’s original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.




Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies–any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.




Jimmy Aussapile is one such knight. He’s driving a big rig down South when a promise to a ghostly hitchhiker sets him on a quest to find out the terrible truth behind a string of children gone missing all across the country. The road leads him to Lovina Hewitt, a skeptical Louisiana State Police investigator working the same case and, eventually, to a forgotten town that’s not on any map–and to the secret behind the eerie Black-Eyed Kids said to prowl the highways. [/learn_more]


The Reburialists
by J.C. Nelson
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The author of Wish Bound and the Grimm Agency novels returns with an all-new urban fantasy novel!




Burying the dead is easy. Keeping them down is difficult.




At the Bureau of Special Investigations, agents encounter all sorts of paranormal evils. So for Agent Brynner Carson, driving a stake through a rampaging three-week-old corpse is par for the course. Except this cadaver is different. It’s talking—and it has a message about his father, Heinrich.




The reanimated stiff delivers an ultimatum written in bloody hieroglyphics, and BSI Senior Analyst Grace Roberts is called in to translate. It seems that Heinrich Carson stole the heart of Ra-Ame, the long-dead god of the Re-Animus. She wants it back. The only problem is Heinrich took the secret of its location to his grave.




With the arrival of Ra-Ame looming and her undead army wreaking havoc, Brynner and Grace must race to find the key to stopping her. It’s a race they can’t afford to lose, but then again, it’s just another day on the job . . .[/learn_more]


Black City Saint (Black City Saint #1)
by Richard A. Knaak
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]For more than sixteen hundred years, Nick Medea has followed and guarded the Gate that keeps the mortal realm and that of Feirie separate, seeking in vain absolution for the fatal errors he made when he slew the dragon. All that while, he has tried and failed to keep the woman he loves from dying over and over.




Yet in the fifty years since the Night the Dragon Breathed over the city of Chicago, the Gate has not only remained fixed, but open to the trespasses of the Wyld, the darkest of the Feiriefolk. Not only does that mean an evil resurrected from Nick’s own past, but the reincarnation of his lost Cleolinda, a reincarnation destined once more to die.




Nick must turn inward to that which he distrusts the most: the Dragon, the beast he slew when he was still only Saint George. He must turn to the monster residing in him, now a part of him…but ever seeking escape.




The gang war brewing between Prohibition bootleggers may be the least of his concerns. If Nick cannot prevent an old evil from opening the way between realms…then not only might Chicago face a fate worse than the Great Fire, but so will the rest of the mortal realm.[/learn_more]


The Incubus Job (Mission: Magic #1)
by Diana Pharaoh Francis
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]It’s tough to have a conscience when you kill for a living.




So six years ago, Mallory Jade gave up killing. Now she’s a fixer. Got a problem with a demon? She can help. Infestation of pixies? She’s got you covered. Kidnapped by an undead lich? She’s on her way. Anything you need, so long as she doesn’t have to kill. It’s her one unbreakable rule.




Aside from a few near-death experiences, her new life is good, until her job dumps her in the lap of the man she walked out on six years before. Law Stanger, her former partner and lover, wants her back in his life. He’s not above playing dirty. But Mallory knows it can never work. She has secrets Law can never understand or forgive.




All Mallory wants now is to finish her job–track down an incubus and the precious box he stole–and get the hell out of town before Law shatters her heart again. But it wasn’t fate that drew her and Law together after all these years, it was cunning calculation. Now they must face an enemy more powerful than they can imagine, one that has no intention of leaving anybody alive.[/learn_more]


Who Wants to be The Prince of Darkness?
by Michael Boatman
Urban Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Lucifer is enjoying his retirement in an obscure corner of Limbo when he learns of a plot by Gabriel, the current ruler of Hell, to use humanity’s greatest weapon against it – Television!




Cue the hottest reality game-show ever conceived: Who Wants To Be The Prince Of Darkness? Gabriel orchestrates an “Infernal takeover” of Earth by stealing unwitting mortal souls and sending them to a mostly empty Hell, hoping to reinvigorate the Infernal Realm.




Now Lucifer must find a living champion to seize control of Hell and free millions of stolen mortal souls before the theft becomes permanent. But who would ever want to be Hell’s champion?[/learn_more]



Paranormal Romance:

Her Fierce Warrior (X-Ops #4)
by Paige Tyler
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The woman tensed. As anger and fear ricocheted across her face, her eyes changed from red to green to brown in a dizzying display like nothing he’d ever seen.




Every instinct in Angelo’s body screamed at him to lunge for his weapon. Instead he set his feet for impact, blocking her slashing claws. Unbelievably, after a few moments of struggling, she went still, all the fight gone…





Minka isn’t sure she should trust the sexy Special Forces soldier who found her. Subjected to horrors, on the run from scientists set on locking her in a cage, Minka is terrified of the monster she’s becoming…and somehow, Angelo is the only one who can calm the beast inside her and make her feel safe.




But can she trust the way he makes her feel when she’s not even sure she can trust herself?[/learn_more]


Rocked by Love (Gargoyles #4)
by Christine Warren
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Bestselling author Christine Warren returns to the secret world of gargoyles-where legends come alive, and lovers are caught between a rock and a hard place…




Kylie Kramer knows that she’s putting her life in danger when she decides to investigate her friend’s mysterious death. What she doesn’t know is that she’s being watched over by a powerful protector. A legend in stone who has defended humanity throughout the ages. A rock-hard savior who swoops down from the sky, scoops Kylie into his impossibly strong arms, and draws her into a world that no mortal woman can imagine…or resist.




ROCKED BY LOVE




As the strongest of the gargoyles, Dag is sworn to destroy the demons that threaten Kylie’s world before returning to his stony slumber. But the burning desire she ignites in him is even harder to fight-an all-consuming force that, once unleashed, can never be tamed. As their passion grows, so do the ranks of a demonic army plotting to take over the earth. When the ultimate battle begins, Dag and Kylie must face some demons of their own-to carve out a love that’s stronger than time…[/learn_more]


Ghost Gifts
by Laura Spinella
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]All Aubrey Ellis wants is a normal life, one that doesn’t include desperate pleas from the dead. Her remarkable gift may help others rest in peace, but it also made for an unsettling childhood and destroyed her marriage. Finally content as the real estate writer for a local newspaper, Aubrey keeps her extraordinary ability hidden—until she is unexpectedly assigned the story of a decades-old murder.




Rocked by the discovery of a young woman’s skeletal remains, the New England town of Surrey wants answers. Hard-nosed investigative reporter Levi St John is determined to get them. Aubrey has no choice but to get involved, even at the terrifying risk of stirring spirits connected to a dead woman’s demise and piquing her new reporting partner’s suspicions.




As Aubrey and Levi delve further into the mystery, secrets are revealed and passion ignites. It seems that Aubrey’s ghost gifts are poised to deliver everything but a normal life.[/learn_more]


Bound by the Night
by Megan Hart
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Monica Blackship hunts down creatures that shouldn’t exist. Stephanie Adams has the power to shape nocturnal visions. And if it’s weird, Jase Davis is on it. They’re all members of the Crew, an international consortium devoted to explaining the unexplainable. In this enthralling trilogy, these intrepid investigators face a daunting array of paranormal dangers, from deadly cryptids to dream thieves. They’re ready for ghosts, monsters and other strange phenomena. But is their greatest challenge distinguishing reality from fantasy, or separating work from pleasure?[/learn_more]


Bayou Shadow Hunter
by Debbie Hebert
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Bent on revenge, Native American Shadow Hunter Tombi Silver could turn to only one woman, the “witch” Annie Matthews, for help. Her ability to hear auras had allowed her to discover Tombi’s friend mystically trapped by forces that could destroy them all. The accompanying message of a traitor in their midst meant Tombi could trust no one. Dare he bring Annie along on his quest to fight shadow spirits? Putting his faith in someone outside his tribe, especially one who pulled at his tightly controlled desires, could prove just as dangerous as his mission…[/learn_more]


Dark Wolf Unbound
(Heart of the Shifter #2)
by Stephanie Rowe
Paranormal Romance
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Driven by his intense moral code, alpha Jace Donovan’s only mission is to protect his pack, until deadly trick turns him into the monster he has spent his life hunting. Haunted by the nightmare he has become, Jace is faced with an impossible choice…until a bold, sensual woman tears him from his well-ordered path and thrusts him into the very situation that destroyed him the first time.




Raised as the daughter of a depraved killer, Abby Collins is being hunted by the pack she escaped from when she was nineteen. Haunted by the evil she was forced to do, Abby must call upon Jace to help her when her former pack hunts her down, even though he is the one man she should never trust.




Scorching hot passion ignites between Abby and Jace the moment they meet, hurtling them toward a deadly fate in a heart-pounding race against the psychopath who owns them both.[/learn_more]



Science Fiction / Fantasy:

Quantum Night
by Robert J. Sawyer
Science Fiction
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from twenty years previously—a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.




Jim is reunited with Kayla Huron, his forgotten girlfriend from his lost period and now a quantum physicist who has made a stunning discovery about the nature of human consciousness. As a rising tide of violence and hate sweeps across the globe, the psychologist and the physicist combine forces in a race against time to see if they can do the impossible—change human nature—before the entire world descends into darkness. [/learn_more]


Arkwright
by Allen Steele
Science Fiction
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Written by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele’s Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy.




Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan’s legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.




This is classic, epic science fiction and engaging character-driven storytelling, which will appeal to devotees of the genre as well as fans of current major motion pictures such as Gravity and Interstellar.[/learn_more]


Dark Transmissions
by Davila LeBlanc
Science Fiction
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]It is the late 23rd century. For engineers Jessie Madison and her husband David, a routine maintenance contract on board the orbital mining station Moria 3 has become a nightmare. Upon awakening from cryo-stasis, they learn a horrifying truth: while they were asleep, machines rose up against humanity…and won.




Marooned and at the mercy of the station’s malicious artificial intelligence, OMEX, David and Jessie rig an emergency transmission to broadcast into the darkness, desperately hoping someone is still alive to hear it…




Navigating the fringes of explored space in the Covenant Patrol vessel the Jinxed Thirteenth, Captain Morwyn Soltaine picks up a distress signal from a space station. But it’s broadcasting in Ancient Humanity, a language that has been extinct for several millennia. Even more incredible: there are two survivors on board. Morwyn’s rag-tag crew of reformed criminals mount a rescue op, unaware of the dangerous foe awaiting them. As the past and future collide, a routine mission becomes a deadly game of wits.[/learn_more]


The Destructives
by Matthew De Abaitua
Science Fiction
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Theodore Drown is a destructive. A recovering addict to weirdcore, he’s keeping his head down lecturing at the university of the moon. Twenty years after the appearance of the first artificial intelligence, and humanity is stuck. The AIs or, as they preferred to be called, emergences have left Earth and reside beyond the orbit of Mercury in a Stapledon Sphere known as the university of the sun. The emergences were our future but they chose exile. All except one.




Dr Easy remains, researching a single human life from beginning to end. Theodore’s life. One day, Theodore is approached by freelance executive Patricia to investigate an archive of data retrieved from just before the appearance of the first emergence. The secret living in that archive will take him on an adventure through a stunted future of asylum malls, corporate bloodrooms and a secret off-world colony where Theodore must choose between creating a new future for humanity or staying true to his nature, and destroying it.[/learn_more]


A Cure for Cancer (Jerry Cornelius #2)
by Michael Moorcock
Science Fiction
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]A mirror-image of his former self, Jerry Cornelius returns to a parallel London, armed with a vibragun and his infamous charisma and charm to boot. On the trail of the grotesque Bishop Beesley, Jerry hunts for a mysterious device capable of manipulating the cosmos. Corruption, violence and greed are rife in a war-torn Europe, but Jerry is against history; he is outside of history. He lusts for the equilibrium of anarchy, for randomness supreme—lock up your daughters (and sons), Jerry Cornelius is back.




Dunked into the ether of Chaos, the second book in the Cornelius Quartet, A Cure for Cancer, was one of the first novels of its form, using hypermedia to spin a web of hauntingly surreal scenes, wickedly funny social satire and sci-fi vignettes that resonate deeply for the modern reader.[/learn_more]


United States of Japan
by Peter Tieryas
Science Fiction
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Decades ago, Japan won the Second World War. Americans worship their infallible Emperor, and nobody believes that Japan’s conduct in the war was anything but exemplary. Nobody, that is, except the George Washingtons – a shadowy group of rebels fighting for freedom. Their latest subversive tactic is to distribute an illegal video game that asks players to imagine what the world might be like if the United States had won the war instead.




Captain Beniko Ishimura’s job is to censor video games, and he’s working with Agent Akiko Tsukino of the secret police to get to the bottom of this disturbing new development. But Ishimura’s hiding something… He’s slowly been discovering that the case of the George Washingtons is more complicated than it seems, and the subversive videogame’s origins are even more controversial and dangerous than either of them originally suspected.




Part detective story, part brutal alternate history, United States of Japan is a stunning successor to Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. [/learn_more]


The Last Days of Magic
by Mark Tompkins
Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]An epic novel of magic and mysticism, Celts and faeries, mad kings and druids, and the goddess struggling to reign over magic’s last outpost on the Earth.




What became of magic in the world? Who needed to do away with it, and for what reasons? Drawing on myth, legend, fairy tales, and Biblical mysteries, The Last Days of Magic brilliantly imagines answers to these questions, sweeping us back to a world where humans and magical beings co-exist as they had for centuries.




Aisling, a goddess in human form, was born to rule both domains and—with her twin, Anya—unite the Celts with the powerful faeries of the Middle Kingdom. But within medieval Ireland interests are divided, and far from its shores greater forces are mustering. Both England and Rome have a stake in driving magic from the Emerald Isle. Jordan, the Vatican commander tasked with vanquishing the remnants of otherworldly creatures from a disenchanted Europe, has built a career on such plots. But increasingly he finds himself torn between duty and his desire to understand the magic that has been forbidden.




As kings prepare, exorcists gather, and divisions widen between the warring clans of Ireland, Aisling and Jordan must come to terms with powers given and withheld, while a world that can still foster magic hangs in the balance. Loyalties are tested, betrayals sown, and the coming war will have repercussions that ripple centuries later, in today’s world—and in particular for a young graduate student named Sara Hill.[/learn_more]


The Devil You Know
by K.J. Parker
Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The greatest philosopher of all time is offering to sell his soul to the Devil. All he wants is twenty more years to complete his life’s work. After that, he really doesn’t care.




But the assistant demon assigned to the case has his suspicions, because the philosopher is Saloninus–the greatest philosopher, yes, but also the greatest liar, trickster and cheat the world has yet known; the sort of man even the Father of Lies can’t trust.




He’s almost certainly up to something; but what?[/learn_more]


Dragon Wizard (Dragon* #3)
by S. Andrew Swann
Fantasy
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]It has been a year since former thief Frank Blackthorne became Princess of Lendowyn and married a dragon. He’s coming to terms with his new life, but during the royal anniversary banquet, an elven prince reads a scroll of evil magic and Frank’s world is turned upside-down. Again.




The scroll’s spell causes a murderous rampage in a palace full of noble dignitaries, so it’s no surprise Frank’s visitors are angry. The Elf-King Timoras threatens war but Frank can’t do anything about it: because of the same bit of scroll magic, the ex-Dragon Lucille has taken over the princess’s body, unaware that Frank is still there, locked in her skull. And worst of all, the fate of everyone may soon rest on the shoulders of the man responsible for the whole mess, someone who should be safely dead… [/learn_more]



Young Adult:

Seven Black Diamonds
by Melissa Marr
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Lilywhite Abernathy is a criminal—she’s half human, half fae, and since the time before she was born, a war has been raging between humans and faeries. The Queen of Blood and Rage, ruler of the fae courts, wants to avenge the tragic death of her heir due to the actions of reckless humans.




Lily’s father has always shielded her, but when she’s sent to the prestigious St. Columba’s school, she’s delivered straight into the arms of a fae sleeper cell—the Black Diamonds. The Diamonds are planted in the human world as the sons and daughters of the most influential families and tasked with destroying it from within. Against her will, Lilywhite’s been chosen to join them…and even the romantic attention of the fae rock singer Creed Morrison isn’t enough to keep Lily from wanting to run back to the familiar world she knows.[/learn_more]


The Crown and the Arrow
(The Wrath and the Dawn #0.5)
by Renee Ahdieh
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Seventy-one days and seventy-one nights had come and gone since Khalid began killing his brides. This dawn, Khalid would mark the loss of the seventy-second girl, Shahrzad al-Khayzuran. Khalid didn’t know how many more of these dawns he could take. And there was something about this latest girl that piqued his interest. Not only had she volunteered to marry him, but at their wedding ceremony, she had seemed not the least bit afraid. In fact, what he had seen in her eyes was nothing short of pure hatred. She was about to lose her life. Why wasn’t she afraid? Why did she hate him so? He had never before gone to his wife’s chambers before her death at dawn. Tonight would be different.[/learn_more]


The Black Knife (The Orphan Queen #0.4)
by Jodi Meadows
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Skyvale is on the verge of becoming a battleground. Told from the perspective of Tobiah, the crown prince with a dangerous secret, and set two years before the heart-racing action of The Orphan Queen, this 100-page digital novella brings to life one of Jodi Meadows’s most beloved characters.




Tobiah Pierce has been beaten and broken and has lost two people he cares about. His worst enemy knows his deepest secret. What he thought he knew about his family has fallen apart. And his parents push harder than ever for him to court Lady Meredith. But with the imminent threat of firefly, the newest and deadliest version of a magical drug, Tobiah doesn’t have time to sort through his problems. If he doesn’t act immediately, firefly will suffocate the city and everyone in it.




The Black Knife is the final of four prequel novellas that offer existing fans a deeper insight into a favorite character and the complex city of Skyvale, while new readers will find a stunning introduction to this rich world and the heart-pounding fantasy of the Orphan Queen series.[/learn_more]


Into the Dim (Into The Dim #1)
by Janet B. Taylor
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing. [/learn_more]


Burning Glass (Burning Glass #1)
by Kathryn Purdie
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Sonya was born with the rare gift to feel what those around her feel—both physically and emotionally—a gift she’s kept hidden from the empire for seventeen long years. After a reckless mistake wipes out all the other girls with similar abilities, Sonya is hauled off to the palace and forced to serve the emperor as his sovereign Auraseer.




Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor. One mistake, one small failure, will cost her own life and the lives of the few people left in the world who still trust her.




But Sonya’s power is untamed and reckless, her feelings easily usurped, and she sometimes can’t decipher when other people’s impulses end and her own begin. In a palace full of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself.




As she struggles to wrangle her abilities, Sonya seeks refuge in her tenuous alliances with the volatile Emperor Valko and his idealistic younger brother, Anton, the crown prince. But when threats of revolution pit the two brothers against each other, Sonya must choose which brother to trust—and which to betray.[/learn_more]


A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1)
by Brittany Cavallaro
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The last thing sixteen-year-old Jamie Watson–writer and great-great-grandson of the John Watson–wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s enigmatic, fiercely independent great-great-granddaughter, who’s inherited not just his genius but also his vices, volatile temperament, and expertly hidden vulnerability. Charlotte has been the object of his fascination for as long as he can remember–but from the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else.




Then a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Holmes stories, and Jamie and Charlotte become the prime suspects. Convinced they’re being framed, they must race against the police to conduct their own investigation. As danger mounts, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe and the only people they can trust are each other.[/learn_more]


Midnight Bites
Stories of the Morganville Vampires
by Rachel Caine
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine presents a collection of stories—including six new tales—featuring the little Texas town that’s overrun by the undead.




WELCOME TO MORGANVILLE.
YOU’LL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE.





By day, Morganville, Texas, is just a typical college town. By night, the vampires emerge and take control….




In a town where it’s not safe to be out after dark, student Claire Danvers and her friends have had their fair share of thrills. But Morganville still has a few secrets left to tell.




Now, in this collection, you can venture down the town’s strange streets, revisit all the tales you’ve come to love, and experience six new stories featuring your favorite Morganville residents—both human and vampire… [/learn_more]


Blood Passage (Dark Caravan Cycle #2)
by Heather Demetrios
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Blood Passage is the electrifying second book in the Dark Caravan Cycle—a modern jinni fantasy-adventure trilogy from author Heather Demetrios, perfect for fans of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series and Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy.




When Nalia arrives in Morocco to fulfill Malek’s third and final wish, she’s not expecting it to be easy. Especially because Malek isn’t the only one after Solomon’s sigil, an ancient magical ring that gives its wearer the power to control the entire jinn race. Nalia has also promised to take Raif, leader of the jinn revolution, to its remote location. Though Nalia is free of the bottle and shackles that once bound her to Malek as his slave, she’s in more danger than ever before and no closer to rescuing her imprisoned brother.




Meanwhile, Malek’s past returns with a vengeance, and his well-manicured facade crumbles as he confronts the darkness within himself; and Raif must decide what’s more important: his love for Nalia or his devotion to the cause of Arjinnan freedom. [/learn_more]


The Awakening of Sunshine Girl
(The Haunting of Sunshine Girl #2)
by Paige McKenzie
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Having passed her test in Book One, Sunshine’s Luiseach powers are now fully awakened: for months now, Sunshine has felt spirits everywhere: heard voices, felt emotions – intense and sometimes overwhelming. She tries to ignore them, but it is impossible. Hoping to get her powers under control – and hoping for answers to her never-ending questions – she agrees to undergo training with her Luiseach mentor, even though she still hopes to give up her powers someday.




She and her mentor clash left and right; he doesn’t understand or approve of her attachment to the humans in her life; and she can’t understand how he could give her up so many years ago, only to endanger her mother’s life as part of a test.




Sunshine’s training is every bit as terrifying and creepy as her test was, and along the way she meets and befriends another young Luiseach, forcing her to confront her feelings for Nolan. Though her mentor is reluctant to answer her many questions, she finally learns more about her lineage, as well as the rift that threatens the future of Luiseach and the human race… and the crucial part she has to play in repairing it.[/learn_more]


Siren’s Song (The Storm Siren #3)
by Mary Weber
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Nym and Draewulf prepare to face off in a battle destined to destroy more lives than it saves.




With the loss of Tulla still fresh in mind, Rasha’s fate unknown, and Lord Myles taken over by the dark ability, Nym and the few Bron soldiers rush to warn Cashlin’s queen. Only to discover it may already be too late for the monarch and her eerie kingdom. As the Luminescents are sifting through Nym’s past memories and the queen is reading into her future, Nym is given a choice of how to defeat Draewulf, but the cost may be more than she can bear. And even then there are no guarantees.




With that reality burrowing into her bones—along with the guilt of the lives she will sacrifice—Nym returns to her homeland of Faelen to raise an army of peasants through promises of freedom. But when the few friends she has left, along with the world and citizens she loves, are staring down the face of a monster and his undead army, will Nym summon every element her blood is capable of controlling . . . or surrender to a different strength—one of sacrifice?




Because in the end, death may be more merciful for them all.[/learn_more]


Beyond the Red
by Ava Jae
Young Adult
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule.




Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human alike for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity—a secret kept even from him.




When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public execution. But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide.[/learn_more]


The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home
(Fairyland #5)
by Catherynne M. Valente
Middle Grade
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Quite by accident, September has been crowned as Queen of Fairyland – but she inherits a Kingdom in chaos. The magic of a Dodo’s egg has brought every King, Queen, or Marquess of Fairyland back to life, each with a fair and good claim on the throne, each with their own schemes and plots and horrible, hilarious, hungry histories. In order to make sense of it all, and to save their friend from a job she doesn’t want, A-Through-L and Saturday devise a Royal Race, a Monarckical Marathon, in which every outlandish would-be ruler of Fairyland will chase the Stoat of Arms across the whole of the nation – and the first to seize the poor beast will seize the crown. Caught up in the madness are the changelings Hawthorn and Tamburlaine, the combat wombat Blunderbuss, the gramophone Scratch, the Green Wind, and September’s parents, who have crossed the universe to find their daughter…[/learn_more]


Rise of the Ragged Clover
(The Luck Uglies #3)
by Paul Durham
Middle Grade
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]The epic final battle between the Luck Uglies and the Fork-Tongue Charmers comes to Rye’s doorstep in this exhilarating conclusion to the critically acclaimed Luck Uglies series.




Against all odds, Rye manages to rescue her father, the High Chieftain of the Luck Uglies, from the treacherous Fork-Tongue Charmers. But when she travels back home to Drowning to help him with his plan to defeat these bitter rivals, she finds the village in shambles. Monstrous Bog Noblins raid the streets at night. And people are afraid to leave their homes because no one is around to protect them. Rye realizes she can’t wait for the adults to sort it out—so she enlists her friends to come up with a plan. A plan that could change everything for Drowning…because the only way to save her village may be to destroy it.




The Luck Uglies series has all the makings of a modern classic. Filled with friendship, adventure, secrets, and a hint of magic, this critically acclaimed series is an irresistible cross between Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice and Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories series.[/learn_more]


The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez
by Robin Yardi
Middle Grade
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]Life is confusing for Mateo Martinez. He and Johnny Ramirez don’t hang out anymore, even though they used to be best friends. He and his new friend Ashwin try to act like brave, old-time knights, but it only gets them in trouble. His parents keep telling him to hold his sister’s hand when crossing busy streets, even though she’s the one who always runs ahead.




And last night, two skunks stole Mateo’s old trike.




Wait—two skunks stole his trike?




Mateo is too big for that rusty kid toy. He has a cool, shiny new bike anyway. But Mateo also has a neighborhood to protect. And he’s about to begin a big, stinky quest to catch the thieves. A quest that starts in the middle of the night![/learn_more]


Charmed (Fairy Tale Reform School #2)
by Jen Calonita
Middle Grade
[learn_more caption=”Book Description”]It takes a (mostly) reformed thief to catch a spy. Which is why Gilly Cobbler, Enchantasia’s most notorious pickpocket, volunteers to stay locked up at Fairy Tale Reform School…indefinitely. Gilly and her friends may have defeated the Evil Queen and become reluctant heroes, but the battle for Enchantasia has just begun.




Alva, aka The Wicked One who cursed Sleeping Beauty, has declared war on the Princesses, and she wants the students of Fairy Tale Reform School to join her. As her criminal classmates give in to temptation, Gilly goes undercover as a Royal Lady in Waiting (don’t laugh) to unmask a spy…before the mole can hand Alva the keys to the kingdom.




Her parents think Gilly the Hero is completely reformed, but sometimes you have to get your hands dirty. Sometimes it’s good to be bad… [/learn_more]



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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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5 responses to “Fresh Meat: February 28 to March 5 — 39 Speculative Fiction Releases