Check out the upcoming book releases for this week, as well as a few for next week. It looks like next week is a slow week for releases, so we’ve included them in this week’s listing.
Fallen
By: Kate Lauren
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From BarnesandNoble.com) There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori. Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move. Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her. Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.
Burning Shadows
By: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From BarnesandNoble.com) Two decades strong, the Saint-Germain cycle is one of the most compelling works of dark fantasy and horror of our age. Historically accurate, these deeply emotional novels have a devoted readership.
In Burning Shadows, Yarbro looks at the legendary Huns from the perspective of the people who faced the brunt of their attacks. The vampire Saint-Germain seeks sanctuary at an isolated monastery, unwilling to abandon the hundreds of terrified villagers he has led in flight from the Huns. A few Roman soldiers and some village Watchmen are the monastery’s defense force—and they are undermined by the religious fervor of some of the monks, who argue that since everyone’s fate is in God’s hands, it is foolish to defend themselves. In the hothouse atmosphere of the high-walled monastery, Saint-Germain must take special care when slaking his vampire thirst, for discovery of his True Nature will result in his True Death.
KISS Kompendium
By: Gene Simmons
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From BarnesandNoble.com) In ’77, blood from each member of the rock band KISS was drawn by a registered nurse and poured into vats of red ink used for printing the band’s first comic book. It was created by Marvel legend Stan Lee and was the beginning of a hugely successful KISS comic book franchise. All are now out of print.
Now, for the first time, the KISS Kompendium combines the most breathtaking KISS comic books into a lush oversized collector’s compilation. Brought to life by graphic illustrations as riveting and hardcore as the band’s real-life fire-breathing line-up, the Demon (Gene Simmons), Starchild (Paul Stanley), and the other band members’ superhero alter egos defeat evil in over 1200 pages of stunning KISS comics!
This is a book authorized by KISS. KISS founding members Gene Simmons, a rock legend and star of A&E’s Family Jewels, and Paul Stanley have contributed the forewords to this. The book also includes exclusive never-before-seen backstage photos from KISS’ newest tour along with commentary by the band-members.
This is a must-have for every KISS fan eagerly awaiting the band’s new album, their first in over 10 years, and a perfect holiday gift for comic-book lovers to pour over time and time again.
Muse and Reverie
By: Charles de Lint
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From Publishers Weekly) This collection of 13 stories is the fifth set in Newford, de Lint’s city of artists, musicians and magic, and the first since 2002’s Tapping the Dream Tree. Interspersing time travel (“Riding Shotgun,” “That Was Radio Clash”) and period pieces (“The Hour Before Dawn”) with tales of Native American and Celtic magic (“A Crow Girls’ Christmas,” “Da Slockit Light”), de Lint creates an entirely organic mythology that seems as real as the folklore from which it draws. From flighty yet powerful avatars to fiendish goblins, the characters are complex and clever, and even the most fantastical still has a sense of humanity. The endings often contain twists worthy of O. Henry. These clever, frightening, wise and entertaining stories are an excellent introduction to de Lint’s writing and imagination, and will also provide longtime fans a welcome return to Newford.
Wormwood, Nevada
By: David Oppegaard
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From Publishers Weekly) A meteorite crashing into the Nevada desert sparks a search for meaning and purpose in Oppegaard’s intriguing if flat follow-up to The Suicide Collectors. Tyler and Anna Mayfield move to Wormwood, Nev., looking to escape the postcollege funk that permeated their lives in Nebraska. When a night out at the local bar is interrupted with a massive explosion nearby, the young couple find themselves in the middle of an already off-kilter town going meteor crazy. Tyler, haunted by the disappearance of his older brother years ago, sees booze, weed and fatigue-induced visions of aliens and becomes involved with a group that believes “visitors” will arrive imminently. Meanwhile, Anna, a former Miss Nebraska, suffers apocalyptic nightmares amid fears that the best years of her life are slipping away. Oppegaard deftly aligns the inner fears and waning hopes of his well-rounded protagonists with the paranormal tremors, but the tension all but dies in the final act as the novel unspools into a disappointingly diffuse anticlimax.
Claimed by the Wolf
By: Charlene Teglia
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From BarnesandNoble.com) Romance author Teglia (Wicked Hot) introduces the Shadow Guardians paranormal romance series with a sizzling story. Sybil Ames is a frustrated apprentice witch whose coven won’t teach her any magic. Then she unwittingly becomes the host for demonic magic sealed in a grimoire she finds at an estate sale. After being rescued by handsome werewolf Kenric, Sybil learns she can control and use the magic boiling in her veins by receiving the mark of Inanna, which can only be obtained by having sex with the goddess’s five servants: taciturn Kenric, easygoing dragon Kadar, forceful demon Abaran, considerate vampire Adrian and dominant elf Ronan. The plot is sparse, but Teglia’s prose is snappy; Sybil is a determined, witty heroine; the men are likable and distinct; and their erotic misadventures are a feast for the senses.
Witchlight
By: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From BarnesandNoble.com) Winter Musgrave remembers nothing about her life except for the bare bones of her childhood and pieces of her years as a successful trader on Wall Street. She fears she has gone mad–but is it madness when objects shatter when she grows angry and the doors and windows of her home unlock and open while she sleeps? When mutilated corpses of small animals appear on the doorstep of her isolated farmhouse?
Desperate, Winter seeks help at the Bidney Institute for Psychic Research. With the help of Truth Jourdemayne, Winter recalls that she had once been a member of a magickal circle—one that left something behind . . . . Truth is no stranger to the paranormal, but she isn’t prepared for the strength and fury of the thing that is hunting Winter and her old friends.
Winter must gather the scattered remnants of her circle. It won’t be easy, not with her best friend dead—murdered by magickal evil—and her old love, Hunter Greyson, long missing. Grey calls to Winter in her dreams, begging for her help . . . but how can she find a man she can barely remember?
With a new package sure to appeal to today’s readers, Witchlight returns to print after a five-year absence.
Need
By: Carrie Jones
Release Date: 12/8/2009
(From Borders.com) Zara collects phobias the way other girls collect Facebook friends. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.
Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie–and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.
With suspense, romance, and paranormal themes, this exciting breakout novel has readers rapidly turning the pages.
Female Force: Stephenie Meyer
By: Ryan Burton
Release Date: 12/9/2009
(From Borders.com) Just in time for the theatrical release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Bluewater brings you Female Force: Stephenie Meyer! Named USA Today’s “Author of the Year” in 2008, the celebrity author is responsible for ushering in a new vampire-centric fan base. From her beginnings in Connecticut and Utah, to her fame and fortune as today’s hottest author, witness her story being told by the most famous vampire of them all!
Witch and Wizard
By: James Patterson
Release Date: 12/14/2009
(From BarnesandNoble.com) The world is changing—the government has seized control of almost everything and kids are disappearing. For 15 year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside-down when they are hauled out of bed one night, separated from their parents, and thrown into a secret compound for no reason they can comprehend, except that the new government is clearly trying to suppress Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Imprisoned together in a decrepit cell, Wisty and Whit cling to the only things they have left—a blank book, a drum stick, and each other. While searching for ways to escape, both begin exhibiting strange abilities. Maybe there is a reason they were singled out! Can Wisty and Whit, a witch and a wizard, master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents—and maybe the world? From James Patterson, the creator of the bestselling Maximum Ride and Daniel X novels, comes WITCH & WIZARD, his most terrifying and awe-inspiring series yet.
Too Much Money
By: Dominick Dunne
Release Date: 12/15/2009
(From Amazon.com): The last two years have been monstrously unpleasant for high-society journalist Gus Bailey. His propensity for gossip has finally gotten him into trouble—$11 million worth. His problems begin when he falls hook, line, and sinker for a fake story from an unreliable source and repeats it on a radio program. As a result of his flip comments, Gus becomes embroiled in a nasty slander suit brought by Kyle Cramden, the powerful congressman he accuses of being involved in the mysterious disappearance of a young woman, and he fears it could mean the end of him.
The stress of the lawsuit makes it difficult for Gus to focus on the novel he has been contracted to write, which is based on the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. It is a story that has dominated the party conversations of Manhattan’s chattering classes for more than two years. The convicted murderer is behind bars, but Gus is not convinced that justice was served. There are too many unanswered questions, such as why a paranoid man who was usually accompanied by bodyguards was without protection the very night he perished in a tragic fire. Konstantin’s hot-tempered widow, Perla, is obsessed with climbing the social ladder and, as a result, she will do anything to suppress this potentially damaging story. Gus is convinced she is the only thing standing between him and the truth. Dominick Dunne revives the world he first introduced in his mega-bestselling novel People Like Us, and he brings readers up to date on favorite characters such as Ruby and Elias Renthal, Lil Altemus, and, of course, the beloved Gus Bailey. Once again, he invites us to pull up a seat at the most important tables at Swifty’s, get past the doormen at esteemed social clubs like The Butterfield, and venture into the innermost chambers of the Upper East Side’s most sumptuous mansions. Too Much Money is a satisfying, mischievous, and compulsively readable tale by the most brilliant society chronicler of our time—the man who knew all the secrets and wasn’t afraid to share them.
Are any of these books on your wish list for the holidays? Join us in the forum and let us know!
