Top UF & PNR Picks for May

Here are my top Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance picks for May. What are yours?! Are mine on any of your lists?

 Shadow Bound (Unbound #2) - Rachel Vincent

If you live in the dark long enough, you begin to forget the light…
KORI DANIELS is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, Kenley, even if that means taking it from someone else…

The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own. Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.

Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty….

** The first book in this series, Blood Bound, was awesome and left me and Nat/WLP dying for more. Our thoughts on it are here. 

A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1) - Pamela Palmer


Vampires live only for lust and pleasure in the eternal twilight of Vamp City. But the city’s magic is dying. The only person who can restore it? A beautiful woman from the mortal world...one who knows nothing of the power she wields.

Quinn Lennox is searching for a missing friend when she stumbles into a dark otherworld that only she can see—and finds herself at the mercy of Arturo Mazza, a dangerously handsome vampire whose wicked kiss will save her, enslave her, bewitch her, and betray her.

What Arturo can’t do is forget about her—any more than Quinn can control her own feelings for him. Neither one can let desire get in the way of their mission—his to save his people, hers to save herself.

But there is no escape from desire in a city built for seduction, where passion flows hot and blood-red. Welcome to Vamp City.


**  I know nothing about this book or the author so this is a book I am choosing based on reviews from ARCs I have read. This is my word-of-mouth choice.

Tangle of Need (Psy-Changeling #11) - Nalini Singh


Adria, wolf changeling soldier, has made a break with a past as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer whose lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It’s primal. And it consumes them as completely as the impending cataclysmic Psy war—a battle that may alter the very fate of the world.


** HELLO - it's Nalini Singh and it's the Psy-Changeling series. That's all you need to freakin know. 

H&H Exclusive: Ann Aguirre's ENDURANCE teaser

Ann Aguirre's new short story Endurance will be up at Heroes & Heartbreakers on Wednesday at 9AM EST. Here is a teaser excerpt of Chapter 2.


Stone had never killed anything. Not an animal. Not an insect. His most sacred charge came in preserving life; he tended the brats when they took ill. He fed them. Played with them. Sometimes he taught them small things, like how to cut meat or tie a knot—nothing significant, the elders argued. It wasn’t as if he played a vital role in enclave life, not like the Wordkeeper. Anyone with two hands could clean the filth off a brat’s backside.


Fearing a freak attack, he’d stumbled into the common area, ready to pitch in, and found that his fellow citizens had gone crazy. Thimble had mentioned something about unrest, but he’d ignored her. He had thought, You worry too much. As it turned out, she had been right. I wish I’d listened. But…how could anyone expect this? All around him, they fought with whatever weapons fell to hand. People were bleeding and dying; death hung heavy in the air.


He backed away, thinking only to hide, but a Hunter stopped him with a look that promised Stone’s end, unless he did something really right. The boy shoved a weapon at him; Stone took the blade awkwardly, stupid with shock.


“Fight or die,” the Hunter demanded. “Are you with us?”


“With who?” He heard the break in his voice, knowing distress made him weak—unsuited to any task but breeding and caring for the young. A smarter male would know what to do, so maybe it was best he had been given only simple work. But that lack left him helpless now.


“Twist, or the elders. Whitewall’s dead, and the Wordkeeper’s corpse is right over there.”


Stone fought his urge to look but in the end, he couldn’t help it. The elder lay sprawled on his side, a dark pool spreading from his cut throat. Behind him, blood spattered the wall. His stomach lurched, and he tightened his hand on the knife to try to control the nausea.


There was no way out of this nightmare. “What side are you on?”


“I’m with Twist,” the Hunter snapped, like that should have been obvious. Maybe it would’ve been to anyone else.


At the best of times, he wasn’t quick to connect puzzle pieces or work things out. He’d always had Thimble for that. An ache sprang up in his chest.


Where is she?


The look in the Hunter’s eye told Stone that if he answered wrong, he’d get a dagger in the chest and end up in a pile next to the Wordkeeper. From this point on, everything would change. No matter who won, the enclave couldn’t continue as it had. Too many lives had already been lost.


“Me too,” he said quickly.


At that, the Hunter gave a satisfied nod. “I’m not surprised. You must’ve have noticed how unfair the rules are and how few lawbreakers actually did anything at all. Your best friend went on the long walk, didn’t she? Took the blame for you.”


The pain in his heart increased. He’d known what she was doing. Stone had pretended to believe in Deuce’s confession to settle any doubts the elders might have about him. He’d been thinking of the brat in his arms, the little one he wasn’t supposed to love. Unfortunately, he knew which one belonged to him, the little guy with his eyes and his smile, and it was impossible for him not to care. It just was. He would’ve said anything to keep his brat safe, and he had. Turned his back on his best friend and left her to die. The guilt of that moment would always haunt him. But maybe his moments were numbered, and it didn’t matter anymore.


Apparently he’d just joined the rebellion.


He went with the Hunter into battle, and only luck let him endure the massacre. Stone stuck close to his companion and slashed with desperate doubt at anything that came close. His size helped; it was rare for anyone to grow so tall. The Wordkeeper said he was a throwback, whatever that meant, a relic of a time when people ate better and grew larger. Stone only knew his long arms let him slam people away. He didn’t want to hurt them. The idea of using this blade on someone—his stomach turned. But he couldn’t help it. Stone tried, but they kept coming. Just shoving them away wasn’t enough, and the Hunter was staring at him.


Someone else lunged at him; and he reacted. With one thrust, he killed a girl, a Huntress, who’d come up in Deuce’s class. She wasn’t experienced, strong, or particularly skilled. Her throat yielded to his knife like the meat he cut for the brats, and hot blood poured over his fingers. The smell was coppery and sweet, and it made his tongue feel thick to breathe the heavy air. Her body plopped, and another Hunter rushed at him.


Why won’t they stop? What’s the point?


Stone wept as he fought until his arms were heavy and he smelled nothing but burnt meat and despair. His lungs burned raw; his eyes stung from the sweat trickling into them. His blade grew sticky, until it disgusted him to hold it. The Hunter beside him smiled, like they had done good work.


And then it was over.


Silk’s cohort encircled them. The blonde woman who commanded the Hunters strode forward, demanding, “Put down your weapons.”


The rebel Hunter rushed and died on her blade. With deceptive strength, she caught the young man she’d once led and laid him beside the other bodies. In someone else, Stone would’ve judged her expression as bleak and infinite grief.


But Silk firmed her chin, the look faded, and she leveled an icy stare on him. “Do you prefer death to the long walk, traitor?”


What will become of Boy23? That was his brat’s number. It seemed impossible and wrong that he would never learn the boy’s name or whether he survived. He’d betrayed Deuce for nothing. Maybe, he thought, some fates can’t be avoided…and I’ll always be banished for the crime of loving him.


The long walk had become a synonym for slow death. For those of the underground tribes, it meant exile, but there was no light at the end of the tunnels. Other settlements wouldn’t harbor lawbreakers, and everyone knew it was death to venture Topside. Might be better to take the blade in the gut. Faster, anyway.


But he couldn’t summon the courage to speak those words. Instead, others came out. “I’ll go, if I can beg one favor.”


“You’re in no position to bargain with me,” Silk snapped. “I don’t have time for this.”


She didn’t; it was true. The survivors had to clean up the bodies before plague set in. Dead meat attracted bad things. If they didn’t act fast, the enclave would be swarming with Freaks. That might happen anyway, if the smell got to the monsters and drove them to frenzy.


“Let me find Thimble to say good-bye. We were brat-mates.” That wasn’t the whole reason, of course. He meant to ask her to watch over Boy23 for him, but Silk wouldn’t get why. Farewell, she understood.


“Fine. Locate her and say what’s needed. You’d be given time to collect your personal items under normal circumstances anyway.”


Stone squared his shoulders, grateful he would be permitted this much. Living would be hard anyway, after the things he had done. Breeders gave life and preserved it; they didn’t kill.


“Wait.” She seemed to reconsider, taking stock of the ruined common area. “Look, I’m the last elder. Which means I’m in charge. And I didn’t always agree with how they ran things.”


They, meaning Copper, Whitewall, and the Wordkeeper? He waited to for her to go on.


“If you swear your loyalty, the enclave could use you. I’ll do the elections like Twist wanted and everything, though rebuilding has to be my priority. Frankly, right now, we don’t have the numbers left for me to send people Topside for the sake of old traditions.”


“I swear,” he said hoarsely. “I won’t fight you. I won’t plot anything.”


“Then find Thimble. Do a headcount and let me know how many people made it.”


“Including brats?”


“Yes.” With that, she turned to her remaining Hunters and snapped terse instructions regarding cleanup, but Stone didn’t wait to hear more.


He threw down the knife and sprinted with ever-increasing speed, hurdling bodies and smoldering piles of refuse. The neat organization of their enclave had vanished in a few, devastating hours. It would take weeks to restore order. When he passed Twist’s broken body, he paused. You got what you wanted, I guess, even if you didn’t live to see it. You changed things.


With each moment that he failed to find Boy23 or Thimble, his heart pressed up into his throat. It felt like it would split into two meaty pieces and come up in a hot gush of sickness, worsened by the stench of the dead and dying. This place no longer felt like home; there was no safety. Just wreckage.


If they’re gone, I will be too. I can’t survive this without them.


Then he came at last to the brat dorm, where he spotted movement within a makeshift shelter deep in the shadows. Stone flew across that distance, hardly daring to hope. When he opened the curtain and found Thimble there, safe and whole, surrounded by brats, he smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. He’s there, my little Boy23. She saved him. Oh, Thimble.


He dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around all of them. He might never let go.

Spaz Reviews: Summoning the Night - Jenn Bennett

My new review of Summoning the Night by Jenn Bennett is up at WLP. It's out tomorrow!

I am sure many of you know how much I loved Jenn Bennett’s premier in the Arcadia Bell series from last year, Kindling the Moon. I’d been waiting and waiting for the follow-up, so when I finally received the ARC of this second Arcadia Bell book, Summoning the Night, I was really nervous to start it. But that was just silly. The minute I cracked it open and started reading, I was reminded why I loved this world so much the first go around.

All the things that made me fond of the characters in the first book were present and built upon. Cady is still adjusting to dating an older man with his loud-mouthed charismatic son as well as establishing the role she fills not only in Lon’s life but in Jupe’s too. Continue reading...

omg ENDGAME has a mothalovin cover y'all

One of my most eagerly anticipated books has an official cover by (*edit: illustrator Scott M. Fischer)  Dan Dos Santos, who has done all previous 5 covers of Ann Aguirre's Sirantha Jax series. Aftermath is the 6th & final Jax book, and seeing this cover has my heart beating out of my chest. Its release date is August 28th, 2012. This is one of my most favorite and cherished series, and the previous book, Aftermath was one of favorite books of 2011. 

Bio taken from goodreads.

REGRET NOTHING.
Sirantha Jax has the J-gene, which permits her to “jump” faster-than-light ships through grimspace. She loves nothing more than that rush, but the star roads have to wait…
Her final mission takes her to La’heng, a planet subjugated during first contact. Since then, the La’hengrin homeworld has been occupied by foreign conquerors.
All that’s about to change.
Now, as part of a grass-roots resistance, Jax means to liberate the La’hengrin. Political intrigue and guerrilla warfare are new to her; this will be the most dangerous game she’s ever played—spies and conspiracies, a war of weapons and hearts, and everyone might not make it out alive…

The full Jax series:

Spaz Reviews: If Angels Burn - Lynn Viehl

My latest review of If Angels Burn by Lynn Viehl is up at WLP!

I have to admit, I’d not heard of this author before. I have no idea how I missed her. I saw a promotional post on her latest release Nightborn (Lords of the Darkyn) spinoff the Darkyn series, and it sounded so good! But because I am really particular about reading series in order, I picked this first book in the series up immediately. Once I started If Angels Burnand updated goodreads status to Twitter, everyone was like ARE YOU JUST NOW READING THIS? Ack! But I quickly discovered the source of their passionate disbelief… From the very first chapter, I KNEW this would end up being a favorite series for me. I kept thinking to myself, “this is sooo my kinda book!” Yes, it was released in 2005, but it’s new-to-me and I loved it so much that I simply had to review it, in case there are others who have missed this awesomely DARK Fantasy-Kinda PNR series! Dr. Alexandra Keller has built herself a life very much based in facts, and science. She is a brilliant reconstructive surgeon with a private practice all her own. She is an abrasive yet charismatic heroine and I was immediately drawn to her. In contrast, her brother has gone the other direction, completely embracing his faith in the Catholic Church, all the way to seeking priesthood. Continue reading...

Happy News! Countdown of Days in Extended Stay Has Begun!

I know, you must think we're crazy town, not wanting to continue on in this Extended Stay hotel studio room with our dogs any longer than we have to. Especially when one of our furry beasts has terminal cancer, and is on prednisone that requires him to be let out every 3-4 hours. <pull out your tiny violin here!> Which means walking him down the stairs and out to the parking lot at all hours. A lot. Oh and the wide variety of TV stations we get: 5 ESPN channels, PBS, Oxygen, and 2 Showtimes. And yes, housecleaning happens, but don't get too excited. It's once a week. So the fact that I'm *muppet flailing* all around this glamorous setup now that we have an end in sight is mystifying, no?

Be that as it may, we finally found "the one" on Wednesday... The House! Our first house bought in 2005 we put up for sale this past Fall/Winter while the market was pretty lethargic. We knew that we were ready to move to a new area and in to something more suitable for us to begin a family (I'm 35, ain't getting any younger) so we stuck to our guns and held out for the price we wanted. Then boom! January happened, and we got an offer for what we were asking. But since we had a very specific set of requirements we wanted as our second house, before we knew it, we closed in March and had nothing else to move in to! All our life possessions went in to a huge storage unit and we found ourselves in a hotel room.

After all these months of chasing down houses in a market that has exploded (quit moving to Austin, people, srsly!), holding out for what we really wanted finally paid off. We made an offer today, and the offer has been accepted and we now are set to close on May 3rd. New Chapter in our life together, ready to begin!

I AM FEELING VERY SHOUTY AND ALL CAPS RIGHT NOW!!! AHHHHHHH! Excuse me while I go do cartwheels down the hotel hallway!

Kelly Meding's Dreg City: Urban Fantasy MUST READ Series

I learned of some news on Friday that made me sad and angry, and I have something to say about it. Here goes... POOP on Bantam! 

Kelly Meding announced yesterday in her blog post "An Announcement of the Worst Kind" that, unfortunately, Bantam has decided not to purchase anymore of her Dreg City series books. My heart sank to my stomach. This cannot happen. I've gone through so much with Evy Stone, and all the secondary characters. It's these characters that have me auto-buying each of the books in this series. This cannot freaking happen! NO!! But it IS happening! As Kelly states on her blog: 

"Basically, the series isn't selling. Despite being reviewed well and despite you amazing, wonderfully loyal fans, the sales numbers just aren't there. This certainly drives home the point that no matter how artistic you may think writing is, publishing is still a business." 

I get that publishing is a business, but I could not be any more crushed. I first discovered Kelly Meding's series in 2010, and have been a huge fan of the series. The books are incredibly imaginative, the setting intensely dark, and the action magnificently violent. And all wrapped up in the middle of this, is a rough heart-aching romance. But the kind that hurts so good!!

Each story is a true intense roller coaster ride of suspense and tension. I am surprised by the number of friends I've spoken to who just have been too genuinely busy to give this series a try. So it is with a passionate plea I implore of you: Give this series a try! If you haven't picked it up, what have you been waiting for? 

Here is more information on the books in the series, along with review links, and purchase links! PLEASE, show your support for this series. If sales are good, we have a huge chance to get more. Kelly has already  indicated that she has the fifth Evy already written in her head and absolutely knows where the series is going. 

Three Days to Dead (Dreg City #1)

• Buy at Amazon
• Buy at Barnes & Noble
• Buy at Book Depository

They’ll never see her coming. . . .
When Evangeline Stone wakes up naked and bruised on a cold slab at the morgue—in a stranger’s body, with no memory of who she is and how she got there—her troubles are only just beginning. Before that night she and the two other members of her Triad were the city’s star bounty hunters, mercilessly cleansing the city of the murderous creatures living in the shadows, from vampires to shape-shifters to trolls. Then something terrible happened that not only cost all three of them their lives but also convinced the city’s other Hunters that Evy was a traitor—and she can’t even remember what it was.Now she’s a fugitive, piecing together her memory, trying to deal some serious justice—and discovering that she has only three days to solve her own murder before the reincarnation spell wears off. Because in three days Evy will die again—but this time there’s no second chance. . . 

Previously Reviewed at:

Wicked Lil Pixie

The Book Lush

Tynga's Reviews

The Book Smugglers

My Bookish Ways

Fiction Vixen

Smexy Books

As Lie the Dead (Dreg City #2)

• Buy at Amazon
• Buy at Barnes & Noble
• Buy at Book Depository

Evangeline Stone, a rogue bounty hunter, never asked for a world divided between darkness and light . . . or the power to die and live again in someone else’s borrowed body. After a murder plot meant to take her out leaves an entire race of shapeshifters nearly extinct, Evy is gnawed by guilt. So when one of the few survivors of the slaughter enlists her aid, she feels duty-bound to help—even though protecting a frail, pregnant shifter is the last thing Evy needs, especially with the world going to hell around her.Amid weres, Halfies, gremlins, vamps—and increasingly outgunned humans—a war for supremacy is brewing. With shifters demanding justice, her superiors desperate to control her, and an assassin on her trail, Evy discovers a horrifying conspiracy. And she may be the only person in the world who can stop it—unless, of course, her own side gets her first.

Previously reviewed at:

Smexybooks

The Good, The Bad, & The Unread

Book Lovers, Inc

Paperback Dolls

Yummy Men & Kickass Chicks

Bitten By Books

Another Kind of Dead (Dreg City #3)

• Buy at Amazon
• Buy at Barnes & Noble
• Buy at Book Depository

She can heal her own wounds. She can nail a monster to a wall. But there’s one danger Evangeline Stone never saw coming. Been there. Done that. Evy Stone is a former Dreg Bounty Hunter who died and came back to life with some extraordinary powers. Now all but five people in the world think she is dead again, this time for good—immolated in a factory fire set specifically for her. Evy and Wyatt, her partner/lover/friend, can no longer trust their former allies, or even the highest echelons of the Triads—the army of fighters holding back from an unsuspecting public a tide of quarreling, otherworldly creatures—they can trust only each other. Because when the Triads raided a macabre, monster-filled lab of science experiments and hauled away the remnants, they failed to capture their creator: a brilliant, vampire-obsessed scientist with a wealth of powerful, anti-Dreg weaponry to trade for what he desires most of all—Evy Stone: alive and well, and the key to his ultimate experiment in mad science.

Previously reviewed at:

Wicked Lil Pixie

Yummy Men & Kickass Chicks

Owl Cat Mountain

A Book Obsession

Addicted 2 Heroines

Wrong Side of Dead (Dreg City #4)

• Buy at Amazon
• Buy at Barnes & Noble
• Buy at Book Depository

Monster hunter Evangeline Stone woke up on the wrong side of dead this morning—and now there’s hell to pay. 
 Barely recovered from her extended torture at the hands of mad scientist Walter Thackery, Evy can use a break. What she gets instead is a war, as the battered Triads that keep Dreg City safe find themselves under attack by half-Blood vampires who have somehow retained their reason, making them twice as lethal. Worse, the Halfies are joined by a breed of were-creature long believed extinct—back and more dangerous than ever. Meanwhile, Evy’s attempts at reconciliation with the man she loves take a hit after Wyatt is viciously assaulted—an attack traced to Thackery, who has not given up his quest to exterminate all vampires . . . even if he has to destroy Dreg City to do it. With Wyatt’s time running out, another threat emerges from the shadows and a staggering betrayal shatters the fragile alliance between the Triads, vampires, and shapeshifters, turning Evy’s world upside down forever.

Previously reviewed at:

Wicked Lil Pixie

Smexybooks

Urban Fantasy Investigations

Yummy Men & Kickass Chicks

Addicted 2 Heroines

Dreg City #5:  It's gonna happen. Let's make it happen, people!! Check out the series, show the demand is THERE for more Evy Stone! I promise you won't be disappointed.