Renee's Book Addiction

May 1, 2009: Blood from Stone (Retrievers series, book 6) by Laura Anne Gilman

Here is a book description from the author’s site:

Wren Valere’s job is driving her crazy. She’s still Manhattan’s most sought-after Retriever, but after last year’s deadly confrontation with the Silence, all this magic-user wants is a break. With her apartment going co-op and her relationship with the demon P.B. putting stress on her romance with partner Sergei, is Wren finally ready to settle down to a more stable existence?

Not likely.

Because when you’re good, trouble always finds you. Wren’s next assignment puts her on the wrong side of a child-snatcher — and a collision course with her past. But to save a friend—and protect her future — Wren must pull off the most important Retrieval of her life . . . and for once magic isn’t on her side.

• Laura Anne Gilman’s blog and site.
• Excerpt on publisher’s site.
• “Browse“ Blood from Stone.

May 5, 2009: Hard and Fast (Fast Track series, book 2) by Erin McCarthy

Here is a book description from the publisher’s site:

An experiment in romance…

New to Charlotte, stock car racing country, graduate student Imogen Wilson meets Ty McCordle, a driver who inexplicably has her pulse racing.  After an encounter at the track with a woman whose main goal in life is to marry a driver, Imogen realizes she’s hit on the perfect thesis for her Sociology degree. If she follows The Rules on how to get a man, can she steer her way to into the hearts of the drivers and establish their dating—and mating—patterns?

That’s testing the limits of passion.

Although sexy and reckless Ty is the ideal test subject, she knows she can’t pursue him for the sake of science. Yet he’s the one who’s chasing after her, and Imogen realizes that she actually wants to be caught. A southern gentleman like Ty won’t fail to disappoint, will satisfy all her curiosity—and make all the risks worthwhile…

• Erin McCarthy’s site.
• Excerpt for Hard and Fast (scroll down page.)

May 5, 2009: Dead and Gone (The Southern Vampire series, book 9) by Charlaine Harris

Here is the description from the author’s site:

Except for Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, know little about vamps—and nothing about weres.

Until now. The weres and shifters have finally decided to reveal their existence to the ordinary world. At first all goes well. Then the mutilated body of a were-panther is found near the bar where Sookie works—and she feels compelled to discover who, human or otherwise, did it.

But there’s a far greater danger threatening Bon Temps. A race of unhuman beings—older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves—is preparing for war. And Sookie finds herself an all-too human pawn in their battle.

• Charliane Harris’ site.
• Excerpt on publisher’s site.

May 5, 2009: Daring Time by Beth Kery

Here is the description from the publisher’s site:

He sees her, wants her, needs her…

Chicago Detective Ryan Daire has many secrets: a love for Shakespeare, an appreciation for the all the finer things in life, and an absolute lack of restraint in the bedroom. Now he has an even bigger secret. In every shifting shadow of the sprawling mansion he’s recently inherited he can see her—tempting, ethereal, and untouchable. Hope Stillwater inhabited that mansion in 1906. Raw desire has formed a conduit between these two passionate souls who are separated by the barrier of time.

Now he has to have her.

Intoxicated by each other’s presence, Ryan and Hope are closer than ever to crossing that inviting boundary between two worlds. But there is one grave danger: Ryan’s job has put him on the trail of a depraved criminal in an investigation that’s risking Hope’s eternal fate and happiness. Now he must do whatever it takes to change history, protect Hope from harm, and set his own desires free.

• Beth Kery’s site.
• Excerpt on author’s site.

May 5, 2009: Darkborn (Darkborn trilogy, book 1) by Alison Sinclair

Here is a book description from the author’s site:

For the Darkborn, sunlight kills. For the Lightborn, darkness is fatal. Living under a centuries-old curse, the Darkborn and the Lightborn share the city of Minhorne, coexisting in an uneasy equilibrium but never interacting. When Darkborn physician Balthasar Hearne finds a pregnant fugitive on his doorstep just before sunrise, he has no choice but to take her in. Tercelle Amberley’s betrothed is a powerful Darkborn nobleman, but her illicit lover came to her through the daytime. When she gives birth to twin boys, they can see, something unheard of among the Darkborn. When men come for the boys, Balthasar is saved by the intervention of his Lightborn neighbor — and healed by the hands of his wife, Telmaine. Soon he finds himself drawn deeper into political intrigue and magical attacks, while Telmaine must confront a power she can no longer keep sheathed in gloves, a power she neither wants nor can control.

• Alison Sinclair’s site.
• Excerpt on publisher’s site.

May 14, 2009: Strange Angels by Lili St Crow (YA)

Here is a book description from the author’s site:

And she has to do it in the next 24 hours, or it’s all over…

• Lili St Crow’s site.

May 26, 2009: Dead Once, Twice Shy (Madison Avery series, book 1) by Kim Harrison (YA)

Here is a book description from the author’s site:

Everyone does it. Dies, I mean. I found this out for myself on my seventeenth birthday—which also happened to be the night of my prom—when I was killed in a car accident. It was a carefully planned scything, just a small moment in the battle between light reapers and dark, heaven and hell, choice and fate.

My name is Madison Avery, and I’m here to tell you that there’s more out there than you can see, hear, or touch. Because I’m seeing it, hearing it, touching it, living it.

• Kim Harrison’s site.
• Excerpt on on author’s site (scroll down.)

May 26, 2009: My Forbidden Desire (My series, book 2) by Carolyn Jewel

Here is a book description from the author’s site:

Torn Between. . .
Alexandrine Marit is a witch in mortal danager. An evil mage craves the powerful, mysterious talisman that supplies her magic, and the only person who can keep her alive is a dark and dangerous fiend called Xia. With his fierce animosity toward witches, he’s hardly the ideal bodyguard. Yet as days turn into nights, she can’t deny the white-hot passion between them.

Desire and Temptation . . .
Xia hates witches. They enslave and mercilessly kill his kind. But he’s been ordered to protect Alexandrine, who, to his surprise, has a spirit he admires and a body he longs to possess. With the mage and his henchmen closing in, Alexandrine and her protector must trust the passion that can unite them . . . or risk losing everything to the enemies who can destroy them both.

• Carolyn Jewel’s site.

May 26, 2009: Tekgrrl (Elite Hands of Justice series, book 2) by AJ Menden

Here is a book description from the author’s site:

When she was 12, Mindy asked to go to The School like other gifted girls. Her parents sent her to another planet. Today, Mindy’s back on Earth. She’s a mechanical genius with the Elite Hands of Justice, America’s premier superhero squad. She’s been having headaches though, and it’s not just because her longtime crush is flirting with another teammate. It’s not because she’s pushing thirty. It’s also not because of the contrary actions of former teammate Simon Leasure. No, what’s burning her brain is a past she can’t remember, a past that has been erased. It’s a memory surging closer – in flying saucers. Her worst nightmare is returning, big time, and only she, her friends, and her one true love can stop it.

• AJ Menden’s site.

May 29, 2009: Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

Here is a book description from the author’s site:

Loup Garron was born and raised in Santa Olivia, an isolated, disenfranchised town next to a US military base inside a DMZ buffer zone between Texas and Mexico. A fugitive “Wolf-Man” who had a love affair with a local woman, Loup’s father was one of a group of men genetically-manipulated and used by the US government as a weapon. The “Wolf-Men” were engineered to have superhuman strength, speed, sensory capability, stamina, and a total lack of fear, and Loup, named for and sharing her father’s wolf-like qualities, is marked as an outsider.

After her mother dies, Loup goes to live among the misfit orphans at the parish church, where they seethe from the injustices visited upon the locals by the soldiers. Eventually, the orphans find an outlet for their frustrations: They form a vigilante group to support Loup Garron who, costumed as their patron saint, Santa Olivia, uses her special abilities to avenge the town.

Aware that she could lose her freedom, and possibly her life, Loup is determined to fight to redress the wrongs her community has suffered. And like the reincarnation of their patron saint, she will bring hope to all of Santa Olivia.

• Jacqueline Carey’s site.
• Excerpt on author’s site.