Down Here In The Dark by Lee ThompsonPublication Date: January 30, 2012
[It took me about .2 seconds to download this one after hearing it was released! I'm totally bumping my TBR list. :)]
After surviving a tragic event, Frank Gunn ends up breaking down. His ex-wife's family has him committed to New Wave Hospital.
While fighting to feel again, to remember his son's face and the life he had before, people mysteriously begin to disappear around him. What remains of his life is plunged into the dark, the fading line between reality and nightmare.
He meets a Jewish kid with haunted eyes who has a demon shadowing him. There is a girl carrying a fistful of razorblades. And a band of ghouls play a song that sounds like freshly turned earth.
In order to regain what he has lost, he must first survive existing down here in the dark.
Brother's Keeper by Glen KrischPublication Date: January 30, 2012
[Looking forward to reading this and the upcoming trilogy!]
Growing up, Jason and Marcus Grant were close as only brothers can be. As they reached adolescence, they started to drift apart, taking opposite paths into adulthood. Jason went to college before getting a job at for the local newspaper. Marcus chose a path littered with drugs, violence, and self-destruction.
Now adults, Jason has cut Marcus from his life and considers himself an only child.
Clean and sober, Marcus finds his true calling when he joins the Arkadium, a secret society dating back millennia. They plan on setting history back ten thousand years by unleashing a world-wide calamity that will destroy modern man's domination of the planet. As the Arkadium set their plan in motion, Marcus reaches out to his brother, wanting him by his side to record the new prehistoric era. Jason is forced to make a choice, join his brother in the time of humanity's descent, or die like so many others.
A 16k word novella that introduces the forthcoming Brother's Keeper trilogy of novels. Book 1 is due Winter 2012.
Sadie Walker Is Stranded by Madeleine RouxPublication Date: January 31, 2012
[This is the sequel to Allison Hewitt Is Trapped which I heard a lot of good things about last year. Anyone reading this series?]
MONTHS AGO THE WORLD ENDED…
…when an unknown virus spread throughout North America and then the world, killing millions of people. However, that is where the horror only started. The dead began to rise and when they rose they had an insatiable appetite for the living. A new hell had been unleashed on earth and the fight for survival had just begun.
Sadie Walker is one of the survivors in this new world. Living in north Seattle behind barrier that keep the living in and the dead out, she trying to get back to a normal life, while raising her eight-year-old nephew, if anyone even knows what “normal” is anymore. Then everything goes sideways when Shane is kidnapped by a group of black market thieves and they bring down a crucial barrier in the city while trying to escape, and flood the city with the walking dead. After rescuing her nephew, Sadie and Shane escape Seattle on the last remaining boat, along with other survivors. However, now they must face the complete chaos of a world filled with flesh eating zombies and humans who are playing with a whole new rule book when it comes to survival in their journey to find a new place that they can call home.
Frigid (Icarus Helix #6) by J.E. MedrickPublication Date: January 31, 2012
[I sure love me some Icarus Helix!]
Deaf from birth, Jayden only knows a world of silence and sign with her best friend, Mason. Everything she's believed changes as she discovers an amazing potential within herself.
With a mistrustful eye toward the quicksilver man, Dennis Harper, Jayden struggles with family, love and secrets. Can she open up before they bury her?
This is a novella, approximately 20,000 words long. This episode should not be read before IH #4: "Thief". "Frigid" is the sixth episode of the first season.
The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine by Peter StraubPublication Date: January 31, 2012
[A new novella from Peter Straub.]
Meet Ballard and Sandrine, the eponymous protagonists of Peter Straub's extraordinary, deeply unsettling new novella. The two are lovers, widely separated in age but bound together by a common erotic obsession. Their story, which takes place over a period of twenty-five years, is set primarily within the various incarnations of a mysterious yacht making its endless way down the Amazon river. Their journey encompasses moments of beauty and horror, mystery and revelation, pleasure and pain, culminating in the vision of an astonishing--and appalling--apotheosis.
In The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine, the author of the classic Blue Rose trilogy (Koko, Mystery, and The Throat) offers us one more glimpse behind the curtain that separates the visible world of commonplace events from an infinitely stranger world filled with wonders and enigmas, magic and terror. It is a world that only Peter Straub could have created and it burns its way indelibly into the reader's mind.
Incarnate by Jodi MeadowsPublication Date: January 31, 2012
[I've been a little on the fence about this one, but I'm still hoping to read it.]
New soul
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.
No soul
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?
Heart
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?
Article 5 by Kristen SimmonsPublication Date: January 31, 2012
[This one sounds like a true dystopian.]
New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.
The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.
There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.
Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.
Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.
That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.
The Dead of Winter by Chris PriestleyPublication Date: January 31, 2012
[Ghosts. What more do I need to say?]
After Michael's parents die, he is invited to stay with his guardian in a desolate country house. He begins to suspect something is not quite right on the day he arrives when he spots a mysterious woman out in the frozen mists. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself. His guardian is rarely seen, and there's a malevolent force lurking in an old hallway mirror. As the chilling suspense builds, Michael realizes that the house and its grounds harbor many more secrets-both dead and alive.
Shift by M.R. MerrickPublication Date: February 1, 2012
[Shift is the sequel to Exiled which I still have not read! :( Now I have this one calling to me, too!]
Devastated by the loss of his mother, Chase is trying to balance the life he’s been left with, a family he’s still getting to know, and power he never thought he’d have. He doesn’t understand why the Goddess has named him the Protector and granted him two gifts: the Mark, a tattoo that now covers his back, and the ring. But between getting interrogated by the Circle and psychic attacks from Riley, the Mark is the least of his concern. There’s a demon inside Rayna that’s fighting to be released, and it’s not her inner witch. It’s something else–a monster threatening to tear her apart.
As Chase struggles to control his magic, his enemies are closing in. Everyone has staked a claim on his ring, and destroying it may be his only chance to stop Riley. But Chase must decide if stopping him is worth risking the lives of everyone he cares about, or if protecting the ring will be enough to save his world.
Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. BickPublication Date: February 1, 2012
[I found this book through Giselle. She totally sold me on it, and I must read it NOW. (Why is there no Kindle edition?!)]
There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.)
Jenna Lord's first sixteen years were not exactly a fairy tale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother--until he shipped off to Iraq. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.
There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and everyone cries for his innocent victim. (This is not one of those stories either.)
Mitch Anderson is many things: A dedicated teacher and coach. A caring husband. A man with a certain...magnetism.
And there are stories where it's hard to be sure who's a prince and who's a monster, who is a victim and who should live happily ever after. (These are the most interesting stories of all.)
Drowning Instinct is a novel of pain, deception, desperation, and love against the odds--and the rules.
[LOL. I think this post is getting to me.]
Harbinger by Sara EtiennePublication Date: February 2, 2012
[I'm totally intrigued. I can't wait to read it.]
When sixteen-year-old Faye arrives at Holbrook Academy, she doesn't expect to find herself exactly where she needs to be. After years of strange waking visions and nightmares, her only comfort the bones of dead animals, Faye is afraid she's going crazy. Fast.
But her first night at Holbrook, she feels strangely connected to the school and the island it sits on, like she's come home. She's even made her first real friends, but odd things keep happening to them. Every morning they wake on the floors of their dorm rooms with their hands stained red.
Faye knows she's the reason, but what does it all mean? The handsome Kel tries to help her unravel the mystery, but Faye is certain she can't trust him; in fact, he may be trying to kill her - and the rest of the world too.
Rich, compelling writing will keep the pages turning in this riveting and tautly told psychological thriller.
*Whew!* What a list! Whatcha readin'?!
I actually just won a copy of Sadie Walker Is Stranded from Suzanne Johnson. Looked like an interesting spin on the zombie genre.
ReplyDeleteLots of neat books! Really looking forward to the Peter Straub!
ReplyDelete