Tuck yourself in by the fire and relax with some urban fantasy this month, although with only nine releases, you might have to dig into your TBR pile. This month, look for new releases from, among others, Ilona Andrews, Rob Thurman, Lauren Dane, and Gail Z. Martin.
Fiction Affliction details releases in science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and “genre-benders.” Keep track of them all here. Note: All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher.
WEEK ONE
Magic Gifts: A Kate Daniels Novella (Kate Daniels #5.4), by Ilona Andrews, (December 1 InterMix)
It isn’t often that Kate Daniels and the Beast Lord Curran get to take a break from protecting their pack and enjoy some time for themselves. So when Curran offers Kate a romantic dinner in town, there’s no way she’s going to pass. But their quiet night doesn’t stay quiet for long. The trouble starts with a necromancer dying at a nearby table, continues with bloodthirsty vampires crashing through the windows, and ends with more blood on the walls than any dining establishment needs. Pulled into a deadly game neither wants to play, Kate and Curran find themselves dealing with the vile undead and tolerating a clan of maniacal, hard partying Vikings while desperately trying to save the life of an innocent child. Novella is after Magic Slays, same time as Andrea in Gunmetal Magic, both intersect. Gunmetal Magic bonus. Digital.
Nevermore (Cal Leandros #10), by Rob Thurman, (December 1, Roc)
Caliban is a dead man. The Vigil, a group devoted to concealing the paranormal from humanity, has decided Cal has stepped out of the shadows once too often, and death is the only sentence. They plan to send a supernatural assassin into the past to take down the younger, less lethal Cal. But things change when The Vigil makes one last attempt on Caliban’s life in the present, and end up destroying everyone and everything he cares about. Now, Cal has to save himself, warn those closest to him, and kill every Vigil bastard who stole his world. But if he fails, he and everyone in his life will be history.
The Curse of Jacob Tracy, by Holly Messinger, (December 1, Thomas Dunne)
St. Louis in 1880 is full of ghosts, and Jacob Tracy can see them all. Ever since he nearly died on the battlefield at Antietam, Trace has been haunted by the country’s restless dead. He stays out of ghost-populated areas as much as possible these days, guiding wagon trains West from St. Louis, with his partner, Boz. Trace gets an unusual job offer. Miss Fairweather needs someone to retrieve a dead friend’s legacy from a nearby town, Miss Fairweather admits to knowing about Trace’s curse, and suggests she might help him learn to control it. As she steers him into one macabre situation after another, his powers flourish, and Trace begins to realize some good might be done with this curse. Miss Fairweather is harboring some dark secrets of her own, and her meddling has brought Trace to the attention of something much older and more dangerous than any ghost.
The Devil’s Engine: Hellraisers (The Devil’s Engine #1), by Alexander Gordon Smith, (December 1, Farrar, Straus and Girous BYR)
Young Adult. When a sixteen-year-old troublemaker named Marlow Green is trapped in a surreal firefight against nightmarish creatures in the middle of his New York City neighborhood, he unwittingly finds himself amid a squad of secret soldiers dedicated to battling the legions of the devil himself. Powering this army of young misfits is an ancient machine from the darkest parts of history. Known as the devil’s engine, it can make any wish come true—as long as you are willing to put your life on the line. Promised powers beyond belief, and facing monstrous apparitions straight out of the netherworld, Marlow must decide if he’s going to submit to a demonic deal with the infernal machine that will enable him to join the crusade–if it doesn’t kill him first.
Your Brother’s Blood (The Walkin’ Trilogy #1), by David Towsey, (December 1, Jo Fletcher Books)
An unnamed event has wiped out most of humanity, scattering its remnants across vast and now barren lands. Small clusters of humans still cling to existence in a post-apocalyptic world that is increasingly overrun by those who have risen from the dead, or, as the living call them, the Walkin’. Thomas, homeward bound to the small frontier town of Barkley, is filled with hope at the thought of being reunited with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Mary. He also happens to be among the Walkin’. Thomas soon realizes that the living, who are increasingly drawn to the followers of the Good Book, are not kindly disposed to the likes of him. When he learns what the good people of Barkley intend to do to him, he may just have to kidnap his daughter to save her from a fate worse than becoming a member of the undead. When the people of Barkley send out a posse in pursuit of father and daughter, the race for survival truly begins. (U.S. Release)
WEEK TWO
At Blade’s Edge (Goddess with a Blade #4), by Lauren Dane, (December 14, Carina)
Though she’d hoped the deadly events in Venice would end the threat to The Treaty she is sworn to protect, Rowan found evidence of a grander conspiracy to destroy the fragile peace that holds humans, Vampires and those with magic back from war. It’s not so much that someone ordered her assassination that makes her angry as it is the risks those she cares for, especially her new husband, now face. Clive Stewart has never tried to pen Rowan in or control her choices. He has his own fires to put out now that he’s married to the most powerful non-Vampire in their world. The organization that gave her a home when she’d run from The Keep at seventeen has betrayed her. Rowan is in London gathering her allies and the evidence necessary to drive out the rot within Hunter Corp. and expose whoever is at the top. Rowan is a predator and this threat is prey. She’ll burn it down and salt the earth afterward. On her terms.
WEEK THREE
In Constant Fear (The Detainee Trilogy #3), by Peter Liney, (December 22, Jo Fletcher Books)
Over a year has passed since “Big Guy” Clancy and the ragged band of survivors managed to escape from the hellish reality of the City. Pursued by the ruthless leader of Infinity, the corporation behind the systematic extermination of thousands of “lower class” citizens, they’ve been on the run ever since, constantly looking over their shoulders. Despite this, they have forged a new life working the land on an abandoned smallholding on the other side of the mountains. Hidden there, they are as close to happy as they can be. But peace is short-lived. Strange things start to happen in the valley: too many unlucky coincidences convince them that another power is rising against them, and there are many questions to be answered: what is the shadow maker? And who, or what, has begun to howl in the night? (U.S. Release)
WEEK FOUR
Vendetta (Deadly Curiosities #2), by Gail Z. Martin, (December 29, Solaris)
An old enemy of Sorren’s is back in town. Sariel is a nephilmancer, a powerful sorcerer able to summon the nephilim, tainted eternal spirits that watch humanity and stand in judgment. Sariel is looking for vengeance, because a century ago, during their last battle, Sorren killed Sariel’s son and helped the Alliance send Sariel into harsh exile. Because of Sorren’s long affiliation with Charleston, Sariel has decided that the city must be destroyed, and in retaliation for his own loss, Sariel vows to destroy the mortal helpers Sorren protects. To do this, Sariel must bring five of the Watchers through a portal from another realm. When all five are present, judgment will fall, and the nephilim will reap and feed on the souls of the dead.
Hellmaw: Blind Justice, by Erik Scott de Bie, (December 31, Hellmaw)
Jaded FBI agent Maria Ruiz learns she really hasn’t seen it all. Amid the splattered blood of increasingly depraved and spectacular murders is something strange, something beyond the limits of mortal justice. Ruiz is closing in, over heaped bodies, on a serial killer: an angel of death who may not be from this world. Digital.
Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series and writes paranormal and suspense as Susannah Sandlin. You can find Suzanne on Facebook and on her website.
