Thirty-one new releases in these mega-genres roar in like a lion (well, a leonine shapeshifter) this month, including new series titles from, among others, Chloe Neill (Chicagoland Vampires), Patricia Briggs (Alpha & Omega), Devon Monk (House Immortal), Seanan McGuire (InCryptid), Leigh Evans (Mystwalker), Anne Bishop (The Others), Nancy Holzner (Deadtown), Dana Cameron (Fangborn), and Sherrilyn Kenyon (Chronicles of Nick).
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
Phoenix in My Fortune (Monster Haven #6)—R.L. Naquin, (March 2, Carina)
When Zoey Donovan found out monsters are real, her life changed, mostly for the better. She’s fought bad guys, saved the world a time or two and earned the love of a family of humans and Hidden creatures alike. The danger that’s chased her from the beginning is finally here. Shadow Man, aka The Last Hidden, has stepped out of the story humans wrote for him and into the real world, hell-bent on stealing children. Shadow Man intends to break the Covenant, reclaim the Hidden, and kill all Aegises along the way, triple bad news for Zoey and her mother, the only two Aegises still alive. Zoey will have to rescue the stolen kids and hunt down the most terrifying villain humanity has ever imagined. If Shadow Man triumphs, the world as she knows it will end. If Zoey succeeds in driving him out, the people she loves may be lost to her forever. (Digital)
Above Us Only Sky: A Novel—Michele Young-Stone, (March 3, Simon & Schuster)
On March 29, 1973, Prudence Eleanor Vilkas was born with a pair of wings molded to her back. Considered a birth defect, her wings were surgically removed, leaving only the ghost of them behind. At fifteen years old, confused and unmoored, Prudence meets her long-estranged Lithuanian grandfather and discovers a miraculous lineage beating and pulsing with past Lithuanian bird-women, storytellers with wings dragging the dirt, survivors perched on radio towers, lovers lit up like fireworks, and heroes disguised as everyday men and women. Prudence sets forth on a quest to discover her ancestors, to grapple with wings that only one other person can see, and ultimately, to find out where she belongs.
Bathed in Blood (Rogue Angel #53)—Alex Archer, (March 3, Gold Eagle)
The Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory, a true monster of history, is one of the most infamous serial killers. Said to have murdered 650 young women for their blood, she believed bathing in it would preserve her vitality and beauty. It’s a story that has always fascinated archaeologist and TV host Annja Creed. What is Annja to make of the girl she finds dying on the side of the road from blood loss? There’s something eerie in this small Slovakian town, where rumors of vampirism hang unspoken in the air. Shut out by the police, Annja only digs deeper into the strange death, uncovering troubling scraps of evidence. Her one lead is an enigmatic retired police officer who has been investigating the disappearance of more than twenty women. The only way Annja can see to uncover the truth is by becoming the Blood Countess’s next victim.
Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires #11)—Chloe Neill, (March 3, NAL)
Between standing Sentinel of Cadogan house and making society appearances with House Master Ethan Sullivan, a new member of the American Association of Vampires, Merit has her hands full. The last thing she needs is trouble, especially of the deadly kind. But when an old friend shows up in need, Merit can’t refuse. Morgan Greer, Master of House Navarre, has gotten himself into serious debt with a dangerous Chicago crime syndicate known as the Triad. And they’re willing to exact more than a pound of flesh for payback, unless Merit can find a way to stop them. Only the Triad’s connections go deeper than Merit knows, and even one wrong move could be her last.
Dark Screams: Volume Two—edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar, (March 3, Hydra)
Includes The Deep End by Robert McCammon: Everyone thinks the drowning death of Neil Calder was a tragic accident. Only his father knows better. On the last night of summer, Neil returns in search of revenge. Interval by Norman Prentiss: Flight 1137 from St. Louis by way of Nashville has gone missing. As anxious friends and family gather around the gate, a ticket clerk finds herself eyewitness to a moment of inhuman evil. If These Walls Could Talkby Shawntelle Madison: Eleanor has come from New York City to prep an old Victorian house in Maine for America’s Mysterious Hotspots. This job will take her places she’s never dreamed of going. The Night Hider by Graham Masterton: The wardrobe in Dawn’s room holds only death, until she solves its grisly mystery. Whatever by Richard Christian Matheson: A 1970s rock ’n’ roll band that never was, in a world that is clearly our own, takes one hell of a trip. (Digital)
Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega #4)—Patricia Briggs, (March 3, Ace)
For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles’s role as his father’s enforcer. This time, their trip to Arizona is purely personal, or at least it starts out that way. Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae’s cold war with humanity is about to heat up, and Charles and Anna are in the crossfire.
Flex—Ferrett Steinmetz, (March 3, Angry Robot)
FLEX: Distilled magic in crystal form. The most dangerous drug in the world. Snort it, and you can create incredible coincidences to live the life of your dreams. FLUX: The backlash from snorting Flex. The universe hates magic and tries to rebalance the odds; maybe you survive the horrendous accidents the Flex inflicts, maybe you don’t. PAUL TSABO: The obsessed bureaucromancer who’s turned paperwork into a magical Beast that can rewrite rental agreements, conjure rented cars from nowhere, track down anyone who’s ever filled out a form. But when all of his formulaic magic can’t save his burned daughter, Paul must enter the dangerous world of Flex dealers to heal her. Except he’s never done this before, and the punishment for brewing Flex is army conscription and a total brain-wipe.
Immortal Remains (Weirdsville #2)—Rook Hastings, (March 3, HarperCollins)
Young Adult. Four freak accidents. Four mysterious deaths. Four signs of trouble. Welcome back to Weirdsville. “You see, the girls that died, it wasn’t by accident. They were cursed, every one of them. Cursed to meet a horrible death. And I’m going to be next.” Four girls from posh school Riverbank have been killed in seemingly random but freakish ways and it’s not long before Bethan and co. are lured into investigating the grisly case. Is it really just coincidence or is there something more sinister going on? Meanwhile Hashim’s playing truant, Kelly’s on the warpath and Jay’s trying to avoid someone even more close to home. Himself. Scary, paranormal and supernaturally chilling experiences are everyday in a town like Weirdsville. (U.S.)
Infinity Bell (House Immortal #2)—Devon Monk, (March 3, Roc)
Matilda Case isn’t normal. Normal people aren’t stitched together, inhumanly strong, and ageless, as she and the other galvanized are. Normal people’s bodies don’t hold the secret to immortality, something the powerful Houses will kill to possess. Normal people don’t know that they’re going to die in a few days. Matilda’s fight to protect the people she loves triggered a chaotic war between the Houses and shattered the world’s peace. She must find a way to stop the repeat of the ancient time experiment that gifted her and the other galvanized with immortality. Because this time, it will destroy her and everything she holds dear. Caught in a cat-and-mouse game of lies, betrayal, and unseen foes, Matilda must fight to save the world from utter destruction. But time itself is her enemy, and every second brings her one step closer to disaster.
Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid #4)—Seanan McGuire, (March 3 DAW)
Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family, no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice. His girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport. From there, it’s to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers and rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much. Australia is filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America. There are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground. Alex Price is very far from home and he’s not going down without a fight.
The Crow of Connemara—Stephen Leigh, (March 3, DAW)
A tale caught in the dark places where the world of ancient myth intersects our own, where old ways and old beliefs struggle not to be overwhelmed by the modern world. Colin Doyle is young Irish-American musician from Chicago, whose interest is traditional Irish music. Maeve Gallagher is an Oileánach, an “Islander” from Ireland’s west coast. Islanders are outcasts treated with suspicion by the locals, who think them responsible for wild and strange happenings in the area. Colin soon discovers that he’s connected to Maeve in ways he never could have imagined.
The Danger of Destiny (Mystwalker #4)—Leigh Evans, (March 3, St. Martin’s)
There are very few days off when you’re on an epic quest. I’m Hedi Peacock, one half Fae, the other Were, and if being a half-breed with one foot in each world isn’t tough enough to manage, there are the four chambers of my heart to consider. The one who holds the strings? Robson Trowbridge, the Alpha of Creemore. My twin brother is being held captive by the Old Mage in another realm. As soon as Trowbridge and I arrive in Merenwyn, we’re separated in dramatic fashion, and I’m left to figure out how to maintain the fragile balance between my Fae magic and my wolf’s blood. Not easy, particularly when I’m keeping an iron-grip on my temper so as not to dispatch with extreme prejudice the odd wizard or mutt servant who crosses my path. My mama never told me there’d be days like these, but I’m not going down without a fight, or my mate.
The Devil’s Detective—Simon Kurt Unsworth, (March 3, Doubleday)
Thomas Fool is an Information Man, an investigator tasked with cataloging and filing reports on the violence and brutality that flows through Hell. Hell has rules but no justice. Each new crime is stamped “Do Not Investigate” and filed away in the depths of the Bureaucracy. When a political delegation arrives and a human is murdered in a horrific manner, everything changes. The murders escalate, and their severity points to the kind of killer not seen for generations. The Bureaucracy sends Fool to identify and track down the killer. How do you investigate murder in a place where death is common currency? Or when your main suspect pool is a legion of demons? Fool will piece together clues and follow a trail that leads directly into the heart of a dark and chaotic conspiracy. A revolution is brewing in Hell, and nothing is what it seems.
The Wicked City (Siren Song #1)—Megan Morgan, (March 3, Kensington)
Whatever June Coffin says, goes, literally. It’s not just because she’s a chain smoking rebel. As a Siren, June has the ability to force people to obey any command she voices. In a world where those with supernatural powers quickly become lab rats for science, she’d rather look out for herself than fight on the front lines, until her similarly gifted twin brother, Jason, is captured by Chicago’s Institute of Supernatural Research. June has no choice but to enter a hidden world of conspiracy, murder, and strange bedfellows, including a widowed paranormal advocate whose memory June accidentally erased, and a fiery paranormal separatist leader. The lines between attraction and strategic alliance become blurred. In a city exploding with paranormal crossfire, and her brother’s life at stake, June will have to face her inner demons and finally take a stand. (Digital)
Vision in Silver (The Others #3)—Anne Bishop, (March 3, Roc)
The Others freed the cassandra sangue to protect the blood prophets from exploitation, not realizing their actions would have dire consequences. Now the fragile seers are in danger both from their own weaknesses and from those who seek to control their divinations for wicked purposes. Simon Wolfgard, a shape-shifter leader among the Others, has no choice but to enlist blood prophet Meg Corbyn’s help, regardless of the risks she faces by aiding him. Meg is still in the throes of her addiction to the euphoria she feels when she cuts and speaks prophecy. Others and humans alike need answers, and her visions may be Simon’s only hope of ending the conflict. The shadows of war are deepening across the Atlantik, and the prejudice of a fanatic faction is threatening to bring the battle right to Meg and Simon’s doorstep.
WEEK TWO
Bones & All—Camille DeAngelis, (March 10, St. Martin’s)
Young Adult. Maren Yearly doesn’t just break hearts, she devours them. Since she was a baby, Maren has had what you might call “an issue” with affection. Anytime someone cares for her too much, she can’t seem to stop herself from eating them. Abandoned by her mother at the age of 16, Maren goes looking for the father she has never known, but finds more than she bargained for along the way. Faced with love, fellow eaters, and enemies for the first time in her life, Maren realizes she isn’t just looking for her father, she is looking for herself. The real question is, will she like the girl she finds?
The Dickens Mirror (Dark Passages #2)—Ilsa J. Bick, (March 10, EgmontUSA)
Young Adult. Emma Lindsay finds herself with nowhere to go, no place to call home. Her friends are dead. Eric and his brother, Casey, are lost to the Dark Passages. She commands the cynosure, a beacon and lens that allows for safe passage between the Many Worlds, to put her where she might find her friends, find Eric, again. What she never anticipated was waking up in the body of Little Lizzie, all grown up. In this alternative London, Elizabeth McDermott is mad. Their friend, Bode, is an attendant at Bedlam, where Elizabeth has been committed after being rescued by Arthur Conan Doyle, a drug-addicted constable. While professing to treat Elizabeth, her physician, Dr. Kramer, has actually drugged her to allow Emma to emerge as the dominant personality. Elizabeth is the key to finding and accessing the Dickens Mirror. Elizabeth is dying, and if Emma can’t find a way out, everyone as they exist in this London will die with her.
The Exile (The Fae #1)—C.T. Adams, (March 10, Tor)
Brianna Hai runs an occult shop that sells useless trinkets to tourists, and real magic supplies to witches and warlocks. The magical painting that hangs in Brianna’s apartment is the last portal between the fae and human worlds. A shocking magical assault on her home reveals to Brianna that her father, High King Liu of the Fae, is under attack. With the help of her gargoyle, Pug, her friend David, and Angelo, a police detective who doesn’t believe in magic, Brianna recovers what was stolen from her and becomes an unwilling potential heir to the throne.
The Thyme Fiend: A Tor.Com Original—Jeffrey Ford, (March 11, Tor)
A dark fantasy novelette about a young man who can only prevent seeing visions by eating or smoking thyme. When he finds the skeleton of a missing man the skeleton begins to haunt him. What does it want? (Digital)
WEEK THREE
Bite Me—Robyn Bachar, (March 17, Samhain)
After an out-of-control spell triggers the zombie apocalypse, Lizzy Addams is left in the ruins of Chicago with the unhinged commentary of her inner demon for company. She is forced to find survivors to feed from. Officer Angela Kinney was on duty when hungry corpses overwhelmed the city. The survivors look to her for leadership. Nothing prepared her for a beautiful monster who offers safety in exchange for blood. Sean MacMillan never expected to see Lizzy again after she rejected his attempts to lure her back to the vampire fold. With his flock threatened by the horde and his murderous vampire brother, Lizzy is the only one he can trust. Humanity’s only hope is to forge an alliance with vampires, werewolves, and things that go bump in the night. Accepting their aid could be a devil’s bargain that puts humans at the bottom of the food chain. (Digital)
Duplicity—N.K. Traver, (March 17, Thomas Dunne)
Young Adult. Seventeen-year-old Brandon hacks bank accounts just for the thrill of it. He looks like any other tattooed bad boy with a fast car and devil-may-care attitude. He’s learned not to get tangled up in things like friends and relationships. Two things shatter his carefully-built image: Emma, the girl who insists on looking beneath the surface, and a mirror reflection that starts moving by itself. Brandon’s reflection seems to be grooming him for something, washing the dye from his hair, yanking out his piercings, swapping his black shirts for pastels. Then it tells him: it thinks it can live his life better, and it’s preparing to trade places. When it pulls Brandon through the looking-glass, he will he need all his ill-gotten hacking skills to escape. He’s going to have to face some hard truths about who he’s become. Otherwise he’ll be stuck in a digital hell until he’s old and gray, and no one will even know he’s gone.
The Forgotten (An American Faerie Tale #2)—Bishop O’Connell, (March 17, Harper Voyager Impulse)
Dante, Regent of the fae’s Rogue Court, has been receiving disturbing reports. Human children are manifesting magical powers in record numbers. Shunned and forgotten, they live on the streets in ragtag groups with the already-booming population of homeless changelings. But the streets aren’t a haven; someone, or something, is hunting these children down. Wraith, a teenage spell slinger, has no home, no family, and no real memories of her past. She and her friends SK, Fritz, and Shadow are constantly on the run, fleeing from a dark and unknown enemy. But when her companions are taken by “the snatchers,” Wraith is their only hope. Her journey to find them will test the limits of her magic, and her trust. A dark force is on the rise, and it could spell the end of our world as we know it. (Digital)
The Witch of Painted Sorrows—M.J. Rose, (March 17, Atria)
Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires. Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten, her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.
WEEK FOUR
Dark Alchemy—Laura Bickle, (March 24, Harper Voyager Impulse)
Geologist Petra Dee arrives in Wyoming looking for clues to her father’s disappearance years before. What she finds instead is Temperance, a dying Western town with a gold rush past and a meth-infested present. But under the town’s dust and quiet, an old power is shifting. When bodies start turning up, desiccated and twisted skeletons that Petra can’t scientifically explain, her investigations land her in the middle of a covert war between the town’s most powerful interests. Petra’s father wasn’t the only one searching for the alchemical secrets of Temperance, and those still looking are now ready to kill. Armed with nothing but shaky alliances, a pair of antique guns, and a relic she doesn’t understand, the only thing Petra knows for sure is that she and her coyote sidekick are going to have to move fast, or die next. (Digital)
Half Wild (The Half Bad Trilogy #2)—Sally Green, (March 24, Viking Juvenile)
Young Adult. In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world’s most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. Now, Nathan has come into his own unique magical Gift, and he’s on the run, but the Hunters are close behind, and they will stop at nothing until they have captured Nathan and destroyed his father.
Harrison Squared—Daryl Gregory, (March 24, Tor)
Harrison Harrison, H2 to his mom, is a teenager who’s been terrified of the water since he was a toddler in California, when a huge sea creature capsized their boat, and his father vanished. One of the “sensitives” who are attuned to the supernatural world, Harrison and his mother have just moved to the worst place for a boy like him: Dunnsmouth, a Lovecraftian town on rocks above the Atlantic, where strange things go on by night, monsters lurk under the waves, and creepy teachers run the local high school. On Harrison’s first day at school, his mother, a marine biologist, disappears at sea. Harrison must attempt to solve the mystery of her accident, which puts him in conflict with a strange church, a knife-wielding killer, and the Deep Ones, fish-human hybrids that live in the bay. It will take all his resources, and an unusual host of allies, to defeat the danger and find his mother.
The Haunting of Sunshine Girl—Paige McKenzie and Alyssa B. Sheinmel, (March 24, Weinstein)
Young Adult. Sunshine Griffith and her mother Kat move from sunny Austin, Texas, to the rain-drenched town of Ridgemont, Washington. Though Sunshine is adopted, she and her mother have always been close, sharing a special bond. From the moment they arrive, Sunshine feels her world darken with an eeriness she cannot place. Even if Kat doesn’t recognize it, Sunshine knows that something about their new house is just creepy. Sunshine is followed around the house by an icy breeze, phantom wind slams her bedroom door shut, and eventually, the laughter Sunshine hears on her first night evolves into sobs. She can hardly believe it, but as the spirits haunting her house become more frightening, and it becomes clear that Kat is in danger, Sunshine must accept what she is, pass the test before her, and save her mother from a fate worse than death.
Firestorm (Deadtown #6)—Nancy Holzner, (March 31, Ace)
When Vicky allowed an ancient goddess to possess her, she had no regrets, it was the only way to protect the people she loved. But now Ceridwen, locked in a power struggle with the Hellion that long ago claimed Vicky with its mark, refuses to leave. Both beings believe controlling Vicky is the key to winning the coming war for the human realm. Despite the forces pulling her apart, Vicky needs all her wits about her. The demons of Hell are growing bold and she can barely keep up with the attacks plaguing the city: sirens in the Mystic River, goblins snarling traffic on Storrow Drive, imps tearing the gold from the State House dome. As the signs of war multiply and Hell threatens to overrun its boundaries, Vicky finds herself torn between her duty to save the world and her desire to save something of herself.
Hellbender (Fangborn #3)—Dana Cameron, (March 31, 47North)
I-Day is near at hand, and soon the Fangborn will reveal themselves to humankind. As a member of this secretive race of werewolves, vampires, and oracles, will archaeologist Zoe Miller be prepared? Still grappling with the newfound powers she gained after opening Pandora’s box, Zoe shares the responsibility of protecting “Normal” humans. She knows the pending revelation of the Fangborn will set the world on fire. With Fangborn enemies in the Order of Nicomedia forcing their hand, Zoe and her supernatural Family have no choice but to step into the spotlight. That decision has garnered the attention of the powerful and otherworldly beings known as the Makers. They claim to have created the Fangborn, not as saviors, but as predators. And it seems they have their own plans for Zoe, and for the fate of all the Fangborn.
Instinct (Chronicles of Nick #6)—Sherrilyn Kenyon, March 31, St. Martin’s Griffin)
Young Adult. Zombies, demons, vampires, shapeshifters, another day in the life of Nick Gautier, and those are just his friends. Now that he’s accepted the demon that lives inside him, he must learn to control it and temper the emotions that threaten the lives of everyone he cares for. Not easy while trying to stay off the menus of those who want his head on a platter. No one wants him more than the dark gods who created his race. They will stop at nothing to reclaim him. And without knowing it, Nick has just embraced the one person he should never have trusted. The one person who will hand him over to his enemies to get back the life they lost. Nick has finally accepted his fate, now he must learn to defy his destiny, and the dark, deadly forces that will stop at nothing to destroy everyone he loves so that they can again return to the world of man and own it.
The Originals: The Loss (The Originals #2)—Julie Plec, (March 31, HQN)
Family is power. The Original vampire family swore it to each other a thousand years ago. They pledged to remain together always and forever. But even when you’re immortal, promises are hard to keep. After a hurricane destroyed their city, Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson have rebuilt New Orleans to even greater glory. The year is 1766. The witches live on the fringes in the bayou. The werewolves have fled. But still, Klaus isn’t satisfied. He wants more. He wants power. But when Klaus finally finds a witch who will perform a spell to give him what he desires most, she secretly uses Klaus to unleash a curse, one that brings back hundreds of her ancestors, and begins a war to reclaim New Orleans. As the siblings fight off the attack, only one thing’s for certain, the result will be a bloodbath.
Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, including the upcoming Pirate’s Alley. You can find Suzanne on Facebook and on her website, Preternatura.
