The Fab Abs pack can sink their fangs into sixteen new releases in October, including new series releases from Christine Feehan, Deborah Cooke, Jennifer Ashley, Eileen Wilks, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Nina Bangs, and Donna Grant.
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
Savage Hunger (Heart of the Jaguar #1), by Terry Spear (October 1, Sourcebooks Casablanca)
In the heat of the jungle, jaguars are clawed, dangerous, and hungry for love. With hopes of overcoming night terrors and thanking the man who saved her life, Kathleen McKnight returns to the Amazon. A jaguar at heart, Connor Anderson doesn’t just protect her, but wants to claim her for his own.
Dark Storm (Dark #23), by Christine Feehan (October 2, Berkley)
Awakening after all this time in a world of absolute darkness and oppressive heat, Dax wonders in how the world above must have changed. Buried alive for hundreds of years in a volcano in the Carpathian Mountains, Dax fears that he has become the full-fledged abomination that every Carpathian male fears. His name is Mitro, the vampire Dax had hunted all these long centuries. He is the epitome of everything malevolent, and perpetrator of one of the most shocking killing sprees known to man. His friends and family weren’t safe from Mitro’s bloodlust. Neither was Mitro’s lifemate, Arabejila. Now that Dax has re-emerged, so too has Mitro. Between Dax and Mitro, a violent game has begun, one that has marked Riley Parker, the last descendent of Arabejila, as the reward.
Ember’s Kiss (Dragonfire #8), by Deborah Cooke (October 2, Signet)
The shape-shifting dragon warriors known as the Pyr have hidden themselves from mankind. But as the final reckoning with the Slayers heats up, even the most ancient secrets will be revealed. Brandon Merrick is determined to banish his shifter nature forever. His dragon isn’t prepared to be tamed so easily. One look at Liz Barrett ignites the spark of a firestorm: Liz is his destined mate. While Brandon sees their first night together as just the beginning, his dragon seizes the upper hand. Awakening in the company of a raging dragon challenges Liz’s ability to believe her own eyes. Neither one realizes Brandon is caught in an ancient Slayer’s scheme to enslave him. When the deadly plot ignites, Brandon and his mate could be the ultimate sacrifice.
Forget Me Not, by Carolee Dean (October 2, Simon Pulse)
Young Adult. Ally is devastated when a scandalous photo of her is texted around school. With her reputation in shambles and her life essentially over, she hides out in a back hallway, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Elijah has spent time in that hallway too. He landed there after taking a whole bottle of sleeping pills. Now he can see ghosts, and he knows what Ally has yet to suspect, that she’s already half dead, and one choice away from never coming back. Elijah has loved Ally for years and would do anything to save her from the in-between place. But if she’s going to live, Ally must face her inner demons and find the will to save herself.
Fury’s Kiss (Dorina Basarab #3), by Karen Chance (October 2, Signet Select)
Dory is used to fighting hard and nasty. So when she wakes up in a strange scientific lab with a strange man standing over her, her first instinct is to take his head off. Luckily, the man is actually the master vampire Louis-Cesare, so he’s not an easy kill. It turns out that Dory had been working with a Vampire Senate task force on the smuggling of magical items and weaponry out of Faerie when she was captured and brought to the lab. When Louis-Cesare rescues her, she has no memory of what happened to her. To find out what was done to her, and who is behind it, Dory will have to face off with fallen angels, the maddest of mad scientists, and a new breed of vampires that are far worse than undead.
Lucid, by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass (October 2, Razorbill)
Young Adult. What if you could dream your way into a different life? What if you could choose to live that life forever? Sloane and Maggie have never met. Sloane is a straight-A student with a big and loving family. Maggie lives a glamorously independent life as an up-and-coming actress in New York. They share a secret that they can’t tell a soul. At night, they dream that they’re each other. The deeper they’re pulled into the promise of their own lives, the more their worlds begin to blur dangerously together. Before long, Sloane and Maggie can no longer tell which life is real and which is just a dream. They realize that eventually they will have to choose one life to wake up to, or risk spiraling into insanity. But that means giving up one world, one love, and one self, forever.
Mate Claimed (Shifters Unbound #4), by Jennifer Ashley (October 2, Berkley)
Eric Warden knows that half-Shifter wildcat Iona is passing for human, living without a Collar in the human world. He also knows that if she does not acknowledge her Shifter nature and her mating hunger, it could kill her. Iona finds the mysterious and dangerous Eric, a wildcat and leader of his Shiftertown, haunting her dreams, but she vows never to “come out” and take the Collar, fearing backlash against her mother and sister for hiding the fact that she’s Shifter. But Eric is a compelling Shifter male, and Iona’s hunger calls to him.
Mortal Ties (World of the Lupi #9), by Eileen Wilks (October 2, Berkley)
FBI agent Lily Yu is living at Nokolai Clanhome with her fiancé, lupi Rule Turner, when an intruder penetrates their territory, stealing the prototype of a magical device the clan hopes will be worth a fortune, if a few bugs can be worked out. But the prototype can be dangerously erratic, discharging a bizarre form of mind magic, and it looks like the thief wants it for that very side effect. Worse, whoever stole the device didn’t learn about it by accident. Lily and Rule have to find the traitor, the thief, and the prototype. As they race to recover their missing property, they find Robert Friar’s sticky footprints all over the place. Robert Friar, killer, madman, and acolyte of the Old One the Lupi are at war with, an Old One whose power is almost as vast as her ambition to rock the entire world.
Phantom Shadows (Immortal Guardians #3), by Dianne Duvall (October 2, Kensington)
Dr. Melanie Lipton is no stranger to the supernatural. She knows immortals better than they know themselves, right down to their stubborn little genes. So although a handsome rogue immortal seems suspicious to her colleagues, Sebastien Newcombe intrigues Melanie. His history is checkered, his scars are impressive, and his ideas are daring. But it’s not his ideas that have Melanie fighting off surges of desire. Bastien is used to being the bad guy. In fact, he can’t remember the last time he had an ally he could trust. But Melanie is different, and under her calm, professional exterior he senses a passion beyond anything in his centuries of experience. Giving in to temptation is out of the question, he can’t put her in danger. But she isn’t asking him.
Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1), by Kresley Cole (October 2, Simon & Schuster)
Young Adult. Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future. She must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate, Jack Deveaux. Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. He agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil.
Werewolf in Denver (Wild About You #4), by Vicki Lewis Thompson (October 2, Signet)
When Denver-based Were blogger and founder of Honoring of Werewolf Legacy (HOWL) Kate Stillman agrees to take on political “bad boy” Duncan MacDowell in a public debate about werewolf segregation, she’s confident she’ll sail through the challenge without letting down her guard. And what can go wrong while hanging out with the sexy Scottish founder of Werewolves Optimizing Our Future (WOOF) long enough to convince him his views on interspecies mating are mistaken? Plenty, when Kate discovers that she’s actually wildly attracted to her opponent, who by all accounts prefers dating human women. But what hope can there be when this irresistible werewolf-with-a-cause believes their future depends on Kate losing the argument?
Wicked Whispers (Castle of Dark Dreams #6), by Nina Bangs (October 2, Berkley Trade)
All Ivy had ever wanted was a safe, secure life with no drama. Now she was working in an adult theme park where visitors came to role-play their wildest imaginings. She reminded herself to stay focused on her job and to ignore everything else. The reminders didn’t work. One man drew her. Murmur was every erotic dream she’d tried to repress, every deliciously dangerous temptation she said she didn’t need. Her instinct suggested that this was a man who walked in darkness. But Murmur was more than what he seemed. A powerful demon, he used his demonic gift to destroy as well as seduce. In desiring him, Ivy had opened herself to a menace born centuries ago, one that would risk both their lives and betray the promises made with every one of his wicked whispers.
WEEK TWO
Absolution (Penton Legacy #2), by Susannah Sandlin (October 9, Montlake Romance)
With the vampire world on the brink of civil war over the scarcity of untainted human blood, battle lines are being drawn between the once peaceful vampire and human enclave of Penton, Alabama, and the powerful Vampire Tribunal. When the descendant of a powerful shaman is sent to bring Penton’s second-in-command back under Tribunal control, will Glory Cummings help Mirren Kincaid find absolution for his ruthless past, or will she turn him back into the Tribunal’s killing machine? It’s a town under siege, a powerful warrior in a battle with his past, and the power of one woman who can make the earth move—literally—as the Penton Legacy continues.
WEEK THREE
Tangled Web, by Christa McHugh (October 16, Entangled)
The deadliest assassin in the empire just got too close to her target…Azurha, a former slave turned deadliest assassin in the empire, has just been offered the ultimate challenge—seduce, then murder the new Emperor. But Titus is not the tyrant his forefathers were, and his radical ideas might be the glimmer of hope the empire needs. Titus Sergius Flavus has yet to master the powerful magic of his ancestors—magic he must wield if he’s to protect his people—but his father’s death has left him no choice. Rule the Deizian Empire and attempt to right his ancestors’ wrongs, or watch her fall to his greedy kin. More than just Titus’ ideas hold Azurha captive. Night after night, he awakens desires she thought lost, and uncovers the magic of her hidden lineage. As her deadline approaches, Azurha is forced to make an impossible decision—complete her job and kill the man she loves, or fail and forfeit both their lives.
WEEK FOUR
Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter (Midnight Liaisons #2), by Jessica Sims (October 30, Pocket Books)
Sarah Ward, the werewolf sister of Bathsheba from Beauty Dates the Beast, and co-owner of their paranormal online dating agency, Midnight Liaisons, is voluntarily traded to a wolf clan in exchange for a kidnapped female were-cougar. Fearful of what might happen to her while with the wolf clan, she and Ramsey, a were-bear who’s part of the were-cougar alliance, pretend to be engaged so he can stay with her for protection. The last thing either of them expect is for their pretend engagement to lead to a very real love affair.
Forbidden (The World of Nightwalkers #1), by Jacquelyn Frank (October 30, Ballantine Books)
On her way to work, secretary Docia Waverley hurtles into a crashing crossroads, and she quickly begins to suspect that things will never be the same. Then, when a tall, blond, muscular stranger intervenes on her behalf, telling her it is his duty to protect her at all cost, what is just a feeling turns to proof positive. When Ram finds Docia, he has no doubt that she is his queen. He feels something more than body heat every time they touch. He is overwhelmed by a searing connection that goes deep into the twin souls inside him. A desire rises in him that is forbidden. And yet Docia is so vulnerable and attractive that she awakens a hunger in Ram that is undeniable, a carnal craving he cannot yield to, not without risking the very survival of the Bodywalkers.
Midnight’s Seduction (Dark Warriors #3), by Donna Grant (October 30, St. Martin’s)
Captivating and enticing, Saffron Fletcher is a rarity in the Druid world, a Seer. She is the ultimate prize in an epic battle. After suffering horrendously at the hands of evil, her thirst for justice is all that keeps her going. Can she put her trust in the sinfully gorgeous, wonderfully dangerous Warrior who haunts her dreams and promises retribution for their common enemy? Camdyn MacKenna is hungry for revenge, until he falls prey to Saffron’s seductive magic. She enchants him like no other. But if Camdyn yields to her allure, will he be strong enough to defeat their sworn enemy, and resist the rising forces of evil that could destroy their love forever?
Author Suzanne Johnson is a book geek with a fondness for a good dystopia. Royal Street, the first in her Sentinels of New Orleans series, is set in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. Find Suzanne on Twitter and Facebook.
