The Spy Who Haunted Me, by Simon R. Green

In The Spy Who Haunted Me (the third book in Green’s Secret Histories series) Edwin Drood enters a competition organized by the Alexander King, the legendary Independent Agent. The group of gathered spies must work together to solve some of the world’s greatest mysteries, but only one of them can claim the prize – the secret knowledge accumulated by King during his career. There’s also a literal deadline. Alexander King is terminally ill, so if the victor doesn’t return quickly enough then King’s secrets could go with him to the grave. Edwin believes that only the Drood family can be trusted with what the Independent Agent knows. But he’s not the only one determined to win at any cost, which becomes clear once the competitors start dying.

New and Upcoming Releases – July 2009

Some of this month’s releases:

• July 1
  Prey, by Rachel Vincent
• July 7
  Strange Brew (anthology), edited by P.N. Elrod
  Bloody Awful, by Georgia Evans
  Skinwalker, by Faith Hunter
  Blue Moon (ya), by Alyson Noel
• July 28
  Redemption Alley, by Lillith St. Crow
  Destined for an Early Grave, by Jeaniene Frost
  Skin Deep, by Mark Del Franco

Q&A with author Toni Andrews

Toni Andrews is doing a virtual book tour for her new release, Cry Mercy, and today she’s here to answer a few questions for us. As part of the tour, you can send Toni a self-addressed stamped envelope, and she’ll send you a signed bookplate for your copy of the book. For more information about that, and links to her other blog appearances, check out her virtual tour site.

Cry Mercy is the third book in her Mercy Hollings series. The heroine is a hypnotherapist with the power to “press” others into doing what she wants. To find out more about Mercy (or about Toni’s romance novels written as Virginia Reede), you can visit Toni’s website or her blog. Toni also produces a book-related public access show, So Many Books, and you can watch episodes online.

On to the questions!

Recent YA Reads – June 2009

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of YA. Here are a few of the books I’ve finished in the past month or so:

Once Dead, Twice Shy, by Kim Harrison

A girl who died after her junior prom is able to stay in the world of the living thanks to a mystical amulet stolen from the supernatural being who killed her. Thankfully a light reaper and guardian angel are trying to help keep her safe from its previous owner- or at least as safe as a dead girl can be.

Madison, the heroine of the story, is one of the best YA characters that I’ve come across lately. She’s fun to read about. But I’m not sure if I’m that interested in the premise yet. This is another one of those “first in a series” books that was actually introduced in an anthology (2007’s Prom Nights From Hell), so the amount of backstory and world-building info that had to be recapped didn’t exactly help the flow of the book. And since I don’t think I’ve said it yet this month, I still hate that trend of separately-published short stories that contain series-critical information.

I’d recommend this book to any YA readers, but do yourself a favor and track down the short story first.

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The Awakening, by Kelley Armstrong

This is the second of Armstrong’s Darkest Powers series, it uses the Otherworld setting but no major players from the adult series have made an appearance so far. At the start of the story, Chloe is locked in the headquarters of the Edison Group, an organization that approaches the supernatural from a scientific perspective. Her only shot at escape is to pretend to lead her captors to the hiding place of her friends who are still on the run.

I liked the characters and the concept, and this one was more action-heavy than the first. It felt like too many of the character interactions involved arguing with each other, though. Having characters in a novel compare their activities to fictional stories is a pet peeve of mine, and Chloe, with her interest in movies, does this a lot. Still, I’ll happily read the next in the series because I really enjoy Armstrong’s world.

It’s an enjoyable series so far, but if it sounds interesting then make sure you start with the first one (The Summoning).

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Hunted, by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

This is the fifth House of Night book (the series starts with Marked), but it’s the last one I’ll be reading.

After the exciting events and character growth of book four, it feels like the series basically just reset to square one. Some storylines that felt nicely wrapped up started all over, Zoey falls back into the same old mistakes, and god forbid she not have three love interests at any one time. Despite her advanced boyfriend-juggling skills, Zoey sounds more and more like a much younger character, and the series has gone back to “Zoey can fix all problems with relative ease because she’s super fledgling” land.

Not recommended.

Curse the Dawn, by Karen Chance

During all of Cassandra Palmer’s short reign as Pythia, the world’s most powerful clairvoyant and time traveler, factions in the supernatural community have been fighting to control or destroy her. Now Cassie is trying to stop the plans of her most powerful enemy yet – a supernatural being who was once worshiped as a god. She faces attacks, accidents, and even a magical disaster, all while having her usual arguments with the allies who want to keep her safely away from the action.

New and Upcoming Releases – June 2009

Some of the urban fantasy books coming out this month:

• June 1
  Cry Mercy, by Toni Andrews
• June 2
  Street Magic, by Caitlin Kittredge
  Eve of Destruction, by S.J. Day
  Bloody Good, by Georgia Evans
• June 23
  Mark of the Demon, by Diana Rowland
• June 30
  Darkness Calls, by Marjorie M. Liu
  City of Souls, by Vicki Pettersson
  Vicious Circle, by Linda Robertson
  Dying Bites, by D.D. Barant
  Eve of Chaos, by S.J. Day

(All dates are the current ones from Amazon.)

Excerpts – May 2009

More recent additions to the excerpts page:

• Sins & Shadows (excerpt), by Lyn Benedict
• Magic in the Blood (excerpt), by Devon Monk
• The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle (excerpt), by L.J. Smith (ya)
• The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall (excerpt), by L.J. Smith (ya)
• Norse Code (excerpt), by Greg Van Eekhout
• Santa Olivia (excerpt), by Jacqueline Carey

Watch Scenes from WB’s Vampire Diaries

My first impression is that it looks like it will follow the story from the books at least somewhat. It’s difficult to tell much about Elena from these scenes, but the actress seems okay. Damon is not how I pictured him, but I can tell that I’m going to like this version. I hope that their Stefan will grow on me, I wasn’t too thrilled with what I saw here.

Vampire Diaries tv show coming this fall

A show based on L.J. Smith’s Vampire Diaries series will be on the CW this fall.

The four original books were first published in the early 90s, but have been recently re-released (in two volumes). Fans of YA urban fantasy should check them out. I’ll be posting about the recent addition to the series soon.

Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle
Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion

For the curious, there’s a cast list at IMDB. It doesn’t seem like they’re sticking with the physical descriptions in the books, but I find it hard to care about that sort of thing. Maybe once they get past the story from the books, fans will finally get to see Damon fall for Bonnie…

5/21 edit:
And of course they’ve decided to put it on Thursdays with Supernatural. That’s about what I expected. But with Bones already on Thursday night and Fringe moving there, Thursdays are getting pretty crowded.

5/22 edit:
I posted a few scenes from the new series here.

True Blood on DVD

The first season of HBO’s True Blood is now available on DVD. It’s certainly different than the Charlaine Harris books it’s based on, but I enjoyed it. Most of the important elements of the first novel, Dead Until Dark, are included, though there are definitely some changes. The show also adds in some new storylines so there are still surprises.

I’d say that there are two main differences between the books and the adaptation. The series has more of an ensemble focus, and there’s a lot more sex. I’ve heard some fans say that they were disappointed with one or both of those things. But I think I’d have been more disappointed if the show had tried to copy the book exactly, because it never would have matched my expectations.

Season 2 will begin on June 14.