WB’s Vampire Diaries, Supernatural start tonight

Tonight at 8 is the first episode of WB’s Vampire Diaries show. It’s based on the L.J. Smith books that I was practically obsessed with as a teenager, so I’ve been interested in checking it out. Honestly, my expectations are pretty low. I hardly expect any adaptation to follow the source material completely, but some of the changes that I’ve heard about sounded fairly pointless.

And at 9, we get the start of the fifth (and possibly last) season of Supernatural. After last season’s ending, I’m dying to know what happens! This is one of the best genre shows on television, and anyone who hasn’t seen it so far should check out the DVDs.

New and Recent Releases – September 2009

• already released
  Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire (my review)
  Must Love Hellhounds, an anthology featuring Charlaine Harris, Illona Andrews, Nalini Singh, and Meljean Brook
  Trick of the Light, by Rob Thurman
  Witch Craft, by Caitlin Kittredge
  Never Cry Werewolf, by Heather Davis (ya)
• September 14
  Once A Witch, by Carolyn MacCullough (ya)
• September 29
  Frostbitten, by Kelley Armstrong
  On the Edge, by Illona Andrews
  Soulless, by Gail Carriger
  Darker Angels, by M.L.N. Hanover
  Dawnbreaker, by Jocelynn Drake

Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire

Rosemary and Rue comes out tomorrow, but I got an ARC of this one so I was able to check it out a bit early.

It’s about October Daye, a changeling who rejected Faerie after her attempt to lead a partially human life was shattered by a curse. Toby does her best to get by quietly in San Francisco, but a desperate message from a murder victim forces her out of her self-imposed isolation. To hunt the killer, she has to rejoin fae society and navigate a dangerous world of politics and power. Toby will have to rely on old friends, and occasionally old enemies, to solve the murder and save herself.

I know I’ve been a bit absent lately –

Part of that is because of some other commitments that have cut down on my reading time. And part of it is because I’ve read some pretty disappointing urban fantasy titles lately. I started reviews of most of those anyway, because I’m not one of those “if I didn’t like it then I won’t post about it” reviewers. But panning three books in a row sounded severe, even for me.

I do have a few not-full-of-complaining posts coming up, including a review of one of the high points of my August reading.

New and Recent Releases – August 2009

This month I thought I’d try linking my release list to each book’s Goodreads.com page instead of to Amazon.  That way you can check out what other people may be saying about the books so far, also because Goodreads is awesome.

• already released
  Thorn Queen, by Richelle Mead
  Leader of the Pack: Tales of an Urban Werewolf, by Karen MacInerney
  Dark Time, by Dakota Banks
• August 4
  Cape Storm, by Rachel Caine
  Bloody Right, by Georgia Evans
  Vanished, by Kat Richardson
  The Red Tree, by Caitlin R. Kiernan
• August 25
  Hunting Ground, by Patricia Briggs
  Mercy Thompson: Homecoming (graphic novel), by Patricia Briggs, Francis Tsai, and Amelia Woo
  Unbound (anthology), includes Kim Harrison, Melissa Marr, Jeaniene Frost, Vicki Pettersson, Jocelynn Drake

Being Human on BBC America

Being Human – a show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who share an apartment – starts on BBC America this week. The first episode is July 25 at 9 pm.

There’s been some really entertaining genre television coming from the UK in recent years (Hex, Primeval, and especially Jekyll), so it’s probably worth checking out.

edit:  post updated with bonus eye candy

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.