Magic Gifts, a free Ilona Andrews story

Interested in a Kate Daniels novella as a New Year’s treat? “Magic Gifts,” a Kate and Curran story, is available as a free e-book until January 7. You can download a Kindle-compatible copy, an epub for Nook or other e-book readers, or a PDF to read on your computer. The novella will be printed in the upcoming Andrea-centered book, Gunmetal Magic, for those who either don’t want an electronic copy or missed out on the limited-time free release.

Get it here:

http://www.ilona-andrews.com/magic-gifts/

Cover Art in Two Minutes

We all know how spotting a piece of eye-grabbing cover art is a fun part of the book shopping experience. A good cover can let you know what to expect from a book in terms of tone, genre, and style, at least until it a particular cover style becomes trendy enough that all the examples of it tend to meld together. And of course a bad cover, unfortunately, can turn readers away from an otherwise great read.

I’ve really enjoyed the covers for Gail Carriger’s books, they certainly stand out from the pack and reflect the writing fairly well. So I was happy to see this video show up in my inbox today. Watch as a graphic artist puts together the pretty for us.

Also, stay tuned for upcoming reviews of Kitty’s House of Horrors, A Local Habitation, Black Magic Sanction, The Better Part of Darkness, and Death’s Mistress.

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

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

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

New and Upcoming Releases – May 2009

Here are a few books that have caught my eye for May, as usual, release dates are based on info from Amazon.

• already  released
  Blood from Stone, by Laura Anne Gilman 
• May 5
  Dead and Gone, by Charlaine Harris (excerpt)
  Magic in the Blood, by Devon Monk (excerpt)
• May 14
  Strange Angels, by Lili Saintcrow (ya)
• May 16
  Bad to the Bone, by Jeri Smith-Ready 
• May 19
  Norse Code, by Greg Van Eekhout
• May 26
  Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison (ya)
  A Flash of Hex, by Jes Battis
  Amazon Ink, by Lori Devoti 
• May 29
  Santa Olivia, by Jacqueline Carey 

Free Harper Teen Sampler

Check here for a free e-book containing sample chapters from 5 new and upcoming Harper Teen books. Unfortunately, it’s only available in PDF format. My first attempt to convert the PDF for use on my Kindle came out as an awkward, unreadable mess, but maybe I’ll try again with a different method.

Samples included are from:

• Fragile Eternity, by Melissa Marr
• Once Dead, Twice Shy, by Kim Harrison
• Stargazer, by Claudia Gray
• The Awakening, by Kelley Armstrong
• Wings, by Aprilynne Pike

(via janicu’s twitter feed)

Excerpts – April 2009

Here’s a few more excerpts from recent and upcoming books that I’ve added to the excerpts page in recent weeks.

• Blue Diablo (excerpt), by Ann Aguirre
• Red-Headed Stepchild (excerpt), by Jaye Wells
• Death’s Daughter (excerpt), by Amber Benson

New and Upcoming Releases – April 2009

• April 1
  Red-Headed Stepchild, by Jaye Wells
• April 7
  Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher
  Curse the Dawn, by Karen Chance (excerpt)
  Blue Diablo, by Ann Aguirre
• April 21
  Fragile Eternity, by Melissa Marr (ya)
• April 28
  The Awakening, by Kelley Armstrong (ya)
  Sins and Shadows, by Lyn Benedict

Read Seaborn for Free

Chris Howard has made his first book, Seaborn, available for free in PDF and HTML format. He’s requesting that anyone who would like to pay something for the electronic copy donate through a link on his website to either the Monterey Bay Aquarium or to the Woods Hole Oceanagraphic Institute.

Visit Chris Howard’s website and download Seaborn.

I haven’t read it yet so I can’t tell you much about the story, but it’s next on my to-read list and I hope to have a review up in the next week or so.

edit: Now there are also ePub, MOBI, and LRF formats available, which is great because I was having trouble converting the original HTML file.