KB Pimpin Future Book Releases

Some lovely future releases to drool over...

I'm showing this one first because it was just announced from Stacia Kane. Here's the cover for Sacrificial Magic (Downside #4) (Harper Voyager, March 27th).

Also check out Dark Faerie Tales. Stacia posts a scene from Sacrificial Magic that Terrible and Chess fans will be swooning over.

Synopsis:   When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

Possible love triangle? Garden of Secrets (Angel's Bay #5) by Barbara Freethy (Pocket, September 27th).

Synopsis: Dr. Charlotte Adams is torn between two men. Rev. Andrew Schilling is her past, a high-school romance that went drastically wrong. But he's back in town now and part of her present — along with newly-divorced Police Chief Joe Silviera, whom she's been powerfully attracted to for months. The question is, which man is her future — and Charlotte has to face and accept her past before she can build a life with Joe.

A Winter Scandal by Candace Camp (Pocket, October 25th).

Synopsis: Thea is a vicar’s daughter, dutiful to a fault—even if sometimes she tires of caring for everyone around her. One snowy day in December, Thea goes to church to check on the nativity scene—and finds a crying baby nestled in the manger! The babe has no identification other than a signet ring belonging to Gabriel, the local lord. Before Thea can think twice, she snatches up the child and marches off to give the earl a piece of her mind.

Gabriel at first thinks the windblown, furious woman who appears in his hall is accusing him of fathering her child—but it soon becomes clear that the baby is not his. Then how did the child come to have Gabriel’s ring wrapped in its swaddling? Gabriel, a bachelor, has no notion of how to care for an infant and begs Thea for her continued help. As the two work together to search for his rightful parents, they are powerfully drawn to one another. Gabriel can’t help but admire Thea’s fresh, striking beauty and her tender heart, while Thea daydreams about more than a friendship with the bold but honorable lord. But someone is determined to keep them from finding the truth about this wayward baby—even if it means silencing one or both of them for good.

The Doomsday Vault (Clockwork Empire #1) by Steven Harper (Roc, November 1st).

Synopsis: In a clockwork Brittania, Alice's prospects are slim. At 21, her age and her unladylike interest in automatons have sealed her fate as an undesirable marriage prospect. But a devastating plague sends Alice off in a direction beyond the pale-towards a clandestine organization, mad inventors, life-altering secrets, and into the arms of an intrepid fiddle-playing airship pilot

Anyone in the mood for something different? Lesbian Paranormal here. Better Off Red: Vampire Sorority Sisters Book 1 - by Rebekah Weatherspoon (Bold Stoke Books, November 14th.)

Synopsis: Every sorority has its secrets...

And college freshman Ginger Carmichael couldn't care less. She has more important things on her mind, like maintaining her perfect GPA. No matter how much she can't stand the idea of the cliques and the matching colors, there's something about the girls of Alpha Beta Omega—their beauty, confidence, and unapologetic sexuality—that draws Ginger in. But once initiation begins, Ginger finds that her pledge is more than a bond of sisterhood, it’s a lifelong pact to serve six bloodthirsty demons with a lot more than nutritional needs.

Despite her fears, Ginger falls hard for the immortal queen of this nest, and as the semester draws to a close, she sees that protecting her family from the secret of her forbidden love is much harder than studying for finals.

Disturbing YA thriller? Hushed by Kelley York (Entangled Publishing, December 6th).

Synopsis: He’s saved her. He’s loved her. He’s killed for her.

Eighteen-year-old Archer couldn’t protect his best friend, Vivian, from what happened when they were kids, so he’s never stopped trying to protect her from everything else. It doesn’t matter that Vivian only uses him when hopping from one toxic relationship to another—Archer is always there, waiting to be noticed.

Then along comes Evan, the only person who’s ever cared about Archer without a single string attached. The harder he falls for Evan, the more Archer sees Vivian for the manipulative hot-mess she really is.

But Viv has her hooks in deep, and when she finds out about the murders Archer’s committed and his relationship with Evan, she threatens to turn him in if she doesn’t get what she wants… And what she wants is Evan’s death, and for Archer to forfeit his last chance at redemption.

A debut author who has some buzz behind her. A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant (Bantam, December 27th).

Synopsis: Newly widowed and desperate to protect her estate and beloved servants from her malevolent brother-in-law, Martha Russell conceives a daring plan. Or rather, a daring plan to conceive. After all, if she has an heir on the way, her future will be secured. Forsaking all she knows of propriety, Martha approaches her neighbor, a London exile with a wicked reputation, and offers a strictly business proposition: a month of illicit interludes . . . for a fee.

Theophilus Mirkwood ought to be insulted. Should be appalled. But how can he resist this siren in widow’s weeds, whose offer is simply too outrageously tempting to decline? Determined she’ll get her money’s worth, Theo endeavors to awaken this shamefully neglected beauty to the pleasures of the flesh—only to find her dead set against taking any enjoyment in the scandalous bargain. Surely she can’t resist him forever. But could a lady’s sweet surrender open their hearts to the most unexpected arrival of all . . . love?

I have a strange sense of dejua vu with this cover. Anyone else? Archon: The Books of Raziel by Sabrina Benulis (HarperCollins, December 27th).

Synopsis: Angela Mathers is plagued by visions of angels, supernatural creatures who haunt her thoughts by day and seduce her dreams by night. Newly released from a mental institution where she was locked away for two years, she hopes that her time at the Vatican’s university, the West Wood Academy, will give her a chance at a normal life. Unlike ordinary humans, Angela is a blood head — a freak, a monster, the possible fulfillment of a terrifying prophecy of overwhelming death and destruction. Only in Luz, the Vatican’s wondrous enclave, are blood heads accepted and encouraged to discover what kind of powers or special abilities they might possess.

But within West Wood, a secret coven plots, and demons and angels roam the streets searching for the key to open Raziel’s book — a secret tome from a lost archangel. Some are determined to destroy Raziel, while others, like the beautiful Supernal Israfel, one of the highest of the high, wish to free him. And when the Archon — the human chosen to possess the spirit of a dead angel — rises as foretold, they will control the supernatural universe.

Torn between mortal love and angelic obsession, Angela holds the key to Heaven and Hell — and both will stop at nothing to possess her.

Debut author! How to Dance with a Duke (Ugly Ducklings #1) by Manda Collins (St. Martin's, January 31st).

Synopsis: Miss Cecily Hurston would much rather explore the antiquities of Egypt than the uncharted territory of marriage. But the rules of her father’s exclusive academic society forbid her entrance unless she weds one of its members. To clear her ailing father’s name of a scandalous rumor, Cecily needs to gain admission into the Egyptian Club—and is willing to marry any old dullard to do it.

Lucas Dalton, Duke of Winterson, is anything but dull. He’s a dashing and decorated war hero determined to help Cecily—even if that means looking the other way when she claims the dance card of Amelia Snow, this season’s most sought-after beauty. But Lucas has a reason for wanting Cecily to join the Egyptian Club: His brother went missing during one of Lord Hurston’s expeditions to Egypt. An alliance with the explorer’s bluestocking daughter could bring Lucas closer to the truth about what happened…or it could lead him to a more dangerous love than either he or Cecily could have imagined...

Katie has jumped from epublishing into traditional publishing. Alpha Instinct (Moon Shifter #1) by Katie Reus (Signet, February 7th 2012).

Synopsis: Ana Cordona has been a strong leader for the lupine shifters who survived after all the males and most of the females in her pack were mysteriously poisoned. As tough as she is, with no Alpha male, the pack is vulnerable to the devious shifter Taggart, who wants to claim both their ranch and Ana as his own. When Connor Armstrong comes back into her life, promising protection, it’s almost enough to make Ana forget how he walked out on her before—and reluctantly accept his offer to mate.

The minute Connor sees Ana again, it reawakens a raw hunger. He must have her for his bondmate—his wolf cries out for it. But his human side knows he must proceed with caution because of their complicated past. If he is to truly have her body and soul, he must go beyond his burning desire and win back her heart. Whatever it takes, he is determined not to leave her side again.

But Taggart and his rival pack are not their only enemies. A human element in town is targeting shifters. Their plan not only threatens Ana and Connor’s future, but the lives of the entire pack…

Pretty much a given I'll read this one. Let's hope it's more romance than women' s fiction. Rainshadow Road (Friday Harbor #2) by Lisa Kleypas (St. Martin's February 28th).

Synopsis: Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in mystical, beautiful, Friday Harbor, Washington. She is stunned and blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal: her fiancé Kevin has left her. His new lover is Lucy’s own sister. Lucy's bitterness over being dumped is multiplied by the fact that she has constantly made the wrong choices in her romantic life. Facing the severe disapproval of Lucy's parents, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on San Juan Island, to "romance" Lucy and hopefully loosen her up and get her over her anger. Complications ensue when Sam and Lucy begin to fall in love, Kevin has second thoughts, and Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretenses. Questions about love, loyalty, old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings are explored as Lucy learns that some things in life—even after being broken—can be made into something new and beautiful.