Angieville

I think this was my favorite Weather Warden book so far. Having washed her hands of the Wardens, Jo is back in Florida working a pay-the-bills job as a "weather girl" with a local TV station. The hilarious part is she doesn't even get to predict the weather. She just stands around in nightmarish costumes (picture huge foam suns with face cut-outs and bulky clouds dripping glitter rain), forced to grit her teeth and smile as the schmaltzy-beyond-belief weather man struts his stuff. Fortunately she has a new friend in the feisty Cherise--the petite and beautiful weather girl who drives a Mustang, gets to wear flattering bikinis, and never gets buckets of water dumped on her. Jo's carefully laid plan of flying under the supernatural radar while trying to figure out how to revive David gets blown to smithereens when her estranged sister shows up on her doorstep in need of a place to stay at the same time as the local Wardens come after her for supposedly tampering with th...

Ann Aguirre has posted a short story set in the Grimspace world on her website. Told from March's point of view, "Renegade" is set before the events of Grimspace take place and gives the reader a little insight into who March is and how he became the gritty, ruthless pilot we know and love. If you leave a comment here telling her what you liked or disliked about the story, Ms. Aguirre will enter you in a contest to win an ARC of Wanderlust . Talk about incentives... Enjoy .

Vegas, baby. This third installment in the Weather Warden series sees our girl Jo burning rubber to stop that little twit Kevin from taking over the world. Now that he's nigh unto invincible (thanks to a heady cocktail of Jonathan and Lewis' powers), he's made his new home a penthouse suite at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Jo has a very unpleasant history with Sin City, and it comes back to haunt her in a Big Way as she desperately tries to locate Kevin and persuade him to see the light. Chill Factor has a bit of the transitional novel feel to it as a new organization comparable (but sort of diametrically opposed) to the Wardens is introduced, exponentially complicating Joanne's life. Once again, every character except Jo seems to have layer upon layer of hidden motives. In some cases, (such as Marian Bearheart's) these motives made me want to cheer. In others, (such as Lewis') I felt a twist of pain in my gut and, even though he had a quasi-valid ...

Wow. Rachel Caine wasn't kidding with the end of Ill Wind . And the second Weather Warden book, Heat Stroke , takes that unexpected ending and runs with it. Wild. And Jo doesn't get much more of a breather than the reader does as she's plunged headlong into life as a Djinn. Or one half of a Djinn. Or a Djinn in training. Who can tell for sure? Good thing the lovely David is there to help her get a grip on her new reality. Unfortunately, it turns out David broke a few not-so-minor rules when he saved her life and the head Djinn Jonathan isn't happy with him. No, sir. Jonathan's not a bit happy. Before she can catch her breath, he turns Jo over to the rather dubious (but hilarious) Patrick to complete her training. In a week. Or die. And if Jo dies? Yep, you've got it. David'll be gone too. *sob* Of course, it's Jo we're talking about here. So the words "fighting chance" actually mean something. Plus, where Jo is, Lewis can never be very far...

So I finally got around to picking up my first Rachel Caine book. Kimberly 's great interview with Ms. Caine pushed me over the edge and I snagged a copy of Ill Wind , the first in Caine's Weather Warden series featuring Joanne Baldwin. I have to say I really like the cover design and artwork on this series. Simple, classy lines accompany the smooth, witching weather artwork making the overall package quite pleasing. I'm looking forward to how they'll look all lined up nicely on my shelf. Joanne is a weather warden, one of a few hundred people on Earth gifted with the ability to control the elements. Jo's gift is over water and air. She can summon up a storm and divert a disaster, but whenever a warden uses her power, the energy fallout has to go somewhere. And it's a daunting, thankless task managing where to expel it without creating another disaster along the way. Jo's job is made that much more difficult by the fact that she's recently become the u...

Thanks go to The Book Smugglers for tipping me off to this one. I've heard good things about Linnea Sinclair for awhile but was never sure where to jump in and was waiting for the right mood. I've definitely had a sci-fi hankering lately, so I figured now (on the heels of Grimspace and The Host ) was as good a time as any. Gabriel's Ghost is certainly a fast-paced book and it was kind of cool that it started after some pretty significant action had already happened. The reader is caught up along the way as Captain Chasidah Bergren, aka Chaz, attempts to survive her life sentence on the desolate planet Moabar for a crime she didn't commit. Sound a bit like Jax's predicament in Grimspace ? The two stories do have a fair bit in common, including a leading man who's "psychically gifted" to put it mildly. Though the writing style, IMO, is distinctly different. I'm going to skip a detailed plot synopsis and just say it's light, entertaining spa...

Here's an early promotional image for Joss Whedon 's upcoming Fox show " Dollhouse " starring Eliza Dushku. "Dollhouse" is set to premier in January and has an initial contract for 13 episodes. It's very exciting...

From Dead to Worse is the eighth Sookie Stackhouse book and, after reading it, definitely a comfort Sookie for me. Meaning, of the eight books so far, this is one I'll go back and reread when I want to feel good about things again. Right up there with numbers four and five-- Dead to the World and Dead as a Doornail . And, yes, I realize that my favorite Sookie books are also the ones with a high Eric factor. That's just the way it is. Fortunately, Ms. Harris seems to be channeling the good Eric vibes as well, because I continue to like where his and Sookie's relationship is going. And I like that it's not speeding but taking its time. Although, I will put in a request for "that conversation" to happen in the next book, please thank you. This installment sees Sookie and company recovering from the repercussions of the disastrous vampire summit in the last book. Post-Hurricane Katrina Louisiana is also still recovering and several new people come into Sookie...

I felt myself getting more and more excited about this book as the release date drew closer. I've enjoyed the Twilight books and I'm looking forward to their conclusion in Breaking Dawn , but I found myself pretty intrigued to see what Stephenie Meyer would do when she set out to do something different. Plus, I was just in the mood for some science fiction. I've loved sci fi ever since I picked up my first Ray Bradbury and, even though Meyer states it's science fiction for people who don't read science fiction, it certainly qualifies. What with the aliens and all. And there ended up being more (and a wider variety) of them than I was expecting. You're undoubtedly familiar with the premise of this novel already, so I'll leave it at this: it's invasion of the body snatchers, but the body snatchers are benevolent and the humans are, well, human. Flawed, emotional, corruptible. You name it. And there are very few of them left at all. But the few there are...

Because we've been waiting So Long for this book. Thought I'd break it up a bit with the cover art for Tamora Pierce 's upcoming Beka Cooper book Bloodhound . The deep blue is pretty cool. Looks like she's in Port Caynn, doesn't it? The latest on this one is that it'll be out in April. Of '09. Sigh.

Kimberly over at Darque Reviews tagged me with the following: 1. Pick up the nearest book. 2. Open to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the next three sentences. 5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you've posted your three sentences. The book nearest at hand at the time was Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper . So here you go: Everyone in the room looked keenly at Dr. Petty's face, watching for any shade of change upon it. He repeated the question once more, before shaking his head and concluding quietly, "She does not respond." Robert felt his heart fall. Make you want to read more? I hereby tag: Elisa , Liz , Carrie , Allie , and Koseli .

I was excited for this sequel for many reasons: Bones, Bones, oh, and Bones. Also, because it takes place a rather shocking Four Years after Halfway to the Grave and, I have to say, I like that Jeaniene Frost was willing to take that big a leap with just her second book. Most urban fantasy series books take place right on on each other's feverish heels, yet the readers have waited sometimes a year for the second installment, and occasionally I find myself wanting more time to have passed for the characters as well. Add a little more gravitas to the situation. Like we've all grown up a little in the interim. One Foot in the Grave starts out in the middle of Cat Crawfield's new life as a federal agent working for a little known department of Homeland Security specializing in vampire eradication. Having forced herself (for his safety) to leave Bones and her former life behind, Cat has become Cristine Russell and spent the last four years literally consumed by her work, trai...

The Twilight Lexicon has posted links to the official Twilight teaser trailer available on MySpace. It's short. It's sweet. It gives me the deep tingles. Enjoy .

The latest Sookie Stackhouse book, From Dead to Worse , comes out tomorrow! If you're a Sookie fan, there's a great interview with Sookie (aka Charlaine Harris ) over at Cat and Muse . Check it out . (Thanks to Urban Fantasy Land for the link)

Wicked Lovely , Melissa Marr 's first novel, was on my Best of 2007 list and I've been very excited about the sequel, Ink Exchange . The storyline follows Aislinn's friend Leslie. Leslie is surrounded by a fog of secrets and unable to break through the fog because of something that happened to her while Aislinn was caught up in her own set of the tumultuous events in Wicked Lovely. The gulf between the two girls only grows wider as they find themselves unable to talk about how they have each been irrevocably altered. While Aislinn negotiates a tricky truce between Keenan and Seth, Leslie is left to fend for herself, waitressing tables to pay the bills and avoiding going home for any length of time. She is also storing away a little cash to get a tattoo as a symbol of taking her life back and escaping the terror that's dominated it for too long. Turns out she's not completely alone, though. Aislinn has commissioned Niall, Keenan's friend and right hand man, to w...