Upcoming Western Releases & A Freebie...

I love a good western, be it a book or a movie. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. So here are a variety of upcoming western romance releases and a reprint to add the the list.


Bloodlands is the first book in Post-apocalyptic western urban fantasy trilogy. Christine Cody is the author who also goes by the name of Chris Marie Green, author of the Vampire Babylon series. I like the sound of this new series and the look of the covers. No man titty in sight and yet, he's still sexy. Imagine that!

It was called the New Badlands, home to the survivors of a cataclysm that altered the entire nation. Then the vampires arrived, an admit was rechristened the Bloodlands. Not because of the vampire, but because of the gun-for-hire who'd decided to slay every monster in the country by any and every means necessary.

The cover reminds me of Russel Crowe in The Quick and the Dead. Loved that movie!

The second book in the series is Blood Rules.

In the Bloodlands, sometimes the monsters don't even know themselves...

After the man named Gabriel came to the Bloodlands, Mariah Lyander was forced to face her true nature, and the horrible things she had done. To redeem herself, she embarks on a quest to find a rumored cure for were-creatures hoping to recover her own humanity - and Gabriel's love.

Book 3 - In Blood We Trust is set for release on September 27, no cover or blurb yet.


For fans of Jo Goodman's Reidsville series that started with Never Love a Lawman, followed by Marry Me, now have something to look forward to. Kissing Comfort is another historical western romance due for release on September 6. You can go here to read an excerpt. The excerpt takes place in the Sierra Nevada's so I'm not sure if it's part of the Reidsville series. My guess would be no, but I've been wrong a time or two. :) Does anyone remember Bode or Bram from the other two books?


Bode DeLong knows that his playboy brother Bram isn't really in love with Miss Comfort Kennedy, even though it's clear that she's enamored with him. With Bram's motives for the engagement suspect, Bode figures the safest place for Comfort to be is in his arms. Now, Bode just needs to convince Comfort that the childhood fancy she has for his brother is no match for the incredible desire that sparks between them every time they touch.






I've loved Jodi Thomas' historicals for years and The Tender Texan is one of my favorites! Originally released in 1991, it will be reprinted with a new cover and due for release on November 1.

Anna Meyer offers one hundred dollars to the Texas cattleman who can help her forge a frontier homestead. Chance Wyatt agrees to settle down and build a home with a lovely stranger. The boy in him never considered the possibility of love. But the man in him can't deny the passion that Anna brings out in him. they vowed to live together for only a year, but as the challenges of the savage land bring them closer together, neither can resist the aching desire that inflames their hearts - and touches their souls.




I haven't started this series yet but I will get to it! I love Lorelei James' Rough Riders series so it's a given that I'll read this one too. Wrangled and Tangled is the third book in her Blacktop Cowboys series. I swear she gets the best covers! Release date, November 1.

Janie Fitzhugh and Abe Lawson have long been divorced and living apart. Now she's back in town, a changed woman - making cattleman Abe want to wrangle an invitation to her bed...

To get his dream ranch, Renner Jackson has partnered with spoiled daddy's girl Tierney Pratt. She thinks she can handle this cowboy, but Renner won't make it easy. Little do they know they will be entangled in ways neither dreamed possible.



Another Lorelei James upcoming release is Chasing Eight, due for e-book release on June 28. The hero is Chase McKay, no word on who the heroine is yet. This is book 11 in James' wildly addictive Rough Riders series. And in case you haven't tried this series yet, you're in luck. Long Hard Ride, the first book in the series is free in e-book format for the entire month of May. You can get it here for the Kindle™ or here for the nook™. This is a great way to try this thoroughly enjoyable series. Who can resist sexy cowboys?


What books are on your upcoming must-be-read list? Any westerns you want to recommend?

Cover Love ~ Elizabeth Hoyt...

Elizabeth Hoyt has posted the cover, stepback and excerpt for her next book, Wicked Intentions. The cover is different from her usual covers, more subtle. But she still has that gorgeous stepback!

You can read the excerpt here. Wicked Intentions is due out this August. First off I like that it's set in 1737. There's plenty of Regency and Victorian set romances so it's nice to have a different time period. Second, the excerpt grabbed my interest. Both the heroine and the hero have potential. I just hope the heroine doesn't cave too quickly to what ever Lord Caire has up his sleeve.

Coming Soon ~ Shades of Midnight...

I still like this series even with my less than favorable response to the last book, Ashes of Midnight. I couldn't find a blurb on the author's website, found the one below on Fantastic Fiction. Releases December 29. Enjoy...

In a frozen wilderness steeped in darkness, the lines between good and evil, lover and enemy, are never black or white but drawn in Shades of Midnight.

Something inhuman is stalking the frigid Alaskan wilds, leaving unspeakable carnage in its wake. For bush pilot Alexandra Maguire, the killings stir memories of a horrific event she witnessed as a child and evoke in her the inexplicable sense of otherness she has long felt within herself but never fully understood . . . until a darkly seductive stranger with secrets of his own enters her world.

Sent from Boston on a mission to investigate the savage attacks and stop the slaughter, vampire warrior Kade has his own reasons for returning to the frigid, forbidding place of his birth. Haunted by a secret shame, Kade soon realizes the stunning truth of the threat he faces-a threat that will jeopardize the fragile bond he has formed with the courageous, determined young woman who arouses his deepest passions and most primal hungers. But in bringing Alex into his world of blood and darkness, Kade must confront both his own personal demons and the even greater evil that could destroy all he holds dear.

The Breeds are off to Alaska for this one. This is Kade's book and I'm looking forward to the different setting. It sounds like he's alone on this mission, too bad since I was hoping for more of Sterling Chase. The heroine, a bush pilot, has potential. She's got to be tough and smart to survive being a pilot in Alaska. I do like that Adrian makes the heroines part of "the team" and doesn't leave them sitting on the sidelines.

Dreamfever...

Only one week to go until Dreamfever's release! I listened to the audio book of Faefever last week and I did enjoy it more than I thought I would. Based on some of the negative reviews that came out last year I wasn't expecting to like it very much but it took me by surprise and sucked me right back into Mac's world. I do wish there had been more development of the Mac and Barrons relationship. It seems like it should have gotten farther along than it has by now. I did like the way Mac and the sidhe-seers interacted more and their relationship moved forward. The ending was considered controversial by some readers, many disliked it but it didn't have the same impact on me as I thought it would. I think it was due to the fact that I knew what was going to happen and have know since Faefever came out last year. So time and distant had diluted the shock for me.

Dreamfever synopsis from author's website ~

*Spoilers if you haven't read the first 3 books*

MacKayla Lane lies naked on the cold stone floor of a church, at the mercy of the erotic Fae master she once swore to kill. Far from home, unable to control her sexual hungers, MacKayla is now fully under the Lord Master's spell. In the New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning's stunning new novel, the walls between human and Fae worlds have come crashing down. And as Mac fights for survival on Dublin's battle-scarred streets, she will embark on the darkest-and most erotically charged-adventure of her life.

He has stolen her past, but MacKayla will never allow her sister's murderer to take her future. Yet even the uniquely gifted sidhe-seer is no match for the Lord Master, who has unleashed an insatiable sexual craving that consumes Mac's every thought-and thrusts her into the seductive realm of two very dangerous men, both of whom she desires but dares not trust.

As the enigmatic Jericho Barrons and the sensual Fae prince V'lane vie for her body and soul, as she rallies the sidhe-seers to fight an impossible battle, and the power of the Dark Book weaves its annihilating path through the city, Mac's greatest enemy delivers a final challenge...

It's an invitation Mac cannot refuse, one that sends her racing home to Georgia, where an even darker threat awaits. With her parents missing and the lives of her loved ones under siege, Mac is about to come face-to-face with a soul-shattering truth-about herself, and about the world she thought she knew.

Dark Slayer...

Christine Feehan has posted on her site the synopsis for the next release in her Carpathian series Dark Slayer.

Dark Slayer is due for release in hardcover on September 1, 2009. Here's the synopsis from Feehan's website:

A rumor has persisted in the vampire world of a dark slayer—a woman—who travels with a wolf pack and any among the vampires who meets her is slain. Mysterious, elusive and seemingly impossible to kill, she is the one hunter who strikes terror into the hearts of the vampires.

Ivory Malinov is that woman, betrayed by her own people, by her family, by everyone she held dear and she hunts during the night with only her pack to sustain her sanity. She has not spoken to or been with any other person for a hundred years other than to feed from or slay. She stumbles across a body on her way back to her lair and discovers—her lifemate.

He is Razvan, branded a hated criminal, detested, feared and loathed by all Carpathians—he is also a dragonseeker of one of the greatest lineages of all Carpathians. Held captive nearly his entire life by his grandfather, the Carpathians bitterest enemy, he is seeking the dawn to end his terrible existence.

This is a story of two people, horribly betrayed, wounded in spirit, fighters to the death, who must struggle to unite against a common enemy.

Many speculated, myself included, that this would be about either Zacarias or possibly Dominic. But this sounds really good, something different, with a kick-ass heroine. I'm definitely planning on reading it. And I absolutely LOVE the cover.

Elizabeth Hoyt ~ News & Free Serial Novella

Updates and news for Elizabeth Hoyt fans of which I'm one ~ love her books!

The second book in her Legend of the Four Soldiers Series, To Seduce a Sinner is due out on the 28th per Amazon but Ms. Hoyt's site says it out now. It's the story of Lord Vale and Melisande Fleming. They were secondary characters in To Taste Tempation, the first book in the series.

The third book in the series is called To Beguile a Beast, due out in May 2009. It's about Sir Alistair Munroe and ???. His heroine hasn't been named yet. Hopefully we'll find out more in To Seduce a Sinner. And the fourth book is To Desire a Devil. No cover yet, release date of November 2009.

Her covers are so beautiful and the stepbacks are even better!

Starting in January Ms. Hoyt will be posting a chapter a month of a novella called The Ice Princess. This is about Coral Smythe, a secondary character from The Raven Prince. Here's the synopsis from her website:

SEVEN NIGHTS OF SIN

As the madam of Aphrodite’s Grotto, the most infamous brothel in London, Coral Smythe knows everything possible about men’s needs and desires. Yet she’s never experienced the love of a single man—not even that of Captain Isaac Wargate whose hawk-like eyes stare at her with both condemnation…and lust.

SEVEN NIGHTS OF ECSTASY

Captain Wargate heartily disapproves of the sensuous madam who always wears a golden mask. She lures his officers from both his ship and their duty. But when Coral herself is offered up as the prize in a game of chance, Wargate impulsively enters…and wins.

SEVEN NIGHTS OF LOVE

Now the puritanical navy captain has just seven nights to learn everything he can about the mysterious madam and what she knows of a man’s desires. But when Coral is threatened by the new owner of Aphrodite’s Grotto, will Wargate take a chance on the woman beneath the mask…and on love?

Also for November only, you can order a free preview booklet of the first chapter of The Ice Princess and the first chapter of For the Love of Pete by Julia Harper the contemporary name Ms. Hoyt writes under. Here's my review of HOT, the other Julia Harper book. For the Love of Pete sounds like another fun read. The info for ordering these and subscribing to her newsletter can be found here.

Coming Soon from Sherrilyn Kenyon...

Sherrilyn Kenyon has a few books due out soon that I plan to read. I've only read her Dark Hunter/Were Hunter/Dream Hunter books. And they can be confusing at times with all the who, what, where and how of the characters. The various gods and goddess are what usually screw me up. She also writes historicals under the name Kinley MacGregor. I have a few of them but haven't had the chance to read any yet. While I don't run out and get her books on release day I do still enjoy reading those from the Hunter universe.

The first book, due out November 4 is One Silent Night, Stryker's book. He's the leader of the Daimons and a total bad boy. He loves nothing more than killing Dark Hunters and eating humans. How Kenyon will redeem him or if he will be redeemed is why I want to read his book. Here's some info from Kenyon's site:

While the world carries on unawares, Stryker, who leads an army of demons and vampires, is plotting an all out onslaught against his enemies--which, unfortunately for us, includes the entire human race. To avenge his sister, Stryker prepares to annihilate the Dark-Hunters. But things go awry when his oldest enemy returns. Enter his ex-wife. Zephyra. Just when he thought nothing could stop him, he's now embroiled in a centuries old war with a shrew who gives new meaning to pain and a shrew who is the only woman he's ever really loved.

This is a keystone book where new alliances form and old ones realign. The world of the Dark-Hunters is shifting and you definitely don't want to miss it. There are major shockers in it about Nick and Acheron and you will also meet Simi's future hero.

Longer than a novella, but not quite as long as a novel, OSN is a special thank you to fans. It's events will also lead directly into the next few books.

So there will also be new stuff on Nick and Ash and Simi's future HEA. I can't even begin to imagine what he will be like. The comment about the events in OSN leading directly into the next few books could mean more of Jaden. He's an interesting demon that we got to read more of in Acheron. You can read an excerpt of One Silent Night here.

The Dead After Dark anthology with stories by Sherrilyn Kenyon, J. R. Ward, Susan Squires and Dianna Love. Release date is December 2, 2008. Kenyon's story is about Fury and Angelia. They are both Were's, wolf shapeshifters. Here's some info on this story from Kenyon's website:

Angelia has fought her entire life to make herself strong. Now, with her tessera under fire, she has to protect herself and her patria from Fury and his Werewolf pack. But now the hunter has become the hunted and the only for her to survive is to trust the very Wolf she once tried to kill...

This book sets up the summer release Bad Moon Rising which will be Fang and Aimee's story. While it is a short story, you will see a lot more about Fury and Angelia in the summer release.
Look for a special cameo appearance from Z in the story and don't miss meeting Trace-- Vane and Bride's son.

I've always like the Weres and a visit to Sanctuary is usually entertaining. You can go here to read an excerpt of Fury and Amelia's story in Dead After Dark.


Then there's the next Dream Hunter novel ~ Dream Warrior, due to release February 2009. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I'll read it but will probably get it from the library. I've liked the past Dream Hunter novels, The Dream Hunter and the very short book Upon the Midnight Clear, and Dream Chaser which I thought was pretty good. This one sounds like there are a lot of new characters to keep track of and I'm just not sure I'm up to it.

Here's some deets from the official site:

We are the Dolophoni. Diligent. Vigilant. Fierce and inescapable. Servants of the Furies, we are the right hand of justice and no one stands before us.The son of Warcraft and Hate, Cratus spent eternity battling for the ancient gods who birthed him. He was death to any who crossed him. Until the day he laid down his arms and was banished into exile. Now an ancient enemy has been unleashed and our dreams are his chosen battlefield. The only hope we have is the one god who swears he will never fight again. As a Dream-Hunter, Delphine has spent eternity protecting mankind from the predators who prey on our unconscious state. But now that her allies have been turned, she knows in order to survive, the Dream-Hunters need a new leader. Someone who can train them to fight their new enemies. Cratus is her only hope. But she is a bitter reminder of why he chose to lay down his arms. Time is running out and if she can't win him to her cause, mankind will be slaughtered and the world we know will soon cease to exist.

This book is a lynch pin book of the Dream-Hunter series. Several characters will meet their demise and new order emerges...

The Dream-Hunter world is rocked as the Skoti revolt against the Oneroi and the battle lines are drawn. Their world will never be the same.
Cratus is a darkly tortured character. Complex and even scary at times...

It sounds interesting but I think I may need to check out The Dark Hunter Companion from the library again before reading Dream Warrior. And I like the UK cover better ~ the guy is blond on that one. If you'd like to read an excerpt and maybe get a bit more confused like me you can read one here.