A New Urban Fantasy Series You Won't Want to Miss

There are so many great new authors coming out every month, that I'm falling behind on showcasing them. Which is kind of great for a book junkie like me, because it means that there's never a shortage of stuff to read! But it means that I need to do better about getting the word out about each release that I can.

Nicole Peeler's debut, Tempest Rising, hit shelves on November 1 and I've already read it and passed it on to the JJs (who have loved it so far as well). I reviewed it for the BB, but I somehow missed posting it for you here.

Anywho, if I did this right, this should be going up Thursday morning, my almost last day in Charleston. I should be back Friday afternoon and am too totally beat right now to be passingly coherent -- I've already taken my Ambien because no way am I getting 8 hours of sleep and I figured the sooner I took it, the better off I'd be in the wee hours when I get up to catch the flight (let's just hope I don't sleep through boarding and miss the damn thing sitting in the airport!).

The point? This'll be my last post before I get back and I wanted it to be a great one! Kidding. It's a great book, but the post is suffering from lack of sleep.

Without further ado, Tempest Rising begins with our heroine, Jane True, discovering a dead body floating in the ocean near her home. Jane has always known that she didn't fit in in the small town of Rockabill, Maine, but she never knew that it was because she's part selkie. Yep, Jane's mom was a selkie and Jane is half, retaining her human form, but possessing strength drawn from water. Her mother abandoned Jane and her father years ago, and Jane was raised without a clue as to her own heritage, much less the existence of other "others." The dead body, however, brings an investigator to town who will finally reveal the secrets of this other world to Jane. Ryu, a vampire who sets Jane's knees atremble, gives Jane a crash course in the paranormal and it makes for a super clever and fun read.

Peeler, an Assistant Prof of English Lit in my homestate of Louisiana (she teaches at LSU Shreveport) ties some very neglected mythology (um, selkies for one and you can see why selkies are better than vamps here) into a humorous and romantic urban fantasy tale that is just the first part of Jane True's story. Orbit, the publisher of the series, has released cover art for book two, Tracking the Tempest, here and there's even a description of the book as well. The title will be part of the Spring/Summer 2010 season. Official release dates to come.

So, hope this makes sense when you read it in the morning. Hope I remember doing it in the morning . Really didn't think it would effect my blogging skills that much (not that I'd tried before), but just considering that it seem as though I function pretty normally, except for the whole being able to fall asleep like I'm supposed to. Guess not.

This will be like the most embarrassing drunk dialing episode but it's Ambien induced blogging. Sorry. Limited time to blame.