New Releases 6/2

Some of the new releases hitting shelves this week include:

Charmed And Dangerous by Toni McGee Causey - aka Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day

Lust, Loathing and a Little Lipstick by Kyra Davis - fourth in the hilarious Sophie Katz series

Red Hot Lies by Laura Caldwell - first in a new thriller trilogy

Bloody Good by Georgia Evans - first in a WWII paranormal series

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan - first in a new horror trilogy about vampire infestation/infection

Angel's Advocate by Mary Stanton - second in the Beaufort & Company mystery series

Skin Trade by Laurel K. Hamilton - Anita Blake #17

Undead & Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson

Fugitive by Philip Margolin

The Lovers by John Connolly - latest Charlie Parker thriller

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

April and Oliver by Tess Callahan

Little Lamb Lost by Margaret Fenton

Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlaine - sequel to Before the Storm

New on DVD:

He's Just Not That Into You

Defiance

Revolutionary Road

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:

Gotcha!

Bloody Good

The Strain

As Promised...

Some Toni McGee Causey news for you guys. 

Some of you may remember this post, from last May, when I reviewed Bobbie Faye's Very, (Very, Very, Very) Bad Day, after a particularly bad day myself. At the time, I was reading the second book in this fabulously, hilariously, southern mystery series -- Bobbie Faye's (kinda, sorta, not exactly) Family Jewels (see Tuesday's post). And now it's time for book 3 in the series, but first, the series is undergoing a bit of a re-branding and I wanted you all to be prepared. 

Tuesday, June 2, is the official release date of Charmed and Dangerous, aka Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day. Yep, they are one and the same. So if you haven't yet read about Bobbie Faye and her seriously funny escapades, this would definitely be the time to start!

Bobbie Faye's (kinda, sorta, not exactly) Family Jewels will be re-released as Girls Just Wanna Have Guns on June 30 and then book 3, When a Man Loves a Weapon, hits shelves August 4 (I've snagged a copy courtesy of the fantabulous Mrs. Toni, so watch for a review to come). 

Also, a little birdie told me that Toni will be running a contest on her website beginning next week, coinciding with the release of Charmed and Dangerous, AND you can read an excerpt of the books there as well. 

So, if you (like me) love super funny reads with charmingly witty heroines who have a knack for getting themselves into trouble, then you NEED to check out these books!

The Infection Has Begun

I am so excited about the release of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan' s The Strain! First off, I know I previously posted about the book here in my week of "Books I'm Excited About" posts. And now it's finally (almost) here. The book hits shelves on June 2 and it's one you'll really want to sink your teeth into (yes, my cheesy attempt at being funny while this tired). 

The book begins with a plane. It's landed and all has gone dark. Upon investigation, all of the window shades prove to be closed and the emergency exit jammed. Eventually they are able to crack it open only to discover that all of the passengers are dead. The CDC is called in, specifically Dr. Ephrailm Goldweather and his Canary project. They find four passengers who are, surprisingly (and barely) hanging on and immediately transfer them to quarantine at a local hospital. The remaining bodies are divvied up between four boroughs' morgues. Then all of the bodies disappear. Ephraim and his team are in no way prepared for the outbreak that has begun. They are joined by Abraham Setrakian, a survivor of the Nazi death camps, who has seen these creatures and battled them before. Together, they must fight the infection before the vampires take over the world. 

Yep, classic vampire horror del Toro style! Del Toro, director of such films as Pans Labyrinth and Devil's Backbone, also directed Blade II, so it's probably no surprise that I'm seeing some parallels between those icky vamps and these. There are also tones of Dracula in the tale. I love Abraham Setrakian's interludes and his stories of the strigoi, kind of wish there was more, but this is only book 1 in the trilogy, so there's time for more Eastern European folklore specifics.  

What I'm wondering now is whether this will be made into a film with del Toro directing again? He's slated for The Hobbit and The Hobbit 2 and also has a slew of stuff basically categorized as "in the works," including Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and, surprisingly, Drood. We can only wait and see what comes to pass. Fortunately, we do know that the subsequent books in The Strain trilogy will be coming in the next couple of years. 

This one is going to be BIG folks. BIG, BIG, BIG! Buy it, love it, and tell everyone about is. And, visit the really cool website for more info on the vamps, story info, an interview with Guillermo del Toro, and even a look inside the book itself. 

Christie Craig is Gonna Get You!

I first heard about Christie Craig in Toni McGee Causey's Murderati post here. Wait, that's not entirely true. As a total book junkie, it's not often that I come across someone who is completely and utterly unfamiliar to me. So yes, I first READ about here there, but I had seen her covers occasionally. (GUILT)

I know, I know, I can't possibly read every single fabulous author out there, but a junkie can try, right? Anyway, Toni McGee Causey is one of my faves (and she's from my home state, we gotta stick together) so of course I'm going to take her advice, along with every other author I like, when they tell me to try a new book. 

Christie Craig is one of the contributing authors to the Killer Fiction blog, something I discovered a few weeks ago, though I can't remember exactly how. Every single one of these ladies belongs on a big, fat summer beach-read table, in my opinion. I now own at least one book by each of them (I am not kidding). 

Anyway, luck has it that I got my grubby little hands on a copy of Craig's upcoming release (June 1, or earlier) Gotcha!, a lighthearted and candy-coated mystery/romance/comedy that I just couldn't put down. 

The book is about Houston gal Macy Tucker, who's experienced one disappointment after another when it comes to men. So she's sworn them off. But nothing can stop her from falling totally head over heels for detective Jake Baldwin when fate throws them together. Macy's younger brother has been serving out a sentence for an accidental robbery when he "meets" and steals a fellow inmate's girl. The inmate, a nasty character called Tanks, swears revenge, not only on the younger Tucker and his gal, but on Macy and the rest of her family as well. A jailbreak leads to Baldwin's involvement and Macy ends up under a multi-purpose surveillance. And as hard as she tries to resist the detective's charms, when he ends up coming to her rescue she starts to realize that resisting is pretty pointless. 

Gotcha! has all the elements of a perfect lay-in-the-sun, forget-all-your-worries read. It's fun and funny and hooks you from the very beginning, which, I understand, is pretty par for the course with Craig's books, all of which fall into the funny mystery category (or so it seems). 

Craig's other titles include:

Divorced, Desperate and Delicious

Divorced, Desperate and Dating

Weddings Can Be Murder

 

and the upcoming Divorced, Desperate and Deceived

Readers looking for something light and sweet to read this summer will love Gotcha!. I'll keep you posted as I read the other authors from Killer Fiction (Leslie Langtry, Kathleen Bacus, Gemma Halliday, and Jana DeLeon). Also, I have some Toni McGee Causey news coming up as well!

Bloody Good is Bloody Great!

In the midst of all of the urban fantasy and paranormal romance releases, I never fail to be surprised at just how different each one is from the next. This weekend, I had the immense pleasure of reading Georgia Evans's debut, Bloody Good, -- it was utterly fabulous!

Bloody Good (June 1st) kicks off Evans's (aka Rosemary Laurey) Brytewood trilogy. It's WWII and the tiny village of Brytewood is in for a big surprise when German forces drop four vampires into the nearby countryside. Their goal, with the help of hidden spies, is to blend in and infiltrate, thereby gaining the advantage in the war. When Dr. Alice Doyle discovers a man impaled in a tree, she rushes him back to her clinic to patch him up. The man seems in dire condition, but when no one is looking, he gets up and walks away! Then some local livestock turn up listless and drained of blood. When a local farmer pops up dead, also drained, Alice and her friends decide something fishy must be going on. Course it's a little easier to believe that a vamp might be in their midst considering how many of the villagers, Alice included, have a touch of "other" in their blood. 

So much fun! I love the setting for these books -- an English village in WWII, fantastic combination. The characters are really likable -- there are pixies and fairies, werefoxes and even dragons in this series -- and I can't wait to see what happens next! Book 2, Bloody Awful, is due out in July and then the trilogy is rounded out in August with Bloody Right. 

Though Evans/Laurey's previous titles are also technically paranormal romance, it's my impression (based on info from her website and the use of the pseudonym) that these are a bit different stylistically. There's still a romance aspect, though, so no worries all you paranormal romance fans!

Readers who enjoy Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books are sure to love Georgia Evans (remember they're WWII England!). Highly recommended to anyone looking for something a little different in the paranormal romance realm. 

Last Week's Movie Roundup

So Terminator: Salvation started last week and of course we had to go. I'm a HUGE Terminator fan. I saw number 3 for my birthday the year that it was released, and immediately upon leaving, turned to comment to my friends that they just had to make another. At that point, we'd still never seen any of the actual war with the machines--with the exception of the flashbacks. I have to say that I was immensely pleased with this latest installment. Sam Worthington was excellent as was Anton Yelchin as a young Kyle Reese. In fact, their parts of the story were the best parts. I was a little upset that so much had been given away in the trailers, though. I mean it's freaking Terminator! You can't tell me that you need to give away half of the movie (including what could have been a very effective introduction of the whole human/machine hybrid) in order to get people to see it. So, see it. It's fab! But, unfortunately, a lot of the film is shown in the trailers. 

In my rental queue from last week was Grudge 3. I like that they at least took the time to tie this in with the other films. I don't like the fact that they've decided to turn this into a franchise. I mean seriously, they can just drag this thing out, with no real resolution, into eternity. And, it's the kind of movie that I only really watch when I have nothing else to watch instead. It begins with the kid who survives in number 2 trying to explain what happens. Course no one believes him and the spirit is now haunting (and killing) in the apartment building. 

Kind of like Screamers:The Hunting. This is my WTF movie of the week. I mean, what in the HELL are they doing making a sequel to Screamers anyway? I guess I need to read the original Philip K. Dick story to see how closely the first film follows. I mean, is there any basis at all for the second film? It begins with a distress call from the mining planet, now supposed to be uninhabited thanks to the screamers.  And, like there wasn't enough going on, the planet is supposed to be hit by some storm that will basically kill anyone else left there. It was cheesy as all get out. There really was nothing all that redeeming about it at all. Very predictable. I think I'll stick with Peter Weller and the original all by its lonesome and forget I ever saw this one. 

Finally, in the trippy, arty, foreign category, I saw Eden Log. This is a movie that I think is about a utopian biosphere community gone wrong. I think. I really didn't get it. I can't say one way or another whether it was any good because I DIDN'T GET IT!

Am now working my way through season 1 of Supernatural, on dvd. Not much new out on dvd this week except a straight-to-video apocalyptic thriller with Cuba Gooding, Jr. I'm hoping it's really good. The preview is interesting. Drag Me To Hell and Up both start on Friday and I'm sure I'll see at least one of them. We'll see what else comes in in the meantime.  

New Releases 5/26

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff -- latest fabulous horror/paranormal thriller from one of my favorite authors. A must read!

Blind Sight by Terri Persons -- third in the Bernadette St. Clare series

Thriller 2 ed Clive Cussler -- second ITW short story collection

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey -- new urban fantasy release about werewolves

An Honorable German by Charles McCain -- WWII thriller

Pulse by Jeremy Robinson -- an action/adventure thriller in the vein of Matthew Reilly and James Rollins

Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison -- teen debut from the author of the Hollows series

New on DVD:

The Devil's Tomb

Killshot

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:

The Unseen

Blind Sight

Thriller 2

Lust, Loathing and a Little Lipstick by Kyra Davis

And it's almost the end of the month. Remember, the Bookbitch has tons of giveaways each month -- titles put up by publishers and the ITW -- so try your hand and enter to win. Titles change each month.