Strange Flesh
Michael Olson
Simon & Schuster, Apr 3 2012, $25.00
ISBN: 9781451627572

Harvard dropout James Pryce works for RedRook Security. A hacker of note, James is brilliant at locating those who have seemingly vanished off the grid by finding their electronic fingerprints. He especially take immense pleasure with using high tech vengeance against those who harmed a client.

Twins Blake and Blythe Randall hire RedRook Security with the stipulation that James takes the job. A decade ago, Blythe blithely broke James’ heart, but though she should insist not him, he cannot say no to her. Their brilliant multimedia artist sibling Billy sent them a video of his “Bleed” performance in which he simultaneously commits suicide and reanimates as an avatar in a decadent online world NOD. Blythe gets James masquerading as a documentarian into the GAME media collective where Billy recently played. He begins to unravel the virtual reality existence of Billy until James realizes he needs to enter NOD to find Billy.

This is an odd Bleeding of reality and virtual reality as James finds himself as a stranger in a strange land. Filled with sexual encounters of many kinds and with Strange Flesh, fans who appreciate something enjoyably different will want to journey into the land of NOD escorted in the first person by James.

Harriet Klausner

Shadow’s Master
Jon Sprunk
PYR, Mar 27 2012, $17.95
ISBN: 9781616146054

Caim knows the answers he seeks lies inside the dangerous Northlands. After burying his father’s word, feeling compelled Caim leaves behind the place where his dad was assassinated and his mother abducted as he begins his quest into the wastelands to learn who he really is.

In Othir, Empress Josephine, escorted by soldiers, pursues Caim to inform him she is pregnant. Josey finds the journey difficult and how tough a life her people live outside the capital. However, Josey vows to be a good empress to all Eregoth subjects.

Like Josey, Caim finds the journey hard but for different reasons. Each step northward makes him feel sicker and he has lost contact with the shadows. Finally he loses control and kills like has not done in a long time. However Caim thinks he regained control.

Kit knows she and Caim love each other, but cannot ever be together as they cannot touch. Her heart broken, Kit resolves to find a way for them to be together even as she worries about her beloved heading into the Northlands to encounter his destiny, Lord of the Shadows.

The final Shadow Saga (see Shadow’s Son and Shadow’s Lure) is an excellent action-packed sword sorcery fantasy. Readers follow the escapades of the lead triangle whose adventures occur in three fabulous subplots before merging into a powerful finish. Wondering who Caim will choose if he survives his ordeal, fans will enjoy trekking with him and the two females in his life as all roads lead north.

Harriet Klausner

Sacrificial Magic
Stacia Kane
Del Rey, Mar 27 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9780345527509

Mob boss Sloberg arranged the fire in a locale that he should not have known about unless someone told him. Chess Putnam the Church of Real Truth is a ghost hunting witch who knows by just one look her boyfriend Terrible that he believes she is the stoolie as she and Sloberg’s son Lex were recent bed mates even after she fell in love with Terrible; though now she is a one man woman.

The Church assigns Chess to look into a reported ghost haunting at a Downside school where she meets Lex’s sister Beulah. Chess realizes an unknown adversary is using dark magic at the school. Meanwhile Lex sees this as an opportunity as he wants to help solve the case and offers the addicted Chess free drugs like he did before. Terrible’s boss Bump who is Chess’ dealer directs her to investigate a nasty homicide in which dark magic was the murder weapon.

The latest Downside Ghosts fantasy (see City of Ghosts and Unholy Magic) is a fresh exciting thriller as the heroine struggles to uncover the identity of a rogue practitioner while her relationship with Terrible turns terrible sending her back to drug dependency. Sacrificial Magic is a great entry in a special one of a kind saga as the ghost hunter becomes the haunted hunted.

Harriet Klausner

Spellcaster
Cara Lynn Shultz
Harlequin Teen, Mar 27 2012, $9.99
ISBN: 9780373210503

Four months ago in Manhattan, Vincent Academy students Emma Connor and Brendan Salinger broke a centuries-old curse that haunted them when he risked his life to save her from an evil student (see Spellbound). They have become a happy couple.

However, their little Upper east Side Eden has serpents. Emma’s witch mentor Angelique seems upset whenever she hears Brendan’s name. His mother pressures him to end his relationship with the Jersey orphan. Finally Angelique senses an unknown adversary stalks Emma while somehow revealing inner secrets of the couple in order to force a wedge in her relationship with Brendan. This foe plans to dine on her blood to gain her untapped power unless Brendan and Angelique can put aside their differences to keep her safe.

Spellcaster is an exciting teen romantic urban fantasy with a strong cast who makes the paranormal seemingly normal. Initially breezy with cute (don’t say that world to Brendan) young love, the storyline turns dark as a nasty powerful malevolence begins preying on the lead couple. Readers will enjoy Cara Lynn Shultz’s sensational Spellbound story.

Harriet Klausner

Savage Awakening
J.D. Tyler
Signet, Apr 3 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9780451236449

Following an attack in Afghanistan changed them and after leaving the Navy, these shape-shifting former SEALs formed the Alpha Pack; their mission to battle the most dangerous deviants in the world (see Primal law). During their current assignment, the enemy captures member Aric Savage.

More dead than alive, he learns his pack mate Micah Chase is also a prisoner. Their Alpha Team never leaves anyone behind so they begin a rescue mission that Micah’s LAPD Psy Dreamwalker Rowan plans to join. She wants her brother home safe, but while on the quest, she and Aric realize that they are mates. However, Rowan is not ready for this relationship so Aric goes slow while his wolf goes crazy. All changes when she finds out his life is threatened.

Savage Awakening is a totally enthralling Alpha Pack romantic suspense urban fantasy in which the wolf knows who he wants to bite as the means to make her his mate, but she is not ready for such a biting commitment. Sub-genre fans will enjoy the action-packed storyline while appreciating the bonding between the cop and the savage soldier.

Harriet Klausner

Silence
Michelle Sagara
Daw, May 1 2012, $17.99
ISBN: 9780756407421

Anyone in Toronto seeing Emma in daylight would believe she is contented with her life; however at night she, accompanied by her dog, goes to the cemetery to visit her late boyfriend Nathan who died in a car accident. On one particular evening while visiting his grave, Emma notices two other people on the bench; an elderly woman seemingly made up of rags and Eric from school. They turn towards her and the woman touches her which leaves Emma scared and cold.

Eric receives a call asking if he found the necromancer. He says yes, but has not kill her yet as he has a week to complete the mission. However, Eric knows if he falters, Chase is nearby to complete the assassination assignment. The pair quickly like and admire kind Emma and realize she is not a necromancer, but something else. Instead of taking power from the dead for dark spells, she helps ghosts who for whatever reason walk the city streets. She tries to rescue the lost little boy who is enflamed in fire for eternity unless they get his mother to rescue him. Aware of Emma and her power, the Necromancer wants her power to use for his dark deeds.

Michelle Sagara writes an enthralling Canadian urban fantasy tale filled with action inside of an allegorical good and evil storyline while readers anticipate the confrontation. The first book of the Queen of the Dead contains a dark eerie atmosphere, which should surprise no one who ever visited a cemetery at night. However, it is Emma who holds the storyline together as Eric and Chase know first-hand she makes loyal friends (including the deceased) wherever she goes, which is fortunate for her as she will need them to survive the ordeal.

Harriet Klausner

Soul Bound
Mari Mancusi
Berkley, Mar 6 2012, $9.99
ISBN: 9780425245477

Identical twins Sunny and Rayne McDonald have totally opposite desires as one is all sun and the other is all rain. Rayne desperately wants to become a vampire; while Sunny wants to live a normal life. Due to Magnus the vampire biting Sunny instead of Rayne, the “wrong’ twin is changed. Drinking from the Holy Grail returns Sunny to normal. Sunny and Magnus are on the run because they disobeyed a direct order from Pyrus, who plots to control the Vampire Consortium and then the world.

Pyrus hires Slayer Inc. to bring him the treasonous duet. Slayer Inc. assigns Rayne and her boyfriend Jareth to capture Sunny and Magnus to deliver them to the Vampire Consortium. Rayne is distraught as she would do just anything for her sister, but failure to complete the mission means the deaths of all the Blood Coven vampires as well as herself and her boyfriend. Complicating matters for Rayne is when she learns another slayer with a grudge is on the hunt too. Her life turns even more hellish when a god orders her to choose between Sunny and Jareth.

The latest A Blood Coven Vampire urban fantasy (see Blood Ties) continues the bloody darker spin that started when the twins attended Night School in Switzerland. Rayne tells the tale as she faces increasingly impossible dilemmas that shake her inner soul. Her growing maturity (she has come a long way since Boys That Bite and Stake That) shines through the darkness as she struggles with choosing the lesser of two evils. This is a character driven, fast-paced exciting teen urban fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

Shadow’s Fall
Dianne Sylvan
Ace, Mar 27 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9781937007386

Three years ago, Austin based singer Miranda Grey married the vampire prime of the Southern regions, David Solomon; becoming his Queen of Shadows. Since then she has kept her successful Grammy Award winning music career separate from her role as the Vampire Queen of the South.

As she is to perform at a major concert in Austin, the Texas capital is also host to the once every ten years vampire council meeting. Attending the session is their sworn enemy the Prime of the Northeast James Hart. Miranda and David assume he plans something insidious against them. Hart’s thirst for vengeance leads to violence in Texas; while his archenemies receive help from a surprising source, but David has doubts whether he can trust his sire.

The third Shadow World urban fantasy (see Queen of Shadows and Shadowflame) is a great exhilarating entry with several stunning twists including a fabulous shocking cliffhanging climax. Fans will believe in the Sylvan mythos thriving in a modern technological world with cell phones and much more. Fast-paced with backstabbing and betrayal, Shadow’s Fall is superb.

Harriet Klausner

The Seduction of Phaeton Black
Jillian Stone
Kensington Brava, Mar 27 2012, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758268969

In 1889, Scotland Yard uses Phaeton Black to investigate those cases that defy logic as he is the best at solving the impossible. Known for his sex skills even in the brothel where he resides, Black uses opium and absinthe when the call of the paranormal overwhelms his brain.

A serial killer is stalking London. The predator drinks the blood of his or her victims leaving behind fang marks. Black thinks these murders are tied to the Ripper killings; but that the beast is an Egyptian goddess vampire. While investigating he meets America Jones several times. The daughter of a powerful Cajun witch, America is in London searching for the pirates who stole her sea merchant father’s ships. They team up on both cases as they need each other if they are to survive the supernatural and the natural monsters.

The first Black-Jones late Victorian romantic investigative fantasy is a lighthearted fun thriller that combines a tongue in cheek steampunk venue with an exciting paranormal whodunit. With a nod to Sherlock Homes: “When you have eliminated the impossible , whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”, the Devil and Muss Jones make a wonderful pairing as they battle pirates, mummies, Ripper and the vampire, but their biggest adversary is the Scotland Yard brass.

Harriet Klausner

A SEAL In Wolf’s Clothing
Terry Spear
Sourcebooks, Mar 6 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9781402258909

(Werewolf SEAL) Hunter and (human wildlife photographer) Tessa Greymere (see To Tempt The Wolf) are on a honeymoon; which his twin sister Meara feels liberating as seemingly forever her sibling focused on find her mate instead of his. Her plan is to rent the Oregon cabins her brother and her own to alphas in order to search for her mate.

However, assassins with insider information target Hunter, his SEAL mates and anyone they cherish. SEAL Finn Emerson arrives to keep Meara safe to her chagrin as she does not want a clone of Hunter interfering with her quest. However, instead of counting potential mates, corpses pile up. As he vows to keep his friend’s sister unharmed, he wonders who will keep Meara safe from his desire.

The latest Heart Of The Wolf werewolf romance is an engaging thriller as the protagonists sing I’m Not In Love” (by 10Cc) while also trying to prevent either joining the kill rate. Fast-paced, with a surprising villain and an unlikely hero refreshing the series, fans of the Terry Spear Lycan saga will want to read the twin falling in love with A SEAL In Wolf’s Clothing.

Harriet Klausner