Done with December 2013 Releases? Here are January 2014 Releases. For future releases, check Reading Wishlist.
Ilsa J. Bick
The Sin-Eater’s Confession
Lerner Carolrhoda Lab (US: 1st January 2014)
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People in Merit, Wisconsin, always said Jimmy was…you know. But people said all sorts of stupid stuff. Nobody really knew anything. Nobody really knew Jimmy. I guess you could say I knew Jimmy as well as anyone (which was not very well). I knew what scared him. And I knew he had dreams – even if I didn’t understand them. Even if he nearly ruined my life to pursue them. Jimmy’s dead now, and I definitely know that better than anyone. I know about blood and bone and how bodies decompose. I know about shadows and stones and hatchets. I know what a last cry for help sounds like. I know what blood looks like on my own hands. What I don’t know is if I can trust my own eyes. I don’t know who threw the stone. Who swung the hatchet? Who are the shadows? What does the living owe the dead?
Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, & Brenna Yovanoff
The Curiosities
Lerner Carolrhoda Lab (US: 1st January 2014)
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From YA authors Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff comes The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories: A vampire locked in a cage in the basement, for good luck. Bad guys, clever girls, and the various reasons why the guys have to stop breathing. A world where fires never go out (with references to vanilla ice cream). These are but a few of the curiosities collected in this volume of short stories by three practitioners of paranormal fiction. But The Curiosities is more than the stories. Since 2008, Maggie, Tessa, and Brenna have posted more than 250 works of short fiction to their website http://www.merryfates.com Their goal was simple: create a space for experimentation and improvisation in their writing – all in public and without a backspace key. In that spirit, The Curiosities includes the stories and each author’s comments, critiques, and kudos in the margins. Think of it as a guided tour of the creative processes of three authors.
Michelle Rowen with Richelle Mead
Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide
Penguin (US: 2nd January 2014)
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Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess – a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. Her best friend Rose Hathaway is a dhampir – a guardian whose blood is a powerful blend of vampire and human. Rose’s life is dedicated to protecting Lissa from the dangerous Strigoi – the fiercest vampires, who will stop at nothing to make Lissa one of them. Over the course of six books, love will blossom, hearts will be broken, and lives will be lost. But through it all, Rose and Lissa’s friendship will never surrender… Learn everything you ever wanted to know about the totally addictive world Richelle Mead has created: Find out the real history of St. Vladimir’s Academy. Explore the dark psychology behind Rose and Lissa’s unusual friendship. Discover even more illicit secrets about Rose and Dimitri. Quiz yourself to find out how much you really know about the Vampire Academy series.
Susanne Winnacker
Impostor (Variants, Book 1)
Hachette (UK & AU: 2nd January 2014)
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Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. There she trains with other Variants, such as long-term crush Alec, who each have their own extraordinary ability. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. Tessa hates everything about being an impostor – the stress, the danger, the deceit – but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.
Lissa Price
Enders (Starters, Book 2)
Random House Delacorte (US & CA: 7th January 2014)
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Someone is after Starters like Callie and Michael – teens with chips in their brains. They want to experiment on anyone left over from Prime Destinations – Starters who can be controlled and manipulated. With the body bank destroyed, Callie no longer has to rent herself out to creepy Enders. But Enders can still get inside her mind and make her do things she doesn’t want to do. Like hurt someone she loves. Having the chip removed could save her life – but it could also silence the voice in her head that might belong to her father. Callie has flashes of her ex-renter Helena’s memories, too…and the Old Man is back, filling her with fear. Who is real and who is masquerading in a teen body? No one is ever who they appear to be, not even the Old Man. Determined to find out who he really is and grasping at the hope of a normal life for herself and her younger brother, Callie is ready to fight for the truth. Even if it kills her.
Jennifer Rush
Erased (Altered, Book 2)
Hachette (US: 7th January 2014; AU: 14th January 2014)
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After fleeing the Branch with Sam, Cas, and Nick, Anna is trying to make sense of the memories resurfacing from her old life. At the same time, she’s learning how to survive in hiding, following Sam’s rules: Don’t draw attention to yourself. Always carry a weapon. Know your surroundings. Watch your back. Then a figure from Anna’s childhood reappears. Is it a Branch setup, or could it be the reunion Anna has hoped for? Uncertain of where her loyalties lie, Anna must fight to learn the truth – before she is betrayed again. Ultimately, the answers hinge on one question: What was the real reason her memories were erased?
Amy Kathleen Ryan
Flame (Sky Chasers, Book 3)
Macmillan (US: 7th January 2014; UK: 16th January 2014)
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Waverly and the other members of the Empyrean have been scattered, and their home ship destroyed. Their mission to rescue their parents didn’t go as planned, and now they’re at an even greater disadvantage: trapped with their enemies on the New Horizon, trying to find a way to survive. Kieran has been pulled under Anne Mather’s wing, but is she really trying to make peace, or just using Kieran to build her own power? Meanwhile, Waverly is taken in by a mysterious old man who wants to help her bring Anne Mather down – but the more Waverly cooperates with him, the more dangerous her position is, and the more at odds with Kieran she becomes. Seth’s situation is even worse. After setting out from the Empyrean on his own, with only a vague strategy to guide him, he is a fugitive aboard the New Horizon. He’s doing what he can to challenge the power of Anne Mather, but he’s badly hurt, and getting sicker. All the while, unknown to him, the terrorist Jacob is making plans of his own. Will Seth ever see Waverly again? Will his health hold out long enough to help her topple their enemies? And will Waverly find a way to unite with her friends before they all fall?
Megan Crewe
The Lives We Lost (Fallen World, Book 2)
Disney-Hyperion (US: 14th January 2014)
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First, the virus took Kaelyn’s friends, then her family, and now it’s spread beyond her island. The only thing people know for sure is that no one is safe. But when Kaelyn finds samples of a vaccine hidden in her father’s abandoned laboratory, she knows there’s only one option: seek out someone who can replicate it. As Kaelyn and her friends head to the mainland, carrying with them hopes for a cure, they face greater challenges than they ever could have imagined. Not everyone they meet wants Kaelyn to succeed – and many simply want her dead and the vaccine for themselves. With the chance of finding help slipping away, will Kaelyn be forced to sacrifice those she loves in order to rescue the human race?
Dani Worth
Sole Survivors (Crux Survivors, Book 2)
Samhain (US: 14th January 2014)
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Chase Hawthorne is on the run from a ghost. The shooting that took his little sister and scarred Chase’s face and body has left far deeper scars on his brother Tripp’s soul. Driven to pull up stakes and head for the most haunted place in Louisiana, Chase hopes to prove to Tripp there is no ghost of his twin beckoning from the afterlife. When he comes upon a young woman fighting off raiders, Chase doesn’t hesitate to help the first female he’s seen in years. And he tries to ignore his instant attraction, hoping Tripp will feel it, too – and emerge from his frightening depression. Keera has been alone too long, and Chase makes her feel things she never thought she’d feel again. Tripp may be the needier brother, but it’s Chase she wants. Scars and all. But letting people too close comes with risks. And as they are drawn into the search for a young man’s family, both must accept the possibility that there’s more to life – and love – than simple survival.
Mary Miller
The Last Days of California
W. W. Norton & Company Liveright (US: 20th January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Fifteen-year-old Jess is on a road trip to the end of the world. Her evangelical father has packed up the family and left their Montgomery, Alabama, home behind to drive west in anticipation of the rapture, hoping to save as many souls as possible before the imminent Second Coming. With her long-suffering mother and her rebellious sister Elise, Jess hands out tracts to nonbelievers at every rest stop, Waffle House, and gas station along the way. Through sticky diners and in crowded motel pools, beneath bleached bedspreads and in the backseat of the family car, Jess and Elise whisper and squabble their way across the country. But as doomsday approaches, Jess can’t seem to work up any real fear about the apocalypse when her sister’s secret pregnancy and their increasingly frayed parents loom so much larger.
V. C. Andrews
The Unwelcomed Child
Simon & Schuster Pocket (US & CA: 21st January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Elle Edwards grew up believing that because of her mother’s sinful ways she was born without a soul; that’s why she was abandoned and left in the care of Grandmother Myra and Grandfather Prescott, who try to ensure her evil will not infect them – by raising her in a virtual prison. Because her days are occupied with homeschooling, strict religious studies, and vigorous housekeeping in their upstate New York home, Elle knows practically nothing of the outside world, even as she emerges as a young woman with impressive artistic talent. But when she makes a secret, forbidden connection to vacationers at the nearby lake – a handsome boy and his precocious twin sister – Elle’s world will shatter. Will discovering the truths about her past send her future plummeting to hell?
Sarah K.
Bonds of Love
HarperCollins (US & CA: 21st January 2014)
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Sarah K. lives in a quiet suburban town. She has a couple of kids; a steady job as a writer. But behind the bedroom door she enters a different world – a world of sexual power play and erotic control. For Sarah K. is a submissive, and she willingly surrenders her body to the passions of a dominant lover. Still reeling after ending things with her first dom, Max, Sarah finds herself unable to move on. As Max had warned, once you’ve tasted the forbidden fruits of dominance and submission, you can’t go back. So when Sarah meets Alex – a tall, handsome man who shares her erotic desires – she finds herself cast under the dark spell of pleasure and pain once more. As they explore one another, like an addiction, Sarah begins to crave Alex – his touch, his breath, his smell. Shocked at the emotions he has awakened within her, Sarah tells herself this is just lust. She had learnt the hard way that falling in love is one line that can’t be crossed. So why does it feel so wrong when Max re-enters her life, determined to possess her once more? Should she admit her true feelings for Alex, and potentially expose herself to the worst pain of all – heartbreak?
Jessica Brody
Unremembered (Unremembered, Book 2)
Macmillan Square Fish (US: 28th January 20014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage – alive – is making headlines across the globe. Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world. Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them. Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?
Jeaniene Frost
Up from the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 7)
HarperCollins Avon (US & CA: 28th January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Lately, life has been unnaturally calm for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband, Bones. They should have known better than to relax their guard, because a shocking revelation sends them back into action to stop an all-out war… A rogue CIA agent is involved in horrifying secret activities that threaten to raise tensions between humans and the undead to dangerous heights. Now Cat and Bones are in a race against time to save their friends from a fate worse than death…because the more secrets they unravel, the deadlier the consequences. And if they fail, their lives – and those of everyone they hold dear – will be hovering on the edge of the grave.
Karen Ann Hopkins
Forever (Temptation, Book 3)
Harlequin Teen (US: 28th January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
All I want is my happily-ever-after. That’s all I’ve wanted since meeting Noah Miller. From the day we met, the world has tried to keep Noah and me from being together, but now that I’m carrying his child, no one will be able to tear us apart. Or so I hope. But Noah and I have made some mistakes along the way, and the consequences are impacting the people we love. Worse, there’s a storm on the horizon, and it’s sure to cause serious devastation. If we can get through this, we’ll finally be Rose and Noah – a family, forever. But first we have to survive the road ahead. And happily-ever-after is a long way off.
Veronica Rossi
Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky, Book 3)
HarperCollins (US & CA: 28th January 2014)
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The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do – and they are just as determined to stay together. Within the confines of a cave they’re using as a makeshift refuge, they struggle to reconcile their people, Dwellers and Outsiders, who are united only in their hatred of their desperate situation. Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. Then Roar arrives in a grief-stricken fury, endangering all with his need for revenge. Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble an unlikely team for an impossible rescue mission. Cinder isn’t just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival – he’s also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.
Megan Shepherd
Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman’s Daughter, Book 2)
HarperCollins (US & UK: 28th January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father’s island – and the secrets she left behind. Now back in London, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy – though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her. As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three claw-like slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also made it off the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again. As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer – Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.
Rachel Caine
Prince of Shadows
Penguin Michael Joseph (AU: 29th January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In the Houses of Montague and Capulet, there is only one goal: power. The boys are born to fight and die for honor and – if they survive – marry for influence and money, not love. The girls are assets, to be spent wisely. Their wishes are of no import. Their fates are written on the day they are born. Benvolio Montague, cousin to Romeo, knows all this. He expects to die for his cousin, for his house, but a spark of rebellion still lives inside him. At night, he is the Prince of Shadows, the greatest thief in Verona – and he risks all as he steals from House Capulet. In doing so he sets eyes on convent-bound Rosaline, and a terrible curse begins that will claim the lives of many in Verona… And will rewrite all their fates, forever.
Lauren Dane & Megan Hart
There All Along (Anthology of 2 Novellas – 1 per author)
Penguin Berkley (AU: 29th January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
“LAND’S END” BY LAUREN DANE: The Land’s End highway is one of the most dangerous places in the universe. The constant peril of brigands keeps Verity Coleman stuck in Silver Cliffs, dreaming of the open road – and of Loyal Alsbaugh, the tall and silent highway patrolman. When her town is attacked, Verity has a chance to win over Loyal’s muted heart. But will his wounded past make him leave her along the road, or can she convince him to take her along? “BY THE SEA OF SAND” BY MEGAN HART: Captain Kason Reed was willing to give his life to the Sheirran Defense Forces, but now he can’t remember anything but bits and pieces of the war. When his sexual attraction to his caregiver, Teila, causes him to make advances toward her, she becomes the aggressor, urging him with her body to explore the memories of his past – memories that all seem to draw him back to Teila…
Kim Harrison
Ever After (Hollows, Book 11)
HarperCollins Voyager (UK: 30th January 2014)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The ever-after, the demonic realm that parallels our own, is shrinking, and if it disappears, so does all magic. It’s up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to fix the ever-after before the fragile balance between magic users and humans falls apart. Of course, there’s also the small fact that Rachel is the one who caused the ley line to rip in the first place, and her life is forfeit unless she can fix it. Not to mention the most powerful demon in the ever-after – the soul-eater Ku’Sox Sha-Ku’ru – has vowed to destroy her, and has kidnapped her friend and her goddaughter as leverage. If Rachel doesn’t give herself up, they will die. Forced by circumstance, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack – a partnership fraught with dangers of the heart as well as betrayal of the soul – to return to the ever-after and rescue those she loves. One world teeters on the brink of interspecies war, the other on the brink of its very demise – and it’s up to Rachel to keep them both from being destroyed.
