New Releases Sept. 17-23 & Reader's Choice Contest

Another light week this week (just wait till next week—yikes!). Some interesting stuff here though. YA and urban fantasy fans, check out the authors in that amazing anthology, Enthralled. A new Soul Screamers book from Rachel Vincent. The final book in Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk series, Goliath. And Neal Stephenson’s Reamde looks awesome, and I’m not normally a big technogeek fan. As always, an international giveaway, so make your wish list and read on to enter!

The Business of Death, by Trent Jamieson (Sept. 19, Orbit)

Steven de Selby has a hangover. Bright lights, loud noise, and lots of exercise are the last thing he wants. But that's exactly what he gets when someone starts shooting at him. Steven is no stranger to death—Mr. D’s his boss after all—but when a dead girl saves him from sharing her fate, he finds himself on the wrong end of the barrel. His job is to guide the restless dead to the underworld but now his clients are his own colleagues, friends, and family. Mr. D’s gone missing and with no one in charge, the dead start to rise, the living are hunted, and the whole city teeters on the brink of a regional apocalypse. Third in the Death Works series. UF

Blackdog, by K.V. Johansen (Sept. 20, Pyr)

Necromancy, treachery, massacres and rebellions, gods dead or lost or mad—all follow hard on the devil’s heels. But it is Attalissa, goddess of Lissavakail, herself who may be the Blackdog’s—and the caravan-guard Holla-Sayan’s—doom. F

Cold Kiss, by Amy Garvey (Sept. 20, HarperTeen)

When her boyfriend, Danny, is killed in a car accident, Wren can’t imagine living without him. Wild with grief, she uses the untamed powers she’s inherited to bring him back. But the Danny who returns is just a shell of the boy she once loved. Wren has spent four months keeping Danny hidden, while her life slowly unravels around her. Then Gabriel DeMarnes transfers to her school and somehow, inexplicably, he can sense her secret. YA

Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong (Sept. 20, HarperCollins)

Sixteen of today’s hottest writers of paranormal tales weave stories on a common theme of vampires, faeries, angels, or other magical beings—but always exploring the strength and resilience of the human heart. Stories from Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Vincent, Sarah Rees Brennan, Jeri Smith-Ready, Mary E. Pearson, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Jessica Verday, Claudia Gray, Jackson Pearce, Carrie Ryan, Rachel Caine, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Ally Condie and Kimberly Derting. UF

The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rae Carson (Sept. 20, Greenwillow)

Once every century, one person is chosen for greatness. But the prophecy is vague, and Elisa, always overshadowed by her accomplished older sister, has no idea why she was chosen or how she will fulfill the expectations. Her future is unknown and her potential is tremendous—even if she doesn’t realize it. A king asks her to save his troubled country. A savage enemy hunts her for its own—dead or alive. A revolutionary asks for her heart. And in the midst of ferocious battles and harsh quests, Elisa will find herself. YA

Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld (Sept. 20, Simon Pulse)

Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek’s throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren’t technically enemies. Third and final in the Leviathan trilogy. YA

If I Die, by Rachel Vincent (Sept. 20, Harlequin)

Everyone else is talking about Eastlake High’s gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck, but Kaylee Cavanaugh has bigger things on her mind. Kaylee’s a banshee—her scream is a portent of death. But the next scream might hit too close to home. Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline has almost run out. So to distract herself from her own problems, Kaylee is determined to defend her school against the latest supernatural threat. That hot new teacher? He’s a lot hotter than anyone knows. Fifth in the Soul Screamers series. YA

Lord of Rage, by Jill Monroe (Sept. 20, Harlequin)

Once upon a time, the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden. To save their children, the queen scattered them to safety and the king filled them with vengeance. Only a magical timepiece connects the four royal heirs...and time is running out. Princess Breena had been dreaming of her warrior lover when she was ripped from her Elden castle and thrown into a strange, dangerous realm. Lost and alone, she prayed for survival and vengeance for her stolen kingdom. She found both in a woodland cottage...in a dark bear of a man named Osborn. Now Osborn had a choice—risk his life or deny his princess her fairy-tale ending. Second in the Royal House of Shadows series. PNR

Monster High 3: Where There’s a Wolf, There’s a Way, by Lisi Harrison (Sept. 20, Poppy)

The fur-ocious Clawdeen Wolf’s birthday bash is a bust. All the RADs have scattered into hiding and Clawdeen goes stir crazy lying low at her family’s B&B until Lala shows up to keep her company. But is the vamp flirting with Clawdeen’s brother Claude?! Keep up with Frankie, Melody and Cleo as the RADs fight to let their true colors show. YA

The Panama Laugh, by Thomas S. Roche (Sept. 20, Night Shade)

Ex-mercenary, pirate, and gun-runner Dante Bogart knows he’s in trouble after he hands one of his shady employers a biological weapon that made the dead rise from their graves, laugh like hyenas, and feast upon the living. Dante tried to blow the whistle via a tell-all video that went viral—but that was before the black ops boys deep-sixed him at a secret interrogation site on the Panama-Colombia border. When Dante wakes up in the jungle with the five intervening years missing from his memory, he knows he’s got to do something about the laughing sickness that has caused a world-wide slaughter.SF

Reamde, by Neal Stephenson (Sept. 20, William Morrow)

In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T’Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world. But T’Rain’s success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe—and Richard is at ground zero. SF

Sacrifice, by Melinda Metz and Laura J. Burns (Sept. 20, Simon & Schuster)

Gabriel and Shay are convinced they can make their relationship work. Knowing that Shay is half-vampire, Gabriel thinks his coven will embrace her as one of their own, but instead they view her as an abomination, a thing that doesn’t belong in either world. And they want her dead. YA

Twilight Fulfilled, by Maggie Shayne (Sept. 20, Mira)

Utanapishtim has paid dearly for the sin of creating the vampire race—imprisoned in a living death for centuries, driven to near madness. With a single white-hot glance, he immolates his descendants—and the vampire Armageddon begins. Beautiful and deadly Brigit Poe, not wholly vampire but fiercely loyal to that shared bloodline, is called into action. Two warriors are soon locked in an unwinnable battle, only to discover a passion so shocking it threatens every truth they’ve ever known. Eighteenth in the Wings in the Night series.  PNR

See anything you want? So…International Reader’s Choice―you tell me. Just a note: if you like a title but it isn’t the first in a series, you can always request the first in that series instead. As always, four entries possible and please include your e-mail: +1 for comment, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, and +1 for a Tweet or RT about the contest. Now….go!