New Releases April 8-12 & Reader's Choice C*ontest, Royal Street Edition

Happy release week to me! I have a fun interview with Kristin over at My Bookish Ways today (and a giveaway), so check it out HERE.


But it's still Monday, after all, so here are this week's new spec fiction releases. Which one do you want to win? Just leave your choice in a comment, and no, you don't even have to pick my book :-)

My apologies for not getting all the cover art uploaded....Follow the links to see the covers. And now I'm off to shoot some photos for your later viewing pleasure!

Ripper, by Amy Carol Reeves (April 8, Flux)

It’s 1888, and after her mother’s sudden death, Abbie is sent to live with her grandmother in a posh London neighborhood. When she begins volunteering at Whitechapel Hospital, Abbie finds she has a passion for helping the abused and sickly women there. But within days, patients begin turning up murdered at the hands of Jack the Ripper. As more women are murdered, Abbie realizes that she and the Ripper share a strange connection: she has visions showing the Ripper luring his future victims to their deaths—moments before he turns his knife upon them. Young Adult.

The Calling (Darkness Rising, Book 2), by Kelley Armstrong (April 10, HarperCollins)

Maya Delaney’s pawprint birthmark is the sign of what she truly is—a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly anyone else. Now, Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they’re kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home. Young Adult.

Angels of Vengeance, by John Birmingham (April 10, Del Rey)

When an inexplicable wave of energy slammed into North America, millions died. In the rest of the world, wars erupted, borders vanished, and the powerful lost their grip on power. Against this backdrop, with a conflicted U.S. president struggling to make momentous decisions in Seattle and a madman fomenting rebellion in Texas, three women are fighting their own battles—for survival, justice, and revenge. Three women in three corners of a world plunged into electrifying chaos. Nation-states struggling for their survival. Immigrants struggling for new lives. In this conclusion to the series begun in Without Warning and After America, Birmingham offers an intense adventure that races from the halls of power to shattered streets to gleaming new cities, as humanity struggles to grasp its better angels—and purge its worst demons. U.S. release.

Kill Me Softly, by Sarah Cross (April 10, Egmont)

Mirabelle’s past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents’ tragic deaths to her guardians’ half-truths about why she can’t return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined. In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who’s a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again. But fairy tales aren’t pretty things, and they don’t always end in happily ever after. Young Adult.

Blue Magic (Astrid Lethewood, Book 2), by A.M. Dellamonica (April 10, Tor)

This sequel to A.M. Dellamonica’s Sunburst Award-winning contemporary fantasy Indigo Springs starts in the small town in Oregon where Astrid Lethewood discovered an underground river of blue liquid—Vitagua—that is pure magic. Everything it touches is changed. The secret is out—and the world will never be the same. Astrid’s best friend, Sahara, has been corrupted by the blue magic, and now leads a cult that seeks to rule the world. Astrid, on the other hand, tries to heal the world. Conflicting ambitions, star-crossed lovers, and those who fear and hate magic combine in a terrible conflagration, pitting friend against friend, magic against magic, and the power of nations against a small band of zealots, with the fate of the world at stake.

Magic Under Stone (Magic Under, Book 2), by Jaclyn Dolamore (April 10, Bloomsbury)

For star-crossed lovers Nimira and Erris, there can be no happily ever after until Erris is freed from the clockwork form in which his soul is trapped. They go in search of the sorcerer Ordorio Valdana, hoping he will know how to grant Erris real life again. When they learn that Valdana has mysteriously vanished, it’s not long before Nimira decides to take matters into her own hands—and begins to study the sorcerer’s spell books in secret. Yet even as she begins to understand the power and limitations of sorcery, it becomes clear that freeing Erris will bring danger—if not out-and-out war—in the faerie world. Young Adult.

Immobility, by Brian Evenson (April 10, Tor)

Before the Kollaps, Detective Josef Horkai was the one they called in whenever an investigation hit a wall. He’s still pretty certain he’s the best, even if there are very few other people still alive to compete with, even if the rules of the game have changed. Only problem is, he’s been exposed to something that’s slowly killing him. His hair has fallen out, his teeth are all but gone, his legs are already all but useless, and he can feel the feeling slowly seeping out of his fingers. Which is why they’ve kept him frozen, held in suspended animation until they figure out what’s wrong with him. Only he can feel time oozing slowly past, has a vague sense of the world going on without him. And then suddenly, someone claiming to be a friend thaws him out, tells him he’s needed. Something crucial has been stolen—though with the pain in his head it’s hard for him to keep straight what and why. He’s got to get it back or something bad—what was it again?—is going to happen. And he’s got to get it back so they can freeze him again before his own time runs out.

Ison of the Isles, by Carolyn Ives Gilman (April 10, ChiZine)

Revolution has broken out in the Forsaken Isles. The islanders have risen up to drive out the Inning Empire, but still they have no one to unite them. Only an Ison can do that—a leader whose heart has been cleansed by the curing of dhota-nur. The power to create an Ison lies in the hands of three people, and none of them are heroes. Spaeth has the ancient Lashnura heritage, but does she have the stature? Harg has the military genius, but he utterly rejects the price of dhota-nur. And Nathaway, the Inning outsider, finds himself unexpectedly holding the key to the future of the Isles. Ison of the Isles continues the story started in Isles of the Forsaken.

Taken at Dusk (Shadow Falls, Book 3), by C.C. Hunter (April 10, St. Martin’s Griffin)

Kylie Galen wants the truth so badly she can taste it. The truth about who her real family is, the truth about which boy she’s meant to be with—and the truth about what her emerging powers mean. But she’s about to discover that some secrets can change your life forever…and not always for the better. Just when she and Lucas are finally getting close, she learns that his pack has forbidden them from being together. And an amnesia-stricken ghost is haunting her. As Kylie races to unravel the mystery and protect those she loves, she finally unlocks the truth about her supernatural identity, which is far different than she ever imagined. Young Adult.

Wicked City (Zyphyr Hollis, Book 2), by Alaya Johnson (April 10, Thomas Dunne)

It’s summer in the city and most vampires are drunk on the blood-based intoxicant Faust. The mayor has tied his political fortunes to legalizing the brew, but Zephyr Hollis has dedicated herself to the cause of Faust prohibition—at least when she isn’t knocking back sidecars in speakeasies. But the game changes when dozens of vampires end up in the city morgue after drinking Faust. Are they succumbing to natural causes, or have they been deliberately poisoned? When an anonymous tip convinces the police of her guilt, Zephyr has to save her reputation, her freedom and possibly her life. Someone is after her blood—and this time it isn’t a vampire.

Royal Street, by Suzanne Johnson (April 10, Tor)

Wizard Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing than sniffing out supernatural bad guys. DJ’s boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from the preternatural Beyond. Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters. While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Beyond crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover, and Gerald St. Simon is missing. The wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter roux. First in a new series.

Glamour in Glass (Shades of Milk and Honey, Book 2), by Mary Robinette Kowal (April 10, Tor)

Glamour in Glass continues following the lives of beloved Milk and Honey characters Jane and Vincent as, in the tumultuous months after Napoleon abdicates his throne, they go to France for their honeymoon. While there, the deposed emperor escapes his exile in Elba, throwing the continent into turmoil. With no easy way back to England, they struggle to escape. Left with no outward salvation, Jane is left to overcome her own delicate circumstances and use her glamour to rescue her husband from prison…and hopefully prevent her newly built marriage from getting stranded on the shoals of another country's war.

Assassin’s Code (Joe Ledger, Book 4), by Jonathan Maberry (April 10, St. Martin’s Griffin)

When Joe Ledger and Echo Team rescue a group of American college kids held hostage in Iran, the Iranian government asks them to help find six nuclear bombs planted in the Mideast oil fields. These stolen WMDs will lead Joe and Echo Team into hidden vaults of forbidden knowledge, mass-murder, betrayal, and a brotherhood of genetically engineered killers with a thirst for blood. Accompanied by the beautiful assassin called Violin, Joe follows a series of clues to find the Book of Shadows, which contains a horrifying truth that threatens to shatter his entire worldview. They say the truth will set you free. Not this time. The secrets of the Assassin’s Code will set the world ablaze.

The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll & Mademoiselle Odile, by James Reese (April 10, Roaring Brook)

It’s 1870, and a young woman named Odile is fighting to survive on the blood-soaked streets of Paris. Luckily, Odile has an advantage and a bizarre birthright. She is descended from the Cagots, a much-despised race whose women were reputed to be witches. Were they, in fact? This is the question Odile must answer—about her ancestors and herself—while she uses her talents to help a young Doctor Jekyll, who seems to be abusing the salts that she gave him in a most disconcerting way. Young Adult.

Lost Everything, by Brian Francis Slattery (April 10, Tor)

Lost Everything is the story of a man who takes a boat trip up the Susquehanna River, through a version of America that’s been torn apart by a mysterious war, in order to find and rescue his lost wife and son. Slattery’s prose moves seamlessly between present and past, action and memory. With Lost Everything, he celebrates the resilience and ingenuity of the American spirit.

The Book of Blood and Shadow, by Robin Wasserman (April 10, Random House Children’s)

When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark. But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora’s best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora’s Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer. Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. U.S. release. Young Adult. 

Westlake Soul, by Rio Youers (April 10, ChiZine)

Meet Westlake Soul, a twenty-three-year-old former surfing champion. A loving son and brother. But if you think he’s just a regular dude, think again; Westlake is in a permanent vegetative state. He can’t move, has no response to stimuli, and can only communicate with Hub, the faithful family dog. And like all superheroes, Westlake has an archenemy: Dr. Quietus—a nightmarish embodiment of Death itself. Westlake dreams of a normal life of surfing and loving again. But time is running out; Dr. Quietus is getting closer, and stronger. Can Westlake use his superbrain to recover... to slip his enemy’s cold embrace before it’s too late?

Losers in Space, by John Barnes (April 12, Viking Juvenile)

It is the year 2129, and fame is all that matters. Susan and her friends are celebutantes. Their lives are powered by media awareness, fed by engineered meals, and underscored by cynicism. Everyone has a rating; the more viewers who ID you, the better. So Susan and her almost-boyfriend Derlock cook up a surefire plan: the nine of them will visit a Mars-bound spaceship and stow away. Their survival will be a media sensation, boosting their ratings across the globe. There’s only one problem: Derlock is a sociopath. Young Adult.

Radiant Days, by Elizabeth Hand (April 12, Viking Juvenile)

After Meredith’s girlfriend commits suicide, she abandons art school and goes home to Washington, D.C., intending to kill herself. But a chance street encounter leads her to create a painting that acts as a magical passage through which the young, 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud emerges, and both their lives are changed. Young Adult.

Ghost Flower, by Michele Jaffe (April 12, Razorbill)

Eve, a runaway, finds a new job at a coffee shop on the outskirts of Tuscon. When she’s approached by two wealthy teens who claim she bears an uncanny resemblance to their missing cousin Aurora, her life takes a turn for the dark and mysterious. Young Adult. 

As always, international. Four entries possible. One for comment, one for blog follow, one for Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, and one for Tweet or Retweet of the contest....GO!