New Releases Oct. 1-7 and Reader's Choice C*ntest

First, a commercial message. The Absolution Tour for Susannah Sandlin kicks off today. Follow each stop of the tour and at each one you can enter to win the tour prize of a new Kindle Paper White or $100 gift card to your choice of online book retailer. You can find the links each day HERE.

I'm also at the Romance Magicians blog today as part of their big BlogFest promoting our November 5 Reader's Luncheon in Birmingham. Lots of great prizes to be won! A comment enters you for a set of my books, as well as the grand prize of an eReader of choice. You can find it HERE.

Okay, take a deep breath. Get a pen and pad. Prepare thee to make a list, because there are a LOT of new books out this week. Good stuff, too. So get ready. Don’t say you weren’t warned!

Which book would you most like to read? As always, leave a comment telling me the book you’d most like to win (or the first in its series), and maybe random.org will make your wishes come true. International? Of course! As long as Book Depository delivers to your country, please enter.

Here we go…. 

Savage Hunger (Heart of the Jaguar #1), by Terry Spear (October 1, Sourcebooks Casablanca)

In the heat of the jungle, jaguars are clawed, dangerous, and hungry for love. With hopes of overcoming night terrors and thanking the man who saved her life, Kathleen McKnight returns to the Amazon. A jaguar at heart, Connor Anderson doesn’t just protect her, but wants to claim her for his own. 

Dark Storm (Dark #23), by Christine Feehan (October 2, Berkley)

Awakening after all this time in a world of absolute darkness and oppressive heat, Dax wonders in how the world above must have changed. Buried alive for hundreds of years in a volcano in the Carpathian Mountains, Dax fears that he has become the full-fledged abomination that every Carpathian male fears. His name is Mitro, the vampire Dax had hunted all these long centuries. He is the epitome of everything malevolent, and perpetrator of one of the most shocking killing sprees known to man. His friends and family weren’t safe from Mitro’s bloodlust. Neither was Mitro’s lifemate, Arabejila. Now that Dax has re-emerged, so too has Mitro. Between Dax and Mitro, a violent game has begun, one that has marked Riley Parker, the last descendent of Arabejila, as the reward. 

Ember’s Kiss (Dragonfire #8), by Deborah Cooke (October 2, Signet)

The shape-shifting dragon warriors known as the Pyr have hidden themselves from mankind. But as the final reckoning with the Slayers heats up, even the most ancient secrets will be revealed. Brandon Merrick is determined to banish his shifter nature forever. His dragon isn’t prepared to be tamed so easily. One look at Liz Barrett ignites the spark of a firestorm: Liz is his destined mate. While Brandon sees their first night together as just the beginning, his dragon seizes the upper hand. Awakening in the company of a raging dragon challenges Liz’s ability to believe her own eyes. Neither one realizes Brandon is caught in an ancient Slayer’s scheme to enslave him. When the deadly plot ignites, Brandon and his mate could be the ultimate sacrifice. 

Forget Me Not, by Carolee Dean (October 2, Simon Pulse)

Young Adult. Ally is devastated when a scandalous photo of her is texted around school. With her reputation in shambles and her life essentially over, she hides out in a back hallway, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Elijah has spent time in that hallway too. He landed there after taking a whole bottle of sleeping pills. Now he can see ghosts, and he knows what Ally has yet to suspect, that she’s already half dead, and one choice away from never coming back. Elijah has loved Ally for years and would do anything to save her from the in-between place. But if she’s going to live, Ally must face her inner demons and find the will to save herself. 

Fury’s Kiss (Dorina Basarab #3), by Karen Chance (October 2, Signet Select)

Dory is used to fighting hard and nasty. So when she wakes up in a strange scientific lab with a strange man standing over her, her first instinct is to take his head off. Luckily, the man is actually the master vampire Louis-Cesare, so he’s not an easy kill. It turns out that Dory had been working with a Vampire Senate task force on the smuggling of magical items and weaponry out of Faerie when she was captured and brought to the lab. When Louis-Cesare rescues her, she has no memory of what happened to her. To find out what was done to her, and who is behind it, Dory will have to face off with fallen angels, the maddest of mad scientists, and a new breed of vampires that are far worse than undead. 

Lucid, by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass (October 2, Razorbill)

Young Adult. What if you could dream your way into a different life? What if you could choose to live that life forever? Sloane and Maggie have never met. Sloane is a straight-A student with a big and loving family. Maggie lives a glamorously independent life as an up-and-coming actress in New York. They share a secret that they can’t tell a soul. At night, they dream that they’re each other. The deeper they’re pulled into the promise of their own lives, the more their worlds begin to blur dangerously together. Before long, Sloane and Maggie can no longer tell which life is real and which is just a dream. They realize that eventually they will have to choose one life to wake up to, or risk spiraling into insanity. But that means giving up one world, one love, and one self, forever.  

Mate Claimed (Shifters Unbound #4), by Jennifer Ashley (October 2, Berkley)

Eric Warden knows that half-Shifter wildcat Iona is passing for human, living without a Collar in the human world. He also knows that if she does not acknowledge her Shifter nature and her mating hunger, it could kill her. Iona finds the mysterious and dangerous Eric, a wildcat and leader of his Shiftertown, haunting her dreams, but she vows never to “come out” and take the Collar, fearing backlash against her mother and sister for hiding the fact that she’s Shifter. But Eric is a compelling Shifter male, and Iona’s hunger calls to him. 

Mortal Ties (World of the Lupi #9), by Eileen Wilks (October 2, Berkley)

FBI agent Lily Yu is living at Nokolai Clanhome with her fiancé, lupi Rule Turner, when an intruder penetrates their territory, stealing the prototype of a magical device the clan hopes will be worth a fortune, if a few bugs can be worked out. But the prototype can be dangerously erratic, discharging a bizarre form of mind magic, and it looks like the thief wants it for that very side effect. Worse, whoever stole the device didn’t learn about it by accident. Lily and Rule have to find the traitor, the thief, and the prototype. As they race to recover their missing property, they find Robert Friar’s sticky footprints all over the place. Robert Friar, killer, madman, and acolyte of the Old One the Lupi are at war with, an Old One whose power is almost as vast as her ambition to rock the entire world. 

Phantom Shadows (Immortal Guardians #3), by Dianne Duvall (October 2, Kensington)

Dr. Melanie Lipton is no stranger to the supernatural. She knows immortals better than they know themselves, right down to their stubborn little genes. So although a handsome rogue immortal seems suspicious to her colleagues, Sebastien Newcombe intrigues Melanie. His history is checkered, his scars are impressive, and his ideas are daring. But it’s not his ideas that have Melanie fighting off surges of desire. Bastien is used to being the bad guy. In fact, he can’t remember the last time he had an ally he could trust. But Melanie is different, and under her calm, professional exterior he senses a passion beyond anything in his centuries of experience. Giving in to temptation is out of the question, he can’t put her in danger. But she isn’t asking him. 

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles #1), by Kresley Cole(October 2, Simon & Schuster)

Young Adult. Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future. She must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate, Jack Deveaux. Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. He agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. 

Werewolf in Denver (Wild About You #4), by Vicki Lewis Thompson (October 2, Signet)

When Denver-based Were blogger and founder of Honoring of Werewolf Legacy (HOWL) Kate Stillman agrees to take on political “bad boy” Duncan MacDowell in a public debate about werewolf segregation, she’s confident she’ll sail through the challenge without letting down her guard. And what can go wrong while hanging out with the sexy Scottish founder of Werewolves Optimizing Our Future (WOOF) long enough to convince him his views on interspecies mating are mistaken? Plenty, when Kate discovers that she’s actually wildly attracted to her opponent, who by all accounts prefers dating human women. But what hope can there be when this irresistible werewolf-with-a-cause believes their future depends on Kate losing the argument? 

Wicked Whispers (Castle of Dark Dreams #6), by Nina Bangs(October 2, Berkley Trade)

All Ivy had ever wanted was a safe, secure life with no drama. Now she was working in an adult theme park where visitors came to role-play their wildest imaginings. She reminded herself to stay focused on her job and to ignore everything else. The reminders didn’t work. One man drew her. Murmur was every erotic dream she’d tried to repress, every deliciously dangerous temptation she said she didn’t need. Her instinct suggested that this was a man who walked in darkness. But Murmur was more than what he seemed. A powerful demon, he used his demonic gift to destroy as well as seduce. In desiring him, Ivy had opened herself to a menace born centuries ago, one that would risk both their lives and betray the promises made with every one of his wicked whispers. 

Dark Currents (Agent of Hel #1), by Jacqueline Carey (October 2, Roc)

The Midwestern resort town of Pemkowet boasts a diverse population: eccentric locals, wealthy summer people, and tourists by the busload; not to mention fairies, sprites, vampires, naiads, ogres and a whole host of eldritch folk, presided over by Hel, a reclusive Norse goddess. To Daisy Johanssen, it’s home. And as Hel’s enforcer it’s up to her to ensure relations between the mundane and eldritch communities run smoothly. When a young man drowns, and signs point to eldritch involvement, the town’s booming paranormal tourism trade is at stake. Teamed with her childhood crush, Officer Cody Fairfax, a sexy werewolf on the down-low, Daisy must solve the crime, and keep a tight rein on the darker side of her nature.  

Darkness Rising (East Salem Trilogy #2), by Lis Wiehl and Pete Nelson (October 2, Thomas Nelson)

The evil that’s in East Salem is no longer content to hide in the shadows. The stakes, and the darkness, are rising. Dani Harris thought there wasn’t much left that could surprise her after serving as a forensic psychiatrist in East Salem. And Tommy Gunderson has faced few challenges in his life that he couldn’t overcome by either physical strength or his celebrity status. But as they race to uncover what’s really happening behind the high walls of St. Adrian’s Academy, it becomes clear that supernatural forces have been at work here for generations. And now their focus is on making sure Dani and Tommy don’t interfere. When the unseen becomes seen, faith is the only weapon strong enough to fight in a battle involving not only murder and betrayal-but angels and demons. 

Daughter of the Sword (Fated Blades #1), by Steve Bein (October 2, Roc)

Mariko Oshiro is not your average Tokyo cop. She has to fight for every ounce of respect, especially from her new boss. While she wants to track down a rumored cocaine shipment, he gives her the least promising case possible. The case, the attempted theft of an old samurai sword, proves more dangerous than anyone imagined. The owner of the sword, Professor Yasuo Yamada, says it was crafted by Master Inazuma, a sword smith whose blades are rumored to have magical qualities. The man trying to steal it already owns another Inazuma, one whose deadly power eventually comes to control all who wield it. Or so says Yamada. Her investigation has put her on a collision course with a curse centuries old and as bloodthirsty as ever. 

Dead City, by James Ponti (October 2, Aladdin)

Young Adult. “Most kids have enough to deal with between school, homework, extracurricular activities, and friends, but Molly Bigelow has something else on her list: hunting zombies. By day, Molly attends MIST, the Metropolitan Institute of Science and Technology, but outside the classroom she’s busy dealing with the undead. Because not only do zombies exist, they’re everywhere, and it’s her job to help police them and keep the peace. Sure, she’d like to be a regular kid, but given that her mother was the most revered (or feared, depending on your perspective) zombie hunter in the history of New York City, “regular” just isn’t possible. Molly’s got some legendary footsteps to follow, and some undeadly consequences if she fails. 

Death and the Girl Next Door (Darklight #1), by Darynda Jones (October 2, St. Martin’s Griffin)

Young Adult. Ten years ago, Lorelei’s parents disappeared without a trace.  Raised by her grandparents and leaning on the support of her best friends, Lorelei is finally beginning to accept the fact that her parents are never coming home.  For Lorelei, life goes on. Until the day the school’s designated loner, Cameron Lusk, begins to stalk her. Things get even more complicated when a new guy, terrifying, tough, sexy Jared Kovach, comes to school. Cameron and Jared instantly despise each other and Lorelei seems to be the reason for their animosity.  What does Jared know about her parents?  Why does Cameron tell Jared he can’t have Lorelei? What will any of them do when Death comes knocking for real?  

Death’s Rival (Jane Yellowrock #5), by Faith Hunter (October 2, Roc)

Jane Yellowrock is a shapeshifting skinwalker you don’t want to cross, especially if you’re one of the undead. For a vampire killer like Jane, having Leo Pellisier as a boss took some getting used to. But now, someone is out to take his place as Master Vampire of the city of New Orleans, and is not afraid to go through Jane to do it. After an attack that’s tantamount to a war declaration, Leo knows his rival is both powerful and vicious, but Leo’s not about to run scared. After all, he has Jane. But then, a plague strikes, one that takes down vampires and makes their masters easy prey. Now, to uncover the identity of the vamp who wants Leo’s territory, and to find the cause of the vamp-plague, Jane will have to go to extremes and maybe even to war.  

Feedback (Variant #2), by Robison Wells (October 2, HarperTeen)

Young Adult. Benson Fisher escaped from Maxfield Academy’s deadly rules and brutal gangs. Or so he thought. But now Benson is trapped in a different kind of prison: a town filled with hauntingly familiar faces. People from Maxfield he saw die. Friends he was afraid he had killed. They are all pawns in the school’s twisted experiment, held captive and controlled by an unseen force. As he searches for answers, Benson discovers that Maxfield Academy’s plans are more sinister than anything he imagined, and they may be impossible to stop.  

Ghosts of Memories (Vampire Memories #5), by Barb Hendee(October 2, Roc)

With her vampire protector Philip Branté and their human companion Wade Sheffield, a former police psychologist, Eleisha Clevon searches the world for isolated vampires, and offers them sanctuary. She wants to provide a home where she can teach them to follow the Four Laws that will protect them and their kind. But not all vampires want to live by anyone’s rules but their own. Christian Lefevre has been posing a psychic, catering to the upper crust of Seattle society by making contact with their dead loved ones, and leaving his clients faint and weak after each encounter. Now Eleisha must confront the most deadly predator she has ever faced, or lose everything she has fought to protect.  

Ironskin (Ironskin #1), by Tina Connolly (October 2, Tor)

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its victims remain, the ironskin. A carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a “delicate situation,” a child born during the Great War. Teaching Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the artist Edward Rochart. But her crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio, and come out as beautiful as the fey. Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. What if neither of these things is true? Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life, and discovers how far she will go to become whole again. 

London Eye (Toxic City #1), by Tim Lebbon (October 2, Pyr)

Two years after London is struck by a devastating terrorist attack, it is cut off from the world, protected by a military force known as Choppers. The rest of Britain believes that the city is now a toxic, uninhabited wasteland. But Jack and his friends know that the reality is very different. At great risk, they have been gathering evidence about what is really happening in London. Because the handful of London’s survivors are changing. Developing strange, fantastic powers. Evolving. Upon discovering that his mother is still alive inside London, Jack, his sister, and their three friends sneak into a city in ruins. Choppers cruise the streets, looking for survivors to experiment upon. Jack knows that the truth must be revealed to the outside world or every survivor will die. 

Merge/Disciple: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion, by Walter Mosley (October 2, Tor)

Merge: Releigh Redman hit the lotto for $26 million and set his sights on one goal: reading a collection of lectures. Raleigh notices something in his apartment that seems ordinary but quickly reveals itself to be from a world very different from our own. This entity shows Raleigh joy beyond the comforts of $26 million dollars, and merges our world with those that live beyond. Disciple: Hogarth Tryman is a forty-two year old man working a dead-end job. That all changes the night he receives a bizarre instant message from a man who calls himself Bron. In a matter of days Hogarth Tryman goes from a data entry clerk to the head of a corporation. He realizes he has become a pawn in a much larger game, a battle that threatens the prime life force on Earth. 

Sand Witches in the Hamptons: A Willow Tate Novel (Willow Tate #5), by Celia Jerome (October 2, DAW)

Willow Tate is a Visualizer, able to draw beings from the Otherworld, home to trolls and elves, night mares and bird fish, and many other fantastical beings, and “draw” them into our world. They all seem to end up in the weird little town of Paumanok Harbor, nestled in the popular Hamptons region of Long Island. As if Willow didn’t have enough problems coping with all these Otherworld visitors, now she has a stalker, her doom-seer father has a secret, and Paumanok Harbor has Otherworld sand-stealers. Willow has bodyguards but absolutely no idea how to solve any of these problems in time for Halloween, when the local witches hold their annual gathering on the beach. Good thing she has the handsome, loving, local vet Matt to come to her assistance. 

Skarlet: Part One of the Vampire Trinity, by Thomas Emson (October 2, St. Martin’s Griffin)

Fear grips London as dozens of people die after taking a sinister new drug called Skarlet. Forty-eight hours later, the dead partiers wake up and begin butchering the living for their blood. Soon, London gives a name to its terror: Vampires. Jake Lawton, bitter and betrayed after the Iraq War, finds himself fighting another battle, against the growing army of immortal hunters and their human cohorts. Lawton joins forces with the journalist who brought about his downfall and the dealer tricked into distributing the drug. Together they take on the spineless authorities, the ruthless cohorts, and the hungry dead. But the vampire plague unleashed in London is nothing to what lurks beneath the streets. Waiting to be resurrected. Waiting to reign again over a city of human slaves. 

Through to You, by Emily Hainsworth (October 2, Balzer + Bray)

Young Adult. Camden Pike has been grief-stricken since his girlfriend, Viv, died. Viv was the last good thing in his life. And now, he’d give anything for one more glimpse of her. But when Cam makes a visit to the site of Viv’s deadly car accident, he sees some kind of apparition. And it isn’t Viv. The apparition’s name is Nina, and she’s not a ghost. She’s a girl from a parallel world, and in this world, Viv is still alive. All he can focus on is getting his girlfriend back, no matter the cost. But things are different in this other world: Viv and Cam have both made very different choices, things between them have changed in unexpected ways, and Viv isn’t the same girl he remembers. Nina is keeping some dangerous secrets, too, and the window between the worlds is shrinking every day. 

Whispers at Moonrise (Shadow Falls #4), by C.C. Hunter (October 2, St. Martin’s Griffin)

At a camp filled with vampires, werewolves, and fairies, Kylie Galen has always struggled to figure out what she is. Now she finally knows the truth, but she’s left with more questions than answers.  She doesn’t have a clue what her heritage means or how to harness her newfound powers. All she knows is that she needs to sort out her feelings for Derek, the sexy half-Fae who just confessed his love, and Lucas, her werewolf boyfriend who seems more committed to his pack than to their relationship. All the while, Kylie’s dealing with a group of underground rogues who want her dead and a mysterious grandfather who makes it clear he doesn’t trust the FRU, or Shadow Falls. Soon Kylie will have to choose.  

1635: The Papal Stakes (1632 Universe, Assiti Shards #9), by Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon (October 2, Baen)

It’s springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it’s no Roman holiday for uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They’re in the clutches of would-be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope–Urban VII –on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Special rescue teams, including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew, converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borja’s assassins can find him. Now, it’s up to the rough and ready can-do attitude of Grantville natives to escape the clutches of aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war-torn land. 

Between Two Fires, by Christopher Buehlman (October 2, Ace)

The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm, that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict. She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. She has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas she will fulfill her mission. As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.  

Pirate Cinema, by Cory Doctorow (October 2, Tor)

Trent McCauley is obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from films he downloads from the Net. In the dystopian near-future Britain this is more illegal than ever. The punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal. Trent’s too clever for that to happen. Except it does. It nearly destroys his family. Trent runs away to London. This brings him in touch with a demimonde of artists and activists who are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize more harmless internet creativity.  Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But the powers-that-be haven’t reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people’s minds.  

Rock On: The Greatest Hits of Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Paula Guran (October 3, Prime Books)

Kick out the jams with hot licks and fantastic riffs on rock and roll from the only kind of fiction that feeds the soul: science fiction and fantasy. Contributing authors include Elizabeth Bear, Greg Kihn, Marc Laidlaw, Kaitlin R. Kiernan, Charles de Lint, Graham Masterton, Alastair Reynolds, David J. Schow, Lewis Shiner, John Shirley, Lucius Shepherd, Poppy Z. Brite, Norman Spinrad, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, F. Paul Wilson, Howard Waldrop, Edward Bryant, Pat Cadigan, Lawrence C. Connolly, Bradley Denton, Elizabeth Hand, Del James, and Graham Joyce.  

Breathe (Breathe #1), by Sarah Crossan (October 2, Greenwillow Books)

Young Adult. The world is dead. The survivors live under the protection of Breathe, the corporation that found a way to manufacture oxygen-rich air. Alina has been stealing for a long time. She’s a little jittery, but not terrified. All she knows is that she’s never been caught before. If she’s careful, it’ll be easy. Quinn should be worried about Alina and a bit afraid for himself too. Even though this is dangerous, it’s also the most interesting thing to happen to him in ages. Bea wants to tell him that none of this is fair; they’d planned a trip together and she’d hoped he’d discover her out here, not another girl. And as they walk into the Outlands with two days’ worth of oxygen in their tanks, everything they believe will be shattered. Will they be able to make it back? Will they want to? 

Fire Season (Honorverse: Stephanie Harrington #2), by David Weber & Jane Lindskold (October 2, Baen)

Young Adult. Fire weather. That’s what the treecats call those rare seasons when the slightest spark can set aflame the vast green reaches they call home. Teenager Stephanie Harrington rapidly learns just how deadly those fires can be. Guided by her treecat companion, Lionheart, Stephanie and her good friend Karl Zivonik venture into the heart of a raging inferno to rescue twin treecats put at risk. But Sphinx isn’t the only thing ripe for burning. Stephanie has fallen hard for new arrival to Sphinx, Anders Whittaker. When Anders vanishes without a trace, Stephanie is at the forefront of the search. Then a lightning strike sets the Copperwall Mountains aflame and as a provisional ranger she is ordered to her post. Will Stephanie choose to honor the claims of her planet or those of her heart?  

Halo: The Thursday War (Halo #10), by Karen Traviss (October 2, Tor)

Halo: The Thursday War picks up immediately where Halo: Glasslands left off, with forces on Earth and among the Covenant threatening a peace that is precarious at best. With a splinter group among the Sangheili pushing for war, some human colonies rebel against Earth authority; and as ONI policy continues to shift with the volatile situation in space, the discovery of a trove of Forerunner technology on Onyx provokes leaders on Earth to seek uses for it in the conflict. For the fight is far from over. 

Night & Demons, by David Drake (October 2, Baen)

A collection of horrific, weird, and fantastic tales by a master storyteller and creator of best-selling military science fiction. Here are weird stories set in the present, along with alternative histories filled with gritty realism and exacting detail as well as an assortment of horrors and monsters. Most of all, here are the tough heroes who throughout time master their own fears and face the very real terrors that haunt existence.  Sometimes these heroes win a partial victory.  Sometimes it’s enough to go down fighting. 

Quantum Coin (Coin #2), by E.C. Myers (October 2, Pyr)

Ephraim thought his universe-hopping days were over. His quantum coin has been powerless for almost a year, and he’s settled into a normal life with his girlfriend, Jena. But then an old friend crashes their senior prom: Jena’s identical twin from a parallel world, Zoe. It turns out that Ephraim’s problems have just begun, and they’re much more complicated than his love life: The multiverse is at stake, and it might just be Ephraim’s fault. Ephraim, Jena, and Zoe embark on a mission to learn what’s going wrong and how to stop it. They will have to trust in alternate versions of themselves and their friends, before it’s too late for all of them. The solution may depend on how much they’re willing to sacrifice for the sake of humanity, and each other. 

The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight (The Lost Fleet), by Jack Campbell (October 2, Ace)

Tarnished Knight follows the events in the Midway Star System during the same period as Dreadnaught and Invincible. For the first time, the story of the Lost Fleet universe is told through the eyes of citizens of the Syndicate Worlds as they deal with defeat in the war, threats from all sides, and the crumbling of the Syndicate empire.  

Passenger (The Marbury Lens #2), by Andrew Smith (October 2, Feiwel and Friends)

Young Adult. Best friends Jack and Conner can’t stay away from Marbury. It’s partly because of their obsession with this alternate world and the unresolved war that still wages there. But it’s also because forces in Marbury, including the darkest of the dark, who were not revealed in The Marbury Lens, are beckoning the boys back in order to save their friends, and themselves. The boys try to destroy the lens that transports them to Marbury. But that dark world is not so easily reckoned with. 

Promised (Birthmarked #3), by Caragh M. O’Brien (October 2, Roaring Brook Press)

After defying the ruthless Enclave, surviving the wasteland, and upending the rigid matriarchy of Sylum, Gaia Stone now faces her biggest challenge ever.  She must lead the people of Sylum back to the Enclave and persuade the Protectorat to grant them refuge from the wasteland. In Gaia’s absence, the Enclave has grown more cruel, more desperate to experiment on mothers from outside the wall, and now the stakes of cooperating or rebelling have never been higher. Is Gaia ready, as a leader, to sacrifice what, or whom, she loves most? 

Redoubt (Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles #4, by Mercedes Lackey (October 2, DAW)

Mags, a young Herald trainee in Haven, the capital city of Valdemar, has very rare talents. Recognizing this, the King’s Own Herald trains Mags as a spy, tasking him with uncovering the secrets of a mysterious new enemy who has taken an interest in Mags himself. Why is an even deeper mystery. The answers can only be found in the depths of Mags’ past, if he survives long enough to find them. 

Son (The Giver Quartet #4), by Lois Lowry (October 2, Houghton Mifflin)

They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn’t exist. That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive? She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice. 

The Cloak Society, by Jeramey Kraatz (October 2, HarperCollins)

Young Adult. The Cloak Society: An elite organization of supervillains graced with extraordinary powers. Ten years ago they were defeated by the Rangers of Justice and vanished without a trace. But the villains of Cloak have been waiting for the perfect moment to resurface. Alex Knight wants to be one of them. Alex is already a junior member, and his entire universe is Cloak’s underground headquarters. His only dream is to follow in his parents’ footsteps as one of the most feared supervillains in the world. The day of his debut mission, Alex does the unthinkable: he saves the life of a young Ranger named Kirbie. She becomes his friend. And the more time he spends with her, the more Alex wonders about the world outside of Cloak, and what, exactly, he’s been fighting for.  

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There(Fairyland #2), by Catherynne M. Valente (October 2, Feiwel and Friends)

Young Adult. September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows, and their magic, to the world of Fairyland Below. This underworld has a new ruler: Halloween, the Hollow Queen, who is September’s shadow. And Halloween does not want to give Fairyland’s shadows back. Fans of Valente’s bestselling, first Fairyland book will revel in the lush setting, characters, and language of September’s journey, all brought to life by fine artist Ana Juan. Readers will also welcome back good friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. But in Fairyland Below, even the best of friends aren’t always what they seem.

This book is being serialized this week on Tor.com! Follow the installments here every morning. 

The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus #3), by Rick Riordan(October 2, Hyperion)

Young Adult. As Annabeth and her friends Jason, Piper, and Leo fly in on the Argo II, she can’t blame the Roman demigods for thinking the ship is a Greek weapon. Annabeth hopes that the sight of their praetor Jason on deck will reassure the Romans that the visitors are coming in peace. In her pocket Annabeth carries a gift from her mother that came with an unnerving demand: Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me. Annabeth already feels weighed down by the prophecy that will send seven demigods on a quest to find, and close, the Doors of Death. Annabeth’s biggest fear is that Percy might have changed. The daughter of the goddess of war and wisdom, Annabeth knows she was born to be a leader, but never again does she want to be without Seaweed Brain by her side. 

The Tainted City (Shattered Sigil #2), by Courtney Schafer (October 2, Night Shade Books)

Dev is a desperate man. After narrowly surviving a smuggling job gone wrong, he’s now a prisoner of the Alathian Council, held hostage to ensure his friend Kiran, former apprentice to one of the most ruthless mages alive , does their bidding. But Kiran isn’t Dev’s only concern. Back in his home city of Ninavel, the child he once swore to protect faces a terrible fate if he can’t reach her in time. So when the Council offers Dev freedom in exchange for his and Kiran’s assistance in a clandestine mission to Ninavel, he can’t refuse. Once in Ninavel the mission proves more treacherous than even Dev could have imagined. Betrayed by allies, forced to aid their enemies, he and Kiran must confront the darkest truths of their pasts if they hope to survive their return to the Tainted City.  

Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone (October 2, Tor)

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith. When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts, and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

Read an excerpt here. 

Unlocking the Spell: A Tale of the Wide-Awake Princess (Wide-Awake Princess #2), by E.D. Baker (October 2, Bloomsbury)

Young Adult. Now that Annie has helped her sister Gwendolyn (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) wake up from the 100-year curse by finding her beloved prince, you would think that things would get back to normal. Think again! That beloved prince, Beldegard, is stuck in the body of a bear and the only way that Annie can be free of the two irritating lovebirds is to help-by finding the evil dwarf who cast the spell. Luckily, Annie has assistance from handsome prince Liam, and she has many tricks up her non-magical sleeve. 

Royal Blood, by Sarah Marques (October 3, Prime Books)

The King is dead! Long Live the King! France’s mortal queen has been abducted. Both musketeer Aramis and Madame Bonacieux-D’Artagnan’s lover and a priestess of natural rites feel responsible. In fact, they fear the queen has been abducted to assure, through arcane rites, that any heir to the throne will be born a vampire. They and their companions must save her.

Whew!

Now…what do you want to read? Leave a comment and tell me, and I’ll draw one name to win his or her choice. International, as always. And if the book is in a series you haven’t started, you can always pick the first one in the series instead. If there’s a new release in another genre this week you’d like to read, leave that in your comment. If I’ve missed a speculative fiction release, leave it in the comments and I’ll add it in—it’s eligible for giveaway.

As always, four entries possible: +1 for comment to tell me what book (any book) you want, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, and +1 for a Tweet or RT about the contest. This contest is international to any place Book Depository ships. Contests end at midnight CDT U.S. on Saturday, and winners are announced on Sunday’s blog. It’s the responsibility of the winner to contact me with their mailing info. Books unclaimed after a month will go into a general giveaway pile.

Now….go!