New Releases December 16-23 and Reader’s Choice C*ntest

First, a quick MERCI from Jean Lafitte for all of you voting for him for Best Supporting Character over at Paranormal Haven's year-end awards. You can vote daily.

As I noted yesterday, the nice folks at Grave Tells have nominated Will Ludlam from my Susannah Sandlin Penton Legacy series as Most Memorable Sidekick. And, I learned this morning, I'm (well, Susannah is) up for both Most Promising New Author and Most Engaging Author--woo hoo! I'll be boring you with more details on this as the first voting date approaches on 12-21. 

Next, I'm talking preternatural species (werewolves, wizards, and mermen, oh my!) at Serendipity Reviews today! Thanks to Vivienne for having me back at her great site!

Thanks to DarkEva's Dark Delights for a great review of Royal Street today! It's great to see some folks still discovering the first book in the Sentinels series.

Well, isn’t this a nice…SHORT…list of new releases? As I noted last week, publishers don’t release a lot of new books from mid-December through mid-January, so I’ll open up the Reader’s Choice to extend to any book you’ve had on your wish list this year but haven’t gotten yet. The only restriction is that it would be priced at less than $15 US since I buy the Reader’s Choice books out of pocket…so no boxed sets LOL. My dogs need Christmas presents, too!

What do you want to read? As always, leave a comment telling me the book you’d most like to win, and maybe random.org will make your wishes come true. Your choice of print or digital unless otherwise stated. International? Of course! As long as Book Depository delivers to your country, please enter.

Here we go….

Deadly Little Lessons (Touch #5), by Laurie Faria Stolarz (December 18, Hyperion)

Young Adult. Camelia Hammond’s trying junior year of high school is finally over, but her troubles aren’t. After she discovers a painful truth about her family, she escapes to a summer arts program in Rhode Island. Determined to put family, and boyfriend, drama behind her, she throws herself into her artwork. At the arts school, she gets caught up in the case of Sasha Beckerman, a local girl who is missing. Even though all signs suggest that the teen ran away, Camelia senses otherwise. Eager to help the girl, she launches her own investigation. She finds a blog by someone named Neal Moche, a psychometric who might have clues to Sasha’s whereabouts. But time is running out for Sasha, and Camelia will have to trust her powers if she’s to save her.

Enchanted Ever After (Mystic Circle #3), by Robin D. Owens (December 18, Luna)

Magic was just around the corner. Kiri Palger knew the difference between reality, new house, hard work and not too many friends, and fantasy, the fun she had playing online games. So when the chance to work for the best gaming company in the world came up, giving her a chance to merge business with pleasure, how could she not apply? Suddenly she has more friends, interesting neighbors and an intriguing love interest. But when the game begins to awaken something inside her, Kiri is shocked by the talents she never knew she had, and an evil she’d never imagined.Her nice, safe life is imploding around her, and if she takes up the mantle of her powers, it will never be the same again.

Indigo Awakening (The Hunted #1), by Jordan Dane  (December 18, Harlequin Teen)

Young Adult. Voices told Lucas Darby to run. Voices no one else can hear. He’s warned his sister not to look for him, but Rayne refuses to let her troubled brother vanish on the streets of LA. In her desperate search, she meets Gabriel Stewart, a runaway with mysterious powers and far too many secrets. Rayne can’t explain her crazy need to trust the strange yet compelling boy, to touch him, to protect him even though he scares her. A fanatical church secretly hunts psychic kids, gifted “Indigo” teens feared to be the next evolution of mankind, for reasons only “the Believers” know. Now Rayne’s only hope is Gabe, who is haunted by an awakening power, a force darker than either of them imagine, that could doom them all.

The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds #1), by Alexandra Bracken (December 18, Hyperion)

Young Adult. When Ruby wakes up on her tenth birthday, something about her has changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond. On the run, she’s desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her: East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems. There are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

The Folly of the World, by Jesse Bullington (December 18, Orbit)

On a stormy night in 1421, the North Sea delivers a devastating blow to Holland: the Saint Elizabeth Flood. Where the factions of the noble Hooks and the merchant Cods waged a literal class war but weeks before, there is now only a nigh-endless expanse of grey water. Into this flooded realm sail three conspirators: a deranged thug at the edge of madness, a ruthless conman on the cusp of fortune, and a half-feral girl balanced between them. If they work together they may find reward beyond reckoning. In a topsy-turvy world where peasants feast while noblemen starve, these three uneasy confederates will learn that theft, fraud, and murder are simply part of politics as usual in the island-city of Dordrecht, and even if their scheme succeeds they may not live long enough to enjoy it. 

The Merchant of Dreams (Night’s Masque #2), by Anne Lyle(December 18, Angry Robo

Exiled from the court of Queen Elizabeth for accusing a powerful nobleman of treason, swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn has been living in France with his young valet Coby Hendricks for the past year. But Mal harbours a darker secret: he and his twin brother share a soul that once belonged to a skrayling, one of the mystical creatures from the New World. When Mal’s dream about a skrayling shipwreck in the Mediterranean proves reality, it sets him on a path to the beautiful, treacherous city of Venice, and a conflict of loyalties that will place him and his friends in greater danger than ever.

Nexus, (Nexus #1) by Ramez Naam (December 18, Angry Robot)

In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link humans together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it. When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage, for there is far more at stake than anyone realizes.

Scent of Magic (Healer #2), by Maria V. Snyder (December 18, MIRA)

As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. She must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle. Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead, human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

Five entries possible: +1 for comment to tell me what book you want, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow, +1 for a Tweet or RT about the contest, +1 for a Facebook follow. 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 the Book Horde list (see tab at the top of the page).

Now….go forth and comment!