Jennifer Armentrout’s Obsession…

I preface any post I write about a favorite author by saying that I am a huge fan, and I haven’t made any secret of my love for Jennifer L. Armentrout‘s work. Amber gave me a shout that the cover and blurb had been released for the upcoming Arum novel, Obsession. It is a spin-off of her Lux series, but unfortunately at this point it is only scheduled for e-release. It will be released on May 31st through Entangled’s new Covet line.

Synopsis…

          He’s arrogant, domineering, and… To. Die. For.

Hunter is a ruthless killer. And the Department of Defense has him firmly in their grasp, which usually doesn’t chafe too badly because he gets to kill bad guys. Most of the time he enjoys his job. That is, until he’s saddled with something he’s never had to do before: protect a human from his mortal enemy.

Serena Cross didn’t believe her best friend when she claimed to have seen the son of a powerful senator turn into something… unnatural. Who would? But then she witnesses her friend’s murder at the hands of what can only be an alien, thrusting her into a world that will kill to protect their secret.

Hunter stirs Serena’s temper and her lust despite their differences. Soon he’s doing the unthinkable—breaking the rules he’s lived by, going against the government to keep Serena safe. But are the aliens and the government the biggest threats to Serena’s life…or is it Hunter?

I am looking very forward to this one, especially since the Arum have never been seen as anything other than evil in the Lux books. It will be fun to get the story from the other side.

Reading Roundup…

I thought there had only been a couple of books since my last Reading Roundup post, but it looks like I was busier than I thought since it looks like I read 14 books/stories since then. I won’t go over them all here, but just some of the highlights.

Heart of Atlantis – Alyssa Day‘s Warriors of Poseidon series falls into a strange category for me. I read them, then promptly forget them. Details just don’t stick, I don’t remember who most of the couples are, I can’t remember character names or storylines or anything. Now I am not saying that I don’t enjoy them because while I am reading them I actually do – they are not my favorites but they aren’t bad, either – but they just don’t stick with me. I have had Heart of Atlantis on Mount TBR for what seems like forever, but I was in no rush to read it even though it was the long awaited story of Alaric and Quinn. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Alaric is the one character throughout the whole series that stood out for me, so I was hoping he would finally get his chance at a happy life. Characters were great, lots of action to the story, and while it felt like the perfect way to end the series on a high-note, it also seems like the beginning of a new Atlantis storyline. And as a bonus, it has been a couple of weeks and I still remember what happened.

Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter – I was pleasantly surprised by the first book of Jessica Sims‘ Midnight Liaisons series, enough so that I immediately ordered the novella and the second book, Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter. The novella wasn’t bad, and I quite enjoyed this second book, too. A bit of a different storyline from others that I have read, since it revolves around a dating service for the supernatural. A light, fun read, but not goofy or dumb. These books are a great break from the usual dark and gritty stuff I usually read, and I find myself looking forward to book three when it comes out later this year. I will save it for when I need a break from the drama and just want something fun to read.

House Rules – Last year, one of my reading goals was to get up-to-date on the Chicagoland Vampires series from Chloe Neill. I did, and quite liked it. It is never going to rank up there with my favorite UF series, but it is still a very good series. I did find myself a bit underwhelmed by this one – not a bad book, but not something that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go, either. I had no problem putting it down several times to drift off to something else, but I was still interested enough to want to find out how it all ended. Not a favorite, but still not all that bad, either.

Apollyon – Jennifer L. Armentrout is a YA favorite, so I was very happy to get my hands on the second last Sentinels book (crap, almost done). There is a lot of action in Apollyon, very fast paced. I have seen where many say that this one was a bit of a “filler” book, building up to the finale, but I didn’t find it to be so. It does set the stage for the big showdown, but there was enough happening to keep me interested. And thanks to reading the novella Elixir, I finally have a new appreciation for Aiden, and I even have some hope for Seth. I liked this one, but still sad to see the ending is only one book away.

Lone Wolf – I broke down and actually read a couple of e-novellas, too. One of them was Jennifer Ashley‘s Lone Wolf, only since it was part of the Shifters Unbound series which I read faithfully. I was meh about Lone Wolf, though. Not sure why, but I found it hard to get into and I even caught myself skimming though several parts (even though it is short enough as it is). I could’ve skipped this one and not missed a thing.

What did you read recently that you were surprised by, good or bad? Any disappointments or pleasant surprises?

This and That…

This is sort of a mix of everything random post. Part update, part new release info, part cover lover.

• it looks like Karen Marie Moning‘s next Fever book, Burned, is up for pre-order on Amazon. It will be released on January 14th. Let my countdown begin.
• also, there is a bit of info coming about Alexandra Ivy‘s new Sentinels series. The prequel novella will be part of the upcoming Predatory anthology due out on May 7th, but we now know that the first full novel will be called Born in Blood. It will be released on December 31st.
• there will be a third book in Jacquelyn Frank‘s World of Nightwalkers series, called Forsaken. This one has a January 7th,2014 release date.
• November 2nd is the release date for the next Sentinels book from Jennifer L Armentrout, called Sentinel. And as a bonus, there is now a release date for the next Lux book, Origin. It looks like this one will be out on August 27th. But after that, things get a little tricky. From what I am picking up, there have been some changes in two other works of hers. Nephilim Rising (written under the name J. Lynn) has had a couple of pushbacks already, but it seems that now it will be released on September 17th – in e-format only. Amazon is showing a ridiculous print date of January 1st, 2018. Uh, no. Aaand, I might be totally wrong, but it would appear that the Lux spin-off book Obsession will now be released through the Entangled: Covet imprint – which means e-format only. Damn, that is a shame. I do have hopes for a print version later on, though.
• word has gotten around about Christine Feehan‘s upcoming Dark series trilogy, but it looks like there will be a book in between. Right now, the schedule is looking like Dark Lycan this September, Dark Wolf in January, Air Bound (from the Sisters of the Heart series) in either April or May. Then the third Dark book, Dark Hunter, in the usual September spot, and a Ghostwalker book after that (December or January).
• the third Marie Lu Legend book, Champion, will be released on November 5th.
• Katie Reus‘s fourth Moon Shifter’s novel, Avenger’s Heat, will be released on February 4th.

Ugh, I am getting tired of this design, and I have been looking into other templates and designs. Right now, we are on WordPress.com, but you are limited as to design. WordPress.org allows custom themes, but I dread trying to make the switch over (especially since Wicked Scribes is actually made up of something like 18 different blogs).

And on the cover front, I found this one for Jessica Shirvington‘s next Violet Eden Chronicles book, Endless. It is due out on October 1st.

Cover Lover – 8 New Titles

It didn’t look there was much to post today, but then Amber pointed out that the cover for our mutually loved Jennifer L. Armentrout‘s next Covenant novel, Sentinel, was out. Aaaand that led to finding 7 more between Amazon and Goodreads. Sentinel is due out on December 10th. Not a great cover, but a really great series.

Kalayna Price‘s next Alex Craft book, Grave Visions, is due out on August 6th.

Next up is Breath of Iron from Kate Cross. It is part of her Clockwork Agents series, and it is due out on August 6th.

There has been a lot of talk over the last couple of years about another Outlander book from Diana Gabaldon, but now it looks like Written in My Own Heart’s Blood is confirmed for a December 10th release.

Midnight’s Promise from Donna Grant, the 8th book of her Dark Warriors series, is due out on October 29th.

These next two are both from the recently announced “Dark trilogy” from Christine Feehan. Dark Lycan, Dark series number 24, will be released on September 3rd.

And it will be followed by Dark Wolf will follow in January 2014. This one is the long-awaited story of Skylar and Dimitri.

And this final one is the lone YA title. Julie Kagawa‘s second Iron Fey spin-off book, The Iron Traitor, is due out on October 29th.

Armentrount and Andrews Deals…

I think that both of these have made the rounds already, but I thought that I would re-post them here. Amber pointed out last week that an official announcement had been made about a new YA series from a favorite of both of ours, Jennifer L. Armentrout. The official announcement was made in Publisher’s Marketplace…

          USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Armentrout’s new young adult series in which a half demon, half gargoyle teenage girl risks the wrath of her adoptive clan and the trust of a boy she’s loved forever by partnering up with a sexy, dangerous demon who claims he can protect her from dark elements in a usually quiet demon population, to Margo Lipschultz at Harlequin Teen, in a good deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in Winter 2014, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (World).

Nice. Very nice. Especially since her current publisher (Entangled) is so wonky with release dates lately. Makes me wonder about the stability of a company that constantly has to delay its product – not by a few days, but by many months. Harlequin is solid and established, and I hope this means that she can make a jump to a bigger audience, since she really deserves the recognition.

And the official announcement has been made on the Publisher’s Weekly site about not one, but two deals for Ilona and Gordon Andrews. It is always welcome to hear about more books from these two.

          The husband-and-wife writing team of Ilona Andrews and Andrew Gordon have signed two deals, with different houses. Agent Nancy Yost, at Nancy Yost Literary, handled both agreements. In the first, Yost signed the pair up to continue their Kate Daniels at Ace Books series for mid six figures, with Anne Sowards acquiring world English rights. In the second deal, also for mid six figures, Yost sold world rights for the first three books in a new series to Erika Tsang at Avon. Yost said the Avon series will be set in a world controlled by “modern Medici-like dynasties with paranormally enhanced abilities.”

The new series sounds very, very interesting. Can’t wait. And you won’t hear me whining about more Kate and Curran, either. Since the Edge series is officially over, I am glad to hear that Ilona and Gordon are diving into something new. What do you think…are you looking forward to the new stuff, too? Any other deals you have heard about lately? (I am sure there was another one, but of course I completely forgot what it was).

Cover Lover – 5 New Titles

After spending the last couple of days setting up my laptop to temporarily handle my computer needs (and was there ever a lot to set up), I stumbled across a few new covers. I just finished The Indigo Spell last night, and that made me even more excited to find the cover for Richelle Mead‘s fourth Bloodlines book, The Fiery Heart. I wonder if there will be any tattoos added (even though Sydney’s has been on the cheek we can’t see on the previous covers)? The Fiery Heart is scheduled for release on November 19th.

This next one is from Cynthia Eden‘s e-format Bound series. Bound in Death is tentatively scheduled for an April release.

Hannah Jayne‘s Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles will continue with the August 6th release of Under a Spell.

I actually haven’t seen too much info around about this next one yet. Melissa Marr will be releasing what I believe is an adult title, The Arrivals, on July 2nd.

And finally, this last one is more of a redo than a debut. Jennifer L. Armentrout (writing as J. Lynn) will release an adult title, Unchained, on September 24th. This is actually the second cover for this title, which was pushed back several months from its original release date.

 

Entangled Publishing Deal

Ok, let me start this by a rant. Entangled is plucking on my last good nerve. It started out a fresh, exciting new publishing option that provided some really good reads. And then…the delays. The push-backs. More push-backs. Yet another round of push-backs. For example, today’s pick of the week post for me was going to be Jennifer L. Armentrout‘s Shadows novella. As of a few days ago, release date was today. Today…not so much. The Book Depository now lists it as a July 25th release – and I do believe this is at least the third date, probably the fourth. It makes things hard on fans…and hard on authors. I feel bad for them that their publication dates keep getting moved around (and not by a matter of a few days, either. We are talking months).

But, it looks like there has been some major dealing going on behind the scenes…

          Powerhouse publisher Macmillan has reached agreement with juggernaut, Entangled Publishing, to handle global distribution for Entangled’s highly successful digital imprints, beginning February 1, 2013.

In the new arrangement, Macmillan will distribute English language e-books of Entangled’s new publications in all domestic and international markets and for all platforms where Macmillan currently does business.

With unprecedented growth, in a year Entangled has exploded to twelve imprints with more than 350 authors and thirty titles released per month. In 2012, Entangled published the sixth overall best-selling book of the year and eight national best sellers. The agreement includes additional resources and personnel from Macmillan to strengthen Entangled’s infrastructure. “This partnership brings a global leader in print and digital distribution, ensuring Entangled can continue to support our rapid growth and success,” says CEO and publisher of Entangled, Liz Pelletier.

In a separate agreement, St. Martin’s Press will launch a new joint venture imprint known as St. Martin’s/Entangled which will bring into print and publish a select number of Entangled’s digital first titles.

“We couldn’t be more excited about our alliance with these giants in the industry,” says Liz Pelletier. “To be able to bring our titles to a global audience, meeting both the needs and expectations of our authors and readers everywhere, has exceeded my expectations as a publisher. We look forward to an exciting collaboration with Macmillan and St. Martin’s Press.”

John Sargent, Macmillan’s CEO, said, “We are hugely impressed with Liz Pelletier’s vision and what she has accomplished in such a short time. We found her out-of-the-box approach to publishing incredibly exciting and saw potential to work together with her on several levels. We think Liz and Entangled have found a new way forward and we think we can help build on that remarkable success.”

With my vast non-understanding of the publishing world, I can only see this going one of two ways. Either the involvment of one of the huge, established publishing giants will whip Entangled into shape…or the new demands will overwhelm it further and see even more chaos. I would really like to see this house do well, since they do put out quality product…that is, when you can actually get your hands on it.

Who else has been let down by the iffy release schedules of Entangled? It is getting to the point that I am leery of starting a new series of theirs, because God only knows when you will get the next book.

Reading Roundup…

I am trying to make it a point to write a couple of lines about the books that I read, partly to either vent or gush without committing to a full review, but mostly so I can jog my memory later on about what I thought of previous books in a series.  Right now, I am trying to target Mount TBR shelf by shelf, so that means I have been on a young adult kick – with varying degrees of success.  Slight spoilers might be included…

Beautiful Darkness – This is the second book from Kami Garcia‘s Caster Chronicles series, and I am determined to get the books finished before the movie is released on Valentine’s Day.  I enjoyed the first book, but really struggled with this one.  Most of my problems came with my intense annoyance with Lena.  Although she had been through a rough time, her angst was over the top and started to grate on my nerves.  She completely did not deserve Ethan’s devotion, and I was so hoping he would give her the kick to the curb her self-pity deserved.  My second problem – you know this super-secret world that exists along-side our own?  Well, it was pretty much a secret to absolutely no one.  I swear that there weren’t too many characters left in the story that didn’t end up wandering around those “secret” tunnels.  I enjoyed the storyline development, and most of the supporting characters, but for the most part it felt like a let-down from the first book.  I have higher hopes for Beautiful Chaos.

Indigo Awakening – As the first book of a new series from author Jordan Dane, Indigo Awakening seemed right up my alley.  I love a good super-powered human story, and this one seem to fit the bill.  And it should have.  But for some reason I just couldn’t get involved in this one at all.  It seemed to make all the right moves, but there wasn’t any depth to the characters, I couldn’t get into the storyline, and I never felt any connection to the characters.  Was it bad?  Not really.  I did manage to skim though to the end, but I have absolutely no interest in finding out what happens in the rest of the series.  In fact, I forgot the storyline as I was reading, and that is not a good thing.

Elixir – One of my favorite things about Jennifer L. Armentrout‘s work is that even her e-novellas are released in print format, and Elixir was no exception.  Taking place immediately after Pure, it is told from Aiden’s point of view.  This one is a short read, but it is pivotal for the series.  But it also made me enjoy the entire Covenant series in a whole new way, surprisingly.  See, I was a total Seth girl, and I while I liked Aiden I didn’t quite feel the same connection for him that I did for the other characters.  He seemed a bit too removed, and while he seemed like a truly good guy he just didn’t grab me the way Seth did.  Well, this little story turned that around.  I liked Aiden, liked the depths this story brought to his character, and now I can see what the attraction is.

Opal – Another great one from Jennifer L. Armentrout, this time from her Lux series.  This one is one of my favorite young adult series, and this story continued that.  There are a lot of developments in terms of overall storyline, character development, and a cliff-hanger ending that I didn’t expect.  Now, I just need to get my hands on Dawson’s story, Shadows, to fill in some of the gaps.  Can’t wait for the next one.

Pick of the Week…

My pick of the week probably won’t be a big shock to anyone who reads the blog on a regular basis.  I have made little secret of my Jennifer L. Armentrout love, enjoying both her Sentinels and Lux series (but I have to confess, I think the Lux series just edges out the Sentinels as my favorite), so I am looking way forward to getting my hands on this week’s new release, Opal.

Synopsis…

No one is like Daemon Black. When he set out to prove his feelings for Katy, he wasn’t fooling around. Doubting him isn’t something she’ll do again and now that they’ve made it through the rough patches, well, there’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on. But even he can’t protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they loved. With help coming from the most unlikely source and Adam’s death still lingering with those who loved him, friends will become the deadliest of enemies and the villains will no longer be clear. When each step they take in discovering the truth puts them in the path of the secret organization responsible torturing and testing hybrids, the more Katy realizes there is no end to what she’s capable of. They won’t turn back, even if the outcome will shatter their worlds forever.

Lux reading list HERE.

Which one are you most looking forward to from this week’s crop of new releases?

Pick of the Week…

There are a couple of really great books (er, or I think they are probably really great books.  Here’s hoping.) coming out today, but I had no problem choosing my pick of the week.  The busy, busy Jennifer L. Armentrout‘s Deity, the third of her five Covenant books, was a clear winner for me.  They are great young adult that doesn’t read like YA at all.  And I think it is the first series in history that has a love triangle that works for me, since there is no way at this point in the series I could even begin to pick between Seth and Aiden.

Synopsis…

History is on repeat, and things didn’t go so well the last time.

Alexandria isn’t sure she’s going to make it to her eighteenth birthday–to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she’s a goner… and so is Aiden.

If that’s not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time “training”–which really is just Seth’s code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time–she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she’s caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed… and destroyed.

Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate…

The Covenant series page is HERE.

And, if you are interested, this is the official trailer for Deity.  There isn’t really much to it, mostly a bunch of singing, but I love trailers so I thought what the hell.

 

What is your pick of the week?  Are you diving into the last book of Jessica Andersen‘s Final Prophecy series, or the new Allie Beckstrom?  I know I can’t wait to get my hands on Lord’s Fall from Thea Harrison, either, so it is looking like a good week for reading (and not doing much else).