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Book Bits: Downside Ghosts, Vlad, Breaking Dawn, True Blood and Skarsgard awesomeness, more

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Today we’re trying something new. Instead of simply the triumphant return of contest roundup (which is toward the end), we’re giving you some of the best book-related news and happenings from the last week. Chances are we’ve already told you about these via Twitter or Facebook. But those move so quickly. In the event you missed any news, it’s all piled in on convenient place. Also, we’re embedding the Breaking Dawn: Part 1 trailer because we like weddings and broken headboards.

Release date for Downside 4: We can finally start the countdown to the fourth book in Stacia Kane’s masterful Downside Ghosts urban fantasy series. Book four, titled Sacrificial Magic, will be released in March 2012 via Harper Voyager.

Vlad and Leila get a series title: The first of Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress spinoff books focused on Vlad and Leila may not have a title yet, but the series has a name: Night Prince. The first book is tentatively planned for a Spring 2012 release. From Jeaniene:

Okay, why “Night Prince”? For one, the word “Night” will – hopefully – let readers know at a glance that these stories are set in the same world as my Night Huntress series and Night Huntress World novels. Second, contrary to the most popular fictional rendering of Vlad the Impaler, he was not a Count. He was essentially a Prince of Wallachia during his reign (Wallachia now being part of modern-day Romania). So there you have the Prince part of the series title.

Breaking Dawn trailer: The first peek at the movie version of Breaking Dawn: Part 1 premiered Sunday night. It’s a great tease. We get glimpses of the wedding, the honeymoon and a baby bump. Before you leap ahead, I’d also like to direct you to this really wonderful post from Nicole Peeler saying how badly she wants the movie to accurately represent a certain birth scene. (We agree.) And with that, here’s the trailer:

Double dose of True Blood teaser awesomeness: First, I’m going to say I love the HBO marketing department. Last year we had great vignettes and character posters. This year, I can customize a few minutes of True Blood goodness to feature pictures of my friends and — oh yeah — make Eric Northman call, then message me. The application to customize, or as Trubies will see it Immortalize, yourself and your friends into the exclusive True Blood clip is on the show’s Facebook page, here is the direct link. It does require you be a member of Facebook, and you’ll need to grant the app access to your friends list and profile photo. To see Eric calling me it’s so worth it.

Second teaser bit is that you can now view the first six minutes of season four’s first episode on HBO GO. If you’re not familiar, HBO GO is the cable provider’s new streaming service and it’s provided free to all HBO subscribers. Another three minutes of the show will be added every Sunday preceding the June 26th premiere. Unfortunately, this one is only available for U.S. subscribers, though.

Barrons POV scene update: Karen Marie Moning said it would take her roughly a week to complete the Barrons point-of-view sex scene. (She promised this to fans if Barrons took top honors in the Alpha Showdown.) This means, we should have the special scene later this week. We will keep everyone apprised on this front. So keep an eye out.

My Soul to Take by Rachel VincentFree digital novellas: Three great digital-only novellas were released this month. All three are free for a limited time. So, we suggest you add Hidden by Blood by Laurie London (our review), Shadow Touch by Erin Kellison and Summer’s Crossing by Julie Kagawa to your e-readers now.

Soul Screamers omnibus: In December 2011, Harlequin will be releasing a Soul Screamers omnibus. Fans of Rachel Vincent’s YA series (read our Q&A with her) will be particularly excited as they publisher will be including the prequel novella My Soul to Lose, which has previously only been available electronically. The omnibus will include: My Soul to Lose, My Soul to Take and My Soul to Save.

Double dog dares: Each month Jessica at The Spinecracker lets a blogger dare her to read something. This month we decided she needed a bit more epic fantasy and brilliant YA in her life, so we challenged her to read Julie Kagawa’s The Iron King (our review). In return, we’re going to have to tackle J.D. Robb’s Naked in Death before the end of June. (Yes, we’re a little nervous.)

Pocket After Dark free reads: The June free reads on Pocket After Dark are Highborn by Yvonne Navarro and Dark Protector by Alexis Morgan.

CONTEST ROUNDUP

2 Responses to “Book Bits: Downside Ghosts, Vlad, Breaking Dawn, True Blood and Skarsgard awesomeness, more”

  1. Debbie Bussie says:

    Wow. That’s alot of giveaways! Sounds great. I’m entering all of them. Love all the great info you give.

  2. Viki S. says:

    Thanks for putting all this news in one spot. Makes things much easier.

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