Poll: Vote for the August group read

Update: You have spoken. With 35 percent of the votes, our August group read will be J.A. Saare’s Crimson Moon. Group read details and book review posts coming soon.

August is edging toward us, so we need to select a new book for our group read. For July we talked about Julie Kagawa’s epic fantasy opener The Iron King (review), with discussion points related to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Labyrinth.

For August, we’ve narrowed it down to six stellar books, with some suggestions via Twitter. All except the last one are the first in a series. (We couldn’t help but include City of Ghosts, the third Downside Ghosts book, in the list becase we know so many of you have come down with Terrible Fever. That said, we can always do that on the review blog post, which will be forthcoming.)

Group read will be decided on Sunday, Aug. 1. Descriptions of each title are listed after the jump.

So, readers, pick your poison:

Not familiar with these books? Read synopses below and then add to your to-read lists:

Storm Born by Richelle Mead

Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants…

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy–one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie’s first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne’er-do-well, and the ones who don’t want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her…

Crimson Moon by J.A. Saare

Trueblood vampires. Those set apart from common’s by right of blood. Graced with extraordinary abilities such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition – they are the most powerful and feared among their kind. The secret lies within, a legacy evolving from the truest form of magic, and their living bloodlines are the key.

An average morning is what Emma Johnson envisions when she visits Joe’s Café for a steaming cup of coffee. But the world isn’t the place she imagined it to be, and neither is she…

After Emma is rescued from a horde of bloodthirsty creatures, she discovers she is the daughter of a powerful Vampire from the House Deviard, her rescuer, Caleb, having been sent to see her safely home. For Caleb is also unique, a werewolf procured to protect the royal Vampiric bloodlines from harm – but nothing more.

Soon, the undeniable connection Emma and Caleb share evolves beyond attraction into something unexpected. When she is forced to make a choice, what path will she take – vampire or wolf?

Through the Veil by Shiloh Walker

A thrilling new sensual paranormal from the author of Hunter’s Salvation.

Lee Ross always knew she was not entirely human. But when the man who has plagued her dreams her entire life appears in the flesh, can she give up everything she knows to follow him to another realm?

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

Ever since her parents were killed in a car accident when she was five, Elena Michaels has longed for a normal family life. Smart, beautiful, and engaged to be married, Elena hopes to fulfill that dream when disaster strikes. Not only has her fiancé lied about his secret life as a werewolf, but he’s made her one, too. She has no choice but to join him at Stonehaven, the upstate New York home of an elite pack of werewolves.

In an attempt to break away, she moves to Toronto to lead a normal life. Working as a journalist, Elena now lives with her new architect boyfriend, works out in the basement gym of their high-rise apartment, lunches with girlfriends from the office, and—once a week, at four in the morning—runs naked and furred through a downtown Toronto ravine, ripping out the throats of her animal prey. But when a band of outlaw werewolves threatens the Stonehaven pack, Elena’s feral instincts drive her back there to join the defense. What follows is a war for territory, for pride, and ultimately for Elena herself.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human … until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human–or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.