Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
Surprises are coming here at VBC. I have some new things in the works as we approach Alpha Showdown 2013 and come up on our three-year anniversary (when did that happen?). I hope you guys are enjoying the new voices here at VBC. We’re going to try to work in more backlist titles (as in books that have been out for a while). As always, if you have suggestions, let me know.
You Could Be Reading New... 
The Beginning of the End for Allie Beckstrom
Devon Monk has started posting excerpts from the final Allie Beckstrom novel Magic for a Price. First, you can find an excerpt from the beginning of the book. Then, Devon will be posting weekly snippets from the novel up until the Nov. 6, 2012, release date (pre-order). The first one is here.
Guardian Demon Cover Alert!
Wow! The cover for Meljean Brook’s... 
See, I thought the cover of Vicki Pettersson‘s The Taken was gorgeous. It made me want to buy a red dress. Looks like the cover art for its sequel The Lost is also shopping inspiration.
Rachel Vincent’s Unbound series is brilliant. If you haven’t read Blood Bound or Shadow Bound yet, do it. Emotional rollercoaster rides. I’m eager for book three, but just got word the release date... 
If you’re joining us in this month’s group read of Jeaniene Frost’s Once Burned, we’re posting weekly discussion topics over on our Goodreads group. It’s free to join and we’re already talking Vlad as a hero and all things Leila. Hope you’ll join in.
Cover Art Explosion: Karen Mahoney, Yasmine Galenorn, Andrea Cremer, Ilona Andrews
So very pleased to see another... 
Hear Jericho Barrons have sex. What?!
Yeah, you actually read that right. Kind of. Last year, Karen Marie Moning wrote a sex scene from Jericho Z. Barrons’ point of view as a prize for him winning our 2011 Alpha Showdown. And it was epic. And sexy.
Well, Karen had the voices of MacKayla and Barrons from the audio books record the scene. It’s not free, but it sure is sexy. You can get the full... 
It’s been a busy week at VBC HQ, so we’ll jump right into the news after reminding you to enter our giveaways for a signed copy of Lothaire and a copy of Cinder.
First taste of Iced
Karen Marie Moning has officially started teasing her Fever series spinoff Iced. The short teaser posted this week is good. I have been fretting over this novel, because the protagonist is Dani O’Malley... 
In an effort to help you keep that to-read list updated, I’ve compiled the hot urban fantasy and paranormal romance releases for January 2012. All dates are U.S. and tentative.
I’ve included genre classification with each book: UF is urban fantasy, PNR is paranormal romance, F is fantasy and YA is young adult.
JANUARY 1
A Demon Does It Better by Linda Wisdom (Demons #2) PNR
Hold Me If You Can by... 
Wolfsbane (Nightshade #2)
Andrea Cremer
Published: July 26, 2011 (Philomel)
Purchase at: Book Depository, B&N or Amazon
Rating (out of 5) 4.5 stars
Note: There is no way to write this review without spoilers from the first book. If you haven’t read Nightshade, please read the VBC review of that book instead. Trust me. But I promise not to spoil Wolfsbane at all.
Wolfsbane picks up quickly after... 
There were so many great new releases this week, my head is still spinning. I pre-ordered Andrea Cremer’s Wolfsbane, so that’s my current read, but all the excerpts in today’s Book Bits already have me ready to order more. Dive in, and prepare to add to that TBR list.
Taste of Succubus Revealed
The Georgina Kincaid series almost over, and I’m not sure if I’m excited or nervous... 
