Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
Things are getting nice and busy here at VBC headquarters. I’ve loved reading applications for new reviewers (you can still apply) this week, and I have a couple very good reads atop my to-read pile.
More Lady Corsair and Archimedes Fox!
Next month we’ll get Meljean Brooks’ novella featuring the hero and heroine of Heart of Steel, a book I adored on an epic level. Tethered is an epilogue... 
Riveted (Iron Seas #3)
Meljean Brook
Published: Sept. 4, 2012 (Berkley Trade)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon
Reviewed by: Chelsea
Rating (out of 5): 3 stars
The latest installment of Meljean Brook’s steampunk romance Iron Seas series is heavier on the cultural elements and airship travel than the romance.
The first book The Iron Duke was dark, aggressive and sexy. In the second book Heart of... 
Before we get into the news, just a quick housekeeping bit. I changed my Twitter name. *gasp* So, if you’ve been following @VampBookClub, you’ll now see @ChelseaVBC popping up in your stream. Don’t worry. It’s still me. As we add more reviewers, etc., I thought it might be helpful to differentiate. Also, you can follow Candace — our new PNR reviewer — at... 
Last week we talked about those heroines we’d never swap places with in a million years. Seriously, no one wants to take Katniss’ place. But a few of you emailed and tweeting asking who I would swap shoes with, figuratively speaking. This one is harder, actually, because I like such dark novels. So, I’ll give you one obvious choice and one where you’ll all think I’m wearing my... 
Heart of Steel (Iron Seas #2)
Meljean Brook
Published: Nov. 1, 2011 (Berkley Trade)
Purchase at: Book Depository, B&N or Amazon
Rating (out of 5): 4.5 stars
Meljean Brook’s Heart of Steel is a straight-up adventure. Daring escapes, explosions, zombies, treasure hunting and one man’s quest to fall in love with the woman with a heart of steel.
While Heart of Steel is set in the same world as... 
Wild & Steamy
Meljean Brook, Jill Myles & Carolyn Crane
Published: Aug. 2, 2011
Purchase at: Amazon
Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars
“Blushing Bounder” by Meljean Brook (3 stars)
Meljean Brook’s story is set in her Iron Seas world, before the events of The Iron Duke. We get to learn how Constable Newton ended up in London and learn about his wife. He and the missus are Bounders... 
Our top books of 2010 was posted early enough to be able to use as a shopping list. That means we’re at the end of the year without a nice wrap-up list. Really, it’s a bit embarrassing. So, what do we have in store? A list we know several of you will feel the need to argue with in the comments. (We actually really love that, by the way.)
TOP 10 SWOON-WORTHY HEROES
In fairness, we’re using... 
This year we fell in love with several new authors, found new series and even decided we could really get into steampunk. We’ve narrowed the list down to these gems. All the books on this list are ones we’ve told friends, family and random people at the bookstore about. These are the books we tell you are musts for your to-read piles. As a matter of fact, print it out and make it a... 
We fell in love with the world Meljean Brook created in The Iron Duke. Read our review and you’ll see we loved the world, the characters and the romance. We loved the merger of steampunk (think: machines, etc.) and more traditional romance.
Meljean was kind enough to answer our questions about the strong women in her book (you’ll love Lady Corsair), the pirate, the zombies and what makes a... 
Update: Thanks for the overwhelming response to the contests. We’ve selected our winners — Jessica and Beleth — and both have claimed their prizes. Keep an eye out. We have many more contests coming up.
Wow! We just hit 500 followers via Google Friend Connect (not that the 1,200+ of you on Twitter aren’t favorites, too) and had to celebrate.
Thank you so much for reading the blog.... 
