Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
One for the Wicked (Dark Mission #5)
Karina Cooper
Published: April 30, 2013 (Avon)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon
Reviewed by: Chelsea
Rating (out of 5): 4 stars
Note: This review does not contain spoilers. (Yay!) However, it does make reference to events from earlier books. While I’ve tried to minimize spoilers for those titles, I do suggest you begin with the first Dark Mission novel. Read... 
In an effort to help you keep that to-read list updated, I’ve compiled the hot urban fantasy and paranormal romance releases for April 2013. All dates are U.S. and tentative. Also: Click the title of any book to visit the Amazon page for pre-order or purchase goodness.
I’ve included genre classification with each book: UF is urban fantasy, PNR is paranormal romance, F is fantasy and YA is young... 
Karina Cooper’s Dark Mission series is one of my favorites. You’ll find it on the VBC paranormal romance recommendations page for a reason. All her couples spark with sexual tension. It doesn’t matter if they’re running from the bad guys, trying to decide which side they’re on, saving lives or, you know, making soup. The chemistry is there.
When I finished Sacrifice the... 
I adore Karina Cooper’s Dark Mission books. They’re dark paranormal romance. There’s magic and witches and government shenanigans. Oh, and lots of tension-fueled romance. The final book, One for the Wicked, comes out in April, but there will be a sexy, all-money-goes-to-charity novella called Wicked Lies releasing on March 5. It features Jonas (you’ll see him below) and gets him an... 
Did you really think we’d let February come and not get romantic? Please.
For the third year in a row, VBC is hosting the Character Love Letters event. We talked nine stellar authors into having their characters write love letters to one another. Better yet, we’re giving away their books, too. Just who agreed to participate? Check out the author schedule:
Feb. 4 – Chloe Neill
Feb. 6 – Nina... 
Every year, I compile the standard year-end best books list—read 2012′s best reads list—and it’s a hard task narrowing things down. What’s harder though is picking the ten heroes from novels published this year to make my annual swoon-worthy list. Last year Eve Silver’s Lokan took top honors and the year before Stacia Kane’s Terrible was causing fevers all over the... 
We’re doing things slightly differently this year. This is the first year where we have associate reviewers at VBC. As such, it didn’t feel quite right to only include my top 10. So, you’ll find my 10 picks for the absolute best books of 2012 and below that a top 5 list from Jo and Candace, respectively. Plus, of course, we have your winner for the reader’s choice best book. (See the Best Of lists... 
Does anyone else feel like November sneaked up behind them? Seriously. I’m on you to November. On the upside, this means I’m staring to plan the Best Of list for this year and we get a nice explosion of awesome reads. Don’t forget, we’re reading Iced by Karen Marie Moning this month, and there are new discussion topics over at the Goodreads group.
I Always Want More Ethan...
Sacrifice the Wicked (Dark Mission #4)
Karina Cooper
Published: Sept. 25, 2012 (Avon)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon
Reviewed by: Chelsea
Rating (out of 5): 4.5 stars
Note: This review, as always, is spoiler free for the current title. However, it assumes you’ve read the earlier books in the Dark Mission series. If you haven’t, please check out my review of Blood of the Wicked... 
Note from Chelsea/VBC: I adore Karina Cooper’s novels. Her Dark Mission series offers excellent world building with a huge wallop of sexy. I strongly suggest starting with the first book in the series Blood of the Wicked (VBC review), and continuing from there. Today Karina agreed to stop by and talk about the volatile nature of the couple in Sacrifice the Wicked (Dark Mission #4): Parker and Simon.... 
