Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
Earlier this week, I received the email below from a VBC reader. She asked me to about beloved authors publishing graphic novels in addition to traditional novels. I’m not the best person to ask, to be honest. I have great respect for the talent that goes into conveying the emotion and narrative of a complex story visually, but I’m just not into graphic novels. I will say, before turning it over to VBC...
Last week I reviewed Kevin Hearne’s debut urban fantasy Hounded. The novel, featuring 2,100-year-old druid Atticus, is set in Tempe, Arizona. Mostly in downtown Tempe, which is a dense mashing of bars, indie shops and the best hamburgers ever. I say all this because I lived there for several years there. I attended Arizona State University when the journalism school still resided at its Tempe campus. So,...
We know y’all love the discussion posts. And, honestly, so do we. So, today we’re soliciting your advice. We often get emails saying “I just found this genre through Book A. Tell me where to go now!” And with us reading so many good novels it’s easy to just suggest the latest and greatest. (My go-to recommendation this week is A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang. Really excellent dark fantasy.) But,... 
Pale Demon (The Hollows/Rachel Morgan #9) Kim Harrison Published: Feb. 22, 2011 (Eos) Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon Rating (out of 5): 5 stars Note: This review is spoiler-free (yay), but does may give away events from earlier novels. If you haven’t started The Hollows series, you can check out our review of Dead Witch Walking, the first novel. Things were already tense for Rachel Morgan at the... 
Some of our favorite authors are previewing their upcoming books online this week. So, this week, we’re featuring tidbits on anticipated releases — including links to excerpts. Dive in. Richelle Mead posted a nice excerpt from the third chapter of Iron Crowned on her site this week. If you’re aching for more Eugenie and can’t wait until Feb. 22 for the release, at least you can get a tiny fix today. In... 
Kim Harrison has a knack for giving us memorable, quirky characters. Remember the first time you learned about pixy swearing in Dead Witch Walking? The woman takes character development to another level in the ninth Rachel Morgan/The Hollows book, Pale Demon, where we’ll get to see tension build as they’re all crammed in Rachel’s mom’s Buick. Yes, it’s the Great American Roadtrip….with a witch, a vampire,... 
Ooo, do we have delicious tidbits for you… READ A CHAPTER OF DEAD RECKONING Charlaine Harris posted the first chapter of the next Southern Vampire Mystery (a.k.a. the Sookie Stackhouse books) up on her website today. It’s 19 pages of Sookie, Eric, Sam and even some of the fae family members. The 11th book in the series, titled Dead Reckoning, will be — like all Sookie books before — released in May. So,... 
If you haven’t already subscribed to the blog, now is going to be a good time. Starting on Dec. 9, we will spending three weeks previewing the books you’re dying to read in early 2011. Daily posts will include early reviews, author interviews, previews and — gasp! — lots of giveaways. Authors we’ll be featuring include (in alphabetical order): P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast (Awakened) Jeaniene Frost (This Side... 
