Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
If you’re a regular reader here, you know I value strong world building in novels. I’m more likely to give a book a rare 5-star rating if the mythology for the world feels real. This is especially true when the world is so vivid that the most fantastical elements becomes downright plausible. I need everything to make sense. I appreciate the logic authors put into the rules within their books. Even if they... 
Cover Reveals from Amanda Carlson, Delilah S. Dawson and Katie Reus We’re just a few weeks from the release of Amanda Carlson’s debut Full Blooded hitting shelves (you can win a copy), but we’re already getting a look at the cover art for Hot Blooded, the second book in her urban fantasy series. The second book releases April 2013. Delilah S. Dawson shared the cover for her next Blud book, Wicked As She... 
Rachel Vincent Talks Soul Screamers Spoilers I won’t embed the video here because of the spoilers, but if you’re up-to-date on the Soul Screamers series and missed Rachel Vincent’s live chat, never fear! The whole thing is posted online. It’s 70 minutes of Rachel talking all things Soul Screamers and answering questions (with lots of spoilers). Blurb for The Indigo Spell I am silly excited for the next... 
The Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) Richelle Mead Published: June 12, 2012 (Penguin) Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon Review by: Chelsea Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars Richelle Mead lays some beautiful groundwork in The Golden Lily that left me dying to read the next novel in her Bloodlines series. Big changes are coming for Sydney and we start to see her change and evolve in The Golden Lily. Sydney now... 
It’s (finally!) the return of Book Bits. Did you miss your weekly dose of book news? (I actually really like writing these posts, so I’m thrilled to be back on schedule.) Books Fighting Cancer — Starting This Weekend at VBC This first Bit is actually a VBC heads-up! This weekend we’ll be having a HUGE fundraising event benefiting the Barrow Neurological Center. These are the people who did their best to... 
In an effort to help you keep that to-read list updated, I’ve compiled the hot urban fantasy and paranormal romance releases for June 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. JUNE 1 Blackout by Mira Grant (Newsflesh #3) F UF Blue-Blooded Vamp by Jaye Wells (Sabina Kane #5)... 
We just don’t see werewolves and faerie kings duke it out often enough. Luckily, we’ve pitted the dangerous and possessive werewolf Charles Cornick against the powerful, creative and quick King Dorian in Round 2 of the Alpha Showdown 2012. Read the pitches, then make the call. Who should advance to the next round in the Alpha Showdown? The poll at the end of this post will be open for two days. Remember,... 
Are you guys ready for the Alpha Showdown? We’re getting everything ready on our side, and it’s looking to be lots of fun. The Showdown will dominate VBC starting on May 14. We’ll even do weekend posts – gasp! Speaking of favorites, I’ve been recommending books left and right lately. The ones that have gotten the biggest “thank you for suggesting this” responses in the last month have been Feed by Mira... 
Read the first chapter of The Golden Lily Looking forward to more from Richelle Mead? Yeah, of course we are! Shelf Life just posted a Q&A with the author and the first chapter of the second Bloodlines novel The Golden Lily. And, yep, we’re ready for more. If you didn’t give Bloodlines a go, read our review. See the full cover for Vicki Pettersson’s The Taken I’m pretty excited to read Vicki Petterson’s... 
