Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
Strange Angels (Strange Angels #1) Lili St. Crow Published: 2009 (Penguin Teen) Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon Rating (out of 5): 3 stars Dru Anderson’s life isn’t filled with the typical teen minutiae. She’s spent her teen years moving from city to city with her dad hunting supernatural creepy-crawlies. She has what her grandma always called “the touch,” a sense for the supernatural. Dru knows... 
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 the word hero in... 
The Sworn (Fallen Kings Cycle #1) Gail Z. Martin Published: Jan. 25, 2011 (Orbit) Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars Gail Z. Martin knows how to craft big-scale fantasy. And she includes elements we adore: noble warriors, magic, vampires and werewolves. Martin is well-known for her Chronicles of the Necromancer series, and The Sworn is set as a gateway into that series for...
This last week I hit up a Richelle Mead book signing. While the focus was the just-released Last Sacrifice, she indulged questions bout her Dark Swan and Georgina Kincaid series. (FYI: We’re holding the Last Sacrifice review to give more readers a chance to read it, because we know you’ll talk in the comments on this one.) Mead reminded book signing attendees the third books in her series tend to be the... 
Winter Wishes Vivian Arend, Vivi Andrews and Moira Rogers Published: Nov. 6, 2010 (Carina Press) Purchase at: Carina Press or Amazon for Kindle Rating (out of 5): 4 stars Carina Press pulled together holiday-themed novellas from three great paranormal romance authors – Vivian Arend, Vivi Andrews and Moira Rogers. With Christmas parties, angels and demons and lots of snow, Winter Wishes will surely heat up...
Rachel Vincent is known for giving us “throw the book” moments. It’s why we love her. She, like many of our favorite authors, knows how to make us fall in love with her characters to the point of being frustrated by their bad decisions. While her adult paranormal Shifters series ended earlier this year, we still have a bit more time to revel in the drama of her Soul Screamers series. The YA series... 
Blood & Sex Volume 2: Jonas Angela Cameron Published: 2009 (Ravenous Romance) Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon Rating (out of 5): 4 stars With most of the world-building for the Blood & Sex series occurring in the first title (our review of Michael), Angela Cameron was able to take off quickly with a stronger plot in the second volume, Jonas. Jonas is the second-in-command in the vampire mafia, and... 
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 checklist. We were... 
Before we get into all the giveaway goodness, we wanted to say sorry for being a bit MIA earlier this week. We were out of town for family stuff, then caught some sort of bug at the airport. Still feeling crummy, but not enough to keep us from reading and digging up excellent giveaways from our blogger friends. Suzanne Johnson is giving away two just-released books filled with vampire goodness: P.C.... 
We just finished Nightshade, so maybe we’re just all about weres right now. We spotted the details on Kathy Reichs’ new series opener Virals and added it to our to-read list immediately. Reichs is the author of the Bones series. Yes, that Bones — the basis for the TV show that stars Emily Deschanel and the post-Buffy David Boreanaz. We get the distinct impression we’ll get a bit of a YA take of the Bones... 
