Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) Claudia Gray Published: Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon (as of this posting, the ebook was on sale for $1.99) Review Source: Purchased Reviewed by: Chelsea Rating (out of 5): 4 stars Time travel stories are tricky. A Thousand Pieces of You isn’t a time travel story, though. When this first book was first released, though, several people told me they loved it as a... 
Most of the time we review new books here at VBC. In some cases that’s just because we’re excited about the new stuff, other times it’s that we’ve read the backlist stories before I started this blog. I want an opportunity to recommend my favorites to you (and let the associate reviewers Jo and Candace have their hand at telling you what’s OMG-You-Must-Read good, too). So, I’m debuting a new feature here... 
In an effort to help you keep that to-read list updated, I’ve compiled the hot urban fantasy and paranormal romance releases for March 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. MARCH 1 A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing by Terry Spear (Heart of the Wolf #9) PNR Carpathia by Matt... 
When we first started Claudia Gray’s Evernight we didn’t know what we were getting into. With the series getting stronger and more complex as it progressed, we found ourselves needing more of Bianca (not a vampire, but very close to them) and Lucas (part of a long line of vampire hunters). The books are engaging and got under our skin. The final novel in the Evernight series hit shelves yesterday, and we... 
Afterlife (Evernight #4) Claudia Gray Published: Mar. 8, 2011 (Harper Teen) Purchase at: pre-order from Amazon or pre-order from Book Depository Rating (out of 5): 5 stars (NOTE: While there are no spoilers in this review for Afterlife, we specifically reference plot points in the previous novel, Hourglass.) Before we discuss Afterlife, the final Evernight novel, it’s important to remember where Hourglass... 
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... 
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... 
We’ll be honest, when we first picked up Evernight at the bookstore we were expecting it to be so-so. Another vampire book set at a school. We’d just read Vampire Academy books, so the bar was set high. But Claudia Gray’s series following Bianca (not a vampire, but very close with them) and Lucas (part of a long line of vampire hunters) was different, engaging and got under our skin. You often hear... 
