Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
I’m ridiculously excited about the upcoming release of The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead. It’s the fourth book in the Bloodlines series (a Vampire Academy spin-off), and the end of The Indigo Spell set the stage for things to be heavy on the romance and the angst. Both things I love. (You guys knew that, didn’t you?) So how am I dealing with the wait? By devouring the book trailers put out by Penguin... 
Can I tell you guys how excited I am for this year’s Alpha Showdown? It’s going to be bigger than ever, and the bracket has more new characters and women than ever before. I can’t wait to see how the voting goes down come May. Wrath and Beth Get Another Book When I finished Lover at Last, I immediately started speculating about which couple might be next. I was so wrong, people. J.R. Ward announced that... 
We have VBC news, so we might as well start there. I’m slowly working through reviewer applicants, but you may have noticed Monday’s review of Unravel Me came from a new reviewer. I’m super excited to have Amanda join the team. She has great taste in books and doesn’t mind when I bother her on Twitter. Both essentials. Expect to see more from her soon, plus other new VBC team members. Alpha Showdown is... 
Karen Marie Moning Teases Iced On her Facebook page, Karen Marie Moning offered up an excerpt from Iced. If you don’t already know, Iced is the first in Moning’s Fever World series. The spinoff books feature Dani O’Malley as the main character. I was skeptical but the excerpts I’ve read all make it look good. Here we go: “You’re not patient. You zero in on something and lock on like a missile. You’re the... 
Looky! It’s Rachel Morgan! Kim Harrison shared the cover art for the next Hollows novel. The artwork for Ever After features our favorite witch/demon/badass Rachel Morgan in what sure looks like the Ever After. It’s set to release Jan. 22, 2013. The book is available for pre-order already. Taste of Falling to Ash (that didn’t come out right…) Karen Mahoney posted a nice snippet from her forthcoming novel... 
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... 
If you’re joining us in this month’s group read of Jeaniene Frost’s Once Burned, we’re posting weekly discussion topics over on our Goodreads group. It’s free to join and we’re already talking Vlad as a hero and all things Leila. Hope you’ll join in. Cover Art Explosion: Karen Mahoney, Yasmine Galenorn, Andrea Cremer, Ilona Andrews So very pleased to see another pretty cover for Karen Mahoney. The Stone... 
I am a big fan of Julie Kagawa. Her Iron Fey series is on our YA recommendations page with good cause. And now the same woman who gave us a half-faerie girl on a mission to save the world (and, you know, a hot boy with a sword) has turned her attention to vampires with very noir and dystopian tones. And. I. Am. Excited. The Immortal Rules, the first book in her new Blood Eden series, hits shelves on April... 
Before we jump into newsy goodness, a quick reminder that there is still time to nominate your favorite characters for the 2012 Alpha Showdown. Also, I have no problem with you rallying for your favorite characters and encouraging others to vote for them. The top 16 alphas with the most nominations make the bracket. So, you know, hustle. The sexy is locked up for Lord’s Fall Thea Harrison shared the cover... 
We don’t do Waiting on Wednesday very often here at VBC. However, with so many epic releases yesterday, we figure you’re in a book coma today. (Did you read Lover Reborn or Sacrificial Magic first?) As such, we’re going to use today’s blog post to look at something awesome: Insurgent. There’s a reason Veronica Roth’s debut Divergent made our Best Books of 2011 list, and you can bet we’ll pre-order its... 
