March is a good month for new releases. I’m sort of overwhelmed, but in a good way.
Patricia Briggs‘ “River Marked” (urban fantasy): The sixth Mercy Thompson book and the series is still going strong. The (rather skimpy, admittedly) blurb for this book implies we’re learning more about Mercy’s background, which has been left as a bit of a mystery to date. I’m excited about this one.
Although the UK cover? The only word I have is “unfortunate”. I could have lived with the previous UK covers, but this change in cover art style halfway through the series is bugging me. Okay, I really want the Dan Dos Santos US covers, though I suppose the one consolation is that these are still paperback releases in the UK (for the moment anyway!).
Goodreads blurb:
Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She’s never known any others of her kind. Until now.
An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River—one that her father’s people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help…
Out March 1 (excerpt)
Seanan McGuire‘s “Late Eclipses” (urban fantasy): See, this is what I mean by a good month. Not only a new Briggs, but also a new McGuire. Seanan McGuire’s Toby Daye series is one of the UF series I completely fell in love with last year, and it sounds as though the stakes are getting higher by the book. I can’t wait.
Goodreads blurb:
Two years ago, October “Toby” Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It’s a delicate balance—one that’s shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander’s back, what’s her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby’s mother, Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most—because if she can’t find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she thought she’d never have to face again…
Out March 1 (author’s book page)
Jo Beverley‘s “An Unlikely Countess” (historical romance): I have a thing for Jo Beverley’s historical romances, which is probably evident from this blog. I’m liking this, and not just because of the Georgian historical setting – I love the first sentence of the blurb! And heroines named Prudence remind me of Georgette Heyer‘s “The Masqueraders”, which is one of my favourite Heyers.
Blurb:
A hero called Cate, who’s not at all effeminate, and a heroine called Prudence, who isn’t particularly prudent. They meet one dark night in Yorkshire, both impoverished and at their limit, so how do they end up as Earl and Countess of Malzard. And can they survive the trouble that brings?
Out March 1 (excerpt)
Suzanne Brockmann‘s “Breaking the Rules” (romantic suspense): It’s been a pretty long time in coming, this one. The 16th, and final (for a while at least), book in her Troubleshooters series, this means all loose ends get wrapped up for once! I’m not sure if Suzanne Brockmann kickstarted the whole Navy SEALs trend in contemporary romance, or just caught the wave at the right time, but looking back at these books as a whole, this has been one of the best military romantic suspense series out there, IMO.
Goodreads blurb:
Izzy Zanella didn’t need another reason to butt heads with his Navy SEAL teammate and nemesis, Danny Gillman. Then he met Danny’s beautiful younger sister, Eden. When she needed it most, he offered her a place to stay, a shoulder to cry on—and more. And when she got pregnant with another man’s child, he offered her marriage. But Eden’s devastating miscarriage shattered their life together—and made the intense bad blood between Izzy and Danny even worse.
Now Eden’s back, on a mission to rescue her teen brother, Ben, from their abusive stepfather. Winning legal custody is her only chance, if she and Izzy can prove their broken marriage is still in one piece. But they’re not alone: when Danny and his girlfriend Jenn offer to help, he and Izzy agree to bury the past and fight for Ben’s future.
As they plan their strategy, Izzy and Eden grapple with the raw passion that still crackles between them—while Danny and Jenn confront new depths in their own rocky relationship. But events take a terrifying turn after Ben befriends a girl fleeing a child prostitution ring. When the young runaway seeks refuge with Eden and Izzy, her pursuers kidnap Ben—and a deadly standoff begins. Now, they must all pull together like never before, and strike back swift and hard, to protect their unconventional little family and everything they hold most precious.
Out March 22 (excerpt)
And finally, two UF anthologies that have caught my attention, primarily because of various contributors - “After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar” (edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray), which has a Seanan McGuire story:
Science fiction and fantasy readers have long shown an affinity for a good “bar story”. Now some of today’s most inventive scriveners have decided to tell their own tall tales-from an alewife’s attempt to transfer the gods’ curse to Gilgamesh, to Odin’s decision to introduce Vikings to the Ur-Bar, from the Holy Roman Emperor’s barroom bargain, to a demon hunter who may just have met his match in the ultimate magic bar, to a bouncer who discovers you should never let anyone in after hours in a world terrorized by zombies.
and “Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives” (edited by Justin Gustainis), with contributors including Tanya Huff, Rachel Caine, Carrie Vaughn, and Lilith Saintcrow:
Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives, is your one-stop-shop for Urban Fantasy’s finest anthology of the supernatural. 14 sleuths are gathered together for the first time in all-original tales of unusual cases which require services that go far beyond mere deduction!
Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives brings together popular characters from many Urban Fantasy paranormal investigative series, for your enjoyment.
So, that’s my March new releases list, any others you’re looking to get?
“Caressed by Ice” by Nalini Singh (Paranormal romance) – Despite the rather awful cover, I’ve been looking forward to this one. It’s the third in her Psy-Changeling series, and the first where the hero is a Psy, not a Changeling. Bought this one today – excerpts 
“Empire of Ivory” by Naomi Novik (Historical fantasy) – I so want this one. It’s the fourth book in her Temeraire series. Excerpt 
“Fairyville” by Emma Holly (Paranormal romance) – My interest in this one is more for the author, than for the story. I’m just not into stories about fairies or the fey, but I liked the last Holly book I read, “Prince of Ice”. Hmmm… actually, I think I still have “The Demon’s Daughter” in my TBR pile – maybe I should finish that first.
“The Devil’s Right Hand” by Lilith Saintcrow (Urban fantasy) – I’ve read the first two books in this series, but two things are holding me back: first, I can’t warm to the heroine, and second, the previous two books did the cliff-hanger ending thing. Which I really really don’t like. So a maybe for me.
“Many Bloody Returns” (urban fantasy anthology) - In a nutshell: vampires and birthdays. I want this because contributors include Charlaine Harris (Sookie), 
