Well better late than never, here’s the promised next batch of new books.

Dark Calling, by Darren Shan (216 pages) – this is Book 9 of The Demonata. The series will reach an earth-shattering conclusion next year with Hell’s Heroes, says the back pages. Can you wait? In Dark Calling Kernel Fleck is in a personal hell worse than hell – can he resist?

First sentence: A small, wiry, scorpion-shaped demon with a semi-human face drives its stinger into my right eye.

Dark Angels, by Katherine Langrish (346 pages) – Wolf has run away from the monastery where he was raised and finds himself on Devil’s Edge, a dark hillside infested with evil supernatural figures and haunted by ghosts. Set in and inspired by the world view of the Middle Ages.

First sentence: The first time the horn sounded on the hill, Wolf mistook it for a sheep bleating or a bird crying, and thought no more of it.

Falling, by Sharon Dogar (344 pages) – a love story with a twist: Neesha has overwhelming, repeated fragmentary nightmares about a girl falling in what appears to be the past. When she meets Sammy he appears to be her “rescuer”, and they are drawn to each other, but are they both repeating an old, nightmarish love affair that ended very badly?

First sentence: I saw a picture once.

Last of the Braves, by Archimede Fusillo (233 pages) – the back cover says “Under the influence of his idol. the hot-headed seventeenth-century Italian painter Caravaggio, Alex draws his mate Ces into an uncontrollable cycle of destruction and hurt.”

First sentence: Alex drew the serrated knife heavily along the bottom of his empty plate, his eyes fixed on a spot right at its centre.

Hell Week, by Rosemary Clement-Moore (327 pages) – Maggie Quinn fights supernatural baddies (demons and the like), but has she met more than she bargained for in the hellish cesspit that is sorority rush on a college campus?

First sentence: Bright teeth flashed; I fought the instinct to recoil.

Blue Flame, by K M Grant (241 pages) – Book One of the Perfect Fire trilogy. Set in the 12th century, the Blue Flame is a treasure everyone wants, and having it means power, but nobody seems to know its true meaning. Parsifal (an Occitanian knight) must enlist the help of Raimon (the son of a weaver) in order to prevent the destruction of the Occitanians.

First sentence: Last night I thought I saw them again: Raimon, throwing out his arms to the wind; Yolanda, delighting in the clear water running between her toes; and Parsifal, sitting near Yolanda, polishing his father’s sword.

Fen Runners, by John Gordon (136 pages) – another horror story for you. Tom Townsend lost the blade of his skate in an accident on the frozen fens years ago, and since then has been plagued by nightmares. His granddaughter, Jenny, is haunted too, and then her friend Kit pulls something out of the fen water.

First sentence: They stood with their toes curled over the edge of the bridge and looked briefly into the distance.

Pop Princess, by Isabelle Merlin (326 pages) – the cover of this book is all Chick Lit, but I’m not judging. Lucie Rees is an ordinary Australian teenager until she finds herself living in Paris working as a companion to Arizona Kingdom, a troubled pop star. Danger is involved.

First sentence: The most important moments of your life aren’t the ones you plan for.

Wings, by Aprilynne Pike (360 pages) – Laurel thinks she’s ordinary, but she’s about to find out that’s not the case: the subtitle of the book says “A new kind of faerie tale.”

First sentence: Laurel’s shoes flipped a cheerful rhythm that defied her dark mood.

The Musician’s Daughter, by Susanne Dunlap (317 pages) – a story of murder and perhaps love set in the Esterhazy court in eighteenth-century Vienna. The musician’s daughter is Theresa, who becomes Haydn’s copyist after her father dies mysteriously.

First sentence: The night it all began I dreamt that Papa returned from the concert with a new violin for me.

Fate, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (354 pages) – the sequel to Tattoo, this is set two years later. Bailey Morgan continues to lead a double life; ordinary high school student by day and “ancient mystical being” by night. Senior year may be complicated, but it’s nothing compared to her other life as the third Fate.

First sentence: Life.