Horror/Ghost/Vampire Recent Picks

October 2009

The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

Undead and unwelcome, by MaryJanice Davidson. (2009)
Betsy Taylor has problems that only a vampire queen/suburban wife could possibly understand, such as fifty thousand angry werewolves. That is what Betsy is facing when she takes her werewolf friend Antonia's body to Cape Cod, where the Pack resides at Wyndham Mansion. Because Antonia died in her service, Betsy is wracked with guilt. She has no idea if the Wyndham werewolves will welcome her with fangs or friendship. While Betsy and her husband Sinclair try to put things right, their legal ward BabyJon is freaking out every werewolf he comes in contact with. (Amazon)

Bloody good, by Georgia Evans. (2009)
While the sounds of battle echo through the sky, a lady doctor has more than enough trouble to keep her busy even in a sleepy hamlet outside London. But the threat is nearer home than Alice knows. German agents have infiltrated her beloved countryside, Nazis who can fly, read minds, and live forever. They're not just fascists. They're vampires. Alice has no time for fantasy, but when the corpses start appearing sucked dry, she'll have to accept help where she can get it. If that includes a lowly Conscientious Objector who says he's no coward though he refuses to fight, and her very own grandmother, a sane, sensible woman who insists that she's a Devonshire Pixie, so be it. (Amazon)

Mr. Darcy, vampyre, by Amanda Grange. (2009)
Elizabeth Darcy is the happiest woman alive when she steps into the carriage that is to take her on her wedding tour until she sees the look of torment on Mr Darcy's face and discovers that he has a deep, dark secret that nearly destroys their love, their marriage and even her very life. Darcy and the rest of his family are vampires that cannot be outside during sunrise or sunset. Lady Catherine is at the source, having turned Georgiana into an undying friend for her vampire daughter, Anne, and then Darcy as the perfect mate for Anne. Now Lizzy and Darcy must travel across the Continent to the Pyrenees to find a way to break the curse. But Lady Catherine will not give up her undead without a fight. (Amazon)

Vanished : a Greywalker novel, Kat Richardson. (2009)
Harper Blaine was your average small-time Private Investigator, until she died, for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker, walking the line between the living world and the paranormal realm. She is discovering that her new abilities are landing her in all sorts of "strange cases." Her own case may prove the most difficult to solve. Why did she, as opposed to others with near-death experiences become a Greywalker? When Harper digs into her own past, she unearths some unpleasant truths about her father's early death as well as a mysterious puzzle. Forced by some very demanding vampires to take on an investigation in London, she soon discovers her present troubles in England are entangled with her dark past back in Seattle and her ultimate destiny as a Greywalker. (Amazon)

Forbidden nights with a vampire, by Kerrelyn Sparks. (2009)
Vanda Barkowski is in trouble. As the owner of a hot nightclub, she's more unconventional than most of her fellow vampires, and if some think her a little out of control, then so be it. But after three former employees filed a complaint about her temper, Vanda is sentenced to an anger management class. Worse, Phil Jones agreed to be her sponsor, he is the mortal who is forbidden to her. If Vanda knew who or what Phil really is, she would reconsider her attraction to him, for his true nature is wilder than anything she'd ever imagined. (Book cover)

Circle of fire, by Keri Arthur. (2009)
Sixteen teenagers taken from their homes and eleven bodies recovered, each completely drained of blood. Some believe vampires are responsible. Jon Barnett knows it is something far worse, and while in Taurin Bay to stop the killers, he quickly becomes enmeshed in a web of black magic. He needs help but fate gives him only one choice and that is Madeline Smith who has retreated to an isolated farmhouse, afraid of the abilities she cannot control, abilities that have killed. As Maddie and Jon's search for the teenagers becomes a race against time, the greatest danger to them both could be the feelings they refuse to acknowledge. (Amazon)

Bloody right, by Georgia Evans. (2009)
Gryffyth Pendragon has done his bit for the war effort when he comes back to sleepy Brytewood from the battlefront at Trondheim. It cost him a leg and his chance to use his dragon's strength against the Nazis, or so he thinks. Until he finds out that his little village is facing a plague of vampire spies set on delivering it to the Third Reich. They've come up with a plan that, if they can pull it off, might break all of Britain's will to fight. But there are more allies for Gryffyth in Brytewood than he'd ever imagined, and while a doctor, a nurse, a schoolteacher, and a couple of sexagenarians doesn't sound like much of a battle force to him, there's more to these people than meets the eye. (Amazon)

The Enchantment Emporium, by Tanya Huff. (c2009)
Headstrong young museum research assistant Allie Gale takes over her missing grandmother's titular junk-shop, which is supposedly crucial to the local community. When Allie arrives to find a leprechaun, a monkey's paw and a magic mirror, she realizes her grandmother didn't mean the human community. After spotting low-flying dragons and other UnderRealm creatures in the neighbourhood, Allie calls on the help of her powerful family of modern, benevolent Toronto witches, who attempt to visit via a space-time-spanning Wood until something shadowy begins pushing them out in inconvenient locales like Haiti. (Amazon)

Bad moon rising, by Sherrilyn Kenyon. (2009)
Fang Kattalakis isn't just a wolf. He is the brother of two of the most powerful members of the Omegrion: the ruling council that enforces the laws of the Were-Hunters. When war erupts among the lycanthropes, sides must be chosen and enemies are forced into shaky alliances. When Aimee, the woman Fang loves, is accused of betraying her people, her only hope is that Fang believes in her. Yet in order to save her, Fang must break the law of his people and the faith of his brothers. That breech could very well spell the end of both their races and change their world forever. (Amazon)

Lover avenged : a novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, by J.R. Ward. (2009)
Rehvenge has always kept his distance from the Brotherhood, even though his sister is married to a member, for he harbours a deadly secret that could make him a huge liability in their war against the lessers. As plots within and outside of the Brotherhood threaten to reveal the truth about Rehvenge, he turns to the only source of light in his darkening world, Ehlena, a vampire untouched by the corruption that has its hold on him and the only thing standing between him and eternal destruction. (Book cover)

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