Skip to content
Answering Your Questions About Reactor: Right here.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Everything in one handy email.
When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

November’s a relatively quiet month in urban fantasyland after the insanity that was October, with nineteen new releases. Look for series additions from, among others, Jackson Pearce (Fairytale Retellings), Keri Arthur (Dark Angels), Rachel Caine (Morganville Vampires), Nancy A. Collins (Golgotham), Laura Resnick (Esther Diamond), Cat Adams (Blood Singer), Trish J. MacGregor (Hungry Ghosts), Richelle Mead (Bloodlines), and Joseph Nassise (Jeremiah Hunt).

Fiction Affliction details releases in science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and “genre-benders.” Keep track of them all here.

Note: All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher.

WEEK ONE

Cold Spell (Fairytale Retellings #4)Jackson Pearce (November 5, Little, Brown)

Young Adult. Kai and Ginny grew up together, best friends since they could toddle around their building’s rooftop rose garden. Now they’re seventeen, and their relationship has developed into something sweeter, complete with stolen kisses and plans to someday run away together. But one night, Kai disappears with a mysterious stranger named Mora, a beautiful girl with a dark past and a heart of ice. Refusing to be cast aside, Ginny goes after them and is thrust into a world she never imagined, one filled with monsters and thieves and the idea that love is not enough. If Ginny and Kai survive the journey, will she still be the girl he loved, and moreover, will she still be the girl who loved him?

Darkness Splintered (Dark Angels #6)Keri Arthur (November 5, Signet)

When Risa loses the second key to hell, she angers several powerful people, and she’s starting to feel the pressure from all sides. She gets a visit from her father, who gives her an ultimatum: Get back the key or he will kill her friends. Risa also finds herself under the scrutiny of the vampire council, some of whom consider her a monster who should be destroyed. But they offer her a bloody bargain: Take on the lethal head of the council, Madeline Hunter, and others will support her. As the search for the keys to hell heats up, Risa realizes that she has no choice. For the sake of the people she loves, she must find the keys, and get rid of Hunter, before the second gate is opened and brings the world closer to all hell breaking loose.

Daylighters (The Morganville Vampires #15)Rachel Caine (November 5, NAL)

While Morganville, Texas, is often a troubled town, Claire Danvers and her friends are looking forward to coming home. The Morganville they return to isn’t the one they know. Something drastic has happened in Morganville while Claire and her friends were away. The town looks cleaner and happier, but when their incoming group is arrested and separated, vampires from humans, they realize that the changes aren’t for the better. An organization called the Daylight Foundation has offered the population of Morganville something they’ve never had: hope of a vampire-free future. The truth is far more sinister and deadly. Claire, Shane and Eve need to find a way to break their friends out of Daylighter custody, before the vampires of Morganville meet their untimely end.

Entwined (Darkest London #3.5)Kristen Callihan (November 5, Forever Yours)

Eamon Evernight has always lived in his older brother’s shadow. While his brother is fair of hair and lithe in body, Eamon sparks fear with his fiery locks and massive frame, and rumors of a mysterious power. When his brother has the good fortune to be betrothed to a beautiful stranger, it’s Eamon’s help, and quick wit and romantic heart, that he needs. Eamon agrees to write the noble lady, a generous offer that will forever leave him a changed man. Lady Luella Jane Moran has no interest in an arranged marriage and tries valiantly to dissuade her betrothed from afar. The words her husband-to-be writes her leave her aching for his touch. Will Lu give in to the desire the missives have kindled within her? Or will desire turn cold when she discovers their true author? (Digital)

Hell Bent (Broken Magic #1)Devon Monk (November 5, Roc)

Instead of the deadly force it once was, magic is now a useless novelty. Not for Shame Flynn and Terric Conley, “breakers” who have the gift for reverting magic back to its full-throttle power. In the magic-dense city of Portland, Oregon, keeping a low profile means keeping their gifts quiet. Shame and Terric have had enough of politics, petty magic, and, frankly, each other. When the government discovers the breakers’ secret, and its potential as a weapon, Shame and Terric suddenly become wanted men, the only ones who can stop the deadly gift from landing in the wrong hands. If only a pair of those wrong hands didn’t belong to a drop-dead-gorgeous assassin Shame is falling for as if it were the end of the world. And if he gets too close to her, it very well could be.

Magic and Loss (Golgotham #3)Nancy A. Collins (November 5, Roc)

It has been several months since Tate Eresby developed her new magical ability to bring whatever she creates to life, but she is still learning to control her power. She and Hexe can barely make ends meet, but they are happy. Until Golgotham’s criminal overlord Boss Marz is released from prison, bent on revenge against the couple responsible for putting him there. Hexe’s right hand is destroyed, leaving him unable to conjure his benign magic. Attempts to repair the hand only succeed in plunging Hexe into a darkness that can’t be lifted, even by news that Tate is carrying his child. With her pregnancy seeming to progress at an astonishing rate, Tate realizes that carrying a possible heir to the Kymeran throne will attract danger from all corners, even beyond the grave.

The Lair (The Farm #2)Emily McKay (November 5, Berkley Trade)

In the battle against the vampiric Ticks, humanity was slowly but certainly headed for extinction. Twin sisters Lily and Mel had been “quarantined” with thousands of other young people being harvested for their blood, food for the Ticks. The twins are separated, and must continue the fight on their own. Making it to a resistance base camp in Utah, Lily learned to survive at all costs. When a Tick attack decimates the fighters, Lily and her pregnant friend, McKenna, decide to make the hard trek north to Canada, and safety. Mel is being taught how to survive by the very vampire that turned her. When a monstrous betrayal places Lily in mortal danger, Mel must set out to find her, save her, and begin to unravel the empire of destruction that the Ticks have built.

The Misfortune Cookie (Esther Diamond #6)Laura Resnick (November 5, DAW)

Esther Diamond’s year gets off to a rocky start when NYPD’s Detective Connor Lopez shuts down her current place of employment and gets her arrested. Esther takes a small role in a grad student’s film project in Chinatown. Her friend, semi-retired hit man Lucky Battistuzzi, who escaped Lopez’s sweep at the Little Italy restaurant where Esther works between acting jobs, is hiding out. In Chinatown, beautifully handcrafted fortune cookies are inflicting deadly mystical curses on the hapless victims who receive them. Esther learns that Detective Lopez is one of the recipients. Esther and Lucky summon the help of their friend Max, a semi-immortal mage and semi-solvent bookseller, to help them save Chinatown and Lopez from a mystical murderer of maniacal menace.

To Dance With the Devil (Blood Singer #6)Cat Adams (November 5, Tor)

Celia Graves’s newest client is one of the last surviving members of a magical family that is trapped in a generations-old feud. She’s supposed to die at the next full moon unless Celia can broker peace between the clans or break the curse. Celia’s personal life is looking up. Her vampire abilities seem to be under control, her Siren abilities have gotten more reliable, and even though her office was blown up, her services are more in demand than ever. Her friends all seem to be finding love and her grandmother has, finally, agreed to go to family therapy. The only trouble spot is Celia’s love life. She had two boyfriends. Now, she barely has oneshe isn’t sure she wants. Bruno DeLuca is a powerful mage and Celia needs his help, especially after she’s attacked and her client is kidnapped.

 

WEEK TWO

Chimera (MetaWars #4)Kelly Meding (November 11, Pocket Star)

Growing up with blue skin never made Rene “Flex” Duvall feel like an outcast. She’s certainly not going to let her façade crack when she and her teammates suddenly face a new breed of genetically manipulated and brainwashed Metas: the well-trained teenage criminals known as the Recombinants. When a desperate battle leaves one of their friends wounded, Renee and Ethan follow a clue to Manhattan Island. They find a Bane named Chimera, who refuses to cooperate despite possessing information that could help them stop the Recombinants. Chimera’s emotional scars are as devastating as Renee’s physical scars. Renee forms an alliance with this Bane. They both can gain much from working together, so the only question is who has more to lose by cooperating. (Digital)

Afterglow (Wildfire #3)Karsten Knight (November 12, Simon & Schuster)

Young Adult. Teenage volcano goddess Ashline Wilde discovers that her former love, Colt Halliday, has an evil plan to kill the Cloak, the benevolent beings that oversee the gods. And that’s not all, he also wants to merge Ash and her two sisters back into a single, too-powerful goddess, Pele. Ash must stop her trickster-god ex-boyfriend once and for all, and to do it, she’s going to have to feed a few flames.

Apparition (Hungry Ghosts #3)Trish J. MacGregor (November 12, Tor)

Tess and Ian have been living in the high city of Esperanza for years, along with Tess’s niece, Maddie, and her partner, Nick Sanchez. They thought they could rest, that they had defeated the brujo threat to our plane of existence. But they were wrong. A new and greater threat has formed, a new tribe of the hungry dead, seeking to possess the bodies of the living in order to experience the passions of physical life. This new tribe has found the door to the physical plane that is Esperanza, and they threaten all human life. Only the outnumbered Light Chasers and their human allies can stand against the evil brujos.

The Waking That KillsStephen Gregory (November 12, Solaris)

A long, hot summer’s dream. A suffocating nightmare. Shattered by a violent awakening. When his elderly father suffers a stroke, Christopher Beale returns to England. Adrift, he answers an ad for a live-in tutor for a teenage boy. The boy is Lawrence Lundy, who possesses the spirit of his father, a military pilot, missing, presumed dead. Lawrence keeps his presence alive, in the big old house, in the overgrown garden. His mother, Juliet Lundy, a fey, scatty widow living on her nerves, keeps the boy at home, away from other children, away from the world. Christopher Beale becomes entangled in the strange household, enmeshed in the oddness of the boy and his fragile mother. Only by forcing the boy to release the spirit of his father can there be any escape from the haunting.

This Wicked GameMichelle Zink (November 14, Dial)

Claire Kincaid’s family has been in business for over fifty years. The voodoo business.
Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, the Kincaid’s run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire fills orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret. She doesn’t believe. Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans, and voodoo. A desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family. When a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo than meets the eye. She comes face to face with a deadly enemy, and the disbelief that may very well kill her.

 

WEEK THREE

SEAL Team 13 (SEAL Team 13 #1)Evan Currie (November 15, 47North)

It’s been ten years since a mysterious incident in the South China Sea annihilated a US Navy destroyer and its Navy SEAL team. Only one man survived this horrific tragedy. As more of these strange, supernatural events are happening around the world, the US Navy calls on sole survivor Harold “Hawk” Masters to put a stop to the evil forces behind these crimes. Masters returns, dispatched to lead an elite team of soldiers, all survivors of the evil deeds of “the other side.” SEAL Team 13 is put to the test, battling malevolent undead creatures that threaten the security of the nation, and the world. Not everyone supports the government’s new interest in facing off against these unnatural forces. Could Hawk Masters’ military force also be forced to fight opponents from within?

The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines #4)Richelle Mead (November 19, Razorbill)

Young Adult. The struggle isn’t over for Sydney. As she navigates the aftermath of her life-changing decision, she still finds herself pulled in too many directions at once. Her sister Zoe has arrived, and while Sydney longs to grow closer to her, there’s still so much she must keep secret. Working with Marcus has changed the way she views the Alchemists, and Sydney must tread a careful path as she harnesses her profound magical ability to undermine the way of life she was raised to defend. Consumed by passion and vengeance, Sydney struggles to keep her secret life under wraps as the threat of exposure, and re-education, looms larger than ever.

Watcher of the Dark (Jeremiah Hunt #3)Joseph Nassise (November 19, Tor)

New Orleans was nearly the death of Jeremiah Hunt, between a too-close brush with the FBI and a chilling, soul-searing journey through the realm of the dead that culminated with a do-or-die confrontation with Death himself. When he performs an arcane ritual to reclaim the soul of the magically gifted, woman who once saved him, he must flee the law once again. In L.A., he has to contend with Carlos Fuentes, who sees in Hunt a means to obtain the mystical key that would open the gates of Hell. When his friends are threatened by the supernatural predator known as the Preacher, Hunt knows that all his newfound experience and ability will go for naught unless he can keep the Preacher and Fuentes at bay long enough for him to find a way to free his friends from mortal peril.

Wild FellMichael Rowe (November 19, ChiZine)

The crumbling summerhouse called Wild Fell, soaring above the desolate shores of Blackmore Island, has weathered the violence of the seasons for more than a century. Built for his family by a 19th-century politician of impeccable rectitude, the house has kept its terrible secrets and its darkness sealed within its walls. For a hundred years, the townspeople of Alvina have prayed that the darkness inside Wild Fell would stay there. Jameson Browning, a man well acquainted with suffering, has purchased Wild Fell with the intention of beginning a new life, of letting in the light. But what waits for him at the house is devoted to its darkness and guards it jealously. It has been waiting for Jameson his whole life, or even longer. And now, at long last, it has found him.

 

WEEK FOUR

City of Lost Dreams (City of Dark Magic #2)Magnus Flyte (November 26 Penguin)

Musicologist Sarah Weston is in Vienna in search of a cure for her friend Pollina, who is now gravely ill. Nicolas Pertusato, in London in search of an ancient alchemical cure for the girl, discovers an old enemy is one step ahead of him. In Prague, Prince Max tries to unravel the reappearance of a long dead saint while being pursued by a seductive red-headed historian with dark motives of her own. Sarah becomes the target in a deadly web of intrigue that involves a scientist on the run, stolen art, seductive pastries, surprises from long-dead alchemists, a distractingly attractive horseman and a trail of secrets and lies. Nothing will be more dangerous than the vindictive villain who seeks to bend time itself. Sarah must travel deep into an ancient mystery to save the people she loves.


Author Suzanne Johnson is a book geek with a fondness for a good dystopia. Her Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series continued this fall with the release of Elysian Fields. You can find Suzanne on Facebook and on her daily speculative fiction blog, Preternatura.

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Suzanne Johnson

Author

Urban fantasy author with a new series, set in immediate post-Katrina New Orleans, starting with ROYAL STREET on April 10, 2012, from Tor Books. Urban fantasy author with a new series, set in immediate post-Katrina New Orleans, starting with ROYAL STREET on April 10, 2012, from Tor Books.
Learn More About Suzanne
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments