Urban fantasy fans (and paranormal fantasy and contemporary fantasy) can look forward to thirty-eight new books filled with fangs and fur this month, even a few aimed at adult readers. Look for new series offerings from, among others, Cassie Alexander (Edie Spence), Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels), Sierra Dean (Secret McQueen), Jennifer Estep (Elemental Assassin), Jess Haines (H&W Investigations), Deborah Harkness (All Souls Trilogy), Diana Rowland (White Trash Zombie), Darren Shan (Zom-B), Charles Stross (Laundry Files), and Chuck Wendig (Heartland Trilogy).
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
Artful—Peter David (July 1, 47North)
Oliver Twist is one of the most well-known stories ever told, about a young orphan who has to survive the mean streets of London before ultimately being rescued by a kindly benefactor. But it is his friend, the Artful Dodger, who has the far more intriguing tale, filled with more adventure and excitement than anything boring Oliver could possibly get up to. Throw in some vampires and a plot to overthrow the British monarchy, and what you have is the thrilling account that Charles Dickens was too scared to share with the world.
Bloodshifted (Edie Spence #5)—Cassie Alexander (July 1, St. Martin’s)
Edie Spence must race against time to save herself and her baby from the nightmare that flows through her veins. As a nurse in the hospital’s secret Y4 ward, Edie has seen her share of daytimers. Once-ordinary humans who’ve tasted vampire blood, daytimers are doomed to serve their nighttime masters. Forever. Edie has to face something even more horrifying: she’s become one too. Abducted by the vampire, Raven, Edie is taken to the catacombs beneath the Catacombs, an ironically-named L.A. night club that supplies fresh blood and other favors for its vampire Masters. If she and Asher, her shapeshifter fiancé, can’t figure out a way to bleed Raven’s power, they may never get out of this plasma-soaked pleasure palace, undead or alive.
Cold Hard Secret (Secret McQueen #7)—Sierra Dean (July 1, Samhain)
Ever since her near-death experience at the hands of the villainous Dr. Kesteral, Secret McQueen hasn’t been the same. Secret has no time to lick her wounds. She and Desmond embark on a whirlwind quest for revenge that takes them to the sewers of Paris to put an end to Alexandre Peyton. Before she can stop him, Peyton rips the veil off her deepest secret. An eye-opening confab with Sig in the Big Apple leaves her wondering if she s ever been in control of her own life at all. A cryptic postcard sends her racing back to her Manitoba hometown, fearing for her “grandmere.” With the Council holding the power of life and death over her head, Secret s circle of friends is shrinking, while the pool of enemies looking for payback is widening like a pool of her own blood. (Digital)
Conversion—Katherine Howe (July 1, Putnam Juvenile)
Young Adult. It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. The media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Colleen, who’s been readingThe Crucible, comes to realize that Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago.
Copper Magic—Julia Mary Gibson (July 1, Starscape)
Young Adult. The year is 1906, and twelve-year-old Violet Blake unearths an ancient talisman, a copper hand, beside the stream where her mother used to harvest medicine. Violet’s touch warms the copper hand and it begins to reveal glimpses of another time. Violet is certain that the copper hand is magic, and if anyone is in need of its powers, it’s Violet. Her mother and adored baby brother are gone, perhaps never to return. Her father can’t seem to sustain the failing farm on the outskirts of Pigeon Harbor, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Surely the magic of the copper hand can make things right for Violet and restore her fractured family. Violet makes a wish. Her ignorant carelessness unleashes formidable powers, and her attempts to control them jeopardizes herself, and the entire town of Pigeon Harbor.
Enslaved by the Others (H&W Investigations #6)—Jess Haines (July 1, Zebra)
Vampires, werewolves, magi and worse, the Others, have joined the mortal world, and there’s no turning back now. As a New York P.I. and Other specialist, Shiarra Waynest has been in plenty of trouble before. But waking up in a windowless room the prisoner of a vampire slave trader is a shock for anyone. Shia has her wits, her bravado, and a couple of used staples, so maybe she can take on a mansion full of serious evil. But although she’s desperate to escape, Shia needs some answers too. Her friends are in danger. There are betrayers and spies among them. And even if she can figure out what’s going on and somehow get a message out, she’s still a captive of the worst kind.
Fireborn (Souls of Fire #1)—Keri Arthur (July 1, Signet Select)
Meet Emberly Pearson, a phoenix capable of taking on human form, and cursed with the ability to foresee death. Emberly has spent many of her lives trying to save humans. When her prophetic dreams reveal the death of Sam, a man she once loved, she does everything in her power to prevent that from happening. Sam is working undercover for the Paranormal Investigations Team, and those who are trying to murder him are actually humans infected by a plague-like virus, the Crimson Death, a by-product of a failed government experiment that attempted to identify the enzymes that make vampires immortal. All those infected must be eliminated. When Emberly’s boss is murdered and his research stolen, she needs to find the guilty party before she goes down in flames.
How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back (White Trash Zombie #4)—Diana Rowland (July 1, DAW)
Our favorite zombie Angel Crawford has come a long way from her days as a pain-pill-addicted high school dropout with a felony record. After a year highlighted by murder, kidnapping, and the loss of her home, all she wants to do is kick back, relax, and maybe even think about college. But when key members of the “Zombie Mafia” go missing, she has no choice but to get involved. Angel is certain Saberton Corporation is behind the disappearances, yet she can’t shake the sense that a far deeper conspiracy is at work. With the small band of friends she can trust, Angel strikes out to track down the missing zombies. When unexpected danger threatens to destroy her, all the brains and bravado in the world may not be enough to keep her from going to pieces.
Premonitions—Jamie Schultz (July 1, Roc)
Two million dollars. It’s the kind of score Karyn Ames has always dreamed of, enough to set her crew up pretty well and, more important, enough to keep her safely stocked on a very rare, very expensive black market drug. Without it, Karyn hallucinates slices of the future until they totally overwhelm her. The client behind the heist is Enoch Sobell, a notorious crime lord with a reputation for being ruthless and exacting, and a purported practitioner of dark magic. Once you’re in business with him, there’s no backing out. Karyn and her associates are used to the supernatural and the occult, but their target is more than just the usual family heirloom or cursed necklace. It’s a piece of something larger. Something sinister. Karyn’s crew, and even Sobell himself, are about to find out just how powerful it is, and how powerful it may yet become.
Reborn—Kate Danley, Phoef Sutton, Lisa Klink, Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin (July 1, 47North)
Tanis Archer is facing a miserable twenty-fifth birthday. She’s a part-time barista in her sixth year at Dallas Community College. On her way to work, she loses control of her car and is killed in a horrific crash. Days later, she wakes up on a cold morgue slab and soon learns that miraculous resurrections have brutal side effects. There are people around her who look as if they are decomposing from the inside out. What she is seeing is real, a shadowy part of the world where the bloody battle between good and evil is being fought every day by an ax-wielding “dead man” and his rag-tag army of supernatural freaks. She’s being asked to join him. She’d rather party with her new-found abilities, but an unimaginable horror is rising from the Black Sea, and she might be the only person who can save humanity from an agonizing, never-ending nightmare.
Sinner (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3.5)—Maggie Stiefvater (July 1, Scholastic)
Young Adult. Sinner follows Cole St. Clair, a pivotal character from the Shiver Trilogy. Everybody thinks they know Cole’s story. Stardom. Addiction. Downfall. Disappearance. But only a few people know Cole’s darkest secret, his ability to shift into a wolf. One of these people is Isabel. At one point, they may have even loved each other. But that feels like a lifetime ago. Now Cole is back. Back in the spotlight. Back in the danger zone. Back in Isabel’s life. Can this sinner be saved? A standalone companion book to the Shiver Trilogy.
The Rhesus Chart (Laundry Files #5)—Charles Stross (July 1, Ace)
As a newly appointed junior manager within the Laundry, the clandestine organization responsible for protecting Britain against supernatural threats, Bob Howard is expected to show some initiative to help the agency battle the forces of darkness. Shining a light on things best left in the shadows is the last thing Bob wants to do, especially when those shadows hide an occult parasite spreading a deadly virus. Traders employed by a merchant bank in London are showing signs of infection, an array of unusual symptoms such as superstrength and speed, an uncanny talent for mind control, an extreme allergic reaction to sunlight, and an unquenchable thirst for blood. Bob digs deeper into the bank’s history, only to uncover a bloodcurdling conspiracy between men and monsters.
The Seat of Magic (The Golden City #2)—J. Kathleen Cheney (July 1, Roc)
It’s been two weeks since Oriana Paredes was banished from the Golden City. Police consultant Duilio Ferreira, who himself has a talent he must keep secret, can’t escape the feeling that, though she’s supposedly returned home to her people, Oriana is in danger.
Adding to Duilio’s concerns is a string of recent murders in the city. Three victims have already been found, each without a mark upon her body. When a selkie under his brother’s protection goes missing, Duilio fears the killer is also targeting nonhuman prey.
To protect Oriana and uncover the truth, Duilio will have to risk revealing his own identity, put his trust in some unlikely allies, and consult a rare and malevolent text known as The Seat of Magic.
The String Diaries—Stephen Lloyd Jones (July 1, Mulholland)
Amother frantically drives through the night, her daughter asleep in the back seat, her husband bleeding out in the seat beside her. In the trunk of the car rests a cache of diaries dating back 200 years, tied and retied through generations with string. The diaries hold the secret to the man, or thing, that has finally found and attacked them. But how can you fight an enemy that you cannot recognize? How can you escape, let alone destroy, a beast when that beast can assume the likeness of anyone, even your gravely wounded husband? Your daughter? The family friend who has entrusted you with the string diaries themselves? A sweeping thriller that extends from the present day, to Oxford in the 1970s, to Hungary at the turn of the 19th century, all tracing back to a boy from an ancient royal family, a boy who can change his shape, and make terrible things occur. (Digital; print available January 2015.)
The Vanishing Season—Jodi Lynn Anderson (July 1, Harper Teen)
Young Adult. Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter’s come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I’ve watched the danger swell. The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I’m the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I’m tied, it seems, to this house, this street, this town. I’m tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don’t know why. I think it’s because death is coming for one of them, or both. All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig. I am looking for the things that are buried.
Three Tales From the Laundry Files: A Tor.Com Original—Charles Stross, July 1, Tor)
Enjoy two short stories and a novella from the Laundry Files. Originally published on Tor.com, these stories by Charles Stross continue the adventures of the Laundry, a secret division of the British government dedicated to tracking down and containing breaches of reality by occult and otherworldly threats. (Digital)
Unwept (The Nightbirds #1)—Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman (July 1, Tor)
Gamin, Maine, is a remote seaside town where everyone seems to know Ellis Harkington better than she knows herself. Unknown events have robbed Ellis of her memory. Concerned individuals insist that she simply needs to recuperate, that her memories may return in time, but refuse to divulge what has brought her to this state. Ellis finds herself adrift in a town of mysteries, cryptic hints, and disturbingly familiar strangers. The Nightbirds, a clique of fashionable young men and women, claim her as one of their own, but who among them can she trust? What of the phantom suitor who visits her in her dreams? Is he a memory or a figment of her imagination? Only her lost past hold the answers she seeks, if she can uncover it before she falls prey to an unearthly killer.
WEEK TWO
Demon Derby—Carrie Harris (July 8, Delacorte)
Young Adult. Casey kicked cancer’s ass. Now a demon wants to kick hers. Casey hates being known as the girl who survived cancer. She wants people to treat her like her old self, fearless and strong. After a creepy encounter with a crazy guy in an alley, Casey is all about reclaiming her power. When she has a chance to try out for the Apocalypsies roller derby team, she jumps on it. Being a derby girl would prove that she doesn’t need anybody’s pity. It doesn’t hurt that Michael, the team manager, is almost unnaturally hot. Casey finds out that he’s not human. Michael’s got a secret: he trains demon hunters. The fact that Casey went head to head with evil and lived makes her a threat to demonkind. Casey thought she’d already fought and won the battle of her lifetime. But it’s only beginning.
Idols (Icons #2)—Margaret Stohl (July 8, Little, Brown)
Young Adult. The Icons came from the sky. They belong to an inhuman enemy. They ended our civilization, and they can kill us. Most of us. Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas are the four Icon Children, the only humans immune to the Icon’s power to stop a human heart. Now that Los Angeles has been saved, things are more complicated, and not just because Dol has to choose between Lucas and Ro, the two great loves of her life. As she flees to a resistance outpost hidden beneath a mountain, Dol makes contact with a fifth Icon Child, if only through her visions. When Dol and the others escape to Southeast Asia in search of this missing child, Dol’s dreams, feelings and fears collide in an epic showdown that will change more than just four lives, and stop one heart forever.
Zom-B Clans (Zom-B #8)—Darren Shan (July 8, Little, Brown)
B’s first mission with the Angels, sentient, do-gooder zombies, went horribly wrong when vicious members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked New Kirkham, a stronghold of precious human survivors. B is not about to let the racist thugs persecute innocent people, but while saving the town, one of B’s oldest friends is kidnapped by the Klan. The Angels are prepared to do what it takes to save him, but B will have to make some very hard decisions about loyalties, to old friends, to the Angels, and to new families and old.
The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3)—Deborah Harkness (July 15, Viking)
Historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches, with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.
WEEK THREE
The House of Small Shadows—Adam Nevill (July 15, St. Martin’s Press)
Catherine’s last job ended badly. Corporate bullying at a television production company saw her fired and forced to leave London. A new job and now things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself: to catalogue the late M. H. Mason’s eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. She’ll get to examine his displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting scenes from World War I. When Mason’s niece invites her to stay at the Red House itself, Catherine can’t believe her luck. Until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle’s art. Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but M H Mason’s damaged visions raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she’d hoped had finally been erased. The barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge. Some truths seem too terrible to be real. (U.S.)
WEEK FOUR
Dissonance (Dissonance #1)—Erica O’Rourke (July 22, Simon & Schuster)
Delancy Sullivan has always known there’s more to reality than what people see. Every time someone makes a choice, a new, parallel world branches off from the existing one. As a Walker, someone who can navigate between these worlds, Del’s job is to keep all of the dimensions in harmony. Del can hear the dissonant frequency that each world emits as clear as a bell. When a training session in an off-key world goes horribly wrong, she is forbidden from Walking by the Council. She secretly starts to investigate these other worlds. Something strange is connecting them and it’s not just her random encounters with echo versions of the guy she likes, Simon Lane. As she begins to fall for the Echo Simons in each world, she draws closer to a truth that the Council of Walkers is trying to hide, a secret that threatens the fate of the entire multiverse.
Marina—Carlos Ruiz Zafon (July 22, Little, Brown)
Young Adult. In May 1980, fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in Barcelona. His story begins in an old quarter of the city, where he meets the strange Marina and her father, Germán Blau. Marina takes Oscar to a cemetery to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the last Sunday of each month. At ten o’clock in the morning, a coach pulled by black horses appears. From it descends a woman, her face shrouded be a black velvet cloak. She walks to a gravestone that bears no name, only a mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings. Oscar and Marina decide to follow her, and begin a journey that transports them to a forgotten, postwar Barcelona and reveals a dark secret that lies waiting in the labyrinth beneath the city streets. (U.S.)
One Past Midnight—Jessica Shirvington (July 22, Bloomsbury)
Young Adult. For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she shifts to her ′other′ life, a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other. With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted. But just what, and who, is she really risking? (U.S.)
Poison Promise (Elemental Assassin #11)—Jennifer Estep (July 22, Pocket)
Gin Blanco is hard-nosed, sexy, and lethal. Nicknamed “The Spider,” she’s a stone elemental assassin who brings her unique mix of magic and tact to every assignment, no matter the target. There’s a new drug on the streets of Ashland, and its name “Burn” sums up the potent effect it has on its users. When one of her restaurant employees is threatened by dealers of the drug, Gin steps in to set things straight.
Strange and Ever After (Something Strange and Deadly #3)—Susan Dennard (July 22, HarperTeen)
Young Adult. He took her brother, he took her mother, and now, Marcus has taken her good friend Jie. Eleanor heads to the hot desert streets of nineteenth-century Egypt in hopes of ending this nightmare. But in addition to her increasingly tense relationships with Daniel, Joseph, and her demon, Oliver, Eleanor must also deal with her former friend, Allison, who has curiously entangled herself in Eleanor’s mission. With the rising dead chomping at her every move and Jie’s life hanging in the balance, Eleanor is convinced that her black magic will see her through to the bitter end.
The Burnouts (Quarantine #3)—Lex Thomas (July 22, Egmont)
Young Adult. When an explosion rocks David and Will’s suburban high school one morning, a deadly virus is unleashed on the school. After a year of quarantine, with no adults around, the students have created their own society. All of the social cliques have developed into gangs: The Nerds, The Geeks, The Freaks, The Sluts, The Skaters, The Burnouts, The Pretty Ones, and The Varsity, and each gang provides a service with which they can barter for provisions. Without a gang, it’s almost impossible to secure food, water, territory, or supplies. The brothers are reunited on the Outside and it appears as if, for once everything is going right. But inside the school, Lucy is alone with no gang and no hope, until the Burnouts welcome her into their filthy arms.
Welcome to the Dark House—Laurie Faria Stolarz (July 22, Disney-Hyperion)
Young Adult. What’s your worst nightmare? For Ivy Jensen, it’s the eyes of a killer that haunt her nights. For Parker Bradley, it’s bloodthirsty sea serpents that slither in his dreams. For seven essay contestants, it’s their worst nightmares that win them an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at director Justin Blake’s latest, confidential project. Horror-film fanatic Garth Vader wants to stir up trouble. It’s bad enough he has to stay in the middle of nowhere with this group, the girl who locks herself in her room; the know-it-all roommate; “Mister Sensitive”; and the one who’s too cheery for her own good. The hostess is a serial-killer look-alike, the dream-stealing Nightmare Elf is lurking about, and the seventh member of the group is missing. By the time Ivy and Parker realize what’s really at stake, it’s too late to wake up and run.
Blood Sworn (Last of the Shardyn #3)—Steve W. Vera (July 28, Carina)
Veteran police chief Skip Walkins has really done it this time. After crossing realities to fight the onslaught of the Drynn, the spawn of the Underworld, he’s one of only a few motley survivors of an epic massacre. By his blood, he’s sworn to unite with Shardyn Knight Gavin Blackburn against the armies of Asmodeous the Pale, Lord of the Underworld and ruler of the Drynn. The two must seek resistance fighters in Vambrace, among those who killed Gavin’s father. Reformed sociopath Donovan Smith has traveled to Vambrace for his own reasons. Donovan’s secrets may hold the key to defeating the Drynn, but they may upset the alliance of the Blood Sworn. If Skip and Gavin can’t fight together as one, the Drynn will attain total victory over Earth and its magical twin, Theia. (Digital)
Hellsbane Hereafter (Hellsbane #3)—Paige Cuccaro (July 28, Entangled Edge)
The war between good and evil is on and Emma Jane is caught in the middle. Both sides want her working for them and both sides know how to make her suffer if she chooses wrong. But someone has raised the stakes, using innocent humans as pawns, and Emma Jane isn’t sure who to blame. Discovering the truth will be hard enough, but what she used to believe about right and wrong, good and evil, what she used to believe about herself, is changing. And something tells her whatever happens, nothing is going to be the same again. Being heaven’s bounty hunter isn’t easy, Emma Jane Hellsbane just makes it look that way. (Digital)
Summoned Chaos (The Shifter Chronicles #2)—Joshua Roots (July 28, Carina)
If there’s one thing warlock Marcus Shifter hates it’s the Delwinn Council, the governing body of the magical community. Between the grudges many on the Council harbor because he walked away from magic, and his suspicions that someone is working to undermine a twenty-year peace with the non-magical Normals, they don’t get along. Marcus has spent months hunting the traitor. When he accidentally thwarts an assassination attempt at Delwinn HQ, the Council does the unthinkable: they appoint him the poster child for the peace movement. Marcus has to not only figure out how to control his resurging powers but also navigate the potentially fatal waters of fame. He’ll need more than a camera-ready smile to uncover the traitor and keep the peace. (Digital)
Blightborn (The Heartland Trilogy #2)—Chuck Wendig (July 29, Skyscape)
Cael McAvoy is on the run. He’s heading toward the Empyrean to rescue his sister, Merelda, and to find Gwennie before she’s lost to Cael forever. With his pals, Lane and Rigo, Cael journeys across the Heartland to catch a ride into the sky. With Boyland and others after them, Cael and his friends won’t make it through unchanged. Gwennie’s living the life of a Lottery winner, but it’s not what she expected. Gwennie makes a bold move, one that catches the attention of the Empyrean and changes the course of an Empyrean man’s life. The crew from Boxelder aren’t the only folks willing to sacrifice everything to see the Empyrean fall. Can the others be trusted? They’d better hurry. The Empyrean has plans that could ensure that the Heartland never fights back again.
Free Agent (Grimm Agency #1)—J.C. Nelson (July 29, Ace)
Working for Grimm isn’t Marissa Locks’s dream job. When your parents trade you to a Fairy Godfather for a miracle, you don’t have many career options. Marissa must do whatever Grimm asks, no matter what fairy-tale fiasco she’s called on to deal with. Setting up a second-rate princess with a first-class prince is just another day at the office. When the matchmaking goes wrong, Marissa and Grimm find themselves in a bigger magical muddle than ever before. The prince gone missing and the Fae are gearing up to attack Kingdom, and a new Fairy Godmother is sniffing around Grimm’s turf, threatening Marissa with the one thing she can’t resist. Marissa will have to take on Fairies, Fae, dragons, and princesses to save the realm, or give up hope of getting her happy ending.
Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels #7)—Ilona Andrews (July 29, Ace)
As the mate of the Beast Lord, Curran, former mercenary Kate Daniels has more responsibilities than it seems possible to juggle. Not only is she still struggling to keep her investigative business afloat, she must now deal with the affairs of the pack. Since Kate’s connection to Roland has come out into the open, no one is safe, especially those closest to Kate. As Roland’s long shadow looms ever nearer, Kate is called to attend the Conclave, a gathering of the leaders from the supernatural factions in Atlanta. One of the Masters of the Dead is found murdered there, apparently at the hands of a shapeshifter. Kate is given only twenty-four hours to hunt down the killer. This time, if she fails, she’ll find herself embroiled in a war which could destroy everything she holds dear.
Memory Maze (The Hypnotists #2)—Gordon Korman (July 29, Scholastic)
Young Adult. Jax Opus knows he’s not like other kids. And it isn’t his skill on the basketball court or his test scores that set him apart. No, Jax is different because he can hypnotize people. In fact, he might be the best hypnotist the world has seen in a very long time. You would think Jax would be happy about this. But really, it’s ruining his life. He and his family are hiding from a master hypnotist who wants Jax out of the picture, forever. And the FBI is also starting to ask questions about Jax and his abilities. Jax thinks life might be getting a little better when a very rich, very powerful man asks him to help out with something. The reward will be great. And the price, well, the price is that Jax starts taking on the man’s memories. And some of them are pretty deadly.
Path of Smoke (Parallel Parks #2)—Bailey Cunningham (July 29, Ace)
The company of heroes has thwarted the plan of the power-hungry basilissa to conquer Anfractus, but not without a cost. Andrew’s character, Roldan, died, leaving him cut off from the mystical realm without any memory of its existence. If the others reveal the park’s magical nature to Andrew, his banishment will become permanent. So they must hide their nighttime adventures, and hope that his memory returns. The rest of the group keeps a low profile in Anfractus until they uncover an unholy alliance between their enemy and the silenoi, satyrlike creatures who hunt humans, an alliance that threatens to cross the barrier into the real world. Andrew receives a visitor determined to restore his memory of Anfractus by leading him down a very dark path.
The Young World (The Young World Trilogy #1)—Chris Weitz (July 29, Little, Brown)
Welcome to New York, a city ruled by teens. After a mysterious sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he’s secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind. The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park, and discovers truths they could never have imagined.
Suzanne Johnson is the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series. You can find Suzanne on Facebook and on her speculative fiction blog, Preternatura.
