Needless to say, this site is a black hole of wonder.
In this spirit, I decided to make a list of the top ten books I'm currently looking forward to in 2012. I say currently because, unfortunately, FictFact might have a new book that I stumble across tomorrow and I might end up being fickle. But, I promise, these are still going to be up at the top of my list.
Title: Seraphina
Author: Rachel Hartman
Release Date: July 19th
Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.
Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.
Why I'm Excited: Honestly, I have yet to read a dragon book despite the fact that I have a ton of them on my TBR list. I can't honestly say that this one has any particular edge over the other ones in my list, but I like the potential it has.
Title: The Rook: A Novel
Author: Daniel O'Malley
Release Date: January 11th
"The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.
She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.
In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.
Why I'm Excited: I really like the potential of this world. Just from the blurb alone, I feel like it's going to be a very rich and intriguing universe. Unfortunately, I already know right off the bat that I'm going to get tired of trying to pronounce "Myfanwy" correctly in my head, but I'm crossing my fingers that the story more than makes up for that.
Title: Born to Darkness (Fighting Destiny #1)
Author: Suzanne Brockmann
Release Date: March 20th
Dishonorably discharged, former Navy SEAL Shane Laughlin is down to his last ten bucks when he finally finds work as a test subject at the Obermeyer Institute, a little-known and believed-to-be-fringe scientific research facility. When he enters the OI compound, he is plunged into a strange world where seemingly mild-mannered scientists—including women half his size—can kick his highly skilled ass.
Shane soon discovers that there are certain individuals who possess the unique ability to access untapped regions of the brain with extraordinary results—including telekinesis, super strength, and reversal of the aging process. Known as “Greater-Thans,” this rare breed is recruited by OI, where they are rigorously trained using ancient techniques to cultivate their powers and wield them responsibly.
Michelle “Mac” Mackenzie knows the ugly truth. And as one of the Obermeyer Institute’s crack team of operatives, she’s determined to end the scourge of Destiny. But her kick-ass attitude gets knocked for a loop when she finds that one of the new test subjects is none other than Shane, the same smoldering stranger who just rocked her world in a one-night stand. Although Shane isn’t a Greater-Than like Mac, as an ex-SEAL, he’s got talents of his own. But Mac’s got powerful reasons to keep her distance from him—and reasons that are just as strong to want him close. She’s used to risking her life, but now, in the midst of the ultimate war on drugs, she must face sacrificing her heart.
Why I'm Excited: I haven't read any of Brockmann's other books, but I feel like this might be X-Men 2.0 and that completely makes me giddy. I grew up hunkered in front of the tv on Saturday morning, anxiously awaiting my half-hour of X-Men induced haze. This book has the promise of supernatural abilities and intrigue, a combo I love seeing.
Title: Partials
Author: Dan Wells
Release Date: February 28th
The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.
Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic in training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws threaten to launch what’s left of humanity into civil war, and she’s not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will discover that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them—connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.
Why I'm Excited: I have a major weakness for dystopia fics, especially after reading such great series such as "Hunger Games" and "Dark Days." Engineered humans and a war totally plays into my vice category, one I'm going to devour greedily.
Title: By a Thread (Elemental Assassin #6)
Author: Jennifer Estep
Release Date: February 28th
Gin Blanco never thought she’d need a vacation from being an assassin. But a few weeks ago, she killed Mab Monroe, her nemesis and the most powerful Fire elemental in Ashland. Now, all the city’s lowlifes are trying to make a name for themselves by taking out the Spider. So she heads south to a swanky beach town, along with her baby sister, Bria, for a weekend of fun in the sun. But when an old friend of Bria’s is threatened by a powerful vampire with deadly elemental magic, it looks like Gin will have to dig the silverstone knives out of her suitcase after all. But this time, her special powers might not be enough to prevent her from coming home in a pine box…
Why I'm Excited: To be honest, I really want to see if the series can live up to it's previous standard with the lack of Mab as an ever present protagonist. I'm hoping so and I'm interested to see what direction the novel is going to take now without Mab's driving force.
Title: Royal Street (Sentinels of New Orleans #1)
Author: Suzanne Johnson
Release Date: April 10th
As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.
Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.
While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering soldiers sent to help the city recover.
To make it worse, Gerald St. Simon has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and the killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.
Why I'm Excited: Serial killers, grenades, and sentinels; it's the potential summer block buster potential of books but with much more depth. Plus, bonus, mentions of a pirate.
Title: Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6)
Author: Chloe Neill
Release Date: August 7th
Turned into a vampire against her will, twenty-eight-year-old Merit found her way into the dark circle of Chicago’s vampire underground, where she learned there was more to supernaturals than met the eye—and more supernaturals than the public ever imagined. And not all the secrets she learned were for sharing—among humans or inhumans.
Now Merit is on the hunt, charging across the stark American Midwest, tailing a rogue supernatural intent on stealing an ancient artifact that could unleash catastrophic evil on the world. But Merit is also the prey. An enemy of Chicagoland is hunting her, and he’ll stop at nothing to get the book for himself. No mercy allowed. No rules apply. No lives spared. The race is on.
Why I'm Excited: The last two books have left readers with stunning and heart-breaking conclusions. I know there was a lot of disappointment expressed throughout Chicagoland fans about the way the last book was handled but, personally, I appreciated the way Neill approached the situation. I'm also completely ok with the way she ended the book; I only hope that she sticks to her guns with this decision instead of throwing another twist.
Title: Summoning the Night (Arcadia Bell #2)
Author: Jenn Bennett
Release Date: April 24th
Magick. Murder. Mayhem. It’s all in a night’s work. . . .
After narrowly escaping her fate as a sacrificial scapegoat, Arcadia Bell is back to normal. Or at least as ordinary as life can be for a renegade magician and owner of a tiki bar that caters to Earthbound demons. She’s gearing up for the busiest day of the year—Halloween—when a vengeful kidnapper paralyzes the community. The influential head of the local Hellfire Club taps Cady to track down the fiendish bogeyman, and now that she’s dating red-hot Lon Butler, the club’s wayward son, she can hardly say no.
Cady and Lon untangle a gruesome thirty-year trail of clues that points to danger for the club members’ children. But locating the person behind the terror will require some metaphysical help from Cady’s loyal bar patrons as well as her potent new Moonchild powers—and she’d better figure it out before the final victim disappears and her own darkest secret becomes her biggest enemy.
Why I'm Excited: I loved Cady and Lon in the first novel. I even loved Lon's son which, for me, is a big thing because I'm usually not a fan of reading kids in books. They just don't work well for me. But the first story in this series sucked you in and wouldn't let you go. I'm completely ready for the second one to do the same. I just hate that I have to wait until April for that to happen.
Title: Deadly Descendant (Descendants #2)
Author: Jenna Black
Release Date: April 24th
As a living descendant of Artemis the Huntress, private investigator Nikki Glass knows how to track someone down. But when an Oracle shows up, warning the descendants about wild dog attacks in Washington D.C., Nikki is afraid it might be a trap. The Olympians believe the “dogs” are jackals, controlled by a blood-crazed descendant of the Egyptian death-god Anubis. Whatever. . . . If Nikki hopes to muzzle Dogboy, she’s got to catch him in the act. But when she stakes out a local cemetery, she ends up face-to-snout with a snarling pack of shadow-jackals whose bite is worse than their bark. These hellhounds are deadly—even for an immortal like Nikki. “Dog” spelled backwards may be “god,” but that won’t stop Nikki from teaching these old gods some new tricks. Like playing dead.
Why I'm Excited: Needless to say, when April 24th rolls around, I'm pretty much going to be falling off the face of the earth between this book and the second Arcadia Bell book. I picked up Dark Descendant, the first of this series, earlier this year out of curiousity. I love mythology but, at the time, I felt like I was having an impossible time trying to find a good paranormal/urban fantasy that tackled this angle and wasn't a YA. I'll admit, the first book did start a little slow but once it started going, I was hooked. I'm excited to see what the second novel holds and if Black can keep the ball rolling.
Title: Sins of the Demon (Kara Gillian #4)
Author: Diana Rowland
Release Date: January 3rd
The homicide beat in Louisiana isn't just terrifying, it's demonic. Detective Kara Gilligan of the supernatural task force has the ability to summon demons to her aid, but she herself is pledged to serve a demonic lord. And now, people who've hurt Kara in the past are dropping dead for no apparent reason. To clear her name and save both the demon and human worlds, she's in a race against the clock and in a battle for her life that just may take her to hell and back.
Why I'm Excited: I discovered this series and immediately blew through the first three books within three days. It's that addictive. And the last book left you with an amazing ending where you're screaming for more information. Needless to say, this is going to be my first book purchase of the new year. My only lament is the cover; I'm much more a fan of the original design seen on the first two books but as long as Rowland keeps delivering, I can deal with it.
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