Thursday, October 4, 2012

Top 5 Sundays #22 - 2013 Sequels I'm Dying to Read!

This week's Top 5 is really, really, really late because of my recent hop across the pond to teach in the London area for a year. It's also the cause for the lack of recent reviews or non-Top 5 posts. Relocating has been a pretty huge ordeal. Apologies, ladies and gents, but hopefully now that I'm getting settled I'll be back to my usual routines - both on and off the blog - soon!

That being said, it's on to the promised Top 5 post, late though it be! Almost each and every year sees all of my favourite authors releasing at least one book in their continuing series - be there one or many such series under their belts. This gives a girl a lot of options to narrow down to just five. Ultimately, I just chose five at random that happen to have had their covers revealed already.

So, without further ado, I give you this week's belated Top 5 post.

#5 - Haunted Moon by Yasmine Galenorn (Otherworld #10)
Release Date: January 29th 2013
This series rotates between three narrators - sisters, each with her own distinct personality that colours her voice and her observations.  Because author Yasmine Galenorn is some kind of bionic woman, she puts out two books per year in her Otherworld series and another book per year in her Indigo Court series.  This next installment will feature Camille as the narrator. Eldest of the sisters, Camille is a witch whose books tend to focus on the darker side of magic and have a different flavour of emotion compared to those of her sisters. I'm especially excited for this installment, given the trauma Camille suffered in her last book and the reappearance of the sisters' father, last seen when he disowned Camille for following her goddess' directive to join an Earthside Fae Court.

#4 - Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson #7)
Release Date: March 5th, 2013 
I can't imagine anyone who claims to be a reader of urban fantasy (or any genre remotely similar) not being excited about the next Mercy book. With the last book, River Marked, having come out almost two years ago and tossing in such game changers as a wedding and a paternal revelation, it's small wonder why anticipation is so high.  Especially when this book is rumoured to bring back the vampires and vanish the werewolf pack, hunky alpha Adam included.

#3 -Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire (InCryptid #2)
Release Date: March 5th, 2013
 The first book in this series, Discount Armaggedeon, had everything: adventure, humour, mystery, family and even a dollop of romance. Honestly, it's that last part (and the humour and the adventure and the mystery and the family) that has me coming back for more. On the one hand you have fun and fiesty Verity, professional dancer and cryptozoologist, and on the other hand you have serious and severe Dominic, professional slayer and monster hunter - a more unlikely pair there isn't. I'm intrigue, however, to see if they make it work and the sparks that will no doubt ensue if they do.

#2 - Deadly Sting by Jennifer Estep (Elemental Assassin #8)
Release Date: March 26th, 2013
You know how sometimes you'll find yourself holding certain elements of a story - a character, a couple, an object, a place - sacred. You get yourself wrapped up in certainty that no matter what else happens, Sirius will always be there to take care of Harry or Chuck and Blair will be together forever or Leonardo will always have his katana. After all, you tell yourself, after they get through so much else together, they just have to make it through to the end. And then Sirius is killed, Chuck tries to sell Blair for a hotel and the Foot Ninja snap both katana blades. For a good long while you just sit there and stare at the screen or the page, absolutely positive that you misunderstood, that that didn't just happen. But it did. The thing is, though, is that if you just hold tight and stick with it you'll see that, yes, Sirius died but he by no means left Harry alone; alright, Chuck and Blair split but they eventually find their way back to each other; sure, the katana were broken, but Leonardo reforges them better than ever. This is what this series is about - getting through the bad to get back what was broken.

#1 - Undead and Unsure by MaryJanice Davidson (Betsy Taylor #12)
Release Date: August 6th, 2013
So, to date, our beloved vampire queen has, well, found herself a vampire, got promoted to Queen of the vampires, fell in love and married Sinclair, had various wheeling and dealings with Satan, found out her sister has Satan for a mom,  had her father and stepmother die in a car crush, acquired her baby (literally) brother as a ward, and to top it all off, time travelled back and forth and back again. The last book tied up a heck of a lot of loose ends - so many in fact that I wondered where the story could go from there - and then the last chapter happened and the whole world exploded to realign in new ways. (Brighter side, this book's release coincides with my expected return to Canada! What's not to love about that? ^^)

No comments: