Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
“Karen Memory is a delight, a tour-de-force of historical reimagining and character creation, and a ripping yarn full of surprises, and despite Karen’s opening line, I can’t imagine anyone not liking what she has to tell us.” — Locus
Gideon by Alex Gordon is one of the Washington Post’s “Best new science fiction and fantasy!”
Alex Gordon’s impressive debut, Gideon, delivers a fast-paced plot that makes you want to finish it in a day, even if you don’t have time. The Midwest town of Gideon is full of witches who guard the living world against demons. An execution gone wrong in 1836 haunts the present-day inhabitants, who are worried about the “thinning” space between the living and the dead. After the sudden death of her father, Lauren Reardon comes to town to find out more about her family history and is troubled to learn that her father wielded great power in Gideon. She must face down the threat of a dead soul ready to rise again and bring most of hell with him. Lauren has the power to stop him, but can she also withstand the grudges and alliances of the townspeople? Gordon’s descriptions of the petty jealousies and insular nature of a small town make this paranormal novel feel scarily realistic. — Washington Post
Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
Get ready to do the happy dance! It’s time to revisit Namid, Bishop’s extraordinarily gripping world with its unforgettable, haunting characters. Award-winning Bishop is fashioning a richly textured series whose reimagined Earth is so unique, it is a character itself. However, it is the distinctive protagonists who make these novels so totally addicting and completely satisfying. The hard part is waiting for the next installment!
Summary: Change is coming to the continent of Thaisia, but whether those changes are for good or ill remains to be seen. Now that the blood prophets have been freed from their imprisonment and virtual slavery, will these troubled girls be able to survive on their own? Blood prophet and Lakeside resident Meg Corbyn has a vision that suggests not…and that she may just need to blaze a trail to lead them forward. Then trouble arrives in the form of a small human girl when Nathan Wolfgard finds Lt. Montgomery’s daughter, Lizzy, alone on a train heading for Lakeside. And when Nathan smells blood on Lizzy’s stuffed “boo bear,” it seems like something terrible might have happened to Elayne, Lizzy’s mother and Montgomery’s ex-lover. Machinations orchestrated from across the ocean are fomenting dangerous events, which could upend the current detente between humans and the Others. — RT Book Reviews, 4 1/2 stars, Top Pick!
Jacaranda by Cherie Priest
Priest continues to be an effective crafter of dread and tension, and
while Jacaranda is explicitly a novella, there are a few areas where
the reader might wish for more. Despite being set in her Clockwork
Century universe, aside from a few background touches, this could
easily take place in any version of the Old West, and the book seems
to be building to something bigger than it ultimately winds up being.
The characters here are vivid and interesting enough that hopefully
this particular adventure isn’t the last of we hear of them, or of the
survivors at least.
Just off the coast of Texas, on the island of Galveston, there’s a
hotel named the Jacaranda. It would be the nicest resort in the area,
if not for the fact that everyone who comes there is dying one by one.
Now, a priest with a bloody past, a nun with a bloody secret and an
old Texas Ranger who specializes in the odd and uncanny have all come
to the Jacaranda to put whatever hungers there to rest — or die
trying. — RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
Keys of Heaven by Adina Senft
This is a busy series with many characters, but the tension between Sarah and Henry takes center stage. Readers will look forward to more attention focused on the potential romance between the two in the next title in the series, especially after the cliffhanger ending that leaves a misunderstanding unresolved.
Sarah and Henry continue to dodge their feelings for each other as Henry grows closer to Ginny, who has unexpected drama with an English family staying at her inn. Sarah’s desire to become a better healer leads her to overstep boundaries as she tries to help a stressed friend with fertility issues, while she worries about her son, Simon, who is spending the summer working at a ranch in Colorado. — RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
