Fantasy Dreamer's Ramblings

Terrific week for YA new releases, lots to pick from!

Banished by Sophie Littlefield
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads
Genre: YA Paranormal 
Series: NA 
Author's Website: SophieLittlefield.com 
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers 
ISBN: 0385738528 (ISBN13: 9780385738521) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
There isn’t much worth living for in Gypsum, Missouri—or Trashtown, as the rich kids call the run-down neighborhood where sixteen-year-old Hailey Tarbell lives. Hailey figures she’ll never belong—not with the popular kids at school, not with the rejects, not even with her cruel, sickly grandmother, who deals drugs out of their basement. Hailey never knew her dead mother, and she has no idea who her father was, but at least she has her four-year-old foster brother, Chub. Once she turns eighteen, Hailey plans to take Chub far from Gypsum and start a new life where no one can find them.
 
But when a classmate is injured in gym class, Hailey discovers a gift for healing that she never knew she possessed—and that she cannot ignore. Not only can she heal, she can bring the dying back to life. Confused by her powers, Hailey searches for answers but finds only more questions, until a mysterious visitor shows up at Gram’s house, claiming to be Hailey’s aunt Prairie.
 
There are people who will stop at nothing to keep Hailey in Trashtown, living out a legacy of despair and suffering. But when Prairie saves both Hailey and Chub from armed attackers who invade Gram’s house in the middle of the night, Hailey must decide where to place her trust. Will Prairie’s past, and the long-buried secret that caused her to leave Gypsum years earlier, ruin them all? Because as Hailey will soon find out, their power to heal is just the beginning.
 
This gripping novel from thriller writer Sophie Littlefield blazes a trail from small-town Missouri to the big city as Hailey battles an evil greater than she ever imagined, while discovering strengths she never knew she had. 

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy 
Series: Caster Chronicles #2 
Author's Website: BeautifulCreaturesTheBook.com 
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 
ISBN: 0316077054 (ISBN13: 9780316077057) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems. 

Elixir by Hilary Duff
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance 
Series: Elixir #1 
Author's Website: HilaryDuff.com 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing 
ISBN: 1442408537 (ISBN13: 9781442408531) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
As the daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent Washington D.C. politician, Clea Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life. And though she dreads the paparazzi who track her every move, she herself is a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a career that allows her to travel to the most exotic parts of the world.

But after Clea’s father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, eerie, shadowy images of a strange and beautiful young man begin to appear in Clea’s photos—a man she has never seen in her life.

When Clea suddenly encounters this man in person she is stunned—and feels an immediate and powerful connection. As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father’s disappearance and discover the centuries-old truth behind their intense bond.

Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fate, together they race against time to unravel their past in order to save their future—and their lives. 

Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: YA Fantasy 
Series: Stand Alone 
Author's Website: SarahBethDurst.com 
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry / Simon & Schuster 
ISBN: 1416986456 (ISBN13: 9781416986454) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
What Lily Carter wants most in the world is to attend Princeton University just like her grandfather. When she finally visits the campus, Grandpa surprises her: She has been selected to take the top-secret Legacy Test. Passing means automatic acceptance to Princeton. Sweet!

Lily's test is to find the Ivy Key. But what is she looking for? Where does she start? As she searches, Lily is joined by Tye, a cute college boy with orange and black hair who says he's her guard. That's weird. But things get seriously strange when a gargoyle talks to her. He tells her that there are two Princetons—the ordinary one and a magical one—and the Key opens the gate between them. But there are more secrets that surround Lily. Worse secrets.

When Lily enters the magical Princeton, she uncovers old betrayals and new dangers, and a chance at her dream becomes a fight for her life. Soon Lily is caught in a power struggle between two worlds, with her family at its center. In a place where Knights slay monsters, boys are were-tigers, and dragons might be out for blood, Lily will need all of her ingenuity and courage—and a little magic—to unite the worlds and unlock the secrets of her past and her future. 

Fatal Error by F. Paul Wilson
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: Supernatural Thriller 
Series: Repairman Jack #14 
Author's Website: RepairmanJack.com 
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC 
ISBN: 076532282X (ISBN13: 9780765322821) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
The End of the World is at hand!

Munir Habib's life has become a nightmare. His tormentor has warned Munir not to report the kidnapping of his family, or else they will pay a terrible price. A friend realizes something is terribly wrong and tells Munir he doesn't have to go to the cops. There's a guy who fixes situations like this-Repairman Jack. Jack is backed into helping Munir despite his ongoing involvement in the cosmic shadow war between the Ally and the Otherness. Or perhaps because of it. He's chafing at being forced into the defensive role of protecting the Lady, the physical embodiment of the consciousness of the planet Earth.

Meanwhile, the Septimus Order and the Kickers are seemingly working in concert on a plot to extinguish the Lady and open the way for the Otherness to take over our reality. To top it all off, Dawn Pickering finally goes into labor and delivers a baby she only glimpses as it's whisked away, and is terrified by what she sees. Later she's told the baby died, but she doesn't believe it. Neither does Weezy. Neither does Jack. All these interlocking plots mean doom for humanity. But Jack never gives up or gives in.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy 
Series: NA 
Author's Website: NA 
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
ISBN: 0805090983 (ISBN13: 9780805090987) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.

Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.  

With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

Passion Play by Beth Bernobich
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: Fantasy Romance 
Series: Erythandra Series #1 
Author's Website: Beth-Bernobich.com 
Publisher: Tor Books 
ISBN: 076532217X (ISBN13: 9780765322173) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
Ilse Zhalina is the daughter of one of Melnek’s more prominent merchants. She has lived most of her life surrounded by the trappings of wealth and privilege.  Many would consider hers a happy lot. But there are dark secrets, especially in the best of families. Ilse has learned that for a young woman of her beauty and social station, to be passive and silent is the best way to survive. 

When Ilse finally meets the older man she is to marry, she realizes he is far crueler and more deadly than her father could ever be. Ilse chooses to run. This choice will change her life forever.

And it will lead her to Raul Kosenmark,  master of one of the land’s most notorious pleasure houses…and who is, as Ilse discovers, a puppetmaster of a different sort altogether.  Ilse discovers a world where every pleasure has a price and there are levels of magic and intrigue she once thought unimaginable. She also finds the other half of her heart.

Sure to appeal to fans of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: YA Paranormal 
Series: Stand Alone 
Author's Website: JenniferDonnelly.com 
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers 
ISBN: 0385737637 (ISBN13: 9780385737630) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break. 

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape. 

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present. 

Jennifer Donnelly, author of the award-winning novel A Northern Light, artfully weaves two girls’ stories into one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love. Revolution spans centuries and vividly depicts the eternal struggles of the human heart. 

Stork by Wendy Delsol
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance 
Series: Stand Alone 
Author's Website: WendyDelsol.com 
Publisher: Candlewick 
ISBN: 0763648442 (ISBN13: 9780763648442) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
Oh baby! A hip heroine discovers that she has the ability to decide who gets pregnant in this witty YA blend of romance and the supernatural.

Sixteen-year-old Katla has just moved from Los Angeles to the sticks of Minnesota. As if it weren’t enough that her trendy fashion sense draws stares, she learns to her horror that she’s a member of an ancient order of women who decide to whom certain babies will be born. Add to that Wade, the arrogant football star whom Katla regrettably fooled around with, and Jack, a gorgeous farm boy who initially seems to hate her. Soon Katla is having freaky dreams about a crying infant and learns that, as children, she and Jack shared a near-fatal, possibly mystical experience. Can Katla survive this major life makeover and find a dress for the homecoming dance? Drawing from Norse mythology and inspired by The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, debut author Wendy Delsol conceives an irreverent, highly entertaining novel about embracing change and the (baby) bumps along the way.

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads
Genre: Steampunk Fantasy 
Series: NA 
Author's Website: FelixGilman.com
Publisher: Tor Books 
ISBN:  0765325527 (ISBN13: 9780765325525)
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism 

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they’re just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope. 

To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how. 

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy 
Series: Heroes of Olympus #1 
Author's Website: RickRiordan.com 
Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children 
ISBN: 142311339X (ISBN13: 9781423113393) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she’s his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids.” What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong. 

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on? 

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
Release Date: 10/12/2010

Goodreads
Genre: YA Dystopian Fantasy 
Series: Maze Runner #2 
Author's Website: JamesDashner.com 
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers 
ISBN: 0385738757 (ISBN13: 9780385738750) 
Media: Hardcover 
 
Summary:  
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more Variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety... until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, much of the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated--and with it, order--and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim... and meal.

The Gladers are far from done running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder--does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

Trance by Linda Gerber
Release Date: 10/14/2010

Goodreads
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance 
Series: NA 
Author's Website: LindaGerber.com 
Publisher: Speak 
ISBN: 0142414158 (ISBN13: 9780142414156) 
Media: Paperback 
 
Summary:  
It begins with a subtle vibration, a tingling. There is time to take only one breath. The trance begins. When it is through, she is certain of two things: Someone she knows is about to die. And she is powerless to stop it. 

Ashlyn Greenfield has always known when bad things are going to happen. Each time that familiar tingling at the back of her neck begins, she knows what's to come a trance. She's pulled in, blindsided, an unwilling witness to a horrible upcoming event. But she's never been able to stop it not even when the vision was of her mother's fatal car accident. When soulful Jake enters Ashlyn's life, she begins having trances about another car accident. And as her trances escalate, one thing becomes clear: it's up to her to save Jake from near-certain death.

The Last of the Demon Slayers by Angie Fox
Release Date: 10/15/2010

Goodreads 
Genre: Paranormal Romance 
Series: Demon Slayer #4 
Author's Website: AngieFox.com 
Publisher: Self-Publish 
ISBN: NA 
Media: eBook  

 
Summary:  
Lizzie Brown would like to have one normal date. Instead, she gets a towering inferno with a message: her long-lost dad is a fallen angel in danger of becoming a demon. Not good. Especially since she’s a demon slayer.

Her grandma advises her to stay out of it. Her sexy-as-sin shape-shifter boyfriend would much rather she devote her attention to more carnal pursuits. And her dog’s one demand is for more bacon. After all, he can’t train his pet dragon on an empty stomach.

But Lizzie knows there’s no other choice but to hop on her Harley and help her dad—even if the search for the truth brings a bad-boy slayer back into her life and leads her into the middle of a war to end all wars.

If I have missed any new book release(s) within the Speculative Fiction genre i.e. Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Horror, Fantasy and YA Paranormal/Fantasy for this week, and you would like me to include them in my new release calendar below, please use this form to pass the book's information to me.

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This information is maintained in my Google Calendar. My New Book Release calendar will be the most up-to-date on new releases. Any new releases missed for this week will not show up on this page but will be visible in my calendar below. If you would like to link to my Google Calendar "New & Upcoming Book Releases", instructions on how to do this are listed here.