Jia
 is an avid reader who loves fantasy and young adult novels. She's currently burned out on urban fantasy and paranormals, but she'll always have a soft spot for traditional fantasy and she's branching out into manga. Her favorite authors are Michelle West, Jacqueline Carey, and Rob Thurman, although she did enjoy Joe Abercrombie's latest so don't go thinking she's prejudiced against male authors or anything. Jia's on the hunt for fantasy novels with diverse casts and multicultural settings. Email her with recommendations!
Dear Ms. Ward,
 I don’t even know where to begin. While it’s true I’m a fan of your Black Dagger Brotherhood series, I stopped making any claims about its purported quality many books back. Romance? Unlike most readers who thought the first books were romance, only for later ones to shift into the urban fantasy category, I never believed the series belonged in the romance genre in the first place. So I took it with a very large, very heavy bucket of salt when I heard that your new series, starting with Covet, would be more romantic. Sorry, but it’s true.
Jim Heron is an ex-military assassin, jaded and cynical about life. He drifts from one place to the next, putting down no roots and trying to stay out of trouble. He’s currently employed as a construction worker but when the mansion he’s currently helping to build is completed, he intends to move on. Then on the eve of his fortieth birthday, he hooks up with a woman at the club, Iron Mask.
What he thought would only be a pleasant memory unfortunately leads to more, just not in …
Dear Ms. Kittredge,
 I have a very hard time explaining why I keep reading this series. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the main character, Luna Wilder, can be really off-putting at times. On the other hand, it’s very nice to see her maturing and evolving over the course of the series. The Luna Wilder we meet in Witch Craft, the fourth installment of your Nocturne City series, is certainly not the same Luna Wilder we met at the beginning in Night Life. Well, in some ways, at any rate. I still question her taste in men.
When Witch Craft opens, Luna is now the head of the Supernatural Crimes Squad (SCS), a new division in Nocturne City’s police force created to look into cases not quite on the mundane side of things. Problem is they want the SCS to start bringing results ASAP. If not, then they’ll be disbanded and Luna and her co-workers will be out of a job.
Luna sees their chance to prove themselves with a new case. Mysterious fires are being set all over the city, killing some unsavory people who deal with Nocturne City’s supernatural side. What’s more, …
Dear Ms. Stiefvater,
This is the first novel of yours that I’ve completed. I attempted to read your debut, Lament, but I’m afraid my general disinterest in faeries got the better of me. Shiver, on the other hand, is about werewolves, which remain my favorite of the supernatural bestiary. Add to that the fact that I first heard about this book pitched as The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Blood and Chocolate, and my interest was definitely piqued. That said, while Blood and Chocolate is one of my favorite novels ever (please don’t talk to me about the movie; it doesn’t exist in my head), I have to add the caveat that I’m one of the five people in the entire world who didn’t care for The Time Traveler’s Wife. So I was curious to see on which end of the spectrum Shiver would fall.
When she was a child, Grace was attacked by wolves. She’d been playing in the backyard, when wolves pulled her off the swing and mauled her. But mysteriously, one of the wolves — a grey with striking yellow eyes — stopped the rest of his …
Dear Ms. Sagara,
 You are easily one of my favorite authors. These days it’s very rare for me to follow a series past a certain point, but I find myself doing that for the novels you write under both the Michelle Sagara and Michelle West names. It also helps that thus far, they haven’t disappointed me which goes a long way to keeping this reader’s loyalty.
Cast in Silence is the fifth book in your Elantra series published by Luna. The Cast books follow Kaylin Neya, a private in the Hawks, the police force that helps protect the city of Elantra. Kaylin is stubborn, hot-headed, and at times immature, traits which prove unsurprising given her background. Still, she’s a useful member of the force despite her flaws.
Unfortunately for Kaylin, she’s also gifted with an unusual magical talent of alarming proportions, the signs of which are evident in the black marks that cover her skin and have, in fact, continued to spread across her body. The only thing she finds useful from this talent is her ability to heal, which she exercises often at the expense of her health. Other people, however, …
Dear Ms. Collins,
 The Hunger Games was my favorite novel of 2008. For me it had the perfect combination of a great heroine, fast-paced plotting, and gripping tension. And considering the cliffhanger ending, I’ve been looking forward to Catching Fire since I finished last page of that book.
To refresh readers, and to bring people new to the series up to speed, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are set in a dystopian future in the remains of what was once the United States. At some point in time, an apocalypse occurred, which caused society as we know it to fall apart. From the rubble arose Panem, which consisted of the Capitol and thirteen surrounding Districts that provided the various materials and goods to keep the nation running. To be more accurate, the Capitol ruled over the thirteen surrounding Districts with an oppressive regime that eventually led to revolt. Unfortunately for the Districts, the revolt was squashed and the thirteenth District was utterly destroyed. To top it off, as punishment, the Capitol created the Hunger Games, an annual battle royale designed to remind the Districts who was in control.
Catching Fire picks up nearly immediately where …
 Story & Art: Fumi Yoshinaga
Publisher: Viz Signature
Rating: M for mature
Retail: $12.99
Length: 1/4+ volumes
I first heard of Ōoku about a year ago from a friend. The premise, she said, was that due to a disease that targets only men, the power hierarchy in Japan was genderflipped. Women filled roles that had, up until the disease struck the male population, been traditionally done only by men — including that of the Tokugawa shoguns. It sounded completely like something I would like but since I’m unable to read Japanese, it was one of those things I resigned myself to never having access to. Thankfully, other people thought it sounded interesting too and it’s now available in English.
In Ōoku, a strange new disease breaks out among the Japanese male population. It’s characterized by a high fever that’s then shortly followed by red pustules that spread all over the body. These pustules soon fester and the victim dies within a few days. Because of these symptoms, the disease is dubbed the Redface Pox.
Although the Redface Pox originated in a small farming village, it becomes apparent that the plague is highly contagious and virulent as well. It spreads from one …
Dear Ms. Van Diepen,
 I can’t remember exactly where I first stumbled across your work. I think it might have been through a string of random link hopping that originated from a list of future Harlequin Teen authors. While your first book from Harlequin Teen won’t be coming out until next year, it turns out that you’ve already published a couple young adult novels. This one, in particular, caught my eye because it featured breakdancers.
Nicole’s family life is in shambles. Her brilliant older brother crashed and burned during his first year of college and has taken to the streets as a meth addict. Despite knowing what has happened, their parents enable him — giving him money in order to keep a roof over his head even though it’s more likely he’ll use the funds to keep up his drug addiction.
To escape the turmoil that is her home life, Nicole has thrown herself into the life of a breakdancer. It wasn’t something she thought she’d ever do before her brother left. But one night, she saw a dancer named Zin at a club and it was love at first sight. …
Dear Ms. Vincent,
 While it’s true that your Faythe Saunders werecat books don’t work well for me, I’ve been watching the soon-to-be-launched Harlequin Teen imprint with interest. It’s no secret that YA novels have been experiencing a sort of renaissance in recent years. The genre is large, diverse and continually growing, so I was interested in seeing what titles the largest romance publisher would bring us. The imprint doesn’t launch until August with your novel, My Soul to Take, serving as one of the lead titles (and Gena Showalter’s Intertwined to follow in September), but Harlequin gave us a sneak peek with your prequel novella.
It’s just another day at the mall for Kaylee Cavanaugh, who’s gone there with her best friend. Well, maybe not just another day. After all, they’re working on a plan to get revenge on Kaylee’s ex-boyfriend who unceremoniously dumped her and then proceeded to ask another girl to the dance without missing a beat. Unfortunately, things don’t go according to plan. Kaylee has always suffered from panic attacks and as so often happens in this sorts of stories, one overcomes her in the middle of …
Dear Ms. Carey,
 I think it’s no secret that you’re one of my favorite authors. Even though the Sundering duology didn’t do much for me, I loved the original Kushiel trilogy featuring Phedre and Joscelin. I’ve also been in something of a reading funk, finding myself unable to finish any book at all. I don’t think this is necessarily due to the much-dreaded paranormal malaise we’ve talked about in the past here at Dear Author, but I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t part of it. Thankfully, your latest book in the Kushiel universe came out recently and I knew that’d be guaranteed to kick me out of my funk. And what do you know, I was right.
Set over a century after the second Kushiel trilogy about Imriel and Sidonie, Naamah’s Kiss is about Moirin, a member of the Maghuin Dhonn from Alba. Readers familiar with Imriel’s trilogy will recognize the Maghuin Dhonn as being the principle antagonists from the second book, Kushiel’s Justice. In that book, the tribe committed a grave atrocity in order to preserve the continued survival of their people. …
Dear Ms. Kittredge,
 I think most readers who’ve heard of you are more familiar with your Luna Wilder series. While I have my reservations about the titular character of those books, I do think they’re a good way to pass the time. But I’ll confess: the series I’ve really been waiting for are the Black London books. My first exposure to this world was in your short story, “Newlydeads,” and although that piece of short fiction didn’t work out so well for me, the world and the characters of Pete and Jack stuck in my mind. So when I opened up a box from Jane to find an ARC of this inside, I immediately snatched it up and out.
Petunia “Pete” Caldecott is a detective inspector for Scotland Yard. Her latest case deals with the kidnapping of a young girl. She has no leads in the investigation until a tip leads her directly to the girl. But …
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