Upcoming Releases - August 2 - 8

There are quite a few great books coming out in the next few weeks and into the fall, so it is sometimes difficult to whittle this list down to a measly ten books.  But I am trying to include an eclectic list of books that I would like to read as I tend to read a wide variety of genres.  Here are a few I am interesting in reading this week:

Dating for Demons
by Serena Robar
Release Date: August 3, 2010

I just started to grasp that my best friend is a half-blood vampire, and now I'm facing demons of my own.  Colby needs my help with an ancient prophesy, and a mysterious loner, Hunter, has been kind enough to take me under his wing.  But is he teaching me or studying me?

No Mercy (Dark-Hunter, Book 27)
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Release Date: August 3, 2010

Shapeshifter Dev Peltier has stood guard at the front of Sanctuary for almost 200 years and in that time, he's seen it all. Or so he thought.  In contemporary New Orleans, the immortal amazon warrior, Samia, is about to learn there's a worse evil coming to slaughter manking than she's ever faced before.

The war is on and Dev and Sam are guarding ground zero.  But in order to win, they will have to break the most cardinal of all rules and pray it doesn't unravel the universe as they know it.

The Devil Colony (Sigma Force, Book 7)
by James Rollins
Release Date: August 3, 2010

Could the founding of America be based on a fundamental lie, one coded in secrets that stretch back to before the birth of Christ, to a mystery buried in the prehistoric past?  The truth lies hidden within the ruins of a cursed lost colony of the Americas, know only as THE DEVIL COLONY.  During a sweat lodge ceremony in an Indian cave in the Rocky Mountains, a horrible massacre ensues.  Bodies are found blistered and burned and purposefully positioned to form two shapes: a five-pointed start and a sickle-shaped moon.  One man recognizes the warning behind the gruesome murders, Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force.  Painter Crowe joins forces with Commander Grayson Pierce and a woman who may have had a hand in the murders, to penetrate the shadowy heart of a dark cabal that has been manipulating American history since the founding of the thirteen colonies.

Waking the Witch (Women of the Otherworld, Book 11)
by Kelley Armstrong
Release Date: August 3, 2010

The orphaned daughter of a sorceror and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around.  So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town, as a favour to one of the agency's associates.

But soon Savannah is in over her head.  She's run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime.  Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn't her last.

The Red Queen (Cousins' War, Book 2)
by Philippa Gregory
Release Date: August 3, 2010

Heiress to the red rose of Lancaster, Margaret Beaufort never surrenders her belief that her house is the true ruler of England and she has a great destiny before her. This is the story of the mother of King Henry VII and the grandmother of King Henry VIII, and a key figure in the Wars of the Roses.

Betrayal
by Gillian Shields
Release Date: August 3, 2010

Evie returns to Wyldcliffe for another term and more danger.  Surrounded by enemies, she lives every day in fear that Sebastian will fall into the darkness of servitude to the Unconquered Lords.  The Wyldcliffe coven is plotting to destroy Evie and use Sebastian to secure their own immortality.  Evie and her sisters must master the power of the Talisman before it is too late.  But could it be Sebastian himself who will ultimately betray Evie?

Fragile
by Lisa Unger
Release Date: August 3, 2010

Despite their mostly happy marriage, when their son Ricky's girlfriend vanishes, Maggie and Jones find themselves at odds.  With Charlene gone, the memory of another young girl who went missing some twenty years ago is haunting the town.  That story didn't have a happy ending, and almost everyone has an unrevealed reason for keeping the horror of it firmly in the past.

As Jones and the police turn their focus on Ricky, Maggie must find out the truth about what happened all those years ago.  In order to save her son and the young woman who life hangs in the balance, she'll test the bonds of her community - and find out just how fragile they can be.

Labyrinth (Greywalker, Book 5)

by Kat Richardson

Release Date: August 3, 2010

Just back from London, Harper picked up some new skills while she was away.  But instead of taking the time to hone them, she'd rather focus on what's important. Like finding the two-bit perp who 'killed' her.  She's convinced he's a valuable clue in the puzzle of her past and her missing father, as well as a key as to who's trying to manipulate her powers and why.  There's just one problem.  Turns out the man who 'killed' her was murdered himself while she was away.  With Seattle's recent surge in violence - thanks to the vampires - she's already under suspicion.  Which means Harper has to watch her step.  Because finding the ghost of her 'killer' - and rescuing her father - will mean entering into the Grey.  And with her growing powers pulling her more deeply into that paranormal world, Harper's afraid she may not be able to come back out...

The Viognier Vendetta (Wine Country Mystery, Book 5)
by Ellen Crosby
Release Date: August 3, 2010

When Lucie Montgomery visits Washington, D.C., during cherry blossom season, she doesn't expect her reunion with old friend Rebecca Natale is a setup.  But Rebecca disappears into thin air after running an errand for her boss, billionaire philanthropist and investment guru Sir Thomas Asher.  Also missing: an antique silver wine cooler looted by British soldiers before they burned the White House during the War of 1812.

The next morning Lucie identifies Rebecca's neatly folded clothes found in a rowboat floating in the Potomac River.  Is it suicide, murder - or an elaborate scheme to disappear?

Sacred Treason
by James Forrester
Release Date: August 5, 2010

London, 1563. England is a troubled nation.  Catholic plots against the young Queen Elizabeth spring up all over the country.  The herald William Harley - known to everyone as Clarenceux - receives a book from his friend and fellow Catholic, Henry Machyn.  But Machyn is in fear of his life...What secret can the book hold?  And then Clarenceux is visited from the State in the form of Francis Walsingham and his ruthless enforcers, who will stop at nothing to gain possession of it.  If Clarenceux and his family are to survive the terror of the state, he must solve the clues contained in the book to unlock its dangerous secrets before it's too late.  And when he does, he realizes it's not only his life and the lives of those most dear to him that are at stake...