If You Follow Me: A Novel
by Malena Watrous
Harper Perennial
Trade Paperback – $14.99/$16.99 Can.
General Fiction

Hoping to outpace her grief in the wake of her father’s suicide, Marina, a recent college graduate, has come to the small, rural Japanese town of Shika to teach English for a year. But in Japan, as she soon discovers, you can never really throw away your past… or anything else, for that matter.

Alive with vibrant and unforgettable characters—from an ambitious town matchmaker to a high school student rap artist wannabe with an addiction to self-tanning lotion—it guides readers over cultural bridges even as it celebrates the awkward, unlikely triumph of the human spirit.

If You Follow Me is at once a coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water tale, a dark comedy of manners, and a strange kind of love story. It won a Michener-Copernicus award, and sections have been awarded a Glimmertrain Fiction Open award and runner-up in the Faulkner/Pirate’s Alley Contest.

Hmm. I know I’m supposed to give you guys my reaction, but I really don’t have one. I’m not convinced this was the best blurb I’ve ever read.  Way too vague. I dug deeper on the author’s website it looks to be feel-good, humorous coming-of-age novel. I do enjoy fish-out-of-water stories, and I know a lot of other people do as well.

Postcards from a Dead Girl: A Novel
by Kirk Farber
Harper Perennial
Trade Paperback – $13.99/$15.99 Can.
General Fiction

Sid is going crazy . . .

A telemarketer at a travel agency, Sid is becoming unhinged and superneurotic. Lately he’s been obsessed with car washes and mud baths. His hypochondria is driving his doctor sister mad. And it’s all because of his ex-girlfriend, Zoe, who’s sending him postcards from her European adventure, one that they were supposed to take together. It’s all quite upsetting.

A fact-finding tour of local post offices—and a new friendship with postman Gerald—followed by a solo European jaunt will do little to ease his anxiety. A long talk with his mother’s spirit in a wine bottle doesn’t help either. But what he really needs are a few more tentative dates with the chatty Candyce. Sid needs to get over Zoe and find love again—even though Zoe, apparently, has no inclination to be gotten over.

Gosh, I think the title give too much away, if poor Zoe really is dead. I hope I’m wrong. I can imagine that this will appeal to some of you.

Secret Daughter: A Novel
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
William Morrow
Hardcover – $23.99/$31.50 Can.
General Fiction
On the eve of the monsoons, in a remote Indian village, Kavita gives birth to Asha. But in a culture that favors sons, the only way for Kavita to save her newborn daughter’s life is to give her away. It is a decision that will haunt her and her husband for the rest of their lives, even after the arrival of their cherished son.

Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor, decides to adopt a child after making the wrenching discovery that she will never have one of her own. When she and her husband Krishnan see a photo of baby Asha from a Mumbai orphanage, they are overwhelmed with emotion for her. Somer knows life will change with the adoption, but is convinced that the love they already feel will overcome all obstacles.

Interweaving the stories of Kavita, Somer, and Asha, Secret Daughter poignantly explores issues of culture and belonging. Moving between two worlds and two families, one struggling to survive in the fetid slums of Mumbai, the other grappling to forge a cohesive family despite their diverging cultural identities, this powerful debut novel marks the arrival of a fresh talent poised for great success.

This is a strong hook for me. I’ve been to India, and I’ve seen the slums of Mumbai.  I’m less interested in an American couple raising the child, but the hook is still strong enough for me that I might seek it out. I’m going to need a fantasy break soon, anyway!

Balancing Acts: A Novel
by Zoe Fishman
Harper Paperbacks
Trade Paperback – $13.99/$17.99 Can.
General Fiction

Charlie seemed to have it all—beauty, brains and a high-paying Wall Street job far away from her simple Midwest upbringing. Then, in the middle of her “quarter life crisis,” she decides that the banker’s life isn’t what she wanted after all, quits her job and opens her own yoga studio in Brooklyn. But like any new business, finding customers is an uphill battle. When she hears about her college’s 10 year reunion, she straps on her best salesman smile and invades midtown—determined to drum up some business.

Unexpectedly, she reconnects with three college classmates—women who, like Charlie, haven’t ended up quite where they wanted to in life. Sabine, a romance book editor, still longs to write the novel brewing inside of her. Naomi, a child of the Upper East Side, was an up-and-coming photographer and social darling, but now is a single mom who hasn’t picked up her camera in years. Bess, a California girl trying to make it in New York, dreams of being the next Christiane Amanpour, but instead finds herself writing snarky captions for a gossip mag, which is neither satisfying nor rewarding. When Charlie, who has her own past to contend with, signs them up for a weekly beginner’s yoga class, they become all too aware of the lack of balance in their lives. Each has to dig deep and fight their inner demons to reconnect with what they truly want out of life.

With wit and sensitivity, debut author Zoe Fishman perfectly captures the poignancy, humor, and promise in these four women’s lives. Balancing Acts is a sincere look at what happens when you’re ten years out of college but feel 100 years from who you once were.

I read somewhere once that in novels that center on a group of women, there are always four of them. I can see why — with an even number, you can get two conflicting teams, or you could have a three against one. Ten years out of college means around 32, which was ten years out of the Air Force for me. I loved being 32. It’s like, the perfect age.

Apologize, Apologize! by Elizabeth Kelly
Twelve (Random House)
March 30, 2010
Trade Paperback – $13.99
Literary Fiction

Welcome to the world of the fantastic Flanagans; a wildly eccentric Massachusetts clan that is both blessed and afflicted with an inexhaustible reservoir of old money, unwavering subversive charm – and a veritable chorus of dogs. At the centre of this maelstrom is sensible Collie Flanagan, first-born son and heir to his grandfather’s publishing fortune, whose easy life is shattered by the outcome of a casual afternoon outing. Affecting, funny and wise, this is a rollicking story packed with characters that are a delight to get to know, and are impossible to forget.

No author website, which I find inexplicable in this day and age. Well, I did get to the cgi-bin of elizabethkelly.com. Not helpful. Neither is this blurb. However, this novel is getting a lot of attention. While Googling in vain for the author’s website (“elizabeth kelly author”), I found numerous interviews, articles and rave reviews, one which calls her an “overnight sensation”.

Most of you are, like me, readers of speculative fiction. Any of these blow your hair back?

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
by N.K. Jemisin
Orbit Books
Trade Paperback – $13.99
Epic Fantasy

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky – a palace above the clouds where gods’ and mortals’ lives are intertwined.

There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heirs to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with a pair of cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother’s death and her family’s bloody history.

But it’s not just mortals who have secrets worth hiding and Yeine will learn how perilous the world can be when love and hate – and gods and mortals – are bound inseparably.

Here’s a novel that’s making a big splash. And quite excitingly, the author is a woman. I’ve been on the lookout for debut epic fantasy authors by women, because there were so few (actually, none that I knew of) that came out in the last year or so. Now, this week, I have two to announce! Plus, this part of the Inheritance Trilogy. As in three books. Not an unending mega-series. Throw that in with the intriguing blurb, and I must get a copy.

The River Kings’ Road
by Liane Merciel
Pocket Books
Hardcover – $

A fragile period of peace between the eternally warring kingdoms of Oakharn and Langmyr is shattered when a surprise massacre fueled by bloodmagic ravages the Langmyrne border village of Willowfield, killing its inhabitants — including a visiting Oakharne lord and his family — and leaving behind a scene so grisly that even the carrion eaters avoid its desecrated earth. But the dead lord’s infant heir has survived the carnage — a discovery that entwines the destinies of Brys Tarnell, a mercenary who rescue the helpless and ailing babe, and who enlists a Langmyr peasant, a young mother herself, to nourish and nurture the child of her enemies as they travel a dark, perilous road…

Odosse, the peasant woman whose only weapons are wit, courage, and her fierce maternal love — and who risks everything she holds dear to protect her new charge… Sir Kelland, a divinely blessed Knight of the Sun, called upon to unmask the architects behind the slaughter and avert war between ancestral enemies… Bitharn, Kelland’s companion on his journey, who conceals her lifelong love for the Knight behind her flawless archery skills — and whose feelings may ultimately be Kelland’s undoing… and Leferic, an Oakharne Lord’s bitter youngest son, whose dark ambitions fuel the most horrific acts of violence.

As one infant’s life hangs in the balance, so too does the fate of thousands, while deep in the forest, a Maimed Witch practices an evil bloodmagic that could doom them all…

I already have a copy of The River Kings’ Road by Liane Merciel, the other female author of an epic fantasy, mentioned above. And I’ve already read it. As I’ve mentioned previously, the idea of a nursing mother involved in a fantasy quest was a strong hook for me. Plus, I love epic fantasies. I plan to post a review this week, but in the meantime, you can see what Robert thought.

How to Knit a Love Song
by Rachael Herron
HarperCollins
Trade Paperback – 13.99
Contemporary Romance

Abigail is more than ready for a change when she inherits a cottage from her beloved mentor, knitting guru Eliza Carpenter. Leaving the oppressive city for the greener pastures of a small California beach town, she intends to turn her cozy little windfall into a knitting shop and spend her days spinning, designing, and purling. But she’s not going to be welcomed with open arms by her new neighbor. Eliza’s disgruntled nephew, the gorgeous Cade, now owns everything surrounding Abigail’s ramshackle new home, and he views this sexy city girl as an unwanted interloper.

But chemistry working overtime is drawing two very different people closer than they ever thought possible. And when the past that Abigail thought she’d left behind comes calling, she’ll have to somehow learn to trust her handsome adversary with much more than just her heart.

I’m not sure how to classify this one. It sounds like a romance, but I’m cautious of labeling. Suffice to say, it’s a love story. I think it’s hilarious that her mentor’s nephew must endure this “hole” in his newly-inherited land. The reading of the will alone sounds like it would be great fun.

Warrior Ascended
by Addison Fox
Signet Eclipse
MM Paperback – $7.99
Paranormal Romance

Charming, proud, and impulsive, Leo Warrior Brody Talbot is fighting what may be his final battle. Enyo, the Goddess of War, plans to fulfill an ancient prophecy to destroy humanity by harnessing the dark power of the Summoning Stones of Egypt. There’s only one person who knows enough about the stones to help Brody stop her-beautiful museum curator Ava Harrison.

Never in all his centuries has Brody met a woman who enthralls him like Ava. But, bound to protect her, he struggles to deny his passion as they are drawn into a dark and dangerous final reckoning between good and evil.

The description on the author’s website provides a lot of backstory, so be sure to visit if you’re interested. It looks like there’s twelve novels planned in the series, which is called Sons of the Zodiac. Each novel will concentrate on a sign of the Zodiac.

~*~

I have more debuts on my calendar, but since I want  to post this on Tuesday morning, I’ll just stop here. As always, I’d love to know if any of these interest you.

I did a little experiment on you guys. I posted the last Showcase without any of my usual impressions after each book. Superwench was the only one who commented. Therefore, this time, I added my comments and left off the images. Something has to go; these posts take hours to assemble as it is. And since we bloggers live for comments — they feed our blogging energies — I’ve dropped the images. I figure a post with just images and blurbs would be boring, anyway.

Also, in most cases, the author’s website had sufficient information, in my opinion, to inform your buying decision. In areas where the information was insufficient, I included a link to the publisher’s buy page.

Some additional catalogs became available on Edelweiss, so this is a bit of a catch-up post. I’ve also included everything from my Debut Calendar up to today.

~*~

Alcestis
by Katharine Beutner

In Greek mythology, Alcestis is known as the good wife; she loved her husband so much that she died to save his life and was sent to the underworld in his place. In this poetic and vividly imagined debut, Katharine Beutner gives voice to the woman behind the ideal, bringing to life the world of Mycenaean Greece, a world peopled by capricious gods, where royal women are confined to the palace grounds and passed as possessions from father to husband.

Alcestis tells of a childhood spent with her sisters in the bedchamber where her mother died giving birth to her and of her marriage at the age of fifteen to Admetus, the young king of Pherae, a man she barely knows, who is kind but whose heart belongs to a god. She also tells the part of the story that’s never been told: What happened to Alcestis in the three days she spent in the underworld before being rescued by Heracles? In the realm of the dead, Alcestis falls in love with the goddess Persephone and discovers the true horror and beauty of death.

A lot here appeals to me. The ancient-world setting, the retelling of a myth. Kelly reviewed it over at Fantasy Literature, and she thinks those who liked Black Ships might like this one.

Spellwright
by Blake Charlton

Hat Tip: A Dribble of Ink (links to review)

Imagine a world in which you could peel written words off a page and make them physically real. You might pick your teeth with a sentence fragment, protect yourself with defensive paragraphs, or thrust a sharply-worded sentence at an enemy’s throat.

Such a world is home to Nicodemus Weal, an apprentice at the wizardly academy of Starhaven. Because of how fast he can forge the magical runes that create spells, Nicodemus was thought to be the Halcyon, a powerful spellwright prophesied to prevent an event called the War of Disjunction, which would destroy all human language. There was only one problem: Nicodemus couldn’t spell.

Runes must be placed in the correct order to create a spell. Deviation results in a “misspell”—a flawed text that behaves in an erratic, sometimes lethal, manner. And Nicodemus has a disability, called cacography, that causes him to misspell texts simply by touching them.

Now twenty-five, Nicodemus lives in the aftermath of failing to fulfill prophecy. He finds solace only in reading knightly romances and in the teachings of Magister Shannon, an old blind wizard who’s left academic politics to care for Starhaven’s disabled students.

But when a powerful wizard is murdered with a misspell, Shannon and Nicodemus becomes the primary suspects. Proving their innocence becomes harder when the murderer begins killing male cacographers one by one…and all evidence suggests that Nicodemus will be next. Hunted by both investigators and a hidden killer, Shannon and Nicodemus must race to discover the truth about the murders, the nature of magic, and themselves.

Ok, this one looks very interesting, even though I had a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of spelling-based magic. The invented magical disability looks especially intriguing.

Lake Magic
by Kimberly Fisk
Berkley
Paperback – $7.99
Contemporary Romance

After the sudden loss of her fiancé, Steven, Jenny Beckinsale has more than a broken heart to deal with—she’s also facing too many financial surprises over Blue Sky, the fledgling seaplane service she and Steven built. Too late she’s discovered Steven was in over his head, and deeply in debt to his best friend and fellow Navy pilot Jared Worth. The sexy, cynical Top Gun demands his money back now. He doesn’t care what will happen to Jenny or her small town dreams of success.

But Jenny has a few surprises of her own, including a way out of her predicament—she’ll force this steel-eyed flyboy into service for Blue Sky. It’s the only way Jared will ever see a dime. But as the summer fades, these two lost souls will discover they’re saving more than a business…they’re saving each other.

Ooh. A Top Gun? This one might tempt me into reading a romance. The author posted an excerpt on her website, and it looks so fun.

Roses
by Leila Meacham
Grand Central Publishing
Hardback – $24.99
Literary Fiction

Spanning the 20th century, the story of Roses takes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town’s founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been–not just for themselves but for their children, and children’s children. With expert, unabashed, big-canvas storytelling, Roses covers a hundred years, three generations of Texans and the explosive combination of passion for work and longing for love.

The author has no website. However, she has written an article that is on her publisher’s website about her experience of being first published at age 69.

Damaged
by Kia DuPree
Grand Central Publishing
Paperback – $13.99
Fiction

Camille Logan feels trapped. After she is sexually and emotionally abused by her foster parents, she turns to the one person she knows she can trust–her boyfriend Chu, a mid-level drug dealer. But when life finally starts looking up for Camille, Chu is brutally murdered. Again feeling abandoned and helpless, and refusing to return to the system, Camille finds herself living with a stable of women in a tiny run-down apartment building in Washington, D.C., working for Nut, a deranged pimp. Fed up with her life, Camille is forced to right her wrongs, and slowly learns that her past does not necessarily determine her future.

This novel looks awfully intense. I like the part about her righting her wrongs, and I’m intrigued by how she is going to escape the pimp.

Mr. Shivers
by Robert Jackson Bennett (blog)
Orbit
Hardback – $19.99
Historical Fiction

It is the time of the Great Depression.

Thousands have left their homes looking for a better life, a new life. But Marcus Connelly is not one of them. He searches for one thing, and one thing only. Revenge.

Because out there, riding the rails, stalking the camps, is the scarred vagrant who murdered Connelly’s daughter. No one knows him, but everyone knows his name: Mr. Shivers.

In this extraordinary debut, Robert Jackson Bennett tells the story of an America haunted by murder and desperation. A world in which one man must face a dark truth and answer the question-how much is he willing to sacrifice for his satisfaction?

I find myself wanting a more fleshed-out blurb. This is classified as a historical novel, but the title and blurb reads more like horror. On his blog, the author calls it a “horror-ish, literary-ish novel”.

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
by Tiffany Baker
Grand Central Publishing
Trade Paperback – $13.99
General Fiction

When Truly Plaice’s mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother’s death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated–Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

Serena Jane’s beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book–containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers–has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly’s biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.

When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly’s brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling–the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques–hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan’s family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly’s reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

This novel appeals to the writer in me, because I have written a novel about a giantesque woman as well. The blurb — which is rather long — makes the novel sound a bit otherworldly, almost a fantasy, but not quite. This novel has already hit the NYTimes bestseller list.

The Book of Fires: A Novel
by Jane Borodale
Viking Books
Hardback – $26.95
Literary Fiction

1752. As winter approaches, two guilty secrets drive seventeen-year-old Agnes Trussel to run away from her home in rural Sussex. Pregnant with an unwanted child and carrying stolen coins, she is shocked by the squalor and poverty of London.

She finds work as an assistant to John Blacklock, a dark, laconic firework-maker. As her weaver’s fingers learn to make rockets, portfires, stars, fiery rain, she becomes intrigued by the glitter and roar of fireworks.

Soon she meets Cornelius Soul, seller of gunpowder, and hatches a plan which could save her. But why does Blacklock so vehemently disapprove of Mr Soul? And what is Blacklock hiding from her? Could he be on the brink of a discovery that will change pyrotechny forever?

Meanwhile, her own secret is becoming harder to conceal, especially from the suspicious eye of Mrs Blight, the housekeeper with a thirst for hangings. Caught between her crime and her condition it appears that ruin must be inevitable…

I’ve only been announcing debuts outside of the fantasy and science fiction genres for a while, but already I’m seeing that a pregnant heroine as a recurring theme. I wish I understood why Mrs. Blight’s thirst for hangings was a factor, and what Agnes’s crime is. Does she face a hanging for being pregnant out of wedlock?

The Bird Room: A Novel
by Chris Killen
Harper Perennial
Paperback  – $13.99
Literary Fiction

Painfully average and introverted Will finally has a bird. Her name is Alice. She’s smart, sexy, and much to Will’s surprise, she is in love with him. But the course of love never did run smooth, and soon devotion—and its uglier manifestations—lead Will to a dark place within himself.

Elsewhere in the city, Helen is an actress—or she will be some day. For now, she finds work as a “model”—or whatever her online acquaintances need her to be. Her real name is Clair, but she desperately wants to be someone new, someone glamorous and real—someone worth something.

A love story with a twist, this exuberant and funny debut novel brings Will and Helen’s lives together in a tale as tight as a rope and as black as tar. Sharp, playful, and brimming over with wicked comedy, The Bird Room heralds the arrival of a major new literary talent.

The author’s experimental website didn’t have the usual information, so I linked the title to the publisher’s page for this novel. Not sure what to think here — again, I find myself wanting a longer blurb.

Congratulations to all these debut authors!

Congratulations to the following debut novelists!

Gutshot Straight: A Novel
by Lou Berney
William Morrow
Hardcover – $24.99
General Fiction

When Charles “Shake” Bouchon, professional wheel man, walks out of prison after a three-year stretch for grand theft auto, he’s only got two problems: he’s too nice a guy for the life he’s led, but not nice enough for any other. And he can’t say no.

It was supposed to be a simple errand for his former boss and lover, Alexandra Illandryan, the dangerous pakhan of the Armenian mob in Los Angeles. Deliver a package to Las Vegas and pick up a briefcase. Only that package turns out to be a wholesome little housewife named Gina. When Shake discovers the recipient is Dick Moby, aka “The Whale,” an unpleasant 400-pound Vegas strip-club owner, the ex-con decides to free Gina, a brave and boneheaded move. Shake and Gina are out of there, but good thing Gina grabbed the briefcase on the way out. (That’s one quick-thinking housewife!)

Now Shake and Gina are on the run to Panama, looking to unload valuable religious artifacts of questionable anatomical provenance and escape a murderous Armenian thug with erectile super-function, a heartbroken ex-linebacker who blames Shake for his misery, not to mention two angry crime bosses. Plus, Shake’s about to learn a whole lot of interesting things about sweet, little Gina.

Wench: A Novel
by Dolen Perkins-valdez
Amistad
Hardcover – $24.99
Historical Fiction

Wench: from Middle English, “wenchel,” a girl, maid, young woman; a female child.

Situated in the free state of Ohio, Tawawa House offers respite from life’s vicissitudes and the summer’s heat. A beautiful, inviting house surrounded by a dozen private cottages, the resort is favored by wealthy Southern white men who vacation there, accompanied only by their slave mistresses.

Regular visitors, Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet have forged a deep, enduring friendship. They look forward to their annual reunion, and the opportunity it affords them to catch up on changes in their lives and their respective plantations. The subject of freedom is never shared—until the red-maned, spirited Mawu arrives and voices her determination to escape. For these slave mistresses, to run is to leave behind everything they value most—the friends and families trapped at home. For some, it also means tearing the strong emotional and psychological ties that bind them to their masters—bonds they can barely acknowledge yet don’t fully grasp.

When a fire on the resort sets off a string of tragedies, Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet soon learn tragic lessons—that triumph and dehumanization are inseparable and that love exists even in the cruelest circumstances—as they bear witness to the end of an era.

The Breach
by Patrick Lee
Harper
MM Paperback – $7.99/$10.99 Can.
Thriller

Travis Chase, a man putting his life back together after fifteen years in prison, takes a solo hike into the Alaskan Rockies. He’s just looking for a quiet place to think about his future, but what he finds is trouble: a 747, downed in remote wilderness, the wreck impossibly undiscovered by authorities. Those aboard are dead, though not because of the crash. They’ve been shot.

This aircraft, along with the terrifying object it was transporting, is only the beginning for Travis. Within hours he finds himself at the center of a violent conflict that spans the globe, and a secret war that dates back three decades. A war for possession of radically advanced technology—that wasn’t created by human hands.

Beyond the Night
by Joss Ware
Avon
MM Paperback – $7.99
Paranormal

A man with no future…
When Dr. Elliott Drake wakes from a mysterious fifty-year sleep, the world as he knew it is gone. Cities are now desolate, and civilization is controlled by deadly immortals. Stranger still is Elliott’s extraordinary new “gift” – he has the power to heal, but it comes with fatal consequences.

A woman with a past
Jade barely escaped the immortals and is now hell-bent on revenge. She trusts no one… until Elliott. His piercing gaze and tempting touch shatter her defenses, but the handsome doctor seems to have dangerous secrets of his own. Is it safe to trust him with her heart?

If they are to survive in this dark new world, Jade and Elliott must work together to fight the forces that takes them beyond danger.

Beyond desire.
Beyond the night.

The Summer We Fell Apart: A Novel
by Robin Antalek
Harper Paperbacks
Trade Paperback – $14.99
General Fiction

Every family is crazy in their own special way, and the Haas family is no exception. Robin Antalek’s moving debut novel is the story of four siblings: Amy (the baby), George (the good son), Kate (daddy’s girl), and Finn (the drunk) as they careen into adulthood, trying to make peace with their past, and with each other.

As the children of a once brilliant playwright and a struggling actress, the Haas siblings were raised in a chaotic environment, abandoned into a shadowy adult world made up of equal parts glamour and neglect. When their father dies, they must depend on their intense but fragile bond to remember what it means to be family despite years of anger and hurt. From Amy’s adolescent yearnings for a “normal” life to George’s search for love and Kate’s struggle to not always be perfect, to the gritty details of Finn’s addictive and destructive behavior, the Haas children come to learn that this family—no matter how ragged and flawed—provides all the hope they need.

Told from the shifting perspective of all four siblings over the course of fifteen years, The Summer We Fell Apart offers a humorous and heartbreaking portrayal of a compellingly dysfunctional family. These brothers and sisters are painfully human, sometimes selfish, and almost always making the wrong decisions, but their endearing struggles provide laughter through tears—something anyone who’s ever had a sibling can relate to.

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze: A Novel
by Maaza Mengiste
W. W. Norton & Company
Hardcover – $24.95
General Fiction

An epic tale of a father and two sons, of betrayals and loyalties, of a family unraveling in the wake of Ethiopia’s revolution.This memorable, heartbreaking story opens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1974, on the eve of a revolution. Yonas kneels in his mother’s prayer room, pleading to his god for an end to the violence that has wracked his family and country. His father, Hailu, a prominent doctor, has been ordered to report to jail after helping a victim of state-sanctioned torture to die. And Dawit, Hailu’s youngest son, has joined an underground resistance movement-a choice that will lead to more upheaval and bloodshed across a ravaged Ethiopia.

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze tells a gripping story of family, of the bonds of love and friendship set in a time and place that has rarely been explored in fiction. It is a story about the lengths human beings will go in pursuit of freedom and the human price of a national revolution.

Unraveling
by Michelle Baldini and Lynn Biederman
Laurel Leaf
MM Paperback – $6.99
Juvenile Fiction – General

THE SMART THING Is to Prepare for the Unexpected.
So reads the fortune cookie fortune that Amanda receives at the beginning of her family’s vacation to Florida. Amanda knows all about preparing for the unexpected—her mother, whom she calls The Captain, is always hard on Amanda, and it’s just when Amanda lets her guard down that the very worst comes through. Looking for acceptance, Amanda turns her attention to boys, and doing whatever she can to be popular at school. That includes making out with the gorgeous senior Rick in his car after school—even though he has a girlfriend. And when Rick offers her The Deal—a real, official date to the Homecoming in front of everyone, in exchange for her virginity—Amanda jumps at the chance. But no matter how you try to prepare for the unexpected, sometimes you can’t.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt: A Novel
by Beth Hoffman
Viking Adult
Hardcover – $25.95
Literary Fiction

Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille—the tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town—a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. But when Camille is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt, Tootie Caldwell.
In her vintage Packard convertible, Tootie whisks CeeCee away to Savannah’s perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity, a world that seems to be run entirely by women. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons, to Tootie’s all-knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones, to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer.
Laugh-out-loud funny, Beth Hoffman’s charming debut novel, which Mary Kay Andrews calls “charming, disarming, sweet as the scent of magnolias on a Southern summer night,” hums with wacky humor and down-home heart. It is a novel that explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship and gives us the story of a young girl who loses one mother and finds many others.

The Blue Orchard: A Novel
by Jackson Taylor
Touchstone
Paperback – $16
Historical Fiction

On the eve of the Great Depression, Verna Krone, the child of Irish immigrants, must leave the eighth grade and begin working as a maid to help support her family. Her employer takes inappropriate liberties, and as Verna matures, it seems as if each man she meets is worse than the last. Through sheer force of will and a few chance encounters, she manages to teach herself to read and becomes a nurse. But Verna’s new life falls to pieces when she is arrested for assisting a black doctor with “illegal surgeries.” As the media firestorm rages, Verna reflects on her life while awaiting trial.

Based on the life of the author’s own grandmother and written after almost three hundred interviews with those involved in the real-life scandal, The Blue Orchard is as elegant and moving as it is exact and convincing. It is a dazzling portrayal of the changes America underwent in the first fifty years of the twentieth century. Readers will be swept into a time period that in many ways mirrors our own. Verna Krone’s story is ultimately a story of the indomitable nature of the human spirit—and a reminder that determination and self-education can defy the deforming pressures that keep women and other disenfranchised groups down.

Enjoy! Anyone of them sound interesting? Wench sounds pretty good to me.

Deadtown
by Nancy Holzner
Penguin/Ace Fantasy
Paperback – $7.99
Genre: Urban Fantasy (looks humorous, too!)

They call it Deadtown: the city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its borders—but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t exactly human…

Vicky’s demanding job keeping the city safe from all manner of monsters is one reason her relationship with workaholic lawyer (and werewolf) Alexander Kane is in constant limbo. Throw in a foolhardy zombie apprentice, a mysterious demon-plagued client, and a suspicious research facility that’s taken an unwelcome interest in her family, and Vicky’s love life has as much of a pulse as Deadtown’s citizens.

But now Vicky’s got bigger things to worry about. The Hellion who murdered her father ten years ago has somehow broken through Boston’s magical protections. The Hellion is a ruthless force of destruction with a personal grudge against Vicky, and she’s the only one who can stop this demon before it destroys the city and everyone in it.

I love the over-the-top cover here. I tried this one and while it was fun, I knew someone who was a true fan of urban fantasy would make a much better reviewer than me. So I sent it off to Mystery Urban Fantasy Guest Reviewer. Stay tuned!

Plain Jayne
by Hilary Manton Lodge
Harvest House Publishers
Trade Paperback – $13.99
Genre: Inspirational Romance

Jayne Tate loves her life as it is—living in a big city, working as a reporter for a fast-paced newspaper, and dating a guy who knows nothing about her past.  When her father passes away though, she’s forced to take another look at what she wants out of life.  After losing out on the big career opportunity she was hoping for, she decides to escape to Oregon Amish country, seeking solace and maybe a big story.

Even in this land of buggies and bonnets, Jayne finds life more complicated than she expected.  Can she persuade herself that her growing friendship with the mysterious and handsome Levi Burkholder is just about research?  And what’s a latte-drinking, laptop-using, motorcycle-riding reporter to do when this new life starts to change her?

The author keeps a good blog but really needs to finish her website. I like the look of it and since I’ve been meaning to read more than fantasy and science fiction, this is a possibility.

Pieces of Sky
by Kaki Warner
Trade Paperback – $15
Genre: Romance

via Publishers Marketplace

Pregnant and burdened with a terrible secret, Jessica has left England for the American West in search of a new life. Brady, a hard-bitten rancher haunted by the violence of his past, is desperate to protect his land and family from a blood feud that has already claimed one brother. She’s fancy hats and pamphlets on deportment. He’s rough manners and twenty years of blood on his hands. An improbable pair. But after their stagecoach crashes and Jessica is stranded at his high mountain ranch until she gives birth, antipathy slowly becomes attraction. He teaches her to trust and laugh again—she helps him find the joy he’d lost. Faced with hard choices and unspeakable loss, they draw strength from each other to overcome the horrors of their pasts, and in the process find redemption, forgiveness, and ultimately love.

It’s an old west story, a fish-out-of-water story and a pregnant-and-on-the-run story all at once. I’m not sure I feel qualified to read this one, but her being pregnant while traveling makes me sympathetic. Always a good place to start from after reading a blurb.

Veracity
by Laura Bynum
Pocket Books
Hardcover – $25
Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction

Harper Adams was six years old in 2012 when an act of viral terrorism wiped out one-half of the country’s population. Out of the ashes rose a new government, the Confederation of the Willing, dedicated to maintaining order at any cost. The populace is controlled via government-sanctioned sex and drugs, a brutal police force known as the Blue Coats, and a device called the slate, a mandatory implant that monitors every word a person speaks. To utter a forbidden, Red-Listed word is to risk physical punishment, or even death.

But there are those who resist. Guided by the fabled Book of Noah, they are determined to shake the people from their apathy and ignorance, and are prepared to start a war in the name of freedom. The newest member of this resistance is Harper—a woman driven by memories of a daughter lost, a daughter whose very name was erased by the Red List. And she possesses a power that could make her the underground warriors’ ultimate weapon—or the instrument of their destruction. . . .

I have this book. I read this book. Did I like this book? You’ll soon see! I love the author’s website. She had a press kit with everything I need. Authors: take note of this excellent example of a press page for an author website!

The Secret Year
by Jennifer Hubbard
Viking Juvenile
Trade Paperback – $16.99
Genre: Young Adult Romance

via Nathan Bransford

Take Romeo and Juliet. Add The Outsiders. Mix thoroughly.

Colt and Julia were secretly together for an entire year, and no one—not even Julia’s boyfriend— knew. They had nothing in common, with Julia in her country club world on Black Mountain and Colt from down on the flats, but it never mattered. Until Julia dies in a car accident, and Colt learns the price of secrecy. He can’t mourn Julia openly, and he’s tormented that he might have played a part in her death. When Julia’s journal ends up in his hands, Colt relives their year together at the same time that he’s desperately trying to forget her. But how do you get over someone who was never yours in the first place?

Nathan Bransford is the author’s agent and he has been aggressively promoting her book on his blog. Makes me think that an author lucky enough to snag an agent with a popular blog is bound to have a head’s start over authors with nonblogging agents. But the role of an agent isn’t necessarily that of a publicist, so I’ll shut up now.

Wish
by Alexandra Bullen
Young Adult Fantasy
Point (publisher)
Hardcover – $17.99

via Maw Books

For broken-hearted Olivia Larsen, nothing can change the fact that her twin sister, Violet, is gone… until a mysterious, beautiful gown arrives on her doorstep. The dress doesn’t just look magical; it is magical. It has the power to grant her one wish, and the only thing Olivia wants is her sister back.

With Violet again by her side, both girls get a second chance at life. And as the sisters soon discover, they have two more dresses-and two more wishes left. But magic can’t solve everything, and Olivia is forced to confront her ghosts to learn how to laugh, love, and live again.

A video starts when you load up the website, so you have been warned. The blurb was very powerful for me until the last sentence, when it just sort of collapsed. After that, it’s just hyperbole, which I never reproduce. Anyway, right away Olivia is very sympathetic to me because she uses a wish to bring her sister back to life. I find myself wanting to learn more.

~*~

I know there are more, but Edelweiss is still acting up. I went through my Google Reader for recently-featured debuts, which is why you see so many hat tips today. On my ToDo list: Get my debut submission form working again. In the meantime, the one at Fantasy Debut still works, so if you have a mainstream, traditionally-published novel coming out, or know someone who does, please fill it out. It mentions SFWA, but I am looking to showcase all genres.

I’m officially back! I’ve had a nice break, which was much-needed because I spent a large part of it sick. But the antibiotics appear to be working and since I was up early today, I decided I’d finish up this debut round-up. I also have a bunch of reviews in the works — being sick makes me quite a prolific book-reader.

So here we go!

The Better Part of Darkness
by Kelly Gay
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Pocket Books – 7.99

Divorced mother of one, Charlie Madigan, lives in a world where the beings of heaven and hell exist among us, and they aren’t the things of Sunday school lessons and Hallmark figurines. In the years since the Revelation, they’ve become our co-workers, neighbors, and fellow citizens.

Charlie works for ITF (Integration Task Force). It’s her job to see that the continued integration of our new “friends” goes smoothly and everyone obeys the law, but when a new off-world drug is released in Underground Atlanta, her daughter is targeted, and her ex-husband makes a fateful bargain to win her back, there’s nothing in heaven or earth (or hell for that matter) that Charlie won’t do to set things right.

I reviewed The Better Part of Darkness before Thanksgiving and found it fast-paced and engrossing, with touching relationships and an intriguing mythology. The author is, of course, Kelly Gay, who has been a frequent guest on both of my blogs as my first-ever Upcoming Debut Author. Here are all her posts:

Newly Signed Author – The Contract – Revisions and Copyedits – Release Day Post

The Seven Rays
by Jessica Bendinger (Website - IMDB Site)
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Hardcover – $16.99
Genre: Paranormal Romance

You are more than you think you are.

THAT IS THE ANONYMOUS MESSAGE that Beth Michaels receives right before she starts seeing things. Not just a slept-through my-alarm-clock, late-for-homeroom, haven’t had-my-caffeine-fix kind of seeing things. It all starts with some dots, annoying pink dots that pop up on and over her mom and her best friend’s face. But then things get out of control and Beth is seeing people’s pasts, their fears, their secrets, their desires. The images are coming at Beth in hi-def streaming video and she can’t stop it. Everyone thinks she’s crazy and she’s pretty sure she agrees with them. But crazy doesn’t explain the gold envelopes that have started arriving, containing seeing keys and mysterious tarot cards. To Beth, it all seems too weird to be true. You are more than you think you are? But here’s the thing: What if she is?

I think this is my first screenplay writer, but I know I covered a producer once, way back when in the days of Fantasy Debut. It appears that the movie Bring It On was the author’s first major success.

Three Days to Dead
by Kelly Meding
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Dell – Paperback – $7.99
Genre: Urban Fantasy

She’s young, deadly and hunted–with only three days to solve her own murder.

When Evangeline Stone wakes up naked and bruised on a cold slab at the morgue – in a stranger’s body, with no memory of who she is and how she got there – her troubles are only just beginning. Before that night, she and the other two members of her Triad were the city’s star bounty hunters — mercilessly cleansing the city of the murderous creatures living in the shadows, from vampires to shape-shifters to trolls. Then something terrible happened that not only cost all three of them their lives, but also convinced the city’s other Hunters that Evy was a traitor . . . and she can’t even remember what it was.

Now she’s a fugitive, piecing together her memory, trying to deal some serious justice – and discovering that she has only three days to solve her own murder before the reincarnation spell wears off. Because in three days, Evy will die again – but this time, there’s no second chance…

This is another week-of-Thanksgiving debut and the review copies were a hot commodity! We hope to be able to put up a review for you soon. It certainly begins with a bang.

(An aside – the Amazon links are a pain and in all the time I’ve run this blog, I’ve never earned enough in referrals to make a single withdrawal. My balance has been 2.10 since 2008. I must either be doing it wrong, or they make it incredibly difficult to actually earn any money.

So from now on, I’m just linking to the author site and I’ll leave it up to the author to actually sell their novels.

Sorry to sound so cranky. This should make things more fun.)

Mistress by Mistake
by Susan Gee Heino
Paperback – $7.99
Genre: Historical Romance
(via Edelweiss)

Lord Dashford has decided to ward off the marriage-minded by convincing the world he’s throwing away his fortune. No matter, since heiress Evaline Pinchley, dragged to the Dashford estate, has no inclination to marry him.

Unfortunately, she fails to recognize her host when he begins to seduce her. An empty bottle later, Evaline wakes to find herself in Dashford’s bed. Now rumors and passions are sure to run wild—unless Dashford and Evaline realize that what happened by moonlight was no mistake.

This is kind of a sketchy blurb. When I used to read romances in the 80s, I read a surprising number of them that involved the heroine not recognizing her seducer, or even her husband. It must be a popular and enduring theme.

Knight of Pleasure
by Margaret Mallory
Paperback – $6.99
Genre: Historical  Romance
(via Edelweiss)

THE GREATEST PASSION
Lady Isobel Hume is an expert swordswoman who knows how to choose her battles. When the king asks her to wed a French nobleman to form a political alliance, she agrees. But that’s before the devilishly charming Sir Stephen Carleton captures her heart-and tempts her to betray her betrothed, her king, and her country.

IS WORTH THE GREATEST PERIL
Sir Stephen Carleton enjoys his many female admirers-until he dedicates himself to winning the lovely Isobel. So when a threat against the king leads Isobel into mortal danger, Stephen has a chance to prove that he is more than a knight of pleasure…and that love can conquer all.

Ok, any novel with an expert swordswoman is going to tempt me, no matter what the genre. If only I weren’t already beginning to drown in books! This is a strong maybe, even though I really hate the cover.

Ark of Fire
by C.M. Palov
Paperback – $7.99
Genre: Thriller
(via Edelweiss)

If the Ark of the Covenant really exists, it would be the most important discovery in the history of mankind… And for whoever possesses it, the most dangerous.

Photographer Edie Miller witnesses a murder and the theft of an ancient Hebrew relic. Fearing authorities are complicit, she turns to a historian for help. Neither realizes the breadth of the crime, its ties to a government conspiracy, or its connection to the most valuable relic in history—until they are both marked for execution.

A religious thriller. I haven’t read any of these, including Dan Brown’s. I love the cover. It, of course, reminds me of the arc from Raiders of the Lost Arc, but the Bible is quite explicit in its description of how the arc should look. The poles, the winged angels covering the arc — everything.

(Wow – linking to author sites only is so easy I that decided to add covers again. But ONLY if the author makes it easy on me. If there is no cover here, blame the author, not the blogger. Ok, so blame the blogger too, because I didn’t feel like hunting them down.)

Spinning Tropics
by Aska Mochizuki
Vintage
Trade paperback – $15.00
Genre: Literary

Meet Hiro. She’s tall, lanky and awkward—a twenty-something Japanese woman who has decamped to Vietnam from Tokyo to work as a language teacher.

Meet Dung. She’s shy, beautiful, and tough—a young Vietnamese woman studying Japanese, determined to create a better life for herself and her family.

When Dung becomes one of Hiro’s students, they are instantly drawn to each other. For both of them, it is their first time in love with another woman. But when Konno, an older Japanese businessman, befriends Hiro, Dung begins to grow unbearably jealous. What unfolds is a love triangle with very complicated, ultimately devastating, results. Set against the backdrop of a Vietnam on the economic rise, debut novelist Aska Mochizuki vividly brings to life the buzz of motorcycles and the tastes of Vietnamese coffee and spicy papaya salads; the confines of the Vietnamese family; the lingering effects of long wars; the rich who ride the economic wave and the poor who are left behind. Spinning Tropics is a lush and evocative story of an intoxicating love affair.

I included the publisher’s link because I was unable to find an author website. And I’m afraid the cover art was buried in widgets.

The Faces of Gone
by Brad Parks
Hardcover – $25.99 (discounts at Amazon)
Genre – Mystery
Hat Tip: Criminal Minds

Four bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cordwood in a weed-choked vacant lot: That’s the front-page news facing Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner.  Immediately dispatched to the scene, Carter learns that the four victims—an exotic dancer, a drug dealer, a hustler, and a mama’s boy—came from different parts of the city and didn’t seem to know one another.

The police, eager to calm jittery residents, leak a theory that the murders are revenge for a bar stickup, and Carter’s paper, hungry for a scoop, hastily prints it. Carter doesn’t come from the streets, but he understands a thing or two about Newark’s neighborhoods. And he knows there are no quick answers when dealing with a crime like this.

Determined to uncover the true story, he enlists the aide of Tina Thompson, the paper’s smoking-hot city editor, to run interference at the office; Tommy Hernandez, the paper’s gay Cuban intern, to help him with legwork on the streets; and Tynesha Dales, a local stripper, to take him to Newark’s underside. It turns out that the four victims have one connection after all, and this knowledge will put Carter on the path of one very ambitious killer.

From the blurb, it’s not obvious that this novel is the type that might earn this bit of praise: “The most hilariously funny and deadly serious mystery debut since Janet Evanovich”. But I don’t suppose Library Journal would have said such a thing (or given it a starred review) if it weren’t true. Evanovich fans (myself included) take note!

~*~

Whew! I’ll know better than to let the debuts pile up like this again! The next round-up will be for debuts after December 15th.

The comments are now threaded, so you can reply to a particular comment and it will appear with that comment. I’m hoping it will make the discussions here more fun.

So what did you think? Did any of these debuts light your fire?

I found some more debuts for you, courtesy of the Edelweiss catalog search tool, which I will be making great use of from this day forward. For now, I’m including paperback debuts where the novel has already released in hardcover. Mostly, because I had a bunch of these before I realized they were there. But that’s ok. When these hardcovers came out, this blog didn’t exist.

The Piano Teacher: A Novel by Janice Y. K. Lee
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Penguin (Non-Classics)
November 17, 2009
$15.00
Paperback
Genre – Literary
IN THE SWEEPING TRADITION of The English Patient, Janice Y. K. Lee’s debut novel is a tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong. In 1942, Englishman Will Truesdale falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong to work as a piano teacher and also begins a fateful affair. As the threads of this spellbinding novel intertwine, impossible choices emerge—between love and safety, courage and survival, the present, and, above all, the past.

The Piano Teacher came out in hardcover earlier this year. There is an article about the author in the Wall Street Journal.

Scurvy Goonda by Chris McCoy (no author site found)
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Knopf Books for Young Readers
November 10, 2009
$16.99/$21.00 Can.
Hardback
Genre: Juvenile Fiction

In Book One of this two-part story, an endearing misfit embarks on an amazing adventure in search of his friend Scurvy Goonda, an outrageous invisible pirate with an insatiable love for bacon.

Part friendship story, part madcap adventure, readers who love stories in which almost-ordinary kids travel to fantastical lands and become heroes will revel in the imaginative landscape and characters featured in this original debut. While adventure-loving vegetarians will find much to savor, this is a must-read for all who love bacon—which plays a key role in the story’s sizzling climax!

This novel is begging for an author or title website. I did find one, but it is still in a parked state from the web host provider.

College Girl by Patricia Weitz (no website found)
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Riverhead Trade
November 3, 2009
$15.00
Paperback / softback
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
College senior Natalie Bloom is beautiful and ambitious, but also painfully insecure. At twenty, she’s still a virgin, never even having had a boyfriend. At school, Natalie hides out most weekends in the library—until she meets Patrick, her fantasy (she thinks) of a cultured, intellectual Prince Charming. But the more time they spend together, the more Patrick brings out her worst insecurities. And before Natalie’s ready, she winds up losing her virginity— and her sense of direction, as her emotional responses take a dangerously self-destructive turn. Soon it’ll take only the most extreme measures to reclaim her sense of self, her confidence, and her ambition.

Insightful, moving, and achingly self-aware, College Girl is an intensely real portrait of a character whose insecurities are recognizable to us all, and of a time of life that changes everything.

Not wild about books that make twenty-year-old virgins seem freaky. It looks like the author did good things with the concept, but crikey, let’s encourage virtue in our young women, not stigmatize it. From what I’ve heard, virginity is not as rare as everyone makes it out to be. And what’s with all the authors without websites? If she has one, it’s danged hard to find.

College Girl has been out in trade paperback and hardcover formats.

Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Orbit
November 2009
$7.99/$9.99 Can.
Mass market paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Living in small town Rockabill, Maine, Jane True always knew she didn’t quite fit in with so-called normal society. During her nightly, clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean, a grisly find leads Jane to startling revelations about her heritage: she is only half-human.

Now, Jane must enter a world filled with supernatural creatures alternatively terrifying, beautiful, and deadly- all of which perfectly describe her new “friend,” Ryu, a gorgeous and powerful vampire.

It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: a dog can heal with a lick; spirits bag your groceries; and whatever you do, never-ever-rub the genie’s lamp.

The dog healing by licking is certainly something I haven’t seen before. Looks lighthearted, but vampires truly aren’t my thing.

Far from Home by Anne Degrace
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Avon A
November 10, 2009
$14.99
Paperback
Genre: General

When circumstances set Jo on the road, she doesn’t quite know where she is going—she’s just going. But due to the kindness of strangers, she finds her way to Cass’s Roadside Café, a side-of-the-road diner on a mountain pass in the middle–of–nowhere.

There, during one extraordinary, windy day in 1977, she meets an odd mix of travelers: an old woman who, informed she only has a few weeks to live, tells everyone exactly what she thinks of them—and then doesn’t die; a water-witcher who has had to come to terms with his unusual talent; a hippie who travels wherever the wind takes him; a friendly trucker; and a cast of local characters whose pasts have taught them invaluable lessons, and whose stories give Jo the strength and courage to face her past and depart on her own journey, once again.

The author has had novels published in Canada. It seems to me that the blurb gives away the ending. Sounds like a Canterbury Tales sort of thing.

~*~

All of these are now in my Recent Debuts widget on the far right sidebar, where I decided to keep recent debuts for two months.

Enjoy! I’ll have some more debuts for you next week.

In my quest to be able to provide debut news for all genres, I bought a subscription to Publishers Marketplace. It is valuable to me because it has deal announcements, and the deal announcements have a special category for debuts. I got my first Lunch Weekly on Friday, and it had five debuts. They aren’t useful to me this year, but they can go on the calender for me to check for a release date in about nine months ago.

At the same time, I can check the deal announcements from last year for debuts coming out about this time this year. And I found three recent ones.

Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Actual release date Oct 13th

Genre: Historical Fiction

“I’d heard about him but had never seen him, the foreigner with the funny name who wandered the countryside painting pictures.”

F rom a talented new author comes a poignant and haunting novel of creation and desire, passion and madness, art and love.

A young prostitute seeking temporary refuge from the brothel, Rachel awakens in a beautiful garden in Arles to discover she is being sketched by a red-haired man in a yellow straw hat. This is no ordinary artist but the eccentric painter Vincent van Gogh—and their meeting marks the beginning of a remarkable relationship. He arrives at their first assignation at No. 1, Rue du Bout d’Arles, with a bouquet of wildflowers and a request to paint her—and before long, a deep, intense attachment grows between Rachel and the gifted, tormented soul.

But the sanctuary Rachel seeks from her own troubled past cannot be found here, for demons war within Vincent’s heart and mind. And one shocking act will expose the harsh, inescapable truth about the artist she has grown to love more than life.

Wow; this would be a switch for me. I know about Van Gogh, so I’m wondering about the ending. It looks wonderful, but I’m just not sure if it’s for me.

The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
Actual release date: Oct 13.

Genre: Contemporary – Offbeat

A LOST SHADOW
Moira Leahy struggled growing up in her prodigious twin’s shadow; Maeve was always more talented, more daring, more fun. In the autumn of the girls’ sixteenth year, a secret love tempted Moira, allowing her to have her own taste of adventure, but it also damaged the intimate, intuitive relationship she’d always shared with her sister. Though Moira’s adolescent struggles came to a tragic end nearly a decade ago, her brief flirtation with independence will haunt her sister for years to come.

A LONE WOMAN
When Maeve Leahy lost her twin, she left home and buried her fun-loving spirit to become a workaholic professor of languages at a small college in upstate New York. She lives a solitary life now, controlling what she can and ignoring the rest—the recurring nightmares, hallucinations about a child with red hair, the unquiet sounds in her mind, her reflection in the mirror. It doesn’t help that her mother avoids her, her best friend questions her sanity, and her not-quite boyfriend has left the country. But at least her life is ordered. Exactly how she wants it.

A SHARED PAST
Until one night at an auction when Maeve wins a keris, a Javanese dagger that reminds her of her lost youth, and happier days playing pirates with Moira in their father’s boat. Days later, a book on weaponry is nailed to her office door, followed by anonymous notes, including one that invites her to Rome to learn more about the blade and its legendary properties. Opening her heart and mind to possibility, Maeve accepts the invitation, and with it, a window into her past. Ultimately she will revisit the tragic November night that shaped her and Moira’s destinies, and learn that nothing can be taken at face value, as one sister emerges whole and the other’s score is finally settled.

This interests me more. I didn’t know where this was going, but I certainly never expected a Javanese dagger and a trip to Rome. I love ancient Rome, and I’m wondering if the history of the dagger will include how it got to Rome. I can imagine some scenarios concerning gladiators or captive soldiers.

Both of these authors have very good websites.

At present, I’m running low of debuts on my calendar. Since I have not yet moved my debut submission form to this blog, I wanted to point out that the form is still available and operative at Fantasy Debut, on this post:

Inform Me of a Debut

I would like to add that I now intend to announce debuts in most print genres. However, because I’ve been a science fiction and fantasy blogger for so long, I only know about SciFi/Fantasy debuts. Until I get more knowledgeable, and until publicists and authors of those other genres learn of this blog, these weekly debut round-ups will skew heavily toward fantasy and science fiction.

So, here we go!

Soulless by Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

This sounds great fun, although I’m a bit concerned about the soulless part. According to a review at Enduring Romance, this might be less dire than it sounds. I love, love, love historical fantasy, but I’m not so into vampires. This is a strong maybe. It released on October 1st, which means my debut calendar was off by an entire month.

The Drowning City by Amanda Downum

Hat Tip: Yunaleska

Symir — the Drowning City. home to exiles and expatriates, pirates and smugglers. And violent revolutionaries who will stop at nothing to overthrow the corrupt Imperial government.

For Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and spy, the brewing revolution is a chance to prove herself to her crown. All she has to do is find and finance the revolutionaries, and help topple the palaces of Symir. But she is torn between her new friends and her duties, and the longer she stays in this monsoon-drenched city, the more intrigue she uncovers — even the dead are plotting.

As the waters rise and the dams crack, Isyllt must choose between her mission and the city she came to save.

Oooh. Revolutionaries. Spies. And any city that is “drowning” is bound to be interesting. My good blog buddy Graeme was a bit disappointed in it, but still looks forward to the next volume. This novel came out in September.

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Ok, I hope you aren’t disappointed by the lack of cover art. When I review a book, it will get the full cover art/link-up treatment. These are just little newsy items to help you learn about new debuts. The quicker I can get the posted, the more I’ll be able to do. And I hope I didn’t annoy you by having the links pop up in separate windows or tabs. I did this because I’m hoping you’ll want to read the rest of the post when you’re finished chasing the link.

If you know of a debut that should be on my calendar, please inform me of it using this form at Fantasy Debut. I will give you credit for the tip, as I did here for Yunaleska. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. That sort of thing.