Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Books to look forward to in 2009

My last list of 2008 isn't a list of favorites from what I read/reviewed. I've gone out and checked coming soon pages at all the e-publishers I haunt, to find the stories I'm looking forward to getting in 2009. These aren't all of them, not by a long shot. I chose my five based on what the pubs had on their coming soon page or what the author had on their website. So in no particular order, five e-books I'm highly anticipating in the New Year...

Dangling by Yeva Wiest, published by Lyrical Press

While the first book I read by this author was riddled with some serious editorial problems, I'm hoping that the positive response from the publisher means this latest offering - another dark comedy about the archangel Michael and his transgender lover - will be cleaner. The author has already proven she can be original. Now I'm hoping she got some strong editing to allow her voice to shine.

Immersed by Liz Craven, published by Samhain

This is the next in the series after the author's excellent Prophesied. Few series inspire me to follow after the first book, even though I adore series. But this sucked me in.

Called By Blood by Evie Byrne, published by Samhain

I loved this author's voice in her novella Dante's Inferno. This one looks to be dark and hot, always a good thing.

Object of His Desire by Ava March, published by Samhain

Yes, it's a historical, but it's also a gay historical, and the first story I read by this author was hot enough to encourage me to read more of her work.

The White Knight by Josh Lanyon, published by Loose Id

This is the prequel/sequel to Lanyon's The Dark Horse. That's all I know. That's enough.

And one book that's not coming out in e-form, but I have to include, because, well, I love this author...

Kelland by Paul G. Bens, Jr., published by Casperian Books

Though I only review e-books on my blog, I still read plenty of print books in between. If Mr. Bens had more e-books coming out, I'd be buying those, too. In the interim, I'm satisfied knowing I've got this to look forward to.

6 comments:

Evie Byrne said...

Happy New Year!

Thank you for compiling these best of lists--you've given me a lot of reading to look forward to this year. And, of course, I'm thrilled to find myself mentioned anywhere in the proximity of the likes of Frank Tuttle and Bettie Sharpe. ;)

Ava March said...

Wow! I'm honored to be included in your top 5. You've totally made my day. :) Thanks so much for taking the time to write such thoughtful and honest reviews.

Happy New Year!!

Unknown said...

I am looking forward to Kelland too. I love the publisher that he's chosen too, and some of those titles are pretty amazing. But I love the author's premise, and can't wait for the book!

Ann Somerville said...

I knew there was a question I wanted to ask - why do you only review ebooks? If you've got the print, why not review those too? Or is just a matter of time?

Book Utopia Mom said...

Ann - There are a few reasons. Time is one, yes. Another is that when I started, I wasn't finding the reviews I needed to judge my e-book purchasing. For me, writing the reviews has always been about filling in a hole online for readers interested in knowing more than, "Ohmigod this was HAWT!" It's a lot easier (at this point) to find non-puff reviews about print books than it is about e-books.

A third reason is that for the purposes of reviews, it's a lot easier for me to do it with e-books than print. With e-books, I'm already on a computer, or a PDA, and I can annotate the text for future reference or make a note in a separate file incredibly easily. For my print books, they tend to be scattered. I have books in the car, in purses, in the garage. It's not always convenient to make a note of something for review purposes, especially since I refuse to write in books (I can't even bring myself to dogear pages or get creases in the spine).

So the reasons add up. :)

Ann Somerville said...

Those all seem pretty good reasons to me :)