The sixth book in Karen Chance‘s Cassandra Palmer series is a lot like the previous entries, so you should basically know what to expect. Its three notable features are exploring the hell dimensions a bit, introducing the Covens and touching on the Pythia’s court, and giving practically no page-time to Mircea (focusing instead on Pritkin and retrieving him from his father).
Kelley Armstrong‘s new series (Cainsville) begins with a fairly infuriating opening segment showcasing the horrors of unwarranted tabloid-fueled reputation assassination. Once it gets past that setup and arrives in the town of Cainsville things begin to get quite good indeed. The supernatural aspects start off mostly subdued and only gradually begin to make their presence known, which works fantastically. And the variety of supernaturals being dealt with here? It’s not explicitly stated, but seems to be a combination of inherent psychic abilities with some Fae thrown in for good measure.
Parasite is the first novel in Mira Grant’s (Seanan McGuire‘s) new Parasitology series. It’s something of a combination between the renegade scientist parts of her Newsflesh trilogy and Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. It’s a little shaky due to both the characters’ tendency to monologue exposition at you and the awkwardness inherent in the protagonist not being legally in control of her life. I’m also not sure if the reveal just before the “to be continued” is supposed to be a surprise or not; it’s telegraphed so heavily that it ends up rather anticlimactic.
