Release Day - August 2, 2011

Looks like August is going to be an expensive month for me. Here's this week's list of books that I have on my want list:

• Blood Hunt by Shannon K. Butcher
  (Book 5 of Sentinel Wars series)

They are the Sentinels. Three races, ancient guardians of mankind, each possessing unique abilities to protect humanity against their eternal foes: the Synestryn. Now, for one Sentinel, the only way to reclaim her forgotten past is to follow the blood.

Hope appeared out of nowhere, naked and alone, a woman without past. The only thing she knows is that she is imbued with a strange power. It's in her blood. And two men want to possess it.

One is Logan, a Sanguinar demon-fighter who needs Hope's essence to survive. As a vampire he's well-equipped to find her a like-blooded mate whose progeny could sustain his race for generations. The other is Krag, a Synestryn lord whose desire is to enslave Hope, and drain her of the lifeforce. With it he could control humanity forever.

When Hope and Logan both fall prey to Krag, a powerful desire grows between them. But is it enough to thwart their captor's diabolical plan and his demon warriors, and survive a vampire's destiny written in blood?

• Heart Search by Robin D. Owens
  (Book 10 of Celta series)

Laev T'Hawthorn -- one of the highest nobles in the land -- must rebuild his life after a devastating mistake. He married a woman he believed was his HeartMate, only to learn she was a greedy social climber. She callously used him, stealing his family heirlooms. He is determined to reclaim all that he has lost -- beginning with his self-respect.

Abandoned at fifteen, Camellia Darjeeling values her independence above all. She's fought to establish her own businesses -- elegant tearooms -- only to have her father and uncle re-enter her life. They emotionally scourge her and extort money. Trusting men, even her HeartMate, is too risky.

When Laev and Camellia meet, they refuse to acknowledge that they are true HeartMates. After her shady relatives are implicated in the theft of Laev's property, Camellia and Laev's lives become ever more entangled bringing each to the brink of despair and passion...and a destiny they can no longer avoid.

• Midnight Sins by Lora Leigh
  (Book 1 of Heroes and Heartbreakers)

Midnight Sins begins the trilogy of three friends caught in a vicious circle of blood and distrust. Micah Decker has been tormented by the night he and his friends were forced to watch Jaimma Flannigan die. Helpless, horrified, the nightmares still haunt him. As does the knowledge that the one woman he wants above all others fears him now.

Kyra Flannigan lost her sister in the brutal murders that haunted their hometown more than a decade before. And there are those who still believe Micah, Logan, and Crowe, committed those murders. There are many who believe Wayne Sorbenson was innocent. Kyra’s parents are two of those people. Kyra has always wanted Micah. Even at a time when he had been slipping around to see her sister and she was covering for them, he’s haunted first her girlish dreams, then her adult fantasies. She can’t accept that he killed Jaimma. She can’t forget that her parents were destroyed by her sisters death, or that Wayne, the man they accused of killing her, was a close friend of her father’s.

That won’t stop Micah from going after the woman that haunts his lusts, as well as his dreams of a future. Now a local rancher, he’s fought, worked until his hands were bloody and is quickly on the road to building a legacy for the children he doesn’t yet have. He wants Kyra to be the mother of those children, the wife he’s dreamed of having. Flame haired and wild as the wind, she’s possibly untamable, most likely unattainable, but he’s going to fight like hell to seduce the little hellion into his bed. He couldn’t have imagined the hell that would open up once he does so. Or the past that will return with a vengeance when women begin dying again. Women that Micah, Logan and Crowe have a connection to. Suspicion, fear and loyalty will tear at Kyra, until she makes the choice that endangers her life and the soul of the man she loves.

• Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon
  (part of the Dark-Hunters series)

Harm no human…

A hired gunslinger, William Jessup Brady lived his life with one foot in the grave. He believed that every life had a price. Until the day when he finally found a reason to live. In one single act of brutal betrayal, he lost everything, including his life. Brought back by a Greek goddess to be one of her Dark-Hunters, he gave his immortal soul for vengeance and swore he’d spend eternity protecting the humans he’d once considered prey.

Orphaned as a toddler, Abigail Yager was taken in by a family of vampires and raised on one belief- Dark-Hunters are the evil who prey on both their people and mankind, and they must all be destroyed. While protecting her adoptive race, she has spent her life eliminating the Dark-Hunters and training for the day when she meets the man who killed her family: Jess Brady.

A gun in the hand is worth two in the holster…

Jess has been charged with finding and terminating the creature who’s assassinating Dark-Hunters. The last thing he expects to find is a human face behind the killings, but when that face bears a striking resemblance to the one who murdered him centuries ago, he knows something evil is going on. He also knows he’s not the one who killed her parents. But Abigail refuses to believe the truth and is determined to see him dead once and for all.

Brought together by an angry god and chased by ancient enemies out to kill them both, they must find a way to overcome their mutual hatred or watch as one of the darkest of powers rises and kills both the races they’ve sworn to protect.

• Storm's Heart by Thea Harrison
  (Book 2 of The Elder Races series)

He’s a wyr warrior, a god of storms. She’s the heir to the Dark Fae throne. But desire will bring both to their knees in this all-new Novel of the Elder Races.

During the rule of her murderous Dark Fae uncle, Thistle “Tricks” Periwinkle found sanctuary among the wyr in New York. Her ethereal beauty and sparkling personality won the hearts of the public, but after her uncle’s death, there are those who don’t want to see her ascend to the throne…

Able to wield thunder and lightning, wyr sentinel Tiago Black Eagle has ruled the skies for centuries. His massive build and thunderous power make him one of the wyr’s best weapons. And he’s sent to protect Tricks when she’s almost assassinated in Chicago.

Soon, both Tiago and Tricks will fall prey to the stormy hunger that engulfs them—a passion that will shake the very foundation of all the worlds…

What are you looking forward to this week?