New Release Monday Madness

I'm hoping to stay on top of blogging this week, but I found out on Saturday that I have some mega gall stones and will need my gallbladder removed. Either way, that doesn't mean I can't be on the computer :o) So here are some of the new releases for this week!


Melissa Marr - Graveminder



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Hardcover 336pp

Three sips to mind the dead...

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Claysville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker—in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past—can set things right once the dead begin to walk.

Although she is still grieving for Maylene, Rebekkah will soon find that she has more than a funeral to attend to in Claysville, and that what awaits her may be far worse: dark secrets, a centuries-old bargain, a romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility—to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.


Lisi Harrison - Top of the Feud Chain (Alphas 4)



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
• Format: Paperback 226pp
• Age Range: Young Adult

Alpha Academy: Where betas get booted.

Eccentric billionaire Shira Brazille founded the super-exclusive Alpha Academy on exotic Alpha Island to nurture the next generation of exceptional dancers, writes, musicians, and inventors. It' s a dream come true for one hundred lucky girls, but those not measuring up can be sent home at any time, for any reason. The one left standing will win worldwide fame. Who will it be?

Skye Hamilton
Is stepping up her game as Shira sheds Alpha Academy girls faster than skin from a will-pumiced foot. There's just one thing standing in her way: island bad boy Taz Brazille. Can Skye keep a dancer's poise, or will Taz throw her off the music once and for all?

Allie A. Abbott
Finally knows who she really is, and nothing is going to bring her down. Not even AJ, who just can't let go of the past. But she can Bring. It. On. Allie's come too far to be sent home without a fight.

Charlie Deery
After bouncing like a dashboard hula doll between Allie and Darwin, Charlie finally has her BFF and Brazille beau by her side. But as the competition on Alpha Island reaches its boiling point, will her drive to win make her lose what matters most?

If at first you don't succeed, you're not an alpha.

Previous titles in series: Alphas, Movers and Fakers, Belle of the Brawl


Scott Weiland and David Ritz - Not Dead & Not For Sale



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover 288pp

In the early 1990s, Stone Temple Pilots—not U2, not Nirvana, not Pearl Jam— was the hottest band in the world. STP toppled such mega-bands as Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses on MTV and the Billboard charts. Lead singer Scott Weiland became an iconic front man in the tradition of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Robert Plant.

Then, when STP imploded, it was Weiland who emerged as the emblem of rock star excess, with his well-publicized drug busts and trips to rehab. Weiland has since made a series of stunning comebacks, fronting the supergroup Velvet Revolver, releasing solo work, and, most recently, reuniting with Stone Temple Pilots. He still struggles with the bottle, but he has prevailed as a loving, dedicated father, as well as a business-savvy artist whose well of creativity is far from empty.

These earthling papers explore Weiland's early years as an altar boy right along with his first experiences with sex and drugs. Weiland discusses his complex relationships with his parents, stepfather, siblings, and the love of his life, Mary Forsberg Weiland. Readers learn the fascinating stories behind his most well-known songs and what it was like to be there at the beginning of the grunge phenomenon, as Rolling Stone proclaimed on its cover: "the year punk broke." Not Dead & Not for Sale is a hard rock memoir to be reckoned with—a passionate, insightful, and at times humorous book that reads with extraordinary narrative force.


Jon-Jon Goulian - The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt
Debut novel!!



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover 336pp

If you have ever felt like a misfit in school or been paralyzed by your family’s imposing expectations, if you have ever obsessed about your appearance or panicked about choosing a career path, if you have ever wondered if every single thing to which your body is exposed, from egg yolks to X-rays, might harm you, then you may be surprised to find a kindred spirit in The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt.

Growing up in sunny La Jolla, California, Jon-Jon Goulian was a hyperneurotic kid who felt out of place wherever he turned, and who, in his own words, was forever on the verge of “caving in beneath the pressures of modern life.” From his fear of competition to his fear of pimples, from his fear of sex to his fear of saturated fat, the range and depth of Jon-Jon’s phobias were seemingly boundless. With his two older brothers providing a sterling example he believed he could never live up to, and his stern grandfather, the political philosopher Sidney Hook, continually calling him to account for his intellectual failure, Jon-Jon, feeling pressed against the wall, wracked with despair, and dizzy with insecurity, instinctively resorted, for reasons that became clear to him only many years later, to a most ingenious scheme for keeping conventional expectations at bay: women’s clothing! Ingenious, perhaps, but woefully ineffective, as Jon-Jon discovers, again and again, that behind his skirt, leggings, halter top, and high heels, he’s still as wildly neurotic, and as wracked with anxiety, as he’s always been.

In this hilarious and heartfelt memoir, Jon-Jon Goulian’s witty and exuberant voice shines through, as he comes to terms with what it means to truly be yourself.


Ellen Schreiber - Cryptic Cravings (Vampire Kisses #8)
Win this on Goodreads!



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
• Format: Hardcover 224pp
• Age Range: Young Adult

The morbidly monotonous Dullsville has finally become the most exciting place on earth now that Raven is madly in love with her hot vampire boyfriend, Alexander, and a crew of vampires has taken residence in Dullsville's old mill. Raven discovers Jagger's plan to open a new club, the Crypt, right here in Dullsville. But is it her dream come true or her worst nightmare? Raven and Alexander have to figure out what the nefarious vampire has in store for Dullsville's teen and vampire population. Can Raven convince Jagger to listen to her plans to make the Crypt the morbidly magnificent dance club it could be? Will it be safe for mortals and vampires alike?

And as Sebastian and Luna's relationship heats up, Raven wonders about her own amorous fate: Will Alexander ever turn her? Does he crave her and does he want to spend eternity together? And what does she really want?

With cryptic secrets and cravings, this eighth installment in the Vampire Kisses series is a romantic and mysterious thrill ride.

Previous titles in series: Vampire Kisses, Kissing Coffins, Vampireville


Steve Berry - The Jefferson Key (Cotton Malone #7)



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover 480pp

Four United States presidents have been assassinated—in 1865, 1881, 1901, and 1963—each murder seemingly unrelated and separated by time.

But what if those presidents were all killed for the same reason: a clause in the United States Constitution—contained within Article 1, Section 8—that would shock Americans?

This question is what faces former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone in his latest adventure. When a bold assassination attempt is made against President Danny Daniels in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the killing—only to find himself at dangerous odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution. In their most perilous exploit yet, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt race across the nation and take to the high seas. Along the way they break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a centuries-old document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves, one powerful enough—thanks to that clause in the Constitution—to make the Commonwealth unstoppable.

Previous titles in series: The Templar Legacy, The Alexandria Link, The Venetian Betrayal


Adam Mitzner - A Conflict of Interest
A debut author!!



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover 384pp

Mitzner's assured debut, a legal thriller, compares favorably to Presumed Innocent, though the plot is less complex than Turow's. Alex Miller, a criminal defense attorney at Cromwell Altman in New York City, meets an old friend of his parents, Michael Ohlig, at his father's funeral in Florida. Ohlig, the head of a boutique brokerage firm, asks for Miller's help. His firm stands accused of selling stock in a startup company he knew was worthless. Miller, who's convinced his client is innocent despite the contrary evidence, pours himself into Ohlig's defense, a time commitment that strains the ties to his devoted wife, Elizabeth. His law firm's assigning Miller a gorgeous senior associate, Abby Sloane, to assist him doesn't help. Mitzner tosses in a number of twists, but his strength lies in his characters and his unflinching depiction of relationships in crisis.


Haley Tanner - Vaclav and Lena
Another debut!!



• Pub. Date: May 17, 2011
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Format: Hardcover 304pp

Vaclav and Lena seem destined for each other. They meet as children in an ESL class in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Vaclav is precocious and verbal. Lena, struggling with English, takes comfort in the safety of his adoration, his noisy, loving home, and the care of Rasia, his big-hearted mother. Vaclav imagines their story unfolding like a fairy tale, or the perfect illusion from his treasured Magician’s Almanac, but among the many truths to be discovered in Haley Tanner’s wondrous debut is that happily ever after is never a foregone conclusion.

One day, Lena does not show up for school. She has disappeared from Vaclav and his family’s lives as if by a cruel magic trick. For the next seven years, Vaclav says goodnight to Lena without fail, wondering if she is doing the same somewhere. On the eve of Lena’s seventeenth birthday he finds out.

Haley Tanner has the originality and verve of a born storyteller, and the boldness to imagine a world in which love can overcome the most difficult circumstances. In Vaclav & Lena she has created two unforgettable young protagonists who evoke the joy, the confusion, and the passion of having a profound, everlasting connection with someone else.

(What a gorgeous cover!)


If anyone reads any of these, please let me know how they are! I personally want to read Scott Weiland's memoir. I will have plenty of time to do that when I'm on leave from work.. lol. Happy reading!