Publisher Spotlight: Piatkus - July - December 2012

I thought it would be fun to start spotlighting new releases that different publishers have coming up over the next few months for us to look forward to.  I'm constantly looking for new books to add to my wish list and thought it would be a nice way of spreading the bookish love with other bloggers.  So stepping into the spotlight today we have . . .

Last week I was very excited to get to visit the Little, Brown offices to find out about their upcoming releases under their Piatkus imprint. Piatkus publish some of my favourite books so I couldn't wait to see what they have lined up for the next few months. Let me tell you if you love romance of all kinds - paranormal romance, romantic suspense and historical romance in particular - then you'll want to keep reading this post! I'll tell you a bit more about the event at the end of this post but first I want to showcase some of the titles they mentioned! For more information check out the Little, Brown website the Piatkus website or the new Piatkus Entice website.

Paranormal Romance:

First we spoke about Laura Wright's new paranormal romance series - The Mark of the Vampire. The first three books (Eternal Hunger, Eternal Kiss & Eternal Captive) are already available and you can also buy the novella Eternal Blood as an ebook from Piatkus Entice. I've only read the first book in this series but it's one I'm looking forward to continuing! This series is one for vampire fans and reminded me a bit of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood or Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series.

I think everyone knows that Christine Feehan is one of the most popular paranormal romance authors out there. I absolutely love her GhostWalkers series so can't wait to read book 10 Samurai Game when it comes out in July. A prolific author Christine has 2 more books coming out in the second half of the year. In September fans of her Carpathian series will be excited to read the 20th book Dark Storm. This is a series that I really need to catch up with - I really enjoyed the first book but as you can see I'm about to be 19 books behind! Another book I'm really excited about is Lair of the Lion which is a gothic, historical re-telling of Beauty and the Beast. I love fairytale re-tellings so this will be just my kind of book and it will be published in October.

I'm fast becoming a massive fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon and one of my goals this year is to catch up with her Dark-Hunters series. I've caught up with the YA spin off Chronicles of Nick series so now I need to get working on the adult ones. I've only read the first 2 books so far so it'll take a bit of time before I'm ready for the 22nd book Time Untime which is being published in August. Fans of the Belador series that Sherrilyn writes with Dianna Love will be pleased to know that the 3rd book The Curse is being published in September. I've not read any of this series yet but I love urban fantasy so it's definitely on my wish list! Sherrilyn is a prolific author and her other current series is a futuristic sci-fi romance series called The League. This is another series that I've been wanting to start for ages and the 5th book Born of Silence is being published in paperback in October.

Paranormal romance fans will love Thea Harrison's Elder Races series which is full of all kinds of supernatural creatures from dragons to werewolves and more. I bought the first book in America last year and really enjoyed it so I'm very excited that these books are finally being published in the UK. I adore the new UK covers too and definitely want these versions on my book shelves! The first 2 books Dragon Bound and Storm's Heart are already available and thankfully we don't have long to wait for the next 3 books. Serpent's Kiss is out in July, Oracle's Moon in August and Lord's Fall (no cover image currently available) is published in November. This is definitely a series I'd recommend and I'm looking forward to reading Storm's Heart soon.

I absolutely love Larissa Ione, she is one of my favourite authors but she is also such a lovely person and I was thrilled to get the chance to meet her at Authors After Dark last year. Her Lords of Deliverance series is a spin off from her Demonica series and they are all books I adore and highly recommend. This is another series that I adore the UK covers for - Piatkus consistently manage to create awesome covers and I think they quite often beat the US versions! The first three books in this series (Eternal Rider, Immortal Rider and Lethal Rider) are already available and I can't tell you how excited I am about Rogue Rider which is published in November. That is at the top of my wish list!

I don't think it's any secret that I'm a massive fan of Keri Arthur - she is another of my favourite authors and I own every book she has had published (I've read nearly all of them - just a couple to catch up on!). Her Dark Angel series is a spin off from the Riley Jenson books, I really loved Darkness Unbound and am planning on reading the next 2 books (Darkness Rising and Darkness Devours) soon. The 4th book Darkness Hunts is being published in November so I want to catch up in time for the next release.

I love J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, it was one of the first paranormal romance series that I discovered so will always be special because it helped get me hooked on my favourite genre. I've only read the first book in her spin off Fallen Angel series so it's another one I need to work on catching up with. The first three books Covet, Crave and Envy are already available and the fourth book Rapture will be published in September.

I have to admit that I've never read anything by Jacquelyn Frank. I've heard a lot of fantastic things about her Nightwalkers series (Jacob, Gideon, Elijah, Damien & Noah) and it's a series I really want to read but I just haven't got around to buying it yet. In October Piatkus will be publishing Forbidden which is the first book in a new spin off series called the World of the Nightwalkers. I really do have some catching up to do don't I!

Romantic Suspense:

I'm fairly new to reading romantic suspense so I've not read anything by Linda Howard yet but I definitely need to do something about that soon. Her next book Prey is published in July and is one I'm hoping to read soon and fans also have Shadow Woman to look forward to in December.

I don't think there is anyone who won't recognise the name Nora Roberts as she is such a massive author! I actually read my first Nora Roberts book earlier this year and really enjoyed it so I'm going to start working my way through her massive back list. In November Piatkus will be publising The Perfect Hope which is the final book in her Inn BoomsBoro trilogy. Early next year will see the release of her next standalone romantic suspense novel Whiskey Beach. Nora also writes the In Death futuristic romantic suspense series under the name of J.D. Robb. I've heard so many good things about the In Death books that the first book has been on my wish list for a long time now but it's a bit daunting to pick up a series that already has 34 books available! Celebrity in Death is the latest release and was published in February but the 35th book Delusion in Death will be available in September. I have no idea how Nora manages to write so quickly!

Historical Romance:

I absolutely love Eloisa James' Happily Ever After series. These books are all fairytale re-tellings set in Regency England and they are so much fun to read. As you can imagine I'm incredibly excited to get my hands on the 4th book The Ugly Duchess when it comes out in August. In case you hadn't already guessed this one is based on the tale of The Ugly Duckling! Another August release will be The Lady Most Likely which is a novel that was written by three different authors - Eloisa James, Julia Quinn and Connie Brockway. I love Eloisa and Julia's books but haven't tried anything by Connie before so it will be interesting to see how well it works having them all writing parts of the same story. I have to confess that I've not read anything by Gaelen Foley before but I absolutely love the beautiful cover for My Scandalous Viscount. I refuse to read a series out of order though and as this is book 5 in her Inferno Club series I guess I'll have to start at the beginning and pick up My Wicked Marquess!

Last year Piatkus published Charlotte Betts' debut novel The Apothecary's Daughter. This was a very popular book and I currently have it sitting on my to read pile waiting for me to get to it. I'll have to hurry up though because the sequel The Painter's Apprentice is going to be published in August. The second story is set 20 years after the first one and follows main character Susannah's daughter Beth. I have a feeling that I'm going to absolutely love these books so I'm looking forward to reading them soon.

Contemporary Romance:

If you're a contemporary romance fan then keep an eye out for Never Can Say Goodbye by Christina Jones in August. This one is supposed to appeal to fans of Marian Keyes, Cecelia Ahern and Nora Roberts. Lisa Kleypas fans can also look forward to the third book in her Friday Harbor series Dream Lake in September.

A title that Piatkus are really excited about is The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne. This is their biggest debut title for 2012 and one that they are hoping will become a best seller. The story is about Daniel, a solicitor defending an 11 year old boy who has been accused of the murder of another child. Told in two parts you follow the murder investigation and trial in the present and also Daniel's past as a foster child. It sounds like a fascinating read and I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Fans of Nora Roberts should also keep an eye out for Mariah Stewart's Chesapeake Diaries series - Coming Home, Home Again, Almost Home and Hometown Girl. These stories have already been released as ebooks through the Piatkus Entice imprint but will be available as paperbacks from September with brand new covers (the covers above are the ebook versions).

So what do you think of the upcoming Piatkus titles? Which ones are you most excited about? I'm pretty sure there is going to be something there for everyone but I know I just added about a million books to my wish list lol.

We had a fantastic time at the Piatkus event and I really enjoyed finding out about their upcoming titles. It was great to catch up with the publicists who I chat to all the time via email and meet some of the editorial team too. It was also lovely to catch up with some of my blogging buddies - I can never spend too much time chatting with like minded people about the books we all love!

I very stupidly forgot to take any pictures while I was there but make sure you check out the blogs of all of the lovely ladies who were all at the event (I've included links at the bottom of this post!). I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone at Piatkus for organising the event and spoiling us with books and cake!

Who was there:

Donna, Carleen, Hannah, Lucy, Madeleine,  Paola and Sophie - Piatkus

Carolyn - Book Chick City

Grete & Tracey - Book Thing

Viv - Serendipity Reviews

There were a couple of other people there who I didn't quite catch names for so if I've missed you off the list please let me know and I'll add your link.