Tuesday Tomorrow

Heartless by Gail Carriger
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: June 28th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?"

FINALLY! I have been impatiently awaiting the newest Parasol Protectorate book and now it's finally here. Pay no attention if I am MIA, you know what I'll be doing.

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
Published by: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 28th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 288Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Wow. This is it. This is me growing up. On my own, going to Performing Arts College. This is good-bye, Tallulah, you long, gangly thing, and hellooooo, Lullah, star of stage.

Tallulah Casey is ready to find her inner artist. And some new mates. And maybe a boy or two or three.

The ticket to achieving these lofty goals? Enrolling in a summer performing arts program, of course. She's bound for the wilds of Yorkshire Dales—eerily similar to the windswept moors of Wuthering Heights. Tallulah expects new friends, less parental interference, and lots of drama. Acting? Tights? Moors? Check, check, check.

What she doesn't expect is feeling like a tiny bat's barging around in her mouth when she has her first snog.

Bestselling author Louise Rennison returns with her trademark wit, a hilarious new cast, and a brand-new cheeky heroine who is poised to discover plenty of opportunities for (mis)adventure!"

I just adored Louise Rennison previous series, Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging. Here we have a new series, and it's about acting! Louise always excelled at the plays and theatrical theatrics with Georgia Nicholson, and there's no reason to doubt that she's lost the magic.

Before Versailles by Karleen Koen
Published by: Crown
Publication Date: June 28th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Louis XIV is one of the best-known monarchs ever to grace the French throne. But what was he like as a young man—the man before Versailles?

After the death of his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, twenty-two-year-old Louis steps into governing France. He’s still a young man, but one who, as king, willfully takes everything he can get—including his brother’s wife. As the love affair between Louis and Princess Henriette burns, it sets the kingdom on the road toward unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. Every woman wants him. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love.

But there are other problems lurking outside the chateau of Fontainebleau: a boy in an iron mask has been seen in the woods, and the king’s finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, has proven to be more powerful than Louis ever thought—a man who could make a great ally or become a dangerous foe . . .

Meticulously researched and vividly brought to life by the gorgeous prose of Karleen Koen, Before Versailles dares to explore the forces that shaped an iconic king and determined the fate of an empire."

I've become a France addict, but I don't need nor want a cure.

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
Published by: Atria
Publication Date: June 28th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 624 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"THE PHENOMENAL INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Set in Victorian London with char-acters real and imagined, The Map of Time is a page-turner that boasts a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens if we change history? Félix J. Palma explores this question in The Map of Time, weaving a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting—a story full of love and adventure that transports readers to a haunting setting in Victorian London for their own taste of time travel."

Looks like some more Steampunky goodness this week.

Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte by Laura Joh Rowland
Published by: Overlook
Publication Date: June 28th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Set in 1851, three years after the events in The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë, Rowland's fast-paced second Charlotte Brontë adventure continues to transform the shy author of Jane Eyre into an action heroine. Still pining for John Slade, the rugged spy from the first book whose marriage proposal she refused, Charlotte is stunned to come across John under restraints in Bedlam, the notorious London hospital for the insane. The last she knew John was in Russia on a secret mission. When Charlotte learns the police suspect that John is the Whitechapel Ripper, who's killed and mutilated three prostitutes, she sets out to prove him innocent, despite John's spymaster telling her that he betrayed Britain in Russia. The less than imaginative use of an ur–Jack the Ripper may disappoint those expecting the depth and sophistication of the author's series set in medieval Japan (The Cloud Pavilion, etc.). This historical thriller will likely appeal more to romance fans than Brontë enthusiasts."

The first book in this series made a splash a few years back and now the second installment is in paperback!

Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer
Published by: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: June 28th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Lady Serena Carlow is an acknowledged beauty, but she's got a temper as fiery as her head of red hair. When her father dies unexpectedly, Serena discovers to her horror that she has been left a ward of Ivo Barrasford, marquis of Rotherham, a man whom Serena once jilted and who now has the power to give or withhold his consent to any marriage she might contemplate. With her father's heir eager to take over his inheritance--and Serena's lifelong home--she and her lovely young stepmother, Fanny, decide to move to Bath, where Serena makes an odd new friend and discovers an old love, Major Hector Kirkby. Before long, Serena, Fanny, Kirkby, and Rotherham are entangled in a welter of misunderstood emotions, mistaken engagements, and misdirected love.

Georgette Heyer's genius has always been in creating memorable characters, then placing them in a comedy of manners that is absolutely true to the Regency period. Bath Tangle is a delightful romp through the haute ton of early-19th-century England, and the battling, passionate, meant-for-each-other Ivo and Serena are one of her most successful romantic duos."

Sourcebooks continues with their lovely reissues of Georgette Heyer Regency Romances. Sigh.