This is our final day of our Fantasy Celebration, and today we have Angela James, super duper executive editor of Carina Press. To see more Carina Press titles, click here, and for Angela James’ website, click here.
I’m thrilled to have been invited to talk about some of Carina Press’s upcoming fantasy titles. We’re actually really proud of our fantasy offerings, and I think they often just don’t get enough love, so it was hard for me to choose just a few to talk about.
I’ll start with Gate to Kandrith by Nicole Luiken, which is actually available now. This book has been released to incredible reviews from readers, including 4 1/2 stars from RT Magazine. This fantasy romance is the first part of a duology, so the story isn’t drawn out over many books, but is instead contained in just two books. The second will be released in early 2013.
Sarathena Remillus, daughter of the newly elected Primus of the Republic of Temboria, has been given a mission: discover the secret of slave magic. Anxious to escape the corruption and treachery of the capital, Sara welcomes the chance to finally prove herself far away in Kandrith, the tiny nation of former slaves.
Accompanying her on the journey is Lance, a Kandrithan to whom Sara owes her life. Lance despises the nobility, and is determined to resist his desire for Sara, despite her attempts to entice him into divulging the secret of his magic.
Soon their travels become fraught with peril, and Sara discovers she’s fallen victim to the ultimate betrayal. To end a war between two nations, she will have to make the ultimate sacrifice…
Nicole has written an incredible, intricately plotted fantasy romance with richly developed characters and an ending that will leave you both gasping and cheering. Recommended for fans of Isobelle Carmody, George R.R. Martin, Lois McMaster Bujold and Juliet Marillier.
This summer we have two titles releasing in June and July that readers of this blog may be interested in. The first is The Pirate’s Lady by Julia Knight. This fantasy romance, featuring a strong female character, continues the story begun in the now available Ten Ruby Trick. Recommended for fans of Katherine Kerr and Zoe Archer. 
There’s a price on privateer Van Gast’s head. So high that Van is tempted to turn himself in for the reward, then escape with it. Escaping with full pockets is what he does best. He managed to steal a ship, a bride, a dowry, a diamond the size of a fist—and then disappear without a trace.
But this time, he can’t go very far. The woman of his dreams, his Josie, has stolen his ship and is leading him on a merry chase dangerously close to Estovan, the one place Van Gast should steer clear of…
Following that in July is the first book in Jeffe Kennedy‘s new Covenant of Thorns fantasy series, Rogue’s Pawn.
This is no fairy tale…
Haunted by nightmares of a black dog, sick to death of my mind-numbing career and heart-numbing fiancé, I impulsively walked out of my life—and fell into Faerie. Terrified, fascinated, I discover I possess a power I can’t control: my wishes come true. After an all-too-real attack by the animal from my dreams, I wake to find myself the captive of the seductive and ruthless fae lord Rogue. In return for my rescue, he demands an extravagant price—my firstborn child, which he intends to sire himself…
With no hope of escaping this world, I must learn to harness my magic and build a new life despite the perils—including my own inexplicable and debilitating desire for Rogue. I swear I will never submit to his demands, no matter what erotic torment he subjects me to…
Then, in August and September we have three urban fantasies releasing. Fans of the male/male genre will want to check out The Druid Stone by Heidi Belleau and Violetta Vane. Debut author Jacqueline M. Battisti brings us her first novel, Guardian of Bastet, and in September author Sandy James kicks off a kick-ass five-book urban fantasy series, The Amazon Sisterhood, with The Reluctant Amazon (You should check it out simply to reward it for being a series that has a planned end!)
But if you’re not willing to wait for what’s in store, I hope you’ll check out some of our already available fantasy offerings. Just a very few of our diverse collection include The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt (a Sleeping Beauty “retelling” that’s like no retelling you’ve ever read before), Should We Drown in Feathered Sleep by Michael Merriam(post-apocalyptic fantasy. With loons. Yes, loons), Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas (psst, this book just won a major award but I’m not allowed to tell you what it is yet!), Dark Vow by Shona Husk (for those of you who’ve been longing for a good fantasy with a western-type feel), the Gaslight Ch
ronicles series by Cindy Spencer Pape (Steampunk! and you can dl one of them for freeee…) and Salome at Sunrise by Inez Kelley, a fantasy romance for which we’ve just contracted the next book!
Today I’m offering one random commenter their choice of three books from our fantasy and fantasy romance collections, including any of the books due to release that I’ve mentioned here (though you may have to wait for an ARC of a few of them). Leave a comment and tell me if you’ve read any of Carina’s fantasy titles, and what you thought. If not, tell me what’s been stopping you!
I have on my TBR the Altered Destiny and I have read all of Cindy Spencer Pape’s books. I am careful about choices as too much sex in the books bother me as I just page through them and some are fantasy but the romance is missing. For those, I really need reviews as I have been burned a few times on just fantasy books.
I read Bettie Sharpe’s CAT’S TALE released by Carina, and absolutely loved it!
Wow! Thanks for the “shout out,” Angela! I’m thrilled to have my Amazons coming to Carina! 🙂
I love Cindy Spencer Pape’s books too! I also really loved Elisa Paige’s Killing Time – I thought it was a fabulous novel.
I think my first Carina book was Phantoms & Photographs. I loved it and it was actually my first steampunk novel too 🙂
I just looked at my Carina bookshelf, and there are some books that need re-reading! Thank you for reminding me 😉
Now that i know about Carina, I’ll keep my eyes peeled! These books sound great.
I haven’t read any of Carina’s fantasy titles because (1) I’m just starting to discover the romance genre, and (2) I go through phases for different genres and a craving for fantasy hasn’t hit until this month. I’ve been looking up imprints like Carina to learn more about the romance genre!
I love fantasy romance but I’ve never tried any books from Carina Press so far. I”m not sure why exactly… probably haven’t come across much publicity on Carina Press books/authors?
Thanks for the free dl!
I have some Carina Press books. I couldn’t read them on my laptop since I lived in a small rented room. I bought an e-reader except it was defective and had to send it for repairs since its was under warranty. Now that I have it back, I have finals. I should be able to read some of those ebooks I bought from Carina Press.
So far I’ve read more of Carina’s contemporary offerings than anything else – so I’d love to discover more of your fantasy selections. That said, I have read and enjoyed a few fantasy novels from you guys, most notably The Bloodgate Guardian by Joely Sue Burkhart.
I have several Carina fantasy novels on my harddrive, but haven’t read them yet simply because my TBR “shelf” (electronic and hard copy) is overflowing with more than 2,000 tomes! It makes me wish I had multiple brains so I could read several books simultaneously each day.
I have Ten Ruby Trick and one of Cindy Spencer Pape’s Urban Fantasy novels on my TBR list. But the one book I am waiting impatiently for is Bernita Harris next book. And Cindy Spencer Pape’s next steampunk.
I love both of Cindy Spencer Pape’s series, and Dark Vow was awesome. I think it’s terrific that Carina makes their new titles available to reviewers on NetGalley. I’ve found some great stuff (and reviewed them!) that way.
Ten Ruby Trick looks like fun.
Oh, have I! I’ve been enjoying Shona Husk’s new series, and Inez Kelley never fails to write an excellent book.
Very nice post. I haven’t read any of her books yet.
I have not read any yet. And I think its mainly because everything I saw was usually an ebook and I only recently really started adding ebooks to my list.
I don’t know that I’ve read any books by this publisher, but some of these sound fantastic and I think I need to change that *very* soon.
I have a few on my TBR virtual pile. The cover art drew me to them, but my day job (librarian) is keeping me from reading them at the moment. When school lets out and the kids are gone I’ll have more time…
I clearly haven’t been paying enough attention became these look great.