Is over at Larissa’s Bookish Life.

Finished Frostbite by Richelle Mead. This is the second book in her hugely popular Vampire Academy young adult series.

Things are getting complicated for dhamphir Rose Hathaway. She’s still attending St. Vladimir’s Academy and learning how to be a guardian to her best friend, Lissa (a Moroi vampire princess). Rose also has a massive crush on her tutor Dimitri, who seems to be into someone else. Complicating matters further is Mason, a guy in Rose’s class wants to be more than just friends. But when the Strigoi (evil vampires) attack a family of Moroi, all the St. Vlad’s students are shipped off to a ski resort for the holidays. But when a group of students run away to take on the Strigoi themselves, Rose has no choice but to follow and try to stop them, even though it may cost her everything …

I read Vampire Academy, the first book in the series, and really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to Frostbite. It didn’t disappoint. I especially liked how Rose grew up in this book and really changed and evolved as a character. She goes from desperately wanting to be a guardian already to realizing just what a big responsibility it is — and the danger, pain, and heartbreak that’s going to come along with it.

All the characters from the first book are back, including Dimitri, Lissa, and her boyfriend, Christian (I love Christian’s snarkiness), along with some new folks, like Rose’s mom. There was a lot of meaty drama between Rose and her mom, and Rose eventually comes to realize that maybe they aren’t so different after all.

My only little quibble would be the prologue, which is basically a recap of what happened in the first book. It had been a while since I’d read the first book, so I needed the refresher about the magic, vampires, and overall world building, but I still would have preferred to jump into the story right away.

Overall, this is enjoyable young adult book that has a lot to say about responsibility and growing up. And if you like vampires or star-crossed lovers, you should definitely check out this series.

My grade: B.

Would I read this author again: Yes. I like this series a lot and plan on reading the rest of the books, especially since the last book in the series is coming out soon.

Up next: Something from the TBR pile.

Books in my TBR pile: About 20.

Some of you have seen this mentioned in the various guest blogs and interviews that I did for Venom, but I wanted to wait until after the blog tour was over to make the official announcement. I’ve got some excellent news to report — I’ve sold a young adult urban fantasy series! Huzzah!

It’s going to be called the Mythos Academy series, and the first book is titled Touch of Frost. Here’s what it’s about:

Gwen Frost is a 17-year-old Gypsy girl with the gift of psy­chom­e­try — or the abil­ity to know an object’s his­tory just by touch­ing it. Gwen can see everyone who’s ever touched an object — and she can feel their emotions too, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Gwen uses her magic to track down objects that other kids have lost like cell phones, wallets, and purses — for a price.

After a serious freakout with her magic and her mom’s death, Gwen gets shipped off to Mythos Acad­emy, a school for the rich, privileged descen­dants of ancient war­riors like Spar­tans, Ama­zons, Valkyries, and more. Gwen doesn’t know one end of the sword from the other, and she doesn’t fit in with the other kids. But when Jasmine Ashton, the most popular girl in school is mur­dered, and Gwen herself is attacked, Gwen decides to use her Gypsy gift to figure out who killed the other girl and why — and finds herself learning some secrets that just might kill her …

Basically, the book is kind of like Veron­ica Mars meets the movie 300. I’ve always loved mythology, and I thought it would be fun to write a YA book with that sort of backdrop. Since the books are for young adults, they aren’t quite as dark and gritty as my Elemental Assassin series, but I would say that the Mythos Academy books are for older teens. There is some drinking, violence, and sex in the books.

If you like my Elemental Assassin books, you might like the Mythos Academy books too. The voice is very similar, and both series feature the same things — a strong, sassy heroine, cool magic/world building, and a seriously nasty bad guy. Gwen’s love interest — a Spartan warrior named Logan Quinn — is just a little dreamier than Gin’s love interest is. LOL.

The deal is for three books, which will be published by Kensington. Touch of Frost, the first book, will be out in August 2011, while the second book, Kiss of Frost, will be out in December 2011.

So in 2011, I’ll have four books out — Tangled Threads (Elemental Assassin #4) in May; Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1) in August; book 5 (Elemental Assassin series) in October; and Kiss of Frost (Mythos Academy #2) in December. It’s going to be a busy year.

The  third book in the Mythos Academy series is untitled at this point. It should be out sometime in 2012, but of course, that could change. Ideally, I’d like to write at least four or five books in the series, but that will depend on sales, like everything else does.

Anyway, I’ll let you know when I get more details. And of course, I’ll be posting the covers, a FAQ, character info, and more here on the website as they become available and I find time to write them.

In the meantime, I’m doing the happy dance!

Is over at Night Owl Reviews.

Some of you know this already, but the first three books in the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series have been released as audio books by Audible. Huzzah! Here’s the link to check them out.

I haven’t listened to the books myself yet (I just haven’t had the time), but I’ve gotten several e-mails from folks who have enjoyed them. Everyone really seems to like the narrator, Lauren Fortgang. I didn’t pick her to narrate the books (Audible did that), but Lauren was nice enough to e-mail me back during the summer and ask me some pronunciation and other questions about the books. I thought that was really cool of her, and I’m looking forward to hearing how the books turned out when I get the time. (I so need like 30 hours in a day to get everything done anymore.)

I don’t know if Tangled Threads and book 5 in the series will be released as audio books or not, but that will probably depend on how well the first three books do saleswise. But I know that a lot of folks like audio books, so I’m happy that the books are available in this format.

Happy listening, everyone!