Dates From Helll. Surprisingly, all of the novellas in this paranormal romance collection are pretty good. Readers are probably picking it up for Kim Harrison and Kelley Armstrong's entries, and the two don't disappoint.

Nightlife, Rob Thurman. Peppered with literary references, this urban fantasy holds enough action and family issues to neatly straddle the genre divide and appeal to the YA market. Living in New York City, Cal and his brother have spent the better part of their teen years running from the "Grendels" that created Cal in an Elvish genetic experiment. When one finally shows up, it's not without company. Thurman's Central Park is full of psychics, boggarts, a Puck, and one truly gruesome troll under the Brooklyn Bridge. Questions of identity, possession and family are dealt with adeptly when it seems the Grendels may have succeeded. This should appeal to the 12 and ups who've read Holly Black and need another fix.

Hunter's Moon, C. T. Adams & Cathy Clamp. A paranormal romance that's light on its feet, and while it falls into a few of the standard tropes, it doesn't take itself seriously enough to become silly. A mob hitman that happens to be a werewolf is solicited by a lotto millionaire who wants him to kill her. It being a romance, they fall in love, and have to deal with the unreasonable mother, his need to chase rabbits and eat raw meat once a month, and the mobsters that want both of them dead. Cute and fluffy, this takes the point of view of the male protagonist, in a slightly unusual move for the form.

The Courier, Melanie Jackson.  Third in Jackson's entertaining Goblin world, this romance finds action and adventure involving vampire goblins, catholic goblins, and the Kennedy conspiracy. Lots of fun.

The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story, Horace Walpole.  The first gothic novel, this has all the expected tropes, most of which are rather hackneyed clichés by now. Murder, bleeding statuary, incest, secret passageways and priests' children.

Blood Rites, Jim Butcher.  Harry Dresden's sixth adventure. Some interesting family connections help an otherwise bland supernatural mystery and set up what's sure to be an interesting family drama in the future.

Agents of Light and Darkness: A Novel of the Nightside, Simon R. Green.  The second "Nightside" book is just as dark, and we get a glimpse of the end of the world as begun by a future version of our protagonist. Green has a good thing going here.

Something from the Nightside, Simon R. Green.  John Constantine meets Harry Dresden. I really, really like this series - it's dark and creepy and horrific in a punk-meets-noir-meets-splatter-thriller way.

Heat Stroke, Rachel Caine.  This second Weather Warden novel is even more original than the first, and ends on a surprising note. I can't wait to see where Caine goes next.

Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth, Simon R. Green.  The sixth Nightside book continues the series with more time travel, blood, and guts.  Apocalyptic and dark, Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth is about John Taylor's mommy dearest, and her attempts to unmake the Nightside in a devastating image.  The action is frequently non-linear, and occasionally shudders, but we learn enough about John's family to break up the unrelenting parade of pestilence and bloodshed, and Green's characters are quirky and complex enough to carry the events along.