Monday, June 25, 2007

New Romance Line Launches In July: Shomi--Romance With An Anime Vibe!

Hailed as “the future of romance”, Dorchester’s new line of novels shows definite anime roots in the covers and the flavor of the world lying between the covers. I have to admit, it covers caught my attention first, as did the names of the women writing the books.

Liz Maverick is a recent writer but is already become an old hand at fashioning cutting-edge romance speculative fiction. She has a habit of combining science fiction elements, military background, and romance in her works. As a result, a lot of readers have started picking up her books.

Maverick designed the six book series Crimson City about a potential future where werewolves, vampires, and humans have to learn how to get along. The books reached critical and popular acclaim. She wrote two books in the series, Crimson City and Crimson Rogue.

Her first book in the Shomi line comes out this week as the July release. It’s called Wired.


Seconds aren’t like pennies. They can’t be saved in a jar and spent later. Fate seeps through cracks and shifts like fog. Pluck a second out of time or slip an extra one in, the consequences will change your life forever. Is the man you love really the man you think you know, or is there a version of your life in which he’s your enemy? If you didn’t know who or what you were before, would you take a chance on becoming that person again?

L. Roxanne Zaborovsky is about to discover fate is comprised of an infinite number of wires, filaments that can be manipulated, and that she’s not the one at the controls. From the roguishly charming Mason Merrick-a shadow from her increasingly tenebrous past-to the dangerously seductive Leonardo Kaysar, she’s barely holding on. This isn’t a game, and the pennies are rolling all over the floor. Roxy just has to figure out which are the ones worth picking up.

Marianne Mancusi is Maverick’s first partner-in-crime. She’s written A Connecticut Fashionista In King Arthur’s Court, Ska8er Boy, and other romance novels. Her contribution to Shomi is Moongazer.


An enthralling combination of The Matrix and Snow Crash with a bit of Blade Runner thrown into the mix, Moongazer immediately draws the reader into one woman's terrifying struggle to understand her identity--is she Skye Brown, a successful game designer living in Manhattan or is she really Mariah Quinn, a woman haunted by the post-apocalyptic dreamland she escapes to every night? But what is reality? And who can she trust to find out the truth? Imagine every night entering a nightmare world you can't escape and being told real life is a dream. Skye Brown has it all: the cool job, the hot boyfriend, the apartment on New York's Upper West Side. But lately she can't enjoy any of it. She's having dreams of a post-apocalyptic world. Of a bleak futuristic wasteland. Of a struggle against oppression. And she's been told she's a MOONGAZER.

But what is that? And what is reality? In her dreams, she's not Skye Brown at all, but Mariah Quinn. In her dreams there's Dawn, the beautiful yet haunted soldier, and Skye is but the empty shell of a girl he once loved. And there was a betrayal, a great betrayal. Ripped between Dark Siders and club kids, the mundane and the mystic, Skye must discover who she is, what she wants and who wants her. And why. But in the glow of the moon, it's not always easy to recognize the face in the mirror.

Eve Kenin (Eve Silver) has been the third book, Driven. As Silver, the author has written several books in several genres, including Dark Desires, Dark Prince, and His Dark Kiss.

ROAD WARRIOR Raina Bowen knows she can handle herself just fine against anything the harsh Northern Waste throws at her. Until it throws her an enigmatic stranger called Wizard. First, she has to haul him out of a brawl he can't hope to win. And next, her libido is shooting into overdrive at the feel of his hard body pressed against hers on the back of her snowscooter. But there's something not quite right about this guy. Before she can strip bare Wizard's secrets, they're lured into a race for their lives, battling rival truckers, ice pirates...and a merciless maniac with a very personal vendetta.


I know I’m picking up the first two books when they hit the stands next week. And I’ll be picking up Driven when it hits the stands in August. These books sound like a really good fun time. Reality was just the starting line, and wild imagination lies between it and the finish line.

I don’t know how many books Dorchester plans in this new line. I’m sure it depends on the success of these three books. This can be a blast to see where they take us.

1 comment:

Katie said...

Yep. I am going to have to get those! I love anime! and I love the idea of bringing the two together. it's a good idea and I think it will hit a wider crowd of people.

I've also heard really good things about Crimson City. It's on my list too! :)