This first novel chronicles one school year in the life of college freshman Ben Jensen, who becomes involved in the a cappella community at fictional, middle American Brighton University. The sense of competition between the various groups--particularly between Ben's Chorderoys and the rival Harmoniums--becomes even more pronounced when budget cuts place in jeopardy the future of at least one of the school's six a cappella groups. Adding to this "acadrama," a love triangle arises when Ben falls for Caroline Cooper, but gets ensnared by the ambitious, conniving president of the Harmoniums, Dani Behlman. A very conventional narrative takes shape, the action limping toward the campuswide a cappella competition. Harrison occasionally overexplains the thoughts and emotions of his characters, leading to clumsy moments, e.g., a singer's "power gospel voice originated from a pounding red-hot core of feeling inside her chest."

In Hall's confident debut, a New York City blogger, libertarian, and self-appointed "digital zombie" charts the deadly progression of a flu epidemic and becomes an enemy of the state. The online scribe known as Maskman--he is also called Count Blogula--splits his time between blogging about the deadly "Great H5N1 Avian Pandemic Flu" decimating America and selling protective gear to the masses over the Internet. But amid widespread airborne infections, riot squads, and disorder, Maskman's increasingly outspoken blog posts garner him unwanted attention from governmental agencies eager to contain public hysteria. It's evident that Hall has researched human physiology, influenza, and how society processes deadly pandemics, and this lends credibility to a story line that--with the exception of pages of overwrought expository asides--proves compelling. And while Hall's novel may not be particularly original, he executes the material well.

Sarah and Ibrahim are in love, but their troubles are just starting. When Ibrahim proposes, Sarah balks because she doesn't want to move to Saudi Arabia. This girl-meets-boy story is wrapped in a provocative tale of how a liberal American woman adjusts to living in one of the most restrictive nations on earth. After Sarah agrees to move, she must deal with both her parents' bigotry and the restrictive rules that govern where she goes, to whom she talks, and what she wears. The romance itself suffers because Grant fails to show the reader Sarah's motivations, particularly why she falls in love with Ibrahim in the first place. Nonetheless, it's touching to see how they rely on each other for strength. And the author clearly highlights the difficulties Americans have understanding Arab Muslims and provides an illuminating--if imperfect--view into what life is like in Saudi Arabia in the post–9/11 world.

In this first novel in Levkoff's series chronicling the life of Marcus Licinius Crassus as seen through the eyes of one of his slaves, the author presents a vigorously detailed account of romantic intrigue inside a Roman household, but pays scant attention to actual Roman history. Set in the years leading up to Crassus's ill-fated Syrian campaign in the first century B.C.E., this episodic tale follows Alexander, a young Greek student who is captured by the notorious general and dictator Sulla and given as a gift to Crassus. As Alexander rises through the household ranks, he watches as Crassus acquires wealth and power. However, there are virtually no references to Crassus defeating Spartacus, revealing the Catiline conspiracy, or even his role in the First Triumvirate. While Levkoff makes Alexander a wry and sympathetic character, and a host of Roman figures, including a lecherous Julius Caesar, make guest appearances, little is revealed about one of Rome's most hubristic cautionary tales.

In Grant's satirical novel, Richard Gray is a self-righteous newsletter editor and stay-at-home dad thrust into the local spotlight after assuming the presidency of the bitterly divided parent-teacher organization at his child's school. As president, Richard juggles the demands of overinvolved parents, the licentious PTO secretary, and his precocious son and emotionally frigid wife, all while waging war against Estelle Rutherford, the demagogic principal of Malliford Elementary, and her blatantly racist policies meant to protect the school's reputation. Although Grant provides trenchant criticisms of educational policy, much of his novel resembles an overripe soap opera. And while predictable and convenient plotting, inconsistent characterization, and sloppy exposition are saved by Grant's acerbic wit, in the end his novel is undermined by the specters of sexual abuse and murder that haunt his protagonist's past. A brief interlude in which Richard returns to his childhood home to attend his father's funeral and solve a dark crime from his youth is at once the most incongruous and most enticing portion of the novel. But once Grant has exposed Richard's dark history, none of the remaining twists and turns of this suburban intrigue seem equally important.

Dan Brown fans looking for similar fare could do worse than this overlong religious thriller from Soister. Six years earlier, when she was a grad student in Chicago, Layla Daltry caused a stir with the public presentation of her master's thesis. Its argument was leaked to the press, turning what should have been an ordinary lecture into a media circus. Daltry posited that the Book of Revelation was influenced both by paganism and "opium-induced subjective delusion." The ensuing violent furor led her to shelve academia and accept an offer from Sotheby's to seek out lost antiquities. This new profession turns dangerous after Maeve Bryson, an elderly scholar and close friend, dies. Bryson's husband tells Daltry that Maeve's "secret" has been stolen, and he asks for help, starting a chain of events that puts Daltry in the crosshairs of assassins in the service of a covert fundamentalist organization connected with the Knights of Malta. The frenetic action sequences are familiar, but unlike many Da Vinci Code wannabes, the internal logic holds together.

Amelia Mullbury is a wealthy woman in London, with a handsome fiancé, a supportive family, and a healthy real estate career. While she recently lost her mother, she's not letting that stop her from planning the wedding of her dreams. But her plans are briefly stymied when thieves steal her dead mother's identity and attempt to sell millions of dollars worth of art belonging to the family. However, the thieves are soon caught, and Amelia is able to go on to marry Lars in the perfect wedding at her grandparents' estate in Bermuda. Readers will be frustrated by Culmer's sluggish second novel and have difficulty remaining engaged with a heroine who never faces any major struggles or displays significant inner life. Even the whiff of the criminal plot is quickly dismissed, with no consequences, and Amelia's greatest challenge seems to be convincing her fiancé to move in with her. The plot is scanty, the prose stilted, and the characters flat and interchangeable.

This horror novel by the creator of the video-game series Crash Bandicoot is a gorgeously creepy, strangely humorous, and sincerely terrifying tale of clever teens trying to rid the world of ancient monstrosities. In Salem, Mass., in 1913, Sarah Engelmann and Alex Palaogos bond over scholarly pursuits while trying to ignore their awkward mutual attraction. But Sarah's strange dreams, the pair's discovery of the mangled and then reanimated body of a local boy, and the bizarre amnesiac illness that afflicts one of their friends pull them--with grudging support from Sarah's father, a powerful Jewish magician, and Alex's grandfather, an elderly vampire hunter--into a battle with centuries-old vampires and Egyptian gods who seek the lost horn of the Archangel Gabriel. Gavin's prose has both beautifully dark and startlingly scary moments, and his characters and their behaviors are refreshingly authentic for the genre: young people who are impulsive and full of bravado; older magicians who are slow to act, but protect their children; and vampires, who though undone by ambition, old enmities, and greed, act like people who have the perspective of centuries of (un)living.

The conventions of the western are followed faithfully in Hassett's debut novel, which boasts some rousing shootouts in which the mettle of the out-of-place Eastern transplant is tested, found wanting, and then stiffened according to a romanticized if clichéd view of life in the frontier town of Del Rio, Tex. Young Jim Rutley is shamed at the hands of villainous gunslinger Brock Lacey, but learns the ways of the gunslinger though the benevolent tutelage of a mysterious ranch owner, Don José. Jim's works to learn how to handle a gun and regain the admiration of his love, Jean Fargo, even as rival suitors challenge his romantic ambitions. The gunfight scenes pack some action and tension, especially the showdown between Rutley and Lacey, but the novel often suffers from overly labored prose.

Despite an afterword that makes a case for a continuation of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein, there's nothing in this workmanlike horror novel that will convince readers of the need for a sequel. Meeske's novel picks up where the original left off, related in a letter from the captain of the H.M.S. Prosper, Robert Walton, to his sister. Distraught at the death of his friend, Victor Frankenstein, Walton leads his crew in a futile attempt to kill the scientist's unnatural creation. The daemon has little difficulty defending itself, but chooses to spare Walton to gain access to Victor's writings. An explosion set off by Walton's only surviving shipmate appears to claim the monster's life, but--rather unsurprisingly--it's only a matter of time before the creature resurfaces. The action then shifts to Switzerland, home of Victor's brother Ernest. The novel's resolution disappoints, and its plot failings overshadow a solid effort to emulate Shelley's prose style.