New Top Five Member!

OK. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy Katie MacAlister's Aisling Grey series, but I just encountered a new series this weekend that was simply more deserving of a position in my top 5 paranormal romance series list....Kathryn Smith's Brotherhood of the Blood Series.

I hadn't heard anything about this author until recently - it appears she only just started writing in the paranormal romance genre...but WOW! What a great start. I read both of the two books currently available in this series in the course of two days. The third book in the series is slated to come out in late November. I can't wait!!!

So what makes these books so great...well, not to knock my favorite genre, but these books were just plain well written. Sadly, that's a bit of a rarity these days. The plots were well thought out and the characters were so well developed I was truly impressed.

While the romance and angst in these are wonderful, these aren't just a sap-feast either. There's plenty of action, particularly in the second book, "Night of the Huntress."

I really like a series where each book stands alone as a good, complete read, but where there's also a common story thread throughout each, which keeps you reading with unanswered questions. I hate those books that leave you hanging at the end, wondering what is going to happen because nothing (and I mean nothing) is wrapped up...and inevitably you have to wait months for the next book to be published. These books are great - with actual endings, plus a compelling common storyline that keeps building.

OK. So if you're intrigued, here's a very quick summary to wet your appetite:

• Be Mine Tonight: Prudence Ryland is dying, and in an attempt to save herself, she is in search of the Holy Grail. Chapel has been a vampire since the 1300s when he and his men accidentally drank from the Blood Grail, evil counterpart to the Holy Grail. Now, in 1899, Chapel is sent to England to protect Pru from finding the Blood Grail and making the same mistake that he did. But others are searching for the same prize, and aren't afraid to kill for it. Can Chapel keep Pru safe? And how long can she survive the cancer that is slowly killing her?
• Night of the Huntress: Marika Korzha is a vampire hunter, who kills anything that is "other" without thought or question. She also happens to be a Dhampyr (half vampire/half human). Bishop also hunts evil, but he is a vampire, and ally to Chapel from book 1. As Marika and Bishop hunt each other, something much darker hunts them. Will they join forces to save themselves and the people they love. Can Marika overcome her anger and prejudice, and learn to accept Bishop as well as herself. And can Bishop truly kill the misguided vampire huntress he was sent to destroy?

Atlantis Strikes My Interest

I read a book by a new author last night (new to me, that is), and felt compelled to share. The book, the first in a new series, is called Atlantis Rising: The Warriors of Poseidon by Alyssa Day.

I've been neck deep in vampire romance novels for so long, this was an excellent change of pace. The men in this book are all warriors from Atlantis, who have spent thousands of years protecting humans from evil (vamps, shapeshifters, etc). Note that I am not usually a fan of books that set vampires up as evil, bloodsucking baddies, but I'll make an exception in this case.

Anyhow, in this book, Conlan, the prince of Atlantis has just returned from 7 years of heinous torture and captivity at the hands of the queen of vampires, only to discover that in his absence, the trident of Atlantis has been stolen and taken ashore. In an attempt to recover it, along with the help of some rather compelling warriors (and no doubt future leads of upcoming books in the series), Conlan encounters Riley. Riley is human, but also happens to be an empath with some impressive abilities of her own. Of course, Riley and Conlan are immediately drawn to each other and the reader is taken along for a great ride, as romance, adventure, and violence ensue.

If you're not a fan of the F word appearing in your reading material, you should steer clear of this one. Harsh language doesn't bother me, and seemed entirely appropriate in this book, for what it's worth.

I really enjoyed this read, and look forward to the second book, which is slated to come out in November. (note that there is also a short story from this series in the anthology Wild Thing that I will certainly check out).

Wile I really liked this book, and will most certainly be making a place for it on my keeper shelf, I should warn you that it felt a bit short, at only 280 pages, and I would have liked a bit more depth when it came to Conlan. There was so much opportunity for Ms. Day to explore when it came to her hero - I mean the dude just escaped from 7 years of hell and he seems to recover pretty fast. I hope she takes the time to explore her future heroes and heroines a bit more thoroughly in her upcoming books.

I've been busy devouring new reads. Here's a quick run down of the most recent, in case you're looking for new books or new authors:

• The Vampire Who Loved Me by Teresa Medeiros (Second in a series of two, I enjoyed this and the first one "After Midnight". Note that you really should read the first book before tackling this one, or you may be a bit lost.)
• Traveler by Melanie Jackson (The first in the Wildside Romance series. The cover on this one is totally misleading, in my opinion. This book was full of adventure and suspence, as well as Feys and Goblins. This is a great romance with minimal sex. This is the first book I've read by this author, but I'm sure I'll read more.)
• Eyes of Heaven (Dirk & Steele book 5) by Majorie M. Lui (I love this series, and this book was great. If you haven't tried the Dirk & Steele series, you should drop what you're doing and run out to the book store right now! This series focuses around a paranormal detective agency called Dirk & Steele, where all the members have special powers, ranging from the ability to control electricity to shape shifting into a crow.)
• Primal Heat (Prime Series book 5) by Susan Sizemore (This is the second book in this series that I've read...the first being "I Burn for You", which is the first book in this series. I enjoyed the first book better, and would suggest you start there, but this was still a good read. Quick summary for the Prime series: Prime vampires are about as alpha as you can get and when they finally find their bondmate the attraction is immediate. If that sounds interesting, then you'll like these books. Nuff said.)

Charlaine Harris Starts It All

It's only fitting that my first "review" give credit to the series that started all of this....The Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series, by Charlaine Harris. My sister recommended these books to me as light reading on a tropical vacation, and I proceeded to devour the 7 published books in this series.

If you're relatively new to either paranormal fantasy or romance books, Dead Until Dark, book 1 in this series is a great place to start.

Charlaine Harris has dreamed up a wonderful, funny world in small-town Louisiana, where vampires have joined mainstream society, thanks to the development of synthetic blood. Spunky heroine, mind-reading Sookie Stackhouse leads the reader on her zany adventures, looking for love with new boyfriend, Vampire Bill.

I love this series, although without reveling anything, I will warn that after major investment in the characters (and I will admit I was seriously sucked in), certain developments left me fairly upset. I literaly had to put the books aside for a few days before I could finish reading. I felt like Joe on "Friends" when he had to put Little Women in the freezer after he found out Beth dies. After my "freezer break" I finished the rest of the published books, and I still love this series.

If you're new to romance, this is a great first venture, primarily because you'll find these in the Fantasy/SciFi aisle of your local bookstore...so no walk of shame down the romance aisle, if you're not quite ready for that. :)

My venture down the Romance aisle walk of shame

I'm relatively new to the paranormal romance genre, and must admit, it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. OK. not "a bit of a guilty pleasure" - a HUGE guilty pleasure. I don't know why that Romance aisle at the book store results in so much embarrassment. But for me, it really is a walk of shame.

Does a ticket to that section of the bookstore require the merit badge of a lonely, 40-something wife in a sexless marriage? If so, I definitely do not fit the stereotype. I'm 30, I have a great marriage, a college degree, and contrary to the stereotype that I seem to hear the most, I'm not a sex fiend. I do enjoy more intellectual literature, and in fact, my profession is that of an editor. So quality writing is a common theme in my life. But who doesn't need a good, light read now and again...a book you can curl up on the couch with after work that doesn't require much precious brain power?

My venture into the paranormal romance genre actually began in the SciFi/Fantasy aisle....a somewhat more respectable locale in the local bookstore...at least facing pimply-faced, teenage boys somehow seems less embarrassing on some level...at least in my warped mind. But I digress....

I started my foray into the Romance genre as many people do...I needed some books to take on vacation.

My requirements:

• Light reading (nothing that would compete with my need to drink pina coladas and occasionally lounge in the pool)
• A series (since I wanted to take several books with me)
• Something with a bit of romance (I'm a sucker for a happy ending and alpha males)

I ask my much better read, older sister for a recommendation. She's an avid reader, who also happens to read a lot of Fantasy novels. She immediately suggested the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. Little did I know, this was where my advent as a ravenous reader of paranormal romance would begin.....

5 months, countless library books, and to my husband's chagrin, some 30-40 purchased books later, I had to official admit a serious addiction. The fact that I can read a book in an evening certainly doesn't help my rate of consumption either. Anything with some romance and a few vampires, werewolves, or shapeshifters fit the bill. I found myself scouring Amazon.com for books that sounded compelling....hoping they would be well-written and actually be driven by plot (instead of meaningless, kinky sex).

Of course, if you're reading this blog, you in all likelihood share my little addiction, and are all too familiar with the challenge of finding well-written books in this genre. As I weeded through the drivel, and found some actual gems in the pile, I started sharing my finds with friends. After all, why not save my fellow reader time hunting down good books. That's when it hit me."AHA!" I said. Why only share my bookstore treasures with just a handful of my girlfriends? And why not warn others against the books I regretted wasting my precious time and money on? And that of course, is how I ended up here, passing along my experiences and recommendations to you.