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.