Rec Me a Book!
I have been in a major reading phase lately. Not that this is unusual, I always love to read, but I will admit that a lot of times I read for comfort, and sometimes that means breaking out the old favorites. 
When I was struggling to finish my B.S. in Computer Science I only read new books by my very favorite authors. The rest of the time I cycled through my keeper shelf, over and over for about 3 years. The process looks something like this:
- Re-read Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy
- Read Kelley Armstrong’s Dimestore Magic & Industrial Magic
- Break out the Melanie Rawn. This will take a good month because there are six books between 600-800 pages each.
- Go back to Anne Bishop and read the Tir Alainn series.
- Dig to the bottom of the shelf and find Ender’s Game.
- Waver over whether to read Speaker for the Dead or Ender’s Shadow next. Possibly read both.
- Get distracted by that stack of David Eddings in the corner.
- Ponder re-reading all of the Wheel of Time books. Decide to wait.
- Stumble across Dream’s Made Flesh. Decide it’s time to re-read Anne Bishop.
- Go To Step One
Now I’m not saying that’s a bad way to read books. I had to do it that way during school because I have this problem with being a book junkie with no willpower. Like when everyone made me go buy Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation and I’d read the entire series within the next 2 weeks. That is bad enough now when I have deadlines and a job, but it would have killed me during school when I needed to be concentrating on things like building my own interpreter in java. (Oh God, just remembering makes me want to kill myself.)
But aside from the small fact that I’m buying my first house in June and we have a big book deadline in July, for once I’m actually in a place where I have time to read almost as much as I want. So I’ve been devouring new (to me) authors and diving giddily in their backlist.
And I want more! In the last couple months I’ve read books I really enjoyed by Nalini Singh, Meljean Brook, Virginia Kantra, Emma Wildes, Diana Rowland and Ann Aguirre. I’ve got books by Vivian Arend, Keith Melton, C.L. Wilson, Brent Weeks & Rebecca Dean in my TBR pile (along with a few habitual faves like Patricia Briggs and Carrie Vaughn).
So…what next? Tell me what I should buy! I’m in a hot-but-not-erotic romance phase at the moment (though that really just depends on mood) and I’ve been noticing that my urban fantasy tastes have really wandered more toward people who live closer to the paranormal romance world. Romantic elements are preferable. (Though sexual tension is also awesome.)
Things I love: heroes or heroines with a dorky side, paranormal, psychics (EMPATHS!), smart heroes & heroines, hot sex, violence and or death (hopefully not concurrent with the hot sex), werewolves, sci-fi and anything, anything, anything with a heist or post-apocalyptic themes. (OMG has anyone written a post-apocalyptic heist?!) I also tend to prefer books with at least one heroine.
Things I hate: dubious consent or any implication that women who love sex are bad horrible sluts. (No really, I turn into a red-eyed frothing monster and flail about throwing things for days.)
Tell me what to read!
Categories: All Posts · Tags: i heart books, recs
Check out Sin and Shadows by Lyn Benedict. I loved it. Just be aware it’s UF, not romance.
A Note in the Margin by Isabelle Rowan. Its from Dreamspinner press and also available in paperback at Amazon. Can’t recommend it enough, its a very touching story
I saw you posting about that one on your blog the other day, Ann! I don’t think I’ll ever leave my UF love affair behind completely, so I’ll absolutely check it out. Of course, my definition of what constitutes sufficient romantic elements might differ from some… I don’t need much to be happy.
Larissa Ione’s Demonica (demons, with all manner of supporting characters, weres, mages, etc)
Sydney Croft’s ARCO series (heroes and heroines with special talents)
JR Ward’s Black Brother Brotherhood (vamps)
Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed (vamps)
Jacquelyn Frank Nightwalkers (demons, lycanthrope, vamps)
Oldies but goodies
Sidney Sheldon-If Tomorrow Comes (heist)
Nora Roberts-Honest Illusions (heist)
I’ll stop now
Holy cow, your reading list…we’ve hit a time ribbon and it’s constantly looping. I’m sure I’ve seen it before. Many times before. Eddings? All of them. Ender’s Game? Definitely follow the Shadow route.
My find this past year has been Christine Freeham’s ‘Game’ series. Paranormally enhanced ex-Seals and their kick butt counterparts. I’m on my third read through already, and there’s hmm… six books so far?
I, too, am waiting for the post-apocalyptic heist. You might have to write it. Chop-chop!
Anything by Linnea Sinclair.
Post-apocalyptic heist, you say? Have you read Driven by Eve Kinen?
Not quite a heist, but a great book.
Hey Bree – here are a few I’ve discovered recently.
Eve of Darkness & Eve of Desire by S.J. Day – the third book in the series is Eve of Chaos will be out June 30. They are UF but there is enough sexual tension between Eve, Cain & Able that you don’t miss it.
Lauren Dane’s Relentless is an absolutely awesome book. OMG once you start reading you can’t put it down.
Jordan Summers Deadword series (Red, Scarlet, Crimson) somewhere between UF & Romance. Red is out Scarlet release next Tuesday and Crimson will release this fall.
I have to mention Gena Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld (The Darkest Night, The Darkest Kiss, The Darkest Pleasure – The Darkest Whisper will be out in September).
Larissa Ione’s Demonica Series (Please Unbound, Desire Unchained, and Passion Unleashed)
Jaci Burton’s Demon Hunters (Surviving Demon Island, Hunting The Demon, and The Darkest Touch – Taken By Sin comes out June 23rd.)
Okay – I think I’ve mentioned enough.
By the way I can’t wait to get Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland.
@Greta – You are going to LOVE Diana’s book! I’m going to drag her over here when it comes out so we can ask her a ton of crazy questions and give away a few copies.
For the dorky side of romance you mentioned, you might check out Vicki Lewis Thompson’s books. She has a Nerd series. Or if your taste runs more to paranormal, she has a Hex series out now too.
Some authors I enjoy in the paranormal genre and would recommend to you are …. Kresley Cole, Karen Chance, Karen Macinerney, Jeaniene Frost, Yasmine Galenorn and Christine Warren.
An Urban Fantasy author I like but wasn’t mentioned in the comments yet is Ilona Andrews. Her series has more action then romance but the tension is there.
I’d love to rec a book for you! Well, not just one.
Ghostland by Jory Strong (post-apocalyptic, sex)
Demonica books by Larissa Ione (paranormal elements, sex)
Kate Daniels novels by Ilona Andrews (sci-fi, action, sexual tension)
Storm Born by Richelle Mead (shamans, paranormal elements, sex)
The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt (historical romance)
The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley (historical romance, hero has Asperger’s syndrome which makes for quirks)
Fever series by Karen Marie Moning (fae, sexual tension/sex, paranormal elements)
The following I haven’t read yet, but I’ve heard great things:
Mating Rituals of the North American WASP by Lauren Lipton
A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore
Darkborn by Alison Sinclair
To Beguile A Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt
Royal Blood by Rona Sharon
I hope that will last you awhile lol!
Bree, try Christie Craig’s books. She’s a hoot and her characters are definitely quirky. I laugh out loud like crazy when reading her.
Divorced, Desperate & Dating
Divorced, Desperate & Delicioius
Weddings Can Be Murder (my fave)
Gotcha! (just released)
The third Divorced & Divorced is in the works.
Glad to see you’re reading C.L. Wilson. Those are my favorite books of all time now. I just love that world she’s created. And I’m glad to see someone suggested Jennifer Ashley’s The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie. That is my favorite book of this year so far.
Christina Dodd’s Darkness Chosen series is good too, Scent of Darkness, Touch of Darkness, Into the Shadow, Into the Flame.
As is Christine Warren’s Others series. LOL, too many to list here, but they’re great.
I have a million more, but with everyone else’s recs, you’ll have plenty!
Enjoy and let us know what you did read!