Book Recommendations

This is for people who loved the Twilight series - I have some recommendations for books that are still easy to read, actually well WRITTEN, contain romance and/or hot sex, and something paranormal.

Whenever I rant about these books invariably someone will ask me about what I think are GOOD books. So here I go:

Looking for a vampire love story? Try the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I haven't seen the show "True Blood" that its based on, but I love the series. Sookie is a strong heroine. She saves her vampire boyfriend more than once, she is an ADULT and there are actually sex scenes rather than a fade to black (though not so insanely graphic that you're embarrassed to read them on the train!). I've read all the way up to book 8, and I confess I'm not as thrilled with the series now but that's all my issue. I tend to lose interest in a series after awhile.. I feel like the author runs out of ideas.

Looking for a paranormal story that includes vampire and werewolves and the such? Two authors that I love are Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews.
For Patricia Briggs there is the Mercy series which is about a werecoyote and how she solves mysteries and is friends with werewolves and vampires and all sorts of cool magical entities. She's also a mechanic and supports herself and there's tons of sexual tension between her and two other werewolves, but not sex. It's a harder series to read in the sense that its not lighthearted, it's very REAL but it's extremely well written. There is also the Alpah and Omega series which is about two werewolves Anna and Charles and it's very good. It carries on with with the werewolf side of things that is started in the Mercy series. Excellent!

Ilona Andrews writes about a bad ass Mercenary named Kate who also happens to be the daughter of an incredibly evil man. She can do magic and she's strong, takes no BS and has a running romance with the alpha of the shifter clan. It's a completely alternate world but its well done, and while there is no sex (yet), there's enough sexual tension to keep things moving along. There are three books in the series so far and they are all excellent.. I already have the fourth on my list for Amazon even though it won't be published for a LONG time.

Okay, so you're looking for hot sex. I can help here as well! There's the Dark Hunter series written by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It's all about vampire hunters called Dark Hunters (natch!) and they hunt Daimons (who are like vampires, but not) and these Dark Hunters are immortal. They also have a soul mate and the books usually focus on the whole standard romance idea which is this scary ass, insanely good looking guy is scarred from the past and learns to trust and love and blah, blah.. the stories aren't that original to be honest, and after reading two books you've basically read them all so I stopped buying them, but the sex scenes are pretty hot. No cut aways here!

Next up is the Riley Jensen series by Keri Arthur. Riley is a half werewolf and half vampire and she works for an elite security like CIA place where they police and solve supernatural crimes. In this world werewolves are insanely promiscuous and its refreshing to read a heroine who has NO QUALMS about recreational sex. In the werewolf world here monogamy is not something they practice until they meet their "mate". And at that point they are monogamous. So the sex is hot and frequent but by book 4 I'm a little frustrated with her insanely awful choices in bedroom department. You would think that for someone who has so much sex, she would be better able to weed out the potential assholes. Not so. You can bet that if there's a controlling, two faced bastard out there she will have sex with him in about two seconds flat. I also get a little tired of the author continuously telling me about Riley's need for sex and why. I get it, I don't need it hammered over my head all the time. But they are a fun series even if you will be embarrassed reading it on the train!

So that's it for now, I'll write another entry about other books I enjoy that are not fantasy based but I thought this might help you all out for now!