Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Candy, I loved the Silver Kiss! Have you read her werewolf one, “blood and chocolate”?

Also, if you’re still on a graphic novels kick, try 30 Days of Nights by Steve Niles. I think you might like it.

All right, not a Carpathian in the bunch! :cheese:

Um, I must point out that I pointed that out in a thread designated to specifically disagree with you Bitches. And it wasn’t done unkindly, if I recall. *haughty sniff*

Tanya Huff’s “Blood” series, although not romance at all, but detective fiction, is really enjoyable. Good tongue-in-cheek humour, and the characters are very well-rounded. Not so wild about the last book in the series myself, though.

But the vampire is not only short, but red-headed. Who’da thunk it?

Thought it odd that I didn’t see a mention to Rachel Morgan’s series by Kim Harrison…similar to Sookie and earlier Anita Blake series, good stuff.

Under Steph’s recs, is that Nina Bangs, or L.A. Banks?  Both have vamps, but I don’t think there’s a Nina Banks author.

Emma Gads recommends Susan Squires’ Companion series. :)

I liked Laws of the Blood: Companions by Susan Sizemore. Of all the books in the series, I thought this one had the best romance. I really enjoyed Mercedes Lackey’s Children of the Night, which is a Diana Tregarde story.

I wish Robin McKinley would do a sequel to Sunshine!

I agree with IF ANGELS BURN—loved it and am waiting eagerly for the next installment.  But no one recommended THE COMPANION by Susan Squires?  Or THE FOREVER KISS by Angela Knight?  Both terrific books.

Question for Stephanie, Angie, Diva, and Gail: I see you are all down as recommending Undead and Unemployed.  I read Undead and Unwed and quite liked it, but when I picked up Unemployed at the store and read the first chapter it didn’t seem to have the same spark as the first one.  I didn’t want my satisfaction with Unwed to be dampened, so I put back Unemployed and walked away.

Was this a mistake?  Did it pick up after a chapter or two and have the same magic as Unwed in your opinion(s)?

I admit to curiosity with where things went for Betsy (and Fink Lair) after the first book left off - I liken Unwed to a cross between Buffy and Stephanie Plum, two series I’ve been known to love - so any glimmer of encouragement here could have me hot-footing it to my local bookstore.

“Um, I must point out that I pointed that out in a thread designated to specifically disagree with you Bitches. And it wasn’t done unkindly, if I recall.”

Awwww, that was just a wee jab, Angie. (Actually, I didn’t even remember that it was you who made the comment.) It got us off our asses, though, because we totally forgot about this project, so it’s good that somebody prodded us.

fiveandfour: Undead and Unemployed was not nearly as good as Undead and Unwed. I, personally, found it kinda disappointing. Check out my review for why I thought so.

Nicole: I have no idea whom Stephanie meant. She wrote Nina Banks. Stephanie: if you’re still reading, could you clarify?

Candy, oh yes, I didn’t mind the jab one bit ;)

As for the MJD books, each successive one gets less appealing to me. I liked the first one, thought the second was okay, and had major issues with the third.

And The Forever Kiss was a DNF for me.

I would agree with the Kim Harrison books with a qualification that they get better as the series goes along (in direct contrast to MJD). I thought the first one was very eh. But I liked the second and thoroughly enjoyed the third.

Thanks for consolidating these comments. It’s nice to everything people recommend in one spot.

Oh, and the Dhampir series needs an asterisk since it isn’t romance.  :-)

yeah, the Undead books just went downhill.  The third one was fun to read, but it felt so empty.  No plot whatsoever, more like she wrote a string of funny moments and just plopped enough together to make the minimum novel length and that was that. No beginning, no end.

I second Annette Curtis Klause’s THE SILVER KISS [and BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE], Jasmine Creswell’s PRINCE OF THE NIGHT, and I’d throw in another suggestion: Margaret St. George’s LOVE BITES.

Oh, and Wendy Haley’s THESE FALLEN ANGELS and THIS DARK PARADISE as well as Sharon Bainbridge’s BLOOD AND ROSES. 

I’d mention four more for the sake of a reading experience: Thea Devine’s SINFUL SECRETS [probably the weirdest read in a while; honestly, it’ll fuck with your mind], Cherlyn Jac’s NIGHT’S IMMORTAL TOUCH, NIGHT’S IMMORTAL KISS, and Jane Harrison’s DARK DREAMS [for the opening chapter alone, I have to admit].

Although not romances, Barbara Hamley’s THEY WHO HUNT THE NIGHT and TRAVELLING WITH THE DEAD are worth reading.

I had completely forgotten about Barbara Hambly’s two vampire books. Loved them. I second Maili’s recommendation, even though the HEA was bittersweet.

Barbara Hambly, absolutely.

Question if anyone’s still reading- I started out the Anita Blake series reading Narcissus In Chains. HATED every moment. What are the first ones, the good ones?

I picked up ‘the Silver Kiss’ from the library and could not dig it.  Good writing, wussiest vampire ever.  I read half of the first Dhampir book and found the writing to be pretty ass, do they improve over time?  I don’t always give things the chance I should.  Also I want to second (or third) the Kim Harrison recommendation.  The first book was kinda meh but the series has really taken off since then.  Possibly not romance but hot vampire sex is definitely part of the mix so I’ll take it!

Also L.A. Banks does great stuff as well, but I wouldn’t really categorize them as romance.  I only own Minion, because they’re a little out of my price range, but I’ve put in a request at my library for the others, maybe they will come through.  Nina Bangs is an author I’ve seen here on a cover snark post. 

I definitely enjoyed ‘Undead and Unwed’, felt ripped off by ‘Undead and Unemployed’ and just said no to the 3rd one.  Hardcover?  I don’t think so. 

For Robin - Guilty Pleasures is the first in the Anita Blake series.  IMO you have a good 9ish books to read before it all goes to hell.

Forgot to mention that I consider ‘Obsidian Butterfly’ one of the best books in the AB series by far.  Edward, got to love Edward.  At some point someone mentioned the very wrong but oddly hot tension between Olaf and Anita.  Totally wrong but I’m definitely feeling it. So weird that it was the last book before the shit hit the fan.  Of course we’ll never see Edward again, because the bitch-slap he’d have to give her now would be epic.

The Companion ...series?  Is there another one out yet?  I loved “The Companion.”

You have to add Kim Harrison and L.A. Banks to the recommended list. Original, well-developed stories.

Sorry, but Angela Knight and Sherrilyn Kenyon are some of the worst authors I’ve read.

Ok, I’m pretty sure it must be Nina Bangs and not Banks.

And I second the Susan Squires vampire book, The Companion as it has Egypt, a brainy heroine, teeth+blood, tortured but lovable hero redeemed by heroine.

I have to agree with Sara that Angela Knight and Sherrilyn Kenyon are a guilty pleasure at best, if that. I’ve said it before for SK but recently discovered it was true for AK too, for me at least: not enough of a good story to get me to overlook the problems.

But thank you all for the title. Now I have to figure a way to get some of these titles onto this dreadfull island (without commiting a crime, that is) !!!

Sorry, forgot to ask: when everybody says the Anita Blake *earlier books* which exactly? The first three or something?

I keep getting this type of comment every time the series is mentionned but I’d like a specific number, please

For me, early Anita means the books that came before Obsidian Butterfly. I know a lot of people like this book but I wasn’t particularly fond of it. I thought the next couple books were okay and then they really took a drastic turn.

But mine is just one opinion!

Hrmm.. while I’m glad you guys finally pulled them all out, I’d rather have a straight up list of what was recommended rather than a list of who recommend and then what they did.

As in only one entry per book, though you could indicate # of recs with stars or something.  That way there is an easy shopping list.

I like this form of the list, myself, because I know, for instance, that Sarah and I have similar tastes and agree fairly often (Linda Howard being the exception), so I’ll pick up her recommendations. On the other hand, there might be someone else on the list who I rarely agree with (they love books I hate and vice versa) and I won’t be running to Amazon to buy the book. Might trade for it instead, but I’d gather more opinions first.

I wonder, were there also lists for military/police/or secret spy recommendations? 

And were there YA recs or did that happen as an offshoot of a post about something different?

Dawn: Angie’s reason is pretty much why we set up the list the way they did. Since tastes vary so much, it’s more useful (to me, anyway) knowing who recommended the book as well as what was recommended.

And Angie: Yup, we have a military dudes/cops recommendation thingabob that we need to set up. That’s next on the list. And thanks for reminding me about the insane number of YA books that were recommended after I bitched about Harry Potter.

I’ll update this entry next week with all the new recommendations that were made in the comments.

I am gonna echo a whole bunch of people here and recommend:

* The Vampire Viscount by Karen Harbaugh
* Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series
* Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson
* Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson
* Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series

And also, an older fantasy/sf title which I love:

* Sabella, or The Bloodstone, by Tanith Lee.

i recommend the Carpathian novels by Christine Feehan. she is an exellant author.

I think Katie Macalister’s vampire series is just great. She is an obvious fan of romances, and that shows up in her work. Her sense of humor is actually pretty similar to what I read on this site. Plus, her heroines are not pencil sized, bubble heads swooning at the sight of the hero’s fangs. Her novels are worth their weight in gold for the dialogue alone.

I recommend JR Wards Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
Dark Lover
Eternal Lover-March 2006
Four more will be released

Campy has all get out, but Dark Hunter Series by Sherrilyn Kenyon as many have recommended

Susan Squires
The Hunger
The Companion

Susan Sizemore
I Hunger for You
I Burn for You
I Thirst for You

I just started reading vampire romances this past year. I have found that some of the books caught my attention others of them I threw in the trash. Some actually have a story line while others add a little story to the sex.  The book you like is going to depend on what mood you are in. Here are my recommendations:
Dark Hunter Series-Sherrilyn Kenyon
Black Dagger Brotherhood Series-J.R. Ward
Carpathian Series-Christine Feehan
Undead Series-MaryJanice Davidson

Nobody mentioned Keri Hawkins’ kick ass books:  Blood Legacy - the Novel & Blood Legacy - the House of Alexander.  They kick the shit out of LKH in my opinion.