What a lovely idea...

Go immediately to the website linked below to listen to gorgeous British actors read from some of my favorite books:

Penguin/Carte Noir Readings

The books include North and South, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Far From the Madding Crowd, and many more interesting titles. The men include Greg Wise, Joseph Fiennes, Dominic West and Dan Stevens.

This is a brilliant idea!  Lovely men, lovely accents, great books!  You can thank me later, go on...

Angels and vampires and hunters, oh my...

After mentioning both here and on FB that I enjoyed my short foray into the paranormal romance world, I was inundated with suggestions for my next paranormal reads. All suggestions were appreciated and I am planning on doing more reading in this sub genre that I had previously avoided like a plague. One name that caught my eye was Nalini Singh. I've heard interesting things about her Psy/changeling series, but had always felt like there was just a bit too much going on in it for my taste. I decided to take a look at her fairly new Guild hunter series, which at this time involves only three titles. The number of beings seemed reasonable, basically archangels, angels, vamps and humans. I can only keep up with so many beings/creatures and still tend to shy away from those books that feature casts of thousands. 

I started and finished this series in a week and overall, I enjoyed it. Singh is a good storyteller. The characters were interesting, if not as well-rounded as those that I loved in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. The series basically involves the initial meeting and then the development of a relationship between Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux and the lethally beautiful Raphael, Archangel of NY. Singh does a fine job of explaining the rules of her paranormal world.  Archangels are the ultimate power brokers in this series. They are immortal and blessed with control over much of the world. They are served by vampires, who in order to be made and receive immortality, pledge their service to the angels and archangels for a specific term. When vamps go rogue and try to break their contracts, Guild hunters are called in to return them to their masters. Elena Deveraux is a hunter born, meaning she was born with her abilities to track vamps by scent. 

You know, as I type this, I am reminded of why I have always avoided paranormals, there is just too much going on. Sometimes, one finds themselves so involved in trying to keep up with characters and creatures and even worlds, that the story gets lost. That is not the case here. Singh does a fine job of laying the groundwork for this series. Still, it is very much a series and one is well served by starting at the beginning with Angel's Blood. The relationship between Elena and Raphael is the story here and by reading the books in order, you get to enjoy and appreciate how it develops. I should add that this is pretty hot stuff. If you like your higher beings served up with a strong dose of sex, then this series should work for you. I should also point out that by the third book I was feeling  a strong sense of deja vu.The plot seemed familiar and predictable.  According to Singh, she has been contracted to write four books in this series and I think that may be plenty unless she chooses to focus on some of the supporting cast of characters and take the focus off of Elena and Raphael for a bit. So, if you're looking for a paranormal series that is pretty easy to get into, features extremely hot chemistry between the leads and doesn't require graphs and charts, this one might be for you. I didn't love it as much as the Fever series, but I did finish all three titles in a week, so obviously something was working.

Singing the Winter Blues...

OK, let me just say that January was not my favorite month ever. Besides being busy, traveling across country for work and dealing with Atlanta's Snowapalooza 2011, I have been dealing with some health issues which don't seem to want to go away. All my way of apologizing for the lack of posts lately.  Time and energy have been in equally short supply.

That said, I have certainly been reading more than ever. I started the In Death series by JD Robb while winging my way to Cali and I am currently up to 24. I have decided to go ahead and read the entire series before reviewing, but I will say that I am surprised by how much I'm enjoying these books.

My trip to California was to attend the ALA Midwinter conference in San Diego and I was thrilled to get to meet many amazing writers, including several personal faves. Is it any wonder that I love my job?  The faves I mentioned include Neil Gaiman, T. Jefferson Parker and Stewart O'Nan! They were all crazy smart and funny and very gracious to their fans.  I managed to grab some great ARCs and I am still making my way through this sea of great writing, but here are a few I want to recommend:

If you haven't read something by these three, do so immediately.  They are all fantastic writers and truly cool people as well.  

Also want to give a quick thanks to Beth for her review of the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning.  I started this series last week because I felt like I owed Beth one and I basically devoured it and finished  it on Friday night! You all know that I'm not a fan of paranormals, but this was quite a wild ride and so much fun.  I'm going to give it a while to simmer and then post a longer piece on this one, but if you all are looking for something cleverly written, with interesting characters and one of the hottest male leads ever, then get started on this series now.  And, oh yeah, Ms. Beth, here's my vote for the TV Barrons...