Amazon.com: With just one touch, Jessa Bellamy can see anyone’s darkest secrets, thanks to whoever tampered with her genes. What she doesn’t know is that a biotech company has discovered her talent and intends to kill her and harvest her priceless DNA. Gaven Matthias is forced to abduct Jessa himself so he can protect her, but Jessa has a hard time believing the one man whose secrets she can’t read. As a monstrous assassin closes in and forces them to run, Jessa will have to find another way to discover if Matthias is her greatest ally-or her deadliest enemy.

Fans of Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series looked forward to this launch of a new series, The Kyndred, centering on a small group of people who acquired special abilities after they “died.” Neither human nor vampire, these Kyndred were created by genetic manipulation done while they were children in the 1980s. Targeting orphans, each one has a different ability, just like the Darkyn do. Evil bio-tech firm GenHance is trying to round up these orphans now that they’re grown, to extract their special DNA and make all kinds of special potions out of it. Shadowlight is the first book in this new series, and it doesn’t disappoint.

I love the Darkyn books, and was glad to see some of the characters from that series appear in this new one. My favorite, snarky Dr. Alex, makes an appearance, while crime-fighting Samantha and her drool-worthy partner Lucan are here hunting down a bad guy. If there are to be no more Darkyn books, I hope that this series will keep us updated on what the vamps are doing by giving them secondary roles in Kyndred. Since Dr. Alex is also hunting for the Kyndred because of their mysterious connection to the Darkyn, it looks as though I’ll get my wish.

There are essentially two story tracks here. One is the story of the hero and heroine of the book, while the other is an over-arching story of the Kyndred themselves. Not all of the questions about the Kyndred were answered here, and I look forward to learning more about them and their role in future books. The hero and heroine, uber-licious Gaven Matthias and Jessa Bellamy, are the lead-off couple for the series and I hope Ms. Viehl carries them forward into future books like she did with Alex and Michael in the Darkyn books. There were too many questions about Matthias (no one uses his first name) and his history and role that I want answered! Like: if GenHance created the Darkyn in the 1980s, how come he goes back a couple of thousand years to Roman times? Who created him? At one point he calls Jessa “Jezebel,” but this never gets explained. My frustration is why I didn’t give this book 5 stars – I wanted to know all about him!

As an orphan, Jessa was experimented on by scientists at GenHance. She was adopted and raised by a loving man, who left her well off when he died. Unfortunately, she was killed in a workplace shooting that also took her fiance… and when she “woke up” she had the ability to touch people and know their deepest and darkest thoughts. She re-named herself and started a company that screened prospective employees for businesses, and was doing very well. However, now GenHance wants to recover all of the orphans it tampered with, and they’ve tracked Jessa down.

Matthias is also seeking the orphans in order to save them from GenHance. It’s a race to see who can snatch them first, Matthias or the bad guys. Just as Jessa is about to be grabbed by GenHance, Matthias comes to the rescue. He takes her to a secret underground compound, but Jessa isn’t sure she’s really up for this. He needs to convince her of his good intentions and enlist her aid in rescuing other orphans.

I would kill for my own Gaven Matthias. Seriously. Not only does he have the perfect manly bod and gorgeous face, but he’s the kinder, gentler Alpha that sets me a-flutter. No domineering jerk here! Just quiet strength, honor, integrity, and a whole lot of lonely-boy that made me want to kick Jessa to the curb and jump on him. Yum!

Ms. Viehl writes an intelligent tale about well-developed characters that don’t follow the cookie-cutter mold. I like how the women don’t automatically fall in with the guys’ plans. In the Darkyn series, Dr. Alex is STILL struggling with her conversion to vamp-hood (as is Samantha) even though she loves her fangy mate. In Shadowlight, Jessa has a hard time believing Matthias’ story about a vampire race, although I thought she took the whole deal about losing her company and her livelihood with unexpected ease. If character development continues into future books, then we may  see some angst developing. I hope so, because otherwise Jessa’s character is more jello-y than I like to see. The next book, Dreamveil, will be out in May 2010, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Available on January 26, and you can pre-order now.

One day a blueblood warrior named Declan Camarine shows up wanting to take her back to the Weird as his woman. She pops him with her cross-bow and gives him a big HELLS-NO, and the game is on. Evil creatures are stalking the Edge and its citizens, and it’s up to Rose in an uneasy partnership with Declan to stop the killings.

One thing I love is when an author builds a world that grips me with its depth, multiple dimensions, and realism tinted with a reality brush. This world is fabulous, and I wish it had been set in an epic fantasy framework because I really wanted more slice-of-life from the Edge and Weird dimensions. I could just imagine what it would be like living there, and my mind spun off little fantasy stories set in that world. Big plus points here, and I hope the next book continues to build on it.

Another thing that hits my hot button is strong female characters. Rose is young, but her life has been hard. Seems like parenting in the Edge is an iffy proposition, and she’s had to deal with a crazy mother who was the local sleep-around and a runaway dad from early on. Realistic characters also do it – this world is people with the same loonies, abusers, and deadbeats as our own world. It definitely is not one where everyone makes nice to one another. In fact, you have to be careful even with your friends, because they all work off an “every man/woman for him/herself” framework. Rose is cynical enough to know how to play the game, but not so jaded that she doesn’t still have hopes and dreams of a normal life. But bad things can happen to good people in this world, so this isn’t a mindlessly cheerful outlook.

Rose and Declan are hot together, even when they’re not together. A good tale. The picture of Declan on the cover is a horrible one! From the description, he looks nothing like that and thank goodness! The little brothers, Georgie and Jack, steal the show. Georgie is a young necromancer, whose love of life makes him revive all kinds of sad dead critters at the expense of draining his own life away. Jack is a shapeshifter who is more comfortable in his cat (lynx) form than his human one. The way Rose loves and cares for these special little boys, and their love for her, brought me to tears several times!

I’m looking forward to the next book. This one is pretty self-contained, so it seems the next one will need to focus on another character. I’m hoping William, Declan’s tortured and gorgeous shape-shifting friend and army-mate, gets a book because we sure were teased enough!

Older sister Claire Waverly lives alone in the family home in North Carolina, where she runs a unique catering business that specializes in using flowers in the recipes. You see, there’s something a bit magical about the garden that the herbs and flowers grow in… the food can have unexpected side effects on those who consume it, and Claire is highly sought after in this small town college community. In particular, a crazily sentient apple tree that wants to tell people what their most important moment in their lives will be (usually a spectacular death), and Claire works hard to make sure that curious townspeople don’t sneak in to partake of the tree’s peculiar fruits.

Younger sister Sydney booked out of town 10 years earlier, when she turned 18, and Claire has had no contact with her. But one day Sydney shows up with 5 year old daughter Bay in tow, asking for sanctuary in the family home.  She has her own demons, but the distance between herself and Claire is such that she can’t confide. Throw in eccentric elderly cousin with a compulsion to give weird things to people, out of the blue, and you have a recipe for gentle magic to heal old hurts and show people a brighter, happier future.

The sisters have to learn to live with each other, and a couple of hot guys in the picture add some sizzle to the story. There’s no explicit sex, per se, but the love goin’ round is steamy enough to make you not notice.  There’s also a threat from Sydney’s past to complicate things, but this is late in the story.

The depiction of the relationship between Claire and Sydney is beautifully handled, and as someone who’s had her share of differences with a much-loved younger sister, I can say that it rings true. Not a lot of action, but definitely a lot of feeling. I really cared for these characters, and marveled at the strange and beautiful world they live in. It’s not a long book and is a fairly quick read, so give yourself and your sister a treat and check this little gem out!

The author, Sarah Addison Allen, is North Carolina born and bred, and lives there still while writing full time. Check out her website and read more about this interesting young author. On my reading list is her second book, The Sugar Queen, and her upcoming 2010 release The Girl Who Chased The Moon.

My favorite books tend to be those that walk the edge of fantasy and reality. They deal with ordinary people in the ordinary world, but there’s a twist. Magical and supernatural elements abide alongside the mundane world. You might be an ordinary 9-to-5 person with no special talents, but your boss is a vampire. Or a werewolf pack lives on the edge of town and they run all the security and law enforcement operations. Or the evil government took special forces soldiers, and experimented on them until a variety of psychic talents were enhanced. Having things like this in your life can have a dramatic impact! The stories focus on real people dealing with extraordinary things, and they react much like you or I would do. The fantasy is realistic.

Jeri Smith-Ready does a fabulous job in blending the real with the supernatural. I’ve just read the first two books in her WVMP Series, Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone.

Here’s the storyline from the author’s website:

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, 60s psychedelia, 80s Goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers how the DJs maintain their cred: they’re vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

Ciara’s first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WVMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station—and the link it provides to their original Life Times—the vampires would “fade,” becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover becomes a matter of life and un-death.

Ciara is a tough gal. Twenty-four years old and trying to make it in the legit world by getting a college degree, she was raised by grifter parents who moved every two weeks. Relationships, honesty, and commitment are not part of her psyche. She’s got a dead-eyed cynical view of the world and its inhabitants, supernatural or not. Told from her viewpoint, she is foul-mouthed and funny, and I found myself laughing out loud at many of the situations she found herself in. For example, her first intimate encounter with future-love-interest Shane (a young grunge-era vampire) resulted in him taking a huge chomp out of her thigh, which caused her to viciously kick him in the head with her other leg. His resulting jerk-back causes a lot of flesh-ripping which causes a lot of bleeding, which requires stitches… Shane runs off into the night. Now, in a typical romance book, the assault would have caused her multiple orgasms and an instant bonding to her attacker, who would nobly turn her into a vampire so that they could have mind-blowing sex for eternity. But this isn’t fairy-tale land.

Smith-Ready’s worldbuilding is superb. She poses a unique view of vampire life, and it’s not happy-camperland for the vamps. Yes, they are beautiful, alluring, super-strong, super-fast, and super-sexual. But something bad starts happening after they are created, and it just gets worse as they age: they fade. Over time they become less human, while at the same time the vampiric traits get stronger. If they lose their connection to their Life Time, fading is even faster because they have difficulty connecting to the present time. They can’t learn new things or form real relationships. The world is so confusing to them, they develop obsessive/compulsive behaviors to try to cope with things they can’t control. They become extremely flammable, and they burn like paper (humans burn like wood). Even though they’re technically immortal, the average vamp only lives about 80 years after their turning. It’s heart-rending to see them struggle.

At first Ciara wants nothing to do with these freaks, but because she’s a good person at heart (and she really needs the job) she throws her lot in with the vamps and cooks up a scam, er, plan, to save the radio station and the sanctuary it provides the vamps. She re-brands the station as “The Life-blood of Rock n Roll” and promotes the Vampire DJ angle. Almost no-one believes they’re real, of course, but the campaign is a huge success. Her relationship with Shane is rocky – he’s young enough to be still quite human and he loves her, but she’s afraid of it. As they work through the difficulties, they have the inevitable fading problem hanging over their heads, except they don’t know how fast it will happen or whether Ciara’s efforts to save Shane will help avoid it. In spite of these unique problems, their relationship is like any other couple getting off to a tough start. It’s believable, and because we care about the characters, it pulls at the heartstrings.

The bad guys work hard to destroy the vamps and Ciara too, and there’s good action in both books. These are not strictly romance books, so there’s more character development and action to move the plot along. These books are on my keeper shelf and I can’t wait for the third installment, Bring On The Night, which will be out in August 2010.

Smith-Ready is an obvious musicphile, and the book comes with a lot of playlists of the tunes the DJ’s play. Her website includes a great music player with all the tunes from the books on it, and I was thrilled at how many of them were in my personal library. I also found a lot of tracks that I haven’t heard in years, so I happily added them to my collection.  Great stories and good music totally do it for me. If you also like books and music, check out Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series. She’s a DJ werewolf, and the books are also realistic fantasy. Rock on!

• Wicked Game
• Bad to the Bone
• Bring on the Night (August 2010)
• tentatively titled Lust for Life (early Spring 2011)

There’s something about well written stories about Navy SEALS and other non-paranormal supermen that gets my blood racing, and Susan Brockmann’s Troubleshooters Inc. series fits the bill perfectly.

My hat’s off to Ms. Brockmann for the detailed telling of life in the Navy SEALS, and enough detail about the missions they’re on to make it very realistic. Whether it’s 100% accurate or not I don’t know, but the stories are fleshed out enough to be believable and thrilling. The Navy SEALS are an awesome group of guys, and they don’t publicize themselves much so it’s fun to get the scoop on their doin’s through well written fiction.

What do I like about this series? Well, the stories have both action and characters. One without the other is boring. The former will read like to to-do list, and the latter will stagnate into a treatise on navel-gazing if not done well. I like books that combine both.

I like books with hot, smart, and funny guys and I like sex in my books. Nothing like living vicariously! I’m an adult, and I know that adults have sex. I like good romantica and I’m not squeamish. The sex scenes in these books are very well done – romantic and sexy and … oooooh! I love these guys. There is even a story arc with a gay hero (the oh-so-hot Jules Cassidy) that is wonderfully done. Funny about liking a gay hero and rooting for his HEA (happily-ever-after)! Hey, hot is hot. It’s a good story. And tastefully done, for those who may worry that there’s too much raw gayness here. Not so. And no multi-partner sex either, for those who worry about such things.

The dialog is witty. If I can insert a criticism, it would be that Ms. Brockmann’s formula at times is a bit too formulaic… characters tend to have the same off-the-wall sense of humor (which I happen to love, so I can’t possibly OD on it!). But I think she’s put enough variety in her characters to minimize this. Many of the situations and dialog are hilarious at times. Like I said, I love these guys.

There’s lots of “male perspective” in the stories. I like that. It takes two (at least!) to romance, and I like seeing both sides of the story. Ms. Brockmann has an excellent command of the young & hot male viewpoint, and relates their stories with great humor and detail.

All is not hearts and flowers. The trio of Navy Seals, Troubleshooters, and FBI counterterrorist operators deal with some serious shit with terrorists and other psychos. Bad things happen to good people, and its not pretty.  But, it’s realistic.

The storyline is that Navy SEALS Lt. Commander Tom Paoletti, upon leaving the Navy following an injury and political BS that stick him behind a desk, forms a private security and anti-terrorist company called Troubleshooters, Inc. A number of his SEALS join him in his new company, and the SEALS Team 16 continues to work with Tom and his company on various assignments. As do the FBI counterterrorist unit headed by Max Bhagat. Most of the books thus have 3 storylines involving characters from each of these units, plus a number of them also have a “retro” romance from the WWII era involving a grandparent of one of the main characters. There is a threat – to national security, world peace, etc. – that over-arcs the book and results in all kinds of tumult.

The stories are tightly written and the pacing is great. They are hard to put down once you’ve started!

• The Unsung Hero - June 2000
• The Defiant Hero – March 2001
• Over The Edge – September 2001
• Out Of Control – March 2002
• Into The Night – December 2002
• Gone Too Far – July 2003
• Flashpoint – March 2004
• Hot Target – December 2004
• Breaking Point – July 2005
• Into The Storm – August 2006
• Force Of Nature – August 2007
• All Through The Night – October 2007
• Into The Fire – July 2008
• Dark Of Night – January 2009
• Hot Pursuit – July 2009

A character that has appeared in several of Straub’s previous works (Koko, Mystery, The Throat), Tim Underhill, provides the viewpoint for much of the book. Underhill is a writer in New York City but hails from Millhaven, Illinois. At the start of the book, he’s gone back there for the sad funeral of his sister in law who committed suicide in a most determined way – using 3 pretty much fool-proof techniques to get the job done. Tim puzzles on the death, even though he knows that marriage to Tim’s bitter and disgruntled younger brother can’t have been easy.  It was Tim’s beautiful and sensitive 15 year old nephew Mark who found the body.

A week later, Tim returns to Millhaven because Mark has gone missing. The only clues lie in an abandoned and very creepy house behind Mark’s home – a house that captivated the boy and has a great deal to do with his disappearance.  A mysterious girl that no one but Mark seems to have seen also plays a role. On top of the scary doings at the house, a serial killer is cutting a swathe through the local teenage population, so tension is high.

Another character from previous books is Tom Pasmore, the brilliant and eccentric detective from Mystery and The Throat, plays a secondary role here. As Tim struggles to find out what happened to Mark, the feeling of evil stalking the innocent ramps up the scariness factor. I have to admit, I was reading this at night and there were parts that were so creepy I had the put the book down until daylight. LOL!

A twist in this book is the device of the unreliable narrator. While the creep factor is high and Tim’s anguish over Mark’s disappearance is genuine, there are many points when I wondered just exactly WHAT was I seeing here. Was everything as it was told to me as I read it, or could Tim be wrong on some points?? There’s an instance near the beginning where Tim is convinced he sees a murder taking place, only to find out that its a movie being filmed…

There’s a sequel to this book, In the Night Room, that I haven’t read yet.

Like all the books I like, Lost Boy, Lost Girl dragged me into another world. The scare factor was great, and the poignancy of a sensitive teen dealing with so much tragedy hits hard. I loved Mark, and his best buddy Jimbo, and found myself wanting to adopt them (thus breaking my kids-must-have-four-legs rule). Straub writes a great tale.

Synopsis: “The Quantum Bomb of 2015 changed everything. The fabric that kept the universe’s different dimensions apart was torn and now, six years later, the people of earth exist in uneasy company with inhabitants of, among others, the elven, elemental, and demonic realms. Magic is real and can be even more dangerous than technology. Elves are exotic, erotic, dangerous and really bored with the constant Lord of the Rings references. Elementals are a law unto themselves, and demons are best left well to themselves. Special agent Lila Black used to be pretty, but now she’s not so sure. Her body is now more than half restless carbon and metal alloy machinery – a machine she’s barely in control of. It goes into combat mode, enough weapons for a small army springing from within itself, at the merest provocation. As for her heart … well ever since being drawn into a Game by the elven rock star she’s been assigned to protect, she’s not even sure she can trust that anymore either.”–BOOK JACKET.

This series, which starts off in the year 2021, is a bit of a hybrid between science fiction and urban fantasy/paranormal fiction. It has more relationship stuff than is typical for sci fi, but much less than a paranormal romance story. So if you’re a die-hard fan of either genre, you might be disappointed.

In the first book, Keeping It Real, our heroine Lila Black was saved from death by the earth’s (called Otopia here) government, which invested a half a billion dollars in her high-tech cyborg body. Still trying to adjust to her new body and the trauma of her assault while on a mission in Aelfheim (the elf world), not to mention the loss of her family who were told she was killed on the mission, she is assigned to protect rock-star elf Zal.  Zal is an anomaly, since everyone knows that “elves don’t rock.” But this one does, and he thinks he doesn’t need protection from the death treats that he’s been getting.

Earth as we know it is different. Magic is known to exist and creatures from the other dimensions – fairies, ghosts, demons, etc. – interact with humans in varying degrees with varying results. The worlds are well-defined and make me wish I could visit them! The Elf world is Aelfheim, rich with magic in its non-tech, garden-like existence. Earth/Otopia is in a young alliance with Aelfheim, but both sides are still feeling their way. Demonia is a color-saturated beautiful world where the demons, also magic-users, live. Faery, land of the fairies, has welcomed tourists from early on.  Zoomenon is the world of the elementals, and not much is known about it. Thanopia is the land of the dead, and no one who goes there ever comes back.

The other books in the series thus far are Selling Out, Going Under, and Chasing the Dragon. By the end of the first book, Lila and Zal are lovers. Things start to look as though they’re not what they appear to be, and the tension increases. What are the various governments hiding? Who are the good guys? Author Justina Robson builds a fascinating mystery around skilful and detailed world-building.  Her writing focuses on some fairly broad themes that she’s covered in her previous publications:  the whole idea of identity,  loyalty, revenge, and love.

These books aren’t puff pieces, as Robson’s sci fi orientation makes them a bit more complicated reading than you’d find in for example a romance novel. Ideas are expressed a bit more subtly. I’ve seen reviews that complain about the sex in the stories, but in my opinion I think these were sci fi fans who don’t “do relationships.” I found that the relationships and sex scenes were underplayed relative to world- and plot-development, but there’s still quite a bit of sizzle between the characters. Just don’t expect any throbbing, dripping body parts.

Once I clicked onto the way Robson writes, I was totally buried in the worlds and the stories. I love Lila Black, a woman who’s whole life has been upended through no fault of her own and who is trying to carve out a place for herself in the new reality. It’s not always easy going, as she’s a damaged soul who doesn’t have a lot of experience in doing what’s she’s been assigned to do. She’s always trusted those in authority, but she’s beginning to see that she doesn’t have the whole story and in fact is probably being manipulated and lied to to serve some mysterious end. Zal is sexy and conflicted, as he too starts to think that everything he thinks he knows may not be true. The journey to the truth is fascinating, violent, and treacherous, and I’m totally hooked on this series!

I would have preferred to have had more detail on the hows and whys of Zal and Lila’s relationship. It’s handled a bit abruptly, and it just sort of appears. Still a great read though, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

The books I like best tend to be darker, more violent, less hooked on the happily-ever-after formula, and big on world-building. In other words, more of an urban fantasy tilt. After all, the whole point of the supernatural world is that its different. So I like to see those differences in the worlds the characters inhabit.

I like books that give me a different feeling.  That tingle the hairs on the back of my neck, and give me a feeling that I’ve just stepped into something strange and memorable. Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series fits the bill nicely.

The setting is a alternate Atlanta, a bit into the future. For the last 30 years, the balance between magic and technology has become unstable, and the world is lashed with “magic storms” that tear down buildings and destroy technology. Tech surfaces like the sun in between thunderstorms, letting the phones and lights work again, only to be battered again when the magic rises. People get around on horses, mules, camels – whatever non-tech means they can find, because cars often don’t work.

In this realm, supernatural creatures like werewolves, witches, shamans, vampires and more abound, and evil magic threatens everywhere. Magical mercenary Kate Daniels, who’s hiding a secret of her own, battles evil magic first as a solo act, then as part of the Order of magical knights who try to keep a lid on things.

There are 4 books and one novella in the series thus far, with one book out next year: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, Magic Mourns (novella in Must Love Hellhounds Anthology), and Magic Bleeds (coming in May 2010).  Author Ilona Andrews and her husband Gordon are contracted for 7 Kate Daniels books, so we’ve got more Kate on the way.

Andrews’ world-building and character development are outstanding. She powerfully conveys a feeling of “otherness” to her world, without going over the top with fantastic characters and improbable plot twists. Kate Daniels is a bit of a mystery. Her mother was killed by evil beings while fleeing with Kate’s father. Kate was an infant at the time, so we don’t know who they were running from, or why they were threatened. She was raised by her father and grows into a smart, strong, and magically powerful person who royally kicks butt. She also gets injured too, so her powers are not infinite.

The series opens with the hard-drinking Kate, a magical mercenary, finding out that her guardian has been murdered.  In trying to find his killer, she encounters the two main supernatural forces in her world:  the group of paramilitary shapeshifters known as The Pack, and the group of  powerful necromancers who control the undead vampires. The latter group is known as The People. In this world, vampires are not sexy. They are animated corpses, meat puppets, controlled by the necromancers in their pursuit of wealth and power. The creator of The People is the mysterious Roland, who’s story is hinted at and who is clearly a key figure in the Kate saga.  Kate hates The People.  Magic and mayhem ensues as Kate tries to get to the bottom of the murder.

Another requirement for a book to be a favorite is that the characters are smart and witty, and have great dialog. Kate Daniels fits the bill. Her head-talk and dialog with others is hilarious, since she’s a cynical smart-ass.

Since I don’t care much for books that have NO relationship development, pure sci fi or urban fantasy tends to not appeal to me much. I have no problem with adventuresome sex, and lots of it, if it furthers the story. That’s why I’m not a fan of the more romance-influenced books, where the hero and heroine are banging away by page 3, and rarely come up for air.  Kate is a normal young woman with normal appetites, and the heroes here tend to be sexy (if not classically handsome), so she indulges. And it’s hot! But it fits in with the plot and isn’t gratuitous.

I know some readers are appalled by the increasing use of same-sex erotic scenes, menages, or detailed descriptions of bondage or anal sex in today’s romance genres. Haven’t seen that yet in this series, but I think the Andrews’ would write it well if there were.

If you like series books with strong, funny, believable heroines and sexy guys, AND a well-written plot, you’ll like the Kate Daniels books.

You are in college and meet the man of your dreams, who seems to know what you’ve suffered and loves you in spite of your prickly nature. You become engaged, and travel with him to meet his father. While there, imagine that your fiance turns into a werewolf and bites you…

That’s the premise behind Kelley Armstrong’s first book, Bitten, published in 2001. It’s a different take on the popular werewolf theme, one that grounds it in reality. The book is narrated by Elena Michaels, 10 years after her unwilling conversion to werewolf status by her werewolf fiance Clayton Danvers. She is the only female werewolf in existence, and she has been tormented with rage, insanity, and confusion as she lived with Clay and his father Jeremy, who is the alpha of the small werewolf community in upstate New York. While she mostly adjusts to her changed life, she longs to return to Toronto and finish college, and seize the life she had dreamed of during her childhood.

Things are complicated because she zig zags between deep love and towering rage for her mate Clay.  He loves her unwaveringly, even after she leaves him to go back to Canada. The book opens with her in a new life living with a new man in Toronto, when Jeremy contacts her asking her to return to help deal with a pack emergency. She returns reluctantly, planning to be gone no more than a few days.

Elena is tough, smart, and witty as hell. Armstrong has done an outstanding job of  creating characters that are very believable as wolves in people bodies. Many werewolf stories just have them turning furry once a month, but otherwise they think and behave just as humans do. Clay, Elena, and Jeremy (and the other werewolves) are quite different, and you see that clearly in the way Elena thinks.

Clay in particular is very “wolfie” – there is nothing human in the way he reacts to people and their affairs, the way he is quick to kill anyone who threatens his Alpha and his pack, and in the way he loves Elena. He is drop-dead gorgeous as well as brilliant, and has a PhD in anthropology. You can’t help but love him while at the same time wondering what it would really be like to live with him…

Jeremy is also the product of a tortured childhood, having been raised by his psychotic and sadistic werewolf father. He grew up with a deep sense of responsibility, giving up his dreams in order to take care of his family, his adopted son Clay, and eventually the pack who made him Alpha.

I wouldn’t call this a paranormal romance, as those tend to be “fluffier” in tone and content. And lots of hot sex tends to dominate the romance genre. Bitten is more of a paranormal thriller (or realistic fantasy, or urban paranormal…), whereby the 3 main characters have to defeat the “mutts” – non-pack werewolves who threaten the pack’s lives and territory. The conflict is bloody and violent, with no remorse shown for eliminating the threat. Good guys die too, at the hands and jaws of the mutts.

Under this storyline, Clay and Elena struggle with their relationship. Clay makes no secret of the fact that Elena is the only woman for him and he wants her to stay. But he doesn’t try to force her, and she is torn between her attraction and love for Clay and the new life that she’s got a toehold in. The conflict is realistically portrayed and fascinating. There is an underlying sad note of dreams given up because of actions of another,while at the same time offering a life and love that is immensely satisfying. Just as in the real world, there may not be a candy-coated happy ending for everyone. Life is indeed what you make of it.

There’s plenty of sizzle between Clay and Elena and I loved every scene that they have.  Thankfully, Armstrong doesn’t rely on cliched phrases and euphemisms for body parts or sex acts, nor does she flood the book with steamy but gratuitous sex scenes. The encounters are integral to the plot and are well placed. I’m totally in love with Clay, even if he IS an unsociable bastard!

The Women of the Otherworld consists of (at present) 10 books, several of them with the werewolves and Elena featured. The second book on the series, Stolen, picks up where Bitten leaves off. Here, Elena is kidnapped by a psycho billionaire who is collecting other-worlders in order to steal their powers. We meet other characters – witches, demons, vampires – that in turn have their own books in the series. Elena returns as narrator in book 6, Broken, and again in book 10, Frostbitten .  A book I LOVED in this series is Men of the Otherworld,  which has the stories of Jeremy and Clayton as well as some of the other men.  The guys are to die for!

If you’re a fan of paranormals but hate the cheesy stuff, give this series a try, particularly the werewolf books. I haven’t read all of  the others yet, but I love Armstrong’s writing and will pick them up when I finish with Frostbitten. Enjoy!