The theme of the day is Romance books for the Kindle! Specifically, romance books revolving around crazy supernatural types of things. I understand that’s the big thing these days, after all, and I had to narrow it down somewhere. Can you imagine trying to pick three unique Harlequin Romances to throw up? Anyway, being fairly new to the genre I’ve gone with a couple of what I understand are fairly big names. This was a surprisingly fun list to go through, though, and I heartily recommend a browse even to people who aren’t normally wild about this particular theme in their reading. I’m leaving out Hocking on purpose, since she seems to fit better into a niche for younger readers.
Halfway to the Grave – Jeaniene Frost
Catherine Crawfield has very simple ambitions in life: working hard in her grandparents’ cherry orchard, trying to keep her mother from diving into the bottle one more time, and trying to kill the undead monster that fathered her. This is the first book in a series that seems more than a little clichéd at first, but build up enough momentum as the plot and relationships develop to be worth sticking it out for.
While I can’t say anything about the later books in the series, you can tell that there’s potential and the writing is definitely good enough to make it tempting to keep on going with it. If nothing else, this doesn’t seem like something that’s heading downhill.
The Kindle Edition is $7.99
Shadow Game – Christine Feehan
When Dr. Whitney, the scientist in charge of the experiment he volunteered for, goes missing, Captain Ryland Miller finds himself in a high security mansion with Lily Whitney where he begins to think that maybe the psychic powers brought on by this experiment aren’t his only concern.
The plot is thin. There’s no denying that. The flamboyant characterizations serve as a decent way to offset that, though. The real redeeming aspect, for me at least, was the amazing sense that the author knows exactly how far-fetched the scenarios she has come up with really are and is choosing to go with it anyway. There are some real stretches and no small number of amazingly overextended metaphors. This was a blast for me, if perhaps not in the same way that I would imagine some fans would prefer for it to have been. Not at all an intended insult to the author. This was pure fun if you can avoid taking it too seriously.
The Kindle Edition is $7.99
Guilty Pleasures – Laurell K. Hamilton
It’s my understanding that there’s some controversy over this author. Looking through the list of her works, it definitely seems she’s gone a bit downhill over the years. That said, she apparently started out well. This one is the first book in an ongoing series set in what is now an almost cliched world of human/supernatural coexistence. Looking back, it seems to me that she got in on that early enough that it’s excusable.
The writing is strong, the plot is fairly compelling, and the characters are believable if not necessarily deep. What surprised me here was the lack of emphasis on graphic scenes, given what I’d heard about the series. Overall, definitely something I would recommend even to those who aren’t romance fans.
The Kindle Edition is $7.99
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With this one, I’ve come to the end of my easily categorizable list of recommendations from readers. Feel free to send along some more to spread the word to fellow Kindle book lovers by emailing me!
“Can you imagine trying to pick three unique Harlequin Romances to throw up?”
I definitely imagine that if I read three Harlequin romances, I’d throw up.