Paranormal Romance Reads
By: Audrey Swartz
Spooky season is upon us and my Sunday was filled with Halloween movies, potions bottles and skeletons. This is my favorite season with the weather changes and the lead-up to a plethora of family events. If you read my last column, you know I typically read romance, paranormal romance to be exact. It turns out my favorite authors always have new releases in the fall.
Christine Feehan and J.R. Ward are often lauded as paranormal romance queens. They delve into the world of vampires, witches and werewolves; each creating entire worlds surrounding these legendary monsters and their families. I would also be remiss to not point out that these authors write very spicy romance scenes. If that isn’t your thing, I would skip these in favor of Charlie Holmberg or Brigid Kemmerer, who both write low-to-no-spice paranormal romance.
Christine Feehan is most known for her “Dark” series, which is currently 36 books long. Book 37 will come out this week and follows the Carpathian people in a journey to rebuild their species. Feehan develops a highly intricate world full of legends, lore and shifters. The series revolves around the prince of the people trying to discover why their species is dying off. As you move through the series, she creates an entire language, family trees, prayers and rituals and are introduced to leopard shifters, dark and light mages, and werewolves. Her characters are strong and willing to do whatever it takes to protect each other and humans. In order to avoid being hunted by a human league of vampire hunters, most of the species lives well outside modern civilization. I highly recommend you start with the first in the series, “Dark Prince” and continue from there.
Feehan has several other long-running series. Her “Ghostwalker” series is about genetically- and psychically-enhanced soldiers, the psychic women they find and their fight to stay alive. Her “Leopard” series is about the leopard shifters that are introduced in the “Dark” series and their bid to rebuild their race. Feehan’s “Shadow Rider” series is about a society of people who can ride the shadows and their jobs as enforcers for their people. Her “Drake Sisters” and “Sea Haven” series feature psychic women and have lighter stories. Feehan’s “Drake Sisters,” “Sea Haven,” and “Torpedo Ink” books are tied together and take place concurrently. Her newest series, “Torpedo Ink,” features former children-turned-assassins set to take down the organization that took their childhood.
While Feehan’s work often is set in wide-open spaces, mountains and generally has a lighthearted air around it, J.R. Ward’s books take place in gritty, urban Caldwell, New York.
Ward’s “Black Dagger Brotherhood” is the original series from which all her work spins off. The Brotherhood is constantly fighting on two fronts. The Lessening Society is determined to wipe vampires off the face of the earth. They ruthlessly hunt the vampires of Caldwell, targeting anyone and anything that will draw them out. The Glymera, the upper society of the vampire society, is desperate to hold onto the old ways, which risks the extinction of their people. The Brotherhood is full of extra-large alpha males who will kill anything in the way of their goals. They are determined men who overindulge in everything. The females who fall in love with them are destined to be their man’s support and kept safe. Ward spends the time to develop lore, language and belief systems that are strong and honored. This original series currently has 23 books. I would highly recommend that you start with book one, “Dark Lover,” and read through the series as a whole.
Once you have these reading challenges completed, you can begin on Ward’s spinoffs! Her “Black Dagger Legacy” series follows the next generation of the Brotherhood as they complete their training. The “Prison Camp” books track the stories of characters who have been imprisoned and then rescued from a secret prison. Her “Lair of the Wolven” series introduces werewolves to their world. The “Fallen Angels” series travels with a group of fallen angels who have formed a biker club of sorts, but always for the side of good. Finally, Ward’s “Bourbon Kings” series tells the story a family of bourbon makers giving us a light and fun story consisting only of three books.
What are you reading this spooky season?
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