Books!

I read about three books a week right now and I get a lot of requests to recommend books. Lately I have been reading a lot of fantasy romance, a little science fiction, contemporary romance and a bunch of urban fantasy.  These aren't main stream books like standard fiction or mystery so I am never sure what to recommend but below is what I have read and liked lately. I am in no way a reviewer so I am copying from Amazon. My reviews are usually  "loved it, read it!"

Radiance - Grace Draven

~THE PRINCE OF NO VALUE~ Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over. A trade and political alliance between the human kingdom of Gaur and the Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis requires that he marry a Gauri woman to seal the treaty. Always a dutiful son, Brishen agrees to the marriage and discovers his bride is as ugly as he expected and more beautiful than he could have imagined. ~THE NOBLEWOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE~ Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. Resigned to her fate, she is horrified to learn that her intended groom isn't just a foreign aristocrat but the younger prince of a people neither familiar nor human. Bound to her new husband, Ildiko will leave behind all she's known to embrace a man shrouded in darkness but with a soul forged by light. Two people brought together by the trappings of duty and politics will discover they are destined for each other, even as the powers of a hostile kingdom scheme to tear them apart.

First off, I don't think the blurb does this justice. This books was very emotional and one of my favorites of the year, well maybe a few years. It gets my vote for best cover too! I just loved this book. 

 Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.

I saw this on many many "best books of 2014"lists. After reading the blurb I didn't buy it but then I saw it again on another list so picked it up from the library. This book was one of those that stayed with me long after I finished it. It made me think and then think again and it also made me think I might want to start stock piling food and water!

Dead Heat - Patricia Briggs

Praised as “the perfect blend of action, romance, suspense and paranormal,"* the Alpha and Omega novels transport readers into the realm of the werewolf, where Charles Cornick and Anna Latham embody opposite sides of the shifter personality. Now, a pleasure trip drops the couple into the middle of some bad supernatural business…

For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles’s role as his father’s enforcer. This time, their trip to Arizona is purely personal--or at least it starts out that way...
Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae’s cold war with humanity is about to heat up—and Charles and Anna are in the cross fire.

This is the fourth book in the series and I just love the way Ms. Briggs is moving this series along. Her Mercy Thompson series is an auto-buy for me and this is an off-shoot of that series. Super good.

Here are a few other books I have liked recently, go look them up.

In Your Dreams - Kristan Higgins
Dark Heir - Faith Hunter (super good)
Bound by Flames - Jeanine Frost
Vision in Silver - Ann Bishop
Obsession in Death - JD Robb