Jump to content

Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance v. 3.0


LugaJetboyGirl

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, ants said:

What is the issue with males and females instead of men and women?

I find it dehumanising tbh. Male and female are also adjectives so Male What? Female What? And we have two decent nouns for male and female humans: men and women.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to recommend the Queen Betsy books by Mary Janice Davidson for pure enjoyable fluff. I've read the books three times and that pretty much is unprecedented for me. They're basically horror-comedy with very very light on horror and a very enjoyable relationship between Betsy and her main romantic partner. The latter books stumble a bit by trying to add actual plot but the first ones are pure slice-of-undead life pop culture humor. Betsy is basically Buffy if she lived to be 30 as a hardworking but ultimately shallow nice girl before discovering her CHOSEN DESTINY AS THE QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES.

I just picked up the latest Mercy Thompson book and I have to say I blame this thread for "ruining" the books for me as I'm aware of the flaws of the series a good deal more. Here, Mercy relies on Adam stepping in to tell off his pack for treating her like dirt the entire time versus the women actually coming to respect her for all she's done for them. Also, weirdly, I miss the vampires from the book. The Fae have never been particularly interesting antagonists and this is just another big monster they have to deal with.

The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross is out from yesterday and it's another non-Bob Howard story which annoys me because I don't really like Stross' other voices. Elves have invaded the United Kingdom and it's up to a Vicar and his vampire partner to stop them! It's just well, this is played for horror rather than humor and it's a bizarre juxtaposition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Mandy said:

Yeah... I enjoyed HL, but I hear you - it didn't quite bring back Trent/Rachel flashbacks, but I definitely see how it could.

My wife adores Nalini Singh but I could never get into them.

Mostly because I'm a cold bloodedly logical socio...err, thinker and the books are all about YAY, EMOTION TRUMPS REASON!

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I'd like to recommend the Queen Betsy books by Mary Janice Davidson for pure enjoyable fluff. I've read the books three times and that pretty much is unprecedented for me. They're basically horror-comedy with very very light on horror and a very enjoyable relationship between Betsy and her main romantic partner. The latter books stumble a bit by trying to add actual plot but the first ones are pure slice-of-undead life pop culture humor. Betsy is basically Buffy if she lived to be 30 as a hardworking but ultimately shallow nice girl before discovering her CHOSEN DESTINY AS THE QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES.

....

I read some of those books a long time ago when they came out. Although I really enjoyed the first few, I thought the series then really went downhill. The first ones the main character was a bit ditzy, and the circumstances she found herself in was crazy/silly, but she was still smart and made reasonable choices.

Either the third or fourth book the author just started to make the main character into more and more of a dumb blonde, doing really stupid things or not considering obvious options for no particular reason. It really started to grate on me.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, ants said:

I read some of those books a long time ago when they came out. Although I really enjoyed the first few, I thought the series then really went downhill. The first ones the main character was a bit ditzy, and the circumstances she found herself in was crazy/silly, but she was still smart and made reasonable choices.

Either the third or fourth book the author just started to make the main character into more and more of a dumb blonde, doing really stupid things or not considering obvious options for no particular reason. It really started to grate on me.  

I don't think Betsy ever becomes a dumb blonde but she does cease to give a crap about whatever people are telling her and just do whatever the hell she wants, like get in a fist-fight with Satan. I do tend to agree with you the first few books are the best, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just finished Fire-Touched and think it's setting up the end of the Mercy Thompson series. I think it's an okay time to end it even if I think the focus on the fae was always the weakest part of the series. The claiming of territory is the first step toward a peace-treaty with the fae and I'm sorry she's not apparently setting up a confrontation with Cantrip as I really hate the Department of Homeland Insecurity.

It was fun but not exceptional the way I remember previous volumes.

I also regret Stefan's absence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just read "Heroine Complex" by Sarah Kuhn.  It's a pretty decent, light read about a demon fighting superheroine...'s personal assistant.  There's a bit of romance (including a sex scene that was steamier than I'd expected) with a guy who's not really an alpha hole, but the bulk of the character relationships revolve around the lifelong friendship between two women, who have their own personality flaws and foibles.  Also, points for making the BFFs Asian American.

The climax is pretty rushed, however, and by the ending is a little too pat.  It's almost as if the author realized she was running out of words for the book and scrambled to wrap everything up.  And it is very light.  A gossip columnist/Z-grade celebrity leach plays a major role as a foil/antagonist, for example.

3.5 to 3.75 out of 5

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The Cat and Bones a.k.a Nighthuntress series is one I'm mostly finished with and I have to say I enjoy Jeanine Frost's work. It's basically an R-rated Buffy with a naive dhampir vampire hunter named Catherine Crawfield and a 200 year old British vampire named Crispin "Bones" Russell. They hunt the worst of their kind and eventually join with the Department of Homeland Security's Supernatural Division (ha!).

One thing I really like is she includes Dracula as part of her cast but does a mostly historical accurate Vlad III as a mid-level vampire.

They're just funny and entertaining adult books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Some news about Stephen Blackmoore's 'Eric Carter' series.There are three more books scheduled after the 3rd, which comes out in Feb. 2017.

Quote

Speaking of more Eric Carter. There's going to be at least three more books in the series (and hopefully more). FIRE SEASON is set for 2018, GHOST MONEY for 2019 and BOTTLE DEMON in 2020.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
29 minutes ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

The Hanging Tree (Peter Grant #6) by Ben Aaronovitch has a new release date: November 3, 2016.

http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2016/09/the-hanging-tree-announcement/

That's a nice surprise since it was starting to look like it was being pushed into 2017 (I think originally it was meant to be published this month).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On ‎9‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 2:22 PM, Darth Richard II said:

So I bought The Invisible Library on a whim, and I think it might be urban fantasy? Only 30 pages on. 

Yep, it would count. Not a bad series either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 2016-07-05 at 11:27 PM, C.T. Phipps said:

I just picked up the latest Mercy Thompson book and I have to say I blame this thread for "ruining" the books for me as I'm aware of the flaws of the series a good deal more. Here, Mercy relies on Adam stepping in to tell off his pack for treating her like dirt the entire time versus the women actually coming to respect her for all she's done for them. Also, weirdly, I miss the vampires from the book. The Fae have never been particularly interesting antagonists and this is just another big monster they have to deal with.

 

This is not ruining stuff my friend, this is making you aware of what is good stuff and what isn't. :P A lot of UF has some pretty tiresome and annoying tropes, which get pretty apparent if you just read with a bit more knowledge to hand.

As a total aside, have you introduced your UF/paranormal romance reading spouse to Bec McMaster's London Steampunk series yet? If not, you should. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...