Duodecimal: Bev’s All-Time Favorite Book Series

We here in Romancelandia are complete series addicts. Once an author writes a well received book, her fans immediately start clamoring for more stories set in the same world. I think it would be correct to state that no two Romancelandians will ever have the exact same entries on their own Favorite Series list.

Eclectic and fodder for debate, these are the series that leap to mind when I’m asked what my favorite reads are. The order I’ve listed them in is approximate as my preferences change based on my mood and what feels right at the time.

Bev(QB)’s All Time Favorite Book Series

1. Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton. (Ballantine Books) This complex fantasy/urban fantasy showcases Hamilton’s unparalleled world building expertise. (see Review: A Lick of Frost)






2. Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. (Delacorte Press) I consider this fantasy/urban fantasy to be a master’s class in the use of first person POV. Brilliant.






3. Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. (Berkley) Hamilton is one of the godmothers of what is now referred to as urban fantasy. Unlike most long-running series, I’ve known people to jump in this one - at any point with no problems. I started at book 9, Obsidian Butterfly, then went back and read them all - several times.






4. The Cynsters, particularly the Bar Cynsters (books 1-6) by Stephanie Laurens. (Avon) The crème de la crème of Regency era historical romances. In fact, I consider book 1, Devil’s Bride, to be closer to perfection than any other romance I’ve ever read. Its only glaring flaw is that unfortunate back cover pic (roll over the original cover in the link to see it). What were they thinking?!






5. Skye O’Malley saga by Bertrice Small. (Ballantine Books) The life and loves of an extraordinary woman and her family during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor. To read a Bertrice Small book is to instantly and completely be absorbed into the rich tapestry of the tastes, sounds, sights and lives she weaves together.






6. Breeds series by Lora Leigh(Ellora’s Cave and Berkley). When someone says they are new to ebooks, I recommend they start with this series. No one writes sexual tension and characters consumed by unquenchable need better than Lora Leigh. The intense erotic scenes are woven into the story of a not-quite-human species as they overcome the horrors of their past, and begin a journey to understand themselves as a species and as individuals, while also striving to find love and acceptance.






7. The Highlanders series by Karen Marie Moning. (Jove and Dell) Although they were always a highly enjoyable auto-buy for me, it is the audio books (with Phil Gigante’s swoon-worthy narration) that earn this series a permanent place on my list. (see Aural Pleasures 103)






8. The World of Hetar by Bertrice Small. (HQN Books) In this epic fantasy, Ms Small has created a world that is in some ways recognizable, yet vastly different from our own. Without the constraint of historical fact, she allowed her muse free rein to create this lusty, sweeping saga.






9. Jarheads by Sean Michael. (Torquere and Fictionwise) Sean Michael has a unique voice. He doesn’t give us much physical description of his characters, but somehow paints an emotional picture. We get to know them through their words and actions and I get completely caught up in the lives of these lovable and loving men. Rigger, whom I adore, is the heart and soul of the series and someone I’d like to count as a good friend in real life. One caveat though - there were times when even I said, “Enough with the sex, already! Get on with the story!”




10. The Donovan series by Elizabeth Lowell. (Avon) Still tapping my foot waiting for the rest of this contemporary romantic suspense series - including a look back at the elder Donovan’s love story. You know, I do believe I’m overdue for a re-read!








11. Brothers in Arms by Samantha Kane(Ellora’s Cave). The newest addition to my list. The erotic scenes in these Regency period bisexual manage stories are written in exquisite, excruciatingly drawn out detail. And Kane manages to make each scene feel completely unique to each triad.






12. What series will someday claim this last spot on my list? Is it a series I’ve already started? Maybe Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series or Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series. A Gentleman’s Wager by Madelynne Ellis is already on my single title favorites list, but with its upcoming sequels and spin-off, will it land on my series list, too? Or maybe my next favorite series is waiting out there for me to discover it. Maybe it’s not even been written yet and is being nurtured by a muse waiting to bestow it on some worthy author.

Read more from Bev at Cubie’s Confections.

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Review: To the Ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Lowell

Sybil’s Review: To the Ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Lowell
Contemporary Romance by Avon

Posted 1/30/5 in live journal (I don’t have too many book posts in my lj but there are a few I want to move over)

I read my first Elizabeth Lowell book that I didn’t like. le sigh, that makes me sad. I haven’t read any of her newer books since I am not much into romantic suspense novels but her historical novels are just about the best evah. Her Only Series is the reason I fell in love with westerns.

To the Ends of the Earth was just bad. Bad, bad, bad and made no sense what so ever. Cat is working herself to death to put two teens (her twin sister and brother) through med school and because her grown mother can’t balance a checkbook. ::blink:: take the fucking thing away from her and make the kids take out a few loans. The whole idea is, if she can just make it to January when her mother marries some rich dumbass, all will be fine. I understand the book was written in the 80’s and updated and re-released in the 90’s but please.

And the hero… he is scarred and wounded from his first marriage (as all hero’s are that have been married before) so he has sworn off women. Well other than to fuck them. So whores and mistresses he gets but mutual sex based on pleasure or feelings isn’t something he understands. I am sorry, after you have mind-blowing sex with someone you think you have feelings for and they offer to pay you - find the door. Quick. She didn’t - and he offered AGAIN. He pretty much spent the book pissed off she had to work and waiting for her to ask him for help money wise. And omg -the end of the book is awful, how EL got a HEA in this is beyond me. The whole thing is like a car wreck you can’t understand you are watching. So back to the UBS with this book.

Then again Elizabeth Lowell has made an art form out of hero’s treating their heroines like shit and then somehow making it work. At least for me, she crossed that line in this book and I just couldn’t see it. But that can’t be said for everyone since AAR gave it a DIK review.

Grade: F

A WOMAN OF THE WORLD: Photographer Cat Cochran has been to exotic places most people only dream about — but all she wants to do is settle down and get her life in order. One last assignment and she can put her past behind her — forgetting about her heart’s disastrous misadventures as she loses herself in the natural beauty she has so far only glimpsed through a camera’s lens. But first she must photograph the mysterious and elusive ship designer T.H. Danvers and his awesome creations.

A MAN IN A MILLION: Travis Danvers is dangerous — a millionaire with an athlete’s body; an enigmatic charmer capable of breaking down Cat’s well-constructed defenses with a buccaneer’s arrogance and flourish. She knows she must resist him, for experience has taught her that pain is the eventual price of the pleasure to be found in the arms of such a man. But caught in the waves of a sensual sea, Cat hears sirens whisper seductively, telling her to abandon all caution; to trust and love Travis with all her soul, and to ride with him on the winds of forever.