Who are your favorite authors?

Mine would be Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan and J.R. Ward.

My favorite of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood stories was her second book, Lover Eternal and I would highly recommend it.

Lynn Viehl ~ If Angels Burn and Private Demon ~ is my current favorite. I think there's a third in the series which I'm looking forward to reading.

I like J.R. Ward too, but I find that Christine Feehan's writing is a bit uneven. I haven't read any of Kenyon's stuff yet.

I'm a total Sherrilyn Kenyon fangirl it's so sad. However I've read a few Christine Feehan and didn't really like the carpathian novels, like some of her others but the carpathians left me cold.

Have you ever read any Katie MacAlister books? I've found that I really like her books. Today I discovered that she's also written a series of books which sound almost identicle to her Sex and the Single Vampire type books under a different name Katie Maxwell, for teenagers. I think Got Fangs? is the first one. I couldn't believe how much alike the when I read the two series sounded when I read the amazon description.

Robin D. Owens is a current favorite of mine in the category of other worlds/lost colonies. I also have gone thru periods of reading Saranne Dawson, Kathleen Morgan and Susan Grant among others.
For vampire,etc. stories Kenyon and Krinard have written some good books.

It`s Simon R Green for me. Though one of my many mad obsessions is for long-forgotten cheap fifties second hand SF/Fantasy paperbacks. One called The Ant Men is a particular favourite (not the Edgar Rice Burroughs one).

I've read at least one Katie MacAlister book, it was a fun read I've also read a Katie Maxwell as well.

For those of you who like Sherrilyn Kenyon and also like historical romance, try her alter ego - Kinley MacGregor. She writes historicals under this name. They have the same sense of humor, just without the Dark-Hunters and Daimons.

I really like Mary Janice Davidson's Queen of the vampires series. I have read some of the others who do paranormal/vampire romance. My favorite would be Dara Joy but she seems to be bound up with a legal problem with her publisher and hasn't been able to finish her series.

I recently read the first one of Katie MacAlister's Aisling Grey novels. Demons and Dragons as opposed to vampires. It was really very, very good. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Right now I'm finishing up the second book in a werewolf trilogy by Susan Krinard called Once a Wolf. They are kind of historical/paranormal romances.

I have to say that my favorite author is Sherrilyn Kenyon. Her Dark Hunter series is my favorite series, but I am also working on Rhonda Thompson, Christine Warren, and Christine Feehan.
I read Lynn Viehl's if Angels Burn, but it wasn't to my liking.

My favorites would probably be J R Ward, Christine Feehan, Katie MacAlister ,Mary Janice Davidson, and Charlaine Harris. Has anyone else read the Sookie Stackhouse books (e.g. Dead Until Dark?

Hi, CJ ~ Hope you had a great holiday season. I enjoyed myself in Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina (was in all three states: stayed in Johnson City, TN; visited Jonesboro, TN and Burnsville & Asheville, NC; and went to Wytheville, VA where my daughter is going to be for the next 5 months or so.

Re: "Has anyone else read the Sookie Stackhouse books (e.g. Dead Until Dark?" Why yes, I sure have. They're some of my favorites. I also love the Betsy, Vampire Queen books, J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood novels, and Katie MacAlister's vampire novels. I find Feehan a bit uneven, though I always read everything of hers that I find at the library. :)

storee- That's a great little vacation. Too bad we didn't get to meet up for that coffee before you left. I hope you get to come back this way in the spring or summer. It's much more beautiful (green and lush) that time of year.
Incidentally, I was talking to a friend at work today about going to Abingdon, VA to the Barter Theater and staying at the Martha Washington Inn in the spring. It's suppose to be very quaint and romantic. And I love little historical trips too. (Abingdon is just north of Johnson City.) : )

Re: re: I love all those series. I was getting a little tired of Feehan's series too but I think Dark Celebration restored some of my enthusiasm. I put Harris' Grave books on my TBR list and hopefully I will get to them... well sometime. I find I'm getting behind on when the next serial books are coming out because my TBR pile is getting to be ridiculous. I seriously need to get more organized.

CJ ~ Thanks! Maybe we'll get a chance to meet up after all. I'm going to try and get back to TN this summer to see my daughter perform at a summer stock theater in Burnsville, SC. Right now she's performing at the Wolfhart (sp?) dinner theater in Wytheville. I think I remember passing Abingdon on the way to Wytheville.

I read Harris' Grave books but wasn't quite as charmed as I was by her Southern Vampire series. I haven't read Dark Celebration yet ~ my TBR piles have gotten absolutely intimidating too, but I think I'll put it on my hold list at the library where I get most of my books.

I enjoyed Dark Celebration very much. I'm curious to see who her next book will involve because she started a couple different storylines with it. Maybe I'll go check out her website....

Dl, I looked and it's Dark Possession, Manolito's story : ).

which of the J.R. Ward books have you read so far? The second of her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, lover Eternal, has been my favorite so far.

I listed my favorites on another thread too, but here they are again: Lois McMaster Bujold, Catherine Asaro, Sharon Shinn, Karen Traviss, Joan D. Vinge, Mercedes Lackey, Jane S. Fancher, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Robin McKinley, Julie E. Czerneda, Lyda Morehouse, Dean Koontz, and Clive Barker. I prefer science fiction and fantasy with romantic sub-plots to paranormal romance, but I've read one of Susan Krinard's werewolf books so far and I loved it, so I'll be reading more by her.

I love Sharon Shinn, Joan D. Vinge, Mercedes Lackey, and Robin McKinley (her one vampire novel is the only one I've read of McKinley to date), and I've heard good things about Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm not familiar with the others (except Barker and Koontz, whose writing I never got into & didn't realize they did romantic sub-plots). Have you read Louise Marley or Sheri Tepper? I like them too, though maybe their sci-fi isn't as romantic as the others.

Quaisior - I've read Susan Krinard's initial werewolf trilogy and really loved the third story, Secret of the Wolf. I have another one of her werewolf stories in my TBR pile.

Have you read Wen Spencer's stories Tinker and Wolf Who Rules? They sound exactly like you were describing, sci-fi/fantasy with a little romance as only a subplot (the books are cataloged as sci-fi). I'd highly recommend them if you haven't read them yet.

I didn't like McKinley's vampire novel, but I've loved nearly everything else she has written. I love Tepper's books and I have one of Marley's books in my TBR pile because it seemed to be similar to Tepper.

Well, I hated the two Wen Spencer books I've read so far, so I haven't been all that willing to read anything else by her. I might try one more but if I don't like that, I won't be continuing with her books (I have a personal three strikes and they are out rule).

Quaisior ~ 3 strikes! You're generous! I'm more of a 1-1/2 strike reader myself. I'm much too old to continue trying to like an author if I don't like them after that much effort. :D

I'll have to try some of McKinley's other novels. Which one is y our favorite?

I'm like storee. If the first book I read by an author is dreck I don't even look at other books by him/her. Sometimes though I can be convinced by other readers to try a novel that is really good and then I have to revise my opinion. I've noticed that sometimes an author's writing changes with the publisher/editor and sometimes it's not always a positive change.

I try not to read two books I hate in a series by an author, but I will occasionally try another book in a different series or a much later or earlier book by that author.

Good idea, Wyvern, to try a different series or an earlier or later work by the author.

However, I still would only give the "different" book about 100 pages to prove itself likeable (so to speak) before I gave up on that author for the foreseeable future.

I usually try something from a different series too if I don't like the first book I read by an author. In some cases I regret giving an author three strikes, but I'm glad I kept trying with Sharon Shinn because I wasn't impressed with her first novel and Archangel got on my nerves. If I try more from Spencer, it will have to be something other than her Ukiah Oregon series.

My favorite McKinley novel is Beauty (a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, as is her book Rose Daughter), but I also love The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Spindle's End, and Deerskin.

So far I've only read Robin McKinley's Sunshine and Beauty, but I preferred Sunshine. However, I can see where the story might put some people off because it tends to wander off into past memories that kind of makes it confusing to keep track of.

I haven't read anything other than Tinker and Wolf Who Rules by Wen Spencer so I'm not sure about how they would compare. The Ukiah Oregon series didn't really look like something I would like, but I think I might try her novel, A Brother's Price.

If you do give her another shot, I'd love to know how it works out :-)

24> which were the Wen Spencer books you tried, The Ukiah Origon series have romantic subplots BTW Demonlover.

Simon-You know what I like :-) I thought that the Ukiah Origon books were kind of like detective stories, which I've never really liked much. I checked amazon again and am not quite sure why I had that impression. I might have been getting them mixed up with something else.

Quaisior- What didn't you like about the series? Just curious.

I know I mentioned these books before but I was curious. Has anybody else read the Aisling Gray novels by Katie MacAlister? I absolutely fell in love with those. Too bad it takes her so long to write them.

>32 Jenson_AKA_DL:: Yes, I read the first two parts of the Aisling Grey novels and I loved them, especially Jim, her newfie demon. I just got the third part in the mail yesterday and put it on my tbr pile. It might be a few weeks until I get to it. Have you read it yet? Is it as entertaining as the first two?

>33 Thalia: The third one is also on my TBR pile. To be honest I'm kind of holding off on reading it because I know the next one isn't due out until November and I'm afraid I'll be all excited when I finish it and even more disappointed to have to wait. I will probably be reading it in a couple weeks. I'll let you know how it goes :-)

32> well he is a detective:^) I enjoyed them. though the fiddling with the backstory in each suceeding volume was a bit annoying.

I wish I had waited before reading all three Aisling Grey books as I now have to wait until November. I started Every Which Way But Dead today. I'm really enjoying Kim Harrison's books.

>32 Jenson_AKA_DL:, I thought the science was implausible and silly and they would have been better off as fantasy books, it's nearly impossible for Ukiah to die so there's never any sense of real danger, plus the second book seemed to me at the end to just hit a reset switch. I liked Indigo in book one, but she wasn't really in book two.

Well lets see just about all of my favorite authors are women. I think that is because they add a bit of romance to their work in whatever genre and they usually have strong and compelling heroines.

So I should state that I am primarly a reader of paranormal, action/adventure, and futuristic in romance.

My favorites by genre are:

Romance
Sherrilyn Kenyon she is the author goddess and I am a total fangirl where she is concerned. Love the Dark-Hunters and the Simi, my favorie being Unleash the Night. I also like her Kinley MacGregor books of Arthurian legend, ie. Sword of Darkness and so on.

Mary Janice Davidson The humor in her books is great. Betsy is so irreverent and saracastic.

Robin D. Owens love her books on Celta. And the whole magical world she has set up. There is a lot of building on Celtic myths here. and I love the Fams I have a weakness for talking magical animals.

Katie MacAlister her contemporaries have great wit and humor in them and the heroines are usually sassy. My favorites being the Aisling Grey novels. Love the Dragons and Demons and Jim the newfie demon is a hoot. Wish she would wrtie them faster. But she says that since she is only doing a limited number of them that she wants to space them out. *I say boo to that, give them to me now!*

Elizabeth Vaughan books are great as well I really enjoyed her Warprize, Warsworn and am looking forward to the forthcoming Warlord. I'm not sure how to describe it other then an alternate history and a bit of an anthropological look at a romance. That's a really bad description. Ummm look it up on amazon.

J.R. Ward is fantastic. Her Blackdagger Brotherhood is just great. I have to say though that my favorite of the three books she currently has out is Lover Awakened. I like Zsadist and how tortured and dangerous he is. Plus some interesting things happen in this book that will really impact future books.

Okay here are the others in brief: Christine Warren, Lora Leigh, Nalini Singh, Angela Knight, Eileen Wilks, Stephanie Rowe, Gena Showalter and Deidre Knight

Fantasy
Anne Bishop is just the most fantastic author. I love all of her work and count her Black Jewels Trilogy as my favortie fantasy work of all time. Also her new Ephemera Duology is great. Sebastian was an interesting start and I am looking forward to the conclusion in Bella Donna. Bella Donna reminds me a bit of Jaenelle in the scope of her power and the dark and light sides of her nature.

Kim Harrison's novels about Rachel Morgan are gold. I love how much trouble Rachel get's into and her assorted friends and associates. If your going to read about her I would start from the beginning with Dead Witch Walking.

Kelley Armstrong and her Women of Otherworld series is great. Although it is almost like two series in one with some books focusing on Elena and her pack (my favs) and the others on Paige Winterbourne and her people.

Lilith Saintcrow I really got hooked on her with Working For The Devil it's just great. And Dante Valentine is one cool woman.

Gail Dayton and her the Rose books Compass Rose and Barbed Rose I love the complex family structure in these books and am looking forward to the next one.

Mercedes Lackey I don't like all of her work but I love her Dragon Jousters Series. I love Dragons, at least the good kind and she has them. To get the most from these books start at the beginning with Joust.

And Keri Arthur she's new here to the states but well known in her native Australia. I love the Riley Jensen series. I just read Full Moon Rising and am looking forward to the next book. Riley reminds me a bit of Rachel Morgan in her attitude and ability to find trouble.

Sci-Fi
Catherine Asaro love her Saga of the Skolian Empire. My favorites being The Last Hawk, The Radiant Seas, Ascendant Sun and The Moon's Shadow. Personally I think that to get the best reading experience you should start with the first novel Primary Inversion I know some people have started in the middle but I think you get more when you know all the references and back history.

S.L. Viehl and her Stardoc novels and their offshoots such as Blade Dancer, Bio Rescue and Afterburn. This is a fantastic space-opera I guess is what you would call it. Personally I just inhale them. Some of you may know her as Lynn Viehl of the Darkyn books. Personally I prefer her Stardoc novels.

Horror
Laurell K. Hamilton I like the Meredith Gentry books although LKH is heavy on the graphic sex. I don't mind but some do. I read one Anita Blake book Narcissus in Chains and didn't like it. Now after so many postive Anita reviews I am thinking that maybe I should give her second chance and start at the beginning.

Whew that was long. Got a lot of favorites. ;-D

Most people recommend starting with Guilty Pleasures and ending at Obsidian Butterfly. I made it through Hamilton's latest Gentry novel, Mistral's Kiss but I refuse to buy anymore of her books unless she provides some plot movement, ANY plot movement. Or even GOOD kinky sex. In Kiss, there was BORING kinky sex. Bleh.

super- I'm on A Fistful of Charms and like Kim Harrison's books a lot. Fistful may be her best yet although I really like Every Which Way but Dead. I'm not done with it, so we'll see.

I haven't bought Mistral's Kiss. Maybe I'll buy it in paperback form. I don't mind Gentry's magical cootchie, but I hate it that she makes those men into wimpish slavering idiots. I agree the first books of the Blake series are pretty good. Start with those.

I've got The Harlequin (no touchstone) ordered at the library. I won't stop reading Hamilton, just won't buy anymore for right now.

I liked Every Which Way But Dead more than A Fistful of Charms simply because I think in Fistful that the heroine is slipping into unethical behavior. Also, I don't normally notice editorial issues, but my copy used "break" instead of "brake" several times and it became annoying.

morphidae, I'm hoping Hamilton will stop with the sex-spree and I really hope she doesn't emasculate Edward in The Harlequin. You'll have to let me know. In Fistful I just got to the part where she uses demon magic for the second time... And I don't really like Nick that much. I was kinda glad he was out of the picture. I do like Jenks being big though. :)

Jenks has a fabulous line near the last third of the book. I burst into laughter when I read it. It is SO him. You'll know it when you get to it.

Morph- you must be talking about page 415. ROFL! : )
I love Jenks!

Definitely the Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Liaden Universe novels, Local Custom, Conflict of Honors, Agent of Change, Carpe Diem, Plan B, I Dare, etc.

A great blend of SF Space Opera with a bit of Romance thrown in. I have to re-read the entire series every year.

Here are some books I've liked which haven't been mentioned yet:

Gail Peterson's The Making of a Monster
L.A. Banks' Minion
Susan Sizemore's "Laws of Blood" series, beginning with The Hunt
and Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends

Hi, Imayb1 ~ I have Chris Moore's You Suck on reserve at the library and can't wait to get it. From the reviews on amazon.com, it sounds hilarious and is apparently a sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends (having problems with the touchstone), which means I guess I'll have to read that one first. Here's the link to those reviews: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060590297/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20

>47 Storeetllr:, Storeetllr
Hi! Bloodsucking Fiends had quite a few humorous moments. It was an enjoyable book. I haven't read You Suck yet, but bookstore customers tell me it's good, too.

A couple of authors I haven't seen mentioned are Anne Bishop and Jacqueline Carey, perhaps because their works are more fantasy than romance, and dark fantasy at that. Still, I think they might be of interest to some other members of this group.

Bishop's Dark Jewels Trilogy (Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, and Queen of the Darkness) is set in a matriarchal society controlled by witches. The story centers on one young girl, Jaenelle, who is believed to be the fulfillment of a prophecy. The series portrays Jaenelle's development from witch to queen from the perspective of three males who would play an important part in her life.

Carey's books (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar) are set in a sort of alternative Renaissance France (with an interesting pseudo-Christian mythological background). There's no way to describe the series further without having it sound like (at best) soft-core S&M porn, but the main character is an "anguisette" (i.e., a courtesan who finds pleasure in pain).

Both Bishop's and Carey's books could both be called "soft-core S&M porn." They are both pretty brutal at times.

I adore them. :)

I can't stand Carey's books, but I liked Bishop's whole Black Jewels series and I'm looking forward to the new book next year. I didn't like Bishop's Fae Trilogy nearly as much though and I haven't read Sebastian yet.

Stephen King! The first book I ever read was CHRISTINE and became hooked.

Laurell K. Hamilton
Christine Feehan
Charlaine Harris

I've found two more favorite authors this year: Tanya Huff and Michelle Sagara.

Sherrilyn Kenyon Maggie Shayne David Weber Elizabeth Moon um....Dawn Cook....Clive Cussler....probably more that i'll remember later

i've read her "a girls guide to vampires" it is awesome...

im with you on that one... black jewels got me soo hooked on Bishop and than i read Belladonna (im pretty sure that is the name) and i just wanted the other one back

so.. now to my favorite autors.. haha.. tree messeges. sorry guys.
but yeah

i abseloutly adore Laurell K. Hamilton. i cait wait for her books. Sherrilyn Kenyon's dark hunters serie is also very near my heart. i loved one of Feehans books, the first i read, "dark celabretion", but her others is just not the same..
i just got sooo many.heh. Kelly Armstrong is a dear favorite of mine too, and Lynsay Sands. I GOT SOOO MANY!