Nora is shelved in romance in most bookstores, Connie.

My favoritest book of her is "Public Secrets".

Haven't read that one yet.

I hesitated to pick up Morrigan's Cross because ... well, because I have so many books I haven't read yet, for one, but also because I wasn't sure how I was going to like the "group" dynamic of the book (gleaned from skimming, could be wrong) and the fact that a lot of it seems to be set in the past. But I will pick it up eventually.

I love the way they schedule the trilogy releases so close together. No waiting for the impatient!

Definitely romance.

I also love Public Secrets--starting it in the midst of the British music scene of the 1960s was a great idea on her part. The other standalones that I love are Montana Sky (which is being filmed for Lifetime--I hope it's better than the egregiously bad adaptation Hallmark did of Julie Garwood's For the Roses), Three Fates (the sinking of the Lusitania in the prologue was very well written indeed), and the one set in the TV daytime talk show world whose title I can't recall offhand (and trying to navigate NR's Amazon bibliography will take days, if not years, to get the right title).

I need Three Fates.

And isn't there a new "In Death" installment?

Jilli, it depends on how you like your vampire romance.

Hmmm. The closest I come to reading vampire romance are the Kim Harrison books, and the YA "Vampire Kisses" series (which I adore, mostly because the babygoth teen girl is exactly how she should be).

Most vampire romance books I've glanced at are ... heavy on the woobie-ness. Poor tormented vampire who just needs luuuuuv from the Right Woman sort of thing. And not enough real menace or danger to how vampires are presented.

This isn't like that so far. It honestly reads like Buffy-verse stuff, without the woobie-ness. The vampires are pretty menacing.

This isn't like that so far. It honestly reads like Buffy-verse stuff, without the woobie-ness. The vampires are pretty menacing.

Really? Then I'll have to add it to the list of books to look for.

I just picked up Three Fates used -- it's next on my list! One glance at the prologue sold me.

I loved the Chesapeake series, too, and did not read the final one. It was Seth all grown up, right?

Yep. The heroine in it was really poorly written, and Seth seemed to be OOC for much of the book (his evil mother is blackmailing him, and he doesn't say word one about it to any of his brothers, which makes absolutely no sense in context with the trilogy).

Jilli, my favorite vampire romance might be hard to find--it's waaayy out of print by now, since it's a category romance, but if you can locate it, I highly recommend Love Bites, by Margaret St. George. It's a Harlequin American romance that's about 10 years old by now, and it's very well-written. He's a vampire trying to establish a more humane variety of vamp (no feeding on humans, rely on blood-bank sources for food, assimilate as much as possible into human society--his job is late-night DJ in Denver), and she's his human assistant who handles all the daytime stuff. The conflict comes from the society of traditional vamps who feel threatened by his agenda, especially when he tracks down a potential source for curing vampirism.

I think I read that one. Which is funny because not my usual stuff.

It honestly reads like Buffy-verse stuff, without the woobie-ness. The vampires are pretty menacing.

The Big Bad in the book is a really evil old-but-still-beautiful vamp named Lilith whose biggest regret is not being able to see herself in the mirror. One of the creepier scenes towards the end involve a child vamp--very chilling stuff.