I've been reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's "Dark Hunter" series lately for my mindless fun. They're mostly set in New Orleans, she has women of larger size getting busy with hot men who think said women are the most gorgeous creatures ever, and her vampire/werewolf history is a bit different than the usual. I've only read 4 or 5 of the books, and I suspect that the 12-20 that she wrote sort of fade into a sameness. But it's a pro-women's sexuality sameness, by and large, so I'm giving it a Trashy Books Yay thumbs up.

They are a tad overly-heterocentric, though. I've been going online to read SGA slash fic as a palate cleanser.

Anna McPartlin- Pack Up the Moon. It wasn't trashy and it actually starts out with a fair amount of pathos, but it wound up being a very fun read.

Oh, and if you want a historical, Victoria Dahl's A Rake's Guide to Pleasure

For "chick lit," I like Marian Keyes a lot, but many of her books have a pretty dark center to them, so maybe not "trashy and fun" enough.

The first few of Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld books (werewolves at first, mostly) were good fun.

I'm about halfway through the first book in Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series, Moon Called and am enjoying it. Definitely pretty mindless, but an interesting universe. If you're into lycanthropes.

Oh, I really enjoyed Moon Called and that series--though the latest one, "Cry Wolf" (which was sort of...tangential? Same universe as Moon Called/Blood Bound/Iron Kissed, but only peripheral characters and set in a whole other location and issues) I didn't get as into. It was an interesting idea, but somehow I never really cared about the characters as much as I felt like I was supposed to. Or something. But I liked it--I wanted to read more about the setting and the characters, I just didn't especially care for that plot/book, somehow. If that makes any sense.

It's listed on Amazon as "Book 1" so I suppose I'll have the opportunity to read more. I think I'd rather read more of the Moon Called ones, but I'll read both, given the chance.

[edit: Hmm, and looking at reviews on Amazon, apparently the first part of this book was in an anthology somewhere, and maybe that explains why the pacing and plot/exposition seemed a little weird, somehow. Still a shame they didn't/couldn't rework it better when they turned it into a full novel. Ah well]

Yes, I liked Moon Called a lot too, and Blood Bound, although I've not read any others yet. My favourite urban werewolf/vampire type books (outwith Tanya Huff) are Carrie Vaughn's Kitty books. Very likeable fluff, with a blessed lack of OMGEpicDoomedSatin-cladLurve nonsense. The California Demon books are cheesier, but readable.

I'm loving KJ Parker's Engineer trilogy thus far, but it's a bit of a big chewy George RR Martin -type series, so maybe not what you're after, Tep.

Actually, my favourite recent fluff thing has definitely been the original slashfic stuff by Ann Somerville over here. It slots neatly into the Mercedes Lackey/Anne McCaffrey section of my brain, only with a bit more gay sex. (The Pindone stories involve a fair bit of club scene stuff, which you, being more knowledgable about than I, may perhaps roll your eyes at, or may be all 'my people!' about, depending.)

Smart Bitch Sarah reviews TWILIGHT (rating: D+)

A particular highlight that made me snort Diet Coke:

He’s mysterious, he’s dark and gloomy, he’s like angst and sexy rolled up in a sparkly taco shell.

oh, Barb, I read that. And I was thinking "ha! be glad you don't have a mailing address up or the fangirls would be sending YOU chess pieces!"

I was talking to my 15-y.o. niece about what books she's currently reading for fun, and she mentioned that she's in the middle of Breaking Dawn. I asked her for her review of the series as a whole, and she admitted that they're all pretty bad, but she still feels compelled to read them anyway!

When she and the rest of the family came up to my place yesterday, I told her to knock herself out by checking my bookshelves (since that's what I usually do when I go to a reader's home). She left with three of my books (two Stephen Kings and, on my rec, Devil in the White City), promising to get them to me as soon as she's done. Her boyfriend has her reading graphic novels now--she's read the Ultimate Batman and is currently trying to get through the Ultimate Spiderman, but doesn't find it as interesting as the other.