The Guilty WTF Pleasure of Black Dagger Brotherhood: Books Wrath-Thor.

Okay. It's a timely moment to talk about one of my deepest, darkest guiltiest of pleasures. This is not something I can bring up in polite society. I mean...how do I even bring it up? What descriptions do I use? What sort of picture am I going to paint for the uninitiated?
Deep breath.
I'm a fan of leather pants wearing vampires who drive Escalades and fight bad guys that smell like baby powder.
Oh, God.
There's just no coming back from that is there?

With the long-awaited release of Lover At Last, it's hard not to get all caught up in the BDB talk. The Black Dagger Brotherhood is a funny sort of obsession, but it's one I can't shake. Some series you dive into with the gusto of a fangirl, but you find yourself looking around after awhile and trying to walk out of the room without anyone noticing you were even there.

But with BDB, I'm still in there, still reading the next books, still skimming the parts about the Lessers. Still hanging out with vampires who use unnecessary H's in their names and wear boots they obsessively refer to as shit kickers, and always seem to end their sentences with either yup or true.

Listen, I don't have explanations or a diagnosis for why I'm still waving my BDB flag. What I do have is a run through for where we've been with this brotherhood of vampires with poor grammar, kinky bedroom secrets and sometimes dragon tattoos.

Meet you at Jack's Bar: An Introduction to (Not So) Virgin River (1-5)

When it comes to being somewhere, in the genre of Contemporary Romance, there's nothing as popular as the small town romance. It's timeless and adaptable to new characters moving in as others move on with their HEAs.

And as far as classics go, there's not many places as well-loved as Virgin River.

So, being the romantic that I am, I packed my bags and decided to hit the road.
 
Virgin River by Robyn Carr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really thought this was going to be a super cozy, religion and purity brought me to love sort of story. The cover led me to believe I knew where we were headed.

I mean, that's a very nice front porch.

Meredith is a doctor coming off the heartbreak of losing her husband in a violent and unexpected way and wants to start over as a small town doctor, away from the chaos and dirty streets of LA. And like any good romance, when the heroine takes off she ends up in a town of Hot Available Men. She thought it would be a cute postcard sort of place, and is ready to turn right the hell around when she sees that it’s not. It’s a town broken in some places but they’re trying to take care of themselves and each other as best they can, and it's feeling as American as that front porch. She stays to help Doc and a baby that ends up on her doorstep.

Yeah. A baby. On her doorstep.

Across from which is Jack’s bar.

Run by former marine Jack Sheridan. Oh, Jack. He’s a different sort of hero. There’s something salt of the earth, dude next door about him. But better. He's Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights. He's a man's man that's good and solid and can lead a troop of crazy wolves. He makes me want to give him babies. He'll build his family a house with his own two hands,  show up for his friends, and chop up some wood before the day is out. This isn't an overly drawn, swoony with glistening chest kind of guy. There's an honesty and charm to this that feels like a really good TV series you might want to watch every week.

This town and its people are drawn so well, becoming so much more than what's expected from a small town story, but doesn’t get bogged down with the Introduction Dump. “Okay, so this is So and So and they run the This and That and they’re related to What’s His Face…”

What happens between Jack and Meredith is honest and super hot and it's the kind of life that deserves that front porch.

Broken bones, Bad Divorces and Horny Dogs.

The Other Side of Us by Sarah Mayberry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sarah Mayberry feels like a new discovery. A second wind that's sending me rushing through everything I love so much about a really good, solid contemporary romance. This is where character counts. Everything comes down to the two leads when you don't have car chases, epic quests or dragons. It all comes down to chemistry, growth, humor and the unfolding of a romance. It comes down to the story of two people and whether they're strong enough to carry it.

Maybe not everyone thinks of all those things when they think of romance, but a really good writer will. Sarah Mayberry is a fantastic writer that knows her characters, this genre, and the magic that can happen when you write a really good, solid story about two people falling in love.

Can you hear me sighing? It's a long, delicious one.

Oliver is the grown up guy version of a Sad But Still Mad Taylor Swift song. But in a hot, gruff Gonna Get Away For Awhile kind of way. He was in a big band several lifetimes ago, and since then has been working as a sound engineer for others, and he'll shrug his shoulders with that small smile and say he followed the predictable path of the washed up rock star. He just found out like a punch to the face that his wife of six years is having an affair.

The wife who was once the singer in his big band.

It's a nasty, awful place to be so he leaves to put to rights his dead aunt's beach house, where next door a tiny pixie of a woman is right off the bat rude to him. Unknown to him she's on the mend from a horrific car accident, and will turn the tides with her own hands if it'll only mean she can finally get back to her high stakes life of being a TV producer.

Except, they're not waiting for her, and she's riddled with scars and this close to losing it. She just wants to avoid people right now.

Too bad their dogs are trying to bang it out. 

Have Yourself a Swoony Christmas.

It wasn't until last year while I went through shelves and shelves of Holiday themed romances that I actually read one. There I was, working at the library, setting up display upon display of holly jolly books, and people were coming up and asking for recommendations and I was the Scrooge that hadn't dabbled in the glitter and mistletoe.

I was a reindeer in the headlights. 

The Paperback Queen. The Book Slut. The Swooner of Rakes, Lumberjacks and Alphas alike.

And I hadn't read a holiday romance? What was wrong with me? The swoony moments are bountiful in books filled with hometown drama, depressed drinking, and forced cheer. 

So, I jumped in with spread hands and I grabbed and I took and it was magic. 

 Here wrapped in shiny bows are some of my favorite holiday romances. May they cover you in tinsel and sexual tension.

Nerd Girl Chats: Angelfall Edition.

Have you heard of Angelfall by Susan Ee?
Please. Stop everything.
Hold the phone and pump the brakes, because everything everyone is saying about this book IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE AND REAL AND MY EMOTIONS ARE EVERYWHERE RIGHT NOW.

So. Talking it out between Pen-rye-n & me was obviously necessary. We go through the whole book, with appropriate fangirling and end of the world worrying over body hair, so be warned of spoilers for those of you who don't know the pure AWESOME happening here, and if you do? Jump in, get your downy wings dirty because the world has ended and things are gonna get bananas BUT THERE IS A QUEST.

And smokin' hot shirtless angels. And girls who pack knives in their boots. And moms who are off the rails.
Yeah, I know. It's sooo good.

Willow: Also, ANGELFALL. How is this happening?

Pen-rye-n: RIGHT. OMG. How bloody amazing was it? Scale of 1 to ALL THE FANGIRLING?

Willow: ALL OF THE FANGIRLING. PUT THEM IN A JAR, SHAKE THEM, THEN SPREAD THEM OVER MY BODY.
  ....okay, wait.

Always had a Thing for Artsy Boys.

Easy by Tammara Webber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been circling this one for a couple months. Dipping my toes into the New Adult waters, I've been seduced by the sexy, gritty angst. The choices and decisions someone makes when they're on their own for the first time. The boys that show up and the nights that don't end. And Easy was touted amongst them, but I kept side-stepping it.

I can be completely vain and tell you it was because of the cover.

God, I'm a horrible person, but the guy looked like a Richie Sambora kind of rocker and my brain kept thinking cheesy rocker fan-fiction and I kept turning the other way. Then my soul sister read it and I knew it was okay now. Time to do this.

I absolutely adored this book. I swooned, clutched it to my chest, and found myself a new boyfriend. And he looks nothing like Richie Sambora.

More like Trent from Daria.



Hullo, Lucas.