RRA Meeting 4

I need to do these more often- I started this partial list of books I've read since the last post, but that was nearly a year ago and the list is waaaay too long. So here's the highlights of books I loved, liked, or at least don't regret the time and sleepless night I probably gave them.

Last week's blogging silence was brought to you by my latest discovery, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Its 600 pages dominated two very late nights in bed, squinting at the words on my kindle so JP wouldn't wake up and realize I was still reading (not that he can ground me like my parents used to do when I was little and reading past my bedtime, but he can tell me to zip it when I whine about how tired I am the next morning), and it ends in an cliff-hanger that forces you to download the second book, Shadow of Night, and start reading immediately. The books don't care that it's 1 am. Download and read! I'll admit the books desperately needed a harsher editor, but the story is fun and I can't wait for book 3 (always the sign of a series worth reading).

Other books I've enjoyed recently (some with links (none of them sponsored) until I got tired of looking them up):

The Scottish Prisoner, Diana Gabaldon's latest contribution to her Outlander world. This one actually belongs to the Lord John series, but Jamie plays a large role (non-spoiler alert- he's the Scottish Prisoner) and it fills in many of his missing years between Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager. The next Outlander book, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, promises to be out sometime in 2013, so this helped tide me over. (Bonus tip, if you "like" Diana on Facebook you get excerpts from the next book every few days, and The Scottish Prisoner includes the first few chapters of the next book at the end).

One of my other favorite series, Lords of Deliverance by Larissa Ione, had two new volumes- #2, Immortal Rider, and #3, Lethal Rider. I love Larissa Ione's world and think her Demonica series is one of the best, but I think I like this spin-off series even more than the original. The fourth and final book comes out in November and the date is marked on all of my calendars.

My other, OTHER favorite series- Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole- also had some new releases: Warlord Wants Forever (prequel; original book 1 that used to be sold in a compilation with other authors) and Lothaire (new book 9? 10? I forget). Lothaire was great- this is such a fun series, I re-read the others all the time.

I found the Susan Elizabeth Phillips Chicago Stars series on a list of Top 100 Romance Novels (the first book was somewhere in the top 20) and found it to be lots of fun, even if it did involve football and some plot line repetition: It Had To Be You, Heaven, Texas, Nobody's Baby But Mine, Dream a Little Dream, This Heart of Mine, Natural Born Charmer. It's hard to say which were my favorites- probably Heart of Mine and Natural Born Charmer but they were all worth the time spent reading on the couch on the weekends during the kids naptime when I was supposed to be doing other, more-productive things.

Also on that Top 100 list was Naked in Death by J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts. I liked it way more than I expected given that it's a crime/mystery novel and takes place in the future. I read the next two, Glory in Death and Immortal in Death and really enjoyed them, and then found out the series is 30 books long and vowed not to buy any more until I find a library.

Others, in no particular order:

• Lover Reborn (JR Ward)- the latest in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  I still love the series, even if the tough guy vocab occasionally makes me roll my eyes, and I thought this book was way better than the last one (Lover Unleashed).  Now I wait with baited breath for the next one which promises to be Blay and Qhuinn's book.  
• The Witness (Nora Roberts).  I downloaded this 10 seconds before my plane back from DC took off a few months ago and was surprised how much I liked it.  I recommended it to my mom and she loved it too.  A different, modern, thriller-light type book for me.
• The Salt Bride (Lucinda Brant)- a Georgian historical romance and an  an unusually good free download on your kindle.
• Lord of Illusion (Kathryne Kennedy)- the latest and last book in the Elven Lords series, which might be in my top 10 (def. top 15) favorite series ever.  The books are pretty cheap downloads and I love the different take on the regency romance genre.
• Dreaming of You, Then Came You (Lisa Kleypas)- excellent regency romances.  Less romance, more plot, great characters.
• Jinxed, Charmed, Seduced (Beth Ciotta) - three books (not yet sure if it's a trilogy or if she's writing more with the same characters) that were lots of fun.  Modern, sexy, better dialogue than most- I've re-read these several times, though the heroine in #2 annoys me.
• Vision in White, Bed of Roses, Savor the Moment (Nora Roberts) - one of her most recent series, I thought it was pretty flat.  I still read them all and will probably download the 4th when it drops in price, but these pale (pale) in comparison to her Sisters of the Heart or Circle trilogies.

I also re-read the Hunger Games last weekend and found they were even better, particularly the first one. I didn't properly appreciate it the first time. A friend just recommended that I read Lauren Oliver's Delirium and Pandemonium, and another friend recommended the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. Any other fun, suspend-reality type books (preferably series) you've discovered lately?