That’s what I think too. 😉

ooooooo…Mab…Eville…Fun!

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this series. I’ll put in on my TBR list.

Not at all. Feel free to comment on whatever post you like. I don’t know. I never really like Phury or Rhage as much as the others. But I’ll probably give her another chance …

Thanks. I appreciate that, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the short stories. Actually, for Spider’s Revenge, I might do a story from Mab’s POV … 😉

You write first person very well. And, speaking of POV, I’m looking forward to reading your short stories, “Tangled Dreams” and “Tangled Schemes,” which will have Jo -o and Sophia’s POV (T. Dreams) and Bria’s POV (T. Schemes.) I have hope that one day Owen will speak to you about having a POV. *keeps fingers crossed*

Anywho, keep up the good work!

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Sharing Knife series is very good. It resides on my keeper shelf. There are four books in the series which follow the couple Dag, a Lakewalker patroller, and Fawn, a Farmer girl, on their journey of finding a purpose and place in their “malice”-ridden world. From what I’ve heard this series is lighter in world-building compared to her other series/novels but still a recommended read if you want fantasy with romance.

I hope you don’t my jumping into your BDB conversation, but I agree with the opinion on the lack of romance in Lover Enshrined. Cormia, Phury’s mate, wasn’t getting much love from oh-so-tormented twin. Phury only seemed to display bonded male behavior when she stepped out naked from the pool for JM, Qhuinn, and Blay to see. Of all the BDB books this is the one that received the poorest reviews. I really wanted this Brother to have a passionate story after what he suffered with Z. Disappointing.

I’ve never read Bujold. Thanks for the recommendation. And I agree that Janet Evanovich does comedy really well. I loved the first several books in the Plum series. It’s yet another series that I need to get caught up on.

As far as wanting to read about a happy couple, I’d suggest the Death series by JD Robb. The main characters, Eve and Roarke, get married around book 3/4 and are still together 30-some books into the series. You might also try the Night-Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost. Her couple, Cat and Bones, have their ups and downs but they’re still together 5 books in now …

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller do fight scenes pretty well, in my opinion. There’s one near the end of Carpe Diem that sticks out pretty clearly in my head. I also like Laurell K. Hamilton’s fight scenes in her Anita Blake books. Not all of the fight scenes, but some of them. I also like Janet Evanovich’s fight scenes where her bounty hunter character Stephanie Plum attempts to apprehend her ‘skips’. That’s an example of comedy and fight scenes combined well. Elizabeth Moon’s fight scenes are grounded in her experience of being a Marine and doing recreational fencing. They are good, but I think her biggest strengths are in other areas. But all of these authors are good at showing what is at stake, creating a memorable scene, and either being quite realistic, or knowing how to be unrealistic effectively.

As for romantic tension, I’ve rarely seen it done well. I don’t even think the word tension describes quite what I like about romance. In fact, I think a lot of the romances I read spend too much time in “tension” and not enough in moving forward. It sometimes seems like the authors don’t have enough imagination to imagine what comes after some piddling problem is resolved. I know the genre typically stops at a marriage proposal, and it annoys me. Some time I’d like to read more romances where people are happily married through the whole book, and still have interesting romance within that marriage. Any book recommendations?