Forget the whole "Team Jacob" vs. "Team Edward" thing. For one thing, they're so limited. What I am talking about today goes far beyond opposing creations of the same author, or even two or three authors. I am talking about what cover description, what "creature feature," if I may, that is most likely to tempt you to take out your wallet and a book to the cashier.
Back in the late 80's and early '90s, when the paranormal romance genre came into being, the choices were fairly limited. You had the ghosts, classic brooding vampires (that never wanted to be vampires), and in a rare case, you'd get a sorcerer or a Djinn.
Now we have fey, selkies, satyrs, mermaids, were-everything (Authors, Stella and Audra Price even have weresnakes! Check out Entwined by Fate) witches, sorcerers, ghosts, demons, djinn, and classic vampires.
Even with all these choices, I still gravitate towards vampires. To me they are the epitome of all that is dark and sexy. Witches and sorcerers are a close second, because I've always loved magic.
I've never been all that into ghosts because face it, they're dead! I suppose the same would go for zombies. I've grown up on too many zombie flicks to even remotely considered an animated corpse as a sex object. Howver, there's a disclaimer. I have yet to read a zombie romance, so though I'm reluctant, I will give em a shot.
As for werewolves, at first I cringed at the thought of a werewolf romance. I'm a cat person and the smell of dog makes gag. To have a canine lover that would reek when he came out of the rain? Ewww! But I've read so many good werewolf stories that, if recommended to me, I'll give em a try. Favorites so far are the Kitty series by Carrie Vaughn and 13 to Life by the awesome Shannon Delany.
So which monsters and creatures are your favorites? What turns your dials up to ten? Which paranormal heroes do you loathe? And why?
I'd have to say Larvae at this moment. Working on a book with Lares and Larvae and there is just something super yummy about man-whore extraordinaire Draven Van Zul.
ReplyDeleteLarvae? Do explain. I get the feeling you are not talking about maggots. :)
ReplyDeletethey are greek ghosts in essence that are tied to either family, land, home, ect and are to protect that in which they are tied to. the Larvae are more mischievous and into trickery where the Lares are more family orientated. they each have spirit like qualities; speed, appearing and disappearing. in my book they go from vessel to vessel, taking it over in a five yr period, so it appears like their original vessel/body. they are cursed, tied to the land. :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://danaeayusso.blogspot.com/p/untitled.html
I see. That sounds pretty fun. So they're like a cross between poltergeists, sprites, and imps huh? I'll have to check that out!
ReplyDeleteI love all things paranormal, but I have to admit I always come back to the Vampires. Especially the Arganeau Vampires that Lynsay Sands created. I'd let one of them turn me any time! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI agree! Vampires will always be my first choice. My faves are Maggie Shayne's "Wings in the Night" and JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood. Drooooool!
ReplyDeleteI love vampires. Hot, sexy, dangerous and ready to bite. :)
ReplyDeleteooh thanks hun for mentioning the weresnakes. LOL. I do love our ophidians. We are working on several other new races no one else is doing, ones you know I wont talk about because i like our spot as the reigning queens of "risk taking romance" but we are also back to one of our favorites, Witches. We are working on something right now that's bloody brilliant, and so simple I'm surprised I haven't heard about it yet!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I'm excited to hear about it!
ReplyDeleteBrooklyn Ann, thanks for mentioning 13 to Life--glad to be one of the gals helping ease you into a little wolf love. I guess I don't care so much *what* the hero is as long as he's well-written, powerful when he needs to be and tender when he needs to be. :)
ReplyDelete~Shannon
I may be boring, but yeah, I'm with the vampire league too.
ReplyDeleteThat arms me with much hope against those that say that vampire novels are dead. I doubt it. They've been around since 1819.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of "meh" about vamps - I enjoy a good vampire story, but there's just so many I get bored with it. I doubt I'll even try zombies - the whole idea is just too far-fetched to me. Fae are okay, genies can be fun. I'm not a huge paranormal reader anyway, so I'm kind of picky in what I finish.
ReplyDeleteWerewolves are my "thing" when it comes to paranormals. Used to be I'd *scour* bookstores trying to find the rare werewolf novel that made it to the shelf, and even today they're not nearly so prevalent as other creatures. I'm a big dog person though, so it stands to reason, I suppose. I'm okay with other shifters too, but if it's a werewolf novel, odds are I'll buy it just because it's got werewolves. :-)
I WANT TO SPARKLE IN THE SUN!
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