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?
