Supernatural Fiction...my escape into the paranormal.

I love, love, love to read. Yeah, I occasionally read to expand my mind but, most of the time, I read for the sheer enjoyment and escapism I get. One of my favorite guilty pleasures genres to escape into is paranormal fiction. I have a whole list of favorite authors but I'm always on the look out for more.

I love all the books I have read by Anne Bishop so far. All the books in The Landscapes of Ephemera and The Realms of the Blood are amazing. I have yet to read her other series. What you have to know going into the Realm books is she has taken a very traditional storyline and set it in a world that many consider the dark side of fantasy. The characters are often demon or occasionally even demon-dead. One of the main characters is named Saetan and he is the high lord of Hayll (yeah, it kind of slaps you with the similarities to the dark side of Christianity). However, she is not glorifying evil. She is showing the triumph of morality over evil. These books suck you in and EVERYTHING else gets ignored while you are reading them.

I absolutely adore Christine Feehan's journeys into the paranormal. Her Dark series are some of the best vampire tales around (and they get better and better as you progress through the series). Her Drake Sisters novels feature an amazing and unusual group of sisters.

Lori Handeland's Night Creature novels are wonderful. There is a lot of imagination and quite a few new twists to the traditional werewolf lore.

MaryJanice Davidson writes the Queen Betsy/Undead series, the Wyndham Werewolf series, and the Gorgeous series (plus a few others that I haven't read). Her books are light, fluffy, and a hell of a lot of fun!

Kathy Love has a series of 4 werewolf/vampire books that are a lot of fun.

Shanna Swendson has a 4 book series revolving around a magical company lead by the infamous Merlin and its set in modern day New York. They are really good books and not nearly as light as you would think they would be.

CT Adams and Cathy Clamp write an amazing series about were-beings. I have devoured all of them.

Charlaine Harris writes the books the HBO series Trueblood is based on. .I love her character Sookie Stackhouse and am quite disappointed to hear her roll has been seriously reduced in the series.

I also highly recommend Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish. It is an unusual fantasy novel and I have frequently wished he wrote more.

I also recently discovered Kerrelyn Sparks' Love At Stake Series and its been fun so far. I also had a lot of fun with Single White Vampire by Lynsay Sands and want to reed the other books in her Argeneau series.

I have to admit that I haven't read the Twilight series yet. I know, I know...some Vampire love I am.

Do you have any other recommendations for me?


Great article on Vampire fiction at Salon.com...thanks Cecily.