Books to check out -Fiction

THE STAKES HAVE NEVER BEEN HIGHER.Lil Marchette, vampire extraordinaire and owner of Manhattan's hottest hook-up service, is an expert at matching up the lonely and desperate (and sometimes dead). And thanks to the popular local reality dating show Manhattan's Most Wanted, Lil has plenty of fresh blood to add to the mix-including the biggest, baddest vampire in the Big Apple. Vinnie Balducci, Brooklyn representative for the Snipers of Otherworldly Beings, is making Lil an offer she can't refuse: find him the perfect woman or she's going to be swimming with the fishes.But Lil may not be the only one taking the plunge. The three hunky demon Prince brothers are poking around Lil's office-hot on the trail of a rogue spirit trying to escape the land down under (not Australia) by possessing some poor, clueless human soul. Then Lil makes a startling discovery: The oblivious human vessel is none other than her loyal assistant, Evie. Between saving Evie from eternal damnation and saving herself from Vinnie's lethal ultimatum, Lil is sure to be in for the most hellish ride of her afterlife."Lil is a likable mix of Bridget Jones, Carrie Bradshaw and Dracula-charming, sweet, stylish, with just a hint of fang."-Parkersburg News and Sentinel\ \

My name is Sarah Dearly, and I've got major problems. Last month, I was turned into a vampire by the world's worst blind date. Then I may have, totally by accident, started a war between the mostly peaceful bloodsuckers and a bunch of sociopathic vamp hunters who have nicknamed me the Slayer of Slayers. Now I'm being used as bait to draw out the hunters' bad-ass leader, while my gorgeous 600-year-old boyfriend Thierry seems to be blowing me off, and my sizzle-hot, fanged friend Quinn is trying to turn my self-defense lessons into make-out sessions. So you know what? I'm done. I've had it. There comes a time when a vamp has to just suck it up and go after what she wants. And as soon as I figure out what that is, that's exactly what I'll do...

BEING DEAD CAN KILL A SOCIAL LIFE!For Lil Marchette, the owner of Manhattan's premier dating service for vampires (and a dazzling denizen of the dark herself), death is all in a night's work. Unfortunately, it's going to take more than matching up vamps to pay the bills and fund Lil's cosmetics addiction. Dare she add actual humans to the mix? Eager to diversify, she signs up for a popular dating show, Manhattan's Most Wanted (MMW), to pitch her expertise to the perfect target audience-eligible women looking for eligible men.Of course Lil is trying to forget the one man she'd love to sink her own teeth into: Ty Bonner, the ultraseductive vamp who broke her heart after she gave him the hottest night of his afterlife. Problem is, she and Ty have an intense mental connection and she's sensing he's in deep trouble. Even worse, she soon finds herself heading for MMW's grand finale (cameras are so not a vamp's best friend). The race is on as Lil struggles to save Ty (and herself) before all hell breaks loose."Lil is a likable mix of Bridget Jones, Carrie Bradshaw and Dracula-charming, sweet, stylish, with just a hint of fang."-Parkersburg News and Sentinel\ \

Justine Bennett is cursing her life. She’s the Guardian of the Goblet of Eternal Youth, she hasn’t left the house in ages, and it’s been over 200 years since she’s had sex. Oh, and the Goblet has shape shifted into an espresso machine. Not exactly the stuff grand destiny is made of...Derek LaValle is worried. Due to a family curse, he’ll be dead in the space of a week unless he finds the Guardian of the Goblet of Eternal Youth and beheads her. Which wouldn’t be a problem if she wasn’t so sexy, smart... and ready to behead him right back.

Gloriana St. Claire-curvy, stylish, and undead-is spending New Year's Eve alone. And it's all because her boyfriend, Jeremy Blade, is traipsing off to parts unknown to rescue his supposed daughter from the clutches of "dangerous radicals." But just as Glory settles in for the evening, a phone call from the bodyguard of a drunk, newly-undead rock star could end her year on a crazy note.

A book with bite and �a gem of a heroine�� third in the series from the author of Dead Sexy. It�'s been one heck of a week for Garnet Lacey. The Vatican witch hunters finally think she�'s dead, the FBI has closed their file on her, she�'s co-founding a new coven� and the gorgeous vampire she loves has just asked her to marry him. How lucky can one girl get? Then, her fiancé goes missing and Garnet'�s worried sick. Has he been kidnapped? Or could he have run off with that blonde from the coven? Now Garnet will have to seek the help of her future stepson� the same brat who turned her over to the witch hunters for a brand-new Jaguar. But there�'s more bad news: the Goddess Lilith, who camps out in her body, has been making embarrassing appearances. And on top of that, some killer�s on her tail...

Glory St. Clair is a vampire with man trouble. Between her on-again, off-again lover Jeremy Blade, smoking hot rock star Ray Caine, and former bodyguard turned apartment mate Valdez, there's enough man-candy around to make even a gal with a liquid diet feel a sugar rush. Glory's got no time to enjoy it, though, considering that she's in the middle of planning her best friend's wedding. And let's not forget that there happens to be a hit on her head, thanks to when she took out a techno-freak billionaire. Now, between planning a bachelorette party and dodging stakes, Glory has to decide which man she really wants, before her love life meets an early grave...

When a female loan shark named Lucky is attacked and left for dead, vampire Glory St. Clair turns her into one of the undead to save her——but eternity would have been safer without her. Vamps prefer a low profile, and that's not Lucky's style. She prefers to flaunt her sexy rock-star ex-boyfriend and great shoes. Trouble is, her flamboyant behavior is not only drawing every vampire hunter within miles— it's bringing her would-be killer out of hiding, too.

The "USA Today" bestselling author of "High Stakes" returns to Vegas, where falling for a vampire isn't such a long shot. "Politics make strange coffinfellows..." Vampire Seamus Fox is supposed to be the campaign manager for a Vampire Nation presidential candidate. Instead, he finds himself running around Vegas keeping tabs on the candidate's wife and female entourage. Seamus has had his fill of women: a disastrous and deadly love affair has haunted him for over two centuries. Talk about baggage. But suddenly he finds himself obsessed with a mysterious stripper who dances behind a screen. The sultry yet shy Cara Kim whets his appetite for more, but leave it to Seamus to fall fangs over feet for that rarest of Vegas attractions-a good girl. After a sudden run-in on the street, though, they may soon have a lot more in common...

The second book in the Hex series features feisty witch Jazz and her drop-dead gorgeous vampire cop boyfriend in a new installment. On again, off again for over 300 years, Jazz and Nick are finally back together, but then Jazz thinks Nick has bitten her. Separated again, upset and angry, the two of them start having violent, recurring dreams in which each one figures in disturbing and menacing ways. They can't sleep, they can't eat, and they finally figure out they'd better get together and discover who's poisoning their dreams-and their relationship.Full of the fantastic secondary characters that Linda Wisdom's fans know and love, including Jazz's sister witches and a cast of delectable supernatural male characters, Hex Appeal is fun and funny paranormal romance at its best."Filled with loads of sass and sensuality, plenty of laughs and a host of oddball characters who'll leave you in stitches and asking for more."-Book Loons"With a rollicking cast of supporting characters, biting wit and sensual scenes, 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover is 'a high-power keg of excitement!'"-Coffee Time Romance4 Star Review-Romantic Times: "Longtime series author Wisdom makes a wickedly fun jump into the supernatural realm. Offbeat characters...offer insight into this highly intriguing new heroine. The balance of danger, adventure and the supernatural is excellent. With characters as rich and challenging as these, let's hope we haven't seen the last of them.""Wisdom, no stranger to romance fans, delivers a striking opening salvo in her new paranormal series... a zany, hot read." -Booklist

For a woman married to the vampire of her nightmares, the honeymoon’s over—and reality bites…Pia’s dream of being married has come true.But her husband is straight out of her nightmares.Pia Thomason is torn between two Dark Ones and feeling like a fool, considering she doesn’t know where either of them are. Alec was no doubt broken-hearted over finding out that Pia was mated to his best friend, Kristoff. And hubby Kristoff believes she has ties to the group trying to destroy his people.So Pia goes back to her humdrum Seattle life determined to forget about Kristoff—but fate has other plans. With Alec missing, something truly evil threatening her ghostly charges, and the vampire community hunting both Kristoff and her for crimes they didn’t commit, Pia realizes that if they’re going to be shackled together for better or worse, she may as well start to enjoy it…

The one where ... um, the first chapter was so dense with forced wackiness, expo-dumpage, and other inexplicable oddities that I'm not entirely clear on this, but I think the heroine buys a dress at a garage sale (which is, for some reason, a costume garage sale), and for some reason, when she puts it on, half of a puzzle ring comes out of her mouth (it could have come out of the dress, but it seriously reads like it comes out of her mouth), and then she has a vision of a castle, and one of her psychic sisters hands her a painting of the castle, painted by her witch ancestor, and somehow her other sister knows which castle it is, and so she goes there and meets the hero, who keeps carrying her various places, but her presence quiets the ghost who haunts the castle he's restoring, and so ...Right, this is wrongheaded in so many ways that I don't even know where to start, except that I would pay money (or at least postage) to have best_beloved review this book, because that's the only thing that would repay me for the time I wasted reading thirty pages of it.(Reading for a romantic comedy contest for my RWA chapter.)

Former vampire hunter Michael Quinn is living a nightmare: he's been turned into a vampire. His only hope is the "Eye"--a long-lost artifact that, once every millennium, will grant one wish to its possessor. Fortunately for Quinn, he has a map detailing the path to the "Eye." All he needs to do is find it, then he can wish himself back into humanity.Janie Parker has made a lot of many mistakes in her life, not the least of which was getting tricked into working for a demon. Not only is the pay awful, but she has to successfully complete all her unsavory assignments or risk a torturous death. Her latest mission is to track a vampire who apparently knows where some stupid treasure is. No problem. Until she sees who the vampire is -- Michael Quinn, a man she's had a crush on since she was twelve years old. Too bad she'll have to kill him to get to the "Eye." But Quinn and Janie are kindred spirits, and soon they're falling in love even though they're after what the other person is desperate for: the "Eye".

Oh, Brother!There are Christmas mornings and then there are Christmas mornings like this one: watching my brother, Rhys, swagger through our New York City apartment...smiling. We are talking about Rhys, the detached, surly and annoying; the man who turned brooding into an art form. But he's not brooding now. No, he's practically threatening to pistol whip me for shaking hands with the beautiful, sweet, half-dressed creature named Jane who just tried to sneak out of his bedroom. Weird. And who knew Brother Grim even had a sex drive?But it isn't just the smiling and the sudden libido that has me freaked out. Something terrible happened last night, something that made my brother break his own rule and save the life of a mortal. Whatever it was, now he doesn't remember anything from the past two hundred years. He wants Jane so bad that he's forcing himself to forget he's a vampire, taking himself back to a time before he crossed over and our family was destroyed. He's sauntering around the place like a Regency viscount with an English accent, saying things like "I behaved like a randy, soused caper-wit." Did we ever really talk like that? So, Rhys doesn't know he's a vampire, and neither does Jane. This is what we call a problem.All I know is, this mortal woman has managed to touch my brother's frozen heart, and I, Sebastian Young, will do whatever it takes to help him keep her...

Newly vamped Sarah Dearly wants her normal life back, but fate is fighting against her. She tries to get a regular job and gets staked in the interview, only to be rescued by a masked vampire who calls himself the Red Devil. Then a wallflower-turned-witch curses her, making her a bloodthirsty, sun-allergic nightwalker--the worst vampire there is. As if all that weren't enough, she can't get married because her 600-year-old boyfriend, Thierry, is in a centuries-long marriage of convenience he can't escape.As Sarah's nightwalker tendencies make her more dangerous, even to those she loves, she'll have to counteract that curse, unmask the increasingly intriguing Red Devil, and get a commitment from her man. But if that's what it takes to secure her happiness, Sarah is ready...even if it means embracing her inner vamp to do it.

SHE’D LIKE HER BLOOD BOTTLED, PLEASE!The sassiest vampire in all of Manhattan, Lil Marchette, is the owner of Dead End Dating–a matchmaking service for hip, intelligent singles like herself. After only three months, business is booming, and she can finally pay her bills (or, more important, feed a hungry cosmetics addiction). But when one of her clients turns up dead (as in never coming back), Lil is named as the prime suspect.Murder?Sure, she’s a vampire, but she can’t even work up her nerve when it comes to blood-sucking. Hacking somebody to pieces is so out of the question.To make matters worse, Lil must also contend with a pack of werewolves who ask–no, demand–that she find each one a tall, dark, and handsome mate before the next full moon. Plus, the to-die-for-if-I wasn’t-already-dead Ty Bonner, a lusciously sexy lover but totally unsuitable eternity mate, is never far from her midnight fantasies. But Lil has no time for such thoughts. She must prove her innocence and focus on pairing off the dead and the furry–and maybe stake a claim to her own tasty true love.“Kimberly Raye is hot, hot, hot!”–Vicki Lewis Thompson, author of Nerds Like It Hot

It's not easy to keep a boyfriend, run a business, and survive for centuries as one of the immortal undead. Glory St. Clair knows-ever since a sexy Scottish vampire bit her while she was a tad...bloated. But when a frustrated vampire hunter firebombs her vintage clothing boutique, she's ready to pitch a fit. Then her long-time, part-time lover takes off in a rage to hunt the hunter and prove himself worthy of her. And that's only the beginning of her troubles.The Energy Vampires want her-and not in a good way. They're paranormal drug dealers, selling thrills to those who've lived for ages, been everywhere, and done everything...and they want to suck Glory dry. But it'll take more than a few super-suckers to get the goods out of her.

Since the moment Damien showed up-gloriously naked-Kelsey Morningstone has been having a hard time keeping her relationship with the clinic's latest amnesiac patient strictly professional. Even with her empathy abilities Kelsey's not sure she can get past Damien's anger to find the cause of his delusions. After all, falling for a patient is bad enough, but falling for a patient who thinks he's a werewolf is a whole other kind of crazy...