We all have our favorite authors, the authors we check constantly to see when their books are coming out.  I am one of those readers who truly believes in reading books by authors who have already proven themselves to me. I guess what I mean is that I am a true fan of certain authors and I pick a lot of my books through these authors, whether just picking up one of their books or using tools on Amazon and Barnes and Noble to find other authors like them.

One of the reason I am talking about this is that I think sometimes we can forget about an author we really loved if we only read a couple of books by them or if these authors don’t publish anything for a while.  I want to say though that it is important to keep track of authors we love and to periodically look up if they have anything new.

One author I have done this with recently was Stephanie Rowe, who is awesome. She wrote this amazing paranormal series called the Immortally Sexy series.  I read this series five or more years ago and she hadn’t written anything else in a while that I had read.  Then at the beginning of last year she published an amazing paranormal book called Kiss At Your Own Risk.  I loved this book and went on to read the rest of this series, her Soulfire series that she has written so far. These are amazing books and if you haven’t read them I absolutely suggest you read them.

Her newest series is probably my favorite by her.  This was a series she published in March of this year. I started reading it in May of this year and fell in love with it. It is her Order of the Blade series and it follows a paranormal group of men who have amazing powers, but are cursed to destroy everything when they fall in love. The Order of the Blade is an order of these men who patrol the rest of their kind and kill off any of their kind who fall in love. It is a truly fascinating series and is one of my most anticipated books. Rowe just came out at the end of last month with the next in the series and I can’t wait to read it.

My big point with all of this is that if you forget about authors you really enjoyed then you could easily miss out on other great books that you would love to read.  So to make sure you always have great books to read, I suggest keeping a list of authors you have really loved and periodically you should see if those authors have any new books.

Christine Feehan’s Game series, Samurai Game, is one of her best and with her newest book in the series, she creates another amazing book. The heroine in Feehan’s novel is Azami “Thorn” Yoshiie, who was brutally tortured as a young child by the mad scientist Dr. Peter Whitney.  Whitney then threw Azami away in the streets of the most dangerous part of Tokyo.  Here she was saved by a samurai warrior who took her in as his adopted daughter.

Now years later Azami is doing all in her power with her psychic talents, brilliant mind, and samurai skills to cut Dr. Whitney off from his many resources in order to prevent him from experimenting on any more people, especially children.  Azami and her adopted brothers go to the Ghost Walker’s Compound where she goes to find out whether the Ghost Walkers support Dr. Whitney.

Here Azami meets Sam Johnson who is a brilliant psychically talented man who serves his country with great honor along with his Ghost Walker team.  Azami and Sam must learn to trust one another and come together in order to keep the Ghost Walker’s, including Sam, safe.

This is an exciting story filled with the militaristic style of many of Feehan’s Game series novels and also with exciting psychic powers.  This story revolves around an extremely strong and powerful female protagonist who is tormented by her past and who has always stood alone. Now she meets and must learn to trust an honorable, strong male, who desperately wants the feeling of home that only comes from having Azami.  If you have ever read a Game series book by Christine Feehan or if you just want to try something new and you like paranormal romance this is the book you should read.  It is an amazing book about two entrancing characters.

With the creation of e-readers, such as the Nook and the Kindle many new changes to reading have started to take place. One of the most interesting is the creation of the self-published author.  These authors publish their own works through Amazon and other services. These books can have editing errors and seem amateurish, but some are really great.

One great self-published author is Suzanne Wright, who I was introduced by my little sister.  Suzanne Wright wrote Here Be Sexists Vampires.  This book is one of the most exciting books I have read in months.  Wright’s female protagonist, Sam is a ball-busting, smart-mouthed, powerful female, who is fun and compassionate enough to make her a really enjoyable character.

Sam is paired against and with the male hero, Jared.  He starts out as an arrogant, sexist male, who at the beginning I didn’t like that much. He becomes throughout the book a highly entertaining male who learns about love and tough, powerful women.

In this book, Sam, a vampire of the breed called the Sventes who are considered the weakest of the bunch is brought in to try out for the army of the most powerful vampire.  This army had never had a women or a Svente vampire.  Sam is underestimated by most everyone at the league and most especially by Jared, who is both the Heir of the Master Vampire and the Commander of the squad she is trying out for. With the help of her amazing and controlled powers, Sam does great at try outs, but is rejected by sexist Jared. Not to be left out in the cold though Sam is given a position as part Commander of the squad she tried out for by the Master Vampire who sees Sam’s true potential.

In between whipping up the new squad’s members and making a place for herself at the league, Sam pushes, taunts, flirts, and whips Jared into shape creating one of the most interesting paranormal romances I have read in ages.  Suzanne Wright has got to be one of the best new authors I have found in years.  I absolutely suggest any fan of paranormal romance picks up Wright’s Here Be Sexist Vampires.

Laurell K. Hamilton’s Narcissus in Chains is a real turning point in the series.  I love all the Anita Blake books, but my favorites are all after this turning point and one of my absolute favorites in the series is this book, Narcissus in Chains.  This book starts the true list of ever increasing powers that Anita gains.  In this book, Anita comes back to Saint Louis and realizes she must deal with Richard and Jean Claude.  She knows that she must fill her aura with them and that they must fill their auras with her and each other. Before Anita has a chance to talk to either of them, though, Anita is forced to ask for Jean Claude’s help when a couple of her leopards are captured at a D/s club.  This starts a chain of reactions that leads Anita to question her humanity and to worry about its loss.  In this book, new exciting characters are added to the story that I believe anyone will fall in love with although I don’t promise you will fall in love with them right away or even in this book.  Within this book, Anita finally truly accepts her place within the Saint Louis paranormal community.  This by no means, means that Anita blithely accepts her lot or that in future books she doesn’t question her place.  Here though is one of the first times we see Anita as part of a larger paranormal community where she seems to accept her place in the community.  Hamilton is again her fast pace, exciting self, but for those readers who have yet to read Narcissus in Chains and farther along in her series, here her writing takes a new turn.  Here Hamilton starts what I think of as her mature storytelling.  Hamilton is always fun, interesting, and  one of the most deeply compelling storytellers I have ever read, but here she gains a new pace where everything is slightly faster and where the sex, power, and relationships are punched up.  I would highly recommend Laurell K. Hamilton and her Anita Blake series to any reader of fantasy or the paranormal.  Narcissus in Chains, though, is one of the best books in the series.  It will keep you captivated till the end, and it takes Hamilton’s series in a new and compelling direction.

This is a video for an interview with Laurell K. Hamilton that happened in June 2010 about her series.