Favorite Summer Reads Blogfest

Cherie Reich's Favorite Summer Reads Blogfest has already begun and will go through Saturday. Join up! It's a lot of fun! Here's the description: All you have to do is pick a favorite read (this year, this summer, years past) and write why it is your favorite read. It'd be nice to have the cover art of the book, but that's it. Pretty simple. Oh, there is also a little form you should fill out, so we know where your blog is to discover new reads. There are also prizes. I will announce the winners on Monday.

Yes, you read right. Prizes!

I can't pick just one book that's been my favorite this summer. I'm going to do one for each genre I've read.

Paranormal romance:

Karen Marie Moning's Shadowfever. The final book in the Fever series. Right now, it's my favorite paranormal romance series. I read this at the beginning of the summer. I'm at a loss for words with this one. In the first book, the heroine, MacKayla Lane (Mac) annoyed me. Yet the story drew me in. I can get past certain protagonists if the story is intriguing. Mac grew on me, though. Grew on me until I wanted to be her. Then there's Barrons. Mm, delicious. Tall, dark and mysterious. One of my favorite paranormal heroes ever. Humans vs. Immortals. The Fae. An evil book with the power to create and destroy worlds. Monsters. Barrons. Did I mention him?! He's so gorgeous. Even more so that he owns his own book store!

YA paranormal romance:

I just finished reading the first book in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series. I was a little hesitant about trying a new YA series. I've been disappointed by other ones in the past. I also expected this might be like a vampire Hogwarts. It's nothing of the sort. It's original and well written. Rose is a wonderful, strong protagonist. So far, I think she's a good role model for girls. (I think that's important in YA novels.) The romance isn't overdone. I like it when a relationship builds over the course of a series. Here's Richelle Mead's brief synopsis of the series: Two races of vampires walk our world. One, the Moroi, are alive and wield elemental magical. The other, the Strigoi, are undead and evil--feeding on the innocent to survive. Rose Hathaway--a half-vampire with poor impulse control--is training to be a bodyguard for a Moroi princess. Learning to decapitate and stake is hard enough, but Rose's real danger may lie in an illicit romance with one of her instructors.

Steampunk Romance:

Yes, there is such a thing as Steampunk romance! Though, this is the only one I've ever read. It took me a little bit to get into the story, but once I got a handle on the world and the romance started firing up, I was hooked. Katie MacAlister's Steamed is unique and fun. Katie is better known for her Dark Ones and Aisling Grey paranormal romance series, but she's found something new and intriguing with this one. The hero, Jack gets thrown into this strange world through one of his nanoelectromechanical system experiments. Say that five times fast! Here's what Katie says what happens next: He wakes up to see a woman with the reddest hair Jack has ever seen—and a gun. Octavia Pye is an Aerocorps captain with a whole lot of secrets, and she’s not about to see her maiden voyage ruined by stowaways. But the sparks flying between her and Jack just may cause her airship to combust and ignite a passion that will forever change the world as she knows it.

Favorite Summer Reads Blogfest to be continued tomorrow.