As the majority of people landing on this site land on one of my series reviews, I thought I'd rehash a post from That Other Site with a list of Book Series Recommendations. I'm going to post per genre and of course I'm starting with romance :)

There are many reasons why I love a good book series- sinking into the familiarity of a well-known world, being able to follow the stories of all the characters I've become attached to and the freedom a series allows authors to completely develop their characters after establishing their world in the first couple of books. With any series, I get very anal about reading them in perfect order but of course many dont require it. I will list those which absolutely require reading in order.

The list below are in descending order of my favorites. The pictures are for the first book of every series. And lastly if you have any other reccos please do mention them! I'm always on the lookout for my next read.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series - JR Ward
Probably the newest addition to my list, but when I tell you that 90% of page hits per day are for my review on this series you can see how popular it is. Currently, a 7 book series, the genre is paranormal romance. In Caldwell, New York, there is an elite group of vampires called the Black Dagger Brotherhood, devoted to protecting their race from evil undead vampire slayers the lessers. Each book in the series follows the romances of one of the Brothers. My review linked above goes through the first 6 books in greater detail, but I have to add here about the addicting nature of these books. They're wonderful and that the series shot immediately to the top of my list should also tell you something. Read this in order folks!!

In Death Series - Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb
A futuristic romance thriller series we follow the relationship of Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke as a backdrop to Eve's investigations as a homicide detective in New York of the future. While this series has a mix of genres I like to classify it under romance because the characters and their relationships are center stage here with sci-fi and thriller lite elements. That being said Ms. Roberts does not shy away from any gory aspects so readers should be prepared. A very believable and fun future vision, Robert's strengths- very likeable secondary characters, punchy conversations and a dash of romance makes this a very fun read. Roberts is such a prolific writer, that the series reader can rest happy knowing that this is a series with a huge backlist to keep them occupied for months and with no end in sight in the near future. Reading in order is not strictly needed, but the characters relationships do develop over the course of the books and it's recommended.

Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
This is a time travel romance and contains the strongest start to a series in this list. Outlander follows time traveller Claire Randall, a nurse at the end of the second world war who is inadvertently hurtled back in time to the Scotland of the 17th century, mistaken for an English spy and meets the love of her life with Scotsman Jamie Fraser. Ms. Gabaldon's strengths are the amounts of historical research she includes in her novels and a shattering of some myths of romance writing. The series picks up the characters once they are well into their forties and Ms. Gabaldon manages to keep things extremely interesting between them. I love the first 2 books, the rest make for interesting reading. I dont think I have done justice to this series with this paltry description, so look out for reviews very soon :) Read in order.


Earth Children series - Jean M. Auel
A prehistoric romance series, the story follows Ayla a Cro-Magnon baby, who has been brought up by a clan of Neanderthals. Auel creates an amazingly rich and varied prehistoric world for her characters and I love the series for it's detail and freshness. The freshness is a little lost with the latter books but the first three are well worth the read. A detailed review can be found linked above. Again, one of those order bound series.


Looking at this list I just realized there's no representation of my favorite romance novel form - the historical romance! I think it's because it's very difficult to keep a series fresh in historicals. Certainly the ones I've read have run into one another after a few books. But, since I cannot NOT mention a few, I'm going to list a couple of reads.

The first is not a series but a list of connected books by the incomparable Georgette Heyer - The Black Moth, These Old Shades (story of Duke of Avon and Leonie), Devil's cub (Vidal, Avon's son and Mary's story) and An Infamous Army (with Vidal's granddaughter and a character from Regency Buck). The relation between The Black Moth and TOS is explained in my reviews linked above.

The second historical recco (I hope it develops into a series, even though there's only one book published so far) is for author Jennifer Haymore's debut A Hint of Wicked. Since it contained one of my favorite romance themes- the love triangle- I knew it would be an interesting read. What raised it above the ordinary for me was the amount of angst in the story and I loooove some good heart-wrenching Angst.

Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, has lost her childhood sweetheart Garrett at the Battle of Waterloo. After seven long years Garrett is declared dead and she marries Tristan, Garrett's cousin, best friend and heir. Sophie and Tristan get over their loss and start building a life together when all of a sudden Garrett returns and he wants everything back, starting with Sophie. But, Sophie is now at a loss since she loves both her husbands but in different ways entirely and cannot choose between them. I was a bit anxious towards the end, because the nature of a love triangle is that one person doesn't get a HEA and the author has created some lovely characters - I was rooting for all of them. But a short teaser for the next book that Ms. Haymore is writing, titled A Touch of Scandal, and set 4 months after the events of the last has me waiting with bated breath for it to be published.

So, that's all folks. The next installment will be for Fantasy with a couple of sci-fi reccos.

Rating: 3 / 5

Red Lily is the third part of the In the Garden trilogy. Read the reviews for the first and second parts.

It's almost 6 months after the events of Black Rose. Things have settled down enough at the In the Garden nursery for Roz and Mitch to get married too. Hayley Phillips, Roz's poor cousin, many times removed, is feeling irritable and anxious under the June Tennessee sun. And downright hot whenever she comes across Roz's son, Harper. After circling each other for 2 years, Hayley finally makes her move, to find that Harper has been interested all along.

And of course, as with the previous books, the elements of love and passion combine to bring out the ghost's insanity, this time centered on Hayley and Harper. But, the ghost has learned new tricks, she can now possess Hayley, and she soon finds that she likes inhabiting a body ... a lot!! Can the 6 friends work together fast enough, to find Amelia's grave and ensure she gets the burial she deserves, before she seriously injures Harper and Hayley. And, to do that they have to find out what exactly happened at Harper House, way back in 1892.

Meh. That's my feeling after reading this book. When a ghost is more interesting than the primary couple in the romance, that's what you can expect. Just ... meh.

I think my problem was that even after 2 books, Harper and Hayley just weren't all that interesting to me. Hayley is very young, a great character in the other books, energetic and fun, but here she quickly gets overly emotional. The type who if taken to a nice hotel, gabs about being Cinderella and how no one has ever done anything as nice for her before etc etc, entirely too talkative, even for a book. And who says woo-hoo and awesome a lot.

Harper, it's difficult to get a handle on him. He's a loner, preferring his garden to people, but then you have him involved with a steady stream of women and little bits of sophistication like him sipping wine (sexily) when on a date with Hayley thrown in and he seemed too much a mix of all other Roberts heroes - Roarke, Logan etc for me to understand him. Like any young couple, they spend the majority of the book having misunderstandings and fighting, and that part seemed real to me. The way they resolved the misunderstandings, hmmm not so much.

With the trilogies I read before, Roberts made sure to keep the most interesting couple last, I remember the tension between the vampire and the other-world Princess to be so great that I practically inhaled two books to get the third in the Circle trilogy. I understand why they were last here, after having a baby in the first book Hayley obviously needs time to be interested in a relationship. But, while they were good side characters, they don't work so well at center stage. Add in that the final scene with the ghost was pretty cliche, straight out of a lot of horror books/ movies and I was quite disappointed. I always expect more out of Nora.

But, if you take the overall story binding three books together, you realize what a master Roberts is with pacing. The ghost which seems benevolent in the first part, gets truly unhinged and malevolent in the next two and Roberts keeps feeding us information about her along with the main romances without missing a beat. And the thing that I love best about her books, the family aspect, towards the end you truly get how these people have all come together to be one big, extended family. Characters are so well-defined that scenes like Hayley talking about Harper to his mother, which would have seemed eeky, have exactly the right voice.

And you have to admire Roberts ability to tie together all the gardening analogies with the story and character arcs of women from different generations. And her knowledge on the subject, even if I got cross-eyed reading about all the fecund pistils and swollen stamens. Ok, I'll stop now.

So, overall as a trilogy, it's about average. Do yourself a favor and dont read the books back to back. Sometimes the sentence structure and language can seem very repetitive.

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Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Black Rose is the second part of Nora Roberts' In the Garden trilogy.

At 45, Rosalind Harper, or Roz, the difficult and hard-headed owner of Harper House has come a long way. As a young widow, she raised 3 sons alone, suffered a traumatic second marriage and successfully started the In the Garden nursery which established her as a serious businesswoman in western Tennessee.

Black Rose starts about half a year after the events of Blue Dahlia. Stella and Logan are gearing up to get married and the summer and fall season have seen the ladies busy and with no time to think about the Harper Bride. Anyway, after the last confrontation where the Bride tells them her name is Amelia she seems to have settled down.

Enter Dr. Mitchell Carnegie who has finally wrapped up all his other work and starts to work full time on the Bride mystery. Mitch starts looking through the considerable history of the Harper family, but that doesnt rock the boat as much as his growing fascination with Roz the gardener, Roz the southern belle, Roz the businesswoman, Roz the maternal caregiver ..... Her family's attempts to pair her up with Mitch, who in Hayley's words is "Hello!! Hot!" doesn't pose much of a hardship for Roz either. And Amelia, of course, knows it. Roz and Mitch feel the brunt of Amelia's rage, now tinged with madness, since Amelia knows that they are trying to solve the mystery just that the answers don't seem to be coming fast enough.

After being so overly enthusiastic about Blue Dahlia, I was quite disappointed to find Black Rose to be a much tamer read. There's entirely too much gardening, and I have to admit I skimmed. But there were a couple of things I liked. First, I haven't read many romances with an older couple and this plot element was handled quite well here. Secondly, Mitch is a great character, very believable, flawed but smart and likable. Also, Roberts trademark, the H/H's interactions with their respective children were fun to read about.

My thoughts, it was a decent story, not great and lacking the romance aspect slightly. And some of the dialogue got a bit heavy handed and repetitive.

But, Amelia the ghost has started to anticipate some sort of closure for herself. Now, let's hope Book 3 delivers ....

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Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

If there's a word that gives me the heebie-jeebies it's 'gardening'. So, it's not that much of a surprise, knowing Ms. Roberts' penchant for research and delving into her subject matter that I stayed well away from her In the Garden trilogy. This weekend a whole lotta I-have-nothing-to-read saw me putting my hands on Book 1 in the trilogy, Blue Dahlia, and all I can think of right now is being at the library the first thing tomorrow so I can grab the next two books in the series.

Tragedy strikes Stella Rothchild when her husband's plane crashes leaving her a young widow with two little boys and depriving her of her best friend and ally. Wanting to get over the past and move closer to her father, she decides to move back to western Tennessee, to a new job as manager of the In the Garden nursery. Roz Harper, the demanding owner, loves her on the spot and has only one requirement - that Stella and her two kids move into her ancestral home, Harper House, so that Stella can be constantly available to deal with the day-to-day problems of the nursery.

Roz's open-hearted kindness towards Stella and her sons paves the way for the start of a promising friendship between the three women who live at Harper House, Stella, Roz and Roz's young relative, Hayley who is soon expecting a new baby. Stella loves being close to her family and soon her efficiency, planning and organisational skills start showing results in the nursery's day-to-day revenue. The only fly in the ointment is Logan Kittridge, Roz's brilliant and expensive landscape designer. And her sons' friendly acceptance of a golden-haired, sad-eyed woman who comes into their bedroom and sings lullabies to them as they sleep. Apparently, Harper House's resident ghost, the Harper Bride has decided to make friends with the boys too.

After Logan and Stella get their initial differences out of the way, realise they are intensely attracted to each other and start to think about actually having a relationship together, they seem to antagonise the ghost. Once friendly, they are now treated to blasts of her disapproval and when Logan almost gets knocked head-over-heels over a balustrade the friends decide that they have to find out who the Bride is and what makes her tick. And perform an exorcism of sorts. With Roz's son Harper helping, they rope in genealogist Dr. Mitchell Carnegie when it appears the Bride will do anything to keep Stella and Logan apart, to the extent of keeping her away from her kids, raising the hackles on Stella's maternal instincts .....

I cant get over how amazing this book is. A perfectly easy read, the relationships are what makes it click. Everyone here works and sounds exactly right. From Stella's father and step mother, to the 6 and 8 year old boys, to the live-in housekeeper, to the primary protagonists.

When Stella is first introduced, the author has her putting a plastic protector over the pages of her recipe book. As my own poor, splattered, recipe books will bear witness, I was thinking that Stella had to be this amazingly organised, super efficient, perfectly planned, crazy (in my book) woman. But, Roberts develops her character without making her irritating to the reader.

Stella has had a very stable, loving relationship with her first marriage. It takes her a couple of years to find her feet and I can imagine that she deals with having two absolutely mischievous little boys and holding a job by being as regimented as possible. Having a ditz for her mother is what probably gave her the start though. Stella's planned efficiency suffers a serious roadblock when she encounters chaotic, messy Logan and the sparks fly when they come together. I loved that Stella's first marriage was a very happy one and she was the one hesitant into going forward, of course she has to put the boys first, while Logan is sure of what he wants immediately. Such a pleasant divergence from my current reading list.

And, the men are all delicious as always. I have a crush on the name Logan (yes people do!) after Hugh Jackman made it his own, and what can I say, Roberts references it. With 2 little boys can comic books be far behind and once again I found myself marveling over Roberts' innate instinct for what works in her books.

For those still on the fence, yes, there's enough growing and planting and mulching to make this Papaya turn yellow, but the detail never takes away from the story and the story is where the heart is. Go read it. Right now.

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Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

I'm a greedy reader. If I love a book, I'm always left wanting more when it ends. So, I was delighted when I stumbled upon Nora Roberts' trilogies. Now, Roberts as a writer is amazingly prolific, ranging across tons of romance novel forms, but I think these trilogies are the best idea she could have ever had.

Basically, the trilogy consists a common storyline with 3 couples, each book being given over to the romance between one of the couples. I love her paranormal romances where across the 3 books, the couples unite to fight paranormal forces. 'Blood Brothers', Book 1 in the Sign of Seven trilogy is one such.

Cal, Fox and Gage share the same birthday, July, 7, 1977 and have been inseparable friends since birth. On their tenth birthday, they escape from parental supervision to the forbidden Pagan Stone in the woods surrounding their home in Hawkins Hollow.

There, an innocent boyish ritual involving an oath and the mixing of their blood unleashes something dark, powerful and evil. Now, every seven years starting on their birthday and continuing 7 days after, the entire town goes mad.

21 years later, Cal with the premonition that this year is going to be the worst, hires a writer Quinn Black to document the history of the town, hoping that a fresh pair of eyes will unearth some of the answers he and his friends have been searching for - what is the nature of the Beast and how can they overpower it?

With Quinn comes her researcher friend Cybil and a stranger Layla and it soon becomes apparent that the 6 of them together share a powerful connection. But, will this connection be enough to help them tame the Demon, read Books 1-3 to find out.


Book 2 in the series is 'The Hollow' and book 3 is 'The Pagan Stone' (due to be released in Dec '08). If I knew that the last one hadnt been printed yet, I wouldnt have picked this up since I like reading these trilogies at a single go.

Anyways, as a romance writer Roberts is always a sure bet. You know you cannot get a lousy read with her books - she is a master at characterisation, pacing, dialogues and family dynamics. I especially like her writing for all the spunky, take-charge heroines she creates. No virginal, hand-wringing, bosom heaving heroines for Roberts. And the heroes are no slouches either.

The paranormal romaces require a leap of faith, she creates alternate universes and uses a lot of magick (that spelling always cracks me up) and spells etc. This book is a PG-13 version of Roberts meets Stephen King. The paranormal never gets scary, these are primarily romance novels with the little fanciful plot elements thrown in.

And while, they are somewhat predictable, like knowing the characters and the couples you can almost predict who'll hook up with whom, Roberts never gets repetitive and I'm sure is the envy of many a romance writer for the snappiest dialogue around. Book 1 isnt the strongest start for a trilogy, but good fun to read! Now, to wait till December :((

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If you want to start off with the trilogies - The Circle Trilogy (vampires), The Three Sisters Island Trilogy (witches), the Key trilogy (mythological) are wonderful reads in that order.