Ten Thousand Stitchesby Olivia Atwater (A Regency Fantasy - quite a delightful escape in a still-familiar setting.).Persuading the Captain by Rachel John (Modern retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, and well done!).Shea (Third book in this Urban-Fantasy series - but SO GOOD. Only Ever Friends by Shaela Kay (Contemporary Romance, Friends-to-True-Love, and a NEW FAVORITE - so good).Top Four: The Bestest Books EVERYONE Must Read: But I can list them in order and tell you which ones were my favorites. I don't have time to tell you ALL about what I read. I just need a break every once in a while. And it was SO nice to just focus on enjoying some escapist fiction - also known as fiction NOT in the genre in which I write. That's when most of this reading happened. This January, I was on vacation for a few days. So who's your favorite bad-boy love interest?Īnd yes, in case you were wondering, I'm madly in love with the new Loki series on Disney+.

And it takes three awesome books for their slow-burn romance to kick into gear. The meet-cute is him trying to fulfill a contract to kill the heroine.

Crown of Shadows - the hero is literally an assassin. A vampire who wields his power and influence with precision. Shea does! Royal Magic - the hero was literally the villain in the last book, and he's still a ruthless fighting machine. So who does this quasi-bad-boy thing right? K.M. And he's going to stop at NOTHING to get the girl, revenge himself on the (real) bad guy, and ride off to his pirate ship. But the Dread Pirate Roberts - he's seen stuff. He's been broken and pulled himself back together. He knows the world isn't a safe place, and he takes it upon himself to protect what's his (including the heroine) at any cost. I'm all about the layers that a bad guy has going on.

'If anyone ever hurt you, I'd burn down everything and everyone in my way to make them pay.' I mean. But the other night we were talking about this very thing and he looked me right in the eye. We watched Phantom of the Opera the other day, and she (without prompting from me) took the Phantom's side! (Don't get me started on Ben Solo.) My oldest daughter is the same way - she will never forgive the Avatar animators for pairing the kick-butt heroine with a little bald boy when she could've had a fire prince. I always fall for the wounded, mysterious guy in books and movies. I think Anne Shirley said it best for me.

Crown of Shadows by K.M. Shea