Normally, I am not drawn to vampire stories, but these are just absolutely fun to read.  Sookie narrates her adventures as a barmaid and telepath when she becomes involved with vampires who have recently "come out of the coffin".  She tells her story with a sunny outlook, Southern manners, and a sense of humor. 

The stories get more and more wonderfully crazy, but these light reads are so entertaining, I couldn't read them fast enough.  I don't want to say much more about the plot, because of the surprising twists and turns it takes,  and the very interesting characters that become a part of Sookie's  life.

If True Blood has piqued your interest (or you are a big fan), try the first book in the series, Dead Until Dark.  I bet you will have to read the entire series to find out what happens to Sookie Stackhouse, a character you will wish you could meet.

Fans of Like Water for Chocolate and Joanne Harris may enjoyLa Cucina by Lily Prior.

His decision to take the leap and marry his cousin Emma Wedgwood is the subject of Deborah Heiligman's 2009 National Books Award finalist  Charles and Emma: the Darwin's Leap of Faith..

Darwin was a pragmatist, an agnostic, and a scientist. Emma was his intellectual match and yet devoutly religious. Theirs was a true love story--a match of wits and wills, of science and religion. Despite her reservations about Darwin's theories, Emma helped edit her husband's work. She honestly feared for his soul and at the same time bore him ten children, three of whom died before the age of ten.

Heiligman is a skilled nonfiction writer. The Victorian Era is brought to vivid life through the couple's letters and other primary sources. This setting is the backdrop for one of the great marriages of history. Although originally published for the teen market, Charles and Emma will equally engage adult readers, who will know something more about the ups-and-downs of married life than its intended audience.  

It is a story that might have turned out quite differently if Darwin had decided to settle for the company of that dog after all.

New Blood by Gail Dayton

If you judged this book by the title or cover, you might think this is yet another one of those vampire romances that are so popular. Or perhaps a horror story. What you probably wouldn't think is that this is a Steampunk romance.

What exactly is Steampunk? It's defined as a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that is set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used. Most often, the setting is the Victorian period, or a fantasy world that closely resembles that period. There is a growing interest in Steampunk, and there are now "cons" held around the county, with fashion, music and of course, books.

New Blood begins with the magically bound servant, Jax, finally fulfilling his over two hundred year old mission to find the next blood sorceress. Unfortunately, the magically talented Amanusa doesn't believe him. When she finally uses her magic to exact revenge on a group of rebels who killed her family and held her prisoner, she learns being a powerful sorceress comes with a huge cost to her conscience.

As Jax and Amanusa are pursued across Europe, they discover areas that are competely dead and inhabited only by strange mechanical creatures. They also discover a powerful attraction to each other, and yet Jax is a servant - captured, mistreated and magically bound to the previous blood sorceress, Yvaine. Will he be able to trust Amanusa enough to be honest with her? And will Amanusa learn to control her powerful magic and earn her place in the International Magician's Conclave?

This combination of a unique world, with familiar elements, magic and romance should satisfy fans of multiple genres. It's the first book in a series set around the International Magician's Conclave, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series coming out in 2010. 

Debut author Larry Doyle knows from mayhem (he writes for The Simpsons). In I Love You, Beth Cooper the reader follows Denis through graduation night, which turns out to be the best and worst night of his life. It starts when Beth decides to drop by Denis's graduation "party" (two guests: Denis and his sexually-ambiguous best friend, Rich) and ends as most of these stories do, with the boy-least-likely getting the girl-who-know-one-else-understands. In between, a cast of mean girls and enraged boyfriends keep the action moving.

Does all this sound familiar? It is not surprising that I Love You, Beth Cooper is already a summer teen movie. In a season crowded with blockbusters, it will likely sell better on DVD. Doyle is keenly aware of his market. Each chapter begins with a famous quote from a teen film (Say Anything, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles--they're all there) and a cartoon-image of Denis as his night gets stranger and stranger. Rich cleverly peppers the book's dialogue with film quotes, lending to the book's self-aware cache.  

If you are looking for a familiar and fresh love story that will bring back your teen years, I Love You, Beth Cooper is a better choice than its movie-trailers would lead you to believe.   

Now, if that was all I knew about Ms. Taken Identity by Dan Begley, I probably wouldn't want to read it.  I'm really not into liars as a general rule.  I mean, when people ask me the worst movie I've ever seen, I always say True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It's about a not-very-likeable guy who lies to his wife for years about his identity because he's really a spy.  Or something.  

So when I started Begley's book I was thinking I'd better like this lying character immediately if the author expects me to read more than the first chapter.  To my surprise, I did.

Mitch is an English Comp professor and an aspiring novelist.  In fact, his novel is so long and so serious and so Great-American-Novel-wannabe that no one will publish it.  One night when he stops at the local book store, a famous chick lit novelist is doing a book signing.  Wanting desperately to dismiss what he sees as a lesser form of literature, he discovers he can't condescend to her because a) she's published tons of books, b) her books make people happy, and c) she's a multi-millionaire.

So Mitch decides that he too can write a chick lit novel and on the suggestion of his best friend, signs up for ballroom dance classes to listen in on "real" women's conversations.  Thus, the lies begin.  He makes up a name, learns that he actually likes dancing, and meets the girl of his dreams who also happens to be his best friend's sister.  Soon, he finds that he likes the person that he has become better than the person he was, but he's got to figure out if he's told one too many lies.

Ms Taken Identity is a clever send-up of chick lit novels, and a fun journey of discovery for a guy who finds out that being true to yourself isn't so bad after all.

LaVyrle Spencer was and is a very popular romance author.  Her stories are about ordinary people in ordinary circumstances, no alpha males dragging the heroine across his saddle and racing off into the sunset.  No heroine has gone into a jungle and brought back evidence of a lost civilization.  No, many of her heroes and heroines tough it out in small towns and difficult circumstances. Morning Glory takes place just before, during and after World War II in a small town in Georgia.

Elly Dinsmore was a young pregnant widow with two small boys when she advertised for a husband to help her take care of her run-down farm. Will Parker was a convicted felon--he murdered a prostitute. Both were lonely outcasts, she because of her upbringing by her fanatical grandparents and he was an orphan who drifted all over the States until he went to prison. 

The townsfolk, the ones who made fun of Elly and called her crazy and the town's "naughty lady" are not caricatures, but fully rounded sad people.  My favorite character in Morning Glory is Miss Beasley the librarian, she helps Will find information about bees and apples and birthin' babies.  She starts out as a stereotypical librarian and the reader sees her become a good friend to Will and Elly, just what librarians are supposed to be, thank you Miz Spencer.

Above all, Morning Glory is about friendship, trust and love.  Elly and Will both come out of their shells, and overcome some very big obstacles; for Will it is going off to war and for Elly conquering her shyness and fear of the townspeople.  This story is my favorite LaVryle Spencer novel.  I love how the two bring her farm back to life and in a way Will and Elly come to life too.  If you enjoy a down home romance with some funny and sad moments, (some scary ones too), you will like Morning Glory.

When I told many of my friends that I was going to blog about Katherine by Anya Seton, they all sighed and said it was one of the best historical romances that they had ever read.  Yes, ALL of them sighed and said it was the best.  Why is it so "sighable?"  Katherine was a fourteenth century woman, born in 1350 to a poor family; at a young age she married Sir Hugh Swynford, a rather boorish extremely jealous man.  Because her sister married Geoffrey Chaucer and was part of the court of the Edward the III, Katherine caught the eye of the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt.  After the Duchess of Lancaster's death, Katherine became the mistress of the Duke.  She was called a witch and a whore, but she was with the Duke, through his second marriage to Constance of Castile and after Constance's death, she became his third wife which caused a bigger scandal than when she was his mistress.  Katherine was at the center of the most turbulent times, and she was a strong woman who held the Duke's love and attention for more than twenty-five years.

Anya Seton brings the English medieval times to life, in all the filth, disease, superstition, royal pageantry, intrigue and of course Katherine's love story, mistress and wife to a Duke and the ancestress of Kings.

I read Katherine many years ago and had almost forgotten about it. But then I spied the Mistress of the Monarchy; The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, by Alison Weir.  When I read the introduction and discovered that Alison Weir enjoyed reading Katherine and the book had a large impact upon her, I had to read it again. (Ms Setons's book that is, although I have read Alison Weir's introduction more than once too).  Ms Weir states that she wanted to write Katherine Swynford's biography for forty years. Although Ms Weir enjoyed Anya Seton's book, she said, "Do not forget it is fiction."  Anya Seton wrote accurately but from a twentieth century perspective; this does not lessen the quality of the story, but it might change your vision of Katherine.   I suggest you read Katherine first and then read Mistress of the Monarchy, because sometimes the facts could lessen the impact of this classic romance.  On the other hand why should the facts bother you when you are reading a great love story?

It is a difficult book to describe; it is a romance between an English woman and an Australian.  It is a World War II novel about English women as prisoners of war with no prison camp to be in and an Australian prisoner of war who is tortured because he stole soap and chickens from the Japanese for these wandering women.  It is also a Cinderella story of Willstown in the Australian Outback.  Jean Paget, a former prisoner of war and an English secretary, is the Fairy Godmother to this nothing little town. She has an inheritance and she is going to turn Willstown into something, with greengrocers, jobs to keep the girls in town (so the local cowboys or ringers as they are called, will have someone to marry and then they will stay on the cattle stations), and a swimming pool, just like Alice Springs.

I am crazy about this book because I love fixer-up stories, whether they are about Cinderella, old houses or in this case - a town.  I also love to read women in jeopardy stories and being a prisoner of war is a pretty big jeopardy.  But most of all - I love romances... How many guys do you know would risk death to steal a chicken and soap for a gal he met on the way from one prison camp to another?  There is so much to like, but I'd better stop before I give anymore away.  Oh, another friend read this book before she took a trip to Australia and she said it added to her enjoyment of her visit.  Soooo...three friends and I encourage you to read A Town Like Alice.