The Eclectic Summer Read

Hola!! It's B. A. Binns again here with the Genre-Istas for July. I don’t think my reading changes with the season. Whether I’m curled in front of a winter fireplace or relaxing by the pool, I want a good read. Handsome, brave and strong hero (a girl needs something for the imagination), beautiful, intelligent and courageous heroine (I have to identify with her after all).  

I keep my reading eclectic. I admit here (and only here) that for fifteen or maybe twenty minutes I put 50 Shades of Grey on my to-read list. Then I came to my senses. Every review I read told me it was poorly written, and I like my erotic romance like everything else, well-written. So, no getting caught up in the hype.  Especially since I never even liked Twilight, and this book evolved from fan-fic based on same. It's a phenomenon because it started out with the built-in fan base and then it got good word-of-mouth and soon lots of people, including me, tried to jump on the bandwagon. I've just jumped back off again.  I’ll stay with the five or six individuals in the country who never bothered.  Instead, I’ll give you a sample of recent reads and my reading plans for the rest of this summer.

Romance

Earlier this year I was at a conference where I met the fabulous Celeste O. Norfleet. And I got a copy of her June release, Just One taste. Set in Key West, gorgeous caterer eager to expand her business vs. drop-dead handsome businessman who needs the same property for his company. But the way to a man’s heart has always been through his stomach, and the fantastic recipes this woman brews leap from the page and kept me licking my lips, for food and for him. Yummy.

I also got my hands on her newest Young Adult novel, April brought Download Drama, with high schooler Kenisha Lewis becoming a YouTube sensation. I  know this could have gone in Romance or Young Adult (below) but I like the love. 

Paranormal

I have a thing for dark-hunters. And apparently for Beladors. And for guys destined to destroy the known universe.  Sherrilyn Kenyon treats me to all three.  I'm looking forward to two new stories from her. (More in the YA section)

August will bring Time Untime, a dark-hunter story with its own twist about a 2012 end of the world prophecy and the dark-hunter who may be forced to sacrifice his heroine to save the world.

September, just in time for the end of summer, will bring The Curse with Evalle and the Beladors (sounds like a rock group doesn’t it). Poor Evalle has a variety of love interests. And her two best friends have love problems of their own. But they are out to keep the world safe from demons and witches and other things that go more than just bump in the night.

Young Adult

Give me my dystopian!! I recently finished Ship Breaker (I know, last year’s book but I’m a little behind in my reading). As I journeyed with the teen hero, Nailer, through everyhorror imaginable including a battle to the death with his father, I realized why the genre appeals to me. A new world/reality with characters that go through horrific conflicts, crises, and moral dilemmas. It’s the moral dilemma part that really draws me. The “how would I handle this situation” that keeps me rolling. The next item on my to-read list is the companion novel, The Drowned Cities. I want to get back to that awful future and see if another character can find their way through chaos

March brought Infamous, volume 3 of The Chronicles of Nick (A guy who just may may bring about the end of everything) How can you go wrong reading about a guy destined to destroy the world reaching back in time to his younger self to change his destiny? Especially when this series ties in to the rest of Sherrilyn Kenyon's dark-hunter world. It alters the past just enough to keep things eresting.   I mean, what if the kid's monster demon father designed to destory the world didn't really die when he was fourteen after all.   All of which means there are not one, not two but an unprecidented three world destroying demons running around in New Orleans at the same time.  Great for readers, not so good for the future or all mankind.                                                              

In case you didn't notice, once I go outside the realm of  straight romance I have a hunger for death and destruction and the end of everythign. Maybe that does go with the sweltering summer heat!!

Hey, want to share anything on your summer read shortlist?  Comment and let me know if there's something I should not miss.