Fortnight of Guests 2012: Supernatural Snark

FAVORITE PARANORMAL READS OF 2012

First of all, I want to thank Megan for having me back on her blog for her fortnight of guests! I’m not great at coming up with guest post ideas, I’m actually quite challenged at it, but Megan suggested that since my blog focuses predominantly on paranormal books that I feature my favorite supernatural reads. Brilliant. There have been a myriad of interesting paranormal reads in 2012 so far, but I’ve narrowed it down to my top 3 for you.

1. SWEET EVIL by Wendy Higgins

Two words. Kaidan. Rowe. I have a tendency to fall madly in love with fictional characters. I obsess over them. I run to Twitter and tweet anyone willing to chat with me all the things I love about them. I try to talk to my husband about them, but unfortunately for me, he’s (unsurprisingly, given I refer to them as book boyfriends) uninterested in hearing what I have to say about their hotness or swoon-worthiness. He doesn’t know what he’s missing.

Kaidan is by far my favorite male character this year. He’s just cocky and arrogant enough to be appealing, but not so much so as to be off-putting or eye-roll inducing. His life is dark, and while he enjoys some of the perks of his job, it becomes apparent once he meets Anna that a wish for something to be different is beginning to take root, and I want nothing more than to sit in a comfortable chair and watch him struggle between dark and light.

2. THE IMMORTAL RULES by Julie Kagawa.

Confession: I wasn’t sure I was going to like the Iron Fey series when I read The Iron King. It took a long time for me to settle into the story given there seemed to be no recognizable parameters to the world. Anything could exist there. Fantastical creatures I’d never seen anywhere else appeared in the pages and my poor vampire/werewolf/traditional fey brain could not process the new information it was receiving. By book 2 I was absolutely hooked, but I had a lingering fear when starting this book that I would run into the same issue.

Wrong. I loved this story from page one. I tend to gravitate toward the darker stories, stories that are gritty and visceral and rip my heart out and stomp on it before returning it to my chest a bit more damaged than it was before I started reading. Allie’s story was that way for me, and there was just enough of a romance with human Zeke to get my pulse racing. More please.

3. UNRAVELING by Elizabeth Norris

This read was a complete surprise for me. It wasn’t really on my radar leading up to its release, so when I picked it up I had no idea what to expect. What I found in Ms. Norris’s story was everything I love in young adult literature: a strong heroine, a complex and layered plot, and a beautiful–if slightly unconventional–romance.

Janelle doesn’t deal with extraordinary events with a typical vehement denial; instead she digests all the information, asks intelligent questions, and then figures out what to do next with the information she’s given. There’s no instant love with Ben, and theirs is a relationship that develops slowly and deliciously throughout before reaching a jaw-dropping conclusion.

Those are my three top paranormal reads so far this year, so if you haven’t had a chance to read these, I recommend a trip to the bookstore immediately:) Thanks again for having me Megan!

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Thank you SO much for taking part again this year, Jenny!  I loved this post - and I will be going to the bookstore ASAP to get my hands on all of them!  :D

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