Acheron and Styxx, twin brothers not of blood but bonded together by the will of the Gods. Not since Caine and Abel has there been a story of two brothers whose relationship is such a tangle of jealously, pain, and rage. In Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series, Acheron is the leader of the Dark-Hunters. His history goes back over 11,000 years and begins in the Atlantean pantheon. It was foretold to the Atlantean Goddess of Destruction Apollymi that the birth of her son, Apostolos (Acheron), would herald the destruction of the Atlantean Pantheon and bring about the death of all their Gods. So the Gods ordered Apollymi to kill her unborn son. To save him, Apollymi removed him from her womb and put him into the womb of the Queen Aara, Queen of Didymos.

Apollymi twinned him to the son of the King and Queen and tied his life force to that of their own son so they would not destroy him upon his birth.

The boys were born identical to each other, except for one inescapable difference—where Styxx’s eyes are blue, Acheron has the silver swirling eyes of a God, and it was from the moment they opened their eyes that their lives of turmoil began.

“What happened?” I asked.

He looked away.

Kneeling in front of him, I gently brushed the blond hair away from his swollen cheek. “Tell me.”

“She hugged Styxx.”

I knew without asking who she was. He’d been with our mother. I’d never understood how she could be so loving to me and Styxx and yet so cruel to Acheron. “And?”

“I wanted a hug, too.”

Then I saw it. The telltale sign of a boy who wanted nothing more than his mother’s love. —Acheron

[But Styxx's is life is far from perfect too...]

Find your future faves with this delightfully convenient shopping list of romance novels coming out in June. We’ve divided them up by subgenre to make it easier for those who’ve got a very specific obsession and there are some great books to look forward to—from steampunk vampires and Dommes to e-serials and a very special motorcycle club. Don’t forget to take this printable version with you when it’s time to shop!

Heroes and Heartbreakers June 2013 Shopping List!

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/SfR

[Check out the complete list!...]

A new, yet very old, vampire comes to TV this fall—Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the titular role of Dracula in the latest incarnation of the legendary vampire.

Here's the show's premise:

The series introduces Dracula as he arrives in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who maintains that he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, he hopes to wreak revenge on the people who ruined his life centuries earlier. There's only one circumstance that can potentially thwart his plan: Dracula falls hopelessly in love with a woman who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife.

The trailer shows Dracula in an ambiguous light; of course there's the whole vampiric side to him, but he is also capable of emotion, it seems. The producers behind Downton Abbey are also responsible for this, and the director is the same one who worked with Rhys Meyers on The Tudors. With that kind of pedigree, and Rhys Meyers, it seems that the show will at least be lovely to look at.

Will you watch?

Towards the end of season three, Gabrielle Miller (an actress well known in Canada) guest starred on Lost Girl as the ringleader for a small coven of witches. She had enough power to cause a bit of trouble for Bo and the gang, but when it came down to it, she was no match for Bo’s amped up strength. Whether Bo’s help is thanks to friend or foe we’re still not sure yet, but will hopefully discover quickly when the new run begins.

The witches portrayed in Lost Girl were of the suburban variety, complete with talismans and herbal remedies in their retinue, and practicing their ‘craft’ behind closed doors. In fiction, you have everything under the sun when it comes to the composition of a witch. From the green-skinned Wicked Witch in L. Frank Baum’s (and Gregory Maguire’s) stories to the dark, addictive Chess Putnam series by Stacia Kane, no altar stone is left unturned.

In fact, searching for popular fiction that contains this variation of the supernatural provides results that could possibly rival the vast collection of vampire novels out there. From this list, it’s hard to narrow down the best of the best when it comes to witchy literature, but let’s see if a cross section of this subgenre will help.

[It's the witching hour...]

Maya Banks will be publishing a new trilogy of erotic romance novels with Berkley, it was announced today. According to the press release:

The new trilogy is set in Houston, Texas amidst a world Banks originally created for the Sweet Series and focusing on the lives and friendships of a closely intertwined group of people, the series will explore the friends' tragedies and triumphs as well as their darkest fears and secrets.

Meanwhile, the final installment in Banks's Breathless trilogy, Burn, will be out August 6th.

I read romance novels because I love the journey of two people falling in love. There is the encounter and then the attraction which leads to lust and hunger, need and desire. Throw in some conflict—maybe communication problems or different goals, or maybe a misunderstanding. Blend in doubts and insecurities. Shake and stir, and serve with a little heartbreak. But by the book’s end, the couple realize they complete each other—they are better people when they are together. They start their passion-filled lives together, euphorically in love and blissfully happy.

But there is another side of love. The part of love that is more grounded in day-to-day life–the love Angelina Jolie alluded at when she recently stated:

"I am fortunate to have a partner, Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive. We managed to find moments to laugh together. We knew this was the right thing to do for our family and that it would bring us closer. And it has.”

Both women and men want to find someone who will be there for the long haul, through thick or thin, in sickness and in health.

Books that illustrate this type of love touch a core in me, because I know that this is such an basic element of true love. Altruism can be as exciting as passion.

I have mentioned The Other Side of Us by Sarah Mayberry before, but one reason it moved me so is the caring by the hero. Here is one of the scenes:

[Everyone needs a little TLC sometimes...]

Tessa Dare
Any Duchess Will Do
Avon / May 28, 2013 / $5.99 print, $4.99 digital

What's a duke to do, when the girl who's perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can't live without?

Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season—or any season—but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.

Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn't dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week's employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother's “duchess training”... and fail miserably.

But in London, Pauline isn't a miserable failure. She's a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure—a woman who ignites Griff's desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won't be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess—can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?

Romances based on fairy tales have enjoyed a new surge of popularity recently, but in her fourth Spindle Cove novel, Tessa Dare gives readers an anti-fairy tale romance in which hard work and self-respect are the route to happiness, and love is the only magic anyone needs. Pauline Simms is no passive Cinderella sitting amid the cinders waiting for a prince to rescue her. She is a “mud-spattered, sugar-dusted, smart-mouthed serving girl” wearing not rags but “drab linsey-woolsey.” Instead of a wicked stepmother and an absent father, Pauline has an apathetic mother and a brute of a father who is willing to sell her for less than five pounds. Instead of shallow, selfish stepsisters, Paulina has Daniela, a loving sister with special needs.

[And what about her hero?...]

As long as there have been romance novels, there have been romance novel covers. Trends in covers have gone from long-locked men with rippling chests standing over fragilely beautiful females, to iconic covers, back to the rippling chests, onto more icons, and back again.

Do you prefer one type of cover over another? What's your favorite romance novel cover (share in comments!)

Are erotica authors born, or made? After a lifetime of reading sex-drenched novels, I finally took the plunge two years ago and published one of my own. Now, five steamy (and occasionally raunchy) “Logan Belle” novels later, I’m still thinking about the books that started it all: the juicy, passionate, explicit, heart-stopping novels of my youth that made me hide my books under my bed and set my imagination (and other parts of me) on fire.

As a pre-teen, I devoured any book with even a hint of sex. I think the first “erotic” scene I ever read was in Judy Blume’s Deenie, in which the heroine Deenie was hooking up with her crush Buddy Brader and he tried to feel her up but she was wearing a back brace. A shockingly short time later, I read D.H. Lawrence's  Lady Chatterley’s Lover—easy to sneak past the parental censors because of the classic-looking cover. Emboldened and hungry for more, I progressed to Jackie Collins’s Chances. I swapped the jacket cover featuring the photo of the vampy brunette for something innocuous. Well-worth the subterfuge: the sex scenes were scorching hot. Those first “erotic” novels are unforgettable—imprinted in my head like nothing that has followed. I recently asked fellow romance and erotica authors if they remember their first erotic read. The answer was, of course, emphatically “yes!”

Stephanie Draven (It Stings So Sweet): “My first erotic novel was the Story of O, which captivated me with its beautiful prose and strange, seductive, foreign sexuality. Alas, when I reached the end and learned that O was to be abandoned by her lover after having transformed herself into everything he desired, I threw the book across the room and wept. Maybe this is why all my erotic novels have happy endings.”

[What's the first erotic novel you read?...]

One of the great things about the internet is that it gives some pretty creative folks an outlet for their talent. We here at Team H&H devoured the first book in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy, Shadow and Bone, but none of us are nearly creative enough to do something like the above video.  It is a fan-made book trailer for Siege and Storm, the sequel to Shadow and Bone. Does this trailer capture what the Grisha trilogy is all about? Are you a fan of fan-made media?

If you're curious about the series, you can read an excerpt of Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm here on H&H!

My love affair with the novella began when as an undergrad I discovered I much preferred “Bartleby the Scrivener” to Moby Dick and “The Dead” to Ulysses. Part of the attraction of the literary novellas was the length, of course, but as I branched out into novellas in romance fiction, I found other advantages. Not only could I read a complete novella while waiting for soccer practice to end or while my students were doing their department-mandated in-class writing, but I could also try new writers with a minimum investment of time. I reserved a special shelf for keeper anthologies and expanded my auto-buy list with authors I first fell in love with through novellas.

The only problem was that novellas in historical romance tended to be seasonal because anthologies usually centered on a holiday theme, most often Christmas but sometimes Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day or June weddings. Imagine my delight when the digital revolution led to a renaissance of historical romance novellas. Old favorites were being reissued in digital format, and new ones were being offered as ereads only. I could choose from novellas that were prequels to established series or introductions to upcoming series, novellas that gave me the story complete with HEA of a secondary character, novellas that served as a snack to tide me over while waiting for a new novel from a favorite author. My Kindle was filling up with novellas from Miranda Neville, Meredith Duran, Kate Noble, Grace Burrowes, and others. Heaven!

Soon I had so many novellas that I was faced with a difficult decision. Which of my many cherished romance fiction novellas would I archive and which would remain on my ereader to be reread as I waited in the doctor’s office or in an endless supermarket checkout line? I am still in the process of making choices, but these are the six novellas that I’ll never delete, the ones I reread again and again. (I consider Christmas novellas a category of their own. That explains the absence of Mary Balogh, Mary Jo Putney, and Carla Kelly from this list.)

[If you're looking for a quick read...]

Game of Thrones Season 3 is here! Need to catch up? Don't miss Regina Thorne's Season 2 refresher or her recap of episode 3.01, episode 3.02, episode 3.03, episode 3.04, episode 3.05, episode 3.06, and episode 3.07.

And now, onto last night's episode 3.08, “Second Sons."

*****SPOILERS*****

If last week’s episode of Game of Thrones was a meditation on the many facets of love, this week’s “Second Sons” was a cautionary tale about sex and marriage. (Boys of Westeros, if you get a woody, watch out because someone is either going to cut it off or attach a blood-sucking worm to it. It’s enough to make you join the Night’s Watch!)

We open with Arya and Sandor “the Hound” Clegane; the Hound captured Arya after she ran away from the Brotherhood without Banners last episode. Sandor is sleeping, and Arya lifts the biggest rock she can find so she can crush his skull and escape again. Arya, you need to let sleeping dogs lie! Sandor, of course, isn't asleep and he tells Arya that if she kills him, she can go free, but if he survives, he’ll break both of her hands.

[Decisions, decisions...]

Nalini Singh has released two chapters of Heart of Obsidian, her newest book in the Psy-Changeling series, on her website. If you don't want to be spoiled, turn away now.

[Click for a SPOILER!]

Livescience recently did an article mentioning words that exist in other languages that we really need in English. This one pertains to book readers the most:

Tsundoku: A Japanese word that is “the act of letting books just pile up unread on the floor and nightstand, where they function more as decoration than literature.”

Do you practice tsundoku?

Men in uniform certainly have appeal. Is it the discipline of being in service? The crisp dress uniforms? The muscles that often come with the need to stay fit in the line of duty? Yesterday was Armed Forces Day in the United States so we want to know what your favorite type of man in uniform is! Do you have a soft spot for An Officer and a Gentleman or maybe the men of Pearl Harbor? Let us know in this week's poll and share a picture of your favorite man in uniform (book, TV or movie) in the comments!

Philosophically speaking, I’m anti-New Adult fiction. I’m quite fine with Young Adult fiction, and over the years as a PW reviewer have read many a coming-of-age novel, but I’m genuinely annoyed by the notion of a genre of fiction for 18-26 year olds. What’s next? Not-Quite-New-Adult fiction, for the 27-30 set? How about Fiction for 30-Somethings, Unmarried Fiction, Menopausal Fiction, or...better still, Men in Midlife Crisis Fiction? Isn’t it bad enough that just the other week Wikipedia started removing women novelists from its list of American Novelists onto a separate list for American Women Novelists?

With New Adult Fiction, though, my grouchiness goes deeper. Blame it on All That, a variety show on Nickelodeon when my daughter was young. It aired on Saturday evenings, featuring comedy sketches and musical guests, supposedly in the tradition of SNL. If by “in the tradition of” you mean it was on television and it was on Saturday nights, then yes. If you mean anything else...well, then...no.

By the time my daughter started to watch All That, my husband and I had already spent far too much time watching Rugrats, Spongebob, Catdog, The Angry Beavers, and [my personal favorite] Rocko’s Modern Life. Anyone who grew up watching cartoons knows there’s generally something for everybody in them, regardless of your age, which is why as a family of three we could all survive the many, many re-runs. It’s why The Simpsons continues after more than 25 years on television. Unfortunately, All That was written specifically for your (and my) little kid at their most obnoxious, with no redeeming anything for anyone older than, say, ten years of age.

[Does every age group really need its own entertainment?...]

Note: This post contains SPOILERS for Season 1 of Orphan Black.

If you’re not watching BBC America’s Orphan Black (and you should be!), you’re not only missing out on a great mystery/sci-fi drama series, but also one very twisted love story. When our grifter heroine Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) happens to witness the suicide of a woman, Beth Childs, who looks identical to her, she slips into her doppleganger’s life as a police detective hoping to score some cash. She gets more than she bargained for in all kinds of ways, but the most intriguing is Paul Dierden (Dylan Bruce), Beth’s live-in lover.

Streetwise punk-rock Sarah (who was previously dating a drug dealer) isn’t too impressed as she scopes out pics of the chiseled clean-cut guy, declaring to her buddy Felix that “If that was my boyfriend, I’d jump in front of a train too.” But hey, desperate times call for desperate measures. When Paul comes home unexpectedly, Sarah tries some distraction, in the form of stripping him for some sexytimes on the kitchen countertop.  (And this is cable, so there is skin. And thrusting. And moaning. Mmhmm.)

[From twisted beginnings come ?...]