I am a huge Kresley Cole fan. I find her writing tight, her characters hilarious, and I love the way she twists common paranormal situations, putting her own spin on it.

I discovered her through her Immortals After Dark series. After I finished that series, I looked to see what else she had written. No more paranormals, but she did have two historical series.

While I’m not the biggest historical fan, I do enjoy a good historical romance—especially historical highlander romance—so I picked up her other books. While I did not enjoy them quite as much as her paranormals, I still found them to be good reads and thought them well worth my reading time.

So here I am now, firmly established as a Kresley Cole fangirl, and KC has thrown me another curveball: She is spinning her IAD world into another series.

Good news, right? Well, in this case, she’s writing in YA, a genre I do not read at all.

[What to do, what to do?...]

Lucy March
A Little Night Magic
St. Martin’s Press, $14.99 trade paperback/$9.99 digital, Jan. 31, 2012

Olivia Kiskey needs a change. She’s been working at the same Nodaway Falls, New York, waffle house since she was a teenager; not a lot of upward mobility there. She’s been in love with Tobias, the cook, for the last four years; he’s never made a move. Every Saturday night, she gathers with her three best friends—Peach, Millie, and Stacy—and drinks the same margaritas while listening to the same old stories. Intent on shaking things up, she puts her house on the market, buys a one-way ticket to Europe, and announces her plans to her friends . . . but then she meets Davina Granville, a strange and mystical Southern woman who shows Olivia that there is more to her life than she ever dreamed....

When reading Lucy March’s A Little Night Magic, what struck me was how magic was used in the world created.

As a reader of fantasy, I’m used to big, grand, spectacle – powers straining limits and occasionally beyond imagining. But in A Little Night Magic, magic is intimate and precise. Its power is in the personal and in the relationship it fosters.

[Seems like Nodaway Falls is the perfect place for a little romance...]

One hopes author Richelle Mead is not sensitive to negative reader reaction. If she is, this is not the week she wants to be on the internet.

Richelle Mead is an Urban Fantasy and YA writer with several series under her belt. Her latest release is the fourth and final book in her Dark Swan series, Shadow Heir.

And many fans are not happy with this book.

If you are a reader of the series but haven’t gotten here yet, I shall try to be as vague and spoiler-free as possible, but be warned...

There might be SPOILERS.

[What’s the deal?...]

So, after vampires, werewolves, demons, and angels, what formerly scary monster will become the next “It” alpha hero of the paranormal romance genre?

I’m going to go with the dragon.

We’ve seen the dragon slowly gaining ground over the last few years. Gena Showalter’s first Atlantis book featured a dragon hero. Deborah Cooke has the Dragonfire series. Now, we have Thea Harrison coming up strong with her Elder Races books.

How did this scaly lizard creature with a bad reputation become a contender for the next big brooding romance hero?

I blame it on Dungeons & Dragons.

Granted, I blame many things on D&D, but this time I really think I have a case. Yes, yes, I know, dragons have been around for a long time, showing up in almost every mythology of the world, but the dragon as we think of it in today’s pop culture is a recent creation.

[The genesis...]

A couple years ago, there was a Saturday morning cartoon called Shaolin Showdown. The basic premise was that four extraordinary kids were chosen to save the world with martial arts superpowers. There were a couple recurring bad guys in the series; the bad guy you saw every week was the comedic bad guy. You more laughed and rolled your eyes at him than ever took him as a threat.

And then there was Chase Young.

Chase Young was the smooth bad guy who showed up very rarely. He had long flowing hair and kicked butt. The heroes barely made it out when they were fighting him, and every time Chase Young came onto the scene, you were holding your breath, waiting for what was going to happen next.

Chase Young was bad, but you loved him anyway.

[Sounds familiar—tell me more...]

Back in the old days when Fabio was on every romance novel cover, I couldn’t resist making a purchase when I saw his windblown hair and open shirt. On this particular cover, Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, he’s holding a few assorted wildflowers in one hand while the other is held out to the reader (with the requisite windblown hair and open shirt).

I had to check twice to verify that what I was reading was indeed a romance novel. Flowers from the Storm was simply a romance novel unlike any I had ever read.

By the time I finished the book—which took me longer than a normal romance novel—I felt worked over, the emotional journey it took me on draining me as much as any physical exertion. So of course I was on board for more Kinsale.

Her books are not easy, quick reads. Don’t read them when you can only give half your attention to the story. A Kinsale story is meant for when you are ready to turn yourself over to the experience.

[Dive in...]