Yes, before a certain saga named after a time of day grew into prominence, paranormal romance was a fairly obscure niche genre.

Today, the genre still is pretty heavy with brooding male vampires and virginal chaste human women who are the only light in their world of eternal darkness, etc.

That said, I've found some enjoyable offerings. Undead and Unwed is a pretty engaging vampire chicklit series, although it's recently jumped the shark IMO, it does a good job of keeping the heroine interesting, not taking itself too seriously, and still giving the downsides of vampirism some narrative weight.

Nora Roberts's Circle Trilogy and Keys trilogy are nice contributions, with traditional formulas but enough originality and in-context twistyness to make them interesting. The characters leave an impression, and she steers clear of some squickier possibilities.


Anyone have some good recommendations? Discussions? Divine Inspirations?