Fans of Interracial Romance discussion
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What is everyone currently reading?
Oh and I can't WAIT to read Rhev's story! I fell in love with the dude the moment he stepped on the page. Drug dealing pimp with the Mohawk ... bring it on. He was one scary badass when he was trying to pump info from Phury while witholding the guy's juice, but I always knew there was something special about him! Speaking of Phury, I hear Ward completely debauched his book ... poor guy. What was she thinking ...?
Tina, I read the books in order, but truly I wasn't too impressed with Wrath's book, Dark Lover--though having said that I would recommend people reading the series in order. The series read a bit more smoothly when you know what happened previously. Anyway, when I finished reading DL, I was just meh. And if it wasn't for Zsadist, who intrigued me to no end (I just wanted to reach into the book and give the guy a hug though he'd've probably whacked my head off, literally), its likely I would have parked the entire series indefinitely. However, my desire to find out his story kept me reading up to his book--which, no surprise there, turned out to be my favourite of the 3.
P.S: Why did you decide to hop off the bandwagon, Tina?
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I have All Through The Night by Suzanne Brockmann, because of Sam and Alyssa and no, I didn't buy that book. It was given to me as a gift in 2007, because a buddy of mine, knows how much I love Sam and Alyssa. I don't read scenes with m/m or f/f. and I wouldn't read a book, where the hero have feeling for a man, but wants the heroine at the same time or vice versa.
If I am not mistaken, I have one or two books from the series you all are talking about. I know definitely that I was sending one off to a buddy, once I get the chance.
Rehv was always one of my favorites, especially when Z turned out so needy, LOL.Arch, in Lover Revealed, there is a male character with a crush on the male lead but no M/M scenes. In Lover Enshrined, there is an M/M kissing scene between secondary characters. It's brief.
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Sees Love in All Colors
(last edited Nov 29, 2009 12:00PM)
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As for the BDB series, I think you said it well, Davina. I would recommend starting with Dark Lover, and hanging in there. I didn't feel the romance, but I loved the world-building and the urban fantasy elements, and it introduces pivotal characters and aspects of the world that help when you read the following books. I have to say that I did like the Wrath and Beth scenes in Lover Avenged. I think I want to go back and reread Dark Lover and Lover Eternal, since they are my least faves, but still 4 star reads.
I have to say that for some reason m/m romance doesn't bother me as long as there's no butt stuff (I don't like that regardless of the sex of the participants). I read a fantasy book that had a f/f romance, which isn't my thing, but it was a good book all the same.
One thing, I cannot get into is menage romances. No offense, but that icks me out.
I didn't like DL as much as the following books either.
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Arch, in Lover Revealed, there is a male character with a crush on the male lead but no M/M scenes. In Lover Enshri..."
Thanks New_User.
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I have other things that I don't like to read about.
Books that I have that has things that I don't care for, will be removed from my house. I'm keeping ATTN though. When I'm in the mood to read about Sam and Alyssa first stage of pregnancy, I read their parts in that book.
I just finished Hunting Season by Shelly Laurenston and it had a Nordic male as the hero and a woman who might have been African American or Cuban (she was adopted so she didn't know what she was).But I noticed that Laurenston often has pairs matched up that are interracial. I really like her type of books, so if anyone has any suggestions I'll be glad to hear them :)
Hey Davina-I dunno really why I soured on Ward. Probably a combination of things.
I think her female characters are incredibly underwritten. I like a good hero but not at the expense of an equally good heroine. I think she is strongest when she writes about the Brotherhood. Everything else fades in the background and her world-building, while good at the outset isn't, imo, strong enough to sustain itself over a long series where the stakes get higher. Her villains don't have a great motivation they are just evil as an opposition to good. For me, a good series is where I am just as interested in the bad guys as I am in the good guys. And actually I enjoy it where the bad guys makes me anxious for the good guys. For me, the lessers are just boring. To me it feels like they are just there because these books are supposed to have some unifying evil not because they are organic to the series.
I am also one of those in the camp who hated the resolution of the Jane/Vishous story. And I actually didn't think she did Phury justice in his story. Of all the brothers, Phury was the one I liked the least and honestly, his story didn't make me like him better and it should have.
And finally, the way she introduced Lassiter struck me as bizarre. I later learned the character Lassiter was well known to people who read her boards, but in the context of the published books it was out of left field. I remember thinking I missed something in previous books because I had no idea who this guys was. It struck me as a nudge-nudge wink-wink move to her online fans with no regarded the continuity the non-online fans was following in the books.
It is interesting, you don't really notice these things when you read her at first. You get really immersed in her stories and the brothers. I will give the woman her props, she can write. But for me, in re-read, the series just doesn't stand up.
I think her world-building has been expanding over the books. It's part of the reason I read her books. If you see better world-building, point me to those books. :) I also like villains who are more complex, but some of her lessers have been interesting studies in pathology, if you think about it. She captures the psychopath well-- she doesn't just make her villains simple, mindless evil in the way that a lot of books do. But obviously psychopaths are not relate-able, LOL.If it helps, Lover Avenged was better than Lover Unbound and Lover Enshrined. It was better planned, more plausible and both the hero and heroine were better developed. I really liked Ehlena. She was strong but practical. I think she got back on her feet with that one. Jane's attraction to V was too immediate and her ending too much a deus ex machina. Phury's book was not as smooth or developed in the romance either, so I get what you're saying.
Hey New_user-Funny enough I have Lover Avenged and Covet both on my Kindle. I am one of those people who is a completer. I have this pathological need to keep up with a series even if it is disappointing me. It takes me forever to really, really give up on a series. I stayed way past the sell by date on Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series as well as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.
Right now I am off paranormals as a whole. So maybe when I get that tingle back I may give Ward another try since you say she has gotten better.
As far as world building, I know you read the Darkyn books by Lynn Viehl. Now that series is an example of excellent world building. You don't realize until about books five and six how much foundation she laid in book one, until it all clicks together. And the mythos surrounding the Darkyn is just so darned fascinating.
I'd also add Nalini Singh whose Psy/Changeling series has a great mythos and she keeps adding to it in creative and logical ways.
And I'd recommend Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson and her Alpha/Omega series in the same universe.
And actually, for world-building, I'd also include JD Robb's In Death series set in and alternate reality future (2060) New York. She has made a near future that is quite plausible given the trajectory that technological innovation can take in a 50 year period (coupled with a huge paradigm shift with something she calls the urban wars that happened in the 00's). When she began the series in the early 90s such things as wireless technology and handheld PDAs were not part of widespread public conversation but in her world they are matter fact pieces of everyday life. She could have gone over the top with a 'what-if' future, but she didn't and as a result it seems like in 50 years (or even less) some of the things are real in her universe could (and probably will) actually be in ours.
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Sees Love in All Colors
(last edited Nov 30, 2009 07:03AM)
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I have noticed that Ward's characterization of the women was less strong. But I see that this is changing. I know that Xhex is not a favorite, but I feel that she is really making her a three-dimensional character. I'm excited about Lover Mine, to see what she does with Xhex. I have to say that I am not a huge fan of Ehlena. She's okay, but some aspects of her kind of rubbed me the wrong way. She came around in the end, but at first, I don't think she was worthy of Rehv. He's not a good guy, but he's an awesome guy at the same time, and she didn't seem to be aware of this.
Also, you might like what's she's doing with Lash, Tina. He's working out to be one heck of a villian. I almost like the guy in the sense that he keeps me entertained, although he's pretty despicable, and I want him to get beat down by JM big time. And I also think that she will do something interesting with Trez and i.am.
I am a big fan of Ward, which you will probably notice. I don't think she's perfect, but she keeps me reading and caring about the characters in her books.
I am one of the few people who like Lover Enshrined. I think those who read it for mainly romance were disappointed. I thought it was very successful as an urban fantasy novel with an underlying romance. And I don't think of it as a full resolution of Phury's story. With his issues, there is no easy fix, and I hope that she will keep showing us Phury over the series. JMO.
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Hi Jess. Glad to see you on board. I haven't read any Laurentson, but I've heard good things about her. I will probably start her Dragon books written as GA Aiken very soon.
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Sees Love in All Colors
(last edited Nov 30, 2009 07:07AM)
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I have other thi..."
--I hope that bookpublishers will be responsible as publishers and mark these books with the anal sex content as erotic or at least as erotic romance. I have heard this type of sexual activity has become mainstream, but I still don't consider this as mainstream and I resent the fact that books with this sexual content are marked as romance so that unwary bookbuyers end up taking them home. After all, more sales!
Jess wrote: "I just finished Hunting Season by Shelly Laurenston and it had a Nordic male as the hero and a woman who might have been African American or Cuban (she was adopted so ..."Love Laurenston. I will have to get this one on my tbr for her.
Danielle - totally look her up. She does very strong women, she creates a great community with her cast of characters, they are quirky without being over-the-top and she writes with a very lighthearted touch. I haven't read her as much as I want to, but the two or three that I have read have been really good.
re: m/m love or anal sex. I don't mind m/m romance at all. I didn't love All Through the Night 100% but that was because I don't think Robin is good enough for Jules. Loved all the Sam/Alyssa parts and seeing all the old characters together. Anal sex is not my preferred lovemaking reading material in any gender combination, but it isn't my personal line in the sand when it comes to books. With me that would BDSM. Can't go there. Probably why I had such issues with Lover Unbound.
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I hate the fact that Suzanne made Robin look like Sam. How Gross is that?
Why couldn't she just leave Alyssa with her Sam, instead of making her best friend have his own Sam? Already, she had Jules have a crush on Sam. Gross! Gross! Gross!
Jules didn't need a Sam.
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Tina wrote: "Hey New_user-Funny enough I have Lover Avenged and Covet both on my Kindle. I am one of those people who is a completer. I have this pathological need to keep up with a series even if it is disa..."
Yeah, I love all those series with the exception of JD Robb's series. I just refuse to read a series that long, LOL. I like an overall plot above episodes of adventure/mystery.
I thought even as a UF, Enshrined was a little sloppy but those elements were better than the romance. I think one of the compelling conflicts in Avenged was Ehlena coming around. We wanted her to see Rehv for who he was. But she couldn't have made it easy, now. He's a drug dealer and a pimp after all, LOL.
Tina wrote: "Jess wrote: "I just finished Hunting Season by Shelly Laurenston and it had a Nordic male as the hero and a woman who might have been African American or Cuban (she wa..."Eh, I don't care for all the tools of the trade or ceremony (Ward concentrated on both too much in V's culminating scene and all that angsty history *yawn*; like there needs to be a extenuating reason for it), but I don't mind D/S. Pain, not so much. I like it a little more organic. There's generally at least a slight element of D/S in a very large number of romances, slight enough that people don't notice or think to label it. They may just notice it as the hero taking charge, etc.
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Funny enough I have Lover Avenged and Covet both on my Kindle. I am one of those people who is a completer. I have this pathological need to keep up with a series even ..."
I don't expect her to have a wholesale oh it's all good that you were a criminal, but she went from one extreme of being in love but being completely disgusted with him. I don't think you turn off love that easily. If so, there wouldn't be very many prison inmates with beloved wives and girlfriends.
I may not be as particular as you are about books, because I was fine with Lover Enshrined, NU. But again, I know I'm in the minority about this book. I think it was an ambitious undertaking. As a writer (unpublished) I realize how freaking hard it is to write. Staring at a blank screen ain't fun. I can imagine for a published author with millions of fans with high expectations and an editor, agent, and publisher breathing down one's neck, and one's personal standards, it's even worse. I give her an A for effort.
message 473:
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Sees Love in All Colors
(last edited Nov 30, 2009 11:38AM)
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To me D/s is overt assumption of power and control in a relationship. I can barely stomach that. There are a handful of books that straddled this line that I enjoyed. I have major control issues, so the idea of being dominant or submissive is not something I agree with. I think there should be a mutuality in a relationship. And I'm not talking about who seduces who in lovemaking. To me that is not D/s.
ETA: I think for a writer to have D/s elements and for it not to bother me it really has to be well done and organic to the characters. For example, I know some readers disliked Murder Game by Christine Feehan because Kadan was so dominant. I liked Kadan and Tansy and their relationship worked for them, so I was okay. Do I want to be dominated that way? Heck no! But she was fine with it, and she put her foot down on things that were important, and he loved and cherished her and would have done anything for her. So I was cool.
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Sees Love in All Colors
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As for Lover Unbound, I was happy with Vishous and Jane because I felt they belong together. I don't see Vishous and Butch as a viable couple. Butch doesn't love V the way he needs to be loved, but I think Jane does. A lot of fans saw Jane as a copout on the m/m issues and don't believe she wrote it that way because she wanted to. I think that's how she wanted to write it, so what's the point in resenting her for writing the book she wanted to write? As for V and Butch, I think they will always be in each other's lives and have a special, loving relationship, but I think they both needed shellans. And the great thing is both of their shellans respect and understand their relationship. I am a big fan of Jane, although she's not my favorite shellan. I think she's perfect for Vishous. She gets him and gives him room to be who he is, and doesn't take crap off him. A lot of the fans don't like Jane because she's tough, but I like that about her. She has the personality of a trauma surgeon. You cannot wear your heart on your sleeve or you'll be destroyed by what you see and experience. I was no trauma surgeon, but I was in full time small animal practice and it put me through the wringer. It was too much for me because of the fact that I feel things way too much, and I saw a lot of crap and experienced a lot of crap. So, in a small way, I can admire Jane for being who she is. As for how the book ended, it took me some time to come to terms with it, but it makes sense that Ward wrote it the way she did.
Arch wrote: "Sam is my baby. I had to read about my other Troubleshooter man this morning. Dave Malkoff.I hate the fact that Suzanne made Robin look like Sam. How Gross is that?
Why couldn't she just Al..."
LOL! Arch. You crack me up. I swear your Spidey senses tingle when Sam gets mentioned! I can't front, though, I Love Sam!
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"
I'm full alert, when my baby is talked about. Okay! When Alyssa's baby is talked about. But, by now, she should know that I talk care about him too, in an innocent way.
Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Tina, I can't say I'm into reading BDSM either. I don't seek it out, and usually it comes with the anal stuff and the other erotic stuff that turns my stomach (no offense to any one, personal taste..."I know that often on goodreads they will have a warning at the bottom. It will usually say explicit, and it gives examples of what might be seen in the book whether it's menage, toys etc...
I don't see a publisher doing that though. They wouldn't want to discourage people from reading a book since then they will lose money.
I would suggest checking on goodreads before buying the book and seeing if there's a warning. I think even Amazon gives warnings as well. I've often seen them before purchasing a book.
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message 480:
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Sees Love in All Colors
(last edited Nov 30, 2009 02:28PM)
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I'm a shy person, but if I have a book that has anal sex in it Danielle, I will make it known. Of course, I will not write a review, because I will not finish the book, but I will write a comment.
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Personally, I don't have a problem with giving a review for a book I didn't finish. I say that I didn't finish it because I disliked something to the degree that I didn't care to keep reading. I think that's a valid reason to give a book a bad rating. I know people get really upset about that. To me reading a bad book is like sitting through a bad movie that you don't like. I can list some movies I walked out on, and I don't care to finish them ever. It's a waste of time, and time is too value to be wasted. I don't give too many books 1 stars, but there is one book I gave a one star rating that I didn't finish and I stand by my rating.
I liked both LU and LEn, don't get me wrong. I just definitely see flaws in them, and there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't make her a horrible writer or person. A writer's style is always changing, as it should be. Obviously I expected Ward to work on her weaker areas, and that's why I kept reading. I think she did great with LAv. It was very sleek, i.e. every scene with a purpose and the road to X goal (one of them being Ehlena x Rehv) being clearly charted and accomplished. I appreciate that.
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Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Hmm. I think organic is a good word. I do think there is some aspects of either the hero or heroine taking control, but I wouldn't call that D/s so much as sexual and relationship dynamics.To m..."
D/S is a sexual dynamic. ;) You're right, D/S doesn't have much to do with the identity of the seducer or whom initiates sex so much as who takes the power and who relinquishes it. It can be related to who takes the leads during, but there are as many ways to enact D/S as there are ways to demonstrate/give power, etc.
I would be careful about assuming. Very often, the D/S is exclusive to the bedroom. For a lot of strong women, for example, it's a time they are not forced to be aggressive party, etc. It doesn't have much to do with morality as long as both parties are willing. And I would argue that it's present in many, many more books than that, LOL. ;) Including Feehan's later books. (It might be interesting to talk about some examples. I'd be interested to know whether you think they're D/S. :D)
Whoo! I hope you like Singh, Maya! :)
message 487:
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The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears
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Soulless is done and I'm so bummed that the sequel doesn't come out until next year! I'm going to read it again because it's just THAT GOOD! It's clever and witty and I love the heroine, Alexia, who's wonderfully unflappable. The world building is awesome, even though it's set in a steampunk neo-Victorian era.
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Haven't seen you here in a while.
message 489:
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Sees Love in All Colors
(last edited Dec 01, 2009 03:32AM)
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I'm not making any assumptions here. I am not making moral judgments. If the two parties in the D/s relationship are willing, that's between them. It's just not something I'm into. It doesn't make someone judgmental to say they are not into something. There's a lot of beliefs in the world, and I would not consider myself empowered to judge anyone for what they believe or don't. You just have to follow what's comfortable for you. I don't argue that I have liked some books with D/s elements, but usually they are not the overarching theme of the story. In general, I am not into that many stories where sex is the main focus of the book. There may be some exceptions to that, but as I've said before, sex is only so interesting to me in a romance. I like to see the relationship encompass a lot more than those aspects. Feel free to make suggestions, and I will say yea or no. But it's all according to opinion. We may not see things the same way. I wasn't aware that you were a Feehan reader, NU. But yes, she does use some D/s elements in her stories. Not past my personal comfort zone, but it gets pretty close in Burning Wild.
Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "In general, I am not into that many..."Yeah, I'm not that into books with sex as the main plot either. I'm not really a Feehan reader, but I did look through her recent books to see if her style had changed. :)
Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "I'm one of those readers who can't stand to read any scenes with anal sex or butt play so I can't judge anyone who has things they don't want to read. Arch if I know of a series or books that has ..."You'd think at my age and having been married to the same guy for so many darn years, I'd be totally digging the whole menage thing, but seriously it icks me out too!
As for M/M, I don't mind it when its alluded to (like in the Schone books), its when things start getting too heavy (this includes kissing) that I sorta wanna take flight.
I mean no offence or disrespect to anyone who is gay, and I'm not going to offer up platitudes and say I have a lot of gay friends I'm just stating my preference. Many people who happen to be gay get that not everyone will enjoy reading gay-related books. There are also quite a few gay people who tend to read books with predominantly homosexual content only. We all have different tastes in reading material and as was said reading should be a pleaure, not a chore. We should spend time on books that we like, not ones we're forced to read by the mandates of society or anyone else.
Tina wrote: "Hey Davina-I dunno really why I soured on Ward. Probably a combination of things.
I think her female characters are incredibly underwritten. I like a good hero but not at the expense of an equ..."
Tina, great analysis of Ward's writing. Though having read only 3 of the books, I agree with a lot of what you wrote. The thing is, as you've said, I've never actually focused on them because Ward paints the brothers as so larger than life in your mind. The heroine that struck me as the weakest so far was Beth. I mean a strange man the size of small mountain appear outside your window and you just keel over and say take me? It's not only that but a number of her other reactions struck me as odd. Anyway, that being said, I don't like uber bitches as my romance heroines either (Nora Roberts, Kresley Cole and a few others). I like alpha males with heroines who have a quiet strength. She should be tough, but not butch. She can be meek and mild just as long as her entire world doesn't revolve around the hero (like some of Susan Anderson's heroines).
I really liked Bella. Loved the fact that she was a tall babe too with some meat on her bones. These petite waifs are getting kinda old if you ask me. Bella also wanted Z, and she went after him. I like a woman who has grit and the determination to go after what she wants. I like heroines who have their own minds and stick with their convictions. Many people hated Maddie in Kinsale's Flowers From the Storm, but she was a woman completely in charge of her own faculties. Not because the hero said something she'd suddenly give up ideals she'd believed in for years.
As for the world building, I don't have a lot to compare her to but it seems to me that Ward's world doesn't conveniently change dramatically to suit a given book as I've seen happen in Sherrilyn Kenyon's books.
I know what happens to Jane at the end of LU, but having not read the book in context I can not really comment. I don't know how I'll really feel about it until I actually read the book.
Oh and I'm so with you on BDSM! I can read it in small doses, but I don't understand the psychology behind it. Not even a little bit!
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Some interesting discussions going on here about LU and D/s relationships. If ever I was in any doubt about reading LU and LE, I will have to now. I enjoy listening to everyone's opinions, but I'm now compelled to form my own. Having interacted with Butch from the beginning of the series he has never come across as gay in any way to me. It would then be rather insulting to her readers' intelligence for Ward to suddenly present him as a gay character--simply because it is convenient. So I'm inclined to agree that a relationship with V would not have been plausible, though having not read the book personally this may be an uninformed opinion.
What I've always wondered though is why Ward paired V with a female at all? From all indications, V strikes me as a gay character. One of my main apprehension in reading his book not only involved the homoeroticism and the overabundance of it, but also the question of whether I will be able to believe him to be a heterosexual man bonded with a female for life? Will he seek out gay encounters in the future?
If one is gay, fine and if one is hetero, fine ... but I just don't like the ambiguity. At least not when it comes to lead characters.
Arch wrote: "Wow, what does a man, who is the size of a small moutain looks like? That would be scary to me. Did the author actually describe her hero looking like a small moutain?"
It's a metaphor, Arch...
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Yeah, no way to tell til you read it, Davina. ;) V is a special guy. He has a lot of baggage, LOL!
Davina wrote: As for the world building, I don't have a lot to compare her to but it seems to me that Ward's world doesn't conveniently change dramatically to suit a given book as I've seen happen in Sherrilyn Kenyon's books.Lol. Don't even get me started on Kenyon. I know she has fans here so you all close your eyes for this next part.... She is the queen of the Deus Ex Machina. Compared to her, Ward is frickin' JRR Tolkein in world building. I read five books of hers before I gave her up with no regrets. At least with Ward I am conflicted. Kenyon -- not at all!
Danielle - I agree with V. being bisexual. I think that is another reason why LU was problematic for me -- the Butch/V relationship lurking in the background. Butch is obviously straight and his attraction/love for Marissa had great foundation so I had no problem believing their relationship was it for them. But I had a harder time reconciling myself with V's love for Jane. It was clear, to me at least, that he was in love with Butch. I couldn't help but think that he settled for Jane because because he couldn't have Butch. In UF that is ok, in romance...not so much.
I'm reading Linda Howard's Mackenzie's Mission. It's kinda hard for me reading about the nasty with little Joe in the lead. lol Dunno why, but I just keep picturing him as the sullen 16 year old from Mackenzie's Mountain. Next I had Liz Carlyle's Never Deceive a Duke lined up (have never read her) but now I'm definitely gonna read Lover Revealed after MM.
You guys are right. I'll have to read the book for myself and make my own impressions. Like all the brothers, I like V a lot. Can't say I was/am too happy when I found out about his orientation, but it doesn't define him in my eyes. And since I'm already spoiled on some of the major plot points hopefully I won't be too disappointed. Actually, I'm going to make an accelerated effort to get through these "problem" -- for the lack of a better term -- books so I can read Lover Avenged. I want me some Rhev! :)
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Tina, you are not alone in thinking V settled. Many fans feel that way. I guess I'm in the minority on that one.
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Fans of Interracial Romance
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Anyways, I think I'll give the books a go. I've already paid full price for them so I might as well, and from what you've described, I don't think I should have a problem. Years ago I read Robin Schone's The Lover & Gabrielle's Woman and there were a lot of tender, homoerotic undertones between Gabrielle & Michael. I love both of them so much. Gabrielle's Woman is one of my all time favourite books. So if Butch's and V's love for each other is on the same level, and it sounds like it is, I'm good with that.
As for Qhuinn and Blay, haven't met them yet, but if and when they get their book I don't have to read it. And hopefully, in doing so, I won't be missing out on any vital details as the series progresses.
For those who are not particularly PNR readers, I'd actually say the BDB series is an excellent introduction to the genre. I've dabbled in the PNR genre before with some of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter books. Apologies to her fans, but if left up to her I never would have returned to PNR. Thank goodness the BDB series came highly recommended from people who I trust otherwise I would have missed out on some great books.
The BDB series is definitely PNR, UF even, but feels wonderfully in tune with conventional mainstream contemporaries. I don't know if its the vernacular or the gangsta rap (lol my son is a huge rap/hip hop fan--never would have known who the heck 50 cent and Ludacris were otherwise) references but the books suck you in and make you forget that you're reading a PNR. At least that's how it is for me, someone who is not usually a PNR reader. Moreover, the brothers have very special non-human abilities but they're also very human in the sense that they look human (albeit overgrown), they exist among humans, they have to eat (normal human food and LOTS of it! Rhage and his eating habits remind me of my husband!), drink water, they get tired and need to sleep, they can die from a very serious wound etc. It's like they're just a different race of people like the Chinese or the Africans. So yeah they sometimes feel more human than they are. As for the other stuff, the lessers and the Omega and the Scribe Virgin -- well I normally glaze over those parts in order to get back to the (love) story.