The Vine: January 22, 2010
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on January 22, 2010 – 12:05 PM71 Comments
After reading the Twilight saga I am hooked on the “offbeat romance” angle!I am currently reading A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb and hoping your readers can recommend some additional books that fit into this genre.
Also, I feel like I must tell you that while both of the above mentioned books are considered Young Adult…I am a full-fledged adult so don’t feel like you have to limit your recommendations to this category.
Jody
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Tags: Ask The Readers Laura Whitcomb popcult shut up Twilight
Merideth: I am with you on the Twi-hate, but I just wanted to note that I went to check out Graceling at the library last year (heard about it because I (kind of) know the author’s sister!) and the librarian there said the same thing. She said her whole book group (of librarians and local authors) adored it, in fact. And I stayed up till 3 a.m. reading it. Love! Thank you for reminding me to go back and check out the sequel!! (It hadn’t come out yet when I read the first last year.)
Another book that kept me up till 3 a.m. was The Historian. Less romance-y, although it is there, but vampires o’ plenty and a great story. I only wish I could read it again for the first time.
As someone who read the Twilight series and actually liked them, I would recommend anything by Juliet Marillier. Her stuff leans a lot more towards fantasy, but is written with an amazing voice, and the romance is touching. Her works exist in series, which also might be something you like.
For supernatural love, check out Nick Bantock’s beautifully illustrated Griffin & Sabine books; I thought the series ended with The Golden Mean [3rd book], but Bantock returned to the series and I just ordered the next 3 [Morningstar trilogy] from abebooks.com – but the 1st 3 G&S books are a complete arc. Also, Kathe Koja’s “Skin” [hard to find], written before she went all YA, but very dark, touching, waaaaay offbeat, and haunting. I heart her big time. And – oh! Let the Right One In, book or movie, that’s about loneliness, scary first love, lotsa blood and simply deserved the attention that TwiCrap got.
Oh my goodness, I am definitely seconding the rec for The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce — I went into that series skeptical as hell (I think the word “swoon” is actually used in the first chapter, though I might be wrong), but was totally sold by the end of the first book. It’s endlessly original and romantic in a dramatic but unannoying way.
Tanya Huff does good work, too. Most of her books are fantasy/romance, and quite well written. I also recommend Jacqueline Carey’s Baneweaker and Godslayer books – romantic but not necessarily romance, if that makes sense.
There is no sounding the depths of my hatred for “Twilight”, but both hands in the air for “The Dresden Files” and Christopher Moore’s stuff, ESPECIALLY “A Dirty Job”, which is ripsnorting hilarious AND a very touching love story.
I third the Graceling (by Kristin Cashore) recommendation. It’s one of the best romances I’ve read in a long time. I mean, actually, that it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, full stop, but the romance element is the part that really stayed in my head.
Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games is less of a straight-up romance, but it’s my other favorite recent find, a dystopian YA that does have a romantic element. There’s a particular thing that I really loved about the romance in this book and Graceling that I haven’t seen elsewhere, but I can’t say what it is without spoilers.
I loved Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely but hated its sequel, Ink Exchange. In terms of offbeat stories, it’s kind of cool because it’s set in a more punk world than a lot of YA, and the feisty heroine finds a cool resolution to the plot that’s a nice twist on a generally annoying part of fairy tale romances. The reason I hated Ink Exchange so much is that I felt like it turned those same elements into a parody; it was one of those unfortunate sequels that made me like the original book less.
I think a lot turns on why you liked Twilight. I’ve read and hated a number of the books recommended here — Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead; Claudia Gray’s Evernight — but depending on what Twilight was giving you, those might be perfect for you.
I had a complicated relationship with Twilight. I despised Bella and felt contemptuous of the books, but I devoured them and genuinely loved the first 2/3 of the first book — until Bella and Edward definitively get together, that is. Then, for me, it went from an awesomely plotted mysterious flirtation to hundreds of pages of the characters telling each other how much they loved the other. Yawn.
My point being, if you happen to have liked Twilight for the same reasons as I did, you might find those same romantic elements in other, non-fantasy books; I’ve found them in Sarah Dessen, for example (especially The Truth About Forever, but Just Listen and This Lullaby are ‘objectively’ better books IMO). But if it was the fantasy element that did it for you, that won’t cut it.
If you don’t mind your paranormal romance heading more into the fantasy/sci-fi arena (both at the same time in fact), you could do worse than the check out Wen Spencer’s Tinker, and its sequel Wolf Who Rules. They’re… strange. But very good. Elves, magic, romance and politics all set in Pittsburgh, after Pittsburgh accidentally gets transported to an alternate dimension. As I said, they’re weird. And Excellent.
Wow, that’s a whole lot of vampiric romancing going on. But I have to add my personal favorites, the Comte de St.-Germain series by Chelsea Quinn Yarborough. She follows one particular vampire and his several otherworldly associates through a series of historical romance settings. A bonus is that the Comte is based on a real historical person, an 18th-century man in the courts of Europe. Other real historical people are woven through the various stories in a fictitious way, and the locales range all over Europe, Asia, and North and South America. A couple of books center on the female vampires in his “family”.
“Hotel Transylvania” was, I think, the first of the novels to be written, but I think “Blood Games” or “House of Healing”(??not sure exact title??) may have the earliest setting. I’d start with “Hotel Transylvania”, though, as the best introduction to the characters.
Also, I have always loved all of Ann Rice’s witches and vampires in the Mayfair and Lestat groups.
In the fairy-tale, romance-is-somewhat-secondary, ridiculously-geographically-specific arena:
“War for the Oaks” by Emma Bull
Set in Minneapolis circa 1985, with big scenes at the Como Park Conservatory and First Avenue.
“Tam Lin” by Pamela Dean
Set in my very own college town of Northfield, MN, in the 70’s, but at the other college. A little oddly paced, but fun. It’s also part of The Fairy Tale Series from TOR Books – about a dozen retellings of classic fairy tales by contemporary fantasy authors, edited by Terri Windling. Clearly, you know how they’re going to end already, so the delight is in the journey.
This is veering, again, into fantasy, but I found Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust” to be pretty entertaining, although not as in-your-face romantic as the Twilight series (which I despise but which I stayed up almost all night reading *ahem*). Anything of his is good, and Robin McKinley rocks – “Sunshine” was the first thing I was going to suggest, but about ten people beat me to it. I think they did make “Stardust” into a movie which may or may not have sucked, but I never saw it.
@Rebecca “I only wish I could read it again for the first time.” may be the highest compliment EVER for a book! Will definitely check out “The Historian” based on that praise! Thanks for the reccomendation!
I loved the vampires Ann Rice wrote too…to a point. By the end of the series I just wanted to stake ’em all – I was that sick of ’em. (Sorry, Robin. And my apologies to the fabulous Ms. Rice, too. It’s not you, it’s me…)
The Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton is a good read. It’s in the same vein as (no pun intended) but a bit less fluffy than the Sookie Stackhouse novels (which I enjoy in spite of myself); lots of vampires, were-creatures, and other supernatural creatures, and a cool heroine, etc.
@Elizabeth — I didn’t like Ink Exchange either, but the 3rd book, Fragile Eternity is much better.
If you like Faerie, check out Holly Black. Her books are awesome and dark, with a *little* romance thrown in.
Two books that are in my pile to be read, but I haven’t gotten too yet, are Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. They are getting lots of buzz among the YA librarian blogosphere.
Angels are the new vampires, so get set for a slew of fallen angel romances.
@Margaret in CO: It may not be you. I want to set fire to Louis and all his little friends about halfway through Interview with the Vampire. Rice’s powers of description are remarkable, but her conception of human nature – well, let’s just say I don’t subscribe to it.
I read Stardust just recently and enjoyed it immensely. I don’t even know if it or Coraline is considered YA or what, but I really enjoyed Coraline, too; and his latest (I think), The Graveyard Book, is stunning! Imagine The Jungle Book, but about a little boy (brighter than Mowgli, it seemed to me) raised by the inhabitants of a cemetery. Sly, darkly funny, and absolutely gorgeous prose! So lovely.
I recommend the Harry Dresden books as a fun read – tweaking all the tropes of the slightly shady gumshoe tradition, with a very entertaining narrator-protagonist. The first one is rather thin in characterization, but the complexity of the imagined world builds as the series goes on.
I couldn’t go on with Kelley Armstrong after Dime Store Magic – I found her prose amateurish and her characters very thinly drawn.
And The Historian is genuinely shivery.
Robin here again. Just reread my post from yesterday and found that the author’s name had mutated through my keyboard, the correct spelling is Yarbro. As to the book titles, Google or Amazon will reveal all, including some I’ve never been able to find in stores. I guess I’ll be ordering a lot of books soon.
Graceling (by Kristin Cashore) was great and now there is a second book called Fire, which I have not read but it is out there. I have been reading the Keri Arthur – Riley Jensen books which are also pretty good. I also really liked the Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning. In the YA genre I have started the Marked series which is good but it is an incredibly fast read.
If by ‘offbeat romance’ you mean ‘highly entertaining and well-written romance that takes 3,000 pages to come to fruition’, may I suggest The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson? The first book in the trilogy is Quicksilver. And I love these books. I want to have an offbeat romance with these books.
And more in the YA genre, Nation by Terry Pratchett (it’s not one of the Discworld books). The plot is so good that I didn’t realize how sweet and romantic it was until it was over and I was tearing up.
For funny, fun vampire romance, I really like Katie MacAlister’s books.
Hmm…never read either of those, but like most people these days, have learned by osmosis the gist of what ‘Twilight”s about, so…
First and foremost: ‘Bad Blood’, ‘Hunter’s Moon’, and ‘Judgement Night’, the Val Sherwood trilogy by Debra Doyle. Out of print, but if you can track down copies, there are moments in those books that creep me out like nothing else in existence.
Also, when it comes to adult supernatural romance, Kay Hooper comes immediately to mind, particularly the Noah Bishop series that begins with ‘Stealing Shadows’.
Straying more into YA territory, Meg Cabot’s Mediator series (First book ‘Shadowland’) is a favorite guilty pleasure.
Two ghost stories with a romantic bent are ‘Jade Green’ by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and ‘The House Next Door’ by Richie Tankersley Cusick. (Not as romantic, but still unforgettable: ‘Tamsin’, by Peter S Beagle.)
Laurell K Hamilton’s Merry Gentry books (Starting with ‘A Kiss of Shadows’ have good moments, although they also have plenty of “Okay…enough already” moments, but I’ve always thought they’re probably similar to Twilght.
Practically everything by Dean Koontz incorporates romance and the paranormal (and Golden Retrievers), but quality varies: some of his I love, some I violently detest.
The amazon description of ‘A Certain Slant of Light’ sounds similar to ‘Through Violet Eyes’ by Stephen Woodworth, which is amazing, to the point that I’ve been putting off reading the sequel for years to better savor the anticipation.
I’m similarly torturing myself with the sequels of ‘Poison Study’ and ‘Through Wolf’s Eyes’, by Jane Lindskold, both of which I also recommend.
And again with the YA, but: the Tortall quartets by Tamora Pierce. Although it’s not the first chronologically, I usually tell people to start with ‘Wild Magic’. That’s just a personal preference, though, mainly prompted by Daine being the most appealing character I’ve ever come across.
The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, by JR Ward. Definitely an ‘adult’ series much more so than Twilight, but a quick, easy, entertaining read that delves into the Vampire world, romance, (almost) erotica, religion, the supernatural, and action. PLUS, there are going to be at least 10 books, with 7 of them out already and the next one slated for April. I’ve loaned 3 friends book 1 at this time, and all three of them have run out to buy the rest of the books immediately after finishing it.