Hey!
I recently read Bella Andre’s Sullivan series, I really liked the concept of every book telling the story of a different family member. I also liked this concept – though not of family but of a close nit groups of friends – in Tara Janzen’s Steel Street series and Lora Leigh’s Elite Ops series.
Now I’m in he mood to read more series with his type of common thread – anyone have any recommendations?
Grad Students Who Read Romance to Cope Support Group (GSWRRCSG) 
A great mix of a family-oriented/light romance suspense: Maya Banks’ KGI series. I just read the first one and it was a really good story. I loved all the brothers and the close-nit family unit, but I felt like the suspense could have been a bit more developed. Without giving away too much of the story, the first part is suspense, then the vast majority of the book is about the hero and heroine’s relationship, then there’s a bit more action near the end, but I was kind of like – the heroine went through insane trauma, I think her nightmares would be about her captors and not about a fight she had with her husband over a year ago… And then the bad guys come back and no one, including her, is freaked out by it. If the danger aspect of the story was a bit more developed and a bit more a part of the hero and heroine’s thoughts I would have given it 5 stars. But it was still a really enjoyable read and I will for sure read the rest of the series – I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.
I’ve read this series too (up to book #3, though I have #4 waiting in my epic TBR queue of doom), and found it to be an enjoyable read overall. And props to Maya Banks (who also writes erotic romance) for not fading to black on the sex scenes. ButI had a hard time liking the hero & the heroine. They both really irritated me for some reason– he’s a wanker and she’s incapable of doing anything for herself. I wanted to slap both of them upside the head for most of the book. The “suspense” part of it also seems to drop out of the equation for big chunks of the book. When the ‘villain’ was revealed, I was like “Who?… oh yeah. Wait, do I really care?”. I liked #2 & #3 better 🙂
Hey! It may be because of you that I read this, I can’t remember – you’ve made my TBR list also one of doom proportions :p but I recently moved to a larger city and the Iibrary ebook collection is amazing! They’ve got the first three books so I’ll be reading them for sure. Im glad to hear you found them better – I agree with the hero being not much of one, and the heroine being a bit puppy dog ish, although her behavior didn’t bother me as much as it would have in other books cuz I figured (or maybe hoped) maya banks made her act like this because of the year she had? But it would have been more believable if she actually suffered from PTSD in addition to withdrawal, not just memories of her husband. It would have been nice for the other characters to have painted a more thorough picture of her personality before she left too. And I for sure didn’t really care about the ending – don’t even think that guy was mentioned at all before, or anything much about why she went to south America. A well, I though Garrett was a cutie!
It probably was me… if my TBR queue is epic, I don’t see why everyone else’s shouldn’t as well :P. I’m never going to get caught up, haha. Garrett (totally my favourite in book 1) gets his story in book 3, and while the focus is still mostly on the romance–hence why they’re really RS lite– the suspense didn’t seem to be quite so “wait– what? who?”
Just read No place To Run and you’re right, it was much better than the first book, and Garett is awesome. I’m looking forward to reading his story.
I’m briefly emerging from my hole (i.e. the pile of labwork, papers to read, reports to be written, talks to be prepared, etc.) to chime in.
On the historical front, I second Maya’s suggestions. Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series is great! ‘The Duke & I’ (book #1) is probably one of my favourite historicals. And, yes, okay, I have all 8 books and have yet to finish the series… 🙂
On the contemporary side of things, any Nora Roberts trilogy will work. I pretty much worship at the altar of Nora, so I may be a bit biased… :P. Of hers, I’ve particularly enjoyed her ‘Dream’ trilogy, the ‘Concannon Sisters/Born In’ trilogy, and her more recent ‘Bride Quartet’. She’s got a new contemporary trilogy (‘Inn BoonsBoro’) that’s also pretty enjoyable; book #1 was great, and book #2 is out on May 1st. I often hate reading ongoing series because I tend to read fairly quickly and hate waiting for the next book to come out!
Sticking with contemporaries, I’ve really enjoyed Jill Shalvis’s ‘Lucky Harbour’ series (books #1-3 are the stories of 3 half-sisters; books #4-6 coming out this summer are of 3 friends in the same town of Lucky Harbour) and ‘Animal’ series. I love the wit & humour with which she writes (and yes, Lucky Harbour #4-6 have been on my Kindle pre-order since they became available, haha). Similar in concept to Lucky Harbour is Susan Mallery’s ‘Fool’s Gold’ series; I’ve only managed to read the first one (though I have all 6 that have been released so far) and quite enjoyed it. And, of course, there’s Robyn Carr’s epic ‘Virgin River’, the epitome of (& inspiration for) the ongoing interrelated-characters-in-a-close-community series. Haven’t read it yet (albeit, again, I have the 16 or 17 books out so far– this is why I have 200+ books on my TBR queue!), but I’ve heard good things about it.
On the RS front, similar to Tara Janzen’s ‘Steele Street’ series but a bit darker are Christy Reece’s ‘Last Chance Rescue’ series and Cindy Gerard’s ‘Black Ops, Inc.’ series. Julie Garwood also has a RS series about the 8 Buchanan offspring (and some side characters), but I’ve found those to be more hit-or-miss in terms of whether I like them (#1,#2, #4, & #7 were pretty good). They definitely start sounding pretty much the same, especially toward the end. On a smaller scale, I just finished reading Shiloh Walker’s ‘Ash’ trilogy and really, really enjoyed it.
Okay, I could probably keep talking & make everyone’s TBR queue as long as mine, so I’ll stop. I swear, I should quit grad school and make getting caught up on all those books my full-time job!
Hey you!
Thanks for this, and glad to hear you’re surviving your work mountain! You have most definitely added to my TBR list, however I have decided I need to be a good (or at least adequate) grad student and finish the term and a first draft before I get sucked into a series. When I’ve done this I think I’ll start with Cindy Gerard’s Black Ops 🙂 By then I’ll be home for the summer, which I haven’t done for about three years, and where there is little to do, so your list will be greatly appreciated 🙂 Good luck with everything!
Read ‘Show no Mercy’ it was awesome!
Well, my all time favorite are Julia Quinns Bridgerton series. There’s 8 and they’re all fabulous. I also like Mary Balogh’s Bedwyn books and Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower series
Great, thanks! I will check these out 🙂