What’s your favorite book?

What’s your favorite book? I truly despise this question. It’s too general. Too broad. For non-readers, they might think it’s simple but it’s really not. I love way too many books to narrow the list down to just one. And readers like different books or series for totally different reasons. It depends on the genre or what I’m in the mood for at the time.

If I’m looking for some ass kicking urban fantasy, I will turn to the likes of Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson series or the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. Both series star a strong female lead with MMCs who only compliment that quality in them. Also in both series, the worldbuilding is robust. If you’re into going hard on a series with lots of “lore” to the story, they have it in spades.

Mercy is a coyote skin walker who rubs elbows with creatures of myths and legends. Shifters, werewolves, fae, witches, and even gods. Her series has lots of action, lots of mystery, and one very delectable werewolf alpha. Set in the Pacific Northwest, the stories are rife with Native American influence and familiar real-world sites.

Kate’s world is a little more premise-based. In her world, magic was real once upon a time, then technology came along and took over. One day, magic crashed back in and with it, creatures. But the magic comes and goes in waves. Sometimes tech works and magic is gone, then the magic comes back and the tech stops working. On page one, you’re dropped into the story after this has already happened and it’s already their way of life instead of an event that you “witness” while reading.

And right on par with those two series for expansive worldbuilding is the Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros. That series took off like a rocket with Fourth Wing and hasn’t slowed since. It’s an excellent fantasy world with some fiery spice and dude….there are dragons. I repeat, DRAGONS, my dude! Not only are there dragons, those dragons are snarky bitches with a whole lot of attitude and a very short fuse when it comes to humans. I haven’t been this excited about book releases in a series since the magical days of Harry Potter drops. I cannot wait for the next book to come out!

If I’m still craving urban fantasy but I want more of a romantic bend to story, I will re-read the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning or I will re-listen to the audiobooks for the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost. In the Fever series, you’re faced with a downright terrifying picture of fae. Even the good ones are great big, opportunistic assholes. And the FMC, Mac, hasn’t got a foggy clue who or what she is. The MMC, Barrons, is the series is the absolute embodiment of the word arrogant but I promise he’s got lots of reason to be that way.

The Night Huntress world is vast. It’s got a huge cast spanning across seven base series novels, two retelling novels from the MMC’s point of view, five mid-series novellas, a collection of outtakes/deleted scenes, and nine spin-off novels from three different spin-off series. The audiobooks for the seven base novels from the flagship series are narrated by Tavia Gilbert and her performance is nothing short of *chef’s kiss*. Her vocal acting ability should be celebrated.

If I’m in the mood for dark contemporary romance with a laugh, right now Brynne Weaver and Navessa Allen have me in a chokehold. Brynne Weaver just finished her Ruinous Love trilogy with Scythe & Sparrow and it was every bit as funny as the first two books in the series.

I was no exception to the throngs of readers who fell in love with Ally and Josh in Lights Out by Navessa Allen. This one is much spicier than Ruinous Love but every bit as funny. Caught Up, book two in the Into Darkness series, comes out June 10, 2025 and I cannot wait to get my greedy little paws on a copy.

I also really love the second and fourth books in the Queens & Monsters series by J.T. Geissinger, Carnal Urges and Brutal Vows. I love the whole series but those two are the love story equivalent of cotton candy for me. I’ve re-listened to the audiobooks (the originals, not the new recordings) soooo many times over. The series-wide story is deeply entertaining, the spice is spicing all over the place, and both books make me laugh most of the way through. Reyna, the FMC from Brutal Vows, may very well be one of my favorite FMCs of all time. Plus, Geissinger knows exactly which buttons to press to make me cry over happy things, an ability unique to her writing thus far.

If I’m fine with leaving the laughs behind and just having my heart ripped apart by a very bad man, I turn to the queen of dark romance, Shantel Tessier. Her L.O.R.D.S. series is fucking incredible. Just the other day, I posted about pulling a Freaky Friday with her. Her secret society world is one to be envied if you’re a writer. You have to go through a lot of jaw-dropping spice for it but the ride is totally worth it.

I also recently discovered the Sick Boys world by Lucy Smoke. Her characters, FMCs included, are morally black and omg, they are so much fun. Avalon announces her displeasure with an asshole classmate by torching the bitch’s car via molotov cocktail. It’s awesome. I will warn you, though. Neither series is for the faint of heart but Sick Boys also includes on the page sexual assault. As a survivor myself, I had to stop the audiobook a few times to just to take a cleaning breath or two. I finished the fourth book in the series yesterday and can already tell you I will definitely be re-listening in the future.

If I’m looking for an excellent mystery/thriller, I reread the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown. I’ve probably read the first three books in the series no less than twenty times each. As someone with ADHD, those books are a steady flow of information coming from twelve directions at once. It keeps the scattered bits of my brain occupied the whole time. I never get bored in one of his stories.

I’ll chat books with you all day long and well into the night but please don’t ever ask me to name my single favorite book.

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