What does one write about after a post like my last one? Jumping back into make-up talk seems a bit frivolous at this point… so I’ll talk about books!
I love reading. I also love just how easy it is to read suggested books when you have an eReader. It used to be that someone would recommend something, you would have to write it down then hope that you remembered the name/author/note with the information by the time you made it to Barnes and Noble. Now I go on Amazon and download the book instantly. At least that was what I did when a friend suggested the “grown up Vampire series”, The Elemental Mysteries by Elizabeth Hunter, to me.
Billed as a “paranormal romance,” this series contains four titles that follow librarian Beatrice “B” De Novo and 500 year old vampire Giovanni Vecchio as they search the world unraveling an ancient mystery. While yes, it is a love story, I hate that it’s paranormal romance, because these books are really so much better than that.
I loved the characters, I loved the story line, I loved the history and I loved the descriptions of the places they visited. The story dragged just a bit in book three and the beginning of book four, but by that point you are so invested in the story line that it doesn’t weigh the series down. The books are not silly or comical like other books of this genre can be, and while it is an “epic romance,” its not a smut read. The author does a fabulous job of weaving the story through all four books and while the romance between the characters is anticipated and felt from page one, it develops and grows over the course of the story arch.
Elizabeth Hunter is a independent writer that I’m amazed hasn’t been immediately snapped up (but maybe she has by now?). In an oversaturated market, The Elemental Mysteries series will remind you how good vampire books can be.
The four books in the series are: A Hidden Fire, The Same Earth, The Force of Wind, A Fall of Water. Bonus? They are all super cheap and sometimes free on Amazon and iBooks.