Happy Friday

Only recently have I gotten into reading series books. For the most part I've always been more of a single-title, stand-alone kind of reader. Thanks to Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters and Roxanne St. Claire's Bullet Catchers, I now sing a different tune. I think the reason I like their books so much (apart from the amazing writing of course) is that I don't have to read the books in order. With SK's books, sometimes I feel like I might be missing something, but the way she world-builds is practically seamless so I never feel lost. I love it when characters from other books make brief appearances. It's like visiting an old friend :)

Why am I bringing this up? Next week my first paranormal will be released from Ellora's Cave (Unleashed Temptation) and I'm currently working on the next book in what I hope will be a series. When I first wrote Unleashed Temptation, I didn't plan to write it this way, but Nick (the hero in UT), has a brother who decided he wanted his own story. I now have a new respect for authors who write connected books. Once I finally mapped out all the characters and their connections, it was much easier, but drawing out an entire family tree along with developing character sketches for each member was quite time consuming. I think it's going to be worth it though because I've already got two more story sketches ready to go.

Since this post is short, I've included some man candy for your viewing :) As a reader, what do you think of series books? What are your favorite series (if you like them)?