Smut, Smut, Everywhere

I am kind of out of the new book loop these days.

I love to read. In fact, some of my best college memories involved skipping class and spending all day reading. Why can't I do that now?! Oh, that's right, too many responsibilities. Anyway, that means that when I do have an opportunity to read I feel like the book should be, well, worth while.

Not to say that I'm into self-help, I mean, how can you improve on perfection? Just something well written. It doesn't have to be Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Alexandre Dumas or anything (Though that revenge stuff is total catnip) just something that's good. Please note: I still have spent my fair share of time reading rubbish but then I feel guilty about it.

Anyway, a friend of mine is what you might call an "author stalker-ho". If you've had a book published it is only a matter of time before she is picking through your garbage. At her invitation I joined her for an RT Booklovers Convention a couple of weeks ago. (I'm not sure, but I think the T stands for Trash.) Wow, a chance to wander through tables and tables of less then "worth while" books. I perused the wares of more than 300 authors looking for any modern WRFH covers to no avail.

Could it be that Gothic romance covers, as we know them, have changed? Could it be that Gothic romances will soon be no more?

I have not idea. And, quite frankly, I'm don't feel like guessing.

But, from what I did see, I suspect that at the moment the implied supernatural of the Gothic romance "niche" has been replaced by actual monsters. And I'm not talking about Vampires and Werewolves. That is SO old school. No, I'm talking about lots of Zombie romance books. Or, if not romance, at least smut-trash. COULD ANYTHING BE GREATER? Nothing that I could thing of.

So here are a few of the books I purchased:

After a very entertaining conversation with Mark Henry I purchased his Happy Hour of the Damned, Road Trip of the Living Dead and Battle of the Network Zombies. He promised his books were "now with extra zombie smut" so who could say no?

I also purchased My Zombie Valentine a collection of short stories by Katie MacAlister, Angie Fox, Marianne Mancusi and Lisa Cach.

And last, but certainly not least, after a rather, for lack of a better word, filthy conversation with Mario Acevedo I picked up his The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, X-Rated Bloodsuckers, Jailbait Zombie, The Undead Kama Sutra and Werewolf Smackdown: A Novel.

Will I read these? Absolutely! When? That I can't say.