Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
I absolutely love going to reader conventions. The chance to interact in person with people who one-click, auto-buy, and read voraciously in the same genres I do is a special thrill. The ability to meet my favorite authors, and tell them why their books meant so much? Double win. The VBC crew is spread throughout North America and England. We could be hitting up smaller, niche events all over. This is... 
The first 13 days of our October Instagram challenge have flown by! From #MostOwnedAuthor to #CoverLove to #VBCMadeMeDoIt, you, wonderful scrumptious VBC readers you, have been bringing your A game. Seriously, it has been such a blast to see all your pics and even more fun getting to know you! Here are some examples of what the VBC team and you clever lot have been up to: Top Left to Bottom Right:... 
Like many avid readers, I’ve developed some reading quirks. Most of you have heard about my series anxiety. I get a copy of a much-anticipated book in a favorite series and then let it sit on my coffee table. I don’t want it to disappoint. I have to mentally prepare myself for it. It’s a problem. I know. Eventually, I dive in and devour the pages, coming out the other side as a happier reader. Well, when... 
I have a regular feature over at my writer blog talking about applying Krav Maga lessons to writing. These typically deal with fight scenes and characterization. The last post covered the importance of regular training, as in your character isn’t magically good at fighting. After sharing the link a bit on Twitter, I found that it was a common pet peeve among readers. You don’t need to have an MMA fighting... ![Are you ready for Iced? [H&H]](http://vampirebookclub.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Iced-KMM-53352_200x200.jpg)
Based on the tweets I received after posting the October new release list, nearly every one of you is excited for the release of Iced by Karen Marie Moning. It makes sense. Her Fever books featuring Barrons (our first Alpha Showdown champion) and MacKayla are the most addictive I’ve read*. I’m very much looking forward to reading Iced, but I’m also nervous about it. Will Moning’s engaging writing style... 
As an avid reader, I’ve been known to fall into a reading rut every now and then. Sometimes a great new book (hint hint) will put me back into book-devour mode. But it isn’t always about a rut. There are times when I find myself reading several books in a row with similar tone (dark, dark, dark) or with so much sexy I stop blushing when hitting something really graphic. When those things happen, I need a... 
I’m starting to think we, as readers, actually love cliffhangers. Or at least love to hate them. Really. Earlier this week, we talked about those gasp-inducing, anxiety-causing cliffhangers on the VBC Facebook page. And while it was easy to name the one that gutted us the most — favorites were Karen Marie Moning’s Dreamfever ending and Chloe Neill’s Hard Bitten — it was always from a beloved series. We... 
Throughout this year’s Alpha Showdown, I’ve had requests for a Couples Alpha Showdown. I like the idea, but there’s just one problem. Everyone thinks it’s a great idea with Kate and Curran up against Cat and Bones, but no one has suggested any other couples for this potential melee. How many other paranormal power couples can you think of that you’d really enjoy seeing in battle? Both would need to be... 
A few weeks ago, I removed the captcha feature from the comments section on VBC. If you’re not familiar with the terminology, it’s the wavy numbers or letters you have to enter to prove you’re not a spam robot. There had been significant talk on other blogs and Twitter about readers choosing not to comment because of the captcha validation. And I get that. I read blog posts on my phone occasionally, and... 
When I read the first Chicagoland Vampires book, Some Girls Bite, Ethan Sullivan was not my favorite of the guys in the book. It’s hard to believe now, when Mr. Green Eyes is making our Top 10 Swoon-Worthy Heroes for 2011. Still, in the first book I had eyes for Catcher Bell. While Ethan had the alpha mentality readers often go for, Catcher is this blend of powerful and funny that’s just charming. Also,... 
