One of my first forays into contemporary romance was with Vicki Lewis Thompson‘s Nerd Series*. Before I read The Nerd Who Loved Me (The Nerd Series)*, I remember having a conversation with Rowena about Nerds, Alpha-Heroes and Beta-heroes. We were convinced a Beta hero couldn’t be hot. After reading TNWLM, we knew we were wrong. Nerds can be hot. Especially Harry Ambrewster. He was just a regular guy, not bigger than life, but just average. His appeal came from just how normal he was. He’s still one of my all time favorites.

After that I read every entry that came out in the Nerd series. Unfortunately the concept kind of lost it’s appeal for me after the 4th or 5th book. I don’t think it’s a reflection of the author or the books, just my reading taste. I moved on to other things and the Nerds kind of got left behind. When I was browsing my local UBS sometime later, though, I found a couple of VLT Blaze books and really enjoyed those, but after awhile she kind of fell of my radar.

When I heard she was writing a paranormal series, I didn’t get too excited. For one thing, I had moved on. But more importantly, I was completely over paranormal romance and not too excited to start another paranormal series.

But..well, after reading the blurb for this book (and the previous two in the series), I’m kind of intrigued despite myself. I seriously hate it when that happens.

What do you think? Have you read any of the books in the series? Should I bite the bullet and try it? Anyone willing to try it with me?

CASUAL HEX (Onyx: March 3, 2009) is the third light and sexy contemporary paranormal romance set in Big Knob, Indiana, where Gwen Dubois resides in spite of the fact that her heart remains in Paris with Marc Chevalier. Now he’s coming to Big Knob to show her the real meaning of amour and coax her back to Paris with him. But stiff competition is coming from another part of the world-if not exactly this world. Prince Leo of the Atwood fairy kingdom has his own plans for Gwen.

As Mark and Leo battle for Gwen’s affections, Big Knob’s resident matchmaking witch and wizard move in to help true love triumph in the best way they know how: with a little magic. But when the rivalry outs Gwen in danger, the men in her life are asked to prove their love in ways no one could have imagined.

This book will be available from Onyx, March 3, 2009. You can pre-order it here.

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*The Nerd series by VLT isn’t actually one continuous series featuring the same characters – or even ones previously introduced. It’s just a series of books featuring Nerds as heroes (and in some cases, heroines).