We finished shooting Season 2 “The Guild” around the 13th of Dec and to be honest, I was quite crispy around the edges when we wrapped. Filming two web shows (The Guild and my Machinima project), acting on four episodes of a sitcom (Roommates), traveling to panels and conventions and keeping up with my online “obligations” for 3 months straight led to me to total burnout. I think I slept for 2 weeks before I was feeling anywhere human. Ideally I would have written another project over the holidays, but honestly I had absolutely nothing left, I needed a creative refresher. So I played some video games, cooked, cleaned up my very dirty house, etc. but the real focus of my relaxation was reading. To be precise, reading about 26 J. D. Robb mystery/romance/suspense novels. In a row. And yes, I call that relaxing.

I love book series, I love living with a set of characters book after book. I discovered the “In Death” series from some online forums of authors I enjoy in the “other things you’re reading” section. I was a little dubious at first because I generally go for straight fantasy, or at least books with some supernatural element, but I remember a few years back I went on a Stephanie Plum jag and read like 10 of those mystery-ish books in a row, so I decided to give this series a try. It was around Christmas and my bank account was low, so I tried to save money and went to the library to be very frugal and check them out one by one instead of buying them. After book one, well, fat chance for that. I needed these books, and I NEEDED THEM NOW! That picture above? Yeah, I bought all of those. If they aren’t all there, it’s because I lent them out. Trying to spread the gospel of Eve Dallas, lol.

I have no idea why these characters got my attention so tightly, but I’m absolutely possessed. The series follows Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her (eventual) love Roarke, and is set in a mid-21st century New York City. The books have everything you’d ever want with your brain candy: Great plot, cool world, arresting characters and good romance scenes (yes, girls will probably like these more than boys, but whatever). Eve is a loner with a traumatic past, she doesn’t get along well with people, she’s not a girlie girl and she’s absolutely believable in every way. Part of me relates, LOL. The romance subplot between the two main characters is fantastically juicy and wonderful in every way. I rarely crush on imaginary characters, but Roarke definitely gets his hooks into me. 😉 The dialogue is very clever quippy, and my favorite thing is that as the (VERY LONG) series progresses, the secondary characters morph into main characters, so the world and cast is constantly growing. All of this is happening amongst crime and murder and the books are relatively stand-alone. Some plot twists made me laugh with their ridiculousness, but that made me love them even more! It’s like the best TV show I’ve ever read.

Admittedly, by reading one of these every day, or every other day, or a few times TWO in a day, the wonderful tension between the main characters isn’t what it was in the first 15 books or so (15?!?), but that makes me want to go BACK and read the early ones again, which I never do with series. I read somewhere that the author plans to continue for a long time and I’m excited about what twists and turns she can come up with to shake up the marital bliss a bit. Bottom line, I would definitely recommend checking it out. But have care; 26 books is a big investment.

Don’t they look pretty all stacked together like that? That’s why I can’t get a Kindle. 🙂