I currently have a decided lack of a book to read.
There are those who would dispute this, having seen my shelves, and those who would dispute the claim even more strongly, knowing that not only are my shelves full to overflowing, but I have not yet read all they contain.
However, as any avid readers in my audience will acknowledge, there are times when the mind longs for a certain type of book…a style, a genre, a type of character, a variety of setting. Reading is, of course, a kind of wondrous escape to lands unknown…a vacation or adventure that can be taken within the mind…but I wax cheesy. You know what I mean.
And just as you understand my meaning, you surely also understand that, while there are times when one is happy to enter unexplored lands and welcome whatever awaits there, there are other times when one longs for certain destinations. Sure…scaling the Himalayas is quite exciting…and there is nothing wrong with hiking through the jungle to see Aztec ruins — but there are other times when there is a specific desire for a beach chair
overlooking a Caribbean sea and anything else would simply be annoying and make one worry about contracting either frostbite or malaria.
At the moment, my beach chair is an adventury fantasy…possibly low on deep literary content but fun and enthralling none the less. A story with horses and magic and most likely protagonized by a young man (though a female protagonist is not unacceptable) who might or might not have a past he needs to escape/let go of/find resolution regarding and will probably experience romance and/or horrible loss that changes him forever. Oh, and who is also almost certainly somewhat street-smart or has a hidden talent 
and almost surely a bit pretty.
I’m sure any fantasy reader knows the trope well and can instantly list at least two or three without even trying. I know I can. I own quite a few, in fact, as it is a genre I find quite enjoyable…Anne Bishop’s books. The Last Herald Mage series. The Legend of Nightfall. The Locke Lamora books. The Melusine series.
And I have read each one either very recently or so many times that reading them again would yield no new joy, no forgotten secrets.
So now I am off to poke through my novels and try to convince one or two to at least masquerade as a turquoise sea full of fishes…but at some point in the future, I feel I need to supplement this sub-genre in my own collection. So now, I ask this of you:
Any recommendations?
