Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

I am a big fan of magicals like Harry Dresden (Dresden Files) and Rachael Morgan (The Hollows). In general, the more the hero/heroine can do the more interesting the story. The coolest talent I have come across is Lynn Viehl's Darkyn vamps ability to drink blood through the skin without the human knowing. At least, as I recall, some of them could do it. What about you guys? If you reference a character, share the name of the series, book, or author.

I think the coolest paranormal talent I've come across in reading is the unique one Kimberly Derting gives her character Violet in her book The Body Finder. Violet can sense the "echos" from dead bodies, at least murdered ones. These echos are can be sounds or smells or sights and she can match the echos coming from the dead bodies with ones coming from the murderer.

That's a great question! There are so many cool talents in these books! Hmmmm. Let me think...

I like Sawyer's talent in the Phoenix Chronicles by Lori Handeland. He's a skinwalker, but his "robes" are tattooed on his skin, so he can touch the wolf tattoo on his chest and become a wolf or touch the eagle and become one.

I think Rose's flash in On the Edge is awesome and the really cool dragons the characters shift into from the Drakon series. They look really cool and they hear gems.

In The Dark Series by Christine Feehan, the coolest talent that I came across is being able to turn into any kind of animal, which I thought was pretty neat!!!

Harper Connelly can find Dead people and discover how they were murdered just by stepping on their graves after she was struck by Lightning. It's pretty cool.

new_user wrote: "I like Sawyer's talent in the Phoenix Chronicles by Lori Handeland. He's a skinwalker,..."


That is a cool talent. I loved that he made a robe with all kinds of animals printed on it for Liz to slip on so she could do the same. But, Sawyer having them tattooed on his skin is much cooler. Especially, with whats tattooed on his..uhm, male parts. LOL!

I think a really awesome talent is Georgina Kincaid's from Richelle Mead's Succubus series. She's a succubus and in addition to sucking the essence of every man (and sometimes woman) she sleeps with, she gets to be able to change shape - any shape she wishes - and be invicible.
Other good abilities are telepathy, flying etc. which are pretty common in paranormal books.

I like Dream walking and Projection of thoughts and controlling peoples actions is VA by Spirit users.

LOL, Jessa! Yeah, those too. ;)

Oh, and I like the ene-ribbons from Andrews' Silent Blade short story too! They're like something right out of an anime. Ribbons of energy that whip out from a device on one's wrist (if I remember right.)

Well, the most interesting VAMP talent I've run across is that of Jim Blackwood, the evil vampire master of Spokane, Washington. He'd learned that by drinking blood of people with specific talents he could absorb the talents too. He took the old maxim "You are what (or rather who) you eat" to rather, um, unusual lengths.

Ann, that's from the Mercy books, right?

oops, sorry, Yes Laura Lulu, from Bone Crossed. Sorry I forgot to put that into my post.

Keri Arthur in the Riley Jenson series has her vamps able to shadow- to become just about invisible.
It not uncommon- a lot of authors give their characters heightened sense of smell- I think it's pretty cool though.

I love the magical tatoo's in Karen Chance's Cassie Palmer series, mainly part of Claimed By Shadow. Not exactly a talent perhpas but very cool.

Spirit users from VA and Cats ability to drain power, absorb it and then us it when she drinks vampire blood from Night Huntress series.

I can't remember exactly who it was...but it was in the Cassie Palmer series by Karen Chance. A Gentleman had all sorts of different animal tattos on him...and they were alive and would crawl all over him and move spots. They had the ability to come alive (off the skin) and attack enemies.

The lead gal, Cassie ended up getting a panther (I think...could have been a tiger)

Just sounded really interesting to me!

I would love a "live" tattoo!

Yeah, that would be cool, Kelleigh.

Two talents I liked (but didn't nessarily love the books), in the main character Corine Solomon can touch objects and know their history, but it comes at a cost -- they burn her skin. Her ex-boyfriend "Chance" can turn luck in the direction he wants it. Same author (writing under a different name) in , the main character Kira (I think) -- can drain a person's top talent and use it for a few hours -- whatever the talent is -- maybe it is cooking, maybe it is singing, sometimes it is fighting, etc.

The coolest talent that I have found is in Brenda Joyce's Lords of Time series. They can literally leap through time. Also Ian has the ability to unlock doors, locks, handcuffs, etc with his mind!!!

Door in Neverwhere can create a doorway to anywhere at anytime. Her house doesn't have any doors because her family just transported themselves everywhere. She was cool.

Heather wrote: "The coolest talent that I have found is in Brenda Joyce's Lords of Time series. They can literally leap through time. Also Ian has the ability to unlock doors, locks, handcuffs, etc with his mind!!!"

That was a fantastic series! I hope she writes more for it. I checked her website but I saw nothing in her publication news to indicate that there was anything with the Masters of Time forthcoming.

It's urban fantasy, not PNR, but I really like the warden concept in the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine. Humans who are able to manipulate the four forces of nature: air, water, fire, earth. Very cool.

Kelleigh wrote: "I can't remember exactly who it was...but it was in the Cassie Palmer series by Karen Chance. A Gentleman had all sorts of different animal tattos on him...and they were alive and would crawl all o..."

I think you are talking about the woman that's the head vamp of the council. She is dressed in snakes and can send them away from her body. I love Karen Chance but she writes too slow. I already forgot half the stuff the characters can do in that series.

Nope, Kelleigh's right, it was a guy covered with animal tattoos. I think his name was Mac? He was the guy in the tattoo parlor with Cassie & Pritkin.

I think that there was also a short story in the Ink'd Anthology that had to do with those tattoo's too.

Oh yeah. I forgot about him. Dang, I may have to go back and read those again. Weren't there some kids that had some unique skills that Cassie rescued? I think one of them was a Null. That was pretty cool too.

Oh yeah, the weather wardens are cool too. :D

In Tattoo by Jennifer Lynn Barnes the friends get powers with their temporary tattoos. each one has a different power. Morphing things, fire starter, read minds and see the future. I thought it was pretty cool

I like the way Laura Blackstone, a fey living in the present convergent world where Fairie opened to the human realm, can create complex & detailed glamours. She can save them in gemstones and power them for later use.

Well, its more fantasy than PN but in the The Black Company series they have a mute girl who can totally nullify all forms of magic. This is an older series (like I think the late 80's maybe early 90's) so I think they come pretty close to being the originator of that idea.

Mollie wrote: "Heather wrote: "The coolest talent that I have found is in Brenda Joyce's Lords of Time series. They can literally leap through time. Also Ian has the ability to unlock doors, locks, handcuffs, e..."

She said that she was done with the Masters in Time series.

I just finished Eternal Kiss of Darkness 2nd book of the Night Huntress World series. The main vamp character is Mencheres and he has powers I can't describe because it would be a spoiler. Suffice to say that seeing the future was not his only unique capability. FYI for Cat and Bones fans, they are in the book too.

I think the Carpathians from Christine Feehans series have some amazing abilities, my favourite is shapeshifting and they can create illusions as well.

From the Carpathian series by Feehan, Gregori once drank someone's blood while at a hospital and filtered the drugs out through his skin, then shook it off. I forgot about that one. Some of the others have mad skills but Gregori is the man.

Oh yeah, Gregori is definately the man, he is my fave carpathian. The women have good talents as well, I can't remember her name but one of them can clense the earth, which I thought was a really cool ability.

I think my favorite is Mercy Hollings' power in the Toni Andrew series by the same name. Mercy has a mind-controll power she calls "the press". She mostly uses it for good to help people quit smoking, get out of abusive situations, etc, but in every book she uses it to "get rid of" some bad guys by making them drive their car off a bridge, etc. Powerful stuff! I think she also has some telepathic abilities.

Beg For Mercy
Angel Of Mercy
Cry Mercy

Whoa, cool, Martina!

Yeah, I really like those books. They're UF, not PNR and remind me a little of Kat Richardson's Greywalker series or Phaedra Weldon's Zoe Martinique series. If you liked those, I say give the Mercy Hollings series a chance, too.

What about Alexia from , her ability is quite good, she is like a negative force and whemever she touches vampires or werewolves they turn into normal humans.

I know--and dont you love that she gave the gift of seeing a sunrise to her friend the vamp? Don't have the books here right now, so I can't look up his name. But its the gay Count who doesn't belong to any Nest.

I know who you mean, the one she gets captured with in the first book. That was a really nice moment in the book, I am glad I bought it, it was an impulse buy, and I am glad that I gave in!

I'm a major fan of Kathy Love's PNR vamp series. Her "Young Brothers" rocks. And the trade paperback vamp and demon books that have been published after that one are a loose kind of series. I know when I buy one of her books I'm gonna love it. Can't get any better than that!

Also Lydia Parks (Addicted) and Lacy Danes are new discoveries for me. They really have some fab PNR and erotica, and I highly rec their novels.

Ok, its not a "gift" or "talent" but hey, I LOVE Henry from Blood Pact. He's a vampire--and the original "vampire romance book writer. I always loved the idea of a vamp as a romance writer. lol, hey, maybe that's why we have all these pnr's with heroes who are vamps. Not because one is a writer--but because one is a PUBLISHER. What do you all think?

OMG, Ann, I totally agree!! Henry from the "Blood Books" is smokin' HAWT! He was my first vamp love. And like you said the fact he was a historical romance writer by profession was a scream!

I would have to say that Georgina Kincaid's talent to shift into anything she wants is pretty awesome. I would do anything to be able to wear anything I wanted to and apply makeup instantly. My clothing budget would decrease drastically and we won't talk about the extra weight I could get rid of instantly...lol

I really like Cat's ability to use the powers of the vampires she drinks from in the Night Huntress Series. Also, V's ability in BDB to destroy and heal with his hand and Rhage's ability (curse) to turn into a huge beast and eat lessers!

lol, speaking of the extra weight solution. WWAAAYYYYY back in like the 80's I read one of the Grey Mouser and Fafnir books, and from a spell they were shrunk down to the size of rats--leaving behind pools of excess fatty tissue and their clothing. (Which is one way to get around the whole change of mass thing.) And, when they went to reverse the spell--they pulled tissue from the people around them--including the (very) fat crown princess of where-ever it was they were. I've always remembered that scene. The writer had the princess crooning in delight that she was finally thin and pretty after being over-weight her entire life. Swords and Deviltry

OMG, Ann! Send some of those rat-sized shifters my way PLEASE!!!!

I love the KATE DANIELS series from Ilona Andrews and kates talent of forming her own blood into weapons. I know she doesn't have control over it now but in MAGIC STRIKES she used it and it was great.