Kickass Women Warriors Reign in Paranormal and Romance Suspense. I enjoy reading about a women who can protect herself.

 

I like weapons too. I fenced for years so I have a particular love of edged weapons through archery also appeals.

 

Great woman archers can be found in The Battle Lord's Lady, The Scottish Selkie, and The Bride.

 

Here is a fencer! The Courtesan by Julia Justiss.

 

Some swords women: The Sword Dancer, 

Guardian of Honor,  Magic Bites, and Dagger-Star.

 

Ah, knives: The Lion's Lady, Blade Dancer and Big Bad Beast.

 

Fine ladies of the gun: Creed, Gunmetal Magic, Never a Gentleman  and  Sexy/Dangerous. 

 

Female brawlers, boxers, and martial artists enjoy the advantage of surprise: martial arts in The China Bride and .Captive Star Fisticuffs: Kinked, Bear Meets Girl and Battered Not Broken.

 

Then, there are the magic as a weapon divas: Kiss of a Demon King and Soul Kissed (Shadow Kissed).

 

My very favorite though is the Dagmar "The Beast" in What a Dragon Should Know, she uses her brain and sometimes her war dog. 

 

Here is a great list of well known Deadly Women of Romance that if you haven't read you should.

 

1. Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress) Jeaniene Frost:  Cat, Vampire Hunter

2. Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) by Patricia Brigg: The ever scrappy Mercy

3. Magic Burns (Kate Daniels) by Iiona Andrews. Kate takes a licking and keeps on ticking

4. Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter) by Nalini  Singh. Elena takes on an Arch Angel.

5. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta  Chase. Ms Jessica Trent and her gun.

6. Dragon Bound (A Novel of the Elder Races) by Thea Harrison. Pia--Spry. You can't catch her.

7. Naked in Death by J.D. Robb. The one and only Eve Dallas

8. Harvard's Education by Suzanee Brockmann. P.J!

10. I could go all day listing every Shelly Laurenston/GA Aiken's heroine. 

 

 

Here is a great list of lesser known Deadly Women of Romance that if you haven't read you should.

 

1. The Challenge (Rystani Warrior 1): Volume 1 by Susan Kearney Secret Service agent Tessa Camen 

2. Heart of a Traitor (Heart and Soul) by  Angela Verdenius. I highly recommend the entire Science Fiction Romance series. Disgraced ex-sniper Oriel 

3. The Warrior Prince (Dragon Lords) by Michelle Pillow. Another great Pia.

4. Moon's Fury (Tales of the Sazi) by Adams, C. T. and Clamp, Cathy. Cara Salinas, Alpha Wolf.

5. Heart Journey by Robin Owens. Helena, a renowned cartographer and explorer

6. Skinwalker (Jane Yellowrock, Book 1) by Faith Hunter. Vampire hunter

7. To Catch a Bride (Berkley Sensation) by Anne Gracie.  Ayisha, so full of secrets. 

8. Sam's Creed (Hell's Eight) by Sarah McCarty. Isabella, the gunslinger.

9.The Protector by Madeline Hunter Anna de Leon, Commander

10. A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer. The princess has a brace of pistols. 

 

Do you have recommendations? Please let me know! I would love more contemporary deadly women especially. 

 

If you would like to vote for the best of the best, go to the Goodreads List: Deadly Women: Best Romance Heroines Who Can Defend Themselves.

 

If you would love to see some amazing images of deadly women from history today, and film check out my Pinterest Board: Kickass Heroines of Romance. 

 

An onna-bugeisha, one of the female warriors of the upper social classes in feudal Japan. Would she make a great heroine in a Romance Novel? 

 

 

 

I'm sad to say that I didn't like this book, at all. Here were some of the thoughts that I had while reading it:

(1) The genocidal backdrop didn't exactly put me in the mood for romance. Yes, I know the "Cleaners" had a "lifetime of conditioning" against the Mutahs, but that still doesn't make me cool with the genocidal behavior. It would have been better if we had known earlier on about the Blood attacks, and how Yulen's people thought Bloods/Mutahs were the same. At least that would have been a better excuse for the attacks in the beginning of the book than a "lifetime of conditioning." In the beginning it seemed as if they hated the Mutahs solely for their mutations, while that was only really part of the reason. But, since we didn't find this out until close to the end, the attacks on Atty's compound seemed purely genocidal in nature, and it was hard to get invested in a romance born from that atmosphere.

(2) Yulen becoming so intrigued/smitten with Atty from the get-go didn't seem to make much sense, and therefore, it was hard (or, impossible) to get invested in his character and their relationship. So, a guy who went through such lengths as to be scarred in order to save one of his men, because "he wasn't going to risk losing another man," could so quickly fall for a girl who just killed sixteen of his men? Why did he fall in love with her so quickly, and more importantly, how did he?

(3) Of course, conveniently, Atty doesn't have any of the disfiguring kinds of Mutah traits.

(4) "Like two halves of a whole, they each slowly slid off their horses." Oh boy, so mawkish. The whole romance in general was oversentimental, really.

(5) It sure doesn't take long for Atty to start calling Yulen "Yul," and ask if he has a wife. Again, the relationship between the two happens so fast with no real development.

(6) Mary Sue much?
“Why do I get the feeling she’ll never cease to amaze us?”
“She cooks.  She can shoot the eye out of a flea at a hundred paces.  And she’s a one-woman ammunition depot.  The only thing she isn’t is a lusty wench in bed, but I guess you already have plans on what to do about that one, right?”

(7) All the plot points seemed pretty forced. For example, did anyone reading this actually think that Atty might lose her powers after losing her virginity?

At the end of the day, this is a romance book, with a very poorly developed romance. I didn't feel anything stronger than apathy about the relationship between Yulen/Atty, and therefore, I felt very detached from the entire story. None of the fantasy or world-building elements were interesting enough as to save the book elsewhere. The characters were one-dimensional. I'm struggling to try and think of one positive thing about this book, but just can't seem to do it. I did manage to finish it, so, there's that, I guess.

During my ongoing quest to find a good barbarian/warlord romance, this one was a fail which I am sorry to say. This had a great premise and the fact it was a post apocalyptic setting with mutants and battle lords that run city like fiefdoms would usually tick all the boxes for me. But the heroine, Atty suffers from Mary Suism - she's beautiful even though she's a mutant she doesn't have extra limbs or anything to mark her as ugly and an outsider but lustrous indigo hair and she is a super duper hunter. Which marks her having a special ability because she's a mutant. Then there is the humans led by Battle Lords who hunt and kill the mutants although there are two different types of mutants and Atty's people have been mistakenly targeted as the bloodthirsty and murderous types. And this is one of the main gripes I have about this book, the world-building although was interesting was inconsistent and it didn't make sense a lot of the time - also what caused the mutations? It was all very vague. But my biggest disappointment was the romance, it was sweet and a bit sappy but oy there was no real build-up and when Atty is taken prisoner she falls in love with her captor and the battle lord who killed her family and people over the course of 3 days? There was no tension, no recriminaton or distrust and suddenly it was all sweetness and light and all things spice. It was unrealistic and very cliched - but the thing that made me me go all O_O was the scene where Atty lost her virginity and the reasons why she was a virgin was a danger to her life(which was pretty much another cliche) was the icing in the cake of disbelief. It was also crazy in a wtfery way - I still kept on reading at this point because I wanted to see how this book ended. But it kind of fizzled out at the end. I wont be reading the sequels and I definitely wont be recommending this book because it was such a let down. But I am still on that quest to find a good barbarian/warlord romance!

Very nice! I was expecting something very different, something more erotic, but what I found out was completely different. This book was very fast paced and very interesting. I liked both the hero and the heroine. The hero was alpha but not and arrogant and stubborn one and the heroine was really strong and clever. It was a little bit like Ms. Auel Earth's Children's saga. I'll be reading the next books!

If you like a romantic saga and a heroine who can take care of herself and hero who changes, this is a great choice. Great world building.