Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

Hello Everyone!
I'm sorry if this seems like a silly question, but I'm getting stumped in my attempt to find books in this genre. Granted I am rather new to it, and most of the ones I have read so far have come from friends, but it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to find them at the book store.

So I recently joined the reading challenges. After having picked out my books off of friends lists I went out in search of them at my local bookstores. I hit a general bookstore, I looked in the local Science Fiction and Fantasy bookstore, I even scoured a Boarders. I am having no luck!!

So where do I find them? Are they filed under mystery? Romance? Horror?

Where do you guys all get your books from? Should I just give up and get them off Amazon?

I hope I'm not just having a brain dead moment. =)
Thanks bunches!!

<3
TFG

Actually, you can find them in all three of those spots. It totally depends on the bookstore. You're best bet it to make a list of the one's you're interested in and ask an employee. Sorry, that's not more help. It would be nice if there was a central spot. Save me a lot of time when I'm looking.

Token Female Gamer wrote: "Hello Everyone!
I'm sorry if this seems like a silly question, but I'm getting stumped in my attempt to find books in this genre. Granted I am rather new to it, and most of the ones I have read so..."


Alot can be found in the teen section or romance section

Kathy's right - they're all over the place. :)

For most of the PNR books (paranormal books with HEA at the end) you should be able to find them in the romance section.

When I go to a bookstore I usually hit up romance first, then I'll roam around sci/fi-fantasy, horror, and YA. I can usually find all the books I want in those sections, and the majority of what I read is PNR and UF.

Happy book hunting!!

yeah me too I hit to the teen or YA section then over to the romance section and I usually find what I need in those sections.

Sorry Token, but the others are right--there just isn't any "one" place to find them. And it really does depend on the bookstore. Take the Sookie books by Charlaine Harris--they MIGHT be in fantasy (were's, vamps, fae, oh my) they MIGHT be in mystery (there's usually someone killed or attacked and Sookie has to solve it) they MIGHT be in romance (hey, Sookie has some seriously HOT, HOT, HHOOTTTTT males after her) if the particular bookstore has a PNR section, they might be there, and of course,they COULD be in the Urban Fiction category if the bookstore has THAT. I actually went into a bookstore while traveling and discovered that they'd filed different Sookie books in all of the above--which was a truly weird thing to find. So now, I just ask a clerk in the bookstore unless I have a lot of time to browse.
And I can spend HOURS and hours and hours at a bookstore, just looking at all the lovely, wonderful, terrific (coughing, and grasping a book hastily to stave off D.T.'s before turning back to the matter at hand) books. :oP

Now see I found the sookie books in the horror section

Thanks so much Ladies! It would be great if there were just one section. Oh well.
One genre I didn't look in is YA. I will be hitting that up the next time I'm in the book store. Then I think I have to find a romance book store. I live in a big enough city, there must be something like that around here. =)
Now I just have to find them before the end of September.

When I go to Barnes and Noble I usually ask they always seem to go and find what I need in the backroom.

Used bookstores also usually have a sizable romance collection, sometimes more than the big bookstore chains.

Yeah ask a sales associate or go look on their lovely computers

I have even found some in Fantasy. Its really weird how book stores place books lol.

I usually find UF in fantasy and PNR in romance.

what is UF? Having a brain fart

Urban fantasy. :) So they're probably following publisher's categories.

Not necessarily. I saw a posting on one of the groups about a mystery series that was put into Romance because of the publisher (one of Harlequin's off-shoots) even tho it says on the spine "mystery". So sometimes its based on WHO publishes not on what the book is actually about.

Well, I can't speak for every store, but I'm pretty sure that's how it's done at B&N.

Ahh see I knew that told you I was having a brain fart

And each B&N are different, I went to the one near my house and then the one by my aunts and totally different layouts and setups.

I think it depends on stores setups

I think they're just different in terms of the layout, not actual guidelines, since it's not a franchise.

It depends on what kinds of books the author used to write before they wrote paranormal. Chairlaine Harris gets shelved in mystery, because her older series books were mysteries. I've found Laurell Hamilton in SF and in horror mainly because there was only one earlier book. The bookstores are clueless. It isn't really a new genre, but they never actually figured out what to do with it.

At B&N, it's not the employees or the publishers that pick where the books go, it's the buyers (the people that choose which books are to be in all the stores.) And buyers can be stubborn at times too. I've tried to correct so many books that were categorized wrong only to get back the canned response; "thank you for your input but this is where the buyer wants it." (or something to that effect, can't remember the exact wording.)

I remember a sci-fi anthology that was shelved in graphic novels. It had no pictures or illustrations either. I tried correcting it 3 times and they never would fix it. 90 days later we hadn't sold a single one so I sent them all back to the publisher. If they want things shelved wrong then they can't be upset when customers can't find books and they don't sell. Buyers can be so dumb sometimes.

If you're finding the same book shelved differently in two different stores in the same district, it's more likely a wayward employee putting things away wrong rather than the stores shelving things in different categories.

Starling wrote: "It depends on what kinds of books the author used to write before they wrote paranormal. Chairlaine Harris gets shelved in mystery, because her older series books were mysteries. I've found Laurell Hamilton in SF and in horror mainly because there was only one earlier book. The bookstores are clueless. It isn't really a new genre, but they never actually figured out what to do with it."

Maybe that's how it is at independent bookstores or Borders, or another chain, I'm not sure which you're talking about. But Charlaine Harris, for example, is shelved in two different places at B&N. Her mysteries are in Mystery and Sookie is in SciFi/Fantasy.

There are a couple of subcategories that I wish we had, namely Horror, but if you started splitting things up into Paranormal Romance, Historical Romance, Romanctic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, and so on, you'd have a bunch of little sections all over the place. And then you have the books that fall into more than one sub-category, it'd be a pain trying to figure out where they fit in. I make themed endcaps and displays for the various sub-genres but people seem to find their books either way.

Well I'm glad and sad at the same time that I'm not the only one that has trouble locating them.
It makes me want to open a bookstore dedicated to the genre. =)

Not being able to find the books in stores is one of the reasons I ended up turning to Amazon. I like bookstores so I can browse, but if I want a particular book, especially a new one, I found that neither Borders nor B&N would carry it sometimes for weeks after it came out, but Amazon would sent it to me on the publication date. These days I also turn to Amazon because I can't figure out where things are being shelved.

Although the last time I was in a B&N store the employee was happy to help me locate an author I wanted and I've had the same results in Borders. The employees do try.

new_user wrote: "I usually find UF in fantasy and PNR in romance. "

That's certainly how they should be shelved.

So, since we're sort of talking UF...can someone recommend a few good ones to try?

Any of the Mercy Thompson books Cozy. Also her Alpha and Omega series (spin-off from Mercy). You will want to read the short story in On the Prowl and the first Mercy book before starting the Alpha and Omega series. Also Tanya Huff's Blood Price series, the spin off from that Smoke and Shadows and, if you are in the mood for a more "light hearted" UF book her Summon the Keeper series is also a good read--and is funny as well--and finally her newest series (only the 1 book in it so far) The Enchantment Emporium.


If you like puns mixed with your sci-fi/UF adventures, ANY of Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series would be great too. Again, a kind of light-hearted bunch (and, I DID warn you about the puns) of interconnected yarns. Oh, plus, (sorry to be plugging him so shamelessly, but. . .) he really needs the sales right now--his wife (and sometime writing partner) is very ill with a rare cancer, and, cancer as anyone who had ever had any dealings with it (parent, sibling, spouse, yourself--child or grandchild) is super expensive. Even if you have "good" insurance, its still expensive, because you have to come up with the co-pay. I'm a Spider fan (I have autographed copies of his works) and was really sad when I read this announcement.

Cozy, Patricia Briggs is a great place to start. Another great series is the Kate Daniels series by Illona Andrews, especially if you like CSI, LOL. A lot of people also like the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong.

Katie MacAlister and Sherrilyn Kenyon are also good authors to look for. Lynsay Sands has a good series.