I've been reading some recent posts and have come across Shannon McKenna's name a lot - someone wrote that she does a good Alpha-male.  If they're anything like Linda Howard's guys in After the Night, Dream Man, Loving Evangeline, etc, then that's what I'm interested in.

Anyone have recommendations on which books of hers I should start with?  Or any I should avoid?

Thanks, Ladies!

What Gina said.   :)

Thanks, Gina and Michelle!

Okay, some follow up questions: are they all difficult to get ahold of?  I noticed the first two McCloud books are WL'd.   

Also, are they considered hotter than a standard Linda Howard?

I agree with both of these ladies . start with " Behind closed doors. It was the first book I read by her and its what got me hooked

Much hotter then Linda Howard

Yup, I agree. Start with Behind Closed Doors - that's the start of the McCloud series.

I haven't read too many Linda Howard books, but of the ones I have read, I think Shannon McKenna's books are hotter.

Well, darn!  Looks like a lot of her stuff's WL'd.

If anyone has more than one on hold on their shelf, I'd be happy to save you some postage and order a couple of her books from you... 

(hands clasped, eyelashes fluttering...)

She's definitely steamier and more explicit than Howard. Nothing super kinky though and all within a romance framework - not just a lot of sex for sex's sake.

Good to hear - I wasn't keen on sliding into the erotica zone.

(Wonder what the DH would think about that phrase...)

I just read Extrememe Danger by her (offering it up in a swap).  It was quite good.  I somehow have a copy of Behind Closed Doors already so I'll have to read that.  I did request Out of Control which was available in the PBS system a couple of days ago when I ordered it.  I scooped up Edge of Mindnight from the "is this on your WL thread" and that's on its way to me.

The WL for Standing in the Shadows is pretty short (I'm 3 out of 4).  I figure by the time I get that and read all of them, hopefully Ultimate Weapon's WL has moved some.  If not, it's only like $4 on Half.com

Yes, all of hers are keepers but I have also injected extra copies into the system.  They are out there.  The McCloud brothers and all their friends are a great read.   She is definitely one of the best at alpha males with troubled emotions, black belts in every martial art there is, lots of scary enemies and really impressive salamis.

THey are almost constantly WL. When I ordered Behind Closed Doors there were several copies posted.  But then it was WL pretty quickly again.   I used Standing in the Shadows for a game recently. When I revealed it there were 3 copies posted and by the end of the game it had a short WL again. So they do get posted. They are also starting to release them in mass market paperback form which should make them start being more available.   I would just put them all on my WL.  

She had a great website that lists her books in the order they came out. I didn't read them all in order though. They are probably better that way. 

Her heroes are Uber-Alphas. So if you don't like that you might want to skip them.  Some of her heroes/heroines you just want to smack.  But I like that they are flawed.  I hate it when the H/H are too perfect to be real. 

what I find interesting about her is that her heroes are usually stalkerific but she makes me buy into it which is a hard thing for an author to do cause that sh*t doesnt appeal to me at all.

I do think from a technical standpoint, she usually has at least one or 2 sex scenes too many but I can deal ;-)

If there is any other authors like Linda Howard or Shannon, please point me in the right direction.

I know that reading a series in order is almost always better but is it necessary? I have a few here and would like to not worry about the order. I'm ok with books that just pick up a character's story but sometimes the action continues on and I'm bummed when I start in the middle.

I just read Return to Me and really liked it!

I'm not concerned about reading them in order.  The only one of this series I've read is Extrememe Danger (#5) and I didn't feel lost in the story at all.  Yes, characters from the other books were in there but I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not having read the other 4.

I wouldn't say you have to read this series in order.  There are references to things that happened to the couples in previous books, and of course recurring characters, but you're not going to be totally lost if you read #3 before #2.  :)

You ladies are dangerous. I went to my bookseller to pick up my August order (tad late on that and still haven't done up my September one yet) and I checked her used shelves and found, luckily, the first two McKenna titles 

Also picked up (used) the first two Mann "Ops" books. I've only read one of Mann catagories and liked it well enough so since I was in a spending mood I went for it.

Gail

Well, I just got back from the used book store and picked up the first one in this series.  Looking forward to getting started.