54. Out of the Darkness, by Lynn Erickson
This is an unusual Harlequin romance from 1995. Most of those books are repetitive (a fact I discovered at age 11 when I read the Harlequins my mom left in the bathroom and quickly lost interest), but this one stood out.
Miguel Rivera y Aquilar, a priest turned vampire, is over 500 years old and weary of life. He dislikes hurting people (he needs blood to survive) and has never killed anyone (but still broods constantly about what a monster he is, the sort of brooding that makes Batfleck look lighthearted). Enter Karen Freed, an ER nurse who takes a shortcut through Central Park in the wee hours of the morning and is attacked by two men. Miguel rescues her (and feeds on one of the men), and takes her to his expensive home until she regains consciousness. Then he asks her out to dinner (though he doesn't eat). Romance ensues.
Also in New York City is Miguel's old enemy Balthazar, who turned him into a vampire in 1458. Balthazar is ancient and very powerful, and very fond of killing. He also likes making certain people immortal when some aspect of their looks or intellect appeal to him -- or when they're pure and innocent and he wants to corrupt them for fun. Balthazar catches on to the fact that there is a mortal woman in Miguel's life and starts stalking them.
An entertaining book, a cut above most Harlequin romances, but still snarkable.
55. Wonder Woman: Warbringer, by Leigh Bardugo
Wonder Woman gets the YA treatment in this first book in the DC Icons series -- and it works. It works really, really well.
Diana, the only person born on Themyscira (the others arrived there after their deaths in battle after calling out to a goddess of battle or war), longs to prove herself. While running in a race, she sees a shipwreck out in the Aegean Sea, beyond the barrier between Themyscira and the rest of the world, and in spite of herself, swims out and rescues a girl, the lone survivor of the shipwreck. The island does not take kindly to the presence of an outsider and starts to tear itself apart, so Diana takes the girl, Alia Keralis, and leaves the island, winding up in Alia's hometown, New York City. Alia is a descendant of Helen of Troy, the first Warbringer, destined to cause conflict wherever she goes and to plunge the world into another age of warfare if not washed clean of this stain in a spring near to where Helen is buried.
This is an excellent first entry in the series, and at least three others are coming. Batman: Nightwalker, by Marie Lu is due for release on January 2, 2018, Catwoman: Soul Stealer, by Sarah J. Maas is due for release on August 7, 2018, and a Superman book, by Matt de la Pena, which is apparently due for release on January 10, 2019 (according to Goodreads), but is not yet available for pre-order on Amazon. If the quality of these other books is as good as the quality of Wonder Woman: Warbringer, the series will be enjoyable indeed.
