1.  Empire of the Vampire, Jay Kristoff - Not only was it my goal to slow down and go deeper in 2026 with my reading, but I also decided it was time to get over my anti-male writer bias. (husband excluded, of course!)  Having survived the bad old days of fantasy where male authors couldn't create a realistic female character to save their lives and/or relegated them to window dressing and/or made every one of them a victim of some sort, I've been primarily reading books by women for decades.  But I recognize my own bias, particularly as I've been exploring my own feelings around the history of fantasy and current trends, including the 'romantasy' label.  So I decided to challenge myself.  Kristoff kept coming up in the fantasy v. romantasy debate, and I really liked what I heard - especially from Bromantasy on Instagram.  Also, I listened to the conversation he had with V.E. Schwab on her podcast and was intrigued.  So...he felt like a great first ste...