I am starting to put the giveaway books into gift bags, so I'd better get busy listing my favorites here!
The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls by Lois McMasters Bujold
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMasters Bujold
Cordelia's Honor was the first book I read by Bujold. I worked at a bookstore, and was straightening one of my favorite sections, science fiction. A gentleman came in and was looking at books, and I asked if I could help him find something. We started talking about various books we had read, and he recommended the Vorkosigan series to me. Cordelia's Honor might be considered a prequel to the Miles Vorkosigan books or the first in the Vorkosigan series. In any case, I was instantly taken with Bujold's science fiction romance. I have read that Georgette Heyer, the Regency romance author, influenced her writing, and I can believe that. In Cordelia's Honor, we meet Cordelia Naismith, an officer in the Betan Expeditionary Force, and Aral Vorkosigan, an infamous military officer from the planet Barrayar. How they meet, and the personal and political consequences, make a captivating start to the ongoing Vorkosigan story.
Bujold went on to write The Curse of Chalion and two sequels, including Paladin of Souls. These books are set in an alternate world, with active and interferring gods. Her characters are so well envisioned that the reader can't imagine them doing anything other than what they do. The storys are enthralling, and the mysticism of the world is maintained consistently throughout the series. If I didn't also have these books, as well as the Vorkosigan books, as e-books, they would not be leaving my self.