I was coming in to say much the same thing, only Ill be slightly more snobbish and say the first three are workmanlike at best. Less bad than heavily cliched and just a little Gary Stuish. It didn’t start clicking for me until at least the fourth. Thankfully even at their worst they are movie-popcorn sort of books - tolerably diverting.
By contrast Charlaine Harris’ True Blood books start out as workmanlike journeyman hack stuff and just get worse and worse. IMHO of course ;).
The Magicians on SyFy. I think it’s really fun, and has violence, magic, and smoking hot people.
I second that.
For over the top gore and violence (and this from a guy who very pointedly does NOT watch horror movies), there’s Ash vs The Evil Dead. Ruby and Kelly (Lucy Lawless and Dana DeLorenzo) are a lot smarter than Ash and Pablo.
SF and Fantasy: there’s the classic “Chronicles of Amber” by Roger Zelazny. Nine smokin’ hot men, and some hot women too. Pure escapism.
The “Demon Prince” novels by Jack Vance: lovely stuff! You might call it “science fantasy.” If you like those, you’d prob’ly also like the “Tschai, planet of adventure” series. Five books and four books, respectively. Easy reading, but so much fun!
A long shot: have you read any Cordwainer Smith? Eerie, thoughtful, otherworldly, inventive science-fantasy, different from anyone who came before or who has come since. Here is the Project Gutenberg link to The Ballad of Lost C’mell, possibly the keynote story in his “Rediscovery of Man” cycle of fiction. Give it a read, and, if you like it, you’ll like everything the man ever wrote.
I love the ocean, so Abzu sounds perfect, but it mentions needing a controller. Do you think this would work on a PC keyboard or mouse?
I am extremely excited about a lot of these recommendations, even if I can’t get to them all this week.
[QUOTE=Sunny Daze]
I may read a lot. If you give me an idea of what you like, I’ll throw some more at you.
[/QUOTE]
I read a lot of science fiction, I’d say my favorite ever is Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga. Her lighter stuff can be hysterical, like a Civil Campaign or even the sheer comical mayhem of The Warrior’s Apprentice. My favorite science fiction writer (or writer, ever) is Ray Bradbury. But he can be pretty dark. I do love Stephen King, and he’s dark but not necessarily always in a realistic way.
I like the idea of romance, I even write the stuff myself, but I’m often disappointed by the execution. I’d say I’m more attracted to the romantic suspense stuff where the characters are caught in some life-or-death scenario. I’d even be interested in reading some light mystery for fun, even though I don’t usually read that genre.
I don’t have as much exposure to fantasy novels, but I do have a preference for fast-paced novels, which means I don’t want to read anything that requires an exhaustive family tree and twenty topographical maps to understand (I’m looking at you Game of Thrones.) I like clever dialog and exceptional character development. I’m way more interested in characters than setting and plot.
I’ve played a little bit with both, a controller feels more intuitive and the game is a bit better at showing how things work but the keyboard + mouse is perfectly ok.
I found this:
If you get it on Steam you have up to two hours to see if it works for you or you could pick up a generic xbox controller for $10 - $15.
According to several folks in this thread, it works fine. Which is good: I put it in my Steam basket earlier today and only didn’t buy it because their app kept crashing.
For television, have you seen Galavant? It’s super silly, and the romance gets subverted (this is probably the most romantic song in the show), but the subversion isn’t nihilistic, just wry. I highly recommend it.
I think you really need to read Bujold’s “Sharing Knife” series–romance AND fantasy! Then maybe Sharon Shinn’s “Twelve Houses” books–first one is “Mystic and Rider.” Also the “Elemental Blessings” series, same author.
Bujold - did you ever read the Chalion Series? It’s amazing how much contemplation of religion you can pack into a fantasy novel while you aren’t looking. 
We can go very light and fluffy on the romance/suspense and try Jayne Ann Krentz. She writes contemporary romantic suspense under that name, sometimes with a paranormal tilt. Under the name Amanda Quick, she writes historical romantic suspense. Under the name Jayne Castle, she writes futuristic romantic suspense. Very fluffy all of it, in a nicely satisfying, can’t [del]eat[/del] read too much at once kind of way.
Janet Evanonovich has written far too many of the Stephanie Plum books (One for the Money, etc). That said the first dozen or so are hilarious contemporary mysteries with some sex thrown in and a romantic triangle. They are ridiculous, which can be good. I fondly remember laughing so hard I cried at some of them. They are in no way serious literature. They are an insult to serious literature. You should carry them in brown paper bags and pretend you don’t know them.
Anne Bishop. Darker books would be her earlier Black Jewels fantasy series. Some trigger warnings for you here. Some abuse of the female protagonist as a child. A really well imagined and fully fleshed out fantasy world. Not light reading. More recently she has written a series called The Others. This is fantastic. Thinking about it, may be some triggers for you again? The central character was taken from her family as a child and raised in an abusive institution. The books are all about what happens to her and the entire world afterwards. The first is “Written in Red.”
Ben Aaronovitch writes a series that starts with “Midnight Riot” about a London police officer who finds out that there’s more to the world than he ever expected. I find the series fascinating, not least because of the glimpses that it offers of a different police system.
Dorothy Sayers, if you’re feeling like a stroll with your fuzzy/liberal education. I love her Peter Wimsey books and stories. Very British.
Linnea Sinclair has a good series of romantic science fiction. The only one I personally didn’t like was “The Down Home Zombie Blues”. The others are all on my re-read list.
Any interest in military fiction or gunpowder fantasy? If so, I’ll shoot over another list.
Joanne Bertin has only 3 books that I’m aware of. All excellent fantasy with a romantic element. The first is called “The Last Dragonlord”.
Daniel O’Mallory, “The Rook” is a fun read about a woman who wakes up in a park, surrounded by bodies. She has no memories and finds 2 notes in her pocket. The note she chooses will change the course of her life. This is also a paranormal mystery. I really like this one.
One more then I’ll stop for now.
Gail Carriger, starts the Parasol Protectorate Series with “Soulless”. It’s Steampunk and very frothy, British, silly fun.
I’ve got thousands (eek) of books, so this was my first skim. I’m trying to be mindful you’ve only got a week. 
I second The Magicians. I think it’s right up your alley.
But I ‘first’ the Misfits. A BBC show I know is currently streaming on Hulu. 5 seasons of pure, unadulterated awesome. That’s all I’m saying.
Robin McKinley, either her YA stuff (which is great for adults) or her Sunshine, which isn’t really for kids. Beauty, The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown.
Have you tried Outlander? Fantasy, strong woman, handsome man.
I’ve recently been rereading Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni novels. Very detailed medieval fantasy, with politics between Crown and Church, They aren’t exactly light reading, but the stories are good.
I’d third Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion. Very, very good book.
StG
I’ll add the Laundry Files by Charles Stross. Starting with Atrocity Archives, it’s a science fantasy series that jams Lovecraft with James Bond, except the ‘magic’ is high order mathematics and ‘Bond’ is a low level IT nerd working for the paranatural branch of the MOD tasked with defending the Realm from nameless horrors from beyond space-time. Lots of dry british nerd humor. It’s a blast.
Well, first you have to grab your trusty Spice Weasel…
Some great suggestions above! This might be a stretch, but if you want some pure fantasy junk food, try the “Caverns and Creatures” novellas by Robert Bevan (most are free on Kindle). Spoofy stories about a dude sucked into a Dungeons and Dragons type game that ended up being real. Lots of schlock and some admittedly tasteless jokes, but they were actually amusing and got me through a rough spot when I needed escapism. Like Piers Anthony without the creepy child-leering stuff.
On a different level, you could do worse than a short Absolutely Fabulous binge. Followed by “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” for balance.
Ugh, I read a really long Anne-Rice-ish series a couple years back (sci-fi/fantasy) about a bunch of silly immortals whose main point in common seemed to be that they were all addicted to chocolate. And I can’t think of the title for the life of me! It was a really fun series; I’ll get back to you if I think of it. It fit the bill for smoking hot strong females and…yeah.
Video games: Do you have Steam? Check out Her Story. It’s a bit dark, but I have a feeling you might like it. It’s a detective thingy, and there is no winning or losing, mostly watching a bunch of mixed-up video clips from interviews from a case and figuring out what the lady was on about.
Thank you for reminding me about these. I keep meaning to try them.
Also, the second season features a young Jensen Ackles (the “smoking hot man” from Supernatural, as noted in the OP).
I actually downloaded the first one a couple months ago, but never got around to reading it! Such an intriguing set-up; I love the Lovecraft mythos.
Oh. I thought Dean was the whiny brother.
They alternate, really. Dean is the cute one though, so his whining is more tolerable.