Bustiers, Bullets, and Black Magic: Four Urban Fantasy Series You Should Be Reading
Readers of modern urban fantasy novels know the best of the genre are a heady mix of noir, romance, fantasy, and suspense. Books that invoke images of flashing neon lights, car chases, heated glances, red heels, incantations, and the glint of fangs in the moonlight. And of course, any great urban fantasy novel must have a kick-butt heroine, the type of woman who is as adept at brewing a potion as she is at taking down a bad guy in two moves. Here are four great series that combine all the best parts of urban fantasy and feature tough, beautiful women who never let a love interest, be it human or vampire, get in the way of their mission…most of the time.
Elemental Assassin series, by Jennifer Estep
This eleven-book series (including two novellas) takes place largely in Ashland, a fictional city in the deep South, where magic is a part of everyday life. Many of Ashland’s inhabitants have the power to control an element of nature, either fire, water, air, or stone. Gin, the heroine of the series, is an elemental, part-time student, and co-owner of a soul food restaurant, aptly named the Peach Pit. Gin is also the most dangerous assassin in Ashland. Throughout the series, she takes on all manner of foes, from vampires to the deliciously evil Mab Monroe, the queenpin of Ashland’s criminal underworld. From the first book, Spider’s Bite, Estep chooses to focus more on Gin’s work as an assassin and less on her potential love interests. But don’t get it twisted: when Gin finally gets around to falling in love, she gives it all she’s got, and for readers, it’s well worth the wait. The latest installment in the series, Black Widow, comes out November 24.
Kate Daniels series, by Ilona Andrews
Kate Daniels is trouble, or at least trouble seems to find her no matter where she goes. It’s set in a futuristic, grittier version of Atlanta, where the return of magic has wrecked havoc on everyday life. Kate works as a freelance mercenary who can’t seem to stop herself from getting involved in other people’s (usually supernatural) problems. In a genre populated with sexy, tough women, Kate stands out because of her absolute fearlessness, combating everything from necromancer-controlled vampires to werehyenas. Seriously, Kate doesn’t back down from anybody. And because the authors (a husband and wife duo writing under the pseudonym Ilona Andrews) take the time to build Kate’s compelling back story from the first book, Magic Bites, to the most recent in the series, Magic Breaks, readers can readily believe that beneath Kate’s tough exterior is a woman who’s willing to sacrifice everything to protect the people she loves.
Downside Ghosts series, by Stacia Kane
An urban fantasy with a dystopian edge, the Downside Ghosts series chronicles the misadventures of Chess Putnam, a tattooed ghost debunker for the Church of Real Truth, a vast government-like entity that presides over a world where the dead have come back to life. The Church has sworn to protect the living from the risen dead and provides monetary reimbursement to any person truly haunted by a spirit. As a debunker for the Church, Chess investigates whether someone is truly being bothered by things that go bump in the night or just trying to get some of that sweet, sweet Church money. In addition to struggling to survive her job and a world populated by tortured spirits and hardbitten city inhabitants, Chess battles with a drug addiction that she just barely manages to control and a tendency to fall for completely unsuitable men. This series is dark, like really really dark. But the series, and Chess, are worth it. Kane is a nuanced writer who gives even the most morally ambivalent characters real depth and emotion, and Chess has a biting sense of humor that provides levity at truly unexpected moments.
The Jane Yellowrock series, by Faith Hunter
Set largely in a fictional version of New Orleans, Hunter’s series does an excellent job of making the city as important as the characters. Hunter’s New Orleans is one filled with spicy étouffée, the rhythmic beat of jazz music, the fragrant smell of night-blooming jasmine…and vampires. Lots and lots of sexy, bloodsucking vampires. Which is why New Orleans is the perfect place for Jane Yellowrock, a mercenary with a talent for hunting “vamps,” as she likes to call them. Jane is a skinwalker, a gift of her Native American heritage and a legacy she grapples with throughout the series. In the first book, Skinwalker, Hunter introduces readers to giant mountain lion “Beast,” with whom Jane uneasily shares her body and spirit. Beast has her own personality and beliefs, and the relationship between the two characters is one of the story’s most compelling aspects.
What urban fantasy books do you love?