Team Urban: Why I Love Urban Fantasy!
Brenda Drake - Guardian of
Secrets (Library Jumpers, #2):
I’m such a fan of Urban Fantasy for many
reasons, but mostly because writers can take our normal world and, either
secret or not, add a dash of the fantastical to it. With mystical creatures
hiding from humans or living side by side with them, deliciously nefarious
things can happen. There’s just something extraordinary about urban fantasy.
It’s the ability of the writer to look at something normal in the human world
and mix it up. Changing a simple book into something that can transport someone
from library to library or hiding a zoo of magical beasts in a common suitcase.
Book Description:
Being a Sentinel
isn’t all fairytales and secret gardens. Sure, jumping through books into the
world’s most beautiful libraries to protect humans from mystical creatures is
awesome. No one knows that better than Gia Kearns, but she could do without the
part where people are always trying to kill her. Oh, and the fact that Pop and
her had to move away from her friends and life as she knew it.
And if that isn’t
enough, her boyfriend, Arik, is acting strangely. Like, maybe she should be
calling him “ex,” since he’s so into another girl. But she doesn’t have time to
be mad or even jealous, because someone has to save the world from the upcoming
apocalypse, and it looks like that’s going to be Gia.
Chris Cannon - Fanning the
Flames (Going Down in Flames, #4):
1
2.
I love the snarky banter that occurs when you
throw modern day characters into strange/magical/supernatural circumstances.
3.
Anything is possible in urban fantasy. There are
no rules about what types of paranormal creatures you can have. If you want to
create dragons that breathe fire, ice, wind, sonic waves, and lightning, you
can, just like I did in Going Down In Flames *cough cough shameless self
promotion
Book Description:
She isn't afraid
of anything...except losing the knight she loves. Bryn McKenna has it all,
including her smoking-hot knight turned live-in boyfriend, Valmont. Even though
she’s a hybrid dragon, she’s finally fitting into the new shape-shifting dragon
world that’s become her own. But her grandparents want to ruin everything by
making Bryn’s nightmare of an arranged marriage to Jaxon Westgate a reality. It
doesn’t help that Jaxon’s father is on a witch hunt for Rebel sympathizers and
Bryn finds herself in his line of fire.
If she doesn’t
say, “I do,” she’ll lose everything. Good-bye flying. Good-bye best friends.
Good-bye magic. But if she bends to her grandparents’ will and agrees to marry
Jaxon, she’ll lose the love of her life—her knight.
Shonna Slayton - Spindle:
Urban fantasy
reminds me that our own world is magical. We are so used to the way our world
works that we take for granted how incredible it is that our heart beats, our
brain imagines, that our eyes see color.
As a writer,
urban fantasy allows me to open up my imagination on multiple planes. I still
work with the real world, but I get to add layers onto that. It’s like going
from black and white TV to color. Like Dorothy in dusty old Kansas stepping
into the colorful land of Oz.
Book Description:
In a world where
fairies lurk and curses linger, love can bleed like the prick of a finger…
Briar Rose knows
her life will never be a fairy tale. She’s raising her siblings on her own, her
wages at the spinning mill have been cut, and the boy she thought she had a
future with has eyes for someone else. Most days it feels like her best friend,
Henry Prince, is the only one in her corner…though with his endless flirty
jokes, how can she ever take him seriously?
When a mysterious
peddler offers her a “magic” spindle that could make her more money, sneaking
it into the mill seems worth the risk. But then one by one, her fellow spinner
girls come down with the mysterious sleeping sickness…and Briar’s not immune.
If Briar wants to
save the girls—and herself—she’ll have to start believing in fairy tales…and in
the power of a prince’s kiss.
Tara Fuller - Inbetween
(Kissed by Death, #1):
Book Description:
Death doesn’t fall in love. Usually. Since the car crash that took her
father’s life three years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky—and
unending—lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being
a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life
instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan.
Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option.
It’s not easy being dead, especially for a reaper in love with a girl
fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him
hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before, and
he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves from the
evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he
has left…his soul.
Danielle Ellison - Salt
(Salt, #1):
Whether it's
witches, demons, ghosts or other types monsters, there's nothing like escaping
the sometimes mundane reality of our world, or giving what we know every day a
spice of fantasy. Filled with kick-ass
heroines who aren't afraid to fight for what they believe in (and hot,
just-as-fierce love interests) Urban Fantasy inspires you look beyond what you
see and be more than you think you can be. Plus, life is more with some magic:
more dangerous, more unpredictable, more chaotic, more fun.
Book Description:
Penelope is a
witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks. But when
she was a child, a demon killed her parents—and stole her magic. Since then,
she’s been pretending to be something she’s not, using her sister’s magic to
hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.
When she’s
finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks
that will finally change. With her sister’s help, she can squeeze through the
tests and get access to the information she needs to find “her” demon. To take
back what was stolen.
Then she meets
Carter. He’s cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too. He knows her
secret—but he also has one of his own.
Suddenly,
Penelope’s impossible quest becomes far more complicated. Because Carter’s not
telling her everything, and it’s starting to seem like the demons have their
own agenda…and they’re far too interested in her.
Rachel Harris - My Super Sweet
Sixteenth Century (My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century, #1):
Book Description:
On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf
Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother and
well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence,
Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers.
But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits…right into
Renaissance Firenze.
Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of
contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra
and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist
Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes
that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full
of creeptastic amore. Can she find
her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian
forever?
Gloria Craw - Atlantis Rising
(Atlantis Rising, #1):
I love Urban Fantasy
because it infuses normal life with myth and magic. It’s so exciting to have
something in common with a character who finds a magic object, special ability
or a secret origin. The possible ways her courage and passion might be tested
are endless. When she does triumph against fantastic odds, I’m left feeling
inspired and reassured that I can overcome great obstacles in my everyday life
too. Urban Fantasy reminds me that the ordinary in us can sometimes
be…extraordinary.
Book Description:
We’ve stayed
hidden too long… I am different. I have always been different, but no one can
know or my life will be in danger. So I hide in plain sight, wearing drab
clothes and thick glasses and trying to be invisible. I’m so good at hiding, no
one has ever noticed me. Until Ian…the mysterious and oh-so-cute boy I know I
need to avoid.
Now I have been
seen. And more terrifying still, I am wanted—by those who would protect me and
those who would destroy everything and everyone I love. But if they’re all
terrified about who I am, wait until they see what I can do…
Giveaway:
The Grand Prize winner of the contest will receive the following:
- True Born (True Born Trilogy, #1) by L.E. Sterling
- Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers, #1) by Brenda Drake
- Spindle by Shonna Slayton
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Have you read any of these? Are any of them already on your TBR, or maybe you'll be adding them now?