Grand Theft Sorcery is a standalone spinoff from Elliott Kay's established Good Intentions series. I'll try to keep this spoiler free of the origin series while reviewing the book on its own merits.

Evan Murphy is a young man in Los Angeles down on his luck. He has managed to scrape together some semblance of a normal life with two cats doing high-risk high-reward car repossessions. His latest job brings him into the orbit of the equivalent of the mob—the supernatural mob at that. He finds himself badly beaten and locked in the cellar, with them intending to kill him once all the party guests have left.

Also locked in the cellar, unknown to everyone: Mitu, an forgotten goddess (sorta) locked into an ancient idol. The two team up.

What follows is a well-executed novel of daring escapes, car chases, break-ins, finding unlikely allies, and people who should be helpful but aren't. There is a strong sense of place, but not having been to Los Angeles I can't judge how genuine it is. The weakest element to me was the romance thread—I hesitate to call it a subplot. I think I get what Kay wanted to achieve with the way he crafted it, but it didn't really work for me.

Read the first chapter on the author's blog. Available on Amazon.

For writers and readers, how do you feel about word count in UF books?

Are you OK with things being on the longer side, especially if it's more standalone or a little outside the box?

Or when reading, do you not really notice?

I'm looking for urban fantasy series where the main character is a guy, and most importantly is a bit psychopathic. Is his first knee-jerk reaction to most things to kill it? Good. Bonus points if he follows through more often than not. Extra points if he's not a p.i. or cop.

Hey folks,

I've just finished my last Fantasy series and now looking to get into something new. Scrolled through audible and Amazon quite a while already, but nothing really got me hooked so far.
So I thought I'd ask for some input here, as one of my all time favorits also was a recommendation (at that time in a bookstore).

I've mostly read more classic fantasy, or you could probably call it sword & sorcery fantasy, but at some point got sucked into the Urban Fantasy genre. I really enjoyed especially mixture of horror elements with a good sense of humor and that detective/noir style. What I really loved reading/listening to so far is following (order by liking):

• Larry Correia: Monster Hunter International Series (been through it twice, currently waiting for the German translation of Bloodlines, as I love the Narrator)
• Jim Butcher: Dresden Files
• Tad Williams: Bobby Dollar Series (also through twice)
• Benedict Jacka: Alex Verus Series (That was a suprise, really loved it)
• Larry Correia: Grimnoire Chronicles
• Shayne Silvers: Nate Temple Series (kinda got lost with the two additional series adding in there Feathers & Fire and Phantom Queen, didn't like the narrator so stuck to Nate Temple only, waiting for the next book)
• Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London (more on the fun end of the scale, but nice to read)

Especially with the first three I really loved the kind of humor it brings in the mix.

If I add in "normal fantasy", worth to mention are:

• Edward W. Robertson: Cycle of Arawn / Cycle of Galand (amazing!)
• Michael J. Sullivan: Ryiria Revelations and Ryiria Chronicles (amazing!, didn't really get hooked by the First Empire Series though)
• Dales Lucas: The Firth Ward Trilogy (real suprise, much better than even hoped)

Especially liked the Buddy-Setting and humor in those Books. Of course, story was also great.

Read quite some more, but I think that should paint a pretty good picture of what I'm looking for. I'm greatful for any recommendation, be it english or german, book or audio book.
also just downloaded a reading sample of "Repairman Jack Series" and think that might be worth a shot.

Thank you everybody.

Edit: forgot to mention Grimnoire Chronicles

I saw Gideon The Ninth on the shelf at the bookstore, so checked it out from the library (which i do to see if a book series is worthwhile to purchase) So far so good, so I looked into the rest of the series, and, am I wrong, or is each book based on a different character?

I mean, I do read The InCryptid Series from Seanan McGuire, and those are all based around different characters (but they all know each other and interact with each other)

Is this series the same, or is it just set in the same world, but told from multiple points of view, that have no interaction with one another?

Thanks for any input :)

I’m looking to find out what is new (no series started before 2020, pls) in Urban Fantasy that everyone is loving. And if you can say anything about the tropes or MCs. I’ve found some new favorite authors (Heather G Harris), but am looking for more.

Does it exist? I'm having trouble finding it if it does. Anybody know if there's a box set in the works that includes all six books?

I'm looking for a coming of age type book, like a young witch just coming into her powers and dealing with the politics and machinations of the coven she joins.

I'd prefer if it wasn't overly YA, I still want there to be maturity in the writing. More so a teenager entering the adult world than a young girl or boy doing young girl and boy things. No detective clubs. Would be ideal if there was a sinister undertone to it all, like all the choices the protag makes is essentially to stay alive amidst dangerous people/beings. Eventually it'd be cool if the book series progresses to where they are the adult and powerful being.

Prefer if the are apart of a group, like s coven, pack, vampire nest, etc.

It's probably a too specific and hard ask, but I'll hold my thumbs. Thanks in advance!

Hey! I am looking for some UF book suggestions with a female lead with an enemies-to-lovers romance. (for example, vampire hunter/vampire etc) Also preferably adult characters

I just finished the third book in the series, and discovered that the author stopped writing the series. Does anyone know why? I've tried to google it, but all I can find is a couple of interviews where he says he planned five books in the series, but that he was unable to finish, and that it was now "out of his hands". I'm just wondering if there was an issue with publishing? I loved the series, and would love to know what will happen to London in the end.

When I was younger I Loved the Shadowrun books. Within the last year I read and Loved The Dresden Files.

What would you suggest for me?

Howdy! If you're looking to add to your eBook collection, I'd love it if you'd punch the buy button. Free for five days starting right now.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFDJ5T4Z

PG-13. MCs are adult but suitable for YA, closed door romance, minimal profanity; contains your standard beheadings, stakings, and magic gone wrong.

Here's a little ditty:

One minute you're watching an episode of Bachelor: Supernatural Edition and the next, the television is gone and you can't remember your own name.

Kidnapped from her living room, Belle is plunged into the mysterious Hollow Earth, a hidden world few Topsiders know to exist. Accused of a crime she doesn’t remember committing, her first goal is to escape this treacherous World Within.

Teaming up with a dashing Fae-hybrid, she faces dark elves, is blood bonded to a vampire, and finds fleeting sanctuary in the Faerie realm. With no memory of her past and little hope for the future, she embarks on a journey to uncover her identity and solve the mystery of her own kidnapping.

I feel myself skipping into a reading slum.. Can someone recommend a series for me?

I just finished Seanan Maguire's InCryptid and October Daye series and her writing style was amazing.

Series and authors I like:

• all of Patricia Briggs work
• Kate Daniels and Innkeeper series by Ilona Andrews
• Zodiac Academy (less spice would be good)
• the Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong

Dresden Files were okay, but I gravitate more towards FMCs written by women.

I've read most of Hollows by Kim Harrison, it was okay.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I’m looking for a new listen on Spotify. Anybody recommend a good audiobook? Specifically looking for newer stuff, past three years, if possible.

Are there any urban fantasy stories out there that center angels, but don't include a specific God or religion?

Urban fantasy is my favorite genre. But around this same time last year I got a little burnt out and I’ve been reading all over the place. Now I’m feeling the itch, but with spooky season I’m looking for some urban fantasy with a very strong horror influence. Any ideas?

Give me your favorite leading men and women.

So I think a bunch of us know that Urban Fantasy has its roots in Detective Noir. For a long time, that meant the MCs were cops and PIs. And while these books have moved beyond those exclusive careers for the main characters, is the mystery aspect still necessary? If there is a contemporary fantasy story with fantastical elements, characters, and tropes, but not a mystery, is it still Urban Fantasy? Photo for attention.

I'm working on a story and I'm looking for feedback on a portion of the first chapter. Do you find it interesting? Would you care to see what happens next? Is it a snooze-fest?

Chapter 1 - Thunderstruck

My feet pounded on the dirt and gravel path, and my heavy breathing was the only sound on the deserted track. My dry-fit shirt and running shorts had long surrendered to the heavy, humid August air, which felt determined to wring every last drop of moisture from my body.

I hadn’t been able to sleep—again. These days, it was becoming routine. The king-sized bed felt too big, too empty.  So instead of drinking myself unconscious, I did what any responsible middle-aged adult would do.  I went for a run... In the middle of the night.

The canal I run along crosses Gilbert Road between Ocotillo and Chandler Heights and has a locked gate barring any further access. I use this as the turnaround point of my run.

I pivoted to head home. A brilliant column of light tore through the night sky. It flared at the far end of the valley, nearly a hundred miles away. The radiance was so intense, afterimages burned into my vision. I turned, shielding my eyes. Glancing back, the light had pierced the night, scattering the clouds. The sky was left clear and stark.

While Thunderstruck by AC/DC blared in my right earbud, the light exploded outward, erupting from its base in a silent detonation. The absence of sound made the scene even more unsettling. Waves of energy rippled out from the base of the beam, spreading like the shockwave from an atomic blast.

A translucent, purplish cloud rolled across the valley expanding in a perfect circle, swallowing the city as it moved. The edges of the storm shimmered, faint arcs of energy crackling along its boundary like distant lightning.

And still, there was no sound—just an eerie, oppressive silence.

As the cloud of purple-tinged energy rolled over the city, electronics flickered and died. Darkness swallowed the streets, plunging everything into blackness. The storm pressed forward, relentless, forming a dark ring that trailed the explosion. Moments later, as the edge passed, the lights returned creating the illusion of a shadow sweeping over the city, chased away by the restored glow.

The ominous dust cloud rolled toward me, a silent storm of shimmering particles swallowing everything in its path. And there I stood, watching. In every disaster movie there’s that dumbass that stands there, looking. You lean forward in your seat and yell RUN! Yeah, that was me. Just… standing there.

When all the hair on my body stood straight up and my earbud went silent, I realized I should be concerned.  The wave reached me, swallowing my body in a swirling cocoon of glowing power.

My entire body buzzed with an intense tingling sensation, like when your arm falls asleep. Although uncomfortable, I wouldn’t call it painful. Tiny sparks of purple energy danced across my skin. I looked down at my hands, watching as the energy wrapped around them, caressing my fingers.

An area on my left hand shone brighter than any other. I stared, heart pounding, as the glow grew stronger, for the second time in just a few minutes I was again turning my eyes from the power of the light.

The tattoo on my ring finger—the one my wife had insisted we get, was a vibrant violet light that outshone the storm swirling around me.

It felt alive, as though the tattoo was reacting to the arcane energy enveloping me. Purple sparks danced along the ink’s edges, swirling and merging before flowing outward like the tattoo was channeling the storm’s power through my skin.

For a moment, I felt a flicker of warmth—familiar, comforting—coming from the ring. Almost like a presence. But before I could make sense of it, the cloud began to pass, and the glow from the tattoo faded, the energy moving on.

I exhaled, a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. The full-body tingling sensation ebbed away as the purple cloud drifted further, leaving me standing alone in the dark.

I glanced down at my hand again, flexing my fingers, but the wedding ring tattoo was back to its usual, quiet black. Whatever I’d just seen—or felt—was gone, and the night was once again eerily still.

Turning slowly, I watched the shimmering cloud roll further into the distance, its ethereal glow illuminating the darkened streets in a hauntingly beautiful display.

As the last of the energy passed, the city lights blinked back on, one by one, as if awakening from a deep sleep. The sudden return of normalcy brought me back to the present and I jumped in surprise as Thunderstruck once again assulated my eardrums.

Scoffing at myself, I took one last look at the dissipating cloud. "That was... weird," I mumbled. With my hair still standing straight up, I turned and began jogging home. The air felt cleaner, lighter, and less humid after the bizarre storm blew away all the pollution and monsoon humidity.

A nervous chuckle escaped my lips as I took my first few steps. "You stupid ass, you just stood there," I muttered to myself. The adrenaline was still coursing through my veins, making my hands tremble. A relieved smile crept across my face as I settled back into my running pace, the steady thud of my sneakers a comforting sound in the otherwise silent night.

I have a bad habit of keeping my gaze fixed on the ground ahead of me as I run to avoid stumbling or injuring myself. Most likely from the cross-country team I ran for in school. It gives me bad posture when I run and probably wears me out sooner. For tonight's run, that was fine. The point of the run was to help me sleep, and it was doing its job.

Despite my growing exhaustion and eagerness to get home, something caught my eye as I crossed Gilbert Road and passed a row of strip malls. A few of the local businesses, ones I’d run by a hundred times, had changed their signs. Strange, neon symbols had been added, glowing faintly in the darkness.

They reminded me of nightclub stamps, the kind that only show up under blacklight. I hadn’t noticed them before, though this wasn’t my first late-night run. How had I missed them?

The symbols had an almost calligraphic quality to them, something vaguely Asian in their design. I had no idea what they were, but there were quite a few—the dry cleaners, the taco shop, the nail salon, and even the local dive bar. I assumed they were something like a QR code, a way for businesses to spread their message and let people know they were available.

As interesting as it was, I was getting tired. The heat and humidity made my run even more exhausting, and the post-adrenaline fatigue from the bright light and energy wave hit me like a Mack truck. so I didn't spend much time dwelling on it.

I rounded the corner, crossed Ocotillo, and stepped back onto the gravel running path roughly a mile from home when a flicker of movement on the dimly lit gravel path caught my eye. Twenty-five yards away, a monstrosity unlike anything I'd ever seen scuttled across the walkway.  An elongated, segmented body, glistening black in the pathway lights, pulsed with an unnatural rhythm.  Too many legs, too many twitching antennae. My breath caught – something primeval, straight out of a nightmare.

The creature paused, its head swiveling towards me. Panic surged, icy and sharp. Before I could move a gust of wind hit me from behind pushing me a few steps closer to the nightmarish creature. I suddenly needed to pee. That's when a colossal shadow plunged from the sky above. A monstrous bird, its wingspan wider than the street itself, blotted out the moon for a terrifying heartbeat. It snatched the creature in its beak, a flurry of chitinous claws and desperate writhing. The colossal bird wrestled its eight-foot-long prey into the night sky with a thunderous beat of its wings, the wind whipping debris around me.

The bird's eyes were glowing orbs, piercing through the darkness like arcs of electricity. Lightning crackled around its form, illuminating its massive wingspan. Occasionally, a flash of light bursts from its wings, casting fleeting shadows on the ground. Each time the moonlight touched its feathers they would shimmer with an iridescent glow, reflecting hues of deep blue and silver.

I stood, mouth wide open like a fish gasping for air. Realizing it was hanging open, I snapped it shut. "What in the actual fu..." I yelled, my voice cracking with exasperation and fear. Before I could finish, a voice whispered in my ear, "It's the thunderbird."

With a yelp that was decidedly manly—and definitely not a high-pitched squeal—I snapped my head back in a vicious arc, years of martial arts training kicking in. I expected to crush the nose of whoever dared get that close, but I hit nothing but air.

I’ve read all main and a lot of the short stories. However I don’t seem to be able to find what gave Lincoln Shaddock his power boost towards the end of the series. Can anyone help me out here?

Hi, everyone! I have a question/social experiment for book fans or anyone who's read the series.

Who do you think would be the perfect cast for the main characters? Who did you imagine while reading? Leave your suggestions for the characters from the list below. You can provide multiple options, whether they're A-list or B-list Hollywood actors.

All ideas are welcome! Thanks in advance!

GRACE SAM BECK TOM CLUPPER JACK CLUPPER OLIVIA ISABEL RACHEL

Hello

I am looking for particular recommendations, and was wondering if anyone here had any, I would appreciate it (and don't care if its a web-novel, book, comic; whatever).

I have read and enjoyed a few novels where the premise was more or less, "magic gets introduced to earth and stuff goes bonkers". It's pretty prevalent in superhero stories (which are arguably urban fantasy), but often the post-apocalypse part is mostly a background thing; or that happened way before the main characters time.

I guess I'm looking for a Magic apocalypse, wherein humans are abruptly introduced to magic, then the story at least somewhat puts focus on the aftermath and/or the ramifications of it.

I am aware I could find a ton of these within the litrpg genre but I don't really like video game statboxes as a magic system. I am also aware of shadowrun.

Some examples of things I've read with the premise somewhere in them are:

Nowhere Stars (Magical girl inspired, in a sort of alt-history post apocalypse after essentially a eldritch invasion type thing starts happening).

Worm (superhero setting again, looming end of the world societal decline and granted superpowers)

Six Seconds of Moonlight (What got me to make this post, setting where everyone gets godly magical power for six seconds, leading to a collapsing society, magic, and transformations).

https://preview.redd.it/nzdn98754dsd1.jpg?width=2820&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=451668e849a1572c54766b71a5be95ce2a37d8a1

It should have been a routine mission: stop the sale of a bio-organic weapon, round up the bad guys, and fly home before breakfast. Harmony Black and Jessie Temple are field agents for Vigilant Lock, a covert agency that defends humanity against supernatural threats; espionage, monsters, and mayhem are all in a day’s work. What they find this time, though, is a puzzle demanding an answer.

An old nemesis of the team has been murdered, and they didn’t pull the trigger.

Unsure if they’re dealing with a friend or a foe, the investigation leads Harmony and Jessie into a world of big money and bigger lies. The trail of clues leads from a shady tech startup in Silicon Valley to a “wellness retreat” for millionaires in the Catskill Mountains, a whirlwind tour through the lifestyles of the rich, famous, and dead.

As the ghosts of the team’s past come back to haunt them, a new enemy is rising in the shadows. An enemy who knows exactly who Harmony and Jessie are, what they’re capable of, and how to take them down. This mystery is a trap woven from lies and illusions, and it’s about to spring shut.

Hey there, all! Super excited to announce that Harmony and Jessie's new adventure is out now. Some long-dangling plot threads are coming to a head in this one, some old villains returning to the spotlight, and a new one emerging. (And given the ongoing homages to James Bond in this series, it's high time the heroines got their own SPECTRE to deal with. It all starts here...)

Audio is coming; moving to Rhode Island a few months ago wiped out my savings, but I talked with Susannah Jones, the narrator of the series, and she'll be recording the previous book (Never Send Roses) and this one back-to-back next month.

Hi I love UF books. But I can barely stand the romance.Looking for recommendations.

1. Prefer male MC, female MC usually implies romance.
2. Love Kate Daniels despite the romance.
3. Can't stand Dresden, urg!
4. Love the Iron Druid series.
5. Rather not reading noir, gore, zombies, necromancer.
6. The only vampires I can stand are the vampires in KD.
7. Love the first Hellequin books, but the later books are just too much!
8. Never clicked with Nate Temple.
9. Read the first few books of Alex Verus, not too impressed.
10. Edit: no YA please

Thanks