Magic Bites and Magic Burns...

I have been having a problem with urban fantasy lately. It's a fantastically popular genre - one I really want enjoy. And I have enjoyed some urban fantasy - Neil Gaiman's, for example. But on the whole, for me, it's been one disappointment after another. I've been picking up highly recommended authors, like Patricia Briggs, Kelley Amstrong, Jim Butcher - and generally lose interest by the time I'm through chapter one. I persisted reading all the way to the end of the first Dresden novel, and was sorry I did.

But since I was enjoying Lost Girl so much, I decided to try again, and in Bristol my friend Sarah highly recommended he books of Ilona Andrews, so I picked up Magic Bites from the library. Finished it yesterday. And I really enjoyed it.

What makes it different? Style, maybe. It has the tough first-person narrator/magical detective that is a staple of the genre. All the usual cliches. It also has a theme regarding the protagonist's nature and identity that I really enjoy - yeah, I like identity issues.

So now I'm reading Magic Burns, the second in the series, and enjoying it as well. Quite cheers me up to find it. The genre has some hope for me yet.