I recently had the great pleasure of dining and talking with urban fantasy author Jaye Wells, whose Mage In Black hits shelves today. In fact, in our two-book giveaway, one lucky commenter on this interview will receive a free copy of Mage in Black while a second will receive a copy of Red-Headed Step Child. So, be sure to comment below.

Ms. Wells is one of my favorite new urban fantasy authors. Her books are driven by action and suspense and spiced with humor and remind me of the popular series by Jeaniene Frost and Karen Chance. To be honest, though, I was a bit nervous about a face-to-face lunch with Ms. Wells, because during my research, I stumbled across reports of her Read More

Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

Sometimes being unique is not a requirement for writing a good story. Jaye Wells’ Red-Headed Stepchild is not unique. In fact, it’s cookie-cutter urban fantasy with all the clichés. But, Wells uses all the same old urban fantasy elements to crank out a decent story.

Sabina Kane, a half-vampire / half-mage assassin for the vampire governing body, has been raised by her maternal grandmother after the ill-starred match of her vampire mother and mage father leaves her an orphan. Sabina is just as sassy, pretty, tough, etc. as every other heroine in every other paranormal urban fantasy, so for the first half of the book I was cringing as Wells stayed right on course for what we all knew was coming.

There is Comic Relief in the form of a demon sent to kill her and a nymph/faerie who is supposed to spy on her. There is Romance of a sort between Sabina and tw... Read More

Mage in Black by Jaye Wells

Jaye Wells is getting better. Mage in Black is the sequel to Wells’ debut novel, Red-Headed Stepchild. In Red-Headed Stepchild, Sabina Kane foiled a plot by the head of the vampires (her own grandmother) and is now on the run from vampire assassins.

In Mage in Black, war is brewing between mages and vampires. Sabina, who was raised by vampires, is caught in the middle. Having discovered that she has a twin sister who was raised by mages, she visits mage headquarters in New York, where she runs afoul of a pack of werewolves and is targeted for assassination by a traitor within the mage camp.

While Mage in Black embraces many of the tropes of the urban fantasy genre, the story remains fresh and the plot speeds along nicely. Sabina is a great protagonist, and sh... Read More

Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells

Dirty Magic tells the story of Kate Prospero, a woman with plenty of baggage to lug around as she struggles through life taking care of her teenaged brother and barely making ends meet. Slowly Wells reveals the fictional (somewhat superheroish) city of Babylon, and as Kate is fleshed out, her history (much of which remains a mystery) is also deliciously divulged to readers. In fact, it’s probably the pacing in regards to world building and character development that really makes Dirty Magic shine. Things aren’t revealed all at once, or even all in this novel. Instead, the foundation is set and enough questions are answered that will satisfy readers, but readers will have to work for those answers, which makes them so much sweeter.

Dirty Magic is an interesting mix of police procedural and personal drama. Usually I sort of tu... Read More

Urban Allies edited by Joseph Nassise

I’m always impressed when authors work together, and in Urban Allies, editor Joseph Nassise has managed to pair up twenty authors who not only collaborate, but merge their own characters into ten brand-new and original adventures. Each story shares a similar theme: popular characters from existing series or novels meet up and must join forces in order to defeat a common threat. Since these are urban fantasy authors, every story has a supernatural or paranormal aspect, though the situations and resolutions are completely unique to each tale, ranging the gamut from a haunted house, ghosts, magic of all stripes, plenty of demons, and much more.

As a genre, urban fantasy tends to feature protagonists who embody a certain type of wish-fulfillment, depending on the author and intend... Read More