Tellulah Darling

At the risk of repeating myself, this is one of the absolute best urban fantasy series around. Kate Daniels and I got off to a rocky start; it took me two tries to get into book one, but once past that point, I was hooked. Yes, there was maybe one book that I thought didn’t have the character growth I would have liked to see, however, Ilona Andrews pretty much brilliantly sustained this series.

Let’s start with the world building. The idea of having a world that alternately and randomly gets swamped with either magic or tech working is first-rate. Throw in paranormal mythologies from cultures around the globe and incredibly evocative writing, and you’ve got stories that hum along at the perfect pace.

You want humour? This isn’t one of those super snarky uf series (yeah, yeah, I know that’s what I write as my other persona Deborah Wilde), and obviously I love those. Kate may not be snarky but there is tons of humour in these books. In fact, the banter in Magic Triumphs was continually hilarious. I read it with a huge smile on my face.

I was worried going in to this story that we’d lose the characters I so dearly love at the expense of the giant battle that we’ve been building towards for many many books. Even that was cleverly subverted. At no point did I glaze over during the fight sequences as I’m so wont to do. I was completely satisfied with where Curran and Kate ended up, as well as the secondary characters and I’m looking forward to the spin-off series.

Ten+ books is a commitment, I know, but if you’ve wanted to try out urban fantasy, I can’t think of a better series to jump into. And now it’s complete and completely fabulous.