The Fantasy Review’s list of 5 Urban Fantasy Books Everyone Should Read.
The Spook’s Apprentice (The Wardstone Chronicles, #1) by Joseph Delaney
From the blurb:
For years, the local Spook has been keeping the County safe from evil. Now his time is coming to an end, but who will take over?
Many apprentices have tried . . . Some floundered, some fled, some failed to stay alive. Just one boy is left. Thomas Ward. He is the last hope.
But does he stand a chance against Mother Malkin, the most dangerous witch in the County?
Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian, #1) by Keri Arthur
From the blurb:
A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races–and protect humans from their depredations. While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office worker–until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn’t be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming.…
The Magicians (The Magicians, #1) by Lev Grossman
From the blurb:
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . .
Greywalker (Greywalker, #1) by Kat Richardson
From the blurb:
When Harper comes to in the hospital, she begins to feel a bit …strange. She sees things that can only be described as weird-shapes emerging from a foggy grey mist, snarling teeth, creatures roaring.
But Harper’s not crazy. Her “death” has made her a Greywalker-able to move between our world and the mysterious, cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift (or curse) is about to drag her into that world of vampires and ghosts, magic and witches, necromancers and sinister artifacts. Whether she likes it or not.
Storm Born (Dark Swan, #1) by Richelle Mead
From the blurb:
Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants…
Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite…