Blame it on Buffy!

I blame the current popularity of the newly minted Urban Fantasy genre on Buffy. Yep. And I thank her and Joss for it every day!

I love Urban Fantasy. A lot of it is melded with mystery or romance so you end up with vampire hunter detectives or vamp CIA agents (Jennifer Rardin's fantastic series), witch PIs who partner with pixies (Kim Harrison), werecat mysteries (Rachel Vincent), superheroes (Vicki Pettersson should be on everyone's must read list) and loads of other stuff. They're fun and the authors can essentially play with the mythos however they like meaning that even though you may see 12 vamp titles by 12 different authors, each one is going to be unique in its own way. Sure, sure there are some cookie cutter ones out there, just like every genre, but it's those different ones that stand out.

I started reading Jeri Smith-Ready's latest last night (right after I finished Jeaniene Frost's latest which is, um, not going to the Junior Junkies thanks to a particularly steamy sex chapter! No way am I getting the blame if the 'rents happen to see that.) So, I didn't get far in Wicked Game, about 60 pages before the clock hit 1 am and I forced myself to sleep.

I can tell you already that this one definitely falls into the unique category which means I'm gonna love it! Ciara Griffin is a con artist trying to get a real job. She applies for a marketing internship at WMMP radio and is surprised when she is actually gets hired. Her first day, she's sent home with an assignment to read a stack of books on rock history so that she can understand what the station is all about. Stuffed inside one of the books is an old pamphlet on vampires. As she skims through it, she starts to realize that there is something strange about the employees at WMMP - they're nut jobs who believe they're the undead, or are they? So, she does what any normal girl would do in this situation, she quits. Except they really want her. See, the owner of the station has put some money into it lately in hopes that it will be snatched up by a big corporation which means that all the vamps currently working there would be out of jobs. Not good considering the fact that Smith-Ready's vamps are a little delicate mentally and working around the music of their eras helps keep these guys sane.

I'll keep you posted, but I can almost guarantee that it's going to be fantastic. Add to that the fact that it's freaking hilarious and I should zoom through it today - after I finish my work, of course. Oh, and you can check out Jeri Smith-Ready's site and listen to the Wicked Game playlist (super cool)! And, it's not up just yet, or not loading on my comp for some reason, but WVMP radio will soon have its own site with music and stuff to buy.

If you're interested in reading Wicked Game yourself, enter to win a copy (with some yummy chocolate accompaniments) over at Rachel Vincent's blog. Good luck!