Update: Debut Urban Fantasy Challenge

 

I decided to start this challenge because I'd read a number of  new  Urban Fantasy series in the past couple of months, and had really enjoyed them. When I went looking for more new Urban Fantasy series I found the Debut Urban Fantasy Challenge. The challenge is to read 15 debut Urban Fantasy books in 2010.  Much of the suggested reading list hasn't been released yet, which means this isn't a challenge I can just breeze through all at once.

We're half way through the year and I'm just over half way through the challenge. I'm not positive I'm going to make it to 15 books, though. Ten or maybe eleven for sure, probably twelve or thirteen... but at this point, looking through what is coming up, fifteen feels like a bit of a stretch. Of the debut books I haven't read yet I'm sure I want to read  Master of None, but I'm not positive about any of the rest of them.

Here are the 2010 debut Urban Fantasy series books I've already read:

1. Spider's Bite, An Elemental Assassin Book by Jennifer Estep  (my review)
2. Shadow Blade (Shadowchasers book 1) by Seressia Glass (my review)
3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (my review)
4. Gentlemen Prefer Succubi (Succubus Diaries #1) by Jill Myles (my review)
5. Frost Moon (Skindancer) by Anthony Francis (my review)
6. Embers by Laura Bickle (my review)
7. Dead, Undead, or Somewhere in Between (Rhiannon's Law) by J.A. Saare  (my review)
8. Mind Games (Justine Jones, Disillusionist) by Carolyn Crane (my review)

There are also a number of new series I've read that don't qualify for the challenge, since the first book came out last year. However, since I didn't discover the series until this year, and they are a new series this year for me, I'll list them here, even though I won't count them towards the challenge:

1. Black Sun's Daughter series by M.L.N. Hanover:  Unclean Spirits and  Darker Angels   (my reviews)
2. Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk:  Magic to the Bone, and Magic in the Blood, and Magic in the Shadows, and Magic on the Storm   (my reviews)
3. Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter:  Skinwalker and Blood Cross  (my reviews)
4. October Daye series by Seanan McGuire:  Rosemary and Rue, and A Local Habitation, and An Artificial Night  (my reviews)
5. Jane True series by Nicole Peeler:  Tempest Rising and Tracking the Tempest (my reviews)

Of the series I've read so far, I loved the Skindancer/Dakota Frost series, Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin), and the Jane Yellowrock series, and I highly recommend those three. Here are my ratings for the new Urban Fantasy series I've read (links point to my reviews). Series are listed in alphabetical order by series name.

. 5 of 10 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

. 8 of 10 Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk

10 of 10 Black Sun's Daughter series by M.L.N. Hanover

. 5 of 10 Embers by Laura Bickle

10 of 10 Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep

. 9 of 10 Jane True series by Nicole Peeler

10 of 10 Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter

. 8 of 10 Justine Jones Disillusionist series by Carolyn Crane
  8 of 10 October Daye series by Seanan McGuire 

. 8 of 10 Rhiannon's Law  series by J.A. Saare

10 of 10 Shadowchasers series by Seressia Glass
10 of 10 Skindancer / Dakota Frost series by Anthony Francis
. 9 of 10 Succubus Diaries by Jill Myles

To see these ratings at a glance for all series that I've reviewed (not just the new ones), you can go here.

The rest of the books in the official selection list for this challenge are:

• Night Tides (Lady of the Lakes) by Alex Prentiss
• Don't Kill The Messenger (A Messenger Novel) by Eileen Rendahl
• Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch
• Black Blade Blues by J.A. Pitts
• Feed (Newsflesh) by Mira Grant
• Master of None by Sonya Bateman
• Shade Fright (Valerie Stevens) by Sean Cummings
• Shadow Marked: A Demon Bound Novel by Anna J. Evans (May 4)
• Hunted By The Others by Jess Haines (May 4)
• Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams (May 25)
• Red Hot Fury by Kasey Mackenzie (June 29)
• Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison (June 29)
• Blood Law by Jeannie Holmes (July 6)
• A Devil in the Details: A Jesse James Dawson Novel by K.A. Stewart (July 6)
• Death Most Definite (Death Works) by Trent Jamieson (Aug 1)
• Queen of Shadows by Dianne Sylvan (Aug 31)
• Grave Witch: An Alex Craft Novel by Kalayna Price (Oct 5)
• Dust by Joan Frances Turner (Sept 7)

And, a few new Urban Fantasy books out this year not listed:

• A Taint in the Blood: A Novel of the Shadowspawn by S.M. Stirling (May 4)
• Stormwalker by Allyson James (May 4)
• Blood Song by Cat Adams (June 8)
• Shotgun Sorceress by Lucy A. Snyder (Oct 26)

To read other reviews made in this challenge, you can go here.