What is urban fantasy?
Simply put, it's a subgenre of fantasy. Most often, it's a fantasy set in a cityscape. The "urban" in urban fantasy. It can be set in a modern city or even an alternate city in the modern world. There are typically strong tropes such as the hard-boiled hero of noir, gritty action, and/or a procedural-style plot. Magic, supernatural creatures, and mystery play a big part in urban fantasy. Urban fantasy can also be dark, even bordering on horror.
Looking for your next great urban fantasy series? Whether you love gritty supernatural mysteries, magical cities, vampires, shapeshifters, or action-packed fantasy adventures, these are 10 of my favorite urban fantasy series to binge read. From Kate Daniels to The Dresden Files, these urban fantasy book recommendations are perfect for readers looking for a long-running series to get lost in.
Kate Daniels by Illona Andrews
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Books in series - 10
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The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews is an exciting urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy magic, shapeshifters, supernatural creatures, and a strong female protagonist. The series follows Kate Daniels, a mercenary living in a world where magic and technology rise and fall in unpredictable waves. As Kate takes on dangerous jobs, she becomes increasingly entangled in supernatural conflicts, powerful magic, and secrets about her own mysterious past.
Book 1 - Magic Bites
The world has suffered a magic apocalypse. We pushed the technological progress too far, and now magic returned with a vengeance. It comes in waves, without warning, and vanishes as suddenly as it appears. When magic is up, planes drop out of the sky, cars stall, electricity dies. When magic is down, guns work and spells fail.
Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for magic… One moment magic dominates, and cars stall and guns fail. The next, technology takes over and the defensive spells no longer protect your house from monsters. Here skyscrapers topple under onslaught of magic; werebears and werehyenas prowl through the ruined streets; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds. In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, she must choose to do nothing and remain safe or to pursue his preternatural killer. Hiding is easy, but the right choice is rarely easy…
Perfect for readers who enjoy: magical worlds, shapeshifters, strong female protagonists, and slow-burn romance.
Felix Castor by Mike Carey
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Books in series - 5
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Felix Castor by Mike Carey is a fantastic urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy gritty paranormal mysteries, sarcastic investigators, ghosts, demons, and a darker take on the supernatural. Felix Castor is an exorcist and freelance investigator who takes on cases involving the dead and other supernatural beings in a world where ghosts have become an increasingly common part of everyday life.
Book 1 - The Devil You Know
Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stamping ground. It may seem like a good ghost buster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle--but there's a risk: Sooner or later he's going to take on a spirit that's too strong for him.
While trying to back out of this ill-conceived career, Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London - just to pay the bills, you understand.
But what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize. That's OK: Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It's the living who piss him off...
Perfect for readers who enjoy: gritty urban fantasy, paranormal mysteries, ghosts, demons, morally complicated characters, dark humor, and supernatural detective stories.
Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
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The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher is one of the most popular urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy wisecracking wizards, supernatural mysteries, magic, and plenty of action. The series follows Harry Dresden, a professional wizard and private investigator in Chicago who takes on cases involving vampires, faeries, ghosts, demons, and other supernatural threats.
Book 1 - Storm Front
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.
Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a—well, whatever. There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks.
So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get interesting.
Magic - it can get a guy killed.
Perfect for readers who enjoy: fast-paced urban fantasy, supernatural mysteries, sarcastic protagonists, powerful magic, vampires, faeries, monsters, and long-running fantasy series.
Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs
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The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs is a great urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy shapeshifters, werewolves, vampires, fae, and a strong female protagonist. The series follows Mercy Thompson, a Volkswagen mechanic and coyote shapeshifter whose connections to the supernatural world frequently draw her into dangerous mysteries and conflicts.
Book 1 - Moon Called
She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy's next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a bus for a vampire.
This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy's connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water...
Perfect for readers who enjoy: urban fantasy, shapeshifters, werewolves, supernatural politics, strong female protagonists, paranormal romance, fae, vampires, and action-packed fantasy series.
The Hollows by Kim Harrison
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Books in Series - 18+
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The Hollows by Kim Harrison is a fantastic urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy witches, vampires, pixies, demons, and a richly developed supernatural world. The series follows Rachel Morgan, a witch and bounty hunter who leaves her government job to start her own supernatural detective agency in Cincinnati, where magical creatures live openly alongside humans.
Book 1 - Dead Witch Walking
Vampires rule the darkness in a predator-eat-predator world rife with dangers beyond imagining - and it's Rachel Morgan's job to keep that world civilized.
A bounty hunter and witch with serious sex appeal and an attitude, she'll bring 'em back alive, dead... or undead.
Perfect for readers who enjoy: urban fantasy, witches, vampires, demons, supernatural mysteries, strong female protagonists, found family, magical worlds, and long-running fantasy series.
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
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The Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey is a dark and wildly imaginative urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy demons, angels, magic, and a protagonist with a serious grudge against the forces of Heaven and Hell. The series follows James Stark, a powerful magician who returns to Los Angeles after escaping Hell and sets out for revenge in a world filled with supernatural beings, violence, and dark humor.
Book 1 - Sandman Slim
Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero in Sandman Slim, star of this gripping, gritty new series by Richard Kadrey.
Life sucks and then you die. Or, if you’re James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.
Now Stark’s back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you’d expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.
Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.
Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author.
Perfect for readers who enjoy: dark urban fantasy, demons, angels, magic, antiheroes, revenge stories, supernatural creatures, gritty settings, dark humor, and action-packed fantasy series.
October Daye by Seanan McGuire
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The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire is a fantastic urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy fae, intricate magical politics, supernatural mysteries, and a strong female protagonist. The series follows October “Toby” Daye, a changeling private investigator who becomes entangled in dangerous mysteries and conflicts within the secretive and often treacherous world of the fae.
Book 1 - Rosemary and Rue
October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas...
The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening's killer.
Perfect for readers who enjoy: urban fantasy, fae, changeling protagonists, supernatural mysteries, magical politics, strong female characters, found family, intricate fantasy worlds, and long-running book series.
Greywalker by Kat Richardson
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The Greywalker series by Kat Richardson is a compelling urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy paranormal mysteries, ghosts, supernatural investigations, and a darker atmosphere. The series follows Harper Blaine, a private investigator who gains the ability to enter the Grey, a mysterious realm existing alongside the ordinary world, after a near-death experience changes her life forever.
Book 1 - Greywalker
Harper Blaine was your average small-time P.I. until a two-bit perp's savage assault left her dead for two minutes. When she comes to in the hospital, 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 the human world and the mysterious cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift is about to drag her into that strange new realm-whether she likes it or not.
Perfect for readers who enjoy: urban fantasy, paranormal mysteries, private investigators, ghosts, supernatural investigations, eerie alternate dimensions, strong female protagonists, and atmospheric fantasy series.
Hunter Kiss by Marjorie M. Liu
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The Hunter Kiss series by Marjorie M. Liu is a unique urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy supernatural hunters, monsters, dark magic, and a strong female protagonist. The series follows Maxine Kiss, a tattooed demon hunter whose living tattoos come to life to help her fight the monsters threatening humanity. With its blend of action, mythology, and dark supernatural elements, this series offers a fresh take on urban fantasy.
Book 1 - The Iron Hunt
Silver smoke winds around my torso, peeling away from my ribs and back, stealing the dark mist covering my hands and lower extremities...tattoos dissolving into demon flesh, coalescing into small dark bodies. My boys. The only friends I have in this world. Demons.
I am a demon hunter. I am a demon. I am Hunter Kiss.
By day, her tattoos are her armor. By night, they unwind from her body to take on forms of their own--demons of the flesh, turned into flesh. This is the only family demon hunter Maxine Kiss has ever known. It's the only way to live, and the very way she'll die. For one day her demons will abandon her for her daughter to assure their own survival--leaving Maxine helpless against her enemies.
But such is the way of Earth's last protector--the only one standing between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veil. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment--and one man-- changes everything...
Perfect for readers who enjoy: urban fantasy, demon hunters, living tattoos, monsters, dark magic, supernatural battles, strong female protagonists, mythology, and unique fantasy worlds.
Terra Vane by Katie Epstein
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Books in series 8
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The Terra Vane series by Katie Epstein is an engaging urban fantasy series for readers who enjoy magic, supernatural mysteries, dangerous secrets, and a heroine discovering her place in a world far stranger than she ever imagined. The series follows Terra Vane as she becomes caught up in a hidden supernatural world filled with magic, powerful beings, and threats that challenge everything she thought she knew.
Book 1 - Death Be Blue
My name is Terra, and I’m a Psychic. Strange, you might think, but in a world of vampires, shifters and supernaturals of all kinds, I’m not so weird—in fact, it’s my job to protect them. As an Enforcer Field Agent, I work alongside my cute boss’s annoying younger brother, a wolf shifter called Kaleb. Together we hunt down the most dangerous criminals of all, but it isn’t easy. My visions are my only weapon, and they don’t keep a schedule.
We’re on the tail of a psycho, a cannibalistic serial killer worse than any I’ve seen. We’re close now, but something about this case just doesn’t feel right. There’s a darkness approaching, but even with my gifts I can’t see past it, and if we’re not ready, I fear there might not be a future for any of us.
My review here
Perfect for readers who enjoy: urban fantasy, magic, supernatural mysteries, hidden worlds, strong female protagonists, magical secrets, paranormal adventures, and immersive fantasy series.
These are just a few of my favorite urban fantasy series, but there are so many more supernatural worlds waiting to be discovered. Whether you love witches, vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, demons, fae, or something entirely different, there is an urban fantasy series out there for you.
If you're looking for more urban fantasy book recommendations, be sure to browse my other book lists and reviews for even more magical worlds, supernatural mysteries, and unforgettable characters.
