Chick Lit, Volume 2

“I was still me, Betsy, disgusted with my current footwear and ready to give my eyeteeth (or my new fangs) for Colin Farrell’s autograph.

Colin Farrell…now there was someone who’d make a delightful snack.” (From "Undead and Unwed" by Mary Janice Davidson.)

It’s been a long time since we last talked about chick lit here on the blog. This time, as promised, we’ll be discussing Urban Fantasy Chick Lit, which usually are paperbacks when first published, geared towards women, and involve fantasy of some kind: herein there are witches, werewolves, vampires, and all matter of otherworld, preternatural creatures! (Urban Fantasy isn’t always scary, either; usually it’s fun, and sometimes, even romantic.)

Mary Janice Davidson: According to her website, Davidson is credited with creating the ‘Paranormal Chick Lit’ genre. Author of the Queen Betsy series (Undead and…), she’s humorous (where else would you find a girl, newly a vampire, upset by her bad choice of ugly footwear?) and romantic as Queen Betsy tries to navigate her new life and powers.
http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Kim Harrison: Naming all of her “The Hollows/Rachel Morgan” books after Clint Eastwood movies, Harrison is by turns amusing and engrossing. Starting with “Dead Witch Walking,” and going to the most recent, “The Outlaw Demon Wails,” Harrison has created a world like our own, but also completely different. She also offers to answer questions and sign books for her readers online.
http://www.kimharrison.net/

Kelley Armstrong: Most well-known for her “Women of the Otherworld” series (the ninth book, Personal Demon just released in July), Canadian author Armstrong also has two others, “Darkest Powers,” a Young Adult trilogy about a girl who sees ghosts, and the Nadia Stafford books, which is a different turn for the author: there are no supernatural elements.

The Otherworld books are designed so that a reader can pick them up in any order; there are also online short stories, in case you want to get a feel for the series before borrowing or buying the whole series.
http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/

Charlaine Harris: Charlaine Harris has been writing mysteries since she began the Aurora “Ro” Teagarden mysteries in the early 90’s. Since then, she’s become a phenomenon with two mystery series: the Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse novels, soon to be a television show on Showtime, starring Anna Paquin as a psychic barmaid, and the Grave/Harper Connelly mysteries, all murder and mayhem and a woman who can read graves. Both are well worth a read, enticing, exciting, and addictive!
http://www.charlaineharris.com/