I have fallen in love with Laurell K. Hamilton, author of the Merry Gentry, and Anita Blake series.

I have read through Obsidian Butterfly of the Anita Blake series, it is book 9 I believe in a growing series.

Anita Blake begins as your average run of the mill animator, no she dosen't animate picutres, she animates the dead. Oh, and as a side job she is a court sanctioned vampire slayer.

Imagine modern-day earth, with all the faire creatures of old. Goblins, Vampires, Ghouls, Ghosts and Warewolves grace her stories with many flavors. One thing that I really appriciate with this author is that she adds cultural differences, behavior anomolies to her non-human races.

Anita is the woman, I think we all long to be in one part of our minds. She is short, she excersizes only to out-run the bad guys, sarcastic and amazingly practical. None of this hiding a gun under a mini-skirt, the author addresses all these little problems... with humor and grace.

Laurell describes Anita's suroundings admirably. Some authors will spend pages on the layout of a scene, where Laurell only needs a paragraph maybe to, to pull you in and open your eyes.

Laurell is also not afraid of using sex in the story, in reading both series, I am amazed how she has taken two sides of a coin and done them both so well. Reading the Merry Gentry can at times be like reading very well written porn, so if you are at all squeemish, over blood or sex, I don't suggest reading either of these series. Though, I think you'd be missing out entirley on the web Laurell weaves with these girls.