The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop

Once upon a time there was a young girl living in a corrupt world. The magic in this world was used through jewels ranked in colours, the darker the jewel the stronger magic could the person use. The world had been without a real Witch as Queen for a very long time, and in that time more and more people used whatever methods they could think of in order to get more power. Others went about their business and tried to stay out of harms way, while a few fiercely held on to the dream that one day a real Witch would come. And that is our young girl. Jeanelle is everything. The three strongest males in all the realms had hold on to the dream more than most, and once she came they are going to do everthing they can to keep her safe. This the story of the four sided triangle; the father, the brother, the lover and the Witch in the mittle.

Set in a closed world, "The Black Jewels trilogy" will take you to an original closed fantasy world. We follow Jeanelle's story through the eyes of the three men in her life, as well as the prostitute/assassin Surreal, adding to the feeling that Jeanelle is something out of this world. Anne Bishop is fantasy writer of a quality too little shown and praised, in other words - fantastic. Great world, great story, great set, great characters - great writing.

Vamps by Nancy A. Collins (OBS! I don't recommend)

Once upon a time there was two teenage vampire girls, who at first sight become mortal enimies. And that is literally, since they try to kill each other at more than one point. One of them is the most popular girl in school, Lilith. She is determind to keep her popularity status, keep her boyfriend from cheating and kill the other girl. Cally is a lower ranked kind of vampire, called a New Blood, and have a tendensy for getting into trouble.

The story is undeveloped, the characters are undeveloped and flat, the secondary world is okay but probably can't stand a closer look. Thease faults aside I think Collins make an inexcusable mistake, she has written a book that wants to be a TV-series. For example, when Cally gets injured Collins describe it with "Cally put a hand to her shoulder and it came back wet and red". This would have worked on screen, but it's no good in words. Actually overall the story could have been better off if it had been a TV-series, and not a book series. Then the constant change of focus in order to show what the others are up to would have worked. As it is now, I did not sympathize with any character in particular, because there were so many in focus. We did not really get to know them well enough.

To put it short, I do not recommend this book.

The Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts

Once upon a time there were a witch, a warrior, a scholar, a shape-shifter, a vampire and a sorcerer. A circle of six charged by the goddess Morrigan to stop the powerful vampire Lily and her army of vampires. First they must become a circle, they must dare trust and depend on each other. Only then can the circle begin their hard work of gathering an army against Lily. It is a story where the feelings and thoughts of the heroes who are about to save the world are the central element, a story were their emotional journey is much more important than their fysical journey. It is a story about love; love for a lost brother, love for a cousin and love for a lover.

Interesting open fantasy world and entertaining characters. Need I say more?

Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs

Once upon a time there was a mechanic named Mercy, which lead to several jokes from friends and associates about "Mercedes the Volkswagen mechanic", and sometimes she is a coyote. Mercy is a native american sort of shapeshifter called a walker, however since she has never known another walker she does not know much about what she is. Mercy grew up with werewolves, however, and learned fast how to keep herself out of trouble in the magic community. When our story takes its beginning though, that does not work very well for Mercy, and soon she is meddled in nicely.

This series isone of my favourite urbanfantasy series. I love the tough world (where vamps and werewolves actually are evil, not so common these days), I love the characters and I love the way Mercy narrates the story. Each novel has its own mystery, but there are some things in the story that goes through all of the novels. I also like that Briggs lets the story between the characters go on, and not just leave the tensions hanging. Sure, Briggs has made a mistake here and there, but it is still an entertaining read. All in all, I love reading these books.

The Succubus series by Richelle Mead

Once upon a time there was a succubus named Georgina Kincaid. Georgina sold her soul to the forces of darkness, and became a succubus. A seducing shape-sifting demoness who steals life energy from having sex with mortals. That is, reagardless if she wants to or not. Which is a problem when her favourite author comes to town and plans to stay, and have the indecancy to be likable. Soon, however, more pressing conserns arrive. Something is killing immortals, and suddenly being immortal is not so immortal anymore.

I have read the three novels that is out, and I still like the series. The fantasy world in this series is quite unusual. The ground element is not magic from the earth or something like that, but magic from heaven and hell. I love the whole "sell your soul to hell" bit (which applies to succubi as well as vampires, imps, etc.). If you are in to less traditional urbanfantasy, this is a must-have.

Rumours by Anna Godbersen

Once upon a time the story of the Holland sisters and their loved and hated ones continued. The second time around the tone of our narrators become a bit sadder than in the previous novel, but hopefully our characters will cheer up for the third part of the story, in Envy.

Again our story teller, Anna Godbersen, left the ending open to a sequel and I wonder if she has a plan for the novels. That would make sense, but not necessary. It would be impressive if she does not have a plan. Anyway, I still like the series and I still recommend it.

Nana by Ai Yazawa

Once upon a time there were two 20-year-old women who share the same name and accidently meet on the train to Tokyo. Nana Komatsu have a magnificent talent in falling for the wrong guys and not knowing what it is she wants from life, but she is a girl who puts a smile on her face despite her troubles and look to a brighter future in Tokyo. Nana Osaki, however, is a cool and confident girl with a rocky past she doesn't tell to just anyone. She is determind to end up on Tokyo's punk scene, and will not stop on her path to success until she's a top-singer in Japan. Even though they come from completely different backgrounds they quickly become best friends and move in together in an apartement. We follow the two girls as they strive against the hardships of life, and as they grow and learn from it.

I would not say that Nana is a love story, even though the story circles a lot around love, because a love story implicates that everything will end well. But in Nana, the story has no end. Even when (even though it is still running) the series end, the story could probably go on because the main theme in Nana is life. I think both the characters and the story is drawn so realistic that it feels like it is alive, and therefore cannot have an ending as a story normally would have. This is the reason I think why you both hate and love Nana, because at some points you just wish there could be a happy ending for at least one character, but at the same time you love it because it does not come.

Nana is actually a manga, and not novel, but as it is my favourite manga and (in my opinon) one of the greatest stories for young women in our time I would like to recommend it as well. The anime is well-done and goes after the story accurately, though it ends around issue 12 and the series is now up in number 21 in Japan and 15 in the US.