"Crescent City: Underworld Crime Unit" by S. J. West

Current Tags

fantasy, romance, mystery, magic, adventure, urban fantasy, paranormal romance

Categories

Paranormal / Fantasy

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Crescent City: Underworld Crime Unit

Author's Description

When a series of gruesome murders begin to take place in the streets of New Orleans, Detective Rex Stone partners with the city's only supernatural private investigator, Eva Chambers, to solve the crimes. Eva, the only child of the goddess Hela and granddaughter of Loki, joins Rex in the UCU to not only help the people in her community but also protect a city she loves from someone hell-bent on tearing it apart from the inside out.

Why I Chose it

How can you not like a paranormal private investigator? And a murder mystery to boot!

[29 episodes so far, with 5 in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

If a paranormal private detective solving murders with a human police detective sounds like a fun time, check this out!

Unrelated Griping

I think you may only be able to end up in the "Competed" carousel if you mark your story complete when you first create it. The nicest thing I can say is... that's an interesting choice.

"Laura T. Peters - Paranormal Investigator" by Emily K. Stevens

Current Tags

midwest, vampire, female sleuth, college theater, amateur sleuths, humorous paranormal, cozy mystery

Categories

Paranormal / Mystery

Affiliate Link

Laura T. Peters - Paranormal Investigator

Author's Description

Laura has a comfortable life as a costume professor and cat mom, so she is slightly confused when her friend, Ellie, requests her help in discovering if her sister's boyfriend is a vampire. Not wanting to be impolite, Laura agrees and tries hard not to mention that vampires are works of fiction. She soon finds herself on a wild ride that shakes up what she thinks she knows about the world around her.

Why I Chose it

All too often, we get vampire hunters who are the dark and broody chosen ones with no friends. And sure, that's fine, but it gets monotonous. In this story, we get a costume professor in the theater department who wants to help her best friend. And a sure sign things are serious is when they say goodbye and her friend actually hangs up instead of doing the twenty minute Minnesota end-of-the-conversation dance.

Anyhow, this is fresh and funny and you should check it out!

[33 episodes, 5 in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

If you like urban fantasy with a fresh and funny twist, this may be your jam!

Unrelated Griping

A while back, the people in charge of the Kindle Vella user interface ignored all the gaping wounds in the site and added "(Author)" after the author name on every serial, even though you can't actually add anyone who isn't an author to the story.

Now they've completed the trick by switching it so the last name is first. So today's author shows up as "Stevens, Emily K". Since none of these stories are sorted alphabetically, and that's not how it works in the entire rest of the Amazon book website, I'm really not sure why they would do this.

But in a further display of incompetence, only stories that were added recently have the name displayed this way, because they didn't add the "surname" & "first name" fields until last month. So half the stories have the last name first, and the other half don't. And it changes depending on where you are looking.

Amazon, call me. I have thoughts on your user interface and I'm clearly more qualified than whoever is currently in charge.

"Paranormal Island" by Daisy DeMarco

Current Tags

vampire, reality tv, dating, paranormal romance, shifter, love island, paranormal

Categories

Paranormal / Romance

Affiliate Link

Paranormal Island

Author's Description

When Alison Valentina agrees to appear on Paranormal Island, a reality TV show starring 20 hot singles--a combination of humans and paranormals--she quickly falls for a mysterious vampire. Alison, along with other contestants, are flown to a lush, tropical island in hopes of finding love. One couple will win the grand prize of two million dollars. Some will leave with a commitment. Some will leave heartbroken. And some may go home in pieces.

Why I Chose it

Full disclosure: there's only seven episodes in this, and none have been added in a month, so it's entirely possible this story has been abandoned. But I'm going with it today anyhow because it caught my interest.

A reality/dating show on a tropical island where the contestants may or may not be human — what a great premise! The main character has her sights set on the cash prize, which means her goals are very clear, and there's always the possibility of death, despite the agreement each player sign. Excellent setup, all in the first episode.

[7 episodes, none in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Survivor and The Bachelor with the cast taken from urban fantasy — sound intriguing? Check it out!

Unrelated Griping

Bonuses were released today, which means my Facebook feed is just one useless and annoying "Look! The bonuses are here!" post after another. Maybe I'll just skip it all and be more productive today.

"The 7,000 Souls of Alma Drake" by Marie Flanigan

Current Tags

urban fantasy, succubus, demons, incubus, parallel worlds, action adventure, new adult

Categories

Fantasy / Paranormal

Affiliate Link

The 7,000 Souls of Alma Drake

Author's Description

Alma Drake is up to her eyeballs in soul debt to her Incubus, Ian, and she's flat broke in terms of real-world cash. She can't talk about it to any of her friends, and she had to leave college to keep from killing her classmates. To make things worse, her mother thinks she's a junkie. It's been a rough month, so when shadowy figures start chasing her through the night, something's got to give.

Why I Chose it

This is a little grittier than the average urban fantasy novel, but the premise is interesting and the stakes are clear right from the start.

[31 episodes, with 3 in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

If gritty urban fantasy sounds like your jam, check this one out!

Unrelated Griping

Ah, yes, the bots have hit Vella. Most of the stories in the new release section today are word salad.

The last time I saw this was on Kobo, and the books were easy to pick out because they all used the same horrible typography on the cover, and most of them had "characters" with the same name. After a lot of head scratching, we came up with the theory that they had been created to help launder cryptocurrency — cryptocurrency can be used to purchase books, and the author's royalty looks like legitimate income.

Unfortunately for the Kobo crew, they bought so many copies of the same books that they ended up on the top sellers lists and infiltrated everyone's recommendations. That got their accounts cancelled.

I don't know if that's what is going on with all the new submissions on Vella. Whatever it is, it's annoying if you're trying to find stories worth reading...

"The Bestiary" by Kaye Draper

Current Tags

reverse harem, bisexual main character, urban fantasy, witches/ghosts/demons, fae/necromancer, poly romance, harem

Categories

Romance / Paranormal

Affiliate Link

The Bestiary

Author's Description

I was a just a kid when my family was executed, forcing me to live my life in the human world, far away from the judgment and scorn of the magical world. But when a cursed grimoire containing enslaved magical beings falls into my lap, I can't avoid my family's craptastic legacy of pain and suffering. Now, thanks to the nagging of an annoying ghost, I'm off to free the powerful (and pissed-off) creatures in the bestiary. The danger's a given...but do they all have to be so freaking hot?

Why I Chose it

I love stories that have a structure that lends itself to episodes like Warehouse 13 and its magical item of the week. So a story that starts out with the main character discovering a book trapping magical creatures that need to be freed? Right up my alley.

[21 episodes, with 3 in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

If reverse harem hot creature of the week sounds like your sort of fire, check this one out!

Unrelated Griping

No griping today. Hard to believe, right?

"Immortal Guardians" by RM Alexander

Current Tags

vampires, fae, romance, paranormal, suspense, urbanfantasy, heroine

Categories

Paranormal / Romance

Affiliate Link

Immortal Guardians

Author's Description

Humans are fragile, and Celeste will stop at nothing to ensure they're able to live in peace from the fae who would destroy them. Then, she falls for the enemy.

Why I Chose it

Paranormal romance for the second day in a row, but this time the vampire is a woman who is responsible for protecting a human from fairies in Sacramento.  How can you not like a paranormal story set in Sacramento?

[4 episodes, 2 in the last 30 days]

Who Might Like This

Vampires protecting humans from fairies in Sacramento! What's not to love?

Unrelated Griping

I read the first episode of a story yesterday in which the main character was "from the UK" and was also a "junior in high school".

And maybe there was some transatlantic move explained sometime later, but... Here's the thing. If you put those two facts in the same paragraph at the beginning of the first episode, you either need to give a little more information so the reader isn't thrown out of the story by the idea of high school in the UK, or your writing has to be so perfect that the reader trusts that it will be explained later. Otherwise, the reader is going to come to the conclusion that you've set the story somewhere in the UK without knowing anything about the setting.

"Sigils & Sushi" by Nia Quinn

Current Tags

urban fantasy, strong heroine, paranormal romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy, magic

Categories

Fantasy / Paranormal

Affiliate Link

Sigils & Sushi

Author's Description

Failed witch Immy Cordell makes the best of her day job, checking-in rental cars for supernatural customers flying out of Saskia Springs. Spare change in the cup holder? Cool. Bottle of perfume too big to fly with? Sure. Snapping photos of hotties that come through? Why not? But every now and then, something magical gets left behind, and it's a toss-up whether it'll help pay the bills or cause the next best thing to an apocalypse. Especially when that magical something is a sexy, secretive guy.

Why I Chose it

This is another one of the stories that I came across again and thought I had already recommended but for some reason I hadn't. I'm not sure if it's because it didn't have many episodes published when I first saw it, or if it had so many likes that I thought I should try to boost something else. In any case, it's a great paranormal fantasy that starts out strong, with a main character in an interesting job with magic that may or may not be useful.

[15 episodes so far, with 3 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Well-written paranormal fantasy with a sense of humor — try it!

Unrelated Griping

Every once in a while someone will post on one of the Facebook Vella author groups about how weird it is that nobody knows about Vella other than authors or how odd it is that the interface is so bad. And every time someone will jump in with "But it's in beta!" as if the company with the most resources on the planet couldn't afford to hire a competent software team. Vella has been a commercial product for 5+ months. Very little has improved in that time.

Anyhow, all I can really say is I wish I was still naïve enough to believe "But it's in beta!" meant the product just wasn't done yet and not "we're still trying to see if it's worth spending more money on it" because the more months go by, the more I think the product is failing to launch. There are some great stories there and I think there's a market for the format.

"Tooth and Claw Academy" by R.C. Barnes

Current Tags

mythical monsters, dragons, vampires, diverse, female lead, mystery, urban fantasy

Categories

Teen & Young Adult / Fantasy

Affiliate Link

Tooth and Claw Academy

Author's Description

Gina Rosario is the new transfer student at the highly competitive Towne and Covington Academy. Gina is secretly there to uncover private information for one of the school's benefactors. But what seems like a simple stealth assignment turns into something far more nefarious and dangerous. Towne and Covington is not your ordinary elite academy. There are monsters walking the hallways and skulking in the shadows, and they look just like teenagers.

Why I Chose it

The carrot & stick sequence that gets the main character involved in the plot in the first episode is a masterful example of how to get the reader on board.

[10 episodes so far, with 1 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Urban fantasy in an academy setting -- what's not to love?

Unrelated Griping

This might be general life advice, but it also applies to Vella: never include "foot" or "shoe" in your search terms. (Unless you have a foot fetish, of course. Then you should use that in all of your search terms.) I mean, I've written my share of tentacle porn, but the foot fetish people? They're way out there.

Update: My new story (published six days ago) finally showed up in the "Recently Added Stories" section. It's good to have data.

"The Vampire's Courtesan" by Sami Valentine

Current Tags

witches, vampires, time travel, paranormal, urban fantasy, dark, historical

Categories

Paranormal / Historical Fiction

Affiliate Link

The Vampire's Courtesan

Author's Description

In 1899, the dead rule the night. Juniper is a courtesan, claimed by Lucas Crawford and forced to serve his infamous vampire family. Ordered to Prague, she must recruit their latest victims. Friendship with the handsome butler, Kristoff Novak, is dangerous to her plans. He's fated to die. Her future depends on it. Can she fight destiny? The Vampire's Courtesan is a dark urban fantasy. Think Outlander meets Trueblood. This is a prequel to the book series "the Red Witch Chronicles."

Why I Chose it

This one starts with a vampire killing a human, so it's clear right from the start that these aren't cuddly misunderstood vamps just waiting to fall in love with the right human. No. These are predators, and not particularly nice ones at that. But they own Juniper and she's on a short leash. Worse, she's responsible for setting up a household in Prague, complete with staff who will be prey for her masters when they arrive. But Juniper has plans...

Anyhow, the writing is solid and it's clear the author has done their homework on the world building.

[33 episodes so far, with 2 updates in the last 30 days. (I believe this is a complete season.)]

Who Might Like This

Fans of historical urban fantasy should check this out!

Unrelated Griping

I was listening to a podcast from earlier this year in which one of the authors whose story has consistently been at or near the top slot for months was talking about how great Vella was. And after half an hour she said something about how she was only making $100 from episode reads in a month...

Now I understand why they are doing monthly bonuses. If the person getting the highest number of episodes read on the entire application is only making $100 from the coins used, there's no hope of making a living wage aside from bonuses.

Update: My new story (published five days ago) still isn't showing up in the "Recently Added Stories" section.

"Wilde City (A Modern Fae Romance)" by Evie Marceau

Current Tags

fae, paranormal romance, paranormal, urban fantasy, steamy, boss, faerie

Categories

Paranormal / Romance

Affiliate Link

Wilde City (A Modern Fae Romance)

Author's Description

When Willow answers a mysterious nanny ad, she's shocked that the employer is the handsome and reclusive billionaire Severn Wilde--and even more surprised to discover he's a fae prince in disguise. But as wondrous as Severn's realm is, rival fae courts, witches, and shifters make it an extremely risky job--though falling for her magical boss might be the greatest danger of all. Updates Sun/Wed. Free prequel for newsletter subscribers!

Why I Chose it

If I'm being honest, all billionaires are parasites on the dying corpse of an unjust society.

But I understand the power dynamic romance fantasy, and that's what this is. And the author is hitting the right notes for the trope in the first few episodes. So this is very likely going to be someone's catnip.

[7 episodes so far, with 7 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Billionaire romance mixed with urban fantasy!

Unrelated Griping

One of the current top stories is literally a poorly typed-in version of one of the Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels. The person who put up the story didn't even try to hide it -- the story is titled "Julia Quinn: On the Way to the Wedding". And there's no way to notify Amazon about this massive copyright violation unless you are the copyright holder.

I'm assuming it will be taken down soon because there's no way Julia Quinn's publisher doesn't follow up on that, but it's irritating.

"A Suburban Mom's Guide to Vampire Slaying" by Eliza Drake and Brandi Knight

Current Tags

paranormal, supernatural, mystery, humor, suspense, vampire, urban fantasy

Categories

Paranormal / Action & Adventure

Affiliate Link

A Suburban Mom's Guide to Vampire Slaying

Author's Description

Gifted with supernatural strength and speed, Skylar spent her teenage years slaying vampires until, in one epic battle, she sealed them all inside a hell dimension. Now she's a stay-at-home-mom dealing with things far more terrifying than the Forces of Darkness: the prospect of middle age and meeting her daughter's first boyfriend. But when a bloodsucker turns up on her doorstep, she realizes vampires are back, and this time she has much more at stake. *New episodes every Mon, Wed, & Fri!*

Why I Chose it

Have you ever started a book by an author new to you and immediately known you were in competent hands? That's this story. From the first sentence, I was able to just relax and enjoy the episode because the writing is so good. Plus, who doesn't want to imagine what would have happened if Buffy had gotten rid of all the vampires, got married, and had kids?

[30 episodes so far, with 13 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Any fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or frankly, anyone who just wants to read some well-written urban fantasy!

Unrelated Griping

In case you're wondering why I immediately fall in love with something well-written, you should know that about a quarter of the stories I check out start with either 1) an infodump of a prologue, or 2) a long back and forth conversation between two people with absolutely no information about who is saying each line and why I should care. Bonus points for the conversation being mundane.

Some people need a lot more editing than they are getting.

"Who Wants to be a Sidekick? or, The Adventures of Abacus and Alleycat" by Niki C. Lee

Current Tags

superhero, near-future, adventure, new adult, comic books & cartoons, female protagonist, urban fantasy

Categories

Action & Adventure / Science Fiction

Affiliate Link

Who Wants to be a Sidekick? or, The Adventures of Abacus and Alleycat

Author's Description

Sidekick Wanted. No experience necessary. Orphans or emancipated adults preferred. This sounds like the perfect side hustle for a financially-challenged bicycle courier like me. Besides, who doesn't want to be a hero?

Why I Chose it

Great voice, right from the start.

[5 episodes so far, with 5 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

If you were a bike courier living in a trailer park, wouldn't you want to become a superhero too?

Unrelated Griping

This isn't a Vella thing, just a poorly written romance (and occasionally other genres as well) problem: if I get halfway through the first page and think "Wow, for a supposedly independent adult, this person sure does seem to be incapable of adulting", I will stop reading right there. Because the main character in a book I enjoy should not induce waves of secondhand embarrassment.

I know the author is trying to make it obvious the main character is thrown off balance by their potential love interest, but it's too much. It just makes both characters seem like idiots.

"Uncanny Investigations: From the Files of Mike and Shireen Chase" by Scott McFadden

Current Tags

urban fantasy, detective heroes, supernatural mystery, interracial couples, strong heroines

Categories

Paranormal / Fantasy

Affiliate Link

Uncanny Investigations: From the Files of Mike and Shireen Chase

Author's Description

Have a poltergeist problem? Mysterious artifacts making your life miserable? Accidentally slipped into another dimension? Mike and Shireen Chase are the detectives for you. They'll solve your problem, be it natural or supernatural, and do it with style. With a knack for delving into the strange and uncanny, a healthy supply of wit and irreverence, and an irrepressible love of mysteries, Chase and Chase Investigations will take care of whatever ghoul or demon is troubling you.

Why I Chose it

I love detective fiction divided into case files. Maybe it's because I grew up with Encyclopedia Brown. Who knows? But I do love it, and this story winks at all the noir tropes, but keeps a modern sensibility about it at the same time.

[29 episodes so far, with 4 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Interested in classic noir detective with a magical twist? Of course you are! Check it out!

Unrelated Griping

This gripe is more of a "me" gripe than a Vella gripe, but surely I can't be the only person creeped out by all the vampire erotica where the human girl is 18 and the vampire guy is, like, 938? Does looking young really absolve it of the pure skeeve factor?

And really, what does a 938-year-old vampire talk about with an 18-year-old? "Oh, yes, I love the Twitter. Hashtag SoBricky." I guess that's why they're all written from the viewpoint of the 18-year-old. Otherwise it would be a litany of "I'm so bored. Why are all the humans still alive so stupid? Good God, sure, I guess we can have sex again, but call me in another hundred years when you're good at it. So boring."

"Kidnapping Phoenixes and Other Ways to Die" by Ramy Vance

Current Tags

urban fantasy, new adult, supernatural, humor, demon, running from the mob, slow-burn romance

Categories

Fantasy / Humor

Affiliate Link

(Oops, looks like this one has been removed from Vella, but it's in Kindle Unlimited!)

Author's Description

Mythical creatures are real & the world is just finding out. Turns out kidnapping a phoenix from the mob isn't the best way to stay alive. My name is Frances. Kind of the last name you'd expect for a supernatural fugitive, but here we are. Lucky for me, I got rules: 5 Rules for Fugitives. I'm thinking about writing a book. Everything was going swimmingly until I met him. Some rules are meant to be broken. From the twisted minds of Ramy Vance & Kat Lapatovich Healy comes a new adventure.

Why I Chose it

Solid writing, a funny title, and a plot that gets going on the first page. I'm a sucker for anything that includes humor, so this is right up my alley.

[43 episodes so far, with 0 updates in the last 30 days -- I'm assuming it's completed...]

Who Might Like This

Fans of urban fantasy with magical creatures that aren't just werewolves and vampires, check this one out!

Unrelated Griping

I saw a story today that used the tags "epic fantasy", "urban fantasy", and "steam punk". Coming up with good tags is hard, but either that story hops genres every few episodes, or someone needs to slow down and look up what some of those mean.