Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Minimum Wage Magic (DFZ Book 1) by Rachel Aaron
Part-Time Gods (DFZ Book 2) by Rachel Aaron
Night Shift Dragons (DFZ Book 3) by Rachel Aaron

I keep saying I don't like urban fantasy, then I read it and love it, so I really need to stop saying I don't like it.

The core of this trilogy is a relationship between a young woman and her father. Her father (a dragon) adopted her (a human), and the tension in their relationship is because of inter-species miscommunication. He calls her his treasure, and names her Opal -- a gem, most beloved of dragons. To him, that shows how much he values her. To her, it makes her feel owned, like an object instead of a person.

That would be interesting enough, but the trilogy's setting is what really made me unable to put these books down. Magic has returned to Earth, and about half of babies are born with magical power. Gods have returned as well, some old ones and some newly created by peoples' beliefs.

One of those gods is the DFZ (Detroit Free Zone) -- the city this whole trilogy is set in. The city's god is a new, young god. The DFZ (the city) is the richest, most free city on the planet. No longer a part of the US, "anything goes" there -- the DFZ's (the god's) only rule is freedom: Anyone is free to do anything.

In book 1, Opal meets Nik. The two become business partners and friend. In book 2, they both love each other, but neither wants to tell the other how they feel (the first thing in the book series I didn't like). By the halfway point in book 2, they sleep together (for pages and pages, I didn't need the details and skipped ahead until they were done). In book 3, they're "life isn't worth living without you" level of love. The relationship was the only part of the book I didn't like, I would rather they had stayed good friends, but I guess book readers like relationships.

I enjoyed this whole series so much. I stayed up late multiple nights to keep reading. The world was so interesting, I loved the magic systems, and even the minor characters were great.

One big heads up about the books though: More than 25% of the first two were advertisements for her other book series. I had an hour and a half of reading left in each, when the story ended and the advertisements started. That's utterly insane. The final book had "only" 13% as advertising. This was such a pain because I keep an eye on how much reading I have left, so I can be emotionally ready for the story to end.

With that heads up, I can strongly recommend this trilogy. I bought the second book before I had finished the first, and the third before I finished the second. I got a few other books by her to start next.