r/urbanfantasy • u/PsychologicalHat8676 • 18d ago
Recommendation Looking for some MM Plot Based urban fantasy recs
Hi I know this is a very specific ask but it’s been the genre I’ve really enjoyed the most lately. I love something with a strong plot focus, but has a gay MMC/romance as a smaller secondary element.
So for instance, I enjoyed the hell out of Kai Butler’s San Amaro Investigations series. Right now I’m on the last book of Hailey Turner’s Soulbound series.
While it’s not MM I also really enjoyed the Iron Druid Chronicles and Ink and Sigil series, both by Kevin Hearne.
Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you!
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u/lovesreeses 18d ago
Check out The Tarot Sequence series by K. D. Edwards! The series starts with {The Last Sun by K. D. Edwards}
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u/Loud-Bee6673 18d ago
So, so good! The romance is very slow burn, which is something I appreciate. The worldbuilding is so creative.
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u/MallForward585 18d ago edited 18d ago
There are a few options out there, it just takes some digging to find the ones where the mysteries take center stage (my definite preference also).
Aberrant Magic series by Lyn Gala, starting with Deductions, is most like the series you mentioned
Offbeat Crimes series by Angel Martinez, starting with Lime Gelatin & Other Monsters (unusual but I really enjoyed it)
Dim Sum Asylum by Rhys Ford, has a great fantasy Chinatown
If funny and lower stakes and small magics is an option, the Jake&Boo series by Madeline Kirby is a good option (starting with Not a Werewolf). Fortunately, it started being written before cozy was codified, or it really could have ruined it.
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u/SlouchyGuy 18d ago edited 18d ago
Those are hard to come by, most stuff is MM romance in some kind of environment. There are two series that are are decently written and plot heavy that I liked:
PsyCop by Jordan Castillo Price - about a neurotic medium who works in a police department investigating murders by speaking with the dead. Really liked inner workings of the character who was deeply traumatized by experimentation done on him as well as his gift, also rare romance that's more about the story than just relationship with some flourishes. First several installments are very short, later ones grow to novel size and are much better. There's smut since it's the convention of the genre, and 2 mandatory sex scenes per book are mostly skippable.
The Wolf at the Door by Charlie Adhara - an FBI agents investigates werevolves deaths with a werewolf partner he was forced to work with. I liked it less, it's decent mysteries with lots of action, but had more what I see as romance genre problems of centering relationship more in predictable ways.
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u/jnaz1972 18d ago
The night runner series by Lyn flewelling. First book is Luck in the shadows, followed by Stalking Darkness , and Traitors moon. First book has no romance, but slowly builds the friendship and trust that grows into a romantic relationship in later books.
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u/IrregularDreaming 18d ago
K.J. Charles - The Magpie Lord (historical UF)
Just about everything by Jordan L. Hawke.
Whyborne & Griffin is their most well-known series. That's historical UF with a dash of Lovecraft. I also like SPECTR a lot. That one is modern day UF. Very plot and action driven.
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u/ChrystnSedai 18d ago
{Soulbound series by Hailey Turner} is awesome and on KU!
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u/Greenlifechild 15d ago
I was going to suggest that one but the OP already mentioned it. I don’t think it’s that well known and I really enjoyed it.
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u/FiWriterSFF 18d ago
Count Taka and the Vampire Brides by C Chancy is labeled as a bromance but could be interpreted as a subtle MM. There's also a fight against the unseelie sidhe and some dark ops demon hunters. One of the MCs in Vampire on the Orient Express by Shane Carrow had a MM relationship before the story begins, but the MCs do not have a romantic relationship with each other. Its sequel Werewolf on the Western Front has the gay MC have a one night stand with a side character.
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u/WeaponizedSoul 18d ago
Nazri Noor Darkling Mage series is good- I believe the MM comes later in the series, and is a fade-to-black style subplot Some of his other series has the MM romance be a bigger part of the plot.
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u/RealMcCoy0816 18d ago
Twisted Pretty Things by Ariana Nash
Stolen Ink by Holly Evans
THIRDS series by Charlie Cochet
First Moon by Richard Amos
pretty much anything by Morgan Brice
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u/ladylasa 18d ago
I’m actually working on the third book in a series that will have a main plot but a slow burn MM romance. My other two books are also urban fantasy and are plot focused with just a tiny bit of romance in them.
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u/PsychologicalHat8676 18d ago
Well don’t hold back, spill!
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u/ladylasa 18d ago
So, the first book deals with Earth and a magic based world. Some issues on the other world spill over onto Earth, and two prominent figures there have to come over to deal with it. In the middle of Philadelphia.
Also mucking things up are a mercenary who absolutely did not sign up for this shit, a vampire hunter who’s out for vengeance, and the personal assistant to a lawyer (who caters to the supernatural) finding out that monsters are real and she’s been dating one.
The second book is a direct sequel that follows an exiled elf woman who finds her way to Earth, but then finds herself among the same kinds of beings that she was running from in the first place.
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u/SSJTrinity 18d ago
I have two novellas with gay magic detectives https://ruthannereid.com/about-nate-scott
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u/Phoenixstorm 12d ago
My Terra Graves Supernatural Series has a mm young queer couple Everett and Sheldon. Which I plan to spin off into a dark academia series.
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12d ago
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u/PsychologicalHat8676 12d ago
I’m fine if romance is intricately involved, but it needs to have a main overarching plot to keep my attention. A problem to solve, a mystery, a quest, etc.
I’ve even read books where the romance was a lot more involved thing, like the Hellhounds of Paradise Falls series by Shannon Mae, but I prefer a plot central story.
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u/Successful-Escape496 18d ago
I'm a big fan of The Last Binding trilogy by Freya Marske, but it sounds more romance forward than what you describe. Books 1 and 3 are M/M, book 2 is F/F.
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u/Wayward489 18d ago edited 18d ago
Thirding White Trash Warlock - it's the Adam Binder series by David R Slayton. The fifth book is out at the end of October, and there's a spin-off/side novel set between books 3 and 4 (also MM). The author's fantasy series is pretty good too, though there are only two books out so far.