I just finished the advance reader's copy of "Hounded" by Kevin Hearne, the first in The Iron Druid Chronicles. Great story and characters, and possibly one of the best dog characters in the urban fantasy genre. Most of all, the author has a sense of humor and it comes through in his writing. The author also researched his mythologies and that also comes through; we've all read those books where an author throws in a few well-known names from Celtic mythology and, hey presto! they've written an urban fantasy novel.
I like that this author also included some bits from Slavic, Nordic and Native American mythologies.
Here's the blurb from the book:
Atticus O'Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors think that this handsome, witty, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old - when in actuality, he is twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: he draws power from the earth and wields a magical sword. Unfortunately, an very angry Celtic god wants that sword and he's hounded Atticus for generations. To thwart this determined deity, Atticus will need all the power he can muster to deliver himself from evil.
The blurb doesn't really do it justice. The reviews should start showing up on Amazon shortly so you can get more information there. The main character is well-defined as are the secondary characters; you're given enough information about them to want to find out more.
It's not a Dresden files knock-off; I think I like Atticus O'Sullivan better than Harry Dresden (though I do like that series too), because he's more comfortable in his own skin and not handicapped by modern culture. He's also not one of the New Age types of Druids who dress in white robes and prance around standing stones: he's rather low-key and knows when to be honorable and when to fight dirty.
The book is being issued by Del Rey and will be released on May 3rd, with the next two books in the series coming out in subsequent months. I'll definitely be buying them.
(I have no connection to anyone involved with this book)