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Re the "feel" in Urban Fantasy - there are a couple of "vibes" in UF that I dislike. One is a chick-lit vibe, where the author excessively describes outfits, shoes, decadent desserts, shopping trips, etc or the heroine has an overly aggressive attitude. Another is gratuitous sex, as per the later Anita Blake novels. The third is a young character with a know-it-all attitude, which some YA feels like.
As for romance, I like naturally developing romance in a well-plotted story, such as that between Harry and Murphy. It's the unrealistic romance with the alpha male/old important vampire/insert-every-woman's-fantasy-here character that falls in love with the girl at first glance that makes me groan. I've started to give fantasy series written by male authors preference when choosing something new in the hopes of avoiding some of these cliches. I would love to hear suggestions of other series to try that avoid some of these pitfalls. After I read Game of Thrones, which is up next, I was thinking of Brent Weeks' Night Angel series.
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