L. J. Glover writes the Blood Rite series — gritty, profane, female-led urban fantasy with old gods, addiction, and the kind of magic that costs you something.
Evelyn has nothing left to lose. Six months ago she walked away from her own life and into a Detroit drug house. Then she wakes up next to Laney — older than Babylon, surviving on bargains the gods have forgotten. The Joining Trial is the gritty, profane first book in the Blood Rite series — for readers of Ninth House, Crescent City, and the Mercy Thompson novels.
Body-horror dark, on-page violence and death, drug use, profanity (often), one open-door sex scene. If you finished Ninth House wanting it darker, you'll be fine. Adult content. 18+ readers only.
I write dark urban fantasy for readers who finished Ninth House wanting it darker, who care more about a magic system's body cost than its prettiness, and who think the Mesopotamian gods deserved the same shelf space the Greeks have been hogging for two thousand years.
The Joining Trial is my debut. It took three years and 230,000 thrown-away words to get here.