One thing about writing a series that’s right on the fence between two subgenres: the balancing act gets tricky. On the one side, there’s urban fantasy — the gritty, dark, modern fantasy that grabs you and throws you into its magical world and won’t let you out, not before you’re enmeshed in the battle between Good versus Evil. On the other side, there’s paranormal romance — the love story that (most likely) involves (at least) one magical creature and after a struggle that may involve Good versus Evil the story ends with a Happily Ever After (known as an HEA). That’s what it comes down to, really: Good versus Evil for urban fantasy, and the magical Happily Ever After for paranormal romance.

And it gets damn confusing when you think you write one, but it’s marketed as the other.

Publishers Weekly, in its cover story this week on romance, defined urban fantasy as “an area of paranormal that could perhaps be considered a sub-subgenre” and says that urban fantasy “focuses more on action and less on the traditional romantic relationship.” While I disagree with urban fantasy being a subcategory of paranormal romance, I think PW is spot-on by saying urban fantasy does not focus as much on the romantic relationship between the heroine and the hero (or the hero and hero, or the heroine and heroine, or whatever your mix is). The thrust of the urban fantasy story isn’t the relationship. Well, not unless it’s intimately tied with the battle between Good versus Evil.

So how are these crossover books supposed to be read? As romance? As fantasy?

In my case, I wrote both HELL’S BELLES and THE ROAD TO HELL as straight-out urban fantasy. Yes, there is an HEA in both books, but the stories aren’t so much about Jezebel’s love with Paul as they are about her love with being human, and what she absolutely believes that love entails. They’re about what’s happening in Hell, and how that’s affecting Earth, and Jezebel’s role in the scheme of capital-t Things. Green Man Reviews just posted about both HELL’S BELLES and THE ROAD TO HELL, and I was thrilled to see that the reviewer really got it, was picking up what I was putting down:

Taken together, Hell’s Belles and The Road to Hell do an excellent job of chronicling the growth of Jezebel as she goes through the trials and tribulations of falling in love, becoming mortal, returning to her roots, living, dying, gaining a soul, and generally developing a much larger range of emotions and experience than most of her kind. Her propensity for free will remains a somewhat unexplained oddity, putting her directly in contrast with just about every other denizen of Hell, suggesting that there’s still more to her than has been explored. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes as the series progresses.

Now, Green Man Reviews is on the fantasy end of things. And a complication in the fantasy story is graphic sex. Yeah, there’s sex in the books — Jezebel is a former succubus and a current stripper; she was a demon of Lust. So there’s going to be sex. If she’d been a demon of Gluttony, there would be a lot about the seductive nature of food. But writing bluntly about sex can leave some fantasy readers cold. Rambles posted pretty clearly about this, saying “…Jesse is aroused constantly. By anything or anyone. Really. I think a change in the barometric pressure would set her off.” (I love that last line, by the way. If it appears in a future book, you know where I got it from.)

What about on the romance end of things? How is Jezebel’s story holding up there? According to Romantic Times, very well:

“Kessler’s sassy heroine is back with the scorching-hot book two of the Hell on Earth series. A sharp-tongued succubus writes in first person, telling a deliciously wicked story that mixes romance and humor with dark urban fantasy. The combination of supernatural elements with the mundane realities of life in the big city keeps things real. This is one helluva read–put Kessler on your must-buy list.”

But according to Dear Author, not well at all — in fact, the reviewer bluntly says, “[THE ROAD TO HELL] is a book that would be better as a straight urban fantasy rather than trying to shoehorn into the romance genre.”

So, what is the Hell on Earth series? Paranormal romance, as it says on the spine of the books? Urban fantasy, which is how I’d envisioned the books? Something else?

For the upcoming novella (A HELL OF A TIME) and third novel (HOTTER THAN HELL), I had time to embrace my inner romance writer and learn more about the craft of writing a romance set in a book that, ultimately, is about Good versus Evil. The novella leans much more toward the paranormal-romance end of things; for the novel, I really worked to find that balance between urban fantasy and paranormal romance. I believe I succeeded. My editor–and, ultimately, my readers–will let me know if that’s the case.

It’s tough sitting up here on the fence between the two genres. But thanks to feedback, both positive and negative, I firmly believe that I’m becoming a stronger author. So to all my reviewers out there: thank you. I appreciate your candor, as well as letting me know what works and what could work better. And to all of my readers who have emailed me with comments about the books: thank you very, very much. On this night before Thanksgiving, you have all given me much to be thankful for.

And now, it’s time to get off the fence and go get my boys. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.