To those of you that have already read The Rook, rejoice, for the sequel, Stiletto, is finally here. For those who haven’t read The Rook, OMG, I’m so jealous, you get to read it for the first time, and unlike those of us who read The Rook in 2012, you get to read the sequel right away.

The Rook and Stiletto are fantasy novels that take place in modern Britain. They are not romances. However, if you love women characters who kick ass in a variety of ways (physical, supernatural, scientific, and otherwise), and you love strong fantasy world building, you’ll eat these right up. I had actually forgotten a lot of what happened in The Rook by the time I read Stiletto, and I was able to keep up, so I suspect you could jump into Stiletto first. I don’t recommend it though, because the first book is so amazeballs that you won’t want to miss it and it does set up the whole storyline of Stiletto.

The Rook introduced readers to The Checquy, an organization consisting of people with supernatural abilities who fight supernatural threats to the United Kingdom. The Checquy’s archenemies are a group of people who have abilities gained by surgical and genetic manipulations (The Grafters). While the main character of The Rook is an important (and awesome) character in Stiletto, the protagonists of Stiletto are Odette, a Grafter, and Felicity, a member of the Checquy. They can’t stand each other, but they have to work together to attempt to solidify peace between the two organizations.

Stiletto has a lot of action and magic and science and incredibly horrific violence and dense intrigue going on. At its heart, however, the book is about relationships. These relationships include Odette’s relationship to her little brother and to her lost teammates and friends. Most importantly, it’s about the relationship between Felicity and Odette. The two women have personal and political reasons to resent each other. Felicity is in a complicated situation – as Odette’s bodyguard (assigned to her by the Checquy) she has orders to protect Odette with her own life if necessary – but, unbeknownst to Odette, Felicity also has orders to kill Odette if Felicity deems Odette a threat. This state of tension between Odette and Felicity mirrors the tense situation between the Grafters and the Checquy. It also means that a story that looks and feels very complicated is actually very simple. One can boil the whole book down into one question: will Felicity and Odette become true allies or continue to distrust each other?

It helps that both Felicity and Odette are fabulously likable characters. We first meet Felicity when she survives an attack that kills most of her team, so I was already rooting for her. Her insistence on wearing her combat boots under a ballgown warms my cold black heart.

Meanwhile, Odette, who is well trained in surgery and who carries scalpels in her body (she refers to herself as a Swiss army knife) is always prepared. Here’s a scene which takes place in the middle of what should be a sedate and rather boring executive meeting but turns into a bloodbath:

“You! We’ll need surgical needles, disinfectant, antimicrobial thread, and tissue adhesive!”

“Where am I going to get all those?” asked the functionary in bewilderment.

“They’re in my handbag by my seat,” said Odette.

Let’s just reflect on that: in addition to the fact that surgical tools are grafted into her body, she keeps a full range of surgical supplies IN HER PURSE. Makes my sewing kit look sad, really.

The series is violent and often tragic, but it’s also ultimately uplifting, exciting, and optimistic – and very, very funny. Given the mix of supernatural characters and cultures and human nationalities and agendas and bizarre situations, being specific is incredibly (and hilariously) important. During a briefing about a man who was strangled “by his beard” Rook Thomas asks, “By, or with?” The line between mundane and supernatural is all in the details (and the answer is “by”, which Rook Thomas believes “warrants some looking into”).

Stiletto has a slow pace with a lot of digressions for storytelling. It’s clear that the author loves filling in all the corners of this world with the side stories of characters and bits of trivia about life in this version of Britain. This would be unbearably self-indulgent were it not so darn good: the writing is sublime. Despite the slow pace, the book has an unrelenting feeling of tension until the ending. While it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, it did leave me desperately craving a third book. I love everything about this series, but above all I love that in a world in which no one can trust anyone, women continue to bond, to make alliances, to help each other get dressed for parties, and to stand back-to-back (sometimes literally and sometimes metaphorically) in a fight. It’s a fun, sometimes horrifying, sometimes heart-rending, sometimes funny, and always thrilling series. All my thumbs up.