Specifically, Rachel Caine's weather warden and djinn series.
First up, the weather warden series, which consists of 9 books - Ill Wind * Heat Stroke * Chill Factor * Windfall * Firestorm * Thin Air * Gale Force * Cape Storm * Total Eclipse. There are also short stories on her website.
The series follows Joanne Baldwin, a Warden. What is a Warden, you ask? They control nature. Or try to control it. Contain it, maybe - if they're good at being wardens. They have help, though - djinn. The djinn are elementals, captured and owned (think really pissed off genies in bottles). So when an earthquake happens, or a hurricane is coming, the wardens with the djinn's help can keep them from being complete disasters.
Joanne is called into action to deal with a serious problem. Along the way, she meets David, a free djinn (A really HOT djinn!) and they fall in love. That doesn't exactly please most of the djinn.
In addition, the earth mother is waking up, the contained djinn want their freedom, there are weather wardens who aren't exactly good guys (okay, they're super bad guys), and the old djinn are at war with the new djinn. This all builds through the series until it comes down to a final showdown where choosing sides doesn't necessarily mean good vs. evil.
The characters are well developed, including bit characters, and each has their purpose to propel the story forward. The storyline is smart and exciting. The world is brilliantly conceived. The books are fast paced with tender moments where Joanne has to stop and deal with the shit in her life. Her happiness with David is constantly challenged. There is no guarantee of a happy end for her or any of the characters that you will grow to love.
In addition, there is an offshoot series - the Outcast Season series - from Joanne and David's story. Cassiel, an old world djinn who makes an appearance in their story, gets her own story in trying to deal with the earth mother and Pearl, a really bad djinn that's transformed into something else. Cass is turned human and is forced to learn to live as a human, tho she still needs to draw energy from a warden. Enter Luis. As they race to save the world and Luis's niece, some disastrous, awful stuff happens. The last book in this series isn't out yet. The 3rd book ended on one of those WTH cliffhangers that have me horribly worried for the characters.
So, in honor of Hurricane Irene, which is going to cause *cough* death and destruction in eastern MA *cough* (seriously that's how they're portraying it as they say we're going to have 60 mph winds - whoop dee doo)....anyway, in honor of that, today I am recommending both the Weather Warden and Outcast Season series. Of the two, I'm far more drawn to Cassiel's story because I think her POV is so well written. But, that being said, I highly recommend both. Go. Buy. Before books die out forever or the apocalypse happens....
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