** spoiler alert ** 
 The urban fantasy genre is booming with tons of gritty new characters, vampires & werewolves (oh my!). Linda Robertson's `Vicious Circle' brings us a new set of characters in very familiar roles- some of which seem to have been somewhat inspired by other series & characters. I say "inspired" rather than "copied" because even though some readers may find the characters familiar, the author does put her own spin on them. 
 The story follows Persephone, a young witch in a world that has just discovered the presence of the supernatural... and not everyone's happy that they are there. Persephone practices magic, kennels werewolves during the full moon & writes a column about the supernatural in her local paper. She was content to keep her life somewhat simple until an old were friend of hers is brutally murdered & the local coven leader asks her to investigate the death. 
 I really did enjoy this book for the most part. Like I said above, there's a lot of familiar themes in this book. I couldn't help but think about how similar this series was to the Kitty Norville, Rachel Morgan & even L.A. Banks' Neteru series in some aspects. The similarities are relatively shallow at best, as Robertson tries her best to make them seem unique to the series. She mostly succeeds at this, but at times I really couldn't help but compare them. 
 I do like the characters for the most part, although I'm a little less than thrilled with the character of Menessos. When he was introduced I couldn't help but eye-roll because it was painfully obvious that he was going to be a potential love interest. (Seriously, can we have an UF book where one of the love interests isn't a vampire?) Maybe it's because I was really liking the character of Johnny, maybe it's because it was a clear sign of a future plot arc concerning a mythological character in the series, but I just wasn't feeling the connection between Menessos & Persephone. (Although to be fair there really wasn't a lot of genuine sparks between the two, but it's very obvious there's going to be a love triangle.) 
 Overall, this was a nicely done first book. There's enough here to intrigue me into buying the second book in the series & recommending it my fellow UF fanatics. I like the world that Robertson has put together & as long as she keeps putting out stuff on this level (or better), I think that she has a chance of becoming a presence in the UF genre.