Kate Daniels is better than Anita Blake. There, I said it. 
 Although the whole tech vs. magic phases in the world confused me (why did it happen? How often does it happen? What causes it to happen? All questions that maybe got answered and I don't remember? That does happen sometimes), I enjoyed this. I don't know why the heroine had to "act like a man" to fit in with the big boys (paging Anita Blake), but Kate is not as obnoxious about it as some of her sisters in the Urban Fantasy genre. Curran is meh, I'm tired of alpha-douches, but at least he's not saying "ma petite" every two seconds. 
 I enjoyed this enough to read the second as soon as I find a copy.