Is Urban Fantasy the genre that usually has a cover with the female protagonist showing her back and usually sporting a tattoo and wearing leather or something badass-ish and holding a weapon?

yes. And I've liked many of them, including Briggs, Harrison, and Andrews. Not quite as sold on Richelle Mead, and go back and forth on Rachel Caine. Hate when heroines get TSTL or when after a couple of books they have to bring the big big big bad and the heroine has to have god-like powers

Hate when heroines get TSTL

I had to look that up.

or when after a couple of books they have to bring the big big big bad and the heroine has to have god-like powers

Anita Blake?

Anita Blake?

Also Joanna Baldwin in Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. I read about five of them and had to stop, and not just because I was bored of seeing Caine's fetish for Michael Shanks laid out so overtly on the page.

Also Joanna Baldwin in Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series.

And it seems Mercy Thompson, in Patricia Brigg's books, is heading there too (in some ways, especially with the "this book's big bad must be bigger and badder than last books!", which by the time you get to book five or six gets...awkward) I have appreciated that while in Kim Harrison's books the heroine can be kinda dumb, and does keep getting more powerful, the conflicts are a bit different, and flow from the previous books, and aren't just "Ooh! NEW BIGGER BADDER EVILDUDE!"

I have appreciated that while in Kim Harrison's books the heroine can be kinda dumb, and does keep getting more powerful, the conflicts are a bit different, and flow from the previous books, and aren't just "Ooh! NEW BIGGER BADDER EVILDUDE!"

Y'know, it only just dawned on me that I've probably missed at least one new release in that series. This is what happens when a new series (oh Parsol Protectorate, so much fun!) absorbs your brain.

Yep, the godlike power thing can get annoying, especially in the Weather Warden series, but I've still enjoyed most everything those authors have written. Some of it is guilty pleasure reading, but that's never bothered me much. If a story is decently written and pulls me in and makes me want to finish it, I can forgive a lot.

I haven't teally minded Mercy getting more powerful as the books go on because I always thought the character was more powerful than she gave herself credit for being.

I like Mercy, but I loved those Succubus books. And the Ilona Andrews Magic series, too.

I hated the first Sookie book so very, very much. I could not get past how incredibly annoying Sookie was.

ETA: In totally different genres, I recently devoured the The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott (what exists of it), and as far as mythologically oriented young adult fantasy adventure series go, I'd say it is far more satisfying and entertaining than Percy Jackson. Unlike Percy, it's impossible to make a one-to-one comparison between its characters and the characters in Harry Potter. Plus, it connects to lots of different mythologies, so I keep learning about gods and demigods and heroes in cultures I'm not familiar with. I'm looking forward to the next books in the series.

I like Mercy quite a bit. What about the Alpha and Omega books; I think she did some interesting stuff with Anna's character.

Hmm, I read one of the weather books and didn't really feel inclined to find more.

I have now finished the first of the Fever books. Quick read. And knowing that the books only get better means that I bought the second one right away. (Ways in which my kindle doesn't help my bank account. . . but at least it saves space.)

And in e-reader news: Library Thing has introduced their ereader.