I've had fun re-reading Tiger and Del's journeys for a lot of reasons. One thing that really strikes me is how their romantic relationship is handled. It's refreshing to read a series that isn't about love triangles or constant awkward and forced interruptions and predicaments designed to keep the main couple apart for as many books as possible and supposedly keep the interest in the romance for the readers going when all it really does is annoy me. This series does what I've been wishing some urban fantasy authors would do, after it paired the couple up it took it's time letting them get to know each other through the course of telling the rest of the story, so that they became believable partners in their adventures and in their romance. And then it keeps challenging their romance through continued developments in the story and as they grow and get to know each other better as well. You know, an adult relationship. Sometimes they screw up. Then they make up. It isn't easy, there are hard times and hard feelings. But there's deep devotion too. For a relationship that doesn't go into expressing itself in words very much, it's still one of the most well-developed adult relationships I've seen in fantasy. They get each other. He certainly gets her. I think some of the formulaic urban fantasy books that are coming out now, and their publishers, might benefit by taking a second look at this series and seeing that there is more than one way to go and still be successful, it isn't necessary to always stick to the currently accepted recipe, especially when the market is becoming over-saturated.And what about that big hair on the cover, how funny is that? In 1991 I probably thought they both looked great and lamented that my thin hair could never look like Del's. The change to the cover of book 5, published in 2002, is drastic, what a difference a decade makes.
