Imp Books in Order

The Imp series is the center of Debra Dunbar's biggest world, and Samantha Martin is the reason it works. Sam is an imp from Hel who has spent years passing as human on Earth, mostly because she likes the comforts of modern life and would rather not go back to a place where everything is sharper, meaner, and trying to kill her. She likes her house. She likes her car. She likes not being told what to do.

That comfortable arrangement blows up almost immediately.

What starts in A Demon Bound as a local problem involving werewolves, a hellhound, and a rogue angel grows into something much larger. Sam gets dragged into supernatural politics, angelic grudges, vampire problems, elven schemes, ancient weapons, interdimensional trouble, and the sort of leadership roles she would absolutely never volunteer for. One of the pleasures of the series is watching the scale change while Sam stays recognizably Sam: snarky, selfish in a practical way, funny under pressure, and much more loyal than she wants to admit.

A big part of the series appeal is the cast around her. Gregory, the powerful angel who keeps turning up in Sam's orbit, brings a lot of the romantic and moral tension. Wyatt, her werewolf neighbor, keeps things grounded in a more human direction. Friends, rivals, demons, angels, and assorted monsters all rotate through the books, but the relationships never feel like filler. Dunbar builds a world where personal grudges and world-shaking politics are usually tangled together.

The tone is one of the main selling points. These books are urban fantasy, but they do not aim for grim seriousness all the time. Sam complains, bargains, lies, improvises, and jokes her way through disasters. That does not mean the stakes are small. Quite the opposite. The series gets bigger and stranger as it goes, moving from neighborhood trouble to fights that involve Hel, heaven, old contracts, and the future of whole worlds. The humor just keeps it from becoming stiff.

Underneath all the monster chaos, the series is also about power. Not shiny destiny power, but the messy kind. Sam keeps getting shoved toward responsibility, influence, and choices that affect far more people than she ever wanted on her conscience. She does not transform into a saint. That is part of the fun. She grows, but she grows sideways, still prickly, still practical, still looking for loopholes.

If you like antihero-led fantasy, this is the clear place to start with Dunbar. The books reward readers who enjoy connected worldbuilding and long arcs, but they never lose the fast, personal energy of that first setup. An imp wants a quiet life. The universe keeps refusing to cooperate.