“Her name’s Oda, Lily Oda, Gabbiani’s top enforcer. She’s a real pro, a psycho for hire if there ever was one. You are out of fucking luck, Ben, if it’s Lily Oda on your tail.”
An urban fantasy yuri novel by Stephanie Vega, Santiago Nights tells the story of Lily Oda, a young werewolf mob enforcer. Her pack mates, Sarita Montoya and Remington Rhodes, and her human mate, Chelsea Heartfield, round out the main cast. Together they navigate the criminal underworld of Santiago, California and attempt to survive until high school graduation. It is available on Amazon Kindle
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Tropes
- Academy of Adventure: St. Francesca Academy, the most exclusive private school in Santiago. Half the student body are mob children, the faculty includes a self proclaimed Angel and the School Idol has an after school job as a mob enforcer.
- Action Girl: Lily and Sarita. Lily's a trigger happy mob hitwoman while Sarita refrains from violence unless pressed.
- Bollywood Nerd: Sarita Montoya. She's of mixed descent but was raised by her Hindi grandmother and is the head tutor at school.
- Cast Full of Gay: Several of the main characters. Lily, Chelsea and Maria are lesbians while Remington Rhodes and his boyfriend are both pansexual.
- City of Adventure: The fictional city of Santiago, California. A dying port city in No Cal.
- Cool Car: Lily’s Aston Martin DBS v12. It's part of her James Bond fangirling.
- Cool Old Guy: Jimmy Gabbiani, Sarita's Italian grandfather. He's pretty laid back for a Mafia boss.
- Cool Old Lady: Amrutha, Sarita's Hindi grandmother. A pot smoking, yoga teaching gangster's moll.
- The Don: Don Giacomo “Jimmy” Tullio Gabbiani, head of the Santiago Mafia and Boss of Bosses for all organized crime in the city. Oda Nobuyuki, Lily's father and Oyabun of the Konketsu-kai, the local yakuza group, counts as well.
- Erudite Stoner: Sarita, a 4.0 student and massive pot head.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Lily. Her antics makes her pack look bad, to say the least.
- Gamer Chick: Chelsea Heartfield. Her first scene has her playing Mass Effect 3 and she makes game references repeatedly.
- Gangsterland: Santiago seems overrun with gangs and organized crime.
- Gayngster: Lily Oda, openly gay and proud to be yakuza. Her father too, except that one time obviously.
- Genius Bruiser: Remington Rhodes. Captain of three sports teams at St. Francesca and his pack's technomage.
- Hollywood Hacking: Remi’s main contribution to his Pack’s criminal endeavors, befitting a technomage.
- The Irish Mob: Johnny Ford and his boys. They're based out of Barrackton, Santiago's old Irish immigrant slum.
- The Mafia: The main organized crime group in Santiago. The main cast are all members of the Santiago Mob either as made members, associates or allies.
- Mook Horror Show: Whenever the pack wolfs out.
- Ms. Fanservice: Both Lily and Sarita have their moments. In particular, the author likes to call attention to Lily's 'perfect derriere.'
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Remi is nicknamed "El Tiburon" (the Shark).
- Omniglot: Most of the cast are fluent in more than one language. Justified as the cast is multi-racial or comes from a multi-lingual immigrant family.
- Otaku Surrogate: Chelsea Heartfield. Her favorite mangaka are Kimino Sakurako, Morinaga Milk and Oyuki Konno.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Some vampires are born that way, living as normal humans until their curse manifests itself. They'll die a natural death a few years later only to rise again. They're nicknamed Leechlings.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The Wolves in Santiago have no tie to lunar cycles and their lycanthropy is genetic. Every single one of them is also given made status in the Santiago Mob when they Change for the first time.
- Power Trio: The Pack Mates. Sarita is The Spock, Remi The McCoy and Lily The Kirk.
- Professional Killer: Lily, she considers it the best job she could ever want.
- Psycho for Hire: Lily thinks being a mob hitwoman and enforcer is the most fun she's ever had. Johnny Ford even names her as such.
- Psycho Lesbian: Played with. Lily is a lesbian and definitely psycho but they are not related. Indeed, her relationship with Chelsea is her only redeeming virtue.
- Queer Flowers: This is a yuri novel whose main protagonist is Lily Oda, a proud lesbian gangster.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Chelsea Heartfield. Her Curtains Match the Windows too.
- School Idol: Lily is the duly elected Campus Star of St. Francesca Academy.
- The Sociopath: Lily Oda. Impulsive, self destructive, almost devoid of emotion except for rage, plays mind games when she's bored and has absolutely no remorse for her actions. At least she's high functioning enough to be aware of her mental illness.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. Sarita's been seeing one regularly since her Change while Lily regularly skips her appointments.
- Token Evil Teammate: Lily. Fortunately Sarita and Remi manage to restrain her most of the time.
- Urban Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Wolves, Leeches, Wizards, Angels, Jiangshi, spirits... you get the idea.
- Villain Protagonist: Lily Oda. A sociopathic mob enforcer who enjoys the act of killing.
- Wicked Cultured: Lily Oda. She speaks three languages, plays piano and is very well read.
- Yakuza: Santiago's yakuza group is called the Konketsu-kai and while nominally independant still give Jimmy Gabbiani a share of their profits.
