REVIEW: Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews

ISBN 978-1-60504-574-0
Genre: Romantic Science Fiction
(c) 2009, Samhain Publishing

Ilona Andrews' website

Rating: 5 stars





Buy Link (ebook): Samhain Publishing, Fictionwise

For many years, Meli Galdes serves as her family's "unofficial" assassin, and she is a very good one at that. Her family's last assignment for her was to do away with Celino Carvanna, the man who has hurt her in the past.

When Celino saw her, he didn't remember her from the awkward girl he knew from before. All he was aware of was being captivated by her, and he would do anything to possess her.

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm glad I did.

Though Ilona Andrews introduced a new world in this short read, the setting wasn't hard to understand, perhaps because it was patterned after the Mafia of our world, but it's more than that. The author gave just the right amount of description in order to help the readers understand the Kinsmen world, and she did it without info dumping or sounding tedious.

I also like her characters, especially Meli who is the quintessential strong woman, and who rose from the ashes of her vulnerability and past pain without turning hard, enabling me to sympathize with her. I like that Meli didn't immediately fly into Celino's arms when he declared his feelings for her, as had happened in so many books I have read in the past. To the end, Meli was her own woman, forged in the fire of her experiences and the situations life—or people—has dealt her. I have long wanted to read a heroine who's strong like Meli and this story didn't disappoint. I was expecting a twist, but when it came, I was still caught by surprise. It was brilliant and oh-so-right for this story. Get this book, and you won't be sorry. Suffice it to say, I'm looking forward to more books in the Kinsmen world.

Buy Link (ebook): Samhain Publishing, Fictionwise

REVIEW: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Series: Kate Daniels series

(c) 2007, ACE Fantasy, Penguin Group

260 pages, Mass-Market Edition
Author's Website

Summary:

Kate Daniels was devastated by the death of her guardian, knight-diviner Greg Feldman, and sought to unravel the mystery of his murder. Her investigation led her into the midst of the People (vampires) and the Pack (shapechangers), and it became clear that someone was trying to stir up trouble between these two groups of creatures and Kate may be caught in the middle of it all.

Review:

People who have been following my blog know that I want to read Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series because I was impressed with her novella Silent Blade. (Incidentally, Ilona Andrews is a husband and wife writing team.) Suffice it to say, I wasn't disappointed with Magic Bites.

Though the story started out slow (for me, as I had a hard time getting into the story initially), I was soon caught up in this richly-detailed world that Kate Daniels inhabited, which was a curious blend of science and magic. However, since the story opened with a vamp in Kate's home, the action-filled sequences were never-ending, and terminologies like residual magic, feylanterns, etc lend a certain authenticity to the story, thereby creating a believable world where a suspension of disbelief on the part of the readers is easily maintained.

Kate Daniels is a likeable, spunky heroine who faces life head on. Though she's a strong woman powerful in magic, she also has moments of vulnerability, like being afraid and being down on her luck at times, that causes me to sympathize with her, as I have been there before. However, she's also a woman running from something, and the author has shrouded her identity with a mystery that aroused my curiosity. I think Kate knows who she is, as in she knows whose blood runs in her veins, but the author doesn't reveal it to us, while giving us tantalizing hints as to what she could be. And I'm a sucker for secrets, so suffice it to say, I'll be following this series.

There's no overt romance in this series, although there's an almost-romance with a non-hero, but I thought Kate's hero might ultimately be Curran, who's the Beast Lord. Yup, the Lord of the Free Beasts, the King of the Shapechangers. He certainly fit the descriptions of what a hero should be--a true alpha male--plus he and Kate have these flirty conversations and they set each other on edge, so I bet we'll see more of Curran in the later books. (There are six more of them, not counting novellas.)

At 200 over pages, it's a short read as the pages flew by, with the author really catching my imagination and interest, even though the heroine wasn't engaged in a romance.

Book Rating: 4.0