Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Extremely old evil finally meets his match.

Opening Sentence: The lord of deception and fate stared out at Sokojotsin from the invaders’ eyes.

The Review:

When I got this one in the mail a while back, I had to stop myself from doing a facepalm. Where did this series come from, and why am I just finding out about it now?

Okay, so in this series, we have been introduced to the Kyndred; (or Takyn as they refer to them in the book) individuals who have been altered with the DNA of the Darkyn, a species of vampire. And also, a set of people who are under attack by companies and groups who want to study them and/or reproduce them, per se. This here book is no exception.

The heroine, Charlie, is a paramedic in the great city of San Francisco, and she has the ability to hear people’s thoughts. Samuel Taske is a multimillionaire who also has a special ability; he can “read” the history of any given object. The two meet when they are caught in the crosshairs of a sniper, then subsequently kidnapped and brought to an isolated island off the coast of Mexico. This is no luxury vacation, however. They are confined to some swanky digs and are given only two rules; no escaping, and have sex, lots of sex. You see, the whole point of this particular couples retreat is to create a new race of super humans to be used to take over the world! Because, really, what else would you do with them? Actually, this really old guy, one who was once known as the king of an ancient race of Central Americans has decided he wants his old kingdom back, and plans to use this race of humans to accomplish it.

The two eventually meet six other couples in their situation, all of whom are also being forced to procreate and most of them have been successful. With the presence of these two new powers, the fourteen Takyn, and two more characters that are left stranded with them, decide to take back their lives and fight the evil that is “The Master” and win.

I have always liked Lynn’s writing in her other series, but just got caught up in life, and fell off the Darkyn wagon. This book has now caused me to take the first steps to rectifying this problem. I enjoyed this book just as much as the books in the Darkyn series, and I expect to enjoy the rest in the Kyndred series when I get them.

Notable Scene:

“What are you doing here?”

“Energúmeno.” She clutched his shoulders. “He’s coming. You have to go to the cave and hide. Now.” She tried to pull him in that direction. “Sam, please. I’ve seen what he’s planning to do to you, and you can’t stop him. He’s too strong, too angry.”

“Drew. Colotl.” When the men joined then, Samuel quickly issued instructions for them to rejoin the women and take up defensive positions, and then added, “I need the weapons.”

Charlotte stiffened. “Didn’t you hear me? He’s going to stick his hand in your chest and pull out your heart and eat it. You can’t heal from that. This time, you will die.”

Samuel looked at the other men. “Give us a minute, please.” When they moved away, he cradled her face between his hands. “Honey, we don’t have a lot of time left, so I need you to listen to me now. We’ve talked to Agraciana about Energúmeno’s powers. He can hurt me from a distance, but to kill me he has to make physical contact. I’m not going to let that happen.”

“You can’t stop him.” She gave Agraciana a desperate look. “She can control dolphins, right? Have her call one to take you off the island before he gets here. When you get to the mainland, you can get help—“

“I’m not leaving you, Charlotte.” He brought her hand up and pressed it to his heart. “As for this, he can’t have it. It belongs to you.”

The Kyndred Series:

1. Shadowlight

2. Dreamveil

3. Frostfire

4. Nightshine

FTC Advisory: Penguin/Signet provided me with a copy of Nightshine. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Many readers considered this to be one of the better Kyndred novels. I disagree, although I would call it a necessary evil. We all wanted to know more about Samuel Task. I just wish he turned out to be smarter and more interesting. The characters were week, their motivations were trivial and their reactions were predictable.

It was also challenging for me to read scenes in which long-time and beloved characters were disrepected by characters to whom I had no emotional attachment. A certain amount of caution was to be expected, but the rude comments and insults left a bad taste in my mouth. As I turned the final page, I found myself wishing the Kyndred would all be captured by the Brethren. I had had enough of them. ( )