This book was really dumb :(

The main character is supposed to assasinate this guy..so she creeps up on him..but is caught.

She gets tied up by her intended victim. Is she scared? Angry at him? No she checks him out,because hes so totally sexy,rippling abs,pretty hair etc. Um...hello? Thats not a very natural reaction.

And there is her victims reaction,wich is even more unbelievable.

Who would get concerned for their murderer-to-be? And then let her loose to have another go at him?

I thought the world it took place in was a fantasy one...but it seems not since they have cabs :/ It all felt so cobbled together,for example the love interest is a sunmage (fantasy) but his brother is a templar knight (medieval)

And there are vampires,but they arent really called vampires...


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Lily is a wraith a half breed fae, considered an abomination by the fae and sold to the Blood. She has lived as head vampires slave and pet assassin ever since. She has done his bidding until her last assignment goes wrong.

Simon is a doctor and a sun mage and when Lily attempts to kill him he captures her instead. There's something about her that calls to him, he's convinced he can save her and with her help he can save humans from the Blood taking further control over the city.

He calls on his brother a Templar Knight for aid and while there's a lot of distrust as both sides have secrets you can see they both special will root for them both.

There's a lot of action and heat as well as violence and abuse in this world where there's an uneasy truce of Fae, Blood and humans. An interesting read, I'm curious where this series will go.

More of my reviews can be found at https://wyldheartreads.wordpress.com/
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Wonderful debut by Mel Scott. Loved the world full of fae, wraiths and sunmages. ( )

Maybe I'm spoiled with good urban fantasy, but I was slightly underwhelmed with Shadow Kin.
It's a good mix of urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and I've enjoyed reading it, but it needed an edge like Cat and Bones from The Night Huntress series to become memorable and addictive. And edge of darkness, of desperation and explosive violence.

Otherwise it stays just NICE. Nothing wrong with that, unless you want me to recommend you a GREAT read... Then this series will be totally taken out of equation.

The most interesting thing about Shadow Kin is its villain, Lucius. Mad, vicious and very dark, he plays a deep game and you only start seeing his intrigues for what they are in the end. Alas his appearance in the book is really spotty and in the end he is permanently removed from the case while you are left with slightly trivial heroes - tortured and reckless do-gooder healer Simon and Lily, an insecure and fragile assassin of Lucius, who's just waiting for love to understand that she is unhappy in her chosen line of work and will escape it to save her true love. *yawn*

I little bit of fighting and a lot of talking ensues, big secret revealed, all the baddies punished... and voila, relatively happy ending. A hearty winter meal, but don't expect a delicacy. ( )

Some of my friends were surprised that I had bought this book, since they didn't think it was my kind of thing. True, I'm not fond of kick-ass urban fantasy with sassy heroines and too many fantasy elements (wizards, vampires, witches, fairies, trolls, demons, and so on), but this is not really urban, it's more steampunk, and I liked the blurb of book 3, and that's not where I like to start a series, so I bought part 1.

Unfortunately, my friends turned out to be right. It wasn't so much the number of fantastical elements that bothered me. I just didn't like the setup of the story. The heroine may be an assassin, but she's an abused and addicted assassin. Abused as in used to being beaten up regularly, and addicted to a substance that makes her crave sex. So, what you get is a damsel-in-distress type story. Poor abused assassin is rescued by knightly doctor. On top of that, the doctor reacts as a complete moron when he finds out she is addicted (which really wasn't her fault), but after they make up after a few token apologies. It was all very trite, really. It was an easy read, but not a particularly good one. ( )