Lily Carlyle has had a very hard life. Her mother died when she was on 14 years old, leaving her with a little sister to take care of and a drunken stepfather who quickly became to loss in his grief to be of any real help. Lily made a promise to her little sister Rose that she would always keep her safe and if this meant lying, cheating and stealing to the bills, then so be it. When Rose is raped and her attacker was released on a legal technicality, he begins stalking her. Lily remembers her promise to protect her sister, and if that means committing murder to ensure that Rose was safe, then she is more than willing to do it.

What Lily does not count on, is that her act of vengeance leading to her death. Lily dies knowing that with all of her past actions, that there is only one final destination for her - hell. Lily is however offered a chance of redemption, when she is placed into the body of Alice Purdue and told that she is girl who is prophesied to ensure that the demons amassing at the ninth gate are never able to escape. She says yes to this challenge, because the alternative is an eternity of damnation, and so with the help of Clarence and her fighting coach, an incubus named Zane, Lilly/Alice sets out to save the world and in the process keep her promise to her little sister.

As with all plans, things don't run smooth for Lily. Each time she kills a demon she takes on their essence and this means that she inherits all of the dark passions, crimes and urges. Lily is terrified that is becoming that which she is seeking to eradicate.

With Armageddon looming, Lily also find herself deeply attracted to a demon named Deacon. It appears that Demon and Alice had some sort of arrangement and he quickly surmises that though Lily now looks like Alice something is very wrong. There is an extremely strong attraction between the two of them which Lily has great difficulty reconciling. How is it possible that the chosen one - a demon killer, can be attracted to a demon. Is possible that things are not as black and white as she has been told? Do demons possess the ability to be an agent of good?

Read More ( )

This is the first book writtenby Julie Kenner I have read and I am sorry to say it will be the last. It was an ok book but nothing spectacular. I didnt care for the characters, the plot was ok but you could see the twists and the end of the book coming a mile away. I tried to get involved but I think there are people out there who do a better job at the battle between good and evil, demons and angles. ( )

Tainted is the first book I’ve read by Julie Kenner, bought on a whim last year. It’s been sitting on my TBR pile for a while, along with the next book in the series, Torn, as I ploughed through a whole bunch of other stuff. Part of my hesitation was the cover. I had buyer’s remorse after I bought Tainted because Lily looks like a busty, slightly constipated pirate. Don’t get me wrong – the back of the book still made the story sound great but I’m greatly influenced by covers and so it took me a while to come around on this one. In the end, though, I found Tainted to be a pleasant diversion.

The premise of Tainted reminded me a lot of Kelly Meding‘s Dreg City books: bad-but-not-really-bad girl gets transferred to a sexy new body to right wrongs, fight evil, and meet smoking hot guys who probably have problems of their own. Nonetheless, I did get past this feeling rather quickly, since the protagonists are different enough and it’s been a while since I read As Lie the Dead. Lily is convincingly confused about her new life but adapts with relative ease to being Alice, even though Alice’s life keeps surprising her. It would have been fun to see her struggle a bit more but Alice was conveniently not very social so there wasn’t an overwhelming amount for Lily to put together. Harder for her was the training to kill demons and the need to stay away from her old life.

The plot of Tainted follows a fairly predictable path. Lily fights to reconcile her new life with her old, to master her new gifts, and to figure out who ended Alice’s life. She also has to stop demons from opening the Ninth Gate to Hell. It’s all pretty straightforward until the end of the book, when some great game-changing revelations pop up, kind of out of nowhere. It was nice to be surprised at this point and I’m happy with what happened because it’s made me curious about Torn.

Overall, I’d have to evaluate Tainted as decent but not extraordinary. I liked it and will definitely read Torn in the near future because of the aforementioned surprise twists and I need to know what’s going to happen to Lily and Deacon (her love interest with issues).

http://ireadgood.wordpress.com ( )

Meh ( )

Do you think the difference between good and evil is as simple as black and white? Well think again. Lily finds out that she can be good by being bad as an assassin for God. After Lily kills her sister’s attacker in cold-blood, she is given a second chance to redeem herself and wakes up in Alice Purdue’s body. Working for the light as a demon assassin, her job is to prevent the ninth gate to Hell from being opened by demons. But Lily’s new life has her wondering if she’s strong enough to the keep the ninth gate from opening? What happened to Alice Purdue, now that Lily is occupying her body? Will her sister be able to cope without her there to help her?

Tainted was an enjoyable read from Lily’s point of view, and it moves at a brisk pace with it’s eclectic cast of characters and their fun and clever dialogue. Lily is sassy, head strong with street smarts and resilient in her role as the God’s assassin. I found myself easily liking Lily and her attitude towards her new life.

Everyone from her new friend Gracie to her supernatural guide Clarence, tell Lily to stay away from Deacon Camphire. Deacon is a dark mystery to Lily and she doesn’t know if she can trust him but she does know she has a strong attraction to him. And he to her. While Tainted is light on the romance, there is plenty of sizzling tension between Lily and Deacon.

“She’s mine.” he said, pushing my partner aside with little more than a glance. His arms slid around me, his hands on my lower back pulling me close as my body tingled from the electric storm surrounding this force of nature.

“I’m not yours,” I protested, but I stayed in his arms nonetheless, tempting fate and testing the limits to my newfound sensual allure, not mention my self-control.

He took his hand from my back long enough to hook a finger under my chin and tilt my head up. A smug grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Maybe not,” he said with a cocky grin. “But you want to be.”

Tainted is the first book in the new dark urban fantasy series, The Blood Lily Chronicles by Julie Kenner. Tainted is well written, full of mystery and action, saturated with sexual tension and has turns in the plot that you won’t see coming. This book is a must for urban fantasy readers who like their reads to be suspenseful, with a dark, fast moving setting and a sassy, street smart heroine.

I’m looking forward to release of Torn next month because the ending of Tainted left me with more questions then answers. ( )