Nocturnal Book Reviews

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.