Tile: Shadow Kin
Author: M.J. Scott
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Th Half-Light City #1
Mass Market paperback, 336 pages
Published on September 6, 2011 by ROC
Summary (via AMAZON): On one side, the Night World, rules by the Blood Lords and the Beast Kind. On the other, the elusive Fae and the humans, protected by their steadfast mages..
Born a wraith, Lily is a shadow who slips between worlds. Brought up by a Blood Lord and raised to be his assassin, she is little more than a slave. But when Lily meets her match in target Simon DuCaine, the unlikely bond that develops between them threatens to disrupt an already stretched peace in a city on the verge of being torn apart...
My thoughts: I remember the first time I saw this cover, and I was thinking to myself “I have to get my hands on that book!” For the cover alone, I would have bought the book…but the synopsis actually sounded very fascinating. The story is told between two narratives, Lily a.k.a Shadow, a wraith that can fade into nothingness and Simon, a sunmage. Lily was raised by a blood lord (vampire) because her own mother, a fae didn’t want her. Lily is a half-breed and in the eyes of everyone, she is an abomination. Lucius, the blood lord raised her to be the most feared assassin in the night world. As usual Lucius sends Lily out on an assignment, to dispose of a potential threat. The ‘’potential threat” turns out to be Simon Ducaine, a powerful sunmage. Lily not only fails to kill him, but ends up being attracted to him. Simon, who can’t get Lily off his mind, sets out on a rescue mission to take Lily away from the cruel night world and into his world (light, where humans, templers, and fae lives). Things turn for the worst, when Lucius discover that Lily is missing.
The world that Scott created is full of political intrigue, and unlikely love. Many readers found the duo narration hard to follow because it would switch mid-chapters. I didn’t have a problem at all with this. The author placed symbols right before the narration so readers would know exactly who is speaking. The crescent symbol represents Lily’s pov and a Sun represents Simon’s pov. To be honest, I'm not a fan of multiple Point-of-Views, but the author made it work. It was a nice change to see what both characters were feeling. The book started out great, where we see Lily shadowed in the Simon’s room; you can tell there was automatic chemistry between the two lead characters. As we get to the half way point of the book, things kind of dragged and dragged and the ending was really anticlimactic. Another thing that I had a problem with is the trust issue between the two characters. I mean, I get where they’re both coming from but Simon would get mad at Lily, thinking that she has these alterative motives but in reality he isn't a saint either, who was hiding secrets of his own. It makes Simon a hypocrite, and made me dislike him more and more. Imagine the trust issue all the way till the end, they don’t fully resolve the problem till 2nd to the last chapter! Regardless of this, I want to see what happens to Lily and Simon and will be picking up Blood Kin, which is to be released June 2012. If you love vampires (blood), shifters(beasts) and faes, and want to try something new in the fantasy genre you should give Scott’s debut novel a go.
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