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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
Rating: 3.5 stars
The overall rating is the average of the following ratings.
Silent Blade (Kinsmen #1)
Rating: 3 stars - I liked it
In this future world the Kinsmen run everything. They are a powerful group of genetically and technologically advanced families and now they control vast empires. Meli Galdes is an assassin for her family and her newest target is the man she was once engaged to.
This was a fast paced but also very emotional novella. Meli was a strong and smart heroine who outsmarts her ex and uses it to punish him for his actions. Celino is an arrogant and ruthless businessman. I enjoyed their relationship even if it was based mostly on revenge.
Overall, this was a fascinating world with interesting characters. I am really interested in seeing what is going to happen in the next book.
Silver Shark (Kinsmen #2)
Rating: 4 stars - It was really good
Claire Shannon is a psycher with the ability to read, control, and destroy minds of enemy psychers. She has spent her life fighting in a futile war but when it ends abruptly she finds herself running and hiding what she is.
This book was a slow burn, especially compared to the first one. Claire was a wonderful and very interesting heroine. The psycher ability was fascinating and quite deadly. Claire struggles at first to live a civilian life but quickly finds her stride and excels. I enjoyed watching Claire open up and embrace color, food, and love.
Venturo was a great hero. He was her boss but never pushed her or abused his position. He went out of his way to make sure he wasn’t, which I appreciated. I liked that he didn’t hold her past actions against her and embraced everything about her. These two may have had a slow building romance but the tension was there from the beginning and I loved it.
This world is fascinating because of all the different abilities and worlds. I really found the psycher ability fascinating, especially since they imagine themselves and very interesting animals. Overall, this was a great addition to this series and I can’t wait to read the next story.
A Mere Formality (Kinsmen #2.5)
Rating: 3 stars - I liked it
This was a very quick story about the leader of the Reigh people arranging a marriage with a diplomatic analyst Deirdre Lebed. This one was different from previous Kinsmen stories because it wasn’t about their abilities or power plays it was all about negotiating a treaty. It was interesting and I liked how Deirdre wasted time during the negotiations. It was silly and Lord Nagrad totally deserved it.
For the romance in this, there is definitely attraction between these two but there isn’t enough of the story to determine how their relationship would work since this is just the negotiation part. I still enjoyed it though.
You can also find my reviews at Red-Haired Ash Reads.
The overall rating is the average of the following ratings.
Silent Blade (Kinsmen #1)
Rating: 3 stars - I liked it
In this future world the Kinsmen run everything. They are a powerful group of genetically and technologically advanced families and now they control vast empires. Meli Galdes is an assassin for her family and her newest target is the man she was once engaged to.
This was a fast paced but also very emotional novella. Meli was a strong and smart heroine who outsmarts her ex and uses it to punish him for his actions. Celino is an arrogant and ruthless businessman. I enjoyed their relationship even if it was based mostly on revenge.
Overall, this was a fascinating world with interesting characters. I am really interested in seeing what is going to happen in the next book.
Silver Shark (Kinsmen #2)
Rating: 4 stars - It was really good
Claire Shannon is a psycher with the ability to read, control, and destroy minds of enemy psychers. She has spent her life fighting in a futile war but when it ends abruptly she finds herself running and hiding what she is.
This book was a slow burn, especially compared to the first one. Claire was a wonderful and very interesting heroine. The psycher ability was fascinating and quite deadly. Claire struggles at first to live a civilian life but quickly finds her stride and excels. I enjoyed watching Claire open up and embrace color, food, and love.
Venturo was a great hero. He was her boss but never pushed her or abused his position. He went out of his way to make sure he wasn’t, which I appreciated. I liked that he didn’t hold her past actions against her and embraced everything about her. These two may have had a slow building romance but the tension was there from the beginning and I loved it.
This world is fascinating because of all the different abilities and worlds. I really found the psycher ability fascinating, especially since they imagine themselves and very interesting animals. Overall, this was a great addition to this series and I can’t wait to read the next story.
A Mere Formality (Kinsmen #2.5)
Rating: 3 stars - I liked it
This was a very quick story about the leader of the Reigh people arranging a marriage with a diplomatic analyst Deirdre Lebed. This one was different from previous Kinsmen stories because it wasn’t about their abilities or power plays it was all about negotiating a treaty. It was interesting and I liked how Deirdre wasted time during the negotiations. It was silly and Lord Nagrad totally deserved it.
For the romance in this, there is definitely attraction between these two but there isn’t enough of the story to determine how their relationship would work since this is just the negotiation part. I still enjoyed it though.
You can also find my reviews at Red-Haired Ash Reads.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Why did I wait so long to read this?!? I've been a huge Ilona Andrews fan for years and have owned the ebooks of the novellas in this bind up for years. I want to go kick past me for putting off reading these because I was unwilling to be completely caught up on all of this authors books. I loved these stories so much! You can tell that these novellas was Ilona and Gordon having fun with turning romance tropes on their heads. I listened to it on audio and the narration was fantastic! I would totally recommend picking up that format!
Silent Blade: 3 stars
For such a short story I really enjoyed the world building and the characters. If it was longer I would have enjoyed this a lot more though. Especially the romance.
Silver Shark: 4.5 stars
This was basically a scifi refugee story with romance. It's really incredible how Ilona Andrews managed to put everything in a short story. Some angsty romance, some action, a refugee who is trying to move on with her life. And especially the tech was impressive. My only complaint for this one is that I wanted to get to know the characters more. Especially the side characters.
A Mere Formality: 2.75 stars
I guess my enjoyment levels for these stories were their length. Since this was the shortest story I enjoyed it the least. There wasn't enough time to really get to know the characters.
Overall, I really enjoyed this world and I am very excited to read [b:Fated Blades|59011438|Fated Blades (Kinsmen, #3)|Ilona Andrews|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633094649l/59011438._SX50_.jpg|92395344] since it is the latest addition to this universe and the longest story.
For such a short story I really enjoyed the world building and the characters. If it was longer I would have enjoyed this a lot more though. Especially the romance.
Silver Shark: 4.5 stars
This was basically a scifi refugee story with romance. It's really incredible how Ilona Andrews managed to put everything in a short story. Some angsty romance, some action, a refugee who is trying to move on with her life. And especially the tech was impressive. My only complaint for this one is that I wanted to get to know the characters more. Especially the side characters.
A Mere Formality: 2.75 stars
I guess my enjoyment levels for these stories were their length. Since this was the shortest story I enjoyed it the least. There wasn't enough time to really get to know the characters.
Overall, I really enjoyed this world and I am very excited to read [b:Fated Blades|59011438|Fated Blades (Kinsmen, #3)|Ilona Andrews|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633094649l/59011438._SX50_.jpg|92395344] since it is the latest addition to this universe and the longest story.
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Silent Blade - 4.5 ⭐
Silver Shark - 3 ⭐
A Mere Formality - 4 ⭐
Silver Shark - 3 ⭐
A Mere Formality - 4 ⭐
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The first novella is okay but the male love interest is very creepy and I don't think the woman should have kept childhood feeling for this guy that she didn't even talk to much. She gets groomed as a child to be his wife and she develops feeling for him through his notes he takes on the media he watch and his school work that her family got for her to read. He then dumps her because he didn't want to get married to her and then she stays enough in love with him that she still has feelings 15 years later. He meets her once in a bakery doesn't recognized her and then decided to track hero down and let him self into her house.
The second novella is good. I bought that romance. It felt more organic but the main character jumped into felling way to quickly. I think it could do with some fleshing out. I would have appreciates some more scenes of the couple interacting.
The first short is very weird and I don't think that that romance is at all believable. The don't even have enough a single conversion where they talk about anything significantly personal. I get a good giggle out of a part of this story but the relationship is fucked
The second novella is good. I bought that romance. It felt more organic but the main character jumped into felling way to quickly. I think it could do with some fleshing out. I would have appreciates some more scenes of the couple interacting.
The first short is very weird and I don't think that that romance is at all believable. The don't even have enough a single conversion where they talk about anything significantly personal. I get a good giggle out of a part of this story but the relationship is fucked
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking
I absolutely loved this and I'm sorry there isn't a whole series set in this universe from this author. I would definitely read them all. This had all the ease of a cliche romance (which I say with lots of love; I do not mean that dismissively at all) but set in an engaging sci-fi universe. I wanna read twenty more books just like this.
(Okay, maybe not just like this. I could've done without the final story. It wasn't bad but it just didn't seem to go with the other two except in a superfluous way that could be removed without altering the story whatsoever. And it was entirely centered around a single joke that I didn't find especially amusing the first time. But it was also the shortest story so it was over quick.)
(Okay, maybe not just like this. I could've done without the final story. It wasn't bad but it just didn't seem to go with the other two except in a superfluous way that could be removed without altering the story whatsoever. And it was entirely centered around a single joke that I didn't find especially amusing the first time. But it was also the shortest story so it was over quick.)
It would appear I'm on an Ilona Andrews-kick, which isn't the worst thing in the world if you ask me.
I didn't have a relationship with The Kinsmen Universe before picking up this book, as I don't follow the authors blogg. The stories were, as to be expected well written and entertaining, and I'm glad they stayed with the short stories, as anything longe might have been too heavy.
Individual reviews:
SILENT BLADE
This was an enjoyable spy/assassin kind of romance, focusing more on personality than the romance aspect, and it really worked for me.
Well written and intriguing
4/5
SILVER SHARK
This one was a bit too long and pining, for my taste. I liked the action parts, but the romance was kind of meh
3/5
A MERE FORMALITY
This was a really info-dumping story, and didn't seem to have anything to do with the other stories in the collection.
And there wasn't much of plot or character or anything like that
2/5
Would I read anything else set in this universe? Yes, no issue. It was interesting, and I do hope we get a story or two more.
I didn't have a relationship with The Kinsmen Universe before picking up this book, as I don't follow the authors blogg. The stories were, as to be expected well written and entertaining, and I'm glad they stayed with the short stories, as anything longe might have been too heavy.
Individual reviews:
SILENT BLADE
This was an enjoyable spy/assassin kind of romance, focusing more on personality than the romance aspect, and it really worked for me.
Well written and intriguing
4/5
SILVER SHARK
This one was a bit too long and pining, for my taste. I liked the action parts, but the romance was kind of meh
3/5
A MERE FORMALITY
This was a really info-dumping story, and didn't seem to have anything to do with the other stories in the collection.
And there wasn't much of plot or character or anything like that
2/5
Would I read anything else set in this universe? Yes, no issue. It was interesting, and I do hope we get a story or two more.
Always love a new world from the Ilona Andrews team, they take that niche of super overpowered human beings and somehow manage to put the humanity back into it. In this case, we're introduced to the concept of Kinsmen, genetic capabilities that have changed what the expansion of the universe looks like. Split across 3 short stories, we're introduced to a number of different characters (all incredibly powerful of course).
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This review is being written after a re-read.
Ilona Andrews does a great job with world-building and creating compelling characters that you want to read more about. The one down-side is that the Kinsman Universe in it's current state is mostly short stories so it leaves you wanting so much more.
Ilona Andrews does a great job with world-building and creating compelling characters that you want to read more about. The one down-side is that the Kinsman Universe in it's current state is mostly short stories so it leaves you wanting so much more.