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A review by beth_dawkins
Blood Kin by M.J. Scott
4.0
3.5
Holly is a half-fae thief and spy. She is forced to do a job she really doesn’t want to do. As it happens she runs into Templar Guy DuCaine for a second time. Being a spy and having to deal with a Templar can be hard, add in some attraction between the two, and it gets really hard. Guy nearly forces Holly to work with him, so he doesn’t have to involve his brother’s soon-to-be-wife. Soon the two are moving through the Night World together.
This is the second book in The Half-Light City series. I didn’t read the first book, and I didn’t feel lost starting out. It is about a different couple than the first novel in the series. It is told half in Holly’s point of view, the other half in Guy’s. The duel perspectives are enjoyable but you can read right through and forget the point of view switched to a different character.
While Holly is doing her spy thing for the Night World, Guy is doing his, save the humans Templar thing, except that the Templars are being ambushed by the beast (werewolves) kind, and they are losing good men fast. After he runs into Holly once, he then finds her where his brother works healing people. He soon learns what/who she is, and decides they should work together.
Holly and Guy are a little bit of an odd couple for me. There isn’t an instant love, but definitely some instant attraction (which is fine by me). The reason they are an odd couple is more to do with what Guy represents. He is a Templar and has an air of authority which makes me wonder why or how Holly thought him attractive still after she got to know him. As you can see I was not a huge Guy fan.
The first part of the book moves at a nice pace, mainly because of the situations both main characters find themselves in. Holly is my kind of girl. She is practical and doesn’t see everything in black and white unlike Guy. Guy is a usual alpha male which is annoying at times. He doesn’t listen to reason, or really anyone other than himself, and seems to turn into a whole different kind of person when he is getting intimate with Holly. This made him fall a little more than flat for me.
The side characters didn’t stick out for me a lot except for Holly’s friend Fen, who is also half-fae and a fortune teller to boot. I would really dig-it if he had his own book. He also seems more likely of a companion for Holly, just saying.
The story is set in a world where Vampires, werewolves and fae exist, but it isn’t an Urban Fantasy. They have gas lights, and have a bit of a seeming French flair, but I wouldn’t call it, or say it is steampunk. No cogs here. Instead I would say fantasy world, and while dragons don’t exist, mages do. It is not castles or anything like that. It is set mainly in one city, and while it is not modern, it isn’t really medieval either. What surprised me was as many politics that went into telling the story I still don’t fully understand who, or what is fully in charge of the city, but I can say I like how this is set up. It reads like an urban fantasy, so fans of the genre will not be thrown by the setting.
The story was fun and exciting. It started out fast paced with me, and then slowed down a little towards the end. I really enjoyed it, but I felt as if the scenes could have been taken a little further. It skimmed around the edges of what it could have been. The setting, it not being in a modern world, but having all the trappings of an everyday urban fantasy is what made the book stand out, but the plot lagged a little. There is one thing I still don’t fully understand about the Night World bad dudes that I can’t say without spoiling it, but I can say when everything was out in the open there is one fact that makes no sense to me. It is a plot point, and important to the story. There is a steamy scene, but once it is played out the sexual tension seems to steam out. I think it was Guy swift change of character after the scene that had me at a distance after this. I do plan to read the first one. I have heard good things, and I wouldn’t mind getting a hold of the next one, but in the end I wanted more from the story.
Holly is a half-fae thief and spy. She is forced to do a job she really doesn’t want to do. As it happens she runs into Templar Guy DuCaine for a second time. Being a spy and having to deal with a Templar can be hard, add in some attraction between the two, and it gets really hard. Guy nearly forces Holly to work with him, so he doesn’t have to involve his brother’s soon-to-be-wife. Soon the two are moving through the Night World together.
This is the second book in The Half-Light City series. I didn’t read the first book, and I didn’t feel lost starting out. It is about a different couple than the first novel in the series. It is told half in Holly’s point of view, the other half in Guy’s. The duel perspectives are enjoyable but you can read right through and forget the point of view switched to a different character.
While Holly is doing her spy thing for the Night World, Guy is doing his, save the humans Templar thing, except that the Templars are being ambushed by the beast (werewolves) kind, and they are losing good men fast. After he runs into Holly once, he then finds her where his brother works healing people. He soon learns what/who she is, and decides they should work together.
Holly and Guy are a little bit of an odd couple for me. There isn’t an instant love, but definitely some instant attraction (which is fine by me). The reason they are an odd couple is more to do with what Guy represents. He is a Templar and has an air of authority which makes me wonder why or how Holly thought him attractive still after she got to know him. As you can see I was not a huge Guy fan.
The first part of the book moves at a nice pace, mainly because of the situations both main characters find themselves in. Holly is my kind of girl. She is practical and doesn’t see everything in black and white unlike Guy. Guy is a usual alpha male which is annoying at times. He doesn’t listen to reason, or really anyone other than himself, and seems to turn into a whole different kind of person when he is getting intimate with Holly. This made him fall a little more than flat for me.
The side characters didn’t stick out for me a lot except for Holly’s friend Fen, who is also half-fae and a fortune teller to boot. I would really dig-it if he had his own book. He also seems more likely of a companion for Holly, just saying.
The story is set in a world where Vampires, werewolves and fae exist, but it isn’t an Urban Fantasy. They have gas lights, and have a bit of a seeming French flair, but I wouldn’t call it, or say it is steampunk. No cogs here. Instead I would say fantasy world, and while dragons don’t exist, mages do. It is not castles or anything like that. It is set mainly in one city, and while it is not modern, it isn’t really medieval either. What surprised me was as many politics that went into telling the story I still don’t fully understand who, or what is fully in charge of the city, but I can say I like how this is set up. It reads like an urban fantasy, so fans of the genre will not be thrown by the setting.
The story was fun and exciting. It started out fast paced with me, and then slowed down a little towards the end. I really enjoyed it, but I felt as if the scenes could have been taken a little further. It skimmed around the edges of what it could have been. The setting, it not being in a modern world, but having all the trappings of an everyday urban fantasy is what made the book stand out, but the plot lagged a little. There is one thing I still don’t fully understand about the Night World bad dudes that I can’t say without spoiling it, but I can say when everything was out in the open there is one fact that makes no sense to me. It is a plot point, and important to the story. There is a steamy scene, but once it is played out the sexual tension seems to steam out. I think it was Guy swift change of character after the scene that had me at a distance after this. I do plan to read the first one. I have heard good things, and I wouldn’t mind getting a hold of the next one, but in the end I wanted more from the story.