Review: Blade Song by J.C. Daniels

PJV Quickie:  There is a reason I love Urban Fantasy. J.C. Daniels, better known as the illustrious Shiloh Walker, took all of my favorite aspects of a good Urban Fantasy and delivered one hell of a ride. Authors, like J.C. Daniels, are why I love Urban Fantasy.

Review

Daniels’ world building is one of the main draws of the Urban Fantasy, ‘Blade Song.’ In Kit Colbana’s world, the paranormals walk among the humans and live, basically separated from them, policing themselves in segregated areas. The humans will only intervene if certain rules are broken, but mostly they are left to their own devices. Kit, is a half human, Amazon, trying to make a living as a jack-of-all-trades in a very hostile world. She has been a hired killer, a commissioned thief and today it looks like she’ll be working for the local cat Alpha to track down the Alpha’s runaway nephew. Lack of funding is the ONLY reason she is accepting this particular job, though, because the Alpha of the kitty-cats is bat-shit-crazy and her leg-breaker, extraordinaire, Damon, is on orders to tag along every step of the way, no matter how much Kit puts up a fight. He might be hot as hell, but he put the ass in hole and it is hard to do her job with a hair-trigger at her head. Because as this case moves on, Kit realizes that if she doesn’t find this kid, she’s as good as dead, this particular Alpha doesn’t tolerate failure.

‘Blade Song’ was one wild ride. The character of Kit also had a lot to do with the intensity of the book. This chick was off-the-charts insane. In a good way of course. Most UF characters are delectably damaged. It is usually what drives them on whatever mission the author wants them to accomplish. Kit’s particular brand of crazy comes in the form of her screwed up childhood. It defines her as basically unstoppable, she sets out to do something and no matter how injured or bad the odds, she doesn’t stop. At times, it was almost too much.

Then there is Damon. At first you hate him. Then you are drooling over him. By the end, totally smitten. Alpha all the way, a total and complete jerk, he is almost as damaged as Kit, yet the work well together. Her sarcasm with his stoic and insulting nature. It was just a great combination that unraveled into a wonderful book. Daniels’ writing and character building had me thinking, early Anita Blake (not the later whorish books) and Richelle Mead’s adult series, which are some of my favorite series. Can you tell this book rocked my world?

I also really enjoyed how Daniels’ delivered all the information, usually most series will start with an intense introduction to the world, but I found that we were slowly introduced to different pieces and parts. Some readers might be thrown off by this and feel out of the loop, but I found it made the pace of the book spped-up. There were some narrative explanations, but nothing that struck me as over-the-top. She utilized the first person POV very well and then implemented the backgrounds of all the paranormal species with precision. This really has to be Urban Fantasy at its almost perfect incarnation. It has everything a fan of the genre could want, some might find this stereotypical of a genre, I just find it refreshing.

Recommendations:
Readers of Romance and fans of the author, be forewarned, this is not a Romance. This is Urban Fantasy, so familiarize yourself with what usually happens in an UF before you delve into the pages of this book. It is not about a hook-up or an HEA, it is about crazy paranormals and even crazier characters. Death and destruction baby. Adults only.

And now all I can focus on, is getting more of this series…

Want some more Urban Fantasy? Check out…

Guilty Pleasures by Laurel K. Hamilton
Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay

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Parajunkee

Rachel, whom you might know as Parajunkee, is the blog owner of parajunkee.com and the design blog parajunkee.net. Rachel has been blogging for close to four years, designing / web programming for over twelve, but her real love, reading, has been her favorite hobby since childhood. Rachel has won numerous awards for her writing, the blogs she has created and her design work.

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