Thursday, September 3, 2009
03 September 2009, Thursday
In 1998, a young twenty three year old heiress, Minerva, had the ability to feel good things that may happen to her – “her hunches”. This was fortunate because she's got one problem, the antique estate mansion “Sapphire House” that she inherited as her home is draining her family coiffures with its upkeep, and she needs to marry well - or do something, to allow her the funds to maintain her home. She plans to use her gift of feeling if something will be good or not to invest in the shares market to allow her to marry whoever she wanted, live comfortably, and take proper care of Sapphire House. But we will never know what would have happened, because she was fatally shot on that same day.Who are The Kyndred?
The Kyndred want to know who they are as well. Are they really descendants of the Darkyn – immortal vampires? What they do know is that they are marked, each with their own tattoo of a certain animal. Like these animals, every one of the Kyndred all have their own separate unique ability, and it is not always a gift, such as what Minerva had.
After many years of intensely searching, it is believed that as young children (as young as still being in the uterus) their DNA and genes have been played havoc and experimented with to try and produce other worldly capabilities. Once they were finished with, they were then discarded into catholic orphanages around the world.
It is not until they grow older and experience a nearly fatal event do these experiment’s true implications manifest and impact upon their lives, in such unexpected ways. It is their choice to use these gifts or to turn away from it. Little do they know that there is someone out there that knows about them and covets what they have.
Shadowlight?
Phoenix Inc is one of the top personnel agencies in the south that screens employees for interested employers, but it is not via their own capabilities that make them so. Jessa Bellamy is the owner of Phoenix Inc and she is normal. She is not kyndred. In fact, she thinks you’ve got the wrong person. She does not know what you are talking about!
In denial about her gift and who she is yet she uses her gift to see a person’s deepest darkest secret to bring her agency to the top of its field. On personal skin contact, she is taken to the shadowlight realm and in a beat of a second she is able to see a persons most awful deeds before being plunged back into the sunlight. It is a curse! But one she has been able to successfully use to screen employees for employers and make her personnel agency a successful one.
However, can she any longer deny her gift when she becomes wanted for the death of numerous murders and is embroiled in a scheme to capture the kyndred – her friends?
Come with me or you will die
Due to her gift and its effect on contact, she fears any form intimacy until she meets…
Matthias. He is “the boss”. The leader of the small secret hidden group that “takes” the kindred. And this time, he has captured this little princess.
Things get no better when she is sarcastically welcomed into the Freak Protection Program. What is going on? Can Jessa trust Matthias?
This is an intriguing and suspenseful first book of the Kyndred series. Shadowlight is filled with unexpected twists and turns that totally caught me by unawares. If you love X-Men with a splash of JD.Robb then this is it. Since this is the first book, on first reading, it is a bit hard to keep track of what is going on and follow the story, but once the concept was fully understood, the story makes much more sense and I read it with a better understanding. On my second reading, I was less frustrated and instead was able to enjoy the book much more. As with most sci-fi/fantasy books, the first novel is the premise whereby the author has to try to make clear their "world" and Viehl does that beautifully in Shadowlight. Jessa Bellamy is quite a realistic heroine and her hero is the perfect man who balances out her edges. Drew and Rowan, the secondary characters here, were fantastic and I do hope to hear Drew’s story some day - Rowan’s story: Dreamveil, available in June 2010, is the next book in the new Kyndred series and I gotta tell you from the sneak peek – it is hot:
“I must remove it.”
As soon as he put his hand on her leg, Rowan stiffened. “I don’t think so.”
He glanced up. “You do not like to be touched.”
“Oh, sometimes I like it fine.” She stared at his mouth before lifting her eyes to his, and he saw a glimmer of heat and longing. “It’s the stranger part I have trouble with.”
“So do I.” More than he could ever tell her. “Perhaps just for tonight, we should think we are friends.”
“Friends.” She seemed amused by this, but leaned back on her elbows. “All right, Dansant. Do whatever you want.”
