During Starfall, magic flooded the Earth and destroyed most technology while humans developed strange new powers. As the scion of a male-dominated clan, Jesse should have risen to become a hero.One disastrous choice ruins her hopes for the future. To forget about her life as an assassin, she heads to the dying coasts of Florida. Unfortunately, a chance encounter with a Starfall stone and the … stone and the Siberian tiger shifter after it thrusts her into the limelight. Escaping Nate’s sights is only the beginning of her woes.
When two dangerous Starfall stones are stolen, it’s up to Jesse to recover them. Should she fail, she’ll only be the first to succumb to the rogue stones’ powers.
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I loved this book. It took an unexpected path to arrive to the end. The characters and world were all original. I can’t wait to read the next book.
Although unlike Blain’s Magical Romantic Comedies this book isn’t a comedy, there are plenty of laughs, giggles, chuckles, snorts, guffaws, and the occasional gale of hysterical laughter. Plus plenty of action and suspense, and of course a body count. Thankfully it’s a long book, I was torn between wanting it to go on forever because I was enjoying it so much, and wanting to get through it so I could get the next book. The developing relationships between Jesse and the other characters are fun and heart-warming. And the world creation is fascinating. I loved this book, and can’t wait for the release of the next one in this series, Steel Heart.
It engaged my interest and kept it going. The characters were a little quirky and very interesting.
Complicated and twisted plot, amazing characters and scary horses. Must read!
Love anything by this author.
I’ve read most of Blain’s books now and in this one it shows that she is really starting to mature as a writer. Compared to her earlier books, the plotting and the suspense in this one is just amazing. She keeps the story moving even when you think there’s nowhere for it to go. This may be her best book yet.
It’s not perfect; there are negative aspects. I’ll get to that in a bit, but first I want to stress the reasons why you *should* read this book. And I definitely do recommend that you should. I’d just finished reading another first of a new series by one of my favorite corporate-published (non-indie) authors. I enjoyed that book too, as I knew I would since I’m such a fan of the author. But TBH, while it had fewer typos, it was a far less satisfying read than this one. The length was perfect. Enough to get a good sense of the characters and then still allowing room for enough setbacks and plot twists to really feel the frustrations they experienced. And therefore, to really feel the satisfaction of the final resolution. Overall it’s just a superiorly conceived story and a well written book.
For those that care, The romantic subplot doesn’t resolve. At the end she still “doesn’t know how she feels” about him (though it seems obvious to everyone else). In fact, there’s quite a few loose ends left dangling in the rest of the story, too. I suppose that just leaves room for a sequel. But the bad guys get beat and the status quo is preserved, so it’s a HEA in that sense.
So, the negatives…
The world-building was good but not great. The story is in a completely different world from her previous books. You still have the basic UF types, there are shifters (of various animal types) and magic-users (called mystics), but the rationale is different. Closer to a post-apocalyptic scenario. Overall it’s a good world but there are holes that make me uncomfortable. Things that are easy to ignore and don’t mar the enjoyment of the plot, but for me reduce the overall experience some. In this world, fire and combustion no longer works, but electricity still does, and computers too. They are rare though, because the electricity power them has to be generated by mages. And I think, “why? Windmills and hydro power should still work then.” And solar too. So there’s no more cars, but they remember them because all was just as we know it up ’til the early ’70s. But they had electric buggies back then. And in forty odd years nobody ever figured out a solar powered electric car?
And another thing… If these “Starfall” stones come from space and inhibit all fire, and there’s lots of them out there, so what happens when they hit the sun?
Anyway, that’s all just my personal beef, most readers wouldn’t even notice that, and even the more technically minded like me might still enjoy the story itself in spite of a few holes.
Continuing on the negative theme, it also bugged me a few times that the cuteness overload started to get to me. I realize the violence as love thing is sort of a staple of predator-shifter UF and is becoming a signature trope of Blain’s. But after a while it does feel a bit like a one-trick pony. I wish the characters’ personalities were just a bit more delineated sometimes.
But those really are only minor complaints. Overall the book really does shine.