4.5 Feathers
Hearts of Darkness
by Kira Brady
(Deadglass # 1)
Hearts of Darkness is an outstanding debut novel for the Deadglass series. With a very intricate world and character building, Ms. Brady did a superb job of creating a world of mix mythology, shape shifters, ghost, and dragons.
I do have to say how impressed I am with this book. I was skeptical of the world building as I had a bit of trouble understanding it in the prequel, Hearts of Fire (Deadglass, #0.5). Though it was slow in the beginning, THIS book had just the right length to better describe this world.
In a nut shell, this world revolves around two clans who are in battle with each other for centuries. It is between the Kivati shifters who are of different animals of Native American mythology and the Drekar, dragon shifters which had the Norse mythology back ground. Both clans are living in secret among humans but always in battle for power.
Kayla’s sister (Desiree) recently passed away and being the nurse that she is, finding out the exact cause of her sister’s death is important to her. To do just that, Kayla visits her sister’s town (alternate world of Seattle) and unraveled a lot more than she expected.
On the other hand, we have Hart Lupus of the Kivati clan but has little contact with any Kivatis since he was a child. This Wolfe shifter is an independent mercenary who’s worked for the Drekar. Indentured for 15 years, he is at a point of earning his freedom. The question is, will he survive this last mission to get what he wants?
Both on a mission to find answers, our Hero and Heroine decides to work together to better their chances. And yes, they worked!
A bad boy tamed by the strong heroine, Kayla and Hart are good together. They had a lot of sexual tension and their intimate moments were pretty hot. I really enjoyed reading about them.
Speaking of hot, I wanted to note the leader of the Kivati, Emory Corbette. He has totally captured my eye. If you’ve read the novella, he is Alice's brother who seemed eager to rule and push for what he believes in. We see what type of a leader he became after all these years. He and Princess Lucia, the harbinger of destiny has a very intriguing relationship and one I would love to follow.
Though the overall romance was good, I felt like there was more focus on the plot. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing because the plot was pretty damn good, IMO. It was full of excitement, suspense, lies and betrayals along with magic, ghost, shifters and mix mythologies. While there is a HEA, this book may have been categorized in the PNR genre but IMO; there is a big UF feel about it. Overall a great read and I recommended it to both PNR/UF fans.
*ARC provided by publisher
| Barnes and Noble
