Review: Assassin’s Touch by Laurie LondonAssassin's Touch by Laurie London
Series: Iron Portal #1
on November 1, 2012
Genres: PNR, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 150
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
three-stars

Two worlds. Two enemies.

Haunted by loss, Cascadian assassin Rickert D’Angelus is on a mission of vengeance. Determined to stop the Pacifican army from finding a portal to his world, he leads a group of warriors into New Seattle with one goal—to kill all Pacifican soldiers.

Neyla Trihorn had the perfect life until a deadly accident revealed her latent para-abilities. Now, the former fashion designer is the Pacifican army’s hottest commodity in their fight against the invaders.

When Rickert discovers a beautiful, unconscious soldier on a cold mountain ledge near the portal, he realizes she’s a Protection-Talent and cannot be killed. To prevent the army from using her skills again, he takes her as his prisoner instead.

One fated touch…

But when he pulls her into his arms, a sexy and compelling vision appears, awakening something inside him. Something he can’t ignore.

Torn between duty and passion, Rickert must decide if the vision is a Talent trick designed to foil the enemy or the answer to his deepest desires...

I liked the idea of this novella a lot, but there were some confusing parts.

This novella takes place in an alternate world that is some sort of slightly different version of where we live. In New Seattle, portals have been found that lead to another world (the mythos of the 3 worlds should have been given at the beginning, not the last third). The New Seattle side is called the Pacificans, and the other world is called the Cascadians. The Cascadian world is like a medieval Scotland but with magic and modern mentalities and sensibilities, and nothing Scottish but kilts, swords and “lass.”

The heroine was lukewarm at best. I found her annoying and weak . I could absolutely get that her “talent” is what caused her to be forced into the military (they found out she had a talent, and literally forced her into the army). But what I didn’t like is that she a doormat. She took everything the guys had and just kept taking it. Her team was a bunch of dicks, I know, but she’s supposed to be uber special and they hate her? It’s hinted that something happened on a previous mission but it’s never explained, so we have no idea why they hate her.

The hero was great, and I love how when the chance for a Big Misunderstanding came up, he stayed true and knew she would never go back to the army. I liked the horses, and I liked the hero’s side of the portal, but so much was left in the air.

The baby stealing plot should have been hinted at sooner-it was so out of left field, yet it’s rather important.

And the Iron Sickness was never explained, nor why their clothing would disappear. Metal I could understand, but clothing? Crossing with metal apparently killed you, and you had to cross naked. Plus the New Seattle people apparently were able to cross before, but the heroine’s mission is to help find a portal. What happened here? Did everyone who found it before die, taking its secret location to their graves? Or is it a different portal? I never understood that.

This either needed to be a lot longer, or to have some of it removed and pushed to the next novel.

That being said, I like Laurie London, and I liked the concept of this story. It’s different and new. I have the next book and since it’s a full-length novel, I have high hopes for it.

The Neyla and Rickert have moved to the New Seattle side of the portal and they are going to set up a command center of sorts for his people, so I think we’ll see a lot of them coming up.

Despite all the plotholes I still enjoyed the story, and will definitely continue.

***ARC courtesy of netgalley

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three-stars