shards of blood and shadow on August 16, 2018 Pages: 302
Format: Paperback
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Cleo Radella inherited both the ability to see the future, and a haunting prediction that she will commit murder on her twenty-fifth birthday. That day has arrived, along with a stranger who is fated to alter her world irrevocably.Â
One will come in blood, the other in shadow…Â
Flint is not what one would call a people person. He despises small talk, prefers solitude, and hates being touched. Luckily, the fragments of ancient, powerful souls he carries allow him to fade into the shadows, unseen and unnoticed—handy for a guy who hunts people for a living.Â
Cleo is his next target, but when her life is threatened, he will stop at nothing to protect the beautiful psychic. No one captures his prey but him.Â
Death lurks behind them…Â
Forced together, Flint reveals a world Cleo never knew existed. She soon learns that no one is what they seem, and that her destiny is much bigger than she ever imagined…
I was really excited to see that Shannon K. Butcher is still writing PNR.
Cleo was born with a prophecy hanging over her head. Her mom was a psychic, and the day she was born, she foretold that Cleo would kill on her 25th birthday. That two men would come to her that day, one in shadow and one in blood.
The book opens on her birthday. She doesn’t know what will happen, but she knows she doesn’t want to kill anyone nor does she want to die.
Flint’s job is to find the potential “vessels” his boss gives him, and bring them in to his boss Starry, that way they can figure out if the person is one of the Riven or the Vires (good guys or bad guys).
Once upon a time, the Ancients were probably killed (I honestly don’t know because it’s kind of confusing). Their souls were splintered into fragments and those fragments went into humans. Those humans became a teeny bit…more. Then they had children, and their shards were passed on. Several thousand years later, we have people with possibly several shards. So these ancient beings have a piece of themselves here and there. That shard enhances the human who has it. But people don’t necessarily realize that.
So on her birthday, Flint shows up trying to explain this to her. He does a terrible job and she kicks him out. He comes back determined to make her listen to him. So he books a reading with her. She has to touch someone to see their future, so she touches his hand and is bombarded with images of them having sex, and of him stabbed in front of her. (not a spoiler guys! This is like chapter 1 or 2).
The story itself is kind of confusing since we don’t know for how long humans have known about these shards, and it makes it seem Starry has been finding people and trying to take care of everything on her own for who knows how long. It’s hinted she far older than she looks. But she’s pulling in good guys to her mansion and keeping them there to work on finding more good guys, and trying to kill bad guys.
So all of that is confusing, but it’s not something that you can’t suspense belief and just work around. However, my main gripe was that there was no romance. It was all lust, and that’s fine, but no romance shown at all. She has a vision of them in bed, and she’s attracted to him, so that’s that. It’s all settled. No romance.
If you’ve missed Shannon K. Butcher and an old school Paranormal Romance vibe then you’ll love her as Anna Argent.
***I bought this book
