Review: I'm hot and cold on this one.......
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 20, 2013
So my feelings run pretty hot and cold on this one.  It's such an interesting premise.  I was excited by this new twist mythology and was interested in reading about a tattoo artist who used a supernatural gift to create the perfect tattoo for her clients.  The world of the Kindred is amazing and although I'm still not clear on some of the details, I love the creativity that went into it all -- I mean, hello, blue angelic beings!!!There's also a great blend of mystery and action in KINDRED OF THE FALLEN.  I liked the slow peeling apart of truth of Serenity's past and the suspense of the action scenes.  I did feel the book lacked the complexity to merit being 460+ pages and found myself skimming at points.  This was especially true of the copious amount and length of sex scenes.  I enjoy a steamy scene as much as the next girl, but these scenes went on for pages and pages and there were quite a few of these.What really hurt this book for me was my complete dislike for the main characters.  I can forgive characters that I just don't connect with or characters that just aren't developed fully, but Serenity and Cyrus fell completely flat for me.  If they had shown even a bit of character growth I might've gotten on board, but I didn't see any significant change in these characters and I could not bring myself to like or even respect them.  Cyrus was a complete bull and Serenity was so easily swayed.  I couldn't see her giving up every part of her human life as a good thing.  Their relationship was dysfunctional at best.I did really love Cassian and Talus, a brother and sister raised by Cyrus.  Cassian is heroic and kind; Talus shows beautiful character growth.  These two are bright rays in a cast of less-than-fabulous characters.The book concludes well, with a good portion of closure but enough left unfinished to entice a reader into book two.  There's a lot of great romance in this last portion, too, but my dislike for the main characters made it hard to appreciate.  I'm not sure that I'll continue on with the series; I'd like to see what happens with the story line and whether Serenity and Cyrus develop into an emotionally healthy couple, but I'm not sure I want to invest the reading time to find out.I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.  See more of my reviews on my blog, Known to Read.