Review: A good start to a promising series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 2, 2014
Angel Kin is the first book in the Angel Assassins series by Tricia Skinner.After I was offered this book for review I read the burb and wasn’t sure if to accept or not. The Cain and Abel name of the characters kind of worried me because I don’t enjoy books with heavy religious undercurrents, but when Mrs. Skinner replied: “My angels are not pious; they are SOBs.” I was sold, I knew I have to read this book and I’m glad I did.Katie Logan promised her family she wouldn’t steal again, but with her friends’ lives at risks and without any other option to get money she decides to rob the house of a dirty politician. What Katie wasn’t expecting was to witness the assassination of the politician by a supernatural being.Katie has a record and can’t go to the police, but with the help of her brother she goes to The Bound Ones, a group of Nephilim (half human-half angel) assassins in charge of protecting the Sacred Law. The last thing Katie imagined was to find in The Bound Ones the man she saw killing the politician or at least a man that looks just like him.Cain is at lost when Katie accuses him of murder, but without any other explanation he realizes his twin brother, Abel, must be behind the murder.Now, with the brother he thought dead for millennia breaking havoc in Detroit, Cain knows he has to stop him before another finds him. He has many questions for him, but he also knows that the actions of this Abel are not the actions of the sweet and caring boy he remembers.If his inner turmoil wasn’t enough, being close to Katie is awaking in him feelings he thought forever suppressed.Cain may be an assassin but he is not evil, he has a conscience and a close group of friends whom he considers his adoptive family. He has a dark and sad past that torments him everyday and now the brother he has mourned for thousands of years is back, but sadly the circumstances of Abel’s return just mean another heartbreak for Cain.I really liked Cain, I like that despise the tough life he’s still a sweet and caring man. I love his love for his friends and his adoptive father. I also loved that even though he was happy for Abel’s return he was also aware this was not a happy reunion.I liked Katie, but if I’m honest there is not much we know about her. We know she has done some mistakes in the past and we also know she cares for her brothers and friends, but apart from that there is not much we know about her.Cain and Katie’s romance is not insta-love, more like insta-attraction and it develops from there. I liked them together, I think Katie was good for Cain and Cain was good for Katie, but… here comes the “but” in their relationship. Cain is a thousands year old Nephilim and Katie is a normal human. I really don’t see how their relationship can work in the long run. Maybe something will happen in future books to change Katie’s status, I don’t know, I’ll have to wait and see.There is an array of secondary characters; from them the more prevalent is Abel.Abel is bad because he doesn’t know anything better. He had a very different upbringing from Cain. Abel was raised by The Renegades to be use as a weapon in their war with the angels.“You were too human as a child, weakened by emotions. We saved you from the fate of the other half-breeds so you could learn a better path.”Another scrape burned along Abel’s back.“Starved of wasted emotion. Beaten to understand and control pain. Locked away in isolation to develop our singular purpose. This is why you survived. This is who you were meant to be.”Although I don’t condone Abel’s actions I know in a way it wasn’t his fault. He’s the result of years of harsh programming.From the other secondary characters I can’t say much. We meet Cain’s adoptive father, the angel Tanis and Cain’s partners/brothers Kas, Nesty and Jarrid. Apart from knowing they are also Nephilim we don’t know much else. They were a bit underdeveloped. It was the same case with Katie’s friends. She risked her life for them, but we don’t see much of them apart from a few telephone conversations. It would have been nice if all of the secondary characters had been fully fleshed out.The world Mrs. Skinner creates in this series is interesting. Humans live among a variety of supernatural beings (Others). This is something I would have like to know more about. How it came to be or if it was always like this. Hopefully we’ll learn more in books to come.After reading Angel Kin I realized there is a prequel, Angel Bait. I’m planning to read it; maybe some of my questions are answered in there.Angel Kin is not a perfect read but it is a good start to a promising series. I recommend Angel Kin to paranormal romance and urban fantasy fans.Next book in the series, Angel Lover, will be Kas’ book and it’ll be release on August 31st.