Review: Never trust an empath over 27
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 13, 2013
Ripped from her family at age 5 to be trained as empathic agent in the Otherworld, Ella Walsh not only knows that the monsters under your bed are real - she is one of the few people that can send them back where came from and erase the memory of the trauma they caused their victims.That ability makes her invaluable to both the earth and Fae authorities - but it comes with a heavy price tag: all the psychic crap they have to absorb in the line of duty will cause an empath to go insane and self-destruct by age 27.The Fae believe that this fate can be avoided by bonding with a partner assigned to the empath by their agency.Ella suspects this as the Fae's attempt stave of the madness by controlling the empaths through the bond in order to prolong their usefulness - making her wonder what would be a worse fate: being bonded or going mad.As her 27th birthday approaches, Ella struggles to cope with the ever increasing psychic burden of her job and the stress of family and co-workers watching her for the first signs of the impending madness, on top of trying to track down a serial killer targeting aging empaths.Enter Vadim Morosov, a part-fae from Russia, suspended from duty for failing to stop that same killer, and given this job as a last chance to save himself from getting deported back to fae.I found the concept intriguing and liked the way Ella handled herself in the face of her less than stellar future.I enjoyed the interaction between Ella and Vadim as they try to come to terms with each other in order to track down the killer.If this story had a weakness it was the final confrontation between the now bonded pair and the killer - which - imho - fell short of the danger and tension leading up to it.In spite of that small disappointment I found the story an enjoyable and entertaining read.