Friday, June 21, 2013

ARC Review: Kait Ballenger - Shadow Hunter

Execution Underground Series:
 
Book 0.5
 
Shadow Hunter: Damon Brock and Tiffany Solow
 
After Dark (Lords of The Underworld, #4.5; Execution Underground, #0.5) 
 
Expected publication: June 25th 201
Purchase on Amazon: After Dark: The Darkest Angel\Shadow Hunter
 
Summary:
From Goodreads.com
Vampire hunter Damon Brock's first assignment with the Execution Underground is Rochester, New York, a city crawling with the undead. But he isn't the only hunter in town gunning for vamp blood. Tiffany Solow is fierce and ruthless when it comes to slaying the monsters that destroyed her family-and she works solo. But being alone is no longer so desirable when she meets the mysterious hunter who wants more than just her turf. As they work to massacre the local covens, the line between good and evil blurs when they are forced to decide between their lifelong beliefs... and their newfound hearts.
 
Review:
This is a brand new series from a debut author Kait Ballenger; Ms. Ballenger came out of the gates running full speed. She was not holding back on this novella, she had limited pages to make an impression and she sure succeeded with me! From the first few pages we are pulled into a new world and from the get go, we are pulled into some serious action. This novella is extremely fast faced with both the action and the romance. You see both Tiffany and Damon are gunning for the same master vamp, both out for revenge for a loved one. Little did they know that it is the same loved one.
 
Damon is suffering from immense guilt; he feels that he failed his best friend who was killed in action. It is his biggest regret, his second biggest regret is by failing his best friend he also failed his best friend’s sister, a woman he has never met, but has loved for years. Tiffany lost the last of her family when her brother was killed; she also lost her beloved pen-pal B. She blames B for not protecting her brother to the best of his abilities and refuses to communicate with him ever again even though it tears her apart.
 
When Tiffany and Damon first meet it is from Damon trying to kill her; he is convinced she is a vampire, she is in a vampire club after all. When she finally gives him her name he is shocked that this is the love of his life and he is determined to protect her at all costs without revealing who he really is. He never realized that his hardest task ever would be protecting Tiffany from himself. Damon is a dark complex character that pulls you with his sexy brooding, protective and dominate personality. He failed his best friend; but he is NOT going to fail the one person he has ever loved. You really feel Damon’s love for Tiffany and his desire to protect her, which is not an easy job since she is determined to hunt the master vampire that killed her brother. I really liked Damon’s character, I felt his emotion and he really came alive for me in this book.
 
Tiffany is totally kick ass! If the Execution Underground allowed females she’d probably be one of their top agents. On her own she was taking out vampires, which for an agent is not easy feat, but for a regular human it is near impossible. I love a kick ass heroine who doesn’t take shit and can protect herself. Even though she is a strong woman she has her vulnerabilities which makes her more real. She wasn’t a perfect untouchable heroine which made her more likeable as a character. I think Ms. Ballenger did an excellent job in developing not only Tiffany’s character but Damon.
 
In about 100 pages Ms. Ballenger not only did a great job world building she created believable well developed characters. This is no easy task and Ms. Ballenger is to be commended for this. Not only did she do a great job with these two things but in literally maybe a total of 5 pages she introduced you to future characters that already had you intrigued. All we got were the new agent’s bios while Damon was picking a team and I was already all about it. A couple of paragraphs on each one and I was sold! Oh and the ending on this one is a DOOZY! WOW, talk about cliffhangers!
 
I will definitely be looking for the first book in the series and can’t wait to get my hands on it!


*This book was provided by the author for an honest review, no other compensation was provided.

 
Rating:

4.5 Flames


Amanda darkkind

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the awesome review! So glad you enjoyed the book!

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  2. This was actually pretty hard for me to get into. Damon was way too melodramatic for me, though he's suppose to be really brooding I guess. But by the time I got to the end it was better! And that Cliffhanger was a killer!

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  3. Ooo sounds good! I love the bit of drama connecting them. Definitely gonna pick this one up!

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