Tuesday 17 August 2010

Red-Headed Stepchild Review



Red-Headed Stepchild (Sabina Kane - Book 1)
- Jaye Wells


Publisher: UK – Orbit

In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina doesn't really fit in. And being an assassin - the only profession fit for an outcast - doesn't help matters. But she's never brought her work home. Until now. Her latest mission is uncomfortably complex, and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As Sabina scrambles to figure out which side she's on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life-changing, but together, they could be fatal ...



I picked this book up shortly after it first came out having been persuaded by the advertising campaign, but it’s never made it to the top of my TBR pile until now. Having seen that my TBR pile features a lot of Urban Fantasy I’ve decided to start reading and weed out the good (loads of series for me to follow!) from the dreadful (plenty of that in the genre as well!).
RH SC was an easy read. The world was nothing new to readers of UF but has some fun twists on the usual set up such as apple being poisonous to vampires (even cider!). At it’s heart it’s a lonely, hard-assed girl learning to connect to people. Sabina doesn’t worry about killing people (she is an assassin after all) or drinking blood, but over the course of the story she makes friends with a wood Nymph and starts to trust a mage – a race vampires usually despise. She also learns her family isn’t all she thought it was. There was nothing challenging in the story but it balanced some light hearted moment involving a demon cat and action as well skating close to issues of rape and assault, but generally landed on the lighter side. There are a few revelations which set up the next two books and will have me looking out for the next book - The Mage in Black.

Fans of Kitty Noville and Sookie Stackhouse might enjoy this for a different view on creatures of the night.
Rating: 7 out of 10

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