Review: Night Blade by J.C. Daniels

Night Blade is the second installment in J.C. Daniels deliciously robust and addictive urban fantasy series, The Colbana Files. Fans of Patrica Briggs and Ilona Andrews will devour this series with it's nail biting action, engaging dialogue, and impressive cast of characters who will claw their way into your heart. The series revolves around half human/half Aneira PI, Kit Colbana.

At the end of Blade Song, Kit made friends and enemies when she bonded with the new cat alpha, Damon Lee, and cements her ties with the witches. Night Blade picks up with Kat and Damon are now mated but while Damon wants to tell the world, Kit wants to keep it under wraps while he cleans up his pack. When members of the Assembly turn up dead, Kit is approached by an old friend and ex who informs her that eyes are looking at Damon as the cause for the killings. He solicits her help in solving the crimes and proving Damon's innocence, but Kit pays a high price. She must be magically bound; unable to tell anyone what she is doing. As Kit's investigation takes her deeper down a path of no return, her relationship with Damon begins to suffer and a old enemy rears it's ugly head, determined to being Kit to heel in a manner that will leave readers stunned.

I adore this series. Heavily character driven with deceptively mild world building, I find the balance of power and vulnerability to be an addictive draw. Ms. Daniels is not afraid to extract her pound of flesh from her characters and situations arise that will leave you wondering what more will she demand. Heavy plot action and ripe tension is tempered with snarky humor and everyday life; allowing you a respite from it's heavy undertones. The story reads fast as we are sucked into a vortex of deception, betrayal, sorrow, and overwhelming horror.

Only after we reach the end, battered and bruised from our journey, does Ms. Daniels offer us a brief glimpse of hope.

If your looking for a powerful urban fantasy that promises an exciting read but delivers so much more then look no further then the Colbana Files.

Purchase here:

AMAZON/B&N/GOODREADS

I’m Reviewing Phoenix Rising by Philippa Ballantine & Tee Morris at Smexy Books

Favorite Quote: “ Yes Books, I know. I’m such a bad, bad agent. I should be put across your knee and spanked.”

BLURB: Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade  and a librarian.
These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences—the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling—will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray.
For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun—he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices—must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot . . . or see England fall to the Phoenix! (Goodreads)