THE OTHERKIN TRILOGY BOOK 1: SINS OF THE HEART
Eve Silver
ISBN: 978-0-373-77482-1 (Mass Market Paperback)
B003U89SLG (Kindle eBook)
August 1, 2010 (Mass Market Paperback)
July 27, 2010 (Kindle eBook)
Harlequin Enterprises/HQN Books
Paranormal Romance/Dark Fantasy
eBook and Mass Market Paperback

Courtesy of Net Galley

I’ve come to love Eve Silver’s writing through her Gothic and paranormal romances, and then later her futuristic romances written under the name Eve Kenin. Now I have found yet another reason to be amazed by her talent with this new dark fantasy romance series that begins with Sins of the Heart.

Half-human half god Dagan Krayl is a soul reaper. But he is more than that. He is the eldest son of Sutekh, Lord of the Underworld, destined to an eternity of hunting souls for his father. However, Dagan has an unexpected quest before him. Someone murdered his brother, in a near impossible feat and Dagan will do whatever it takes to find his brother’s body and bring him back.

Roxy Tam is an Otherkin and member of the Daughters of Aset, sworn to protect humanity from those like the soul reapers. Years ago, as a teenager, an experience that would have left her dead if not for the intervention of Dagan, she gained supernatural abilities and uses these to help others as a Daughter, even though her rescuer told her to stay away from the very group she now belongs to. When her latest mission has her hunting down intel on a missing reaper, and a kidnapped child, she knows something strange is going on and wants answers her own chosen family has been keeping from her.

Now Dagan and Roxy, who should be enemies, find themselves linked on a mission that may change everything they have ever known. When love gets in the way, Sins of the Heart take over.

I’ll admit my description of the story is very lacking. Every time I tried to put it in to words, I had a very hard time finding the right way to describe what happens between the covers of the fresh, dark, and original story of Sins of the Heart.

While this novel is classified as a romance, and it most certainly does have much of what we look for in the genre, it does not follow the usual formula. I would probably consider this as more of a dark urban fantasy with romantic elements than I would a paranormal romance. Why? Because the romance often takes a back seat to the plot development. Also, our lead couple, while they meet briefly early on in a prelude to the real story, they do not come in contact again until more than half way into the story, with Eve Silver exploring their lives separately until they converge later on in the story, with the romance not getting off the ground until closer to the end. However, when these two finally get together, sparks are most definitely flying!

Be prepared for a lot of information about Egyptian lore and legends of the gods, as Eve Silver sets up the world in which Sins of the Heart occurs. She is an absolute master at working these important details into the adventure so that we almost don’t notice what she is doing, feeling like everything was already there in the background all along. It is quite apparent that a lot of research went into developing this series to give the “trimmings” an authentic feel.

Dark and gritty, with pulse pounding intensity, Sins of the Heart is a marvelous fantasy blended with mystery and romance. While the secondary storyline of what happened to Dagan’s brother is left hanging to carry over into the next two books in the Otherkin series, Sins of the Soul and Sins of the Flesh respectively, there is definitely resolution to the primary plot revolving around Dagan and Roxy. I was so emotionally invested in Dagan and Roxy that I was surprised when the novel ended, left hoping that they will be back, even as secondary characters, in the next Otherkin books.

Run don’t walk to pick up your copy of Sins of the Heart. While you are at it, pick up Sins of the Soul and Sins of the Flesh, also now available, as you will not want to wait to travel deeper into the world of the soul reapers.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, October 2010. All rights reserved.

Reviewed By:

I have been reviewing since 2001 and got started on it completely by accident. That accident turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I discovered a hobby I thoroughly enjoy and an outlet for my opinions about the books I love... or love to hate. Now I don't think I'll ever stop! I live in the DFW area with my three "children" of the four-footed and furry variety, Sheba, Aker, and Amun, affectionately known as cats. I work as an environmental contractor for the Army Reserves, a job I've had since 1997 in which there is never a dull moment and no two days are the same.

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