The Shaede Assassin series continues
Book 4 of the Shaede Assassin series shows no sign of fatigue. After the emotional turmoil in book 3, the first few pages of Against the Dawn act as sort of an intensive care ward for Darian’s wounded soul. She takes stock and reconnects with Xander and Ty. While she’s hesitant to give any sure-fire indication as to which way her heart beats, the Shaede king and the jinn grab the opportunity to prove themselves.
Along the way the author serves up a number of road blocks and surprises. The resulting zigzag is also reflected in the characters’ journeys. Not only do we dig deeper into the people in Darian’s life, Darian herself reveals her true mettle.
And like any good book, this isn’t all about who’s making out with whom. Plenty of action and plot-twisting awaits us, including the appearance of an unwelcome face from Darian’s past. After the introspective start, the pace doesn’t as much gallop as hurtle head-over-feet-over-head to the ending, providing just enough respite to let us catch our breaths.
A word about the ending. I prefer it if the author wraps everything up into a lovely, tidy parcel. Cliffhangers and loose threads get you all hot for the next instalment, then leave you hanging for many months as you wait for the conclusion.
That said, biting into a pillow while grunting your impatience is a lot of fun, too. And this truly is the mother of all cliffhangers. Either way, I will sit by my Kindle app, on the look-out for book 5.
tl;dr
Should you read it? Hell yeah.
