Its no secret that we are huge fans of Ilona Andrews, the husband and wife writing team behind Kate Daniels, and the upcoming On The Edge series.
We will be looking at Ilona Andrews first foray to romance from Samhain Publishing. Silent Blade is a short story that is set sometime in the future, where Mafia styled families, known as the Kinsmen, who feud with each other to control and expand their territories. These kinsmen have enhanced implants: physically and biologically, which gifts individuals with special abilities to help aid their agendas and ambitions.
The opening scene of the story starts off with a great introduction from the heroine, Mele Galdes, who is the black sheep of her family as well as their assassin due to her special enhanced gift. She is a melder, who can pretty much slice people in half!
She is asked to assassinate a leading member of a rival Kinsmen family, Celino Carvanna, who turns out to be her ex betrothed. Mele agrees, even though he was the man she fell in love with and in the process shattered her heart. Mele sees this as a way to avenge herself and her family due to the broken betrothal, in which her family was weakened financially and politically.
I loved this story and although it was short, there was a lot of detail which had gone into the world building. It felt fully fleshed out with the characterisations and setting. I especially loved Celino and Mele’s interactions as they both started to learn about each other’s true selves, and both realising the restrictions that their families and their society has placed upon them.
Silent Blade has Ilona Andrew’s trademark of a fast pace story with witty dialogue and well drawn out characters. I hope they will write and visit this world again. And if you have never read a book of theirs – I definitely recommend this story as an introduction. It will show why we are such fan girls.
I give Silent Blade, 4.5 out of 5.
Some goody time! We will be giving away five copies of this short story which you can only get in ebook format. We will be giving away 4 copies here on the blog and to enter just comment in this entry.
The deadline will be this Friday the 17th of July, Midnight GMT time.
The 5th copy will be given away on twitter sometime tonight. For details just follow my Twitter account (Has_Bookpushers) or Lou’s (Lou_Bookpushers) for details to enter!
Good Luck!
P.S Please note multiple entries will excluded.
Edit: Just like to mention again that the copies we are giving away are in E-book format as the story is only available in digital from Samhain Publishing.
Giveaway is over! Thank you to everyone who participated. And congrats to the winners!!!!
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Please enter me. I love the kate daniels Series and I want to see what else the Andrews have written.
I love the Kate Daniels series and will try anything by Ilona Andrews. This blog appears to be a lot of fun and I'm glad you're putting on this contest. Please include me in the contest.
Could you enter me too??? I would love to sample some of her work!
I'd love to be entered for the contest, I love Ilona Andrews' work! thanks!
Add me to the list, if Silent Blade is as good as Kate Daniels it is a must read.
Please, please, please! would love to win this!
Morgan
I'd love to read it, and I'm Italian, too, lol.
I've never read Ilona Andrews, so this would be a terrific first for me! Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy.
I'd love to read Silent Blade, please enter me!
sounds like a great story. I hope I win your contest!
Andrea
Please, please enter me into the contest
Love this: 'I especially loved Celino and Mele’s interactions as they both started to learn about each other's true selves, and both realising the restrictions that their families and their society has placed upon them.'
Please pick me!! It would make me soo happy in my heart!
Joining the queue..
wow it look great and the cover is great hope you have a great summer
I am a huge fan of these wonderful writers, and I’d LOVE to get my hands on this short story!
Guys – sorry to say but this giveaway has ended over a year ago.