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Title: Sins of the Heart
Author: Eve Silver
Publication Info: Harlequin 2010
ISBN: 978-0373774821
Genre: Paranormal
This RITA® Reader Challenge was written by Plaatsch. This book finaled in the Paranormal Romance category.
Plot Summary: Half human, half god, Dagan Krayl is the Underworld’s most powerful soul reaper. When one of his brothers is murdered, Dagan must use every ounce of his power to hunt down those responsible for his brutal death. But he must move swiftly—and carefully—if he’s to have any chance of resurrecting his brother.
Yet that resurrection could wreak havoc on the mortal world. As an Otherkin, Roxy Tam has sworn to protect the human race, and it’s her mission to stop Dagan. But when she sees him face-to-face, she realizes that she has seen him once before—a meeting that changed her life forever.
Neither Dagan nor Roxy expect to join forces for the sake of mankind. Or to have their loyalties tested as they struggle against the potent desire that threatens to consume them both.
And here is Plaatsch’s review:
There was way too much going on in this book. All the Egyptian mythology backstory, all the secondary characters with points of view, all the set-up for the series-wide story arc of one brother’s murder, all the Otherkin stuff.
And what is an “Otherkin” anyway? It’s never explained. Not even one sentence as to who or what might be Otherkin.
I kept getting thrown out of the book, sometimes by graphic violence: the soul reapers don’t just harvest evil souls, they punch into the bad guys’ chests and rip their hearts out, the god Sutekh (AKA Seth, the god of evil and chaos) has a book made out of people skin, the serial killer has boiled heads in his fridge.
But sometimes I was thrown out by little things: The hero ties back his long hair with a scrap of leather. Where do all these bad-boy-heroes find leather strips? Shoelaces? From fabric stores? Online? And he lives in the Underworld, so does he have a PO Box on Earth, or can the USPS find him?
I never did figure out what the mortal cultists who followed Sutakh were doing and what they had to do with the story.
And what are the Daughters of Aset (Isis) supposed to do, anyway? I mean, what is their purpose? So the heroine didn’t know much because she was low in the hierarchy, even though she had been working for them for ten years, but still there should be some purpose to the group, shouldn’t there?
And then they had hot, hot sex. And then they all knew who the traitorous minion was. Then the minion died at the hand of the shadowy deity who was behind the whole plot. The end. Wait. What?
This book is available from Amazon | Kindle | BN & nook | WORD Brooklyn | AllRomance |
In real life, Otherkins are people who feel that they are not really humans, but rather elves, dragons or other such creatures trapped in human bodies (or they’re humans *now*, but in previous lives they weren’t). So I’d hazard a guess that in this book Otherkins are probably exactly who they feel they are. Or maybe it’s yet another example of ” ‘Dhampir’ means whatever I want it to mean”.
(Is that too much to hope for that Roxy Tam has a long-lost acquaintance named Roxy Song whose actual birth name is Roxy Music?)
It always bums me out when single books in what’s a really unfolding series are nominated for things. Not because they aren’t generally good, but because there can be stuff that’s in them that isn’t explained but gets revealed in the next book (like the Daughters of Aset and the other cult that worships Sutekh among other things).
Can’t help with those hair thongs though – that drives me nuts in every book I read them in, lol.
Yeah, I think the RL “Otherkin” associations would probably throw me out of the story.
I like to think that the heroes make said thongs out of the scraps left after sewing their own pants. And that Roxy Tam is descended from Roxy Hart.
I’m just going to put these links here and back away slowly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin
http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Otherkin
http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/931846.html
Oh! Oh! I know this one! You can get leather hair thingies in a number of places. Crafting stores like Michaels, or beading places are a great bet, and I can just see that guy steering his boat up past the silk flowers section. No, obviously he goes to Hot Topic in the local mall for his (p)leather needs, where he can multitask impressing the tween girls with his brooding skills. Although if Isabel C. is right, and he’s using scraps from leather pant making, there aren’t a lot of retail stores left where he could buy hides, at least in the US. I think there’s still a place on west 38th street in Manhattan.
I didn’t read this book, I might have adored it, we’ll never know, because that cover…
I was going to add to the leather hair thongs too. My husband has a rather ornate one that we got at the Ren Faire. You can find leater anything there. And every food known to man on a stick. Back to the leather hair ties. You can also get spools of leather at craft stores. They are usually used for jewlery making, but hair tying works too.
“Now you know and Knowing is half the battle”
Thank God!! Finally a PNR series I don’t have to read.
Redcrow wrote thusly
In real life, Otherkins are people who feel that they are not really humans, but rather elves, dragons or other such creatures trapped in human bodies
I did not know that there were people out there who really thought they were elves, dragons, etc., trapped in human bodies. I’d only previously encountered people who thought they were men/women in a body of the wrong gender. Interesting.
So… No, there’s no way I would have known what she meant by Otherkin. Seriously. Just a couple of sentences.
An old male friend of mine who used to have long hair that he tied back with a scrap of leather (seriously did not know that about him. I mean, I knew about the hair, but not the rugged bit) found a bunch of online retailers who sell leather laces. So my question about USPS delivering to the underworld still stands.
And I mentioned fabric stores, because I used to work in one and we sold leather lacing by the yard. Never to huge macho guys who looked like they could tear your heart out, though. Often for costumes, though (Halloween and Ren Faire), and beading.
But the hero wore jeans. He kept having to wipe the great gobs of gore onto his jeans. Leather wouldn’t be absorbent enough, I guess. Maybe he should bring along a towel when he goes to reap evil souls?
And I forgot to mention that the hero is not in a boat even once in the book, though Charon’s underworld ferry is shown in connection with another character. I can’t fault the author for the picture, though, knowing that authors don’t always have much control over their covers.