Blood Assassin

By: Alexandra Ivy

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

They are the outcasts of humanity. Blessed with power. Cursed by fate. Driven by passion. The Sentinels have returned....

At six-foot-three and 250 pounds, Fane is a natural born guardian. A flawless mix of muscled perfection and steely precision, he has devoted years of his life to protecting a beautiful necromancer. But after she found love in the arms of another, Fane has been a warrior adrift. He swears allegiance only to the Sentinels. And no woman will ever rule his heart again. Not only a powerful psychic, Serra is that rare telepath who can connect to minds through objects. When the daughter of a high-blood businessman is kidnapped, Serra agrees to help. But when she stumbles onto a conspiracy involving secrets sects and ancient relics, her life is in mortal danger - and Fane is her only hope. Is the warrior willing to risk his body, his soul, and his heart, for Serra? Or will one last betrayal destroy them both?

©2015 Debbie Raleigh (P)2015 Recorded Books

Really good addition to the series :)

4 stars

This was a very good story. I really liked Serra and thought she did really well as a heroine. I really didn't get Fane's reasoning on certain things but I still liked him overall. The story was a good mix of action and romance and I never felt like the story got boring, I stayed engaged the whole way through.

Serra is a "high born" (a human with special powers) that is a very strong psychic. She was born to human parents but was lucky that they loved her regardless of her powers and spent a lot of time with Serra even after she went to live at Valhalla. Serra has loved Fane for 15 years but although he seems to be attracted to her, he wont allow them to be close at all. Serra has tried to move on with other men but has no success in finding a man that's anywhere near as attractive to Serra as Fane is.

Fane is a guardian sentinel, which is a high born that's been trained in everything needed to guard another high born that cant' protect themselves. Fane had been the guardian of Callie (from book #1, Born in Blood) but once she fell in love (and her new man became her new guardian) Fane wasn't needed as her guardian any more. Now he finds himself adrift and not sure what to do. Fane has loved Serra for as long as she's loved him but has convoluted and ultimately very stupid reasons for holding back for 15 years.

When the story begins, it's around 3 months after book #1 ends. The bond between Fane and Callie has just been broken and he's decided that he's going to move to Tibet to become a trainer for new sentinels. Up to this point, Fane has used his guardian job for Callie to push Serra away...saying he's too busy with his responsibilities to have a relationship. Because of this, Serra is pissed as hell to find out that Fane has decided to move away without even telling her he was going. She confronts him but he just pushes her away again, pushing Serra in to promising herself (not for the first time) that she'll find someone new who will love her instead of hurt her. She goes back to her apartment and finds a gift that ends up being spelled and traps Serra into a situation and she's forced to leave Valhalla (without telling anyone). Callie (who is a foster sister to Serra and very close) realizes she's missing first and goes to Fane for help. Fane checks things out and realizes there is a problem and goes after her, determined to help Serra.

Serra finds herself in St. Louis and the captive of a criminal high born named Bass that's living unknown to Valhalla and selling his powers to humans. He's a ruthless man and he's made enemies...one of which decided to kidnap his daughter. Bass may be a bad guy but he loves his daughter fiercely, however; what the kidnapper wants in exchange is really bad so Bass is reluctant to carry through. He finds a way to force Serra to help him and this threat is bad enough (and viable enough) that when Fane finds them, he can't just take Serra and go. Fane decides to stay to help and protect Serra. Once he sees Serra in lethal danger, Fane decides that he doesn't want to stay away from Serra after all, that he was being stupid to push her away for all these years and now he just wants to be with her. Unfortunately, Serra as had enough pity and rejection and isn't willing to trust Fane when he tries to show her his new intentions. She has trouble holding back from him (especially once he starts kissing her) but she does try to hold back her heart because she really doesn't feel she can trust that Fane's change of heart is true. Fane is patient while trying to convince her his feelings are true, realizing that he brought her distrust on himself and he'll have to work to get her trust back. And although Serra was wary of Fane's change of heart, she wasn't annoying at all about it. I thought she had the right amount of distrust/willingness. Fane is very protective but he and Serra still do pretty well at working together. The kidnapping plot is rather complex and difficult to figure out and it certainly kept things interesting while Fane and Serra figured out their relationship. Things get wrapped up pretty well in the end (with only Bass being an outlying loose end) and Fane and Serra get their HEA together.

I enjoyed this story very much. I really liked both Serra and Fane. I really didn't understand Fane's real reasons for pushing Serra away for so long but I kind of got the feeling that maybe he didn't either. I found that a bit frustrating but since he got past it pretty quickly in the story, it didn't really cause enough annoyance/confusion to bring down the story for me. Overall, this was a very good story with a good combo of romance and action, it was engaging and I had no major complaints. I'm looking forward to more from this series. I'd recommend this book. :D

Not The BDB, but entertaining

Other reviewers have compared these books to The Black Dagger Brotherhood but, the only thing these two series have in common is the narrator. Although this series is entertaining it is not near the level of BDB. For some listeners, that may be a good thing. This series isn’t as violent, the sexual content is much milder and the language is much cleaner. I have read reviews for the BDB in which these things were the very reasons why they did not enjoy the series; so this may be their perfect fit. Along with the bad things, however, this series does not have the character development or emotional depth of BDB either. In my opinion, this is a definite weakness, of this series. That being said, this is an entertaining, light listen that won’t have you crying in public. Of course, this is my personal opinion and I’m sure there are those who would disagree.
-V from Kansas

Not what I expected!

What would have made Blood Assassin better?

More action by the main characters Serra and Fane. The story started out slow and I thought the pace would eventually pick up but it never happened. I agree with one of the other reviewers Serra is supposed to be a powerful psychic but she gets her butt kicked throughout the book and whines incessantly. Fane is a major badass Sentinel but his character never really displays why he is so respected and feared.

Would you ever listen to anything by Alexandra Ivy again?

Yes, I am a big fan of this author and I have all of her Darkness series books. The story and the narration is not as good as the previous books.

How could the performance have been better?

Better dialogue and a different narrator might make this a better listening experience.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment is foremost in my mind when I recall listening to this audiobook. This story is about two paranormal beings trying to rescue a kidnapped human child and the journey to find her. I felt sad for the child's suffering but the book was slow paced and kind of boring. The romance between Serra and Fame is okay but not very hot.

Any additional comments?

I love this author and will buy more of her books. But, this is the first time that I fast forwarded one of her audio book.