~ 4.5 Angel Stars ~

This is my first experience with Tricia Skinner and I loved it! I am going to be reading the prequel [b:Angel Bait|17245721|Angel Bait (Angel Assassins #0.5)|Tricia Skinner|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1365989847s/17245721.jpg|23630887] and will be checking out the next book in the Angel Assassins series [b:Angel Lover|20764553|Angel Lover (Angel Assassins #2)|Tricia Skinner|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1392045115s/20764553.jpg|40098251].

Angel Kin is a re-launch and a fabulous read! I enjoyed every minute, the characters are interesting and the world is remarkable. We get murder, action, suspense, sibling rivalry and romance to name a few things brought to us in this amazing first book.

I was blown away within the first chapter and sitting on the edge of my seat until the very end. The world is made up of all types of creatures and humans know about them. Angel Kin is about Cain, a Nephilim assassin (half angel/half human) and Katie, a not-so reformed thief. Cain is oh so scrumptious with his tortured past and bad boy attitude. Katie is an oddity. Not sure how I feel about her, but I did enjoy reading about her.

Katie witness a murder and is lead to The Bound Ones for protection, but she finds a man who looks just like the killer with them. (Can we say freak out!) Who is this mysterious look-a-like? The emotions between Cain and Katie where realistic from tenderness, trust, acceptance, intimacy, to love. It was nice to watch/read their relationship bloom.

The Bound Ones are an interesting bunch and I can't wait to learn about each brother. It would have been nice to see more of the brother's bond in this story. Each of The Bound Ones have a past that is not pleasant. We learn some interesting things about them, but it is not clear as to why. I'm hoping more is revealed in the rest of the books.

Angel Kin is a fantastic fun adventurous read! The story moved at a good pace there was plenty of action and some romance with at least one good steamy scene. I recommend reading this series if you enjoy Angels as well as any urban fantasy/paranormal romance fans. I look forward to continuing this series.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary ARC copy free of charge from the author with the sole purpose of an honest review. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own opinion.

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Angel Kin is the first book in the Angel Assassins series by Tricia Skinner.

After I was offered this book for review I read the burb and wasn’t sure if to accept or not. The Cain and Abel name of the characters kind of worried me because I don’t enjoy books with heavy religious undercurrents, but when Mrs. Skinner replied: “My angels are not pious; they are SOBs.” I was sold, I knew I have to read this book and I’m glad I did.

Katie Logan promised her family she wouldn’t steal again, but with her friends’ lives at risks and without any other option to get money she decides to rob the house of a dirty politician. What Katie wasn’t expecting was to witness the assassination of the politician by a supernatural being.
Katie has a record and can’t go to the police, but with the help of her brother she goes to The Bound Ones, a group of Nephilim (half human-half angel) assassins in charge of protecting the Sacred Law. The last thing Katie imagined was to find in The Bound Ones the man she saw killing the politician or at least a man that looks just like him.
Cain is at lost when Katie accuses him of murder, but without any other explanation he realizes his twin brother, Abel, must be behind the murder.
Now, with the brother he thought dead for millennia breaking havoc in Detroit, Cain knows he has to stop him before another finds him. He has many questions for him, but he also knows that the actions of this Abel are not the actions of the sweet and caring boy he remembers.
If his inner turmoil wasn’t enough, being close to Katie is awaking in him feelings he thought forever suppressed.

Cain may be an assassin but he is not evil, he has a conscience and a close group of friends whom he considers his adoptive family. He has a dark and sad past that torments him everyday and now the brother he has mourned for thousands of years is back, but sadly the circumstances of Abel’s return just mean another heartbreak for Cain.
I really liked Cain, I like that despise the tough life he’s still a sweet and caring man. I love his love for his friends and his adoptive father. I also loved that even though he was happy for Abel’s return he was also aware this was not a happy reunion.

I liked Katie, but if I’m honest there is not much we know about her. We know she has done some mistakes in the past and we also know she cares for her brothers and friends, but apart from that there is not much we know about her.

Cain and Katie’s romance is not insta-love, more like insta-attraction and it develops from there. I liked them together, I think Katie was good for Cain and Cain was good for Katie, but… here comes the “but” in their relationship. Cain is a thousands year old Nephilim and Katie is a normal human. I really don’t see how their relationship can work in the long run. Maybe something will happen in future books to change Katie’s status, I don’t know, I’ll have to wait and see.

There is an array of secondary characters; from them the more prevalent is Abel.
Abel is bad because he doesn’t know anything better. He had a very different upbringing from Cain. Abel was raised by The Renegades to be use as a weapon in their war with the angels.

“You were too human as a child, weakened by emotions. We saved you from the fate of the other half-breeds so you could learn a better path.”
Another scrape burned along Abel’s back.
“Starved of wasted emotion. Beaten to understand and control pain. Locked away in isolation to develop our singular purpose. This is why you survived. This is who you were meant to be.”

Although I don’t condone Abel’s actions I know in a way it wasn’t his fault. He’s the result of years of harsh programming.

From the other secondary characters I can’t say much. We meet Cain’s adoptive father, the angel Tanis and Cain’s partners/brothers Kas, Nesty and Jarrid. Apart from knowing they are also Nephilim we don’t know much else. They were a bit underdeveloped. It was the same case with Katie’s friends. She risked her life for them, but we don’t see much of them apart from a few telephone conversations. It would have been nice if all of the secondary characters had been fully fleshed out.

The world Mrs. Skinner creates in this series is interesting. Humans live among a variety of supernatural beings (Others). This is something I would have like to know more about. How it came to be or if it was always like this. Hopefully we’ll learn more in books to come.

After reading Angel Kin I realized there is a prequel, Angel Bait. I’m planning to read it; maybe some of my questions are answered in there.

Angel Kin is not a perfect read but it is a good start to a promising series. I recommend Angel Kin to paranormal romance and urban fantasy fans.

Next book in the series, Angel Lover, will be Kas’ book and it’ll be release on August 31st. ( )

If you have been following my blog for a while you know heavy religious type Angel books are not my thing. If you feel the same way you will be happy to know that ANGEL KIN is not a religious type Angel book.There have actually been quite a few Angel type books out lately that I have read and none have been heavy on religion.

Katie is an ex-thief who jumps back in for a job to help save her friends band. While she is in the middle of burglarizing her marks home she witnesses a murder. Scared for her life, she goes to her firefighter brother for help and he connects her to The Bound Ones. Katie had a tendency to do a few things that annoyed the heck out of me, they mostly had to do with lying about stupid stuff that could have helped earlier or doing something stupid that put her in more danger when she didn't need to be. I tend to get annoyed pretty easily about those types of things though, so they might not be as bad as I'm thinking. Over all it didn't make me like the story any less. Cain comes off as a big brute. As you learn more about him and see him interact with Katie, you get to know a softer side of him. I wouldn't have expected the two to get so into each other in normal circumstances, but the storyline blended in their attraction and relationship quite nicely.

I liked that we got to know a little about all of The Bound Ones. I assumed correctly that this means that each book will feature one Bound One as a main character as the story continues. With a nice quick pace and an easy flowing story, ANGEL KIN starts us off on a nice urban fantasy ride. ANGEL LOVER is set to release Aug 2014.

* This book was provided free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

The opening scene in Tricia Skinner’s new ANGEL ASSASSIN series is as disturbing as it is good, in that oh my god I NEED to know more kind of way. Katie’s race to stay alive starts on page one, and doesn’t let up until the epilogue, and even then it’s clear that she’s still not entirely safe. ANGEL KIN is a near seamless blend of world-building, character development, and plot threads with its unique celestial mythology, cornucopia of supernaturals, and gripping story. This book was a borderline 5-star read for me, but the change in pacing towards the end caused me to have to reel back my enthusiasm a notch, and give it a solid 4 instead.

My interest for angel novels within the paranormal genre has slowly waned over the years because it’s been my experience that there’s no grey area when it comes to these supes. They usually fall into one of two categories: overly religious and preachy, or straight-up badass with a dash of celestial on the side. The cover and blurb lead me to expect the latter, and much to my relief, that’s exactly what ANGEL KIN delivers! Skinner’s lore is detailed and original without being over-the-top complicated, and I loved learning about the differences between The Renegades and The Bound—not to mention all of the other fascinating supernaturals that live in the ANGEL ASSASSIN universe. There’s even a vampire gang called the Black Fangs!

I enjoyed the group dynamics within The Bound Ones; each member’s personality is vastly different, and they have distinctive abilities to match. My only complaint in this department was that I wish we’d seen more of Tanis, Jarrid, Kas and Nesty. However, after taking a peek at the author’s work-in-progress page, I think it’s safe to assume that each installment will revolve around one of Cain’s crew. Yes, patience is not my strong suit. I liked how well fleshed-out Cain was, and I enjoyed Katie’s character as well—she’s a strong heroine in her own right, and I also appreciated the romantic elements that she brought to this story.

The evil twin brother plot line wasn’t groundbreaking, but it is almost always a recipe for success in Urban Fantasy. I liked the way Skinner developed the relationship between Cain and Abel by incorporating elements both from their pasts and present, and the final battle was indeed epic thanks to a centuries long build-up. The pacing does take a bit of a hit towards the end of this book though because of the need to tie-up loose ends, and to lay the groundwork for ANGEL LOVER, which somewhat diminished the climax in my opinion. But overall, I really enjoyed this author’s sharp writing style, geeky sense of humour, and amusing pop culture references.

ANGEL KIN is a quick read, and a wonderful glimpse at what’s to come from Tricia Skinner. ( )

Katie Logan breaks into a home in order to steal enough to pay off the vampires who demand payment for protection. In the process, she gets more than she bargained for when she witnesses a murder. Katie cannot go to the cops because she has no way to explain how she managed to witness the murder without incriminating herself. For her own protection, Katie's brother sends her to the Bound for protection. The Bound are a group of assassin nephilim, who work to protect the innocent. Katie quickly finds herself caught in a sibling rivalry between the bound Cain and his vengeful brother Abel of biblical proportions. In this battle of brothers, Katie has to worry about losing her life and her heart.

There is nothing to distinguish Angel Kin from anything else in the paranormal romance genre. It's the typical boy and girl meet and don't like each other but are forced together through circumstance and then fall in insta -love. Angel Kin might as well have been written by the numbers as far as I am concerned. I will however admit that I do like the idea of assassin nephilim. Cain tells Katie that he is a killer repeatedly and even admits to taking out a vampire mob. He is even physically aggressive with her in parts of the story but Katie is of course is overcome by his attractiveness and suffering.

What would a paranormal romance be without angst? Every single emotion is absolutely over wrought. I think coming face to face with a brother one thought was long dead would make anyone upset but no character experiences even a small emotional even keel for the entirety of the book. Everything is the end of the world but somehow, though Cain and Katie are the run for their lives against dangerous forces, they have time to have sex. What else would you do when a dangerous assassin is trying to kill you and your family is in danger? Skinner did have a moment of subversion when she made Cain a virgin. Normally when we see a gently used protagonist, it's the woman. This is where the subversion ends because Cain, who has never had sex before, turns out to be a good and attentive lover. Really? Does Skinner even remember her first time? It's awkward and passable at best and no one is an awesome lover their first time, even a nephilim.

Cain is also extremely over protective and constantly reminding Katie how much larger than her he is. He is further quick to claim her as his. So much so, that after their first kiss, Cain thinks, "Whoever had taught her how to kiss best remain a mystery. He would soon be in enough trouble with Tanis without needing to explain why some guy's lips were pinned to the dashboard of the Stronghold." Keep in mind that at this time, Cain has known Katie for a New York minute but is already jealous of any other man she has kissed. Um yeah, that is a run away screaming situation and is certainly not romantic.

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