Author: Jaye Wells
Series: Sabina Kane #1
Audiobook Narrator:Cynthia Holloway
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Assasins, Vampires, Demons, Mages, Nymphs, Faeries
Review:
While waiting for Widow's Web to be released (which is month's away), so I to read another urban fantasy assassin book and I choose Jaye Well's Red Headed Stepchild. What's interesting about this book (and the series) is that Sabina Kane,the protagonist is half-vampire and half-mage. Red-Headed Stepchild is set in a world where vampires, mages, demons and faeries exist mostly unnoticed by its largely human population. The vampires in this world are not undead but are living supernatural beings that are born, rather than made. They have a lot of the usual strengths and weaknesses of vampires but their origins, and their genetic red-hair, are linked back to original bible myth (they are the descendents of Lilith and Cain).
During the course of the novel Sabina is forced to re-evaluate the relationship she has with her grandmother and the Dominae - rapidly coming to the conclusion that she has been a useful tool rather than a loved family member. Sent to infiltrate a group of rival supernaturals and assassinate its leader, she has to think on her feet and make some new friends if she wants to avoid her assignment turning into a suicide mission…
What I love about this book is the comical banters between Sabina and her demon/cat familiar Giguhl on which resembles the banters of Harry Dresden and Bob the Skull in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series and Rachel Morgan and Jenks in the Hollows series by Kim Harrison (which I will be writing a review soon).
All in all, Red-Headed Stepchild is a great introduction for the protagonist's personal history and to the series as a whole. I am glad that I already have the next audiobook "Mage in Black" in queue.
