Sunday, October 17, 2010

Julie Kenner: Tainted


This is the first book in the Blood Lily Chronicles and I know that I will be picking up the second one. This book has sat on my shelf for a few months and I think I kept passing it by, for its somewhat cheesy cover. But I am glad that I picked the book up, it was a good easy read, that was action packed and even some romance in there for you.

The book is based around Lily, who believes that she has never been good person. She has done bad things in her life, but they were all to protect her younger sister Rose, but still she has never been on the side of good. Lily's final act of protection is to kill Lucas Johnson, who was a constantly stalking Rose (but it is hinted in the book that he may have abused and/or assaulted her as well). Lily kills Johnson, but Johnson is also able to kill her. Now Lily has awoken in another girl's body (Alice) and is being chased by a demon who is trying to kill her. Enter Clarence (who looks like a frogman), he is Lily's mentor and he informs Lily that she is the chosen one, the assassin for the Light, the one who will defeat the demons and close the ninth gate (gate to the Demon world) forever as she is directly connected to the key for the gate. Lily begins training with Clarence who gives her information about the demons and Zane, an extremely Hot trainer who Lily cannot take her eyes off. Zane has some interesting training techniques, mostly involving letting a demon loose in the ring and seeing how Lily handles the situation. If all this was not enough, Lily needs to become Alice and move smoothly through Alice's life. Enter Deacon, who was a friend of Alice's before she had died, but he is also a Demon. Deacon makes her question Clarence's teachings about all Demons being bad, but she knows she has to focus on closing the gate, she wants redemption for all the bad things that he has done in her previous life. So ready or not, here she goes, trying to the save the world, but Lily soon realizes that she may be trying saving the world, but there are a lot of demons and people that would like to see her fail.

I really enjoyed this book. It was exactly what I was looking for to read. It is one of those good vs evil books, with all the gray area in between. It has twist and turns and you really don't know who she should trust and listen to and which guy she should go for.

 I really enjoyed Lily as a character and her need to seek redemption for her past actions, but never regretting them, other than her promise to keep Rose safe and being there for her. Lily also does not pretend to know it all or know how to fight. Kenner does a good job of explaining how Lily grows in her knowledge and fighting skills and in the first few fights scenes you can picture Lily bumbling through them. I also enjoyed some of the new abilities that Lily was given when she was "reborn". If she kills a demon with her own blade  (it has been anointed with her blood), she receives some of the demon's power, either good or bad. For example she kills a vampire like demon that was feeding on a girls blood and she now experience blood lust in one form or another.

I think this is one of the Next Series you need to get into.

Enjoy!

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