Edged Blade by JC Daniels (Colbana Files #4)
Urban Fantasy
Released: February 3, 2015
Self Published

Reviewed by May

I’d dealt with more abuse in my life than most people had ever heard of – I’d come to grips with what my family had done and generally dealt with it in odd ways. Sometimes, I was even able to not be ashamed of it. But it made other people uncomfortable. Honestly, that’s just plain stupid to me – it happened to me – if I can deal with it, then why can’t they?

Kit Colbana is on the mend and determined to get her life back on track after being nearly shattered both physically and mentally. Still without her gift to call weapons to her, she’s adjusting to life and determined to regain a more physical relationship with alpha Damon Lee.

The continued romance and struggles between the two is really well done in this story as always, and we find Damon hesitant to get physical with Kit. Kit is just as hesitant, but her problem is trying to find the ability to tell him she needs him and is ready.

This is the fifth book in this series and I would not recommend reading from here, most especially because the first books are so incredible you would really be missing out. The author does a great job of gently reminding us of previous events and details so that it is easy to follow along, but this rich world full of incredible characters is worth reading the entire series. In this installment we are continuing on Kit’s journey of recovery and what I hope is growth and discovery of new levels of her awesomeness.

The action plot here revolves around Kit and friends trying to track down missing NH (non human) community members with her friend Justin– something that has become an increasing and scary problem for all factions from shifters to witches and vampires too. Thrown into this story is also the return of a strong cat female who wants Damon back, Kit continuing her recovery from the traumatic events back in book 3, and as I mentioned before the couple (Kit and Damon) working on their relationship.

Kit as a narrator is wonderful. This author has created a character that is both tough and terrifying and vulnerable and unsure. When it comes to battle though – nobody is ever sharper than our heroine.

At the last second, I spun to the side.

Silver arced through the night as I slashed the hook across her throat, the wicked tip catching and severing her spinal cord.

Her eyes, wide and shocked, locked on mine. I gave another vicious pull and the light in her eyes died.

Kit takes nothing for granted, doesn’t trust easily, and I love every minute seeing the world through her eyes. I appreciated so much about this book and what it adds to this series. Kit is given room to grow, heal, and move forward with her life. We’re also learning even more about her and seeing her figure out how to deal with having so many people in her life now instead of being a total loner. I was really happy with how the personal aspects of her relationships were handled here and what we’re seeing.

While I loved this book, I was slightly disappointed that it didn’t have as crisp of a plot as previous books. What I really love about this series is that the author does an amazing job of having a very satisfying story within each novel as well as furthering character development and building her world. Here, the overall plot was a bit of a miss for me and at the end I felt like I had a lot of build up to not a whole lot of pay off.

My bet at this point? The pay off (and bigger plots/action) will be coming, and that this book gave us a lot of clues and provided Kit room to heal and grow into a new normal. Each and every character is crafted so lovingly, and I am so invested in all of them which is incredibly unusual. I can picture Chan, Justin, Kit, Doyle, and the whole gang and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

This dark world has so much potential and room for adventure I look forward to seeing where it heads next – and what new depths of these characters we have to explore as well.

Grade: B+

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