Rowena’s review of So Still the Night by Kim Lenox.
Hero: Marcus Helios
Heroine: Willomina Limpett
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
Marcus Helios was a member of the Shadow Guard until one reckless act changed it all. His hope for salvation lies in an ancient scroll, which is now in the possession of an enigmatic beauty named Mina, who has no intention of handing it over.
But someone else has designs on the mystery of the scrolls, and on Mark. She is Jack the Ripper’s jilted bride, whose own dark secrets will challenge the powers of everyone in her reach…
Before I get into the thick of my review for this book, can I just steer your attention to the cover of this book? I love it! The cover is what made me pick this book up in the first place. It’s gorgeous and I want to lick that man on the cover. That’s a fantastic Mark.
Now that I got that off my chest, let’s move on to the review.
So Still the Night is the second book in the Shadow Guard series by Kim Lenox. I haven’t read a Kim Lenox book before because I’ve been on a paranormal strike (with the exception of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s DH books, I could never give those up…even though I want to). I haven’t read a paranormal book aside from the DH books in YEARS. I just haven’t wanted to touch one until now. Man oh man did I enjoy the heck out of this book.
It took me a little bit to get into the book because I was confused at the beginning, but I’m glad that I stuck with the book because it ended up being really good.
Mark used to be a member of the Shadow Guards, which is a group of immortal soldiers who protect innocent mortals from the brotoi. One reckless act brought Mark down because instead of hunting the brotoi like he was supposed to do, Mark is now the hunted. He’s transcending, which means he’s slowly turning into a brotoi, and he’s doing everything in his power to stop that from happening because at his core, Mark is a good man. As each day passes, Mark is finding it harder and harder to stay on the right side of the tracks because the lure of evil is slowly driving him insane.
This part of the story reminded me of Dageus McKeltar from The Dark Highlander by Karen Marie Moning. That’s a good thing because TDD is my absolute favorite book by KMM. Dageus is my favorite McKeltar (yum!) and it was that part of the book that kept me intrigued. I wondered what the heck was going on with him and why he would go through this episodes or spells as he called them and as the story began to unfold, I got excited.
I thought that Mark was a great hero, a dark soul who has never known love in its rarest form. He had neglectful parents who died when he was younger and he’s got an estranged relationship with his twin sister, Selene. Seeing Mark change over the course of the book, seeing him soften toward Mina made me giddy with excitement for him. I thought he was a fantastic hero and I hope to see more of him in future books.
Mina was a regular young women who was thrown into the mix of all of this immortal business because her father held the scrolls that Mark needs and that other evil were trying to get as well. She never believed her father and all of his talk about immortals running the earth and she definitely didn’t want to find herself married to one. The way she reacted to finding out what Mark truly was (immortal) was totally believable. I thought she reacted the same way any normal person would react and watching her soften toward Mark day after day of spending time with him, it made me go soft too. I really liked Mina’s character because she wasn’t one of those kick ass heroines who you know would kick your ass in the blink of an eye, but she wasn’t one of those virginal heroines that got on your nerves either. She was honest and strong in her own way and just flat out normal. I loved her, thought she was great.
The way the whole story came together was a definite delight and I can’t wait for more from Kim Lenox. I’m going to read the first book soon because I’m excited about this series. I definitely recommend this book/series to anyone looking for a rollicking good paranormal time. Kim Lenox definitely knows how to tell a story, I was entertained!
This book is available from Signet. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
