Made for Sin by Stacia Kane
Random House Publishing Group – Loveswept
Publication Date: August 30, 2016
Date Read: June 27, 2016
Source: NetGalley
★★★☆☆
Karen Marie Moning raves that Stacia Kane “delivers dark, sexy urban fantasy at its finest.” Now Kane introduces her most addictive antihero yet: a Las Vegas PI who makes his own luck—and embodies everything that’s oh-so-right with Sin City.
A lot of bad hands get dealt in Vegas, but E. L. Speare may be holding one of the worst: He’s cursed with the need to commit sins, and if he misses his daily quota, there’s hell to pay—literally. Fortunately, his hometown affords him plenty of chances to behave badly.
But Speare’s newest case really has him going out on a limb. The right-hand man of a notorious crime boss has been found dead in a Dumpster—minus his right hand, not to mention the rest of his arm. What catches Speare’s attention, however, is that the missing appendage was severed clean by a demon-sword, a frighteningly powerful tool of the underworld.
Speare’s out of his element, so he turns to a specialist: Ardeth Coyle, master thief, dealer in occult artifacts, and bona fide temptress. Ardeth’s hotter than a Las Vegas sidewalk on the Fourth of July, but she’s one sin Speare has to resist.
The dismembered corpses are piling up, unimaginable evil lurks in the shadows, and if this odd couple hopes to beat the odds, Speare needs to keep his hands off Ardeth, and his head in the game.
I loved the idea behind this book. Speare is a Private Investigator living in Las Vegas. He is forced to commit sins in order to keep his demon in check. He really has no choice but to be a bad guy in some ways. He needs some help solving a crime involving a demon sword so he asks a local thief, Ardeth for some help. I liked the mystery in the story well enough. It was really just enough to keep me going in the story. I never knew exactly where things were going and there were a few twists that surprised me.
I think that the main issue with this book was that the first half was so incredibly slow. The focus seemed to be on the characters more than anything and they just were not clicking for me at all. As the mystery picked up speed, something changed for me and the book became much more enjoyable. The romance between Speare and Ardeth never felt completely authentic. I simply couldn’t feel the chemistry between them that I had hoped.
I did really enjoy the last parts of the book and I am very hopeful about future books in the series. There were a few threads planted that I am hoping to see followed as the series continues.
About the AuthorStacia Kane has been a phone psychic, a customer service representative, a bartender, and a movie theater usher, and she thinks that writing is more fun than all of them combined. She wears a lot of black, still makes great cocktails, likes to play music loud in the car, and thinks Die Hard is one of the greatest movies ever made. She believes in dragons and the divine right of kings, and is a fervent Ricardian. She lives outside Atlanta with her husband and their two little girls.
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Oh, that's disappointing. I was looking forward to reading this one too because I've heard a lot of good things about her Ghost series. And also, romantic suspense with paranormal elements is new to me. Oh well.
I love her Downside Ghosts series. This just didn't seem to have quite the same magic.
This sounds like it has potential but how disappointing after you had enjoyed the first series so much! I think I'll wait to see what you think of the 2nd book before I dive into this one.
I am definitely interested in seeing where this series is going. It was a slow start though.
Huh, that surprises me about it starting slow, but some first books in a series suffer that way. They set up and the mystery definitely have appeal.
Good review, Carole! Hopefully book two will go better for you.
There was just something about the way this story started that didn't really work for me. Once things got going, it did pick up for me and I am looking forward to the next book.