Review: Slayer's Kiss by Cassi Carver

This is the first book in The Shadow Slayers series by Cassi Carver.  I actually found out about this book when I did the Book Blitz earlier this month. 

The story opens with Kara Reed and her best friend Abby having taken down a man who had assaulted a woman.  You get the impression that they have done this often   While Kara does the take down, Abby puts the whammy on his Mr. Happy.  Basically Abbey gives him a chemical castration, without all those pesky maintenance doses.  Then they leave him with a post hypnotic suggestion to admit to the police exactly what he had done, oh and that he should proposition the inmates in prison.  A seriously kick ass way to start off a story.  It definitely grabbed my attention.

We find out that Kara grew up in foster care, always feeling like an outsider.  Once she was in high school, she thought she found her niche, that she was a witch, like some of the other girls.  But she was never quite able to do the spells like the others.  However, she has an ability to sense evil and evil intent in people.  It has allowed her to work with Abbey on bringing men who prey on women to justice. And between her day time job as building superintendent, part time gig as a bartender, her nightly outings with Abbey and her hobby of wood carvings, Kara has been fairly content with her life.

Then Gavin and Julian move in next door and suddenly things are changing for Kara.  She finds out that she isn't who she thought she was.  That her whole life has basically been a lie and she was put into hiding for her own safety.  To say that she is not happy is an understatement.  But Kara is also busy tracking a killer, one who is carving symbols into the women he assaults.  The strange thing about the symbols is that they keep getting more intricate, and it looks like Kara may be the final victim.  

This was a good book.  I enjoyed the world building and watching Kara shake things up.  It reminded me a bit of the Mona Lisa, Children of the Moon series by Sunny. How the females have their choice of men and use and abuse them, until Mona Lisa came along and refused to play their game by their rules.  I get the same sort of feeling from Kara.  But what else would they expect as she was raised as human and not as a Demiáre woman.  I was not happy with the ending, because sad things happened.  But from reading the blurb for the second book, I know that we should have some resolution.  I am giving this book 3 stars on Goodreads and will adding book 2 to the To Be Read Soon pile.

Kara Reed is a supernatural failure. But where her magic falls short, her fists get the job done. The criminal element doesn't stand a chance once she hits San Diego's dark streets.

When two smoking-hot tenants move in next door, she thinks her love life might finally be heating up. Just being near Gavin and Julian is enough to make her want to offer her body on a platter.

Gavin and Julian know it's only a matter of time before the truth comes out. They're fallen angels sent to watch over the king's daughter, one of the last females of her kind. Trouble is, she doesn't seem to think she needs watching-unless they're watching her shimmy out of her clothes.

No matter how tempting her guardians, Kara's not about to let anything stop her from tracking down a sadistic killer who carves into his victims and leaves them for dead. Even when she realizes her target may be the very scourge of heaven from which her angels swore to protect her...

Warning: Contains a kick-ass heroine with a foul mouth, a kind heart and a raging libido, and two fallen angel warriors who wouldn't have her any other way. Watch out for sex in the clouds, a magical island of hedonism and a love triangle that gives new meaning to the term "hot-wings."