Review: Sins of the Heart

Reviewed by Jen
 

This book didn't exactly light my fire from the beginning.  The premise was interesting, but I had a hard time connecting to the characters and their love story.

Roxy and Dagan first met 11 years ago. As a soul reaper, he was on a mission to collect a dark soul to bring to his father, Sutekh, the God of Chaos.  Roxy was the hostage of his target.  There was an instant connection, despite the fact that as a demi-god, Dagan should have felt nothing for a human.  And by the same token, attraction should have been the last thing Roxy was feeling, as she got her first glimpse into the dark world of the supernatural.  Dagan managed to suppress his desire, leaving Roxy behind... gone, but not forgotten.

Since then, Roxy has joined the Daughters of Aset, which serve one of Sutekh's greatest enemies.  With the group, she has found the first family she's ever known.  But when Dagan's brother is mysteriously killed, his investigation leads him to cross paths with Roxy again.  What does Lokan's murder have to do with the Daughters of Asat?  How is it related to the little girl Roxy saved on her last mission?   And how does anyone kill a demi-God in the first place?

There are forces that don't want these questions answered and that puts Dagan and Roxy in grave danger.  Of course, danger + sexual tension is bound to equal explosive sex... which, of course, leads to deeper feelings.

It all sounds really cool, but there were a few things that were off-putting. Initially, my problem was Roxy with her lame urban slang... calling Dagan "white boy" and "vanilla bean." Really?  Then, I got a little annoyed with the repetition.. from the 10 times I heard about the toffee or coffee-with-double-cream color of her skin --from her bronze eyes to her dark ringlets-- once is enough.  But I think the bigger problem was that I just couldn't see why these two fell for each other... or perhaps more accurately, I couldn't feel anything but lust between them.  Don't get me wrong, I like lust.  The sex was hot, but I never burned for these two to make their way together.

The intrigue surrounding Lokan's death did get more interesting to me over time.  And by the time the book ended, I was pretty engrossed in that story. Unfortunately, I didn't get much in the way of answers, since it ended on a cliffhanger.  I've heard that the books in this series get progressively better, so I'm going to give the next installment a try and see where it all goes from here. 3 1/2 stars.

Sins of the Heart

by Eve Silver

Release Date: July 20, 2010 

Publisher: HQN