3.5 stars

While I enjoyed this Fated Blades novella, I did not like Kaida, the main character. She's a shinobi, and part of the secretive Wind organization that carefully sets events in motion to control the rulers of feudal Japan. I loved the setting, and that an old woman could be such a fearsome opponent, but I didn't like her. Kaida is near the end of her career as an assassin, and she's determined to avenge the death of one of her students, in direct opposition of her current assignment, before she's killed.

My favorite character was Okuma, probably because he's the only one who truly believed in and followed the bushido code.

While part of the Fated Blades series, this can be read by itself. I love the concept of cursed swords created by a master swordsmith, and I like reading the background stories of the swords. The flashbacks were my favorite part of Daughter of the Sword, and I highly recommend that book if you haven't read it yet.

 

To be totally honest, these top ten lists are grueling tasks for me.  Either I have too many options to choose from to add to my lists, or I don't have enough.  There never seems to be a happy middle.

 

And in this case, for Top New Series I Want to Start (New... like within the last year or two), I was totally thinking:  "What?  You want me to choose only ten?"  Then again, I'll admit that most of the series I want to start are really series that were started a lot more than two or three years ago, so I'll relent.

 

And yes, I know that this is a Top Ten Tuesdays meme from The Broke and the Bookish.  And I know that we are far from Tuesday.  But nonetheless, I stumbled across this meme and decided that I wanted to participate, even if I'm a bit late.

 

So I managed to narrow my list down to certain series, sacrificing many others, otherwise, this list will go on forever.

 

To point out, I'm typically a reader of all things and all genres, but my most recent obsessions within the past two years or so has been YA novels and more recently, Romantic Suspense novels.

 

 

1.  Legend by Marie Lu -- I've been meaning to read this series for a long time already.  Now that it's completely finished and ready to be read in one sitting... or two... or three... I really need to get it going.  Thus, I even added it to a Reading Challenge just to prioritize.

 

  

 

#1 - Legend

#2 - Prodigy

#3 - Champion

2.  Skylark by Meagan Spooner -- In keeping with the YA dystopian hype, this is a series I got interested in when it first came out, but never got around to reading.  So then I decided, as another year went by, to just wait until the last book was available to jump into it.  The premise sounds interesting enough, so I'm hopeful.

 

  

 

#1 - Skylark

#2 - Shadowlark

#3 - Lark Ascending

3.  His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers -- I own the first two books (bought at a rather ideal price via Amazon Kindle) and am planning on buying the third book when it's available.  The covers are pretty and the premise for each book is attractive and sound cool:  Assassin Nuns.  That should say it all, right?

 

  

 

#1 - Grave Mercy

#2 - Dark Triumph

#3 - Mortal Heart

4.  The Malediction Trilogy by Danielle L. Jensen -- I like high fantasies a lot and am on a mission to find another epic favorite after finishing Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.  I have the first book in this trilogy (because I'm a compulsive book buyer), and have read good reviews about the first book, so I'm interested to see how the series turns out.

 

 

 

#1 - Stolen Songbird

#2 - Hidden Huntress

#3 - --third book untitled--

5.  Mann Family by Kate Brady -- The two books I've read of Kate Brady's so far were pretty good, so I'm curious about this series.  Having gotten drawn into the Romantic Suspense genre lately, I can always go for a good murder mystery/crime thriller anytime.

 

 

 

#1 - Where Angels Rest

#2 - Where Evil Waits

 

 

6.  Circle of Evil by Kylie Brant -- I loved Kylie Brant's Mindhunter series and am also looking to read a lot of her other, earlier works.  Circle of Evil is her newest series, another intriguing concept of a suspense, crime thriller and mystery.  And I can never get enough of those.

 

  

 

#1 - Chasing Evil

#2 - Touching Evil

#3 - Facing Evil

7.  Aftershock by Jill Sorenson -- This is one of those Romantic Suspense series that leans more towards the suspense and contemporary than mystery or crime thriller.  Having to do with disasters such as subway and airplane crashes and desert survival.  There has been great praise for her work as a new author in this genre, so I'm curious enough to want to give her series a go.

 

    

 

#1 - Aftershock

#2 - Freefall

#3 - Badlands

#4 - Backwoods

#5 - Wild

8.  One-Eyed Jacks by Cindy Gerard -- I have a soft spot in my heart for Cindy Gerard's work mainly because of certain particular books and certain particular characters from her first Romantic Suspense series The Bodyguards.  Of course, starting One-Eyed Jacks also means that I must first start and finish reading the series receding this one, Black Ops., since they tie into each other.

 

  

 

#1 - Killing Time

#2 - The Way Home

#3 - Running Blind

9.  Fated Blades by Steve Bein -- I have no reasons for this one except that the cover for the first book looks cool and that the concept sounds pretty awesome.

 

  

 

#1 - Daughter of the Sword

#2 - Year of the Demon

#3 - Disciple of the Wind

10.  Beauty and the Brit by Terri L. Austin -- The one and only Contemporary Romance on this list.  It sounds interesting to me... and I had a need to round off this list with more than just Romantic Suspense and/or YA novels.

 

 

 

#1 - His Every Need

#2 - His Kind of Trouble

 

 

 

A MASK OF DESTRUCTION

 

Detective Sergeant Mariko Oshiro has been promoted to Japan’s elite Narcotics unit—and with this promotion comes a new partner, a new case, and new danger. The underboss of a powerful yakuza crime syndicate has put a price on her head, and he’ll lift the bounty only if she retrieves an ancient iron demon mask that was stolen from him in a daring raid. However, Mariko has no idea of the tumultuous past carried within the mask—or of its deadly link with the famed Inazuma blade she wields.

 

The secret of this mask originated hundreds of years before Mariko was born, and over time the mask’s power has evolved to bend its owner toward destruction, stopping at nothing to obtain Inazuma steel. Mariko’s fallen sensei knew much of the mask’s hypnotic power and of its mysterious link to a murderous cult. Now Mariko must use his notes to find the mask before the cult can bring Tokyo to its knees—and before the underboss decides her time is up....

 

Year of the Demon starts off where Daughter of the Sword left off, following Detective Sergeant Mariko Oshiro, recently being promoted to the Narcotics unit. What starts off as a typical drug raid turns out to be anything but normal. A mysterious iron demon mask is stolen from an underboss of a powerful yakuza crime syndicate.

 

Kamaguchi Hanzo “hires” Mariko to get the mask back with the catch, if she does he will remove the hit that was put out on her (Daughter of the Sword explains why there is a hit on her). Along with doing this search for the mask, Mariko also needs to do a search for her recently stolen sword “Glorious Victory Unsought”. Little does Mariko know that both the mask and sword have a dark history.

 

This book like the first one follows multiple stories at the same time. The breakdown is very easy to follow.

 

Heisei Era, the Year 22 (2010 CE) follows Mariko and what is going on in her part of the story.

 

Azuchi-Momoyama Period, the Year 21 (1588 CE) follows the story of Daigoro Okuma, the Lord of House Okuma, at this point in time he is the owner of “Glorious Victory Unsought”

 

Muromachi Era, the Year 148 (1484 CE) follows the story of Kaida who is an ama (traditional Japanese free diver, best known for diving for pearls) and her connection to the cult “The Divine Wind” and the iron mask.

 

There were a few parts of the book that felt extremely slow when it came to getting to the point of what was going on. Other than this one small snafu, I had a great time reading about the history and finding out more about Daigoro and the introduction of Kaida.

 

One interesting side note I did notice about the 3 main characters in their respective time lines is that each has been dealing with how to live their lives and overcome their obvious handicaps, while facing the naysayers on a daily basis.

 

This is a great series to check out if you are a fan of Urban Fantasy with a touch of Japanese history and the way of the Samurai.

 

4/5

Daughter of the Sword (Fated Blades, #1)

by

Steve Bein

 

Recommended for: Those looking for a different style of UF

 

Daughter of the Sword is not your standard urban fantasy. It is free from snarky, trenchcoat-wearing protagonists, twisted fairy tales, and supernaturally steamy love triangles. There are no vampires. There are no werewolves. In fact, supernatural creatures of all varieties are entirely absent. There's not even all that much magic. Instead, Daughter of the Sword is the story of a modern-day Tokyo policewoman dealing with modern-day crime in the modern-day world when suddenly confronted with ancient swords that have the mysterious ability to slice through fate itself. The story is steeped in legend and weaves its way between past and present, interspersing policewoman Mariko's story with that of individuals throughout Japan's history who have borne one of the fated blades.

It's a well-worth 5 stars, as a student of oriental philosophy and martial arts this book is a pleasure to read. The plot, the writting and the characters made me impossible to put down the book. Even if you are not into oriental philosophy it's a good story to read. The glossary makes the book easy to understand for anyone and the author's note satisfied my curiosity about what is and isn't fiction in the book.