T. A. White

The Aileen Travers series has become a comfort read for me. I admire T. A. White's ability to tell a story slowly enough to let it be driven by the emotions and changing perceptions of the main character rather than by the specific challenge that drives each book. I like that, in this third book, Aileen Travers is not quite the same person she was in the first book. How could she be after she's been through so much and learned so much,. Yet, the core of who she is hasn't changed. She has show more adapted, even compromised but she's done it consciously.

The plot in this book is driven mostly by Aileen's struggle to prove that Caroline, her best friend since childhood, is not an out-of-control killer who needs to be put down. Her struggle is made more challenging both because Aileen already feels guilty because Caroline was turned into a werewolf only because Aileen put her at risk by dragging her into supernatural business and because all the evidence says that Caroline IS an out-of-control killer who needs to be put down.

The plot works well. There are lots of twists and surprises and lots of action that puts Aileen at risk. I enjoyed that part of the story. Even so, what I enjoyed most was watching Aileen reassess the vampire world that she's been resisting joining and confronting what she is and isn't willing to do to survive.

The supernatural world that Aileen is a part of comes to life more fully with each book. Travers' world has many of the usual attributes of Urban Fantasy: politicised vampires who think they're better than everyone else; werewolves who need to pack to keep their inner wolf under control; magic uses seeking power and Fey who no one seems fully to understand. What makes it different is Travers herself. I love how the vampires' obsession with hierarchy amuses and frustrates her, how she accepts that she's normally the weakest supernatural in the room but still pushes the buttons of the powerful people around her to get her way. Most of all, I like that she can see the damage she's done to herself and others, knows it can't be undone and keeps moving forward anyway.

I'm grateful that the unresolved sexual tension trope between Aileen and Liam is used lightly, skillfully, and with humour.

I'm already looking forward to 'Dawn's Envoy' the next book in the series.

A big part of my enjoyment of the series comes from Natasha Sudek's slightly quirky but deeply appropriate narration. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0zJD_UzaKU show less

IN A NUTSHELL
A good start to a seven-book (so far) Urban Fantasy series set in Columbus Ohio and featuring ex-army, turned-into-a-vampire-against-her-will milennial, Aileen Travers. Watching the sometimes a little whiney, sometimes incredibly brave, Aileen struggle to stay independent in the supernatural world she's stumbled into, where everyone seems to want a piece of her was good fun. The book felt fresh. The tone was light. The action was fast-paced and the supernatural world had enough show more twists to hook my curiosity.

‘Shadow’s Messenger’ (2016) is the first book in a seven-book series by T. A. White, featuring twenty-eight-year-old Aileen Travers who was turned into a vampire against her will two years ago when she returned from Afghanistan. Now she’s trying to make a life for herself in the supernatural world that goes unseen by most of the people living in Columbus, Ohio. She works as a messenger for a courier service that deals exclusively with supernaturals, while trying to stay off the radar of the vampires (who would try to force her to join a clan and serve a century-long apprenticeship) and hiding her fanged state from her family.

T. A. White dropped Aileen into the middle of a mystery that had her out of her depth, more or less constantly under threat and forced her to work closely with vampires, witches, werewolves, and sorcerers, none of whom trusted each other and all of whom tried to take advantage of Aileen’s ignorance of how the supernatural world works. To find a way to survive and remain free. Aileen has to discover who or what has been killing supernaturals of all kinds and find a way to stop the violence.

There was lots of intense action, engaging world-building, and a decent mystery but what I liked best was how Aileen dealt with the powerful people she kept being kidnapped by or attacked by or threatened by. She was marvellously unimpressed by patriarchal structures. She used humour to undermine the self-importance of her would-be overlords and she used her wits to figure out what was going on and how she could survive it.

At the start of the book, it seemed to me that Aileen's personality flickered a little, with the I'm-a-milenial-why-should-I-care? button being hit a little too hard, but, by the second half of the book, her character behaved more consistently. I'm curious to see wht she'll do next. show less

‘Midnight’s Emissary‘ (2017) is the second book in the Urban Fantasy series featuring Aileen Travers, an Army vet turned vampire against her will and who is now trying to find her place in the secret and complex world of the supernaturals who inhabit Columbus, Ohio.

i enjoyed the first book, ‘Shadow’s Messenger‘ enough to want to follow the series to find out what Aileen has to do to survive. I liked that Aileen isn't the typical Urban Fantasy heroine. She doesn't carry a sword, show more wear leather, or practice mixed martial arts. She's a vampire but a very weak one and, as she refuses to take blood from the source, she's not getting any stronger. She's motivated by a stubborn determination to retain as much personal freedom as she can - something that defies the requirement placed on all newly turned vampires to spend a hundred years in the service of a vampire clan. The downsides of independence are ignorance, no one is teaching her the things she'd learn in a clan and vulnerability, she's a visible unprotected target for powerful supernaturals of all kinds.

In 'Midnight's Emissary', Aileen finds herself with a contract to work for the vampires who she has been trying to avoid which unexpectedly brings her face to face with the previously unknown vampire who sired and then left her for dead and who is now a candidate to become a Grand Poobah of the vampires.

The plot is interesting, although the pace is a little slow. I didn’t mind that as it’s really Aileen who keeps me reading. I'm fascinated by her approach to life (and afterlife). She describes herself as a Millenial and that may explain some of her expectations. I struggle to find a word that nails Aileen’s attitude. Not so much snark as smirk, except it’s a lazy, drawly smirk. A sort of contempt for how badly the world is set up and how many unreasonable but unavoidable things she is asked to do. Perhaps an oxymoron?: long-suffering impatience?” Whatever it is, her attitude amuses me and gives a fresh feel to an otherwise familiar Urban Fantasy set-up.

I'm going to stick with this series. It's entertaining and stays relatively light despite all the intrigue and violence. 'Moonlight's Ambassador' is next on my list. show less

The love story was horrible. The characters had no emotional connection or reason to connect. It was a rush at the end of the book. There is a lack of female characters besides Shea. The ones present are sterotypes.

The deep connections between the other secondary characters and Shea, along with the flora and fauna makes this book interesting. The adventures Shea has with the two main groups she spends most of her time with are well worth the time spent reading the novel.

Each one of the show more secondary characters is well-developed. I wish that the story had finished with them. Instead we have a rushed ending and two characters who supposedly love each other deeply, who have spent only a few minutes together. That last part goes against the main characters personality as portrayed during the rest of the novel.

I am going to try the second novel with my fingers crossed. Hopefully the parts I found engaging are expanded upon. show less