Shiloh Walker

Kit Colbana's past is filled with abuse and violence but this tragic history has made Kit highly skilled at her job. When she comes to the attention of Banner, the policing organisation for supernaturals, Kit's first instinct is to avoid their attempts to contact her. She's particularly not interested because the agent in question is her ex boyfriend Justin. Kit may not want the job but Justin is certain that she is the only one who can solve the case of the murdered council members. When show more Justin informs her that it's believed that her current boyfriend Damon is suspected of murder and will be sentenced to death, Kit has no choice but to agree to the job, even if this means she has to go it alone.

Kit spends most of the book getting the shit kicked out of her as she investigates the case. Because Night Blade is so circular, it feels as though Kit spends the entire time chasing her tail without getting anywhere. Because of a binding spell placed on her, Kit actually feels pain anytime she even thinks about telling anyone what she is up to. Kit's inability to speak angers Damon and so she is forced to remind him repeatedly that she was doing her job long before he entered her life and is therefore capable of taking care of herself.

When we first met Damon in Blade Song, I really wasn't a fan of him at all and this feeling of dislike continues into Night Blade. Damon is extremely possessive, jealous and controlling. When Damon learns that Kit is working with her ex, he immediately demands that she quit. Due to the nature of her investigation, this is something that Kit cannot do and so Damon responds by biting her neck, permanently scaring her so that the world will know that she belongs to him.
I hissed out a breath as he sank his teeth into my neck. My mind processed what he was doing but before I could decide if I was going to do a damn thing, his hand tangled in y hair, arching my head to the side as he pressed down harder, harder until his teeth broke through the skin.
He growled against me and I groaned.
It hurt-
There isn't anything remotely sexy or romantic about having a six-foot five, two-hundred fifty pound werecat sink a powerful set of teeth into your neck.
But it was over in seconds and I was still in processing mode as he grabbed something from the bed to press against my neck. "You're asking me to deal with something that I can't change and I hate it," he said, his voice hard and flat. "That's how I'm dealing. The next tie anybody looks at you, they're going to see what I wanted everybody to know months ago." (pg 107)
The mark on her wrist was something that Kit could choose to hide but the neck mark gives her absolutely zero options. If that were not enough, when Damon smells another man on Kit because she had to be close to a witch for the purposes of cloaking her location, he responds by ripping the clothing from her body, demanding that she never wear them again. For Damon, this is what passes for love but in actuality it amounts to abuse.

Damon is as far from a romantic love interest as possible. When he isn't busy trying to control Kit, he infantalises her by calling her "baby girl". Why oh why would a grown ass man think it's okay to refer to the woman he is having sex with as "baby girl"? The only reason for that is that as the supposed adult in this relationship, Damon expects obedience. When Kit finally gets the evidence she needs to stop a kill order on Damon to be acted upon, Damon demands that she leave with him right now because he needs her like he needs air. When Kit objects because she has one thing left to do, Damon responds by ending the relationship and walking out. Who the hell does that?

It's only when Kit gets kidnapped that Damon actually wants to do something positive which for him involves stalking around, growling and forcing a confrontation with her, though everyone on the rescue crew tells him to back off because Kit is in no shape to deal with him. This man who wants obedience from Kit, cannot even respect her wishes for a few moments to get herself together, though she has been raped daily for weeks and tortured.

Kit does manage to walk away from Damon and I sincerely hope that he is out of the picture in the next book. Daniels stops just short of calling Kit sullied because of her rape and says instead that she cannot be with Damon because she was broken by weeks of rape and torture. Really Daniels? Why couldn't she have gone with the idea that showing up to play knight in shining armor after abandoning her, being physically abusive, and controlling doesn't make him a fit love interest.

Kit wouldn't even have been in this situation had Damon trusted and respected her enough to reveal that he was indeed guilty of murder but only because he wanted to protect her. It seems that Kit's grandmother had actively been trying to hire someone to harm Kit and that Damon killed anyone who was willing to do that job. Why exactly Kit couldn't be trust to know that her life was in danger is absolutely beyond me. It's ironic that Damon ends the relationship because he feels that he cannot trust Kit.

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After being tortured, marked and raped by Jude the vampire, Kit is suffering from PTSD and feels that she is broken. Her connection with her blade no longer works and Kit can barely deal with the loss. Kit retires to Wolf Haven and starts working at a bar. All her friends want her to hurry up and rejoin life but Kit isn't ready to face her demons. T.J. however will not be denied and so arranges a small job for Kit, not realising that it will lead to Kit taking on one of the oldest magical show more creatures and possibly her death.

In Broken Blade, Daniels widened her world by introducing Pandora/Lilith. We learned that Pandora/Lillith is responsible for creating shifters, vampires, witches and the warrior race the Aneria. I loved the origin story and it helped explain why witches are pacifists and some of the ongoing antagonism between the various supernatural groups. With Pandora/Lilith as an antagonist, the story should have been absolutely epic. I thought that this is where it was going when Pandora/Lillith killed Es, the leader of a coven of witches, only to be sorely disappointed when she was easily defeated by Kit. No way should Pandora/ Lilith have been defeated by a gunshot to the head. Clearly, Daniels didn't know what to do with this character once she added her to the story. It made the ending seem so rushed. It would have been better to draw this out over two books, rather than to have Pandora/Lilith so easily defeated.

Far too often, when traumatic things happen to urban fantasy protagonists, it's brushed off so that the author can tell another story. Because of the way that Daniels dealt with Kit's traumatic childhood, I believed that this would be different and I was right. No one just gets over being kidnapped and tortured and that really needed to be dealt with. My biggest issue is that Kit was given just four months before she was forced back out into the world. How is that enough time to heal? Her friends claimed to want to help her but to me, it felt very much like Kit and her new quirks were being portrayed as a burden. How is going back to work and burying the trauma the strong thing to do? To me, it just sets up the victim to have yet another massive breakdown because no one is meant to simply power on after something like that. Since Daniels decided to go there, I couldn't help but wonder why it is that she didn't set Kit up with some counselling? Yeah, I know that urban fantasy is supposed to be all about defeating the bad guy but if you are going to have a protagonist with serious mental health issues then it must be respected and written about appropriately.

Kit isn't the only survivor who is not fully respected. T.J., the owner of the bar where Kit works is now a wheelchair user after being paralyzed by her former Alpha. She has made a life for herself running Wolf Haven, taking in the lost and the scared. It is T.J. who ultimately pushes Kit out into the real world, pleading for Kit not to be like her. T.J.'s way of dealing with being viciously assaulted is painted as weakness and that is a problem. If T.J. wasn't tough, she wouldn't have survived.
"Yeah, sure. I could be like your bitch of a grandmother. I could have been born human and made a leech instead of born a weak werewolf and then tortured by the sadistic wolf who stole my legs. But he’s not the one who stole my life, Kit. I gave it up. I stay in here…and I hide. I let him ruin me. I’m letting him win…and I know it.”
“TJ, that’s not—”
“Don’t,” she warned, and the thread of steel under her voice was enough to silence me. “I stay in there,” she murmured. “I hide. Even though that son of a bitch would never leave his mountain to find me, I stay here. And I hide. You face down everything that scares you, until now. Don’t let him win, Kitty. You didn’t let anything else take you down. Don’t let this ruin you.” (pg 22)
The idea that there's only one acceptable way to be after surviving a violent assault is harmful and further policies victims. T.J. it seems is a beta and so Kit simply assumes that she didn't have the ability for vengeance and justice and so decides at the end of the story to go after the twisted Alpha. This was not Kit's decision to make. What I took away from all of this is that survivors cannot be trusted to run their own lives in the wake of an assault or to heal in a way that best suits them. This plot line very much makes self care a sign of weakness.

I wasn't really impressed when all of the cats refused to make eye contact with Kit after the attack. They made what happened to her all about them and their failure to protect her. It did however make me happy when Kit remained consistent in her demand that people make eye contact rather than look at her feet whenever they are in her presence. Kit however seemed to hold it against Damon for not protecting her which was a problem for me. Yes, Damon did promise that no one would ever hurt her but Kit is an assassin and a warrior and the very idea of needing a man for protection just doesn't make any sense to me.

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IF YOU HEAR HER, by Shiloh Walker, is the phenomenal kick-off to a great adult suspense series. I will read anything that Walker writes because her characters and plots are flawless and thought-provoking. In her newest trilogy she creates a spine-tingling thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. And as always, her love scenes and romantic chemistry is steaming hot!

This book starts off the Ash Trilogy with a bang. Lena, a blind chef, and Ezra, a detective on medical leave, team show more up to investigate after Lena hears screams in the night. They have an immediate connection that runs deep emotionally and physically and is undoubtedly electric. I really loved the dynamic between Lena and Ezra. Ezra has a troubled past that keeps him secluded in Ash, Kentucky, but when he spots the gorgeous Lena his heart begins to beat again. It was interesting to have a blind character as one of the MC's. I was interested to see how Walker would handle that but as usually she was flawless. Walker's descriptions of Lena's life without sight was definitely unique. Lena is a strong woman and her adaptability shows her willfulness and courage to live her own life on her terms. And the love scenes between Lena and Ezra were definitely passionate and steamy!

Along with the main story, Walker included many of the other townspeople in this story. I read the summaries for the rest of the series and the characters introduced in this book will definitely be back for books two and three. Right off the bat I was a little confused with the introduction of many characters but eventually they all wove together in my mind as the story took shape.

The suspense in the story was definitely heart-pounding. The 'bad guy' is a nasty dude and reading his scenes and what he did to women made me really hate him. As I always say, if an author can make me loathe a character then he/she has done his/her job in my mind!

Overall, great book and great introduction to a series that I will be placing high on my list of books to read this coming year. Fans of Walker will love it and if you haven't experienced this awesome author yet, this series will surely get you hooked! show less

If you are looking for a book with an HEA, choose a book other than Pieces of Me.
Shadow Harper is an artist who lives alone on the beach in South Carolina. Her past includes a former husband who not only beat and raped her, but kept her locked up in a basement alone for months. She escaped when a tornado destroyed the house where she was being held, and she spent the last 3 years trying to put her life back together. When she accidentally leaves one of her sketchbooks on the beach, it is show more picked up by the man who had become the subject of many of her drawings, Dillian Jenkins. As she and Jenks get closer, her ex-husband comes back into her life, trying to steal the small happiness that Shadow has found.
Although well written, Pieces of Me is a brutal story, built to engage the emotions and sympathies of the reader. The message in the story is disheartening as well as depressing - certainly not the average romance novel in many ways. It is gritty, realistic, and unexpected - a well-written story that isn't for everyone. show less