The Kinsmen Universe

1) Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews

{first of 4 in Kinsmen series; sci-fi, steamy}(2009)

In a world where the Kinsmen families battle for financial supremacy and, thus, survival, Meli was engaged at age 10 to Celino, then 17, for the sakes of their families though neither of them wanted it. Six years later he broke the engagement, spurning Meli's family and destroying her future. But in the meantime she had discovered a genetic talent that allowed her to be a superlative assassin so she made a career killing on behalf of her family. Now (twelve years on), though she has retired, her family ask her to do one last job. And the target is Celino - so Meli sees the chance to get her revenge.

I found the premise of this story a bit creepy; not the show more arranged marriage aspect but the more-than-arrogance of the male lead; he meets her once and, having tracked her down (a bit stalkerish), decides to break into her house instead of knocking. And once they're together and he has to leave on business we find out that he's got someone watching her and he's planted a camera in her garden (controlling). There's a lot of lust on both sides - there is more lust than love; in fact there is not enough detail in this short story to understand why (or even confirm that) they fell in love.

Meli is an intelligent woman with an unique talent (even if she doesn't necessarily enjoy her work) and she does refuse some of the jobs her family request her to undertake. But she spent six years of her life researching this man and even if 'grooming' didn't have the negative connotation in 2009 that it does today, that is literally what happened to her. Apart from that predisposition, I don't know why she would fall in love with him. He doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities that we're shown.

Other than that, this was a decent story. I like the description of the world they’re in and generally the writing is good. There were a couple of moments of lightness. If, like me, you picked this up because you liked the [[[Innkeeper Chronicles]]] be warned that this one is not as clean, romance-wise.

(May 2025)
3-3.5 stars

2) Silver Shark

{second of 4 in Kinsmen series; sci-fi, paranormal, romance, steamy}(2009)

Claire is a Kinsman with a strong psycher talent on the war-torn planet of Uley where she uses her talent to go onto the bionet to exterminate psycher minds of the enemy. She soon moves to the colourful province of Dahlia on the planet of Rada, of the previous story. She has to camouflage her talent or risk being terminated and does so well that she gets an admin job at a bionet company on the basis that she has no talent at all. But then some acquaintances from her old planet need her help which requires her to break into secure files on the bionet and she will risk everything if she's caught.

This story was much more fun, even if it does start on the bleak, grey planet of Uley. I like the descriptions of the psychic landscape which different psychers perceive differently and even Claire's landscape changes over the course of the story. The attraction between the two leads was more believable (palatable?) in this story than in the previous one and there was a hint of actual romance/ falling in love. This has different protagonists but we do get to see the couple from the first story, about 10 years on.

(May 2025)
3.5-4 stars

3) A Mere Formality

{fourth of 4 in Kinsmen series; sci-fi, paranormal, romance, spicy}(2018)

Deidre is an analyst with the Second Intergalactic Empire Diplomatic Corps on the team on the Orbital Embassy negotiating a four-way deal between the Vunta Caliphate and the Monrovian Republic (who are at war) while the Empire would like to acquire the Colchida Cluster of planets from the Monrovians and get the Reigh to protect it. The Reigh are, effectively, mercenaries but their code precludes them from accepting payment for their services. So they find a novel way around it, which will require all Deirdre's diplomacy.

I liked this one the best. It's not even really a romance but was possibly the most romantic of this collection. I like the metaphors; space-linked ones for the galactic imperials ('If we’re late, Robert will suffer a deep space fit.') and plant ones for the planet-based Branch Nagrad (Nagrad ran his hand through his hair. 'I’m past my undergrowth years.' - a synonym for being past his teenage years). I'm not sure what the porn was about though, except that they were trying to one-up each other.

(May 2025)
3.5-4 stars

Averaging: 3.5 stars show less

I like the world that these stories are set in -- the kinsmen politics, the almost-Miyazaki like reverence for countryside and dahlia flowers, the consistent romance-based-in-mutual-irritation trope. It's a good time, highly entertaining.

Silent Blade

Silent Blade is the first book in the Kinsmen Universe. I had a good time with this short, but interesting tale. It sure packed a punch, despite its brevity. This installment delivered an enemies to lovers romance set in a unique world with interesting and unexpected turn of events.

Silent Blade introduces Meli and Celino. Meli possesses a unique gift, one which makes her lethal and the perfect assassin. After what she considered being her final assignment, she went into retirement. However, two months into her retirement, her family dangled a carrot, which proved hard to resist. Kill Celino Carvanna, the powerful leader of Carvanna Kinsmen and the man who ruined her.

The story hooked me from the first page and from that show more moment; I knew it was a winner. Silent Blade was a sweet, fun and sexy read. It featured relatable characters, whom I enjoyed meeting and learning what made them both tick. The author is known for creating unique and interesting worlds, and Silent Blade was no different. This world was fun and I definitely would love to revisit it.

To conclude, Silent Blade was a great start to the Kinsmen Universe. The story wrapped up with a satisfying finish. Fans of the author will want to add this to their reading list.

Silver Shark

Silver Shark is the second book in the Kinsmen series. This installment focuses on Kinsmen called psychers. The things they can do with their minds will astound you.

The story introduces Claire Shannon, a Kinsman and a psycher. Taken from her mother at fourteen and forced to train and fight in the war between rival corporations. Then the war ends abruptly with her faction on the losing end and now she faces imminent death. To avoid this outcome, she assumed her mother’s identity and masked her abilities. This act resulted in her deportation to a planet named RADA. She suppressed her abilities despite all the probes, but then she was hired as the personal assistant to Venturo Escana, a Kinsman leader and powerful psycher.

This was such a fun read. Excitement, suspense, secrets and sexual tension permeated the pages. The characters from Silent Blade made a brief appearance. It was good catching up with them. It was interesting seeing how the events unfolded. Venturo’s reaction to his discovery of Claire’s secret was priceless. The story wrapped up nicely and left me wanting more of this intriguing world.

A Mere Formality

A Mere Formality. although included in the Kinsmen Universe Anthology, is available to read for free on the author’s website. A short and quirky read, which was written as a joke based on a dare.

This story is based on strategies without the battles. The strategies are based on sexual positions without the action. The details of which were rather funny. An interesting tale with a satisfying outcome.This review was originally posted on Totally Addicted to Reading show less

This was great! Of course, it’s Ilona Andrews so what do you expect?! I know that I have read at least one of these stories years ago but decided that I needed to give this book a listen before reading Fated Blades which is due to be published soon. It was a pretty quick listen and I ended up really enjoying it.

Silent Blade was a novella that kicked of this audiobook. I had read this novella years ago but really enjoyed experiencing the story all over again. I liked the characters and understood where they were both coming from. I liked the chemistry between them and had a great time with the story. The second story was Silver Shark and I think that this was my first time with this one. I really felt for Claire and loved how strong show more she proved to be. I kept waiting for things to blow up and was satisfied by how everything worked out. The short story, A Mere Formality, wrapped up the book. This was a little different than what I expected from this writing pair but it was fun.

Samantha Cook narrated the audiobook. This was my first experience listening to her work and I have to admit that it did take some time to get used to her narration. Of course, that is pretty normal for me anytime I listen to a new to me narrator. I did think that she did a good job with the story and I found her voice to be very pleasant.

I would recommend this book to others. Seriously, the writing pair of Ilona Andrews can do no wrong and I found this collection to be incredibly entertaining. show less

The Kinsman Universe is kind of a sci-fi version of the Hidden Legacy series, with its biologically modified people and rival families. “Silent Blade” and “Silver Shark” were really good. The way Dahlia was described—its architecture, culture, and food—made me wish I could go there. Both stories were quite romantic, and I loved the characters.
“A Mere Formality” was the shortest and least developed of the three, but I liked its risqué silliness.
A must-read for Ilona Andrews fans.

This anthology contains two novellas and a short story. All three stories are paranormal romances with strong females and intriguing males.

The first story (SILENT BLADE) tells about the romance between Meli Galdes and Celino Carvanna. They were betrothed when Meli was ten and Celino was sixteen. Meli spent years learning all she could about Celino in order to be a perfect wife for him. Celino spent those same years building his empire and hating that his marriage meant a lack of freedom for him.

When he breaks the engagement when Meli is sixteen, he does more than break her heart. He throws Meli's family into severe economic distress and makes it impossible for Meli to ever marry. She leaves her family and becomes an assassin - show more primarily killing people who want to do her former family harm.

When her father via her brother asks her to murder Celino, she thinks this would be the perfect end to her career. But meeting him again reminds her how much she loved him and gives her an idea for a better plan.

SILVER SHARK tells the story of Claire Shannon and Venturo Escana. Claire was a soldier, a psycher, who used her psychic abilities to help her country fight against a rival country. When her country loses the war, she is sent into exile to another planet. She needs to hide her psychic abilities because that planet isn't letting psychers in. Claire remakes herself as a mild-mannered, psychic null office assistant and gets a job with Venturo Escana who runs a security company.

When one of her fellow refugees gets into trouble that could lead to deportation, she needs to take down the blocks she has on her psychic abilities to get into the datanet and change some incriminating information. While in the datanet, she meets Venturo who is also there because of the activity Claire and her fellow invaders have begun.

They get out without getting caught, but Venturo becomes determined to find the woman he met in the datanet and Claire becomes equally determined to keep her secrets even though she is falling in love with Venturo.

Then one of her co-conspirators in the data breach is caught and Claire needs to get help from Venturo, but she has to reveal her secrets to get it.

A MERE FORMALITY is a short story about peace negotiations after a war. Deirdre Lebed is a talented diplomatic analyst who knows a lot about the Reigh. But when the Reigh leader dies at a banquet put on by her side, she doesn't expect that, besides a hefty ransom, the new leader of the Reigh will also demand that she marry him.

All of the stories were entertaining. Samantha Cook did a good job narrating them. show less

I liked these stories but they were more like novellas than like full novels. There was also one short story thrown in. These stories had a very strong romantic angle, much more so than the authors' other series, e.g., Innkeeper, Kate Daniels or the Edge. Nevertheless. they were fun to read and suspenseful to some degree. Good world building but perhaps not so much as in the other series.