Short Take: “Silver Shark,” Ilona Andrews

Pros: Fit so much world and character into a limited space; sexy
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5

I can’t get enough of the work by the husband-and-wife team writing as Ilona Andrews, so I’m back with Silver Shark (The World of Kinsmen Book 2). In this futuristic society, people have been physically modified to give them heightened abilities, and have gathered together into families that rule financial empires. Claire is from a planet run by warring mining ventures. She’s a hugely talented telepath who was taken from her mother at age fourteen and drafted into the war effort. When the war ends and her side loses, she’s deported to another planet. She manages to hide her telepathic proficiency from everyone and goes to work as a business admin to a kinsman, Venturo, who is also a hugely talented telepath (and whom she develops some very strong feelings for). When some of her fellow refugees face possible deportation back to the war zone–a fate that would certainly result in death–she risks her new life to help them by using her secret abilities.

It isn’t too hard to figure out the general shape of how the story will play out, particularly if you’ve read book one and have some idea of the feel of the series, but that didn’t detract from the story in the least. I absolutely love the characters and couldn’t wait to find out how things would work out between them. This book only took a couple of hours to read, but the worldbuilding and character development were surprisingly on point for all of that. I thought the writing was vivid and engrossing, and I genuinely felt for the characters and wanted to see more of them. If you’ve read book one, you’ll briefly get to see the main characters of that novel in here again, which is a nice touch. There’s a sexy touch of erotic romance to this one as well, and it’s handled beautifully. I wish there were more books in this series!