Review: “Night Blade,” J.C. Daniels

Pros: Wow what an emotional roller-coaster
Cons: Seemingly dropped plot thread; gets VERY dark
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

In book one, Blade Song, Kit Colbana took on a job to find a missing boy, Doyle, who was just on the cusp of becoming a full-fledged were-cat. She found him just in time, and ended up in a relationship with the new werecat Alpha, Damon. In J.C. Daniels’s (Shiloh Walker’s) Night Blade (Colbana Files Series Book 2), the authorities come to Kit in the person of Justin, her ex-boyfriend. The authorities believe Damon’s been killing off various powerful non-humans (NHs), and they’re afraid it’s some kind of power-play. If Justin can’t find a good explanation for what he’s doing, Damon will be killed. He binds Kit with an oath that prevents her from talking to Damon about it, and now she has to hurry if she wants to keep her lover alive.

The story starts off with a courier job that brings up a plot thread (the people who tortured Kit’s old friend TJ) and then seemingly drops it again. Don’t worry though–it comes up again in later books in the series.

It’s fascinating to watch Kit and Damon try to navigate the waters of their new relationship. They’re two different species, with different drives and social conditioning, but they’re making a go of it. Of course the moment Justin binds Kit so she can’t tell Damon what she’s doing it’s inevitable that this will cause problems; that one part was a bit painfully predictable.

Jude (the vampire who’s fascinated with Kit) makes a reappearance in this volume. I’m glad that while vampires in this world are capable of doing the stereotypical thing of being seductive and fascinating, they can also be complete, unrepentant monsters in some cases.

Which brings me to a warning: trigger warning for rape and torture. This book gets seriously dark. It’s not titillating when these topics come up, but it’s still hard to read, and I cried my eyes out.