Reviewed by Carissa and Sheena

 

TITLE:  Ink and Shadows

SERIES:  Ink and Shadows #1

AUTHOR:  Rhys Ford

PUBLISHER:  DSP Publications

LENGTH:  304 pages

BLURB:  

Kismet Andreas lives in fear of the shadows.

For the young tattoo artist, the shadows hold more than darkness. He is certain of his insanity because the dark holds creatures and crawling things only he can see—monsters who hunt out the weak to eat their minds and souls, leaving behind only empty husks and despair.

And if there’s one thing Kismet fears more than being hunted—it’s the madness left in its wake.

The shadowy Veil is Mal’s home. As Pestilence, he is the youngest—and most inexperienced—of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, immortal manifestations resurrected to serve—and cull—mankind. Invisible to all but the dead and insane, the Four exist between the Veil and the mortal world, bound to their nearly eternal fate. Feared by other immortals, the Horsemen live in near solitude but Mal longs to know more than Death, War and Famine.

Mal longs to be… more human. To interact with someone other than lunatics or the deceased.

When Kismet rescues Mal from a shadowy attack, Pestilence is suddenly thrust into a vicious war—where mankind is the prize, and the only one who has faith in Mal is the human the other Horsemen believe is destined to die.

CARISSA’S REVIEW:  

Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence have always been around–though Famine and Pestilence have a habit of changing faces every once and a while. But the Four Horsemen, as they are known, are pretty much constants in the world behind the Veil. Within certain rules they can affect the course of humanity, as well as protect both sides of the Veil from each other. Their work is never boring, but it’s been pretty routine for the last couple centuries. That is until a human decides to start changing things.

As the veil starts to grow thinner and more things come thru to the human side, the Horsemen will have to figure out who is causing the tears, and why they all seem so very interested in a tattoo-artist junkie named Kismet. All while trying to not get themselves and everyone else in the world killed.

In the days before I got into m/m romance I pretty much read nothing but Urban Fantasy. Seriously, if you were to look at my bookshelves before The Great Reorganizing of ’14, you would see 96% Urban Fantasy, 2% old school books, and a smattering of High Fantasy. I was bloody addicted to the stuff. But as I got into the m/m genre, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot in this area that wasn’t focused solely on getting the two dudes together for their HEA–which, hey, don’t get me wrong, is great, but not exactly what I was looking for. I do come across the occasional story, but for the most part, the romance in m/m romance seems to be the key component in the books I read.

So let’s just say it has been a bloody long time since I’ve read UF, in any of its forms.

Now, that’s not to say that there are absolutely no relationships in this book. Or that there isn’t even love in some form or another–hell, Death and Ari (War) have some serious UST going on between them, much to Ari’s sadness and regret/horniness–but those relationships don’t exist as the sole focus of the story. They are part of life–even if you are an immortal–so they exist, but don’t go into this book thinking you are going to be getting a HEA, with rainbow hearts and cooing doves, at the end.

As to the story itself…well, it was pretty damn fantastic. Lots of fights and plots, camaraderie and joking, drugs and massively bad trips. There is a lot going on in this book, and at times I did feel a bit overwhelmed, but I never wanted to stop reading. Rhys Ford is great at weaving plots and counter-plots together so that you never know what is going to happen next–and this book is no exception. I love how the tempo of the book was set. Sometimes you get books where it All Action, All The Time, and that is a little wearing on a person–especially for 300 pages. But in Ink and Shadows the downbeats are perfectly timed so not only do the characters get respite, but the readers do as well.

There are also some very well written bad guys in this. I hated them–let’s just get that out there. They were going to hurt Mal and Kismet (and the others), so they are definitely on my ‘Must Spork’ list–but the thing is, I kinda maybe get why they were doing it. They were going about it all wrong, but I see the reasoning behind it. Which is something I love in villain characters. What’s the saying, ‘no one is villain in their own story’ (or something like that)? Yeah, these people think what they are doing is good and right–at least for them. And that I can sympathize with these characters, all the while hoping a hole opens up in the floor and they are eaten by it, is great.

This book would probably have been a five-star read…except for one small thing: the head hopping. Omg, the head hopping. It was mildly disorientating to never know, from paragraph to paragraph, who the fuck was going to be in charge of the pov. And sometimes I would get halfway thru a paragraph or section and realize that it is no longer Character A speaking, but Character D, and that somewhere in the last dozen sentences that B and C had probably had a go as well. So there was a lot of going back and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Which, yeah, not my favorite thing to have to do in a story. I love rereading…just not actually during the current read of the book.

Even with that, though, this was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. And will be eagerly awaiting the sequel. I love Death, Ari, Min, and Mal–and heaven knows I adore Kismet for all his fuckup-edness. This world is such an interesting idea brought to life with vivid words and edge-of-the-seat action sequences. You will never be bored.

RATING:

 

SHEENA’S REVIEW:  

I’ll admit to everyone before I get into this review that I am a huge Rhys Ford fan. I don’t share this tidbit to try and persuade you that I won’t be biased—that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. I’m initially biased towards perfection and then start picking away at the small discontents that pepper my personal favorites.

When I read Ink and Shadows, I went into it looking for flaws, not perfection. Rhys Ford’s books always start with me at a solid 5 Stars, every time I hit Buy Now, and then as I read each book my opinion obviously changes. Most of Rhys Ford’s works stay at 4 and above after I’ve read them, the darkest ones putting me off just the littlest bit and hovering below perfect. So, since I’m reviewing this one, I went at it far more critically than I usually do of Ms. Ford’s work.

Yet Ink and Shadows left me haunted. Not hungover, but haunted. Disturbed and pleased, on that line Ms. Ford dances so beautifully.

Kismet Andreas (wonderfully unique name, as per Ms. Ford’s MO) is a haunted young man, literally and metaphorically. He sees the dead. Now, before you go reciting the oft-quoted “I see dead people” line, this character is far removed from a cliché. Young, and jaded to the point he is accustomed to the corrupt and callous abuse of others, Kismet attracts my attention and my concern immediately. The opening scene at the tattoo parlor left me horrified, appalled, and eager for more. Here is where Rhys Ford excels—you are trapped by the imagery of each scene, the sexy edge of wrong and right. I was left wanting things to stop as often as I wanted them to continue. Usually at the same time, and Ms. Ford left me at her mercy far too often.

Mal—Lanky, intelligent, and one of the Four Horsemen (not kidding, he is Pestilence), Mal is the newest member of the scariest and oldest cavalry club. The book opens with the Horsemen’s apartment, located in the mysterious Veil, and there we are gifted with the introduction of three of the four immortals. Shi is Death, Ari is War, Mal Pestilence, and Min, the lone female, is Famine. Mal is new, in the sense is recently deceased, and was plucked by the Gods to serve as a Horseman. He is untutored in the ways of the Four, and makes decisions based on his emotions instead of experience, and Ari especially digs at him for it. Each member retains their individuality, but loose much of what they once were as mortals. Mal longs for some things from his life as a mortal—the chance to interact with real and sane people, and not the deceased or mentally scarpered.

So when Kismet can see Mal, and speak to him, try and warn him of danger—while being attacked in a highly inventive manner by aforementioned danger—Mal takes the only course of action he feels he can, and takes Kismet home. Questions arise, and we are left as in the dark as the characters are while Ms. Ford unravels the plot and the twists. How can a mortal see one of the Horsemen? Is Kismet mortal, or something else? (Cue the “A-hah!” Rhys Ford loves her characters, and her naming process is delightful. I have to say that Mal and Kismet are two characters that truly match their names.)

The other characters are unveiled (pun intended) as the story unfolds, and it’s after the first act’s goring and action packed battle that we meet the Bad Guys. And Woman. Mystery surrounds the Who and the Why, and we get the first inkling of betrayal and greed-driven conspiracy. The action is brutal and has a horror movie vibe to it, and provided with unapologetic bluntness. The dialogue is at times harsh and then teasing. The interactions between Death and War are edged with pain and sex, and a wary wounded air is carried between them. Ms. Ford gave each character a unique voice and personality, and the interactions between them are some of my favorite scenes. Mal and Kismet are hilarious. Whether this was intentional or not, I’ll never get over the spontaneous snort-inducing moment when Kismet asked Mal about his living situation and how he can keep a foursome going. Smart as a whip, but delightfully oblivious. Ms. Ford plays them off each other well, and they fit beautifully.

Ms. Ford has a talent for mixing the POVs in scene, often jumping from one character to another, and while I usually hate this with a fiery passion, preferring my POVs separate and distinct, the flow in this book is well maintained and orderly. There’s no warped sense of blending thoughts and personality, and the jump in perspectives is clean.

The imagery is elegant, and fantastical. This world Ms. Ford’s created is full of shadows, and the descriptions, the scenes, the environment—the basic building blocks of a novel are all here, and built in such a way that is uniquely ethereal and hypnotic. One of the things I truly appreciate when reading a book is the way an author presents the whole of the story, the basic fabric of the book. The characters and their progression is the top layer, but it’s the layers underneath that give the journey on the pages more reality and help to provide the greatest impact. Sparse details leave us and the story wanting, and a surfeit of detail can bury the plot. Ms. Ford has the lovely skillset of being able to provide a delicate balance between too little and too much, and all the while using some of the most imaginative prose I’ve had the pleasure of reading. I was impressed on the first page.

My only complaint, and truly it is less of a complaint and more of an oddly discontent thought, is that the gore and violence distracted my mind and eye from the story, especially in the beginning. Perhaps by the end I grew accustomed to the horrors, and skimmed over it in certain scenes until I got back to the character interactions and dialogue.

This book is not the typical m/m fare. It is dark and raw and grotesque with the horrors Ms. Ford pulls out from the abyss she calls her imagination. It’s not a romance in that the overall darkness, the surrealism and the ephemeral elements cast their pale over the characters. You will read this book through a darker lens, and be trapped in their world until the very end. And you will not be able to stop.

SHEENA’S RATING:

BUY LINKS:

DSP Publications

Amazon