Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Shadows and Light
AUTHOR: Cari Z
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 183 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2016
BLURB:
A fight to the death against his former master turns into a chance for Rafael, an assassin denied the immortality he lived to achieve, to learn the shocking truth about the fate he was spared.
Rafael wanted nothing more than to serve his immortal master, Xian, a High One of Clare, who taught him from an early age how to be an assassin. But after failing the final test, Rafael was turned out into the Lower City, abandoned by the one person he thought he could count on.
Years of hatred and thoughts of revenge have fueled Rafael’s quest for vengeance, but when the time comes to strike at Xian, he hesitates and is taken prisoner. Rafael expects to die, either at Xian’s hand or at the hand of Myrtea, his sadistic mistress.
Instead Xian heals him, spares him a brutal interrogation and tells him the dark truth driving the ruthlessness of the High Ones—the source of their immortality is spent. Soon the city will devolve into chaos as High Ones battle one another and the rebelling denizens of the Lower City for power and resources. Xian wants to spare Rafael that pain, just as he spared him the pain of becoming a High One a decade earlier.
Their only chance for survival is to escape Clare before civil war breaks out. Even if they make it out of the city, though, there’s no guarantee that Xian will live through the agonizing process of becoming human again. The only ones they can rely on are each other…if Rafael can bring himself to once again trust his former master, the only man he’s ever loved.
Reader Advisory: This book contains mentions of blood-drinking, blood magic, blood-play, knife-play, addiction and withdrawal, as well as flogging and whipping.
REVIEW:
Rafael has worked his entire life towards one goal: to become one of the High Ones; elite members of society made immortal. When he is instead told he’s failed his task and is cast out from the life he was building for himself, Rafael falls back on the one thing he still knows: being an assassin. Filled with hatred for his former master, Xian, Rafael dreams of the day where he will confront and finally kill the man that trained him and then cast him aside. Old feelings and memories rise up and prevent him from taking his revenge when offered the chance, however, and when the truth comes out about everything he though he knew, both Rafael and Xian will have to flee and hope that they have the strength to survive, both their enemies and themselves.
Let me start off by saying that I’m not a huge fan of enemies to lovers stories but I’ve liked everything I’ve read by Cari Z and decided to take a leap of faith. I AM SO GLAD I DID! This book…was AMAZING. The world building was spectacular, the characters were unique and engaging, and the plot…*shivers*…was just SO GOOD. There was so much intricacy put into this story that every time I thought I had a handle on things I would be proved wrong and I enjoyed every minute of it. I never would’ve guessed who the ‘ultimate evil’ in the book was at the beginning. Nope, no way.
The interactions between Xian and Rafael were fantastic; there is just so much history between them overlaid with Rafael’s perceived betrayal and the feelings Xian had tried hard to suppress. Watching these two work through their issues as their relationship morphed into more kept me glued to the pages and we haven’t even talked about all of the action and fighting that Rafael engages in. I just…there is so much I want to say about this book and yet I find myself running out of adequate words to describe it all.
There are scenes of bdsm and quite a bit of bloodplay (from what I normally read in a bdsm novel) but it was all very well done and I wasn’t overwhelmed in the slightest. If you find yourself queasy at the thought of the knife play or associated whippings etc, this is your warning as to that content. I found this to be a beautifully creative novel and it was well worth the time I took to read it; I look forward to reading it again!
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