Review: Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

Title: Red-Headed Stepchild
Author: Jaye Wells
Series: Sabina Kane #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: April 1, 2009
Publisher: Orbit
Edition: Paperback
Blurb:

In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina doesn’t really fit in. And being an assassin – the only profession fit for an outcast – doesn’t help matters. But she’s never brought her work home. Until now.

Her latest mission is uncomfortably complex, and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As Sabina scrambles to figure out which side she’s on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life-changing, but together, they could be fatal …

Sabina is a mixed race assassin who works for her grandmother. Even though she has both mage and vampire blood, she only acknowledges her vampire side. For her everything was black and white, either you were on one side or in another but as she starts to step out of her shell she realizes that not everything was as she believed.

The world in which the book is set has nothing new. We have vampires, mages, demons, fae and probably some other creatures we haven't seen yet. What I did like was the twist about the weakness the vampires have of apples (apple wood, apple juice, if it's made of apple, it hurts vamps) and the demons. Well, I guess I'm speaking of one demon in particular, and that's Giguhl. He provides a source of humour that it's much needed in the novel.

The problem I had with the book was that I didn't really like the protagonist. I was reading some parts of the book and I was thinking "Wake up! Everyone is lying to you!" but of course she didn't, and she kept being loyal to a group that harmed her countless times (and by the way, she had proof of it). She was naive, too trusting and hard headed (so much so that sometimes it bordered on stupid).

Now, there were some characters that were very interesting, like Adam the mage or Briallen the faery and I really hope we get more information on them in future books.
This was a nice debut book and while I had some problems with it, I enjoyed it.

Memorable Lines:

"Is that all you bought?"
His eyes shot to the left. "Um."
I clenched my teeth. "What else?"
"A Super Mega Juicer, he said quickly. "But, Sabina, seriously that juicer is a miracle machine."
"I'm a vampire, Giguhl. The only liquids I drink are blood or alcohol. I don't do juice."
"You might want to consider a little roughage in your diet. According to the commercial, an increase in fiber will help you be more regular."


Next Books:
2. The Mage in Black
3. Green Eyed Demon (Mar 2011)


Rating: 1/2