Berls
Written on Dec 6, 2016
- ISBN10 151595370X
- ISBN13 9781515953708
- Publish Date 30 August 2016
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Tantor Media, Inc
- Edition Unabridged edition
- Format Audiobook (MP3)
- Duration 8 hours and 8 minutes
- Language English
Reviews
Melanie
Written on Aug 28, 2016
3.5 stars
I’ve been a huge fan of Stacia Kane for several years now. I started off reading her Megan Chase series and then really fell in love with her after starting theDownside Ghosts series (Downside is especially good on audio). It has been since since 2012 that I’ve gotten a full length book from Ms. Kane. Needless to say, I was pretty excited.
Made for Sin is a story that, of course, is set in Sin City itself, Las Vegas. The story is told by E. L. Speare (don’t ask him his first name), a PI with a dark side. He has a demon inside him. He must commit a sin everyday or the demon takes over, only to leave Speare waking up to carnage. It can be any of the mortal sins, but the bigger, the longer the demon will let him go before he has to commit the next sin. Shoplifting is one of the smaller sins we see him commit to pacify his demon.
When a body start to turn up with a piece missing, as in a whole arm taken from the shoulder, Speare is on the case to help look for what is going on. Then even more bodies with missing pieces start to turn up. There is also a demon sword involved. Speare decides the best place to start looking is for someone who just got their hands on the demon sword. He recruits a thief, in Ardeth Coyle, who also dealer in occult artifacts.
This was a good story. It has all the things you expect from a solid Urban Fantasy book. The world that Kane built in Vegas does it proud. Add in the magic and it is a solid location that any UF fan would enjoy. Speare is a great tortured hero, who is working hard to be “good”. Ardeth is a solid heroine who isn’t trying nearly as hard to be good. The suspense and action are all there. All in all, this is a solid story. That being said, I didn’t love it as much as I expected to. I think this book might have suffered from “too high of expectations” and “over anticipation”. As much as I loved Kane’s first two series, I think I expected this one to blow me out of the water and it just didn’t do that. Kane mentions on her blog, that this book could be a stand alone or possibly a start to a new series. If there is a book two, I will definitely give it a go. I know that it is often that the first book of a series is okay, but get way better with more stories. I’m sure Kane could do that, as I’ve loved her other series. I really hope that there is a book two.
Narration
This is my first book with Aiden Snow as narrator. I really liked him. I thought he did a great job with our tortured hero. I also liked his women’s voices. The pace was great. I thought he really brought the darker side to the story. He is definitely a narrator that I will be on the look out for in the future.
**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Linda
Written on Aug 4, 2016
Made for Sin is set in a dark, gritty universe, where there are demons and magic, and where safety is not a given. Characters that kept me on my toes, a tight plot and a good storyline entertained me and had me hooked from start to finish.
Made for Sin has quite a bit of suspense, as the story starts with the discovery of a corpse without its right arm. Yes, you read that right - the whole arm was taken off, from the shoulder, and the rest was left behind. Speare was the one PI who was set on the case, and he needed help both from the police and from a thief who might know something about a demon sword. Ardeth was an amazing character, too, because she was able to hold her cards oh so close to the chest, so while I enjoyed her and got a good feel for her - neither I nor Speare really got to know her very well.
Kane is quite a master at world building, and in Made for Sin, the story is set in Las Vegas, but not necessarily in the same world as us. Speare truly loves his sinful city, and he wants to do what he can to protect it from the evil that is lurking and might destroy them all. The characters are well done, and I enjoyed both their personalities and their strange humor. The dark magic that was present made things very interesting as well.
If you're a fan of dark and gritty stories with extremely flawed characters who have to truly fight to be 'good', you should definitely pickup Made for Sin and enjoy the slightly scary, quite suspenseful, and sometimes romantic ride it will take you on. Written in third person past tense, with a narrator that shows us what happens mostly from Speare's perspective. (And really, how can you not wonder about that name??)
Speare figured it was a mixture of both, but either way, the place was full of gold leaf and shiny flocked wallpaper and ruffled pink bordello curtains. Mirrors hung on almost every wall, too, amplifying the neon glare. Speare wasn't a guy who knew much about decorating, but he knew that place hurt his eyes.
Those adding-machine eyes were back, he could feel them, calculating how much she trusted him. How much to tell him. Hopefully the answer was "all of it," because fighting her over every piece of information was already getting old and he'd only known her for three hours.
"Sorry," she said. "I didn't realize it was a sore spot."
"It's not."
"Sure it is." She sucked on the Coke he'd bought her and made a face. Yeah, sitting in the car for forty minutes hadn't made it taste any better. "You're kind of a walking sore spot, Speare. I wonder why."