Sign of the Slayer by Sharina Harris – Book Review

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5

Series: American Slayer Society (Book 1)

Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance

Spice: Hot

Summary:

Raven, a high school senior in band, is thrown into the world of the paranormal when vampires attack her bus on the way back from playing the halftime show at a Texas high school football game. During this attack, she finds that she is crazy strong and fast, somehow defending herself from the creatures even as the rest of her classmates are devastatingly killed. A handsome, mysterious stranger who was helping to fend off the vampires convinces Raven to come with him, and he helps to connect her to the Slayer Society, a group of superpowered humans that have devoted their lives to keeping the “vamps” under control.

Suddenly, Raven is swept away to Atlanta as a powerful recruit for the Society. Even though she’s mourning the death of her best friend, and they won’t let her contact her grandmother, Raven finds that she’s good at this whole Slayer thing. She’s rocking all the physical training and making it through the history taught by the partnered Alchemist Order. The leaders even want her to pair up with a friendly vampire to investigate some odd killings around town. But when the friendly vampire turns out to be the boy who saved her, and he seems like he might be connected to these killings, Raven will be drawn into an epic fight for power between the Vampires and the Slayers.

Reaction:

Sign of the Slayer is a fast-paced, action-packed book that focuses on the journey of a girl on the cusp of adulthood who must navigate her new powers and the new world they’ve unlocked for her. Filled with romance, sacrifice, and betrayal, the story has many twists and turns where anyone could be friend or foe. I enjoyed a lot of things about this book, but there were a few elements that kept me from loving it.

Overall, I thought the plot was interesting and relatively intricate with quite a few enjoyable twists. Some were predictable, but their delivery was still satisfying, while others were a surprise to me. There was a major plot element that just didn’t make sense to me though. Raven is a brand-new slayer, but she seemingly becomes an accepted member of the leadership of the Society soon after arriving, which didn’t seem entirely realistic and detracted from the “academia” element in my opinion.

I thought the world-building in this book was clever and really integrated this paranormal world as a believable part of our own. It combined history, science, and religion to create a full backstory for the vampires and slayers that was critical to the plot. There was a nice balance of politics and culture; those parts were important and integrated nicely into the story but weren’t overwhelming in scope. There were times when the reader was asked to believe things without explanation, and while that established a connection to the FMC who was also a bit in the dark, I wanted to know more about how certain things worked, especially the magic.

The main characters were very clearly established with defined, consistent characteristics. Raven is a bold, snarky, impulsive character, and her narration is fittingly very action oriented. While that lent itself nicely to the action scenes, I personally felt like it was hard to understand how she was feeling at times. Raven’s impulsive tendencies also made it hard for me, a thinker, to personally relate to her motivations. Khamari, the MMC, is a suave, tortured, morally gray character whose conflicted decisions really made the story interesting. I thought the character development for both was perfect for the first book in a series, leaving plenty of room for growth in later books.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book; I think it was my favorite part. There were moments when I was getting swept off my feet along with Raven, but it also felt grounded and realistic at the same time. Khamari’s flirting is borderline overwhelming and I loved it. It contrasted nicely with Raven’s realism created this push and pull that added tension. There were times that I wanted the emotions to last longer, especially from Raven’s POV, but that might be the masochist in me.

Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable read with strong characters, an integrated urban paranormal world, and a twisting, action-filled plot that will grab the reader’s attention. If you love vampires with a detailed origin story, enemies to lovers romance but he’s obsessed, and a bold, stabby FMC this book is definitely for you.

Thanks to Entangled Publishing for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

What I enjoyed:

·       The inclusion of historical references to show that vampires, slayers, and alchemists have been influencing world events, making it more believable that they exist.

·       The twists! They constantly left me guessing who was a friend, a foe, or just an individual looking out for their own self-interest.

·       How morally gray Khamari is, even when he thinks he’s a good guy. That conflict between his perception of himself and his actions made him a very interesting character.

What I didn't enjoy:

·       I had trouble with the writing style when it came to chunks of time passing; things that happened during skipped time seemed to be mentioned after the fact, sometimes forcing me to correct the timeline I already had in my head.

·       How quickly Raven was promoted through the ranks of the Society both formally and informally without her questioning it, or anyone else explaining it.