Assassin

"{4.25/5}<br/><br/>CW: death, violence, gore, rape, various others<br/><br/>This book was…hefty. And I don’t mean the length, although the 600+ page count is nothing to sneer at. No, I mean the content. It’s dark and heavy and seems to have no issue crushing any small glimmer of hope you may experience while reading it. It was fantastic and you should definitely read it.<br/><br/>The Hunter of Voramis has no name. He probably did, once, but he can’t remember it. He can’t remember anything beyond the last 50 years or so, all of which he’s spent as a lethal assassin for hire. But something even darker than he is lurking in his city, and it’s about to rip away every shred of a life he’s built for himself.<br/><br/>The Darkblade series was another one of my husband’s recommendations, and yet again he’s proven to have excellent taste in books. Here is probably a good place to note, however, that the author reworked the first few books in the series, so the audiobook that my husband listened to is *very* different than the book I just finished reading. Check the release dates and do with that information what you will.<br/><br/>At first, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to like the book. It’s incredibly dark, and the first half was very exposition-heavy; I normally like a little more action and slightly faster pacing, but something about the story drew me in. I really wanted to know what was going to happen. And then, naturally, the author ripped the world out from under both the MC and the reader, and I had to know how the story ended. The second half was a whirlwind of blood and vengeance, and it was amazing. The plot was gripping, the characters were well-rounded and felt real, and the city itself seemed to jump off the page. I cannot get over how good this book was!<br/><br/>“Assassin” is the first of 6 currently published books in the Darkblade series. As I mentioned before, the first several books were unpublished and reworked; I recommend checking the author’s website for more info on that and his suggested reading order. If you like dark action books, mysterious assassins with memory problems, and/or insanely talented world building, you should check out this series. I will definitely be devouring the rest of these as fast as humanly possible!<br/>"

"Love all of Ted Bell's Alexander Hawke books! I'm reading Phantom now, and can't get enough of Alex"