HBIC Review: Assassin's Honor by Monica Burns

Assassin's Honor by Monica Burns
Review copy provided by the author.

PJVs QUICKIE POV: A sexy little romp through a very imaginative world. Burns has created a delightfully entertaining and teeth gritting PNR that is sure to please die hard fans of the genre or newbies looking for an introduction. While at some points the world did over-power me, in essence it was a well-written and thought out novel.

REVIEW: Emma Zale, archeologist, is on a dig near Cairo when her mentor is brutally murdered and the MO is the same as her parents murder 5 years earlier.  The authorities immediately look at Emma as the number one suspect. When locals step forward with conflicting evidence, Emma is released and is sent back to the States, but her reputation is tarnished and she will not be able to go on any more digs.

Faced with this sudden change, her life is reeling, especially after she finds a strange coded message from her father and a very hot assassin pulling a little B&E in her apartment. When hot assassin, better known as Ares DeLuca tells her that her life is in danger and she needs to go into hiding, trusting him with her future and protection, after their stormy introduction she isn't very open to his ideas.  It takes a brush with death and an encounter with a not so friendly assassin for her to change her mind and follow Ares into his world, giving up her own.

The world of the Sicari is richly described and quite remarkable.  Burns paints a picture that will drag you down and have you believing there are hot Italian assassins running around with swords and telekinesis. From the intermingling of Latin and Italian phrases, to the portrayal of Sicari customs, you can tell Burns put a lot of effort in her world building and it paid off. There were only a few things that irked me, but nothing that detracted from the overall likability of the novel.  The first was that a few plot threads were left hanging, hopefully these will be rectified later in the series. The human bad guy was eradicated a little bit too quickly for my liking - but it might have been done this way to show exactly how ruthless the Praetorians are.  Then the characters were a bit too stubborn. It drove me a bit crazy. I understand a bit of pig-headedness drives a romance and builds tension - but I really wanted to slap the two of them and be like "get over yourselves!" But, once again, the novel was excellent, well worth your time.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Adult novel with heavy sexual content, violence and cursing (usual in Latin or Italian), for a mature audience. Fans of Paranormal Romance will really enjoy. A great PNR introduction for romance fans ready to take that paranormal plunge. Fans of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Kenyon's Lords of the Underworld, York's The Moon Series, should enjoy.


BWB Rating 3/4