Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love: THE BELADOR SERIES

Authors:   Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love

Series:  THE BELADOR

Plot Type:  UF

Ratings:  V-4; S-2; H-3

Titles:  
       "Midnight Kiss Goodby (12/2008, novella in Dead After Dark)
       Blood Trinity (10/2010)

       Alterant (9/2011)

       "Fire Bound" (2011, free BELADOR short story download)

       The Curse (9/2012)
       "Deadly Fixation" (2/2013, novella in Love Is Murder)

       Rise of the Gryphon (7/30/2013)

     This post was updated and revised on 11/6/12 to include the third book in the series: The Curse. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the series world-building and review of books 1 and 2:

          BOOK 3:  The Curse          

     The third book picks up shortly after the end of book 2. As the story opens, Storm has been missing for weeks, and Evalle has no idea if he's dead or alive. Meanwhile, Evalle still must fulfill the bargain she made with the Goddess Macha to save her life in the previous book. Evalle has promised to bring Tristan to Macha and to find out the origins of the Alterants. At the same time, Evalle must continue to do her job with the VIPERS as super-trolls show up in Atlanta, leading attacks that involve humans and attempting to kidnap Evalle and other Alterants.

     Other story threads involve various romantic liaisons between several pairs of characters: Tzader and Brina; Quinn and Kizira; and Flaevynn and Cathbad. A new character is unexpectedly introduced in this book: Lanna, Quinn's cousin, a teen-age witch on the run from an evil wizard in Romania. Lanna manages to get herself quickly into the thick of things in Atlanta and also takes the first steps in a flirtation with the twin witches, Kell and Kardos (street kids who are Evalle's friends).

     In Evalle's romantic life, it turns out that Storm has been in a coma most of the time he was missing, nursed back to health by Evalle's nemesis, Adrianna, the witch. Evalle has some trouble fighting off jealous thoughts, but then the shoe is on the other foot when Storm catches her kissing Isak Nyght.  All of the couples mentioned in the previous paragraph are also having mountainous relationship problems. So...complications abound in both the action plot and all of the romantic side plots.

     As the main action plot plays out, the story switches back and forth between the good guys and the bad guys as they plan their strategies and carry them out. This is a complex plot, with all sorts of betrayals and half-truths surfacing among the characters on both sides. The most important of these involves Quinn, whom Evalle suspects of traitorous activities. She's right to be suspicious, but Quinn has reasons for his actions. Unfortunately, the authors pull out the old, reliable trope of having Quinn keep his secret from Evalle for her own good. That never works out, and in this case it seems to be an awkward authorial plot manipulation, one of several in this book.

     This isn't as strong a book as the first two. It is actually a transitional, or bridge, novel, with no real resolution of any of the main conflicts. The story switches back and forth so frequently that the continuity gets rather bumpy. The appearance of the bratty young Lanna comes out of nowhere and seems somewhat manipulative on the authors' part, as though Lanna is thrown in just to advance a plot point or two. I'm sure that the evil wizard who is chasing her will also show up at some opportune time in a future book. Another bothersome detail is the authors' use of Irish brogue in all parts of the sections involving Cathbad, the evil Druid. Even the third-person narration in those parts is heavy with brogue. I understand why Cathbad's words and thoughts are in dialect, but why does every single word of the narration follow suit?. All in all, I'd rate this move as just fair—not top notch, but not really awful. If you are following the series, you'll need to read it in order to keep up with events. If you haven't read any of the earlier books, don't start with this one because it's definitely not a stand-alone.

          WORLD-BUILDING          

     This series serves up a fresh and inventive UF world set in an alternate Atlanta, where the Belador tribe is a supernatural race with varying magical talents (e.g., teleportation, kinetic energy force,  mind control, mental telepathy). Each Belador has his or her own particular set of powers. The Belador are the good guys of the supernatural world. They are the major players in the Vigilante International Protectors Elite Regiment (VIPER), which is "a multinational coalition of  all types of unusual beings and powerful entities created to protect the world from supernatural predators" (Blood Trinity, p. 10). 

     The sassy, independent heroine is E. Valerie Kincaid (aka Evalle, Eve), who is not a Belador, but an Alterant, a half-breed species with an ancestry that is part Belador and part unknown. The green-eyed Alterants are considered to be little more than animals by the other supernaturals because they have so little control over their shift to their bestial form. So far, Evalle has never had an uncontrolled shift. She has magical abilities that include see-in-the-dark eyesight and various energy weapons (e.g., fireballs). On the con side, Evalle is light sensitive to the point that she must wear opaque sunglasses even at night and cannot be in the sun for even a moment without combusting. Evalle has had a horrible childhood (locked in a basement by her aunt for 18 years) and a rough adulthood (being  constantly sneered at for her half-breed ancestry). Although Evalle is a VIPER enforcer, many do not trust her because under stressful conditions, there is always the possibility that she might shift into an uncontrollable beast (double rows of sharp fangs, long claws—you know the drill).

Here is a list of the supporting characters who are Evalle's friends and/or supporters:

   > Brina: Queen of the Beladors

   > Isak Nyght: an ex-military human who leads a black ops team that hunts down and kills supernatural predators, particularly Alterants (an Alterant killed his brother), he's attracted to Evalle

   > Nicole: a witch who befriends Evalle

   > Quinn: a psychic Belador who meets and befriends Evalle when they are imprisoned together in book 1

   > Storm: Evalle's primary love interest, he is part Ashaninka Spiritwalker and part Navajo Skinwalker

   > Tzader: Maistir (sic) of the North American Beladors who meets and befriends Evalle when they are imprisoned together in book 1

Here is a list of the bad guys and the characters who may go either way:

   > Cathbad: Druid prophet, husband of Flaevyn and father of Kizira

   > Flaevynn: evil, power-mad queen of the Medb Coven

   > Kizira: Medb witch, priestess, and enforcer who is the daughter of Flaevyn and Cathbad; she hates her mother and wants Brina's lands for herself; she is in love with Quinn

   > Macha: goddess worshipped by the Beladors, who is sometimes supportive and sometimes callous

   > Sen: mysterious, powerful VIPER of unknown ancestry who hates Evalle for unknown reasons

   > Tristan: an Alterant who is Evalle's enemy in books 1 and 2, but who may become an ally

     Love wrote a short story ("Midnight Kiss Goodbye") about Trey (a VIPER enforcer) in Dead After Dark, but it doesn't really contribute much to the world building for the series.

     Click HERE to go to a page on Kenyon's web site that features photographs and biographies of the main characters in all her series, including the BELADOR series. Once you locate a character,  just click on his or her photograph to get the bio.

     Kenyon and Love are both veteran story tellers, and this shows. The characters are complex, the plot and sub-plots are compelling, and the world building details are well drawn. This is a great new series.  Beware though, this is not a typical Kenyon romance like the DARK-HUNTER series. On her web site, Kenyon calls this a paranormal thriller, which she defines as "Urban Fantasy on high octane."       

 
          BOOK 1:  Blood Trinity          
     In the series opener, a demon is raising havoc in Atlanta, killing humans in a manner that suggests the murders were done by an Alterant. Someone is trying to frame Evalle, and she must solve the case before her treacherous and malignant supervisor, Sen, sends her off to life-long imprisonment in a cage. Nothing like a little motivation to keep you on your toes!  Evalle's investigation soon leads her into an even more serious problem: The magical Ngak Stone must be recovered before the bad guys can get it and destroy the world as we know it.  As in other Kenyon books, the cast of characters includes a huge cast of supernaturals, from warlocks, to ghosts (called nightwalkers), to ancient gods and goddesses.

     Evalle's three best friends are Quinn, Tzader, and Nicole. The prologue to Blood Trinity explains how Evalle meets Quinn and Tzader. Evalle also has a pet: a lisping baby gargoyle named Feenix who provides a good bit of the humor. Now to Evalle's handsome, sexy love interests, of which there are two: Storm and Isak. In the first two books, Isak still believes that Evalle is human. His attraction may dim when he discovers the truth. Both men are definitely attracted to Evalle, and both are over-the-top alphas—but so is Evalle. I have a feeling that Evalle's romantic path is destined to be very bumpy. No real romance yet—just a kiss or two from each prospective lover.

          BOOK 2:  Alterant          

     As the second book opens, Evalle is on her way to a hearing before the Tribunal when she is attacked and nearly kidnapped by mercenaries, making her late for her hearing and putting the Tribunal members into a worse mood than usual. Most of the Tribunal members hate Evalle just because she is an Alterant, and they blame her for the recent escape of three imprisoned Alterants. Eventually, the Tribunal commands Evalle to recapture the three escapees, an impossible task because she has no idea where they are. As the plot progresses, Evalle must seek help from Tristan, the Alterant whom she betrayed in the previous book when she sent him back to imprisonment in the jungles of South America. That should tell you something about their relationship (not at all friendly). Storm is also in on the action, and his relationship with Evalle moves ahead a few steps as he helps her with her task and steals several kisses. A second plot thread follows the relationship between Brina and Tzader, whose long-term romance is cruelly manipulated by Macha. And one last relationship thread involves a dangerous clandestine affair between Quinn and Kizira, which doesn't seem to have a chance of succeeding. Once again, the ending has a cliff-hanger feel because not all of the conflict is resolved. This is another great book in what's looking to be a fantastic series, with action-filled plots, complex characters, and plenty of suspense.

     A new type of supernatural being enters the BELADOR world in Alterant: the Rías, who shift into an Alterant-like bestial form, but do not have Alterant powers. Kizira releases a poisonous fog that causes both Rías and Alterants to shift immediately and uncontrollably into their beast form, making them targets of both the VIPERS and of Isak's team of hunters. Undoubtedly, the Rías will play a larger role in future books. Here is a quotation from Alterant that explains the origin of the Rías: "Rías were the name given to descendents of a beast-line traced back over a thousand years to the famous warrior Cú Chulainn, who'd had superhuman abilities, as demonstrated by his ríastrad, a berserker-like battle mode during which he shifted into an unidentifiable monster that killed everything in his path." (p. 76)