192 Worshippers
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amishoard

Ami's Hoard

To Read is To Live

Skin Deep  - Mark Del Franco 3.5 starsLaura Blackstone is the PR director for Fey Guild. She is also Janice Crawford, a druid working for SWAT Team in Washington DC and Mariel Tate, a high-ranking agent within a global security firm, InterSec. Laura keeps her other personas separate by magic. On a mission gone awry, Laura (as Janice) is nearly killed while one other member of her team is shot dead. Using her Mariel persona, Laura tries to get answer on what is wrong with the mission, which leads her into a conspiracy that might invite war among the faeries.This first book of the Laura Blackstone series worked slightly better for me than the first book of Connor Grey series by the same author. HOWEVER, this is probably because Mark Del Franco uses the same world setting as Connor Grey, thus I'm quite familiar with the terms he uses. I imagine that new readers who never read Connor Grey series before will struggle to grasp this new world. The story is a bit slow in the beginning ... I do struggle to remember the characters, especially when Laura uses her other personas. There are a lot of names jumbling in the story, and I think I only remember few that have closer relationship to Laura. BUT, it picks up its pace and I totally enjoy her adventure -- as she is going deep to investigate. I love her friends: Terryn macCullen (her superior at Intersec), Cress (a leanansidhe medic who is also Terryn's lover), Saffin (a brownie who is Laura's assistant at the Guild), and Jonathan "Jono" Sinclair (a second generation fire-giant, who seems to become Laura's romantic interest after he joins her in the investigation). I think this is decent first book of a series, and I might follow the it while waiting for another Connor Grey book. I want to read about Jono again. He's charming *grin*