*I received a free copy of Made for Sin from Loveswept via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
Warning: This book includes mature content such as: sexual content, and/or drug and/or alcohol use, and/or violence.
Made for Sin by Stacia Kane Published by Loveswept on 30 August 2016
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Suspense, Romance, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 266
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
A lot of bad hands get dealt in Vegas, but E. L. Speare may be holding one of the worst: He’s cursed with the need to commit sins, and if he misses his daily quota, there’s hell to pay—literally. Fortunately, his hometown affords him plenty of chances to behave badly.
But Speare’s newest case really has him going out on a limb. The right-hand man of a notorious crime boss has been found dead in a Dumpster—minus his right hand, not to mention the rest of his arm. What catches Speare’s attention, however, is that the missing appendage was severed clean by a demon-sword, a frighteningly powerful tool of the underworld.
Speare’s out of his element, so he turns to a specialist: Ardeth Coyle, master thief, dealer in occult artifacts, and bona fide temptress. Ardeth’s hotter than a Las Vegas sidewalk on the Fourth of July, but she’s one sin Speare has to resist.
The dismembered corpses are piling up, unimaginable evil lurks in the shadows, and if this odd couple hopes to beat the odds, Speare needs to keep his hands off Ardeth, and his head in the game.
Made for Sin is set in a dark, gritty universe, where there are demons and magic, and where safety is not a given. Characters that kept me on my toes, a tight plot and a good storyline entertained me and had me hooked from start to finish.
Made for Sin has quite a bit of suspense, as the story starts with the discovery of a corpse without its right arm. Yes, you read that right – the whole arm was taken off, from the shoulder, and the rest was left behind. Speare was the one PI who was set on the case, and he needed help both from the police and from a thief who might know something about a demon sword. Ardeth was an amazing character, too, because she was able to hold her cards oh so close to the chest, so while I enjoyed her and got a good feel for her – neither I nor Speare really got to know her very well.
Kane is quite a master at world building, and in Made for Sin, the story is set in Las Vegas, but not necessarily in the same world as us. Speare truly loves his sinful city, and he wants to do what he can to protect it from the evil that is lurking and might destroy them all. The characters are well done, and I enjoyed both their personalities and their strange humor. The dark magic that was present made things very interesting as well.
If you’re a fan of dark and gritty stories with extremely flawed characters who have to truly fight to be ‘good’, you should definitely pickup Made for Sin and enjoy the slightly scary, quite suspenseful, and sometimes romantic ride it will take you on. Written in third person past tense, with a narrator that shows us what happens mostly from Speare’s perspective. (And really, how can you not wonder about that name??)
Speare figured it was a mixture of both, but either way, the place was full of gold leaf and shiny flocked wallpaper and ruffled pink bordello curtains. Mirrors hung on almost every wall, too, amplifying the neon glare. Speare wasn’t a guy who knew much about decorating, but he knew that place hurt his eyes.
Those adding-machine eyes were back, he could feel them, calculating how much she trusted him. How much to tell him. Hopefully the answer was “all of it,” because fighting her over every piece of information was already getting old and he’d only known her for three hours.
“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realize it was a sore spot.”
“It’s not.”
“Sure it is.” She sucked on the Coke he’d bought her and made a face. Yeah, sitting in the car for forty minutes hadn’t made it taste any better. “You’re kind of a walking sore spot, Speare. I wonder why.”
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Twitter: ailynk
Pretty harsh story but quite interesting to have a very flawed character in the story
I love stories with flawed characters, because they are almost always believable to me. We are all flawed, right? And the dark universe in this one just worked very well for me, Ailyn 🙂
Twitter: ailynk
i agree, it is a little harder to relate to perfect characters too! At least I find it harder
Twitter: Mlsimmons
I’ve requested this audio for review. It has been a long time since I’ve read anything by Stacia Kane. I do love her writing. Glad to see you enjoyed this one so much. 🙂
Oh I hope you’ll get the audio ARC, Melanie. I love Kane, too. I’ve missed her writing lately 🙂
What an opening! I’m definitely curious to learn more about Speare from your description of him. He seems very intriguing. And the world building sounds like a lot of fun.
I’m glad you enjoyed this one, Lexxie!
Speare definitely is a character worth meeting, Nick. And Kane is a master of dark universes that she paints with sure strokes and manages to make come alive in my imagination.
I have been burned by stories like these before but I find myself wanting to give this story a chance. Doesn’t this author have a urban fantasy series?
Yes, she’s written the Downside Ghosts series, which I absolutely love! I really enjoy her writing, which is why I’ll pick up anything she writes, and I was very happy I did with this one, Leona.
Dark and gritty? Demons and magic? *raises both hands* Come on, you saw this coming from miles away! ;P You definitely piqued my curiosity and, of course, I’m super-glad you loved this title so much! 🙂
I know, right? I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy this, both because it’s so dark and gritty, and because the characters are flawed but still very much likeable!
Sounds fairly similar to our Las Vegas, especially the demons. 😀 I think I have some of this author’s other books already, and now I want this one.
I bet there are some demons in Las Vegas now, too, Christy. But perhaps not exactly the kind of demons that are in this story;)
Sounds like one for me! You’re recommendation had me grinning:)
LOL demons? You want demons and darkness? Pick it up, Laura!!
I don’t know……Not as good pairing as Chess and Terrible……but will there ever be a pair like them again? We need some more Chess and Terrible books Stacia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!