Review: Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur

Darkness Unbound is the first book in the Dark Angels series by Keri Arthur and a Dell Fantasy.

Blurb:

Being half werewolf and half Aedh, Risa Jones can enter the twilight realms between life and death and see the reapers, supernatural beings that collect the souls of the dead. But she soon makes a terrifying discovery: Some sinister force is stealing souls, preventing the dead from ever knowing the afterlife.

Reapers escort souls - not snatch them - but Risa is still unnerved when a reaper shadows her in search of someone Risa has never met: her own father, an Aedh priest, who is rumored to be tampering with the gates of hell for a dark purpose. With the help of her 'aunt' - half-werewolf, half-vampire Riley Jenson - and an Aedh named Lucian who may have lost his wings but none of his sex appeal, Risa must pursue whatever shadowy practitioner of blood magic is seizing souls, and somehow stop her father . . . before all hell breaks loose.

My thoughts:

Risa Jones is the daughter of a very powerful psychic and an Aedh - this gives her a combination of gifts.  She has visions like her mother - but not as precise - and she can transform herself into a vapor like substance and travel undetected for short periods of time like her father, though it is very draining. 

When Risa is asked to visit a child in the hospital she is shocked to find that the child’s soul has been ripped from her body.  Shaken, Risa asks for help from the first reaper she sees - who also happens to have been following her.

What the two discover is that blood magic is being used to alter the gates of hell - and more than one faction thinks Risa’s father is involved...

Darkness Unbound was an enjoyable read.  I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Dell (September 27, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0440245729
ISBN-13: 978-0440245728