Swept Away Again

I found out about Assassin's Honor by Monica Burns from reading Mani's reviewreview on goodreads, she also posts her reviews on herblog. I thought it seemed like a interesting concept for a new series and was happy to get my hands on it.

Archeologist Emma Zale sees the past when she touches ancient relics. It’s how she uncovered evidence of an ancient order of assassins, the Sicari. When a sinfully dark stranger shows up on her Chicago doorstep demanding an ancient artifact she doesn’t have, he drags her into a world where telekinesis and empaths are the norm. Now someone wants her dead, and her only hope of survival is an assassin who’s every bit as dangerous to her body as he is to her heart. Ares De Luca comes from an ancient Roman bloodline of telekinetic assassins. A Sicari, he’s honor bound to kill only in the name of justice. But when the woman he loved was murdered, Ares broke the Sicari code and used his sword for revenge. Love cost him dearly once before, and he’s not willing to pay the price again. At least not until hot, sweet, delectable Emma walked into his life. Not only does she hold the key to a valuable Sicari relic, she might just hold the key to his heart. Their dangerous passion will redeem an assassin's honor.

Assassin's Honor was a brilliant first book and an awesome start to a new series. I'm already excited for the second book due out this year.

All the character's were brilliantly written and I was enthralled with the book the whole way through and found it very hard to put down. I loved the mixing of the old with the new and how Emma kept trying to protect Ares but instead kept getting him into trouble.

And wow the whole blood oath and what arises out of that! So good, although a couple of times I wanted to smack Emma on the head and ask what was she doing avoiding Ares for so long. But Ares wasn't totally blameless, he kept Emma too much in the dark which not only was bad for Emma, I thought it was bad for the reader because as it's a new series and the first book not everything was explained to the reader as it happened it and you had to guess what such and such meant or wait until Ares decided to explain it to Emma which at times I did find annoying.

I loved the secondary characters, Ares second in command Lysander and Ares sister Phaedra, who clearly have a history or something has happened between the two of them and I'm excited to find out what. I also loved Ares grandmother (or was it godmother, I'm not 100% sure) I found her harsh at times in the punishment she dished out but also sly and quite funny.

I really enjoyed the ending too, where Emma wants to carry on the quest whereas Ares wants the more quiet life and would like to keep Emma safe and away from the bad guys.

All in all a great read and I can't wait to read more books in this series! Definitely a must read for 2010.