ARC Review: Maid Of Ice by Shona Husk (Blood and Silver)

**ARC Review Maid of Ice by Shona Husk**

**Shona Husk**

**BIO**

Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she discovered romance novels and hasn’t looked back. With over forty published stories, ranging from sensual to scorching, she writes contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi romance.

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Title: Maid Of Ice

          (Blood & Silver)

Author: Shona Husk

Release Date: November 21, 2017 (ARC)

Publisher: Lyrical Press/Penguin RandomHouse

Category: Contemporary Paranormal Romance

Type: Digital/Paperback

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Shona Husk Website

 Blurb:

Stalkers and death threats . . .
 

For Finlay Ryder, danger means playing a racecar driver on a daytime soap. That is, until he’s forced to reckon with his true identity as an Albah, a magical ancient race, by one of his own kind. Someone wants him dead. And worse, an ancient vampire is on the prowl, drawing blood left and right. Now, Finlay has no choice but to hunt enemies with unspeakable powers—or risk being hunted himself . . .

. . . and that’s just the first date
 

Ice skater Alina Nyx is using her broken wrist as an excuse for a career change. And when she falls for handsome Finlay, Albah drama feels like her new full-time job. Learning about magic and vampires is exciting, until her life is threatened. Now, as she begins to uncover her own mysterious powers, she must combine forces with Finlay to eradicate their foes for good, or all Albah will suffer . . .

By reading any further, you are stating that you are at least 18 years of age.

If you are under the age of 18, please exit this site.

Favorite Line(s):

He wished he had another beer, but his fridge was empty except for bread that was on its way to inventing a new antibiotic.  ~  Finlay

Excerpt:

Alina’s hair was drawn up into a messy ponytail. Red strands fell around her face as she shoved things into her bag with one hand. She glanced up, her eyes wide for a moment before the shock melted into a smile. “I thought you were my mother. I told her not to come, but she insisted.”

He didn’t want to be here when her mother arrived. That would be awkward. The flowers were still wrapped up as though untouched. “I just thought I’d come by and see if you’d be around for coffee tomorrow, but you got your cast.”

She tapped it. “Yep. I think I could’ve done with another day here.” Her smile dropped, but her eyes gleamed with silver. “I’m sure you’ll find someone else to have coffee with.”

He winced. That stung. He wasn’t that bad—yes, he was. And she’d realized how bad he was. Flowers were never going to make up for what was going to happen when the pictures came out. “I hope they don’t make up too many tales about us.”

“It might be fun to read about the exciting life I’m not living. The flowers are pretty. Thank you, but I’m not sure what they are for.”

“Because I feel bad about what’s going to happen.” He’d seen it too many times.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

No, he didn’t. He wished he had the power to see the future like Albah women. “Not exactly.” If he could see the future, maybe he’d have seen the car accident and been able to stop it from happening somehow. Even if he could see the future, he wouldn’t change anything about his life. He loved his job. He missed his family, but he couldn’t be what his father wanted him to be. He’d known that since he was a teen. “But I can guess.”

“Can you guess what I’m about to do?” She walked toward him.

“Um.” No, but he could think of a few things he wouldn’t mind happening. He shifted his weight and remembered that pretty much everything hurt and the doctors were still concerned about the swelling around his spine even though it had vanished. The ability to heal was useful, and he’d used it several times when doing stunt training. Hell, he’d used magic too, being able to control air was very handy. Of all the elements, it had to be the most useful. In his magic, he was the same as his father. They both used air. That was the only thing they had in common. “No. What about you? Are you able to guess the future?”

Would she admit to being Albah? He could almost feel the magic between them, a certain static, or a sizzle on his skin that made it hard to look away from her. Or had it been that long since he’d actually felt real lust, not something manufactured for the media, that he couldn’t tell the difference between desire and magic?

The corner of her lips quirked up. “I have pretty good gut instinct.” She pulled out a marker. “I think you know what to do with this.”

“You want me to sign your cast?” Or she wanted his number. He glanced at her arm and smiled, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to give her his number. He didn’t need this and didn’t have time for it, but that didn’t stop him from wanting.

“Yeah. Otherwise no one will believe I met you in hospital.”

“There’s pictures to prove it happened.” And they would end up everywhere.

She held his gaze. “I don’t care about the pictures.”

He was stalling. He’d sent her flowers and come down hoping to see her again before she made her escape. Either he wanted to see her again or he didn’t. He shouldn’t. That had never stopped him. “You might when they come out.”

His life was far more exciting on paper than it was in real life. These days any woman he touched was his new lover. If he was really lucky, they were secretly engaged.

“You care about what is written about you,” she said with just a little too much certainty.

He tried not to care, but some of the lies cut.

“I care about the lack of privacy.” He had to be careful. It was lucky that air magic was largely invisible. If he’d had earth like his youngest half brother it would’ve been tough to explain the rupturing of the track or the collapse of the wall so that he survived. It was lucky that most people didn’t search for magic when they tried to explain away something odd happening.

The Guardians of Adam did, and they hadn’t vanished over the last two hundred years. They were still hunting Albah. He hoped living in the spotlight was enough to keep him safe. His stomach turned as that weightless sensation returned.

“Are you all right? You went a bit pale.” Alina was next to him as though she expected him to topple over.

“Fine, pain spasm.” He leaned against the wall.

“Have a seat.”

“No, I just stopped by to make sure you weren’t freaking out and to apologize.” That was all. He didn’t want her number. If a Guardian had tampered with his car somehow—and they loved to tamper with cars and set homes on fire so Albah deaths looked like accidents—he didn’t want to be getting other people tangled up in his problem.

She held out her cast. “Sign it and we’re even.”

He smiled. She wasn’t taking no for an answer. He liked that. Alina would be fun to be seen with. She’d be fun to be with. “Do you live in L.A.?”

He knew almost nothing about her, but wasn’t that the point of dating?

“Yeah…hoping to look me up when you get out?” The silver in her eyes gleamed.

There shouldn’t be silver in her eyes. Beneath the red hair dye maybe she was actually blond, but that didn’t explain the lack of curl in her ears. If she knew what he was, she hadn’t brought it up, and he couldn’t bring it up in case she wasn’t. This was already too hard, but he wanted to know. Needed to know. His curiosity was going to get the better of him. He didn’t need to see the future to know that. He smiled. “And if I was?”

She held out her other hand, palm up. “Then you should write your number down.”

Dialogue Highlight:

Finley kept his hand around Alina’s. She was all right. Shaken but okay. The man who’d taken her bag was also fine, except for some bruising from his tumble. Finley knew he’d lashed out too hard at the man. A simple trip and fall would’ve been enough. He couldn’t take away someone’s breath, but he could stir a breeze that took them down the street head over heels.

They walked over to her bag and he started picking up the things that had fallen out. Her phone had survived the fall. Fortunately, there wasn’t much in her bag as it was a small evening bag, not the epic tote that could double as a suitcase that some women favored. He wasn’t sure what women put in there, or why they needed to carry so much around. However, he was smart enough not to ask either.

“Did I miss anything?” he asked as he stood. He couldn’t look at the man he’d sent down the street without acknowledging that he’d overreacted.

Alina shook her head and shivered. “Where did that wind come from?”

He handed her the handbag, not sure what to say. She obviously had no idea about magic even though he’d been seeing her do it all night.

The bouncer called the cops.

Finley would have to talk to them now. He didn’t think the thief was his stalker, especially after he’d started saying someone had paid him.

The bouncer crossed his arms, not believing that another person was involved. Finley wasn’t as quick to dismiss the claim. He searched the shadows across the road but saw nothing and no one suspicious. He was tempted to ask the thief more but he didn’t want to get more involved. He’d let the cops do their jobs and ask the questions, though he doubted they’d do much. It was just another Friday night. Another random robbery by someone who was desperate, so desperate he was trying to blame someone else.

Except it wasn’t.

Finley had used magic to get Alina’s bag back. He probably shouldn’t have, but the happenings of the last week had left him on edge. He hadn’t died, but he nearly had. Things had been left at his apartment and now this.

It was as though someone wanted him to be scared. And it was working.

He didn’t like that at all.

Frowning, Alina watched the man. “How did it only blow him over? It snatched my bag out of his hands.”

Finley forced a breath out between his teeth. “Don’t keep asking those questions so loud.”

Now her silvery gaze was on him. He was sure the silver was gleaming in his eyes, too. He had to tamp down on the desire to use magic. This week, he’d done more magic than he had over the last year.

“Why?”

“Because other people will start asking and that isn’t a good idea. I’ve watched your water bubble. I saw you knock it over and not spill a drop. You must have some idea about what is going on.” Or she had no idea and he had just stuck his neck out that extra inch too far.

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened like she was about to argue but then her expression changed. A wariness formed, her eyebrows drew together slightly and her head tilted and she examined him as though really seeing him for the first time.

“You made the breeze.” Her voice was low but her words hit hard.

He nodded. She didn’t know what she was, what he was. Someone had kept it from her. Her mother, she only had her mother. Why would her mother hide that? Fair enough to live quietly and pretend not to be Albah, but to try to deny the elemental magic that was part of who she was? He couldn’t imagine living without magic. “My element is air. Yours is water.”

She laughed and shook her head. “No.”

“Your hair is naturally as blond as mine. Your eyes have silver that shimmers to the surface. But your ears…”

She took half a step back, brushing her hair to hide the ears in question. “So what? My mother had my ears fixed. They stuck out.”

“Like mine?” The tops had a fold that made them curl over a little. Nothing too much or too odd, unless a group of Albah got together and then it became clear that something was odd about them. They were all just a little too similar.

She stared at him.

This wasn’t the place to be having this conversation. He’d never wanted to have this talk with anyone. He’d been quite happy to go his whole life pretending he was human with no magic until meeting her. Now he wanted to talk magic and find out what had happened that she didn’t even knew what she was.

Dating Alina was a very bad idea. If there were Guardians watching him, they would now be watching her, unless she had everyone fooled.

Perhaps he was just a fool.

But he was sure she had magic even if she didn’t know how to use it. She was Albah, but her mother had never told her what that meant or shown her what she could do.

Her gaze darted to the side and he glanced at the cop walking over. “We can continue this later if you still want to come back to my place.”

Review:

Alina Nyx is a silver medalist ice skater. She’s been skating her whole life and she’s questioning her future in the sport. In a fit of rebellion, she tries her hand at skateboarding and ends up in the hospital with a broken arm … where she meets Finlay. He’s a tv star and there’s no way he’d want a relationship with her, but a short fling wouldn’t be a bad thing. Little does she know, Finlay has a huge secret that ultimately involves her and will completely change her entire world and everything she thinks she’s ever known.

Finlay Ryder keeps himself in the spotlight as a precautionary measure. He’s magical, with powers, and has quite the family legacy as an Albah that he’s so far run from. He isn’t sure if one of the Guardians was trying to kill him in the car accident he just survived, or if something else is going on, but being in the spotlight was supposed to keep them from coming after him openly. Now he’s on edge; a place he’s never been before. Luckily everyone thinks he was just fortunate in surviving the crash and no one except the knowing suspect magic had anything to do with it. When he runs into Alina at the hospital, he is suspicious. So many things about her remind him on an Albah, but she seems to know nothing about it, or the power he believes she has. Telling her will be a risk he can’t afford, but if she turns out to be what he believes, it could change everything. With the Albah literally on the cusp of voting whether to fight, or just quietly go extinct, Finlay has some huge decisions to make. Not one to generally want a fight, since meeting Alina, he’s beginning to change his perception of his people and their place in this world.

This book started out quick and just kept moving. I was engaged and learning something new every minute. It’s always interesting to me when you read a paranormal book because every author generally has their own unique spin on well-known creatures. In the case of this book, vampires are the common, but Ms. Husk did quite a good job of making them her own. This book is the 3^rd in the Blood and Silver series, and even knowing absolutely nothing about the series, I had no difficulty in assimilating this world and the paranormal creatures within it. Based on this book, I would read the rest of this series. However, as a first read in this series, I had a hard time not believing that this book wasn’t the first in series. I double checked twice just to make sure. 😊 Point being that I very much enjoyed myself with this book.

Finlay is an interesting character as is his background story. I found his parents and their dynamic interesting. And while Alina had the reality of the Albah hidden from her for hr whole life, Finlay also had a lot of truths hidden despite his front row seat as an Albah. Their parents brought them up completely differently, but neither was forthcoming with information that should have been made known from the very beginning. Finlay carries a chip on his shoulder because of his beliefs regarding his parents, which ironically fits his celebrity lifestyle reputation. I was interested in Finlay’s swift turn around in beliefs concerning the Albah when things started to get messy. Alina was a pretty good sport with everything thrown at her within such a short space of time. She has a few childish reactions, but were pretty realistic given the secrets her mother kept and the control she exercised over Alina’s life … even after the truth was revealed. She is new in magic and has a lot to learn, even at the end of the book, but I hold out hope that we will see her again in the series better than ever with Finlay by her side. Her character grew quite significantly from the first to last pages and once she made her decisions, she stuck by them.

I wouldn’t say this book left off on a cliffhanger, but a lot was left unfinished, so I am sure the series will continue – which is why I believe we will see more of Finlay and Alina at some point. Probably my only complaint is my inability to picture the folded ear trait that characterizes Albah. My mind conjures something much more dramatic than is intended, I’m sure. As far as paranormal with an interesting spin, I would say that Ms. Husk does a fantastic job in that department. She also has a wonderful romance playing out in the midst of the possible extinction of a species of magical people, the waking of the undead, family secrets revealed, and a crazy paparazzo that is after more than just a tarnishing story. Murder (attempted), mystery, magic, and mayhem! In short, there is a lot going on. Fans of paranormal romance will likely find themselves intrigued with this novel in no time – and be thrilled to come back to the rest of the series, if they haven’t already.

Kindle version provided by Lyrical Press/Kensington/Paranormal Cravings in exchange for an honest review.

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