Blood Before Sunrise: A Shaede Assassin Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Amanda Bonilla (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 3, 2012 | Series: Shaede Assassin Novel (Book 2)

“She needed a bargaining chip and this was it. Raif’s daughter’s life for hers. And he knew damn good and well I was right. Just like he’d assured me the night I’d killed Azriel, this was far from over. His daughter was alive. I knew it. And I was going to find her.”

For months, Darian and her Shaede guardian, Raif, have searched for the Oracle who attempted to overthrow the Shaede Nation—and kill Darian in the bargain. But now that they’ve finally found the half-crazed Oracle, they are granted a possibility too painful for Raif to imagine and too enticing for Darian to ignore.

Darian is determined to reunite Raif and the daughter he thought was dead, but her mission quickly proves dangerous when her lover, Tyler, is almost killed. And when a brooding and mysterious Fae warrior offers his guidance—at an extraordinary price—Darian finds herself willing to risk everything. As her single-minded hunt turns into an obsession, and she and Tyler grow further apart, Darian finds herself caught between the man she loves like a brother and the man whose love she can’t live without.…

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Absolutely wowed me!”—Romance Readers Connection

“One of my favorite new series . . . [and] one of my new favorite heroines of 2011.”—Heroes and Heartbreakers

About the Author

Amanda Bonilla lives in rural Idaho with her husband and two kids. She’s a part-time pet wrangler, a full-time sun worshipper, and only goes out into the cold when coerced. When she’s not writing, she’s either reading or talking about her favorite books.  

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Signet (July 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451237463
• ISBN-13: 978-0451237460
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1 x 6.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amanda Bonilla is the author of the Shaede Assassin urban fantasy romance series.

The debut novel in the series, SHAEDES OF GRAY, was nominated for Best Urban Fantasy Protagonist of 2011 by Romantic Times Magazine.

Amanda lives in rural Idaho with her family. She's a part-time pet wrangler, a full-time sun worshipper, and only goes out into the cold when coerced. She loves the outdoors, black clothes, pink appliances, and thinks junk food should be a recognized food group. Amanda is the wife of a fire chief, the mother of a college student and a middle school student and the caretaker of far too many pets to list.

Amanda first fell in love with urban fantasy and paranormal romance when she read MOON CALLED and hasn't once looked back. She's an avid reader and firmly believes that nothing is better than new book smell!

For more information on Amanda's books, including chapter previews, reviews and publication dates, go to: http://www.amandabonilla.com/ or http://magicandmayhemwriters.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars UFR Reviews Blood Before Sunrise July 3, 2012

By Kathryn S. Steves

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I am a huge fan of Amanda Bonilla, and it's really not just her writing that I love. She is one of those authors who is very accessible to readers and I love that about her. But her writing is really awesome too. I really loved the first book in the series, and I really enjoyed the novella (seriously if authors keep putting out these great novellas I'm going to have to rethink my anti-novella stance). So I have been waiting for book two and it finally arrived. I was very curious to see what was going to happen to Darian now that the big battle from book 1 was over.

The plot of the book was not exactly what I was expecting. Shaedes of Gray was very much a book where the plot action based and you had this feeling when you were reading it that the stakes couldn't get any higher. I did not get that feeling from BBS. For me this entire book is so character driven, although there is plenty of action scenes, and when you finally find out what is really going on you realize the stakes are pretty high), but mostly it's so about the characters.

Darian is still finding her way as this new "changed" being that the events of book one left her in. She has also found herself in a relationship with Tyler who she does truly love, but after not letting anyone close to her in 100 years there are certainly some growing pains that need to be worked out. It also doesn't help that someone is clearly messing with Tyler's bond to her and it's make their situation all the more tense.

Raif is such a great character, and you really get to see how much Darian loves him. He has become really like family to her, Bonilla refers to him as a brother type love, but he kind of feels like a cross between brother and father type figure. He has done so much for her so of course she wants to do anything she can for him, like help find his daughter. By the time the book ends I love Raif all the more, and I am so glad that Darian has him to lean on.

My one complaint is that I would have loved to actually see more Xander in the book. He is referred to a lot, and has a few scenes, but generally speaking I missed his whole high and mighty routine/trying to convince Darian to be with him.

Overall I really enjoyed the book. Like I said it is super character driven, and you get to meet some new ones along the way, but you also get to know the old ones a lot better. At the end of the book I really felt like the whole theme was about love, and so many different kinds of love are included in this book. And the ending was so bittersweet, it really made me want to know where everyone was going to go from here. If I had to pick I think the first book is still my favorite, but only by a hair, this is a great follow up book and I would recommend it to anyone (but read the first one too!).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Urban Fantasy Lovers July 3, 2012

By Marcela - The Bookaholic Cat

Format:Mass Market Paperback

4 ˝ Stars

Blood Before Sunrise starts couple of months after the events in Shaedes of Gray. Darian and Raif have been searching for months for the Oracle, Delilah. When they finally find her her mind is not as once was, she is talking so much nonsense that is difficult to understand what she is really saying, but in one of her ramblings she says that Raif daughter, Brakae is not dead. Raif doesn't want to hear anything about it; he has suffered for Brakae's disappearance for years and won't believe a crazy maniacal Oracle. But something in Darian tells her Delilah is telling the truth.
Raif is her best friend, the man she loves like a brother. Darian knows how much he has suffered because of the disappearance of his daughter, for that reason she wants to find her for him and sets her mind in finding Brakae.

Reading some books is like taking a ride in a roller coaster of emotions. Reading Blood Before Sunrise is like taking a ride in the first row of that roller coaster. This book grabs you from page one to the end without letting you go, not even to take a breath, be ready to swoon, laugh and almost cry. You heart will rise and hurt and you will experience every feeling in between. Mrs. Bonilla's writing is so good and vivid that she will make you experience this and more with her words.

Darian has come a long way since we met her in Shaedes of Grey. She is learning to live a life where she is not alone, where she has people that care for her and she can count with them. She has Tyler who loves her unconditionally and is willing to die for her, Raif who is more than a brother to her and even Xander who publicly admires her and covets her.
But getting there has not been an easy road. All this is new to her and sometimes she just doesn't know how to do it. She doesn't know how to trust others or how to ask for help when she needs it. This places her in difficult situations where not only her life is in peril but also her relationships strain because of her trusting issues.
Darian made many mistakes and makes same amount of bad decisions in this book, sometimes it was painful to watch, it was almost as watching a train wreck in slow motion, you know is coming but there is nothing you can do to stop it. I would have preferred for her to make better decisions (my heart would have suffered a lot less) but at the same time that was just what she needed to learn from her mistakes and become a better person.
We also learn more about her past, about her human life and the time she shared with Azriel. From those glimpses we learn something that it may affect her in the future.

My heart broke for Tyler in this book, I know how much he loves Darian and everything he has done for her. Seeing him suffer in this book was not easy, I understood that his behavior was something completely out of his control and it pained me to see him like that.
I know Darian loves him but I wish she would have been trust-worthier with him, if somebody deserves her entire trust is Tyler.

Raif was more in Darian's thoughts than in the pages but still we see how good he is and how much he loves Darian. For him Darian is much more than a simple friend, their relationship has progressed a lot and slowly they have become family.

We see some of Xander, he is still the self-assured leader of the Shaedes and his interest in Darian hasn't diminished one bit. I really wonder about his real intentions towards Darian. Is it only an attraction? Is it one of those cases where you want what you can't have? Or does he really have feelings for her? I hope Mrs. Bonilla will answer some of my questions in future books.

The villain in this book is bad and creepy and scary. He is one of those characters that really believe his craziness making him even more dangerous. He is a fanatic of his beliefs and in his head he has the right to do what he does. Mrs. Bonilla writes him so good that even though you wish him a slow and painful death you can help but sympathize with him and his "cause".

We meet new characters in this book, some I would love to see more in future books like Moira. We also learn more about recurring characters, but still there is a lot to be discovered. Mrs. Bonilla has created in her Shaede Assassin Series a unique and extraordinary world very rich in mythology, with compelling and complex characters and a very well written plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Mrs. Bonilla also does a great job recounting events of previous book without being repetitive; this helped me a lot because I had forgotten a lot of what happened in Shaedes of Grey.
The end broke my heart in thousand shards, it was what was needed but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Have tissues close by, you may need them.

All in all Blood Before Sunrise is a Great addition to a Great series and a book I recommend to all Urban Fantasy lovers. If you love this genre this book and this series are a Must Read for you. If you haven't read Shaedes of Grey... What are you waiting for? You need to read it today! I recommend you to read them in order to get the whole effect of the magic world Mrs. Bonilla has created for us.
I'm really looking forward to March of next year to the release of the next installment of this series, Crave the Darkness.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars BLOOD BEFORE SUNRISE is a must read July 6, 2012

By Urban Fantasy Investigations

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The world building in BLOOD BEFORE SUNRISE gets kicked up a notch as the story take us to the Fae side of the world and provides us with a whole new landscape to get to know. Darian also learns more about why she is different then the other Shaedes.

Darian did not have a good time during BLOOD BEFORE SUNRISE. Darian's decision making reverted back to her doing what she felt was right instead of trusting those around her to help her when she needed it which made some situations she found herself in worse then they could have been. She is extremely loyal to her friendship with Raif but it causes a huge problem with her love Tyler. Some crazy magic is going on that makes it all worse but lets say it was crazy and frustrating and all around heartbreaking to have to witness.

There is a great deal of action, I don't think it was as much as book 1 but there were plenty of stressful situations thrown into the mix. The ending was both heartwarming and heartbreaking and Im dying to see more of the fallout of Darian's actions. BLOOD BEFORE SUNRISE is a must read for fans of the Shaede Assassin series.