Sins of the Heart (Otherkin, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

May 20, 2010 Steph rated it really liked it

Shelves: series-completed, author-웃, series-ended, series-book1, year-read-2010, arc-netgalley, sos-games-bsb-r1

Sins of the Heart was a deliciously fun read. With a semi-cliff hanger ending, I'm left wanting more and wanting it now. I won't get into the mythology in the story much because (1) I'm sure someone else's review can give you that and (2) I'd probably screw it up.

But, I will tell ya that Dagan Krayle is the eldest son of Sutekh, the Lord of Chaos. He's a 300 yr old soul reaper who is tasked with retrieving malevolent souls for his father to feast on. Dagan has four immortal, half human sons Sins of the Heart was a deliciously fun read. With a semi-cliff hanger ending, I'm left wanting more and wanting it now. I won't get into the mythology in the story much because (1) I'm sure someone else's review can give you that and (2) I'd probably screw it up.

But, I will tell ya that Dagan Krayle is the eldest son of Sutekh, the Lord of Chaos. He's a 300 yr old soul reaper who is tasked with retrieving malevolent souls for his father to feast on. Dagan has four immortal, half human sons he bred specifically for this duty. Although they grew up apart, they have bonded as brothers. For reasons each their own, they all love and hate their father. But, they serve him as they are told.

While out on a harvest, he encounters a girl he cannot help but admire. She's bound, but not screaming. Clearly trapped and about to be tortured by Dagan's prey, but showing no weakness, she's a fighter.

Roxy Tam, at the time only nineteen "and a half", assumes he's here to kill her. Once he reassures her that "This is not your night to die", he helps free her. After spotting her necklace, he tries to warn her off pursuing the Daughters of Aset.

Flash forward eleven years, neither Dagan nor Roxy have been able to forget their "moment" together. They are both experiencing "waking dreams" which leave them craving the other.

But, now, having joined the Daughters instead of avoiding them, as Dagan warned, Roxy is sent to retrieve a kidnapped girl. She's not being told everything though. Soon Dagan and Roxy's paths cross again. Dagan is on the hunt for his baby brother's killer. It should've been impossible for someone to kill him, yet he's gone, no one can find his body or soul. Once together again, they are both found wondering ... Can a Daughter of Aset and a Son of Sutekh not only work together, but BE together?

The beginning of the story is full of world building and mythology, but all of it was interesting and flowed in a way that wasn't painful to the reader. Once the story got going it didn't let up. Dagan and Roxy are a good match. Roxy is a fighter, made tough by her childhood experiences and Dagan has found a connection he thought impossible. They have both been alone for the majority of their lives and now they have each other.

I am looking forward to jumping into the rest of the trilogy, Sins of the Soul and Sins of the Flesh.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for giving me the opportunity to read this book free-of-charge. ...more

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Aug 19, 2010 Literary Ames rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2010, 1st-in-series, netgalley, series-abandoned, do-not-own, free-read, arc, paranormal-romance, death-reapers-zombies, mythology

Well, this was different. In a good way, of course. Most books that use mythology tend to stick with the Greek and Roman pantheon, instead this focuses on the Egyptian one. Let me just say that I love Ancient Egypt and it's mythology. I've been to Egypt, visited exhibits and so on so this was something I was eager to read.

Sins of the Heart follows Dagan Krayle, the eldest son of Seth, the Egyptian god of chaos. All of his 4 sons are Darksoul reapers -they reap the souls of evildoers and feed the Well, this was different. In a good way, of course. Most books that use mythology tend to stick with the Greek and Roman pantheon, instead this focuses on the Egyptian one. Let me just say that I love Ancient Egypt and it's mythology. I've been to Egypt, visited exhibits and so on so this was something I was eager to read.

Sins of the Heart follows Dagan Krayle, the eldest son of Seth, the Egyptian god of chaos. All of his 4 sons are Darksoul reapers -they reap the souls of evildoers and feed them to their father who consumes their energy, preventing them from having any sort of afterlife and any chance at reincarnation, effectively destroying them completely.

Dagan meets a 19 year old Roxy on a reap of a kidnapper and murderer. She's been kidnapped and is trying to escape. Dagan admires her courage and is tempted to release her though it goes against the rules when she sees him take the heart and soul he came for. He spots her necklace which is of the Daughters of Aset -the enemies of his father. He knows she isn't one of them yet but advises her to stay away from the unless she wants to become his enemy, and though she doesn't want that she feels she has no choice and joins them anyway.

Eleven years later, one of Dagan's brother's has been killed. Seth is furious, he wants vengeance and his son's body so that he can resurrect him and find out who murdered him. Everything points to the Daughters of Aset and in Dagan's investigation he finds a necklace of a dead woman which matches Roxy's and prays she's not dead. He goes searching for her hoping she's leading the normal life he wished for her on the day he broke the rules and let her go free.

There was a lot of world building in the first 200 pages or so which I appreciate but the romance did suffer a bit because of this. There was a brief scene between the Dae and Roxy where they met and then were reunited after those 200 pages so the romance had less time to blossom even though both Dae and Roxy were yearning for each other in the 11 years they were parted.

The plot was solid and interesting though at times a little complicated with 6 or more POVs but I understand why all of these were necessary. The mystery behind which god is backing the destruction of Seth and his kin is a difficult one to guess at with so many different factors involved.

This is a complex book which though confusing at times, I enjoyed. I will definitely be continuing the series very soon so I don't have time to forget anything. 3.5 stars. ...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Lisa M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-romance, kindle-touch, egyptian-gods

Dagan Krayl is a soul reaper and the son of Sutekh. He harbors dark souls for his father, who lives off them. Roxy Tam meets Dagan for the first time 11 years prior to the main events of the story, when he is reaping the dark souls of the people who are about to rape and murder her. Dagan sets her free and tries to set her on the "right" path, because he sees that she wears the pendant of his father's enemies, the Daughters of Aset. Before they part she ends up biting him and ingesting his blood ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Jenny rated it liked it · review of another edition

It took a while for me to get into this one. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't what I thought it would be. That's not a bad thing just unexpected. The characters took a while to get together and that made it a bit dragged out, but once they did, things picked up and it began to move and then it wrapped up with things left hanging.
I have enough questions that I will likely try the rest just to see where they were going with this series. There is only 4 books total to not a massive time invested. ...more

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