Title: Skin Deep
Author: Karen Chance
Series: Cassandra Palmer World #15, Cassandra Palmer #4.5
In: Inked (Karen Chance)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Dark fantasy, Paranormal romance
Pace: Fast
Format: Novella
Publisher: Berkley Books
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: Right now, I need some –

New York Times bestselling author Karen Chance’s “Skin Deep” tells the tale ofa war mage in Las Vegas who stumbles across an ominous magical ward that appears as a dragon on her skin – and has a mind of its own…

Lia is a really good, fun character, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed meeting in Vegas Odds. So it was nice to revisit her in Skin Deep with an amazing new tattoo to boot. I also enjoyed the way that her relationship with Cyrus had developed further from that outlined in their previous novella.

This was quite a fast paced novella, although a lot of it went quite over my head since I have a real lack of understanding about where the world is set. Though this gave a really nice insight into how parts of it fit together. Actually, I’m kind of fascinated to see how it works with Touch the Dark, the only Cassandra Palmer novel that I have had a chance to read so far…

Skin Deep takes you deep into the underworld and the slums that have been worsened by the magical wars. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the world that we know, and the underworld that is literally below ground in Lia’s Las Vegas. The contrast in the settings was really fun in this story, and it reminded me how much I love and admire Chance’s world building and ability to position what we know alongside what we imagine so seamlessly.

<- Inked

Armor of Roses ->

Image source: Penguin Random House