Title: Shadows & Light
Author: Cari Z.
Genre: Erotic Romance, Fantasy, Historical
Length: Novel (183 pages)
Publisher: Pride Publishing (March 15, 2016)
Heat Level: Sizzling
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 5 Hearts
Blurb: A fight to the death against his former master turns into a chance for Rafael, an assassin denied the immortality he lived to achieve, to learn the shocking truth about the fate he was spared.
Rafael wanted nothing more than to serve his immortal master, Xian, a High One of Clare, who taught him from an early age how to be an assassin. But after failing the final test, Rafael was turned out into the Lower City, abandoned by the one person he thought he could count on.
Years of hatred and thoughts of revenge have fueled Rafael’s quest for vengeance, but when the time comes to strike at Xian, he hesitates and is taken prisoner. Rafael expects to die, either at Xian’s hand or at the hand of Myrtea, his sadistic mistress.
Instead Xian heals him, spares him a brutal interrogation and tells him the dark truth driving the ruthlessness of the High Ones—the source of their immortality is spent. Soon the city will devolve into chaos as High Ones battle one another and the rebelling denizens of the Lower City for power and resources. Xian wants to spare Rafael that pain, just as he spared him the pain of becoming a High One a decade earlier.
Their only chance for survival is to escape Clare before civil war breaks out. Even if they make it out of the city, though, there’s no guarantee that Xian will live through the agonizing process of becoming human again. The only ones they can rely on are each other…if Rafael can bring himself to once again trust his former master, the only man he’s ever loved.
Reader Advisory: This book contains mentions of blood-drinking, blood magic, blood-play, knife-play, addiction and withdrawal, as well as flogging and whipping. This book also refers to pain and blood-play as coping mechanisms.
Publisher’s Note: This book has been released elsewhere. It has been revised and re-edited for re-release with Pride Publishing.
ISBN: 978-1-78651-386-1
Product Link: https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/shadows-and-light
Reviewer: Shorty
Review: Rafeal has been working toward one goal: becoming a high one. He is devastated to learn he failed the final test and even more so when his master and the man he looked up to, Xian, casts him out. He falls back into the one thing he was good at, an assassin.
Revenge motivated Rafeal meets Xian again and instead of killing him is taken prisoner. Xian finally explains his reasons for failing him and also informs him of the dark secrets of the high ones. Intent on escaping the battle coming between the high ones and the lowers Xian and Rafeal plan to leave.
This book is full of great scenes both suspenseful and thoughtful. I loved how the story played out. It was an amazing journey. Xian and Rafeal, despite the rough beginning once they found each other again, were great together in their bid to survive.
Highly recommended.