Veiled Innocence

Veiled Innocence by Krystle Jones
★★★★☆
Release Date: April 9, 2011
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Dark Fantasy, Adventure
Source: Author
Format: E-book
Buy it: Amazon

Vishka should have died the night her empire fell. Alone and desperate, she makes a pact with a beautiful stranger for the power to avenge her people. But every bargain has its price... Lianora never placed much stock in the gods; she especially never believed the Accalian lore that spoke of a lost ancient magic, a magic woven from the fabric of people's souls. So when she discovers the teardrop necklace, she thinks it to be nothing special - until the visions begin, glimpses of a legendary empress's past and the approach of a great evil. One that may be far closer than she realizes. What Rowan wants more than anything is freedom. More by force than choice, he serves the crumbling gothic metropolis of Accalia as Black Knight, charged with the protection of the city. When a vicious murder occurs in the dead of night, he never dreams the beautiful woman with dark eyes and flowing, black hair could be a prime suspect. A woman who hasn't aged for over one thousand years, driven to Accalia in pursuit of an avenging god of death bent on rebuilding his usurped kingdom with the souls of the living. When Accalia falls prey to a devastating attack, the three unwilling allies are forced together. Now they must figure out how to kill a god. But how do you kill the embodiment of Death?

Veiled Innocence is a story about a girl who has always felt out of place in a palace filled with people she has never been connected with. When her mother dies she is taken in, an illegitimate child of the King, and never really measures up to her sister (that she doesn't like anyway). It's her story and two other characters, who depend on each other to essentially stop death.

The book follows 3 very different characters which I really enjoyed: Lianora, Rowan, and Vishka. While all 3 are very different people they also have strengths the others depend on.

Lianora starts seeing strange things when her life gets turned upside down, and these visions start occurring when she receives a tear drop necklace that she thought was a gift (although her father had never given her anything before). Never having beileved in much of anything she becomes forced with the choice between fighting or dying.

Vishka was an unbelievably strong and independent warrior. While she was distant and hard to relate to but, I still loved her character. Given a choice many years ago to become immortal she took it out of greed and revenge and that choice still haunts her so far in the future.

Rowan, raised to be a knight, wants anything but. He lives under his abusive fathers thumb and wants out. When murders begin to occur it is his job to solve them. He is a very complex character. From his childhood, when his father came back a very different man, he's had to endure a lot of verbal and physical abuse. My heart went out to him. But, he was a loyal man and made sure he was nothing like his father, although he definitely has a quick temper.

My one complaint of the book was Lianora's character, or Lian, as she was often referred to. She starts out so strong in the book, training (which maybe was just to be close to the hunk she was training with), but I felt like her character would be completely different and petty one moment and then strong again. Maybe that's just me. It was still an awesome read regardless! I've read some reviews about the beginning being slow, but I will say I didn't feel that way at all.

I adored Veiled Innocence! As an action adventure fan it was right up my ally, and includes romance, magic and so many more twists for the reader. I will be picking up the next book in the Soul Cycle series and I will say that this tale is far from over. I would recommend this book to fans of Maria V. Snyder and Kristin Cashore.

If you liked these, you should definitely check it out!