Unborn
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: ARC Courtesy of NetGalley
Khara has spent centuries living in the Underworld with her adoptive father Hades, but when she's ripped from her home by a Dark One and unceremoniously dumped in the middle of Detroit, Khara gets a rude awakening. You see she's not the only child of Ares, although she is his only daughter, seeing as how all his daughters are usually killed at birth, all except Khara who was saved by her mother and hidden with help from Demeter. When she's dumped in Detroit, Khara just so happens to be found by Drew when he's on patrol....Drew, along with Pierson, Kierson and Casey turn out to not only be her half brothers, but also part of a group of immortal warriors who police Detroit's supernaturals, and they're (mostly) only too excited to meet their long lost sister.
Taking her in and vowing to keep her safe from the impending threat of Diemos, sure to come after, they soon discover there's something strange going on. Soul Breathers are breaking a treaty, the Gargoyles have gone AWOL, and the jackass fallen angel lodging with them appears to know way more than he's letting on. Like the fact Sean, another of the brothers, is actually her twin. It's a race against time to find out who and what she is before the evil stalking her through the city can find her.
Okay, full disclosure, I thought this sounded intriguing and I changed up the synopsis because when I started reading, I was like "okay cool Drew's gonna be the love interest" but then I was like wait whaaaaatt?! Because ya know, it doesn't mention the whole "the warriors are her brothers" thing, so I was expecting something waaay different, but this was actually way more awesome than I was anticipating. Not gonna lie!
I'm currently seeing a lot of other reviewers smack talking this, I can kind of see your point I guess, but quite frankly the book made me laugh, and it was a total and complete escape for a few hours, what more do you want?!
I have never read anything by the author before, I was drawn in by Underworld and Immortal Warriors, but after this, I think I'm going to endeavor to check out more of her titles! At the minute I'm on a roll with really awesome books so I'm kind of on edge waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it where, so I was incredibly wary as I started reading.
However, it didn't take me long to get fully engrossed in the story and the world. Seriously it sucked me and spat me back out a couple hours later with lots of feels and a book hangover, which I'm nursing by eating an entire packet of Haribo.....as you do.
The world building was fantastic, I'm not sure if it was the intent but I got such a dark vibe from Detroit, and I could picture the house, the streets and the club perfectly, like I was there. It's such an engrossing world to be in to be honest you don't really want to leave, I was watching the time on my Kindle tick down and getting very distressed!
Unborn is incredibly unique, I mean hello did you see the whole "adopted daughter of Hades" thing? He's not in this book but I'm so desperate to meet him I'm psyched he'll be in the second book.....he kind of has to! Karah and her brothers are all kids of Ares, and each of them has different mothers, except Karah and Sean and Pierson and Kierson...obviously. Basically Ares is a bit of a tool and was sleeping with different ladies to experiment to see what he could produce. So each of them has their own thing they can do, Pierson is the magic dude in this case for instance.
The mythology for the book is the thing that really made it for me, I love unique and rich mythology and that is what Unborn has, I've never read this take on it before or anything like it really, and I loved learning about the world of the book. In Unborn we get this amazing blend of Greek Mythology and the whole Angelic mythology going on that are both unique and work very well together, and I've never come across before! There was no info dumping either which is always a plus. The book told you what you needed to know in the right amount of detail without disrupting the fast pace and flow of the book.
Karah was an interesting lead, because she's kind of....I'm not sure how to explain it. She talks a tad bit odd I would imagine, I mean I was picturing her with a British accent to be honest because I can't imagine the wording with US accents which is weird but bear with me. The impression I got was that things where pretty lonely in the Underworld, and with Diemos being a giant douche and the general violence, emotions are weakness down there so Karah pretty much doesn't show emotion much. Which is understandable.
I couldn't help but chuckle sometimes when she was all "I'm feeling something" purely because it reminded me of Legolas in LOTR when he's drinking and is all "i think it's affecting me". But yeah, so, she doesn't do emotions, she's unused to feeling them which made it unusual and intriguing to read from her perspective. Not to mention to watch her develop and slowly deal with emotions better, and accept them and maybe even understand them a little bit. I'm excited to see more development for Khara.
Khara is a fairly complex character, written incredibly well, but the thing I loved about the book (among other things) where the other main characters. Every single supporting character was written with just as much care, attention and detail. All of them are complex and I loved each of them as they are all so very different.
Oz being the fallen angel....I lost count of how many times I muttered "douche" to myself while reading, I kind of figured he'd be the love interest, I enjoyed how subtle the romance was. I mean, there are feelings there clearly, but so very subtle they aren't in your face, which is probably partly due to the fact Khara doesn't recognize what she's feeling and can't recognize it in him, but towards the end it's more obvious. The romance is kind of secondary I would say, to the main plot. Which I liked.
The brothers. Sean, who's her twin, we don't see much. I'd be interested to see more about Sean, there's all these allusions to a mate and shit hitting the fan on the coast where he is, I will admit sometimes it made me wonder if I was missing something, like was there a first book about Sean or? But apparently not, I'm going to assume the intrigue from him means we'll be seeing more of him second book.
The four brothers we see the most are Drew, Casey, Kierson and Pierson. I loved all of them, they made me laugh individually and as a group, but I have to admit I do have two favourites. Kierson and Casey are totally my favourites. it's probably mean of me but there you go.
Kierson starts out a bit like "uuuhh" cos he's all "I know she's my sister but she's hot" but at one point I think it was just a running joke to lighten the mood. I liked him because he was probably the nicest one to her, and he appeared to care the most about his new found sister, something Khara has never really had before, and I thought he was a bit of a sensitive flower sometimes which was kind of adorable. So he's favourite number one.
Favourite number two, is Casey. Hear me out. So he was a total prick in the beginning, like dude you have a sister at least pretend to be happy. I couldn't work out if he actually hated her or was just indifferent at one point. But when you find out a bit more about him and his power and who his mother was, you understand him totally and how he acts, which is not too different from Khara. There where a few points prior to that where I was like okay I like you. But I loved Casey and the complexity he has, and the gradual warm up to Khara, that goes to full out protective brother mode.
We're not lacking for cool creatures. I loved the gargoyles, they added a nice unique element, it's not often they get included in supernatural stuff, and the whole Soul Breather/Stealer thing was another entirely new thing that I've never come across before and added another unique element to the story as well as a major plot point.
I thought the plot was thought out and complex, subtly building up to the second book and leaving you on your toes and waiting eagerly for the next one. Unborn keeps you engaged the entire time with everything going on and it was pretty impossible to put down. I've got to say, I'm excited for the second book!
Unborn is the perfect blend of Supernatural, mythology of the Greek persuasion, action and a very very subtle romance, featuring a protag I can guarantee you've never come across who adds another element to a book packed full of uniqueness. Unborn will keep you turning the pages, as you immerse yourself in to a world like any other, and with the right sprinkling of humour, there's nothing to not like!
