The Novel Approach

Conviction (Dominion #3) by Lissa Kasey

Weeks after the tumultuous events that capped off the danger and suspense in Reclamation, Seiran Rou is still suffering the psychological aftereffects of a past, long thought dead, that came back to claim him.

A man from Gabriel Santini’s past wants Seiran dead, not because he really has anything against Sei personally, but because Andrew Roman knows that Sei is the key to making Gabe suffer unspeakable pain. It doesn’t seem to matter where they go or how far away the get; Andrew is a vampire who will do whatever it takes to see vengeance wrought.

Though Conviction is technically Kelly Harding (Sei’s best friend) and Jamie Browan’s (Sei’s half-brother) story, it’s the dogged pursuit of Sei that’s the catalyst for bringing Kelly and Jamie together. Told in alternating first person points of view, the reader has the opportunity to experience the thoughts and feelings of both men, which was a nice change of pace from the limited viewpoint of the single first person narrator. I felt it gave the story just a touch more edge, as the reader could see what Jamie and Kelly couldn’t, could hear the thoughts they were too hesitant to say to each other, and could witness firsthand how tenuous the bonds of family can be when trust is something that’s so difficult to give and to earn.

Overall, I think Conviction is a nice complement to the series, not necessarily as a vehicle to advance the world building or political underpinnings of the Dominion and Ascendance, but as a way to highlight how the magic of this world works. It seems that the more a man is willing to sacrifice, the more he stands to gain in this realm, and Kelly was willing to give entirely of himself in exchange for the lives of those he loves.

Buy Conviction HERE.

Inheritance (Dominion #1) and Reclamation (Dominion #2) by Lissa Kasey

Seiran Rou’s life was marked for misery the moment he was born into the female dominated society of witches, made all the more difficult by the fact that his mother is the leader of the Dominion–the governing body of witches–as well as the fact that she saw his being born a boy as reason enough to mistreat and torment him throughout his childhood.

Seiran’s life has been punctuated by random acts of abuse, everything from rape to being repeatedly bullied and hexed during his freshman year of college. His first sexual experience at the age of eleven, with an older boy, marked the beginning of Seiran’s downward spiral into intimacy and commitment issues. Matthew Pierson’s betrayal continues to haunt Seiran psychologically, and he fights back by being emotionally unavailable, seduces men simply because he can, but it’s strictly one and done, sex with no strings attached.

His one and only exception is Gabe Santini, the millenniums old vampire who has loved Seiran since the moment they met five years earlier. Gabe is the one and only man with the power to make or break Seiran. Gabe is the one and only man Seiran could love, if only he could find the courage and strength to let it happen.

Lissa Kasey has created a supernatural world in contemporary Minnesota, where vampires, shapeshifters, and elemental witches coexist. It’s a place where a witch can still be burnt at the stake as punishment for magical crimes. It’s a place where sometimes the only crime one commits is that of being born the wrong sex. Seiran’s fate and the balance of his future hinge on the fact that he is the son of Tanaka Rou, he’s male, and he’s the most powerful male earth witch to come along in decades. Seiran is a target and his life is in near constant danger. When the murder of a coworker brings that danger directly to his threshold, the race begins to find and stop a serial killer who is disposing of witches and stealing their powers, before the killer gets to him.

Opposing factions in the witch community want Seiran, someone within one of those factions wants him dead, and it’s his own mother who’s at the top of the list of suspects that might be attempting to frame Seiran for the crimes.

Well written and briskly paced, this series is one of those lucky finds for me, where I stumbled across a couple of great reads by virtue of little more than an interesting blurb, but the purchases paid off 100% in the introduction of compelling characters living in a world that I don’t claim to fully understand the inner machinations of yet (I’m not sure I’m supposed to know all the political underpinnings at this point) but am more than excited for another installment in the series.

I think my only area of concern, really, was a momentary feeling of “this again?” in Reclamation (Book 2), fueling my belief that there might be an unfortunate formula the series was falling into, but the final result was a suspenseful and emotional climax that left me pulling for Seiran and reconfirmed that I’ll be on board for book 3.

BUY LINKS:

Inheritance

Reclamation