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ASSASSIN’S BLOOD by H.A. Osborne

BLURB:

Murder wasn’t exactly legal in any of the regions, and I was the best murderer in the cluster.

Once upon a time, I had dreams, desires, but they vanished in a puff of asteroid dust when Binja Tur got his hands on me. Now, I kill for pay, mindlessly snuffing out the lives of people I have never met. If given the opportunity, I would escape all this bloodshed, and rekindle my lost hopes, but you don’t plan for the impossible.

Then, she came into my life, and I had to make a choice—remain a slave to Tur, or risk it all and run. My name is Laoise Rek, and this is just the beginning…

MY REVIEW:

I’ve read several of Osborne’s Rae Hatting Mysteries, which I’ve enjoyed.  Now, she’s trying her hand at a sci-fi series.  I think she found her true calling.  I love this novella that sets up the Epirus Book series. 

Laoise comes from a strict matriarchy race and family.  She doesn’t want to learn the family business and dreams of being free from the mother that will never accept or approve of her.  Then, one day, her prayers are answered by the arrival of a strange, dark, handsome man at her mother’s stall.  He offers her a new life and a way off the planet.  Little does she know, she has traded chains of one sort for another.  Her freedom is still nothing more than a dream.  

As a reader, you can’t help but feel for Laoise.  She’s young and immature, and has made a grave mistake by accepting Tur’s offer.  He trains her as an assassin, a profession she excels at.  Tur uses her desire for freedom as a carrot, daggling it front of her, keeping her guessing about his motives.  For there surely is one. 

We don’t see Tur’s backstory, but I’m looking forward to finding out more about him.  How many other girls has he trained and used?  What is it he really wants?  And then the way Tur treats Laoise at the end, you want to be the assassin, welding the knife, slitting his throat.  In other words, he makes a great villain.  

There are several sub plots and other characters intertwined throughout this story, and I can’t want to see how they unravel and where they lead.  

If you love a well-written Sci-fi adventure with mystery and intrigue, you will love the first book in this series.  I can’t wait to buy the next book.  I give it 5 assassins.