Wow. This book is different from what I normally read, but I DEVOURED IT. Seriously, The book follows several separate, but intertwined stories and takes place in an established universe. I hadn't read the first book (Graced) and was able to follow this one, but I am DEFINITELY going to go read it now.

The setting reminded me a lot of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. You can't quite tell whether the story is set in the distant past or the distant future or whether it's in an alternate timeline altogether. There are vampires, humans ("normal" and "graced", which my husband lovingly referred to as X-men), and weres, which can be anything - tigers, bears, wolves, etc. The two main stories follow Hannah, who has found a baby left for dead, and Alice, the human coroner tasked with figuring out who is killing the city's aristocratic vampires. Their stories intertwine in some predictable and surprising ways. I have to hand it to the author - I read a LOT of mysteries and can almost always figure out who the killer is. I was sure I had it figured out a quarter of the way through the book, but SURPRISE! I was only half right. Which is the best kind of mystery - you've got enough clues to figure it out, but there are so many dead ends that you still end up shocked at the end.

I really enjoyed this book, and the writing of an author I hadn't read before. It was a slightly different take on vamps and weres, and it was nice to see vamps not portrayed as all evil or all alpha male, highly sexual he-men. I also enjoyed the concept of eye colour and talents being linked. I look forward to reading more set in this world.