fantasy book and game review Marjorie M. Liu Dirk & Steele 1. Tiger EyeTiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu

Hfantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsaving enjoyed Marjorie M. Liu’s Hunter Kiss urban fantasy series, I decided to look into her paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele.

Tiger Eye is the first novel in the Dirk & Steele sequence. The heroine, Dela Reese, is a sculptor with a psychic affinity for metal. On a trip to China, she buys a mysterious riddle box and finds herself bound to Hari, an immortal shapeshifter, by magical forces beyond their control.

What follows is a fast-paced plot in which the two must evade danger (both mundane and supernatural) and contend with their growing feelings for one another.

The romance is well-written, with a great deal of depth and emotion; the love scenes are both sizzling and tender. Fans of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s early novels will enjoy Tiger Eye, and I suspect that fans of Anne Bishop‘s Black Jewels series will feel the same way.

Dirk & Steele Stylistically, Tiger Eye is written in simpler, less avant-garde prose than the Hunter Kiss books; which series you prefer will likely be a matter of taste.

Like Hunter Kiss, though, Tiger Eye has moments where the prose is so beautiful that I had to stop reading and grin at the pages, often through a tear or two.

Most of the conflict in Tiger Eye is external. If you’re into romances where the protagonists bicker constantly throughout the story, you won’t find that here.

However, if you’re looking for interesting characters, haunting magic, and “true love conquering all,” you need look no further.

Published in 2005. The first exciting Dirk & Steele novel by the incomparable Marjorie M. Liu, Tiger Eye is a breathtaking masterwork of paranormal romance—a stunningly original tale of magic, sensuality, desire, and danger, featuring a hero who is the answer to every romance lover’s fantasy. Tiger Eye is the book that started it all, ushering readers into the Dirk & Steele world of shapeshifters, psychics, and extraordinary beings, showcasing one of the most inventive talents currently working the shadowland where passion and the amazing intertwine.

Author

  • Kelly Lasiter

    KELLY LASITER, with us since July 2008, is a mild-mannered academic administrative assistant by day, but at night she rules over a private empire of tottering bookshelves. Kelly is most fond of fantasy set in a historical setting (a la Jo Graham) or in a setting that echoes a real historical period (a la George RR Martin and Jacqueline Carey). She also enjoys urban fantasy and its close cousin, paranormal romance, though she believes these subgenres’ recent burst in popularity has resulted in an excess of dreck. She is a sucker for pretty prose (she majored in English, after all) and mythological themes.

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