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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 05/2017
  • B071S3XFMM
  • 492 pages
  • $4.99
Paperback Details
  • 05/2017
  • 978-1546689744
  • 492 pages
  • $12.99
RJ Blain
Author
Water Viper
RJ Blain, author
During Starfall, magic flooded the Earth and destroyed most technology while humans developed strange new powers. As the scion of a male-dominated clan, Jesse should have risen to become a hero. She chose to become a woman instead, ruining her hopes for the future. Years later, weary of life as an assassin, she retires to enjoy raising horses and delivering messages. When her plans fall apart, she has one final chance to set everything right. Should she fail to redeem herself, she'll lose everything she's ever held dear, including her friends, her family, and her life.
Reviews
In a postapocalyptic United States devastated by meteors that have also brought magic to the world, Blain (Playing with Fire) tells the gritty, gripping story of Jesse Alexander, also known as the famed assassin Water Viper. Born without a gender into a warrior clan, Jesse trains to be a male warrior, but something goes awry at her 10th birthday ceremony and she becomes female. She flees the clan in shame. As Water Viper, she assassinates only those she believes deserve to die, humanely killing them in their sleep; her work is recognizable by the tattoo she puts on each victim. As Jesse, she works with friendly shifters in Charlotte, N.C., as a respectable bodyguard. When she meets Nate in a bar in sunken Miami, she finds him so intriguing that she drugs him unconscious and leaves her tattoo on him as a challenge. Shortly after returning to Charlotte, she learns that her impulsive actions with Nate have dire consequences: her assassination work gets tangled up with her bodyguard career, and her secret comes out. She fears that her friendships may have to be left behind forever, but her found family isn’t about to let her go. Readers looking for a captivating story full of shape-shifters, mystics, sword fights, and mysteries will enjoy Jesse’s often brutal journey toward happiness. (BookLife)
Caitlin Lyle Farley for Readers' Favorite

Starfall changed everything, leaving some cities in ruins while survivors in others developed magical abilities. Jesse Alexander, once the pride of her clan, ran away after accidentally choosing to become a woman and is now a respected bodyguard who moonlights as the infamous assassin, Water Viper. A fateful encounter in a sinking Miami leaves her with a pulsing Starfall stone that could burst at any moment and a high bounty on her head. With herself, her secrets, and her friends in danger, Jesse skips town and disappears, retiring to raise horses and work as a courier. A promise forces her to return to her erstwhile home in Charlotte and Jesse finds herself at the centre of a dangerous situation. This could be her chance to right all the wrongs of her past, if she survives. 

The post-Starfall world RJ Blain has created is realistic, exciting, and populated with memorable characters. It’s always refreshing to encounter a post-apocalyptic style setting where the government hasn’t fallen apart. The prose is direct and evokes vivid descriptions with a minimum of exposition. In general, I avoid books involving shifters, but Water Viper is one of the few that incorporates them while maintaining a balanced plot and allowing the characters to retain their higher thinking processes.

There’s a trick to creating strong female characters and Blain has mastered it. Jesse strikes the perfect balance between physical strength, skill, and vulnerability. Water Viper is the most enjoyable book I’ve read this year, and the latest addition to my list of favourites.

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 05/2017
  • B071S3XFMM
  • 492 pages
  • $4.99
Paperback Details
  • 05/2017
  • 978-1546689744
  • 492 pages
  • $12.99
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