My Urban Fantasies: Review: Shadow Sight by E.J. Stevens

Title: Shadow Sight

Author: E.J. Stevens

Series: Ivy Granger, #1

•Source: Author
•Publisher: Sacred Oaks Press
•Publication Date: July 24, 2012

Opening Line: Spectral light shone along my skin as I walked past the sideboard mirror.

Welcome to Harborsmouth, where monsters walk the streets unseen by humans…except those with second sight, like Ivy Granger.

Some things are best left unseen...

Ivy Granger's second sight is finally giving her life purpose. Ivy and her best friend Jinx may not be raking in the dough, but their psychic detective agency pays the bills--most of the time. Their only worry is the boredom of a slow day and the occasional crazy client--until a demon walks through their door.

Demons are never a good sign...

A demon attorney representing the water fae? Stranger things have happened. And things are about to get very, very strange as a bloodthirsty nightmare hunts the city of Harborsmouth.

There's blood in the water...

Kelpies have a reputation for eating humans. Unfortunately, Kelpies are the clients. When an Unseelie faerie this evil stalks the waterways of your city, you have to make hard choices.

The lesser of two evils...

This was my first E.J. Stevens novel and... WOW. She is the perfect combination of Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher, which is huge considering they are two of my favorite authors. Harborsmouth is filled with a plethora of supernatural characters. There is a psychic, demon, witch, kelpies, pixies, merrow, ghouls, and mermaids to name a few. I was amazed how she managed to squeeze in a unicorn, not typically found in a city, simply brilliant! E.J. Stevens introduced each new supernatural species by giving a brief description about who/what they are. Stevens handled the descriptions beautifully, they very character involved, short and never felt like a lecture. I'm so happy Shadow Sight is part of a series. I am eagerly and somewhat impatiently waiting to read more of the Ivy Granger series.

Ivy Granger is a psychic detective gifted with Psychometry, the ability to receive visions of past events by touching an object or person. This nasty "gift" will leave Ivy screaming in a puddle of drool until her vision is over, which could take hours. With the help of Jinx, her best friend and business partner, Ivy has learned to live with her power.

In Shadow Sight Ivy is forced into taking a meeting with a potential new client, a demon lawyer. The demon, whose name is Forneus, is representing kelpies who are in need of Ivy's special skills. The kelpies need Ivy to find their missing king's bridle and if possible the missing king, Ceffyl Dŵr. Forneus warns Ivy that there will be dire consequences if she refuses to find Ceffyl Dŵr's bridle. The reason that human livers are washing up on shore is because the each uisge, terrifying and bloodthirsty creatures who lives to devour humans, are now living in the bay.

The local water fae usually keep the each uisge in check, stopping them from killing humans and drawing unwanted attention. However, Ceffyl Dŵr is missing and the other kelpies and water fae are afraid to stand up against the each uisge. If the each uisge are responsible for Ceffyl Dŵr's kidnapping and have control of Ceffyl's bridle, they can control the kelpie king as long as they have the bridle. If Ceffyl Dŵr returns without his bridle he will not be leading his people against the each uisge, Ceffyl will be fighting for the enemy. Ivy realizes that time is of the essence, the each uisge are just testing the waters with the individual attacks. When they realize that no one is going to oppose them the each uisge will storm the city leaving devastation in their wake.

I absolutely adore Ivy and her snarky personality. Ivy is more of an investigator than traditional ass kicker, I still would not get on her bad side. Ivy has this amazing inner strength that I absolutely love in a heroine. Life may have given her a crap deal, but Ivy has made the most of it. She deals with her "gift" the best that she can while dedicating her life to helping other people.

Favorite Quotes

Demand is quite high for a local plot—there are always people dying for a place to stay.

Fate is a fickle bitch.

A demon attorney may be high on the freak out scale, but I wasn't letting my morning turn me to the dark side. They may have cookies, but I had a freakin' unicorn.