Dark descendant by Jenna Black

Nikki Glass is a private investigator and she is very good at what she does.  She has a good job, a good life, and adoptive parents who love her like she was their own daughter - the only downside really is having a perfect sister who seems to have a knack for setting her up with Mr. Wrong instead of Mr. Right.  When a client calls in the middle of yet another disastrous date with Mr. Very Wrong Nikki jumps at the chance to escape, but she ends up killing her client and totalling her car in one easy step.  When she wakes up she thinks things can't get any worse, but she is about to discover something about herself that she never knew - she is the mortal descendant of one of the Greek Gods.

Life is suddenly very complicated - not only does she now have to deal with fact that she is immortal and can't die, she also has to deal with the fact that she is now caught in the middle of a war that she doesn't understand.  On one hand there is Anderson and his people, the "cult" that her client wanted her to investigate and rescue his girlfriend from - and on the other hand there is Konstantin and his Olympians who want Nikki to work for them at any cost.  Nikki has never been so popular, even if it is for all the wrong reasons and she only has a very short space of time to figure out who the good guys are and who the bad guys are - because she can either be an ally for the right side, or a pawn for the wrong side.

Nikki is an interesting character who has a stubborn streak a mile long that pushes her to make her own way in the world, never taking handouts or accepting the financial support of her loving adoptive parents.  Her sister is beautiful, intelligent, loving, and loyal - and becomes a pawn in the fight to gain control of Nikki and her powers.  It is never easy to discover that what you think is the truth is just a glimmer of the real truth, and Nikki struggles to understand her place in the struggle to control the powers passed on to the human descendants of the gods, and it is especially hard when she comes to understand that her destiny has been hanging over her since she was born - years before her mother abandoned her and left her angry and untrusting.  Nikki is flawed, she is human, and she is also so much more.

There are some really great moments in Dark descendant, and there are some rather blah moments as well, but overall it blends together to make a readable story.  The wealth of mythology Black has to draw on means there is the potential for ongoing strong storylines, and there are some rather interesting characters that mean things will/can get better.  I am currently waiting for book two in the series and will see if that is a little bit better in the delivery department.  A fun read overall, just don't expect award winning prose and you won't be disappointed.

If you like this book then try:

• Blood price by Tanya Huff
• Angel's blood by Nalini Singh
• Spiders bite by Jennifer Estep
• Children of the night by Mercedes Lackey
• A brush of darkness by Allison Pang
• Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander
• Cry wolf by Patricia Briggs
• Etched in bone by Adrian Phoenix
• River marked by Patricia Briggs
• Black wings by Christina Henry
• Mark of the demon by Diana Rowland

Reviewed by Brilla