Blackout: An Aurora Black Novel

Aurora Black has very little memory of her life before waking up in a box with dead bodies. The memories she does have are vile in the most vulgar sense. She should be dead; instead her ability to survive is complicated when James Rouke rescues her. Fuse her intuitive abilities which the villain, ‘D’, is willing to kill for, with James' (as a hit man for hire) and things get convoluted. But James has a soft spot-- youth whose pasts resemble his own.

Kate Lynd's small cast of characters lends to a tight story line. She does a fine job of carrying her reader into the mind of a teenager, but her exploration of the other characters stalls, as they are only seen from the protagonist's limited view. The aging of the heroine from twelve to fifteen feels contrived as does unrealistic resolution of one problem after another. Aurora doesn't appear to struggle with activities such as schooling, that a normal young teen would, instead the reader is led to believe a life of crime is what the character is built for-- a believable scenario for a hit man, but not so much so for an adolescent. The novel is well written and shows promise. There is great potential here, as Ms. Lynd ties up the loose ends while holding the door open for the second book in the series.

Shaunna Gonzales