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bookwormbunny's review
4.0
Nerves of Steel by Lee Hayton is book one of her Misfits of Magic series. In this book, we are introduced to Asha. Asha started out life as a human, but after a nasty motorcycle accident that nearly killed her she was given a second chance at a life. Reconstructed as a cyborg, half-human she is now simply trying to stay afloat while staying under the radar of the empire. Asha takes on small jobs of tracking wayward spouses and gathering info for the spouse wanting the investigation done. Once she has collected enough information, she sends it back to her client whom then decides how to move forward. Asha has a unique ability. She can control the chemicals in human brains, and thanks to her cyborg side, she can integrate enough to do some minor tweaking to machines as well to help her scrape by. Asha gives the couple the ability to fall back in love with each other by tweaking the chemical balances in their heads. It’s a unique ability and she uses it as best that she can ask a hefty price in return. Asha has a secret though. She’s also housing an escaped vampire. Vampires are slaves. They work for the empire doing all the manual work. There are rumors of vampires managing to escape and potentially an uprising happening. Her vampire, Norman, wants her to find out what is going on, but in doing so Asha ends up in deeper trouble than she has ever faced with an enormous bounty on her head…dead or alive.
Nerves of Steel is the first book that I have read by Lee Hayton. This story is a mix of science fiction and paranormal creatures. The author introduces us to a world of where humans have done what they do best…take the truth and twisted it. The story goes that vampires once enslaved humans and used them for food, but that one day the humans staged a rebellion and rose up. That story couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth is entirely different. Vampires were once shy, reclusive, only taking what they needed and avoiding humans out of fear. But things changed when a human saw the usefulness of vampires and decided to enslave them. There are rumblings of a shift coming, and players are being shuffled into place. There is an under-story going on in the main story but that doesn’t come to light until the end.
I have to admit that I like the way that the author weaves this story together. We get glimpses back into Asha’s past, and to a degree how she gets to be how she is. I would have liked an explanation as to how she came to be on the bad side of the empire though. In my opinion, there are a couple moments in the story of where it seems the main character lets slip the obvious.
The author does a good job at surprising me more than a couple of times. I am an avid fan of science fiction and this book does meet that requirement. There are a lot of questions still after this book ends but I’m hoping that they will be answered in the next book. Some loose ends are tied up and brought together but there are quite a few that are still left hanging.
I am rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. There were times of where I wanted more from Asha. She’s such a unique character and I felt the author could have done more with her. That being said this is a series that I will be pursuing so that I can learn more about these characters.
Nerves of Steel is the first book that I have read by Lee Hayton. This story is a mix of science fiction and paranormal creatures. The author introduces us to a world of where humans have done what they do best…take the truth and twisted it. The story goes that vampires once enslaved humans and used them for food, but that one day the humans staged a rebellion and rose up. That story couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth is entirely different. Vampires were once shy, reclusive, only taking what they needed and avoiding humans out of fear. But things changed when a human saw the usefulness of vampires and decided to enslave them. There are rumblings of a shift coming, and players are being shuffled into place. There is an under-story going on in the main story but that doesn’t come to light until the end.
I have to admit that I like the way that the author weaves this story together. We get glimpses back into Asha’s past, and to a degree how she gets to be how she is. I would have liked an explanation as to how she came to be on the bad side of the empire though. In my opinion, there are a couple moments in the story of where it seems the main character lets slip the obvious.
The author does a good job at surprising me more than a couple of times. I am an avid fan of science fiction and this book does meet that requirement. There are a lot of questions still after this book ends but I’m hoping that they will be answered in the next book. Some loose ends are tied up and brought together but there are quite a few that are still left hanging.
I am rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. There were times of where I wanted more from Asha. She’s such a unique character and I felt the author could have done more with her. That being said this is a series that I will be pursuing so that I can learn more about these characters.
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