Tainted [Mass Market Paperback]

The premise of _Tainted_ is this: A young woman, Lily, is killed while carrying out vengeance against a rapist who attacked her sister. Lily is sure she's going to hell for all the things she did in her short life, but instead she comes back from the dead...in someone else's body. Her mission: to hunt demons for God. Her reward, if she succeeds, is redemption.

At first, I was reminded of a couple of other urban fantasy series. The wrong-body plotline and the theme of sisterly love reminded me a bit of Vicki Petterson's Signs of the Zodiac (though Lily's new body is a stranger's, not her sister's). The idea of earning redemption by slaying supernatural nasties called S.J. Day's Marked to mind. And Deacon, the possibly-evil bad boy who stirs Lily's senses, reminded me of a lot of urban fantasy love interests. What I really loved from the beginning, though, was the story of Lily's struggle to integrate herself into the life of Alice, the woman whose body she now inhabits. It's hard and confusing trying to take over someone's life without giving away how little you know, and it's sometimes sad, as when Lily realizes how few of Alice's acquaintances have even noticed the difference.

What really kicks _Tainted_ into high gear is Lily's growing curiosity about Alice. Why is she in Alice's body in particular, and what happened to the real Alice? Things start adding up a little funny, and I remember thinking, "If Julie Kenner has the guts to take this story where I think she's taking it, I'll be thrilled." And Kenner does. A big fat plot twist takes _Tainted_ out of "standard-issue urban fantasy" territory and makes it something unique and very much worth reading. Even Deacon turns out to have more depth than I was expecting.

If I have any quibble with _Tainted_, it's this: Demons, in Kenner's universe, bleed black sludge instead of regular blood. This is plot-relevant a couple of times. Trouble is, I can think of two scenes that would have been very different if Lily, and the reader, had been privy to the color of a bleeding character's blood. Knowing whether these two characters were demon or human would have given a lot away, and so the narration simply doesn't mention the color of the blood. Given that Lily usually notices this detail during combat scenes, the fact that she doesn't in these two instances feels a little bit like cheating.

That said, _Tainted_ is quite enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to the two upcoming Blood Lily Chronicles novels. There are enough twists here to set this series apart from the pack, and that's something to celebrate in this subgenre.

Tainted started out at a 5 with tough big sister avenging and protecting her little sister only to find herself dead and then reborn, in another's body. I read urban fantasy for a break, or escape if you prefer, and this book started out with me be totally interested in Lilly's issues. This had justified murder, serving a higher authority, right vs wrong. Our heroine, Lilly, was set up as strong with human faults. Then the story just stopped progressing. The story line seem repetitive and in fact ended like a bad TV serial wanting you to tune in next week to find out what happened. Tainted started as a 5 and ended as a 2, so I gave it a 3. Kenner set up the story line will enough for me to read the next book ...... maybe.

Julie Kenner is an author I am very familiar with. I've read her "Demon Hunting Soccer Mom" and her "Good Ghouls" YA series and I have enjoyed both. When I heard she was writing an urban fantasy series I was intrigued. Urban Fantasy is one of my favorite book genres. In "Tainted" Lily goes after her 14 year old sisters rapist and stalker. Somehow she dies as she murders him, leaving her sister and dead beat stepfather on their own. But Lily isn't exactly dead. She wakes up....in a strange body and facing a demon. She soon meets a frog-like man who claims that they have been waiting for her. She has identified as the one in a prophecy who can close the portal that is letting in demons. In the meantime she trains to fight and kill demons, and tries to make sense out of a life in Alice's body. She decides she almost must find out who killed Alice. Some of the ideas here aren't unique. We've seen super strong females fighting demons before. Lily in Alice's body reminded me of the plot in the Signs of the Zodiac series where Joanna finds herself in her sister's body. Joanna also wanted revenge on a rapist. "Tainted" has some truly strong points. There is a big twist toward the end that I didn't see coming and that changed where I thought the series was going. Kenner's writing style is engaging and page turning as usual. I did enjoy this book and I have a feeling the next two will be even better since the storyline is now all set up for us. A strong 3 star debut that I am sure will continue to soar.

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