This is one of those books that I agreed to read, with a bit of reluctance, because I really like the author, but I really am not a fan of paranormal. I may have to change my mind about the genre after this and a couple of other PNR's I have read for much the same reasons. But Fate's Cry really captured me from pretty much the first page and did not let me go. To the extent I read it in one sitting because I simply couldn't take the suspense.
Kelsey is an amazing heroine. Though the prologue shows her as an extremely obnoxious teenage girl (I have one of those at home - I am convinced that all teenage girls are a bit obnoxious and self centered. Puberty just turns them upside down and inside out and the obnoxiousness and narcissism are just byproducts of trying to navigate these new waters without drowning in them.) The price Kelsey had to pay for a youthful transgression was just too high. My heart immediately hurt fot the guilt she carried with her, regardless of whether or not she deserved any of it. There was no way anyone could take those feelings away from her. It honestly still makes me bite my tongue a bit more often than I did before reading it when my teens are saying terrible things I know they don't mean - you just never know when you might lose the chance to apologize for something you never meant to say or do in the first place.
5 years after the prologue, we start the story with the shell of Kelsey. She has changed the lifestyle that left her so wracked with guilt, and even gone to college, earned her associates, and moved to management level in her job at a museum. But her social life mostly consists of sneaking back in at night to spend time on the roof with the stone gargoyles her only company as she relives that pivotal night over and over. Only responsibility for her lovely cat, Tom, keeps her going. When she takes a fall returning home from one of these late night sojourns, she realizes just how deeply her self destructive streak runs within her. Then the mysterious Damien comes to her rescue.
Damien. It is so hard to get a real understanding of him. Mysterious really only taps the surface of his behavior. But he beccomes her friend, and an attraction builds between them, despite the fact that Tom seems to strongly dislike him. Then, as the attraction sweepes them both up, Damien pulls away and, frankly freaks out. His nightly visits abruptly end, at the hardest time of the year for Kelsey. After an unexplainable intervention to her plans on the 5th anniversary, Halloween, she has an epiphany and decides to change the way she has been living for the last half decade.
After unsuccessfully trying to find Damien, she decides to join the police force, mostly so she can expand her search. The next section of the book jumps us ahead 4 years, and she has formed a strong bond with her partner, Sammy, and finds a surrogate family in his wife and daughter. She is casually dating, and has a good rapport with her captain. She has come a long way since we last were with her, and her darkest point. After a rough case, her captain invites her out for drinks to get to know her better, as well as celebrate, she has a surprisingly good time. As she is leaving the bar, Damien is walking in.
And thus begins the real heart of the story, including mosters, a serial killer stalking her, whose identity is unbelievable when it all shakes out, and getting into Damien's heart and secrets. I have always been a sucker for a good thriller, and this has all of those elements, on top of the romance and paranormal aspects of the story. It is one of those books that can't easily be put into one genre box, but it is undeniably endearing. Like I said, I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting, well more than a month ago, (I was given a copy in exchange for an honest review, but also purchased a copy because I needed it in my library as I am sure it is a tale I will revisit) and it still haunts the corners of my mind, more than a couple dozen books later.
Intended for adult audiences only, but no hesitations at all in awarding it 5 stars. Highly recommended for fans of thrillers, romance, and a must read for fans of paranormal.