Dawn McCullough-White writes mainly dark fantasy. Her
novels tend to favor the use of anti-authority anti-heroes as the main
characters, most commonly with a strong, female protagonist.
Dawn was born in 1969, in Rochester ,
NY Alice
Stalker Links:
The Trilogy of Shadows
contains books 1-3 of Cameo's bloody saga...
Cameo
the Assassin~ The Kingdom of Sieunes is rife with taverns, dirty
streets, and clay pipe smoking citizens all toiling to feed their families and
keep themselves in something little better than rags. With a foiled revolution
just ten years prior still burning in the hearts of many, the royals enlist the
aid of assassins to keep things in order.
The townsfolk entertain themselves by dreaming of better times to come and
regaling in stories of the undead said to walk the graveyards at night... and
of Cameo the killer with corpse-like eyes... Scarred and jaded Cameo is one of
the most effective assassins in the employ of the Association, moving from one
mission to the next as long as the alcohol keeps flowing.
Her acceptance of the murder-for-hire lifestyle is thrown into doubt when she
meets a local highwayman with a penchant for fine clothes and women, and then
she begins to think about breaking with the company but no one ever breaks with
the Association under good terms.
Cameo
and the Highwayman~ The land of Shandow is a place of arctic cold, the
scene of the bloody revolution and the location of the item Cameo's master
wants so badly. In the dark of winter a vampire lies in wait... Opal is unable
to run from his past... and Cameo must make a choice that will cost her the
last shred of humanity she has left.
Cameo
and the Vampire~ A vampire's bite tormenting Cameo, she pushes forth on
a journey that will find her descending into darkness and at Kyrian's request
she is forced into the confrontation she has been avoiding for over fifty years
with the undead that made her...
Book Links:
Excerpt:
HER EYES WERE
WHITISH, corpse-like, caught in the sliver of moon through a tall window
overlooking the Azez, and she searched Opal’s face with those dead eyes… a
zombie’s eyes.
He had finally
fallen asleep after midnight. He had fought it, but lounging in the canopy bed,
his head resting against a silk pillow that threatened to engulf him, he
eventually succumbed to slumber. He hadn’t bothered to remove anything but his
boots.
Kyrian was asleep
on one of the fainting couches at the other end of the room.
The room was so
quiet. The fire had gone out, and a plume of smoke slipped up and out the
chimney, wispy, like a ghost. The room was mostly dark, lit only by the moon,
so where the light did fall it caught everything in a gray light. Like Opal’s
face.
In his finery, he
looked like a romantic painting. The bellowing sleeves, the lightness of his
ruffled shirt, and a lone ribbon that dangled down off the mattress. His face
was pale in the moonlight.
At the doorway
she saw her thralls, the shadow-men whom she had sent to find Ivy’s bones, the
treasure that her Master had sent her to seek. They were back, and she couldn’t
dally. That could only anger Haffef, and the only time she had done that, she
had very nearly died. They stood at the doorway awaiting her next move.
She had hoped
they wouldn’t be back so soon.
Cameo slid from
the chair she’d been perched on and knelt down silently beside the bed. She
removed an empty wine glass from Opal’s hand and set it on the floor.
“Opal,” she
uttered, gently brushing a lock of hair off his face.
He stirred, but there
was no reply.
She turned and
motioned the shadows on ahead of her then, without further pause, swept out the
door with the speed of something supernatural.
My Review:
I really enjoyed this trilogy. I thought Dawn’s crossover of
vampires and zombies was original and I was intrigued by the lore of the two.
I didn’t connect to Cameo very well but I still enjoyed
reading about her and her unusualness. She is an assassin with eyes that are
white as a corpse and is the best killer in The Association. Cameo never
questions her orders which make her a valuable asset but her employers don’t
know about her unusual way of finding her prey.
I enjoyed the other characters as well. Opal, Kyrian, Edel,
and Jules but there is something about Jules. With each book I found myself connecting
and falling in love with him. I can’t really explain why without spoiling him
for you.
Each book picks up where the last one left off which made me
so happy that I had all three books to read back to back. With action, zombies,
vampires, and the macabre feel of this story I was left wanting more. 4/5
Bloody Fangs
I wanna say Thank you to Dawn for letting me review her book and Thank you to Jaidis for letting me participate in the tour.
~Sabrina
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