Book Review #13: Becoming Banshee by Kimberly Quay

Hello Dear Reader!

I’ve finished reading another indie book, and it’s the debut novel of the amazing Kimberly Quay, so go check her out @authorkimberlyquay on Instagram. She’s an amazing person and fun to talk to, and she’s been really supportive of me.

Anyway, let’s get on with it!

Becoming Banshee is an urban fantasy book with some steamy romance mixed in.

As a side note, a lot of the romance-infused books I’ve been reading have included some steamy scenes, and I’m honestly wondering how I keep picking them up. I get embarrassed every single time I run into one. Like, I need a break.

Anyway, the book is centered around and narrated by hot-headed and fiery main character Kadi Quinn and her action-filled journey to track down and get rid of a sadistic banshee named Gabriel. It’s a book full of fight scenes, lore, and a lot of back-story and foreshadowing for the next book.

But before I delve into that, here is the synopsis (from Amazon):

Being half-fairy makes Kadi Quinn special. It also makes her an intriguing target for Gabriel—a sadistic banshee with a penchant for kidnapping mortals and selling them to the highest bidder.

Kadi and her banshee clanmates are determined to put an end to Gabriel and his horrific human-trafficking ring. During their pursuit, Kadi’s relationship with the head of her clan, Ian, changes, and they can no longer hide their true feelings. As their love intensifies, so do Kadi’s innate Fey abilities.

Their mission becomes personal when Gabriel takes a macabre interest in Kadi. Gabriel senses her newly developing power and decides she is the perfect guinea pig for his sinister game.

End synopsis. Review time!

Main character Kadi Quinn is a hot-headed fiery persona who specializes in using knives during battle, which makes her really cool in my opinion. Being a half-fairy makes her really special, as she has several abilities of being part magical creature, such as enhanced healing, while also retaining human characteristics, such as still needing food in order to regain energy and live. She’s a fierce and skilled fighter and a dangerous force to be reckoned with because of her mixed blood. Off the battlefield, she’s a very kind person with a lot of compassion, but she does of a habit of saying things before thinking about them first.

The main cast of characters in Becoming Banshee are really diverse in personality, sexuality, background, and age. Especially age because apparently, when you reach around the age of thirty-five, and you’re a banshee, you stop aging and are basically able to live for as long as you want as long as you feed from humans. And that doesn’t mean eating humans, just sucking out some of their life essence in order to replenish yours.

What I love about the characters surrounding Kadi is that they all don’t get along perfectly, which is super realistic, and I absolutely love that.

I also love the fact that this story took place in Florida. As someone who lives in Florida, I was really happy about this, and it was just another cool little detail for me personally. Also, the power system in the book was really well done in my opinion. It was very straightforward, and nothing confused me in terms of how powers worked, how someone became stronger, etc.

While there a lot of things I loved in Becoming Banshee, there were a few things that stood out to me. I realized while I was reading that when it came to physical descriptions of characters, it was pretty minimal, so for me personally it was a bit difficult to picture certain characters, even Kadi at first even though she was the main character. I really love the emphasis on her eyes being golden whenever she uses her powers, though. I loved that.

There were also times when I was confused as to who was speaking. There would be maybe three people in the room, and sometimes there wouldn’t be any dialogue tags indicating who spoke after a certain point in a longer conversation. Some of these conversations also didn’t hit me as hard as they may have meant to, and that stood out to me as well.

Finally, in my opinion, the story—for me at least—was a bit rushed. The opening was great in my opinion. It was action-packed, I didn’t know what was going on, and it was explained afterwards in a way that made sense within the scenario Kadi was in. Then, all of a sudden, I’m hit with the romantic aspect of the story, which, for me, came out of nowhere with pretty little context. There were times where the pace slowed down, but overall, for me, it was a bit rushed.

These things I didn’t notice didn’t take much from the story, but they still stuck out to me while I was reading it. Overall, I still found myself really enjoying it and Kadi’s fieriness.

So, Becoming Banshee rating:

7/10 and looking forward to the second book of the series, because honestly, I want to see what happens between Kadi and Ian in the next installment. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and if you like a lot of action and the urban fantasy genre, I suggest you give this book a try. A word of warning, though. There were a handful of pretty steamy moments and a scene where sexual assault and torture was very much a thing, so if that makes you queasy, or if you don’t like reading content like that, then just be aware if you do want to give this book a shot.

That’s all for this book review! I hope you enjoyed reading it and give Becoming Banshee a try. Also, don’t forget to check out indie author @authorkimberlyquay on her Instagram because she’s an amazing person who shows a lot of passion for writing on her account, and I’d love for more people to see it. She’s been one of my biggest supporters and one of the people I go to often for help, and she’s just really cool.

Thanks for reading!