A Review for Skin Deep by T.G Ayer

Posted by Guest Reviewer, Melanie
Release Date: April 30th, 2013
Finished Date: May 21st, 2013

Publishers: T.G Ayer Books
Source: For Review 

Format: Kindle 
Pages: 390

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US 

Panther Shape-shifter Kailin Odel just wants to be normal. Leaving her clan, and her Alpha responsibilities, to live with her grandmother in Chicago had been the best thing for her. Only then did she discover her ability to track and kill the soul sucking undead creatures called Wraiths. Now she protected the humans, and had something to be proud of.
But, when she discovers the body of a murdered shape shifter, Kailin has to come to terms with the reality that her own kind are just as vulnerable as the humans. 
The closer Kailin gets to the killer the more she has to face the intricacies of her people. When the time comes can she accept who and what her real purpose is?

The Review: I freakin’ loved this book!

As the synopsis states, Kailin Odel is a panther shifter who left her clan to live a ‘normal ‘ life, but life has turned out to be anything but normal for her. Even though she is in the care of her Grandmother, she is pretty much left to her own devices which enables her to hunt ‘Wraiths’ – undead entities that inhabit the living like parasites, feeding on their souls - something Kai found she had a knack & the vision for. So, whilst jostling school, her part time job as a trainee rehab councillor & hunting the soul sucking undead – life is pretty hectic for our main character and it’s about to get worse…. When the flayed body of a shifter is flung from a car, Kailin goes to help but ends up becoming a target herself. Wounded and not wanting to become part of a police investigation for fear of revealing her secret, she lies to the leading detective, Logan Westin – a man she feels an intense connection to. With the disappearance of other shifters & rumours of a drug able to intoxicate even shifters being distributed, it becomes clear there is more to this than meets the eye and as Kailin tries to rally the various shifter clans, she becomes the target as someone wants her dead! What she is about to find out will rock her world but can she be strong enough to defeat the enemy?

So yeah, I loved this book. It was exciting and filled with action just the way I like them. Kailin is an admirable character, seriously independent and trying to live as normal a life as possible but feeling obliged to hunt the Wraiths that only she can see. We all know things don’t always go the way we want them and even though she distances herself from her family clan, blood is thicker than water and when she comes across a threat to them, that side will always have a priority in her life, however much she wants it otherwise. Her age confused me, I think she is 17/18 and is an over – achiever, she did come across as very mature and it felt like I was reading about someone who was 20+. This was the same with her love interest Logan, he was a great character, quite mysterious with his own story that is begging to be told but again, way more mature than his given age – 17- and also in a job with power & responsibility that doesn’t quite fit his age range. Anyway, apart from that, I really liked their lurve connection and it hints at a possible cosmic thing or maybe it was his own power surfacing, I’m not sure but you all know how much I love soul mates so here’s hoping.

I loved the world they are from, I’m a huge shifter fan anyway but when you add other supernaturals to the mix then I’m definitely interested. The storyline was great , quite a gory start to a whodunit and once the murders/abductions got going, the wraith hunting took a back seat but that wasn’t a bad thing because it didn’t stay that way. I loved the different POV’s and really appreciated the killer’s POV too because it gives greater insight into what’s happening and you get a ‘feel’ for the kind of person they’re dealing with. I loved the twists and turns along the way and the secrets that came to light, it seemed to be that everyone was hiding something with the revelations causing some great drama and none more so than the latter 20% of the book because even when the killer has been found, we are still in for more and I loved it! With the non stop action & drama throughout, this book took on a UF feel and held my interest all the way through which was perfect for me. My only grumble was that I wished the characters had been in their 20s because as I mentioned, they had a more mature feel as did the storyline & it would have allowed some extra hotness to the romance aspect but it doesn’t detract from the fact that this was awesome read and I personally can’t wait for the next.