Evil's Unlikely Assassin

An Alexis Black Novel, Book 1

By: Jenn Windrow

Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens

"Evil's Unlikely Assassin is a promising urban fantasy debut that features all that's great about the genre--action, attitude, and ass-kicking." (Jaye Wells, USA Today best-selling author of The Sabina Kane and Prospero's War series)

Vampire Alexis Black is on a mission - to rejoin the human race. Coerced into signing an ironclad contract by an angel-with-attitude, Alexis must hunt down and assassinate at least one vampire, werewolf, or creepy crawly every night for 50 years to become human again. Too bad the contract didn’t mention the badass vampire who now rides shotgun in her brain, insatiable bloodlust, or her new I-hate-everything-with-fangs sidekick. If she can fulfill her end of the bargain, her humanity is restored, if not she will be destroyed.

But when a revenge-seeking bloodsucker threatens her city, Alexis must risk everything to ensure there’s a humanity to return to. Since her vampire nature is her greatest weapon to defeat the monsters that threaten her friends and future, Alexis must choose to accept her inner beast or watch those she loves die.

©2018 Jenn Windrow (P)2019 Jenn Windrow

Fantastic

What a great book! Fantastic storyline, great action and perfect characters. I connected with this book totally. The humour is refreshing and I really want more. Can’t wait for book 2. Amazing performance from Chelsea, she brings Jenn’s characters to life so well.
#audiobookobsessionreviewer

No spoilers

Wow this was a fantastic book. very entertaining. this is my second time listening to it and it was even better this time. very well written. what I liked best was how Windrow incorporated Alexis and other characters back story's at appropriate times threw out the book. you get lots of action, some romance that's not over done great side characters an angel, ghost, ware wolf, humans and of course vampires beware this series will grab hold of you and keep going until the end. The performance was so good don't hesitate Stephens did an outstanding job loved the performance. i couldn't wait to get to the next book to find out more.

Evil's Unlikely Assassin

If you had the chance to live again after you thought you had died, what would that look like? If there were stipulations to the second life—like fighting against your own to protect another race, would you still want to live? Windrow has one kick-butt assassin, who has a vampire soul and a contract to uphold in order to get her soul back. The story will immerse readers into a life filled with mischief and mayhem and is sure to be one that you’ll not want to put down.

Alexis Black is beautiful. Alexis Black is tiny. Alexis Black is ALWAYS hungry. With a contract on her hip, placed by one hotshot angel, she has a constant reminder of what she can and cannot do in order to earn her soul back. She has lived for one-hundred and fifty years and for every single one of those days, she has kept her nose clean. She hasn’t had a drop of human blood from the vein and has destroyed one supernatural EVERY night. It gets exhausting to carry out the same routine every day, but the reward is substantial to her and worth fighting the extra fifty years for. When a friend comes back to town after she almost lost her battle to a few humans baiting her in an alleyway, she has run out of options. As the night nears its end, she is forced to do something that she knows she will regret. Little does she know, in the days that follow, she would be doing a lot more of the things that she would always regret, especially once a major vampire leader has turned rogue and started to build an army. Not even the Behavioral Analysis Unit for vampires can hold them in check as their numbers grow to an all-time high in mere days. Alexis, her work-in-progress friend Reaper, and two unsuspecting individuals have formed an alliance to save the humans from the vampires, a bond almost like family. Can she protect her family and be the hero when her inner beast, AKA Eddie, learns how to start taking control of the wheel?

Windrow has a superb story-line, filled with creativity, originality and intriguing characters. The pace is very quick, but easy to follow. There is action and suspense lurking in the shadows and in every corner. With war waging among the vampires and humans for freedom, Alexis doesn’t know who she can trust. The story appears to be written fairly well. Since this review compliments the audiobook, Stephens provides wonderful voice relay for all of the characters within the story. Her narration makes the novel lively and enjoyable for the reader. This is the first installment in the Alexis Black Series; therefore, the reader can jump right in to the action. If you are a reader of paranormal romance, suspense and fantasy, you may enjoy this story.

An audiobook was provided to Turning Another Page by Audiobookworm Promotions and in no way affects the honesty of this review. We provide a five-star rating to Evil’s Unlikely Assassin by Jenn Windrow.

Pretty fun & I love the evil slant

Set in Chicago, Alexis is a reluctant hero looking for redemption. In fact, she’s got a payment plan to buy her way into redemption. It’s a hard bargain with a angel that let’s this vampire slay her way back to the side of good. I had a lot of fun with this book! It was more entertaining than I expected, and I have to hang my head in shame that I pre-judged the story based on the book cover. I adore urban fantasy and the description had my interest peaked but the book cover made me think this leaned more towards paranormal romance, which isn’t that much fun for me. I’m very happy to say that this book sits firmly in the urban fantasy genre while also having a few sexy scenes.

Reaper is Alexis’s handler, providing info on evil supernaturals for her to target. She has to kill one supernatural a night if she’s to keep both the deal-wielding angel and her on board inner demon (Eddie) happy. This is sometimes problematic and can be dangerous to any clueless civilians in the area.

Then there’s the chemical-tinkering doc Julian. He’s hunting for his twin sister Julia while also providing an injectable that can mask most supernaturals from detection for a short time. I did find the instalust thing between him and Alexis very sudden, even though I feel they are good for each other later in the story. They went to a club together to hunt for info on his sister’s whereabouts and they fall into a grinding dance routine… um… really? That was a bit silly. But I like how Julian has a big secret, and that gives him a little bit of depth.

There’s very few women in this story in general. Even Julia has few lines and is in need of rescuing (both from an evil vampire and some spilling out of her shirt). I would have enjoyed the story more if there had been another kick-ass lady or 3.

Nathan was fun. He’s one of Alexis’s oldest friend and he unexpectedly gets to ghost along for the ride. He’s the comic relief for the story, always making jokes and letting his baser desires dictate some of his choices.

The plot was pretty basic (rescue the damsel in distress and take out the big evil baddie awhile also proving you have control over your inner demon). The action was never far away and I was kept entertained the entire time. I look forward to seeing what Alexis tackles next. 4.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Chelsea Stephens was a good pick for Alexis. She sounded hard and deadly when she needed to but could also be sensual during the few love scenes. Her accents were pretty rough, but the British accent for Nathan smoothed out over the coarse of the book. Stephens’s pacing was perfect and there were no technical issues with the recording. 4.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Jenn Windrow. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

A good new take on vampires

A good new take on vampires; with one that is trying to get out of the “life” or her un-life as a vamp. Nice world building with out feeling that you are getting an info dump. You will meet a verity of people from various realms in immortal and mortal life. If you like your leading lady with snark and heart, able to hold her own in a fight without being over the top; then this is a series you will get into. I will enjoy getting more in this series.

Good story

Good story that takes the classic vampire tale and puts a twist on it. The main character is well written and makes you feel for her and the other characters all fit well into the story.

Unique Adult Urban Fantasy

The story was a bit confusing at first. I felt lost and thought that perhaps this book was not for me, but fortunately, I stayed with it until things were sorted out and explained. About 2-3 hrs in, I really started getting into the story and started enjoying the characters more. There is quite a bit of action and some twists and turns I did not see coming.

The narration was pretty good and brought the story to life. I enjoyed her multiple voices that made it easy to know who was speaking.

This was really an unusual take on vampires. Alexis is very unique and it took me a bit to figure out why. She has a dark past and a unique pact that makes her "Evil's Assassin". If you start reading and get confused, keep going things will be explained and all will make sense in due time.

I'm looking forward to the second book. I want to see how her unique team continues to work together to protect humans and search for an old adversary.

The story concluded without a big cliffhanger which I'm grateful for.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Interesting premise, great execution

Really enjoyed this story. A lot going on, but all handled well. A couple times I thought I was going to get annoyed by a plot-hole, only to have it filled a few minutes later. I did skip past the sex scenes, so not sure how those were. I loved the dynamic between the main character and her work partner, and how it changed but (spoiler) no romance came up. Definitely recommend if you don't mind sex or violence, or are good with hitting the skip buttons a few times.

Thrilling!

This book is action packed! The main character is fun, snarky and bad a@$. The story seems to have lots of supernaturals and cool surprises. It felt like an awesome action movie. Great characters and awesome narrator. I received this audiobook by my request in exchange for an honest review from Audio Book Boom.

it took me time but...

I will admit I'm say honestly it's to Crete time and maybe 2 hours to get into the story I started two times and listen to other stories but when I decided that I will listen to the story fully I enjoyed it very much the story has everything and actually it was quite genius I loved it very much and the narrator was a very good one maybe a bit slow for me but I am usually listening to books speed out so it's okay it's just me but overall maybe it will take you time to understand the book and get into it but I wouldn't suggest you to miss this book because it's a great one
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review