Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780316032728 |
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| Publisher: | Orbit |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2008 |
| Series: | Jill Kismet Series , #1 |
| Sold by: | Hachette Digital, Inc. |
| Format: | NOOK Book |
| Sales rank: | 199,497 |
| File size: | 610 KB |
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Night Shift (Jill Kismet Series #1)
3.6 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
635 reviews.
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Lilith Saintcrow did it again. If you're familiar with her previous work especially the Dante Valentine series, there is no way that you won't like this one. This is the first book of Saintcrow's 'Jill Kismet' series.
The story starts out focusing on our heroine, Jill Kismet. Jill is a hunter. She is a resident peace keeper of Santa Luz dealing with everything that goes bump in the night. But she's not a regular hunter you know... Tainted with Hellbreed power, Jill has to use everything she knows and every info sources she has trying to solve the crime committed by something supernatural, something unreal. With several cops killed by the most gruesome ways, Jill is working against time, teaming with weres trying to put all the puzzles together.. to find the truth behind.
Though several people mentioned that this one has the same concept as the Dante Valentine's series, I, myself, still find it intriguing and very entertaining. Jill is a likable heroine, just like Dante is in her first three books (Don't make me mention the rest of that series..) She is strong, independent and not a perfect figure. Jill has a past, though she took us through her personal life now and then but it doesn't sound like she's whining.. .It's just enough to make the readers know why she did what she did and why she thought what she thought. I also like the way the author throws some romance in the story, not much since the book is not in the romance genre but enough to make her characters complicated and real and sometimes, can put a smile on your face while reading the book.
In my opinion, Saintcrow did it better than Working for the devil, the first book of Dante Valentine's series.
So if you're looking around trying to find some new book to read, and if you don't mind urban fantasy, I highly recommended you try this one. Or if you're already Lilith Saintcrow's fan and still not so sure if you want to read this one (since you're afraid of the similarity with Dante Valentine's series), I still highly recommended you to try it. As mentioned previously, I personally think the book is better written. And once you start this book, you won't be able to put it down. .. Happy Reading..** :)
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I read this book in one day. I just couldn't wait to get it over with. There was just way too much self-analysis/self-doubt/self-hating, to the point of it taking up pages. This story just didn't grap me and I was so looking forward to it. I will read Hunter's Prayer, hopefully Jill won't be so pathetic in that book. I found Jill's character to be very depressing. Lilith is very good at describing a tortured soul but at some point the character has to be as strong on the inside as they are on the outside. Without that it just seems like pages of whining flash backs.
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One thing this book is NOT, is a paranormal romance. It IS a paranormal action book, 'cause it has plenty of it in between the pages. Practically non-stop! I WAS hoping for a little romance, but something tells me the rest of the series will flesh out the relationship building between Jill Kismet (the main character, and a truly "kick-ass" type of girl), and the Were-Cougar who's interested in her, Saul Dustcircle. I plan to get the other books, just to find out how Jill and Pericles (the Hellbreed she has to deal with) continue to "interact" with each other, as well. This is a very intriguing start to an action-packed series, and I want to know what happens next!
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I tried to get into it. Everybody else seemed to like it, but not me sorry.
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I really enjoyed this story. No sex was a blessing, however If you took the cuss word GD out, it would shorten the story by a quarter.
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It started out okay but its a little confusing at times during chase scenes. Not going to finish.
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I really liked the Jill Kismet character, however, this book really parallells the character of Rachel Morgan by Kim Harrison. So far the only difference I have come across is Saul, who is a panther were. Rachel's love interest was a vampire. I'm ordering the other books in the series to see where the author goes with it, but really it's just my curiosity. Book is a good read.
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This is the first book I have read by Lilith Saintcrow. I felt that Jill Kismet was one tough Hunter and kicked some major booty. She is a demon slayer and performs exorcisms. She has silver charms in her hair and wears leather pants and a leather trench coat, she also has a backup coat. She has been marked by a demon, he gave her some extra powers and she has to visit him once a month. Her former lover and teacher Mikhail is dead, he was killed by a demon. Jill is on the hunt for a rogue were and a hellbreed woman that are together. She has friends from the FBI that are also hunting for them, her FBI friends are were. They bring along a friend with them, his name is Saul, he is an American Indian and also a Were and her one friend asked if he can crash at Jills house. Jill says it is okay and Saul cleans up her house and cooks for her, they kiss, could this be the beginning of a romance? You should read the book to find out what else happens in the book, otherwise I will give away the entire story. I did enjoy the book though and I plan on reading the second book in the series, Hunter's Prayer, it is coming out in August or Sept 2008.
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As a young girl she lived in the streets selling her body to anyone who had the cash to pay for it. Her life changed for the better when she met Mikhail, who taught her to be a hunter a person who works the darkside keeping humans safe from hellbreed (demons). She performs the exorcisms that the priests cannot or will not. Ironically the Church believes she is doomed to hell because she kills and consorts with the damned.------------------- Life is about to turn depressing for Jill Kismet even though she has a link to a hellbreed Perry who has given her extraordinary powers. Five police officers were killed by what seems likea hellbreed and a rogue were-shapeshifter. Jill knows these are her natural enemies. As the murders continue Jill thinks the hellbreed is protecting the Were especially when she learns who the father of the damned is. As Jill struggles to end the killings, someone decides to end Jill.----------------- Lilith Saintcrow always provides a spellbinding action packed urban fantasy that contains a touch of romance, which enhance the plot. However it is the locale where magic works and human authorities deal through liaisons with the supernatural in a realm that seems real because the crimes committed by the paranormal come across as genuine and the subsequent investigations feels authentic. Jill is a strong protagonist who takes on the hellbreeds to protect humanity especially the children. She chose to link with Perry so she is a better fighter though she knows that will probably damn her at least the Church says so. Her efforts on the NIGHT SHIFT make for an enjoyable urban fantasy investigative thriller that shows why this reviewer is a huge fan of Ms. Saintcrow.------------ Harriet Klausner
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Surprisingly entertaining writing by a mainstay of the "urban fantasy" genre. I'll probably pick up more by this author - its a good popcorn read.
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One of my all time favourite fantasy series. Jill Kismet is a hunter based in her own city of Santa Luz. Her job is to keep the demon population in line and to stop the nightside from spilling over into the "normal" world. I have never before read of such a strong kickass female lead before this series. Its the kind of read where the story is like a movie running in your head and you can almost smell the blood and hear the screams. I for one am totally hooked and highly recomend this series to anyone regardless of their usual preferences.
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In today¿s fantasy/sci-fi market, the popularity and proliferation of urban fantasy novels is staggering. Maybe it only seems this way, but every second book in the fantasy section at the local bookseller appears to reside in this subgenre. This wouldn¿t be much of a problem if the majority of them were actually good. For every Charlie Huston who pumps out great, original vampire-noir fantasy, there are hundreds of authors writing essentially similar variations on the same idea: a super powered hero or heroine altruistically fighting for humanity against the things that go bump in the night. This gives many of these novels a ¿me-too¿ feeling, as if they are all being written to capitalize on the popularity of the market and not to tell an interesting story. Urban fantasy is essentially a Western for a new generation, filled with horrible hell spawned monsters instead of gunslingers and outlaws. The hero, like the cowboy of old, is a loner who stands tall against overwhelming evil forces, surviving only by his smarts and resourcefulness. (Just once I¿d like to see a hero survive from pure dumb luck, and have a whole slew of Myspace friends to boot!) Well, the newest novel to grab this template and start happily frolicking down the urban fantasy path is Lilith Saintcrow¿s ¿Night Shift¿.Saintcrow takes a big narrative chunk out of ¿Buffy the Vampire Slayer¿ for ¿Night Shift¿. Jill Kismet is a specially-trained, super powered hunter who tracks down and slays demons or Hellbreed. She¿s basically a Buffy for demons, as she¿s all that stands between us and the demons that go bump in the corridors of Hell. Jill doesn¿t hunt demons on the sly though, as the police are well aware of both her existence and the existence of the Hellbreed, and employ her frequently as a consultant. So when an unusual case pops up, it isn¿t long before Jill gets a call from the local precinct.One of these calls for Jill is for the grisly murder of five cops, their bodies torn apart and mutilated. The fatal wounds puzzle her though, as they appear to have been inflicted by a Hellbreed and Were (a human that transforms in an animal form) working together. This seems impossible since Hellbreeds and Weres are mortal enemies. Showing up on the case soon after are Jill¿s two friends, Harper and Dominic, who happen to be FBI agents, and more surprisingly, Weres. Coincidentally, Harper and Dominic have been tracking the murderous Were along with Saul Dustcircle, another Were whose sister was murdered by the rogue beast. Jill and her friends set off to solve the mystery of the rogue Were and why it¿s working with a Hellbreed. This leads Jill deeper and deeper into dangerous waters where she must use everything in her power to survive. But what will Jill have to sacrifice to bring the murderers to justice?The story is thin and uninspired with slow pacing that is used to artificially elongate the novel. There really isn¿t much story here as the hunt for the murderers is quite straightforward and lacks any interesting twists or turns. Until the ending, Jill¿s multiple confrontations with the villains end with her catching a significant beating and then losing them in the process. Saintcrow tries for a hard-edged, gritty tone in the material and characters, which is fairly successful, though Jill is whineier than tough and street-wise. The descriptions are repetitive; there are a slew of passages describing the blood and sweat caked on her and her clothes as well as the tingling of her scar. For some reason, Saintcrow seems obsessed with the crackling of caked blood.Last Word:There wasn¿t much in ¿Night Shift¿ to grab my interest, and by the end, I was just waiting for the book to end. The story was just too mundane and predictable with a weak conclusion that only offered a meager payoff. Lilith Saintcrow has unfortunately failed to elevate it above the teeming masses of ¿me-too¿ urban fantasy out there. Overall, ¿Night Shift¿ is disappointedly mediocre.
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In book one of the Jill Kismet series we meet Jill, the one they call when things go Bump In The Night. She is a stronger than strong woman who can face things the cops don't want to know about. It was fun watching the character of Jill unfold as the book went along. We learn how she became who she is, and how she feels about it. Somewhere along the way, she starts to learn who she is as well. It was an action filled story with something to please any fan of Lilith Saintcrow and Dark Fantasy books.
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Jill Kismet is a Hunter trained to fight hellbreed. Her mentor and lover recently died leaving her to fight the monsters alone. As a former prostitute, Jill knows the city well and has the survival instincts of a veteran. She also has a demon mark which gives her more power but not without paying a nasty price to the city¿s head hellbreed. When the worst murders she has ever seen happen to 5 cops, Jill is called in to team up with a couple of FBI weres and a were tracker. At the scene, Jill scents both rogue were and hellbreed. Knowing the two never mix, she is unable to determine what to make of the combination. As more humans are attacked and killed brutally, Jill uses every resource she has to get more information, always at a cost to herself.This is classic dark urban fantasy fair from Saintcrow. It¿s reminiscent of her Dante Valentine Series, however Jill is somewhat less likable and harder to relate to initially. It made for a somewhat arduous first 60 pages or so. It isn¿t until Saintcrow gives us more background that the character becomes more interesting. The attraction between Jill and the were tracker is less than exciting though, as it seems to serve as a device for her to process her guilt about her mentor¿s death. Grief, despair and a fatalistic attitude make for a depressing ride. Despite this, the story is tight and moves at good clip. Saintcrow¿s prose is often compelling and beautiful so it feels real if not exactly satisfying.
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Awesome book. I had one previous introduction to this author, and I was not impressed by that book. This book restored all of my impression of Lilith Saintcrow.This wonderful book was a look into the life of a hunter. Her main priority is to rid the world of hellbreed. The demons of hell that are here to gather as many traders and cause as much corruption as possible. Only Jill Kismet find herself on a trail of hellbreed that is testing her ability. Only as the story unfolds it what she believes may not be the facts. I look forward to reading 'Hunters Prayer', the second Jill Kismet book in this series.
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Comparing this with Dante Valentine, they're both almost similar in regards to personality. Tough and able to raise literal hell to track down villains, yet soft and sensitive sides come out when no one's looking (well, almost). I can't really say who I like more as they're both such interesting characters with such horrible pasts and are able to climb out of it and become strong butt kicking characters. I like it how they're not suffering from nyphomania like some paranormal urban fantasy characters I've read about which makes me roll my eyes each time they're mentioned. I love Jill and Dante's wit, their sarcasm, sometimes their thoughts made me laugh out loud, and their reckless impulsive behavior when fighting -it's always exciting to read, and it just seems as if they're not scared to run into a fight with the odds stacked against them. It's also nice to read about a character in which not *every* other character wants to sleep with them (unlike some other urban fantasy novels I've read too)I thought the plot was great, and the action sequences were awesome. There's a lot of action in this book, I found myself reading page after page because it caught my attention and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Although this is a mystery in this book I couldn't really bring myself to guess who it was, or who was behind everything as all I was concerned with was who Jill was going to fight next. All the pieces fit in together anyway, and the only questions I'm left with is more about Jill's past. I'd like to know more of her and more stories of her and Mikhail. The romance (well budding romance) between Jill and Saul is nice although I find it a little mismatched, it's amusing to see Jill trying to push him away even though it's not what she wants, and Saul can see right through it. I thought it was cute how Saul walks so close to Jill and invades her "personal space" much to her annoyance. In a way, I think they're right for each other, but in other ways I don't think so..they're just so different, perhaps because you don't know much about Saul and his character isn't really that developed in the book. Perhaps in future books....The only criticism I could give is, although the action is nice, it just seems like one huge adrenalin rush and the writing just feels haphazard. Then again it could be just me that feels this way. Overall an excellent book if you're looking for a strong character, a good exciting plot, and plenty of fighting scenes to get you turning page after page.
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Jill Kismet is the hunter in her town and she has sacrificed a lot. When 5 police officers are mutilated, she knows more than the normal hellbreed are involved. With the help of her friends and some of her enemies, she sets out to protect her town and solve the crimes.This is full on action urban fantasy. Jill is hard edged with a heart. I will definitely be reading the next. I want to see where Jill and the other characters are going.
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I loved it! I thoroughly enjoyed Saintcrow's Dante Valentine series, but almost think I will like this series better.Theming between series is similar - more-than-human protagonist with significant ties to a demon. In this series, however, Jill Kismet (protagonist) is the "cop" for the night-side criminal activities - possessions, demonic trouble, Traders. To help her in this pursuit, Kismet made a deal with the ranking demon in town which gives her additional power.In this story, something is killing cops - something not-quite-Were, not-quite-demon. Can Kismet discover and put a stop to the perpetrator(s) before realizing her own destruction? This book is hard to put down.
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Jill Kismet is a hunter, her job is to exorcise the possessed, and destroys evil things that bumps in the night. She's not bright-white-clean either; she made a deal with a powerful hellbreed to increase her senses, her strength and gives her more power in the hunt. It doesn't come for free though and she owes the hellbreed monthly visit with kinky games. Everything goes to hell when something starts killing cops, lots of them, and weres comes in to help.The novel has a great rhythm, fast pace action and Kismet is definitely entertaining. She has a very difficult past on the streets, and she's very determined to never go back down. After years of killing stuff and defending the innocents, she now has a sick sense of humor highlighted by "Get it? Arf, arf," everytime she shoots a bad joke for herself. Novel is full of very interesting characters and plot is very well built, you hang right on the suspense until the very end. English not being my first language I found the vocabulary a bit harder then what I'm used to, but it didn't interfere with my enjoyment. Bought the second book right when I finished the first one.
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I decided to give Saintcrow another shot after the debacle that was the Dante Valentine novels (loved the first one, tolerated the second, HATED the third, gave up). I loved this book. I HOPE I love the second. Jill Kismet is wonderfully likable. Much more so than Dante ever was. If you gave Saintcrow a shot before and found her lacking, I think with this book she's really hit her stride. Hopefully she keeps it up.
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I picked this up at my local used book store. The cover grabbed me right away. And the blurb sold me.
Kick butt female protagonist. Creatures of all shapes and sizes to be slain. Count me in.
I had a blast. Jill is very genuine, flaws and all. And the way she faces and takes down the evil beings keeps you on edge, flipping pages, cheering her on. From the mean streets to the sewers below, she hunts.
As for those creatures, you’ll encounter some really bad ones. I’m all about the nastier the better and there were some great ones in these pages.
The writing is fast paced and reads easily, and there are some interesting characters, good and bad. Plus a bit of romance. Nothing to cast a shadow over the action, just enough to make you smile.
For fans of Urban Fantasy, you’ll get what you’re looking for in this book. I’ll be following the series, anticipating more intense action and scary good creatures for Jill to take down.
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Very good urban fantasy. Briskly paced and a nicely complicated plot, with a strong female protagonist and a little love-interest for spice. Very close to my "perfect" read, except that the violence was just a tad too graphic for my taste. Thus the four stars instead of the five.
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