Empress Game: The Empress Game Trilogy Book 1

The Empress Game grabbed me from the opening scene. I gave up other books I was reading (I tend to read more than one at a time) to dive into this one. Kayla, aka Shadow Panthe, was a great character. Her internal dialogue wasn't too whiny but she did delve into her own emotions. Her connection with her remaining family member was well written. Mason didn't make her younger brother a one-note character. He reacted like a child of his age might (with some unusual abilities.)

The male lead, Malkor, was not as deep for me but I still enjoyed him. His internal conflict was fueled by the knowledge that he caused Kayla's pain.

I did think that the way the two characters came together was a bit rushed. I was torn on 4 or 5 stars because of that. It's just that the first kiss scene seemed out of place to me. Still, I couldn't put this book down.

It does end on a cliffhanger. A pretty steep, very intense cliffhanger really. Often I am left irritated by those but in this case, I saw where it had to be there. Without that ending, the book would have been less satisfying. I will be putting this author on my watch list. I can't wait to see where she takes Kayla and Malkor next.