Cameo the Assassin (Trilogy of Shadows Book 1)

I was intrigued from page one. The characters are real in all their flawed glory. I especially enjoyed the dialogue between characters. Opal is charming, Bel is a riot, and Cameo is incredibly interesting. I highly recommend this!

Cameo the Assassin is quite an intriguing novel. Dawn McCullogh-White combines paranormal elements, such as vampires and witches, with a fantasy world, creating an engrossing and unique read. I have always admired the strong female heroines, and Cameo the Assassin delivers. There is much more to this story than action and assassinations, I felt the emotional pull of the characters and the settings. The nature of the assassins, the Association, and its leader is unique and creative. I found myself wondering what exactly Wick (the Association leader) was, and what her ultimate motivation was. I found the characters in Cameo the Assassin to be colorful and endearing. Black Opal, the dandy thief, is entertaining and enigmatic. The subtle attraction between Opal and Cameo is well written and developed. They are two misfits, outcasts who find similarities in each other. As for Cameo, her supernatural side was unexpected, but I love the character and her idiosyncrasies. The paranormal elements to this story are some of the most unique that I have read in awhile. It is refreshing to come across new ideas and concepts, and the new concepts here were well done. I am not exactly sure how the vampires enthrall their subordinates, and am curious about that. In fact, there seem to be several open ends and things remaining to be explained in this book. These open ends do not really detract from the story, but they do leave me curious. Cameo the Assassin is book 1 in a series, and it sets a solid foundation for future books. It did take me a little while to really understand the fantasy world, and adjust to the new paranormal concepts. The relationships have been established, and I am very much looking forward to finding out what comes next. I do recommend this book. It is only 99 cents on amazon for the kindle format (or on smashwords), and that is a fantastic deal!

At the end of the day, the art of writing fiction comes down to simply this: telling a good story. Sometimes there are other aspects involved, other points to be made. Yet, if those points of contention arent held within the framework of a tale interesting enough for the reader to endeavor, they will be words used for naught. They will remain unread. More on this later. First of all, its synopsis time. Cameo the Assassin is the story of, well, an assassin named Cameo. She is a woman with eyes white as a corpse, the best killer of a group called simply The Association. She resides in her tower when not off stalking her next victim, drinking copious amounts of liquor and being generally a miserable sod. She is a legend in her time, seemingly much older than she appears, never questions orders, and uses very unusual (and unknown to her employer) methods of both finding her prey and keeping herself safe. Cameo seems content to live out her life in whatever perverse way she can, until she runs into a pair of highwaymen (coach robbers) while they hold up her carriage. These two men are named Black Opal, a dandy who wears too much makeup and enjoys womens clothes (seemingly in an attempt to compensate for his scarred appearance) and Bellamy, a lawyer-slash-poet-slash-playwright turned criminal. When our heroine meets these two, and falls into line with them, her known life takes a turn for, if not worse, at least very, very different. It is with these two characters, and one who comes later, that the joys of this little tale are met. Cameo herself is a one-note creation - and she has to be, especially when one considers her backstory - and cannot carry the novel on her own. Which is why having two enjoyable, fleshed-out characters such as Opal and Bel is important. In many ways, they steer the plot more than the main character. Cameo does what she does because she doesnt have a choice in the matter. Opal and Bel, however, have free will, and they use that will to choose and follow a dangerous killer, for reasons of love. This is beautiful, it is necessary, and its also interesting, because many times its hard to figure out who exactly loves who. That guessing game in particular is quite fun. The world that Dawn McCullough creates is one of magic and monsters, along with the type of technology one might see at the beginning of the nineteenth century. There are vampires, witches, corrupt royalty, and killers for hire, all plotting, both together and separately, to bring down our small band of antiheroes. This is something I really liked, as well. There are very few purely good characters in the book. All are deeply flawed, and some downright contemptible. They change very slightly, if at all, and yet seem to develop at least a sense of honor and duty, which presents itself in the loyalty they have to each other. I found this to be unusual and pleasing. It isnt often that Ive read a book like this. Now, onto what I started out this review saying. Cameo the Assassin is an adventure novel, and one that works, but that isnt what I found to love the most about it. No, its the underlying message that snatched me by the eyelids and forced me to look deeper. You see, to this reviewers eye, Cameo the character isnt just an alcoholic killer. No, she is much, much more than that. She is a metaphor for the battered woman; a survivor, dead on the inside, strong in a certain way, with a knowledge of all the horrible things that have happened to her, and yet always, around every corner, she is a slave to that pain and the men in her life who inflict it upon her. She was a rape victim, an abuse victim, and a victim of the supernatural, and she allows them to define her. Even her relationship with Opal, who is outside that sort of misogynistic realm, is defined by his feelings for her, and not the other way around. This shows great character weakness, and is sorrowful in its reality, though presented in a fantastical way. This is my favorite part of all, and a reason in and of itself to pick up this book. Now, one might wonder, with all the praise Ive heaped upon this book, why I gave it four stars instead of five. I do this because of the only problem I had with the novel, which is the way it was written. It is constructed in third person omniscient, which is to me the worst of all points of view. We jump into and out of every characters head from one paragraph to the next, which can be 1) confusing, and 2) irritating. Now, I understand that it isnt technically the wrong way to do things, but I personally cant stand it, and think its actually a bit lazy, so Im docking a point. With that being said, I still loved it, which should tell you something about how good the story is. Its definitely worth the couple bucks itll take to try it out, and I think anyone who reads this review should do just that.

I read this book. I should have gone back and read Amazons description. Without it, the book is hard to follow. The book doesnt make clear much of anything. Not the period of time it is occurring, not the country, and very little about the characters. You have to fill in the gaps as you go along. It never really mentions she was raped. About the middle of the book, she finally mentions her sister and her being molested and left for dead. You run into a man who is involved with her abuse (I think) for a few sentences and then she kills him. But that is a bit vague too. It bounces around a little so you need to have a quick mind and good imagination to keep up. The male character she is having an arms length romance? with, appears to have been written by a drag queen. He uses lip rouge, makeup, frilly clothes and fancy boots he cant walk in. He is flamboyant in the extreme. A dandy indeed. I am not sure if the author intended to write this story in this manner or if the issues are with writing the first book. She is either a good writer or a sloppy one who got lucky. That being said, I actually enjoyed it. I liked Cameo. I liked Opal and Bel. I even liked the shadows. Im not particularly sure why other than they were quirky, odd, amusing, and a bit strange. I dont think Ive read a book quite like this one. I will most likely purchase the 2nd book and really am not sure if I want the writer to improve. It would throw the whole story off it the book actually got better.

Cameo the Assassin took me by surprise in an extremely good way. I was expecting a run-of-the-mill vamp novel and it didnt deliver that! What I got was a steampunk-esque (though Im not sure Id qualify it completely as Steampunk) story about a ghoul, I mean girl, whos a hired killer-with-a-soul for the Association (dun-dun-duuuuun!). Ive never read a Zombie book before, and while this novel is careful to not bandy about that term (certainly, Cameo, our daring lead character doesnt like it), it certainly fits. Dawn McCullough-White writes Cameo incredibly well. When you are introduced to her, she is aloof and emotionless, taking swigs from her flask while she watches the rather questionable activities that surround her each day. She is paid to do her job and not question, something she does well. She is the very embodiment of someone without a soul. Or so you think. Shes not without morals, however I felt like she largely kept them hidden, because frankly, Cameo is a survivor. What you find beneath Cameos surface...well, I wont spoil it for you. But its spectacular. And not the least bit ordinary. As you read, youre drawn into the story, bit by bit, like a lazy fishing line slowly being reeled in. She paints a dark, yet lovely picture of a Victorian-era period with fine clothing, large egos and intrigue that invites you want to keep reading. Her supporting characters, Opal, Kyrian and Bellamy, are often delightful and amusing with their verbal repartee; I found myself giggling at Opals and Bellamys witty and comical conversations. And while they are both deep, complicated characters, they certainly are the light to her dark. It was a little difficult to keep up with the character jumps, but I attribute that more to the way it was formatted on my Nook than anything else, so its easily overlooked. I definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys Steampunk, Dark Fantasy or Paranormal Fiction. It was a great read!

This book was so mysterious. In a really good way! I really, really enjoyed it. Cameo is so complex. When I started out the book, I just thought of her in a very one-dimensional way; as a killer. But as the story progresses you keep unraveling more parts of her past and she just becomes so much more real and interesting! I really liked her, I was surprised by how compassionate she was. Black Opal was such a strange guy. He was peculiar, but I liked that about him. I cant wait to see what is going to happen between him and Cameo. Im really happy that he was such a major role in this story because I initially thought that he was only going to be a minor character. I also love how taken he is with Cameo. He goes out on a lot of limbs for her and I think that is just so cute. I was astonished by how many plot twists and surprises there were. It was awesome! I cant even tell you how many times I didnt see something coming. And I love it when that happens. When a book can totally surprise me, and catch me off guard, it makes me so happy! I want to tell you guys some of the things that blindsided me while reading, but not knowing was part of the fun for me, so I wont take that away from any of you. Just know that there are some really cool twists in this story. Once I got about 25 pages into this book I just did not want to put it down. At all. I had to know what was going to happen next. Would I be surprised again? Would I be able to guess what was going to happen? Not knowing if something was going to be revealed that would send the story in a completely different direction was really fun for me. I will say that sometimes the story switched between different scenes kinda quickly. I was left with an incomplete picture at times and then just shifted over to something completely new. I know that adds to the mysterious vibe that I really enjoyed about this book, but it also left me confused at moments. And the cliffhanger! Oh that cliffhanger- it definitely did its job, I want to read the second book right now! michelle @ [...]

This book isnt really what I expected. I picked it up expecting a vampire novel, and was surprised when I found that they occupied a very small portion of the story. I LOVED the time period in which this book was set, and the picture the author painted was a dark yet vivid back drop to the great characters within. I really disliked Opal at first, but found myself rooting for him midway through the book. He is full of quirks that make him endearing and annoying at the same time. Cameo is a refreshingly original character that I pictured as a twisted mess one minute, and then the next as a beautiful monster. The ending came on a bit sudden, which may or may not be intentional. Dont get me wrong, it wasnt a bad ending. I think I was so into the book that it stopped and I found myself not ready to be done. That only means one thing...I will for sure be picking up the sequel.

Cameo has an interesting story and a few compelling characters, but a number of problems bring it down. First: the dialogue is frequently awkward. Second: the pacing is bad. There are too many scenes in taverns that go on for too long and dont contribute enough to the story. Also, characters have a habit of going on and on about mundane things and, as I already stated, the dialogue is awkward (not to mention the fact that new paragraphs begin even if the same character is still speaking). Third: the revelation concerning what exactly Cameo is, which should have been a bombshell, is casually mentioned, as if the reader was supposed to already have guessed it. While this series has definite potential, Im just not too keen on the first book.

Cameo is an assassin for hire with corpse-like eyes. Shes the source of stories that parents used to scare their kids into behaving. Everything is going normally until she meets with a highwayman dandy who sees her as a woman and not a killer. This story was a pleasant surprise. Reading the synopsis, I had no idea it was about vampires or zombies. But they do feature in the story. In a fascinating and great way. Cameo is a fully developed character. She is more than just a killer, and her true personality and depth are revealed slowly, and more through her actions than narration. The highwaymen Opal and Bellamy are interesting, humourous characters. Opal in particular is more than he seems. He comes across as a shallow, empty-headed dandy, but that is mostly a front that he has created. Kyrian is mostly an unknown, even after the story is done. I assume that he features more in the sequel, but what I did gather is that he also is more than he seems. Overall, I like the story quite a bit. It was not what I expected, but definitely exceeded the expectations I had. I look forward to reading the next book.

This was an exciting adventure that made it hard to put the book down. I actually fell asleep reading it because I just didnt want to stop. (made for some interesting dreams) I love these kind of stories and this one is one I can see becoming one of my favorites. I really cant wait to read the second book in the series. If youre looking for adventure with a twist, this is definitely a must-read!!!