What do you think?
Rate this book
Laura Blackstone #1
Skin Deep
A THRILLING NEW URBAN FANTASY SERIES FROM THE AUTHOR OF UNFALLEN DEAD AND UNQUIET DREAMS.
She'll need to keep up appearances—if she wants to stay alive...
Being an undercover agent has its occupational hazards, but Laura Blackstone makes it look easy. As a spy for a fey intelligence agency, she uses her magical abilities to create disguises that are skin deep glamours that must never be compromised. But when Laura's worlds collide she'll have more to worry about than retiring an identity; she may just lose her life.
She'll need to keep up appearances—if she wants to stay alive...
Being an undercover agent has its occupational hazards, but Laura Blackstone makes it look easy. As a spy for a fey intelligence agency, she uses her magical abilities to create disguises that are skin deep glamours that must never be compromised. But when Laura's worlds collide she'll have more to worry about than retiring an identity; she may just lose her life.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
25 people are currently reading
2529 people want to read
About the author
Mark Del Franco
13 books365 followersCATHARGO (2016) is Mark Del Franco's latest fantasy novel, an alternative history where chance and coincidence set the stage for an entire continent to be plunged into war over the use of magic.
WHIRLWIND (2014)is Mark Del Franco's first young adult novel, an urban fantasy featuring teens with elemental powers.
Mark is the author of the adult urban fantasy Connor Grey books. The best order to read the series is:
UNSHAPELY THINGS
UNQUIET DREAMS
UNFALLEN DEAD
UNPERFECT SOULS
UNCERTAIN ALLIES
UNDONE DEEDS
The Laura Blackstone urban fantasy books, also set in the Convergent World, are
SKIN DEEP and FACE OFF.
Mark Del Franco lives with his partner, Jack, in Boston, Massachusetts, where the orchids Just Won't Die.
WHIRLWIND (2014)is Mark Del Franco's first young adult novel, an urban fantasy featuring teens with elemental powers.
Mark is the author of the adult urban fantasy Connor Grey books. The best order to read the series is:
UNSHAPELY THINGS
UNQUIET DREAMS
UNFALLEN DEAD
UNPERFECT SOULS
UNCERTAIN ALLIES
UNDONE DEEDS
The Laura Blackstone urban fantasy books, also set in the Convergent World, are
SKIN DEEP and FACE OFF.
Mark Del Franco lives with his partner, Jack, in Boston, Massachusetts, where the orchids Just Won't Die.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
July 25, 2018
Skin Deep is book one in the Laura Blackstone series by Mark Del Franco.
WOW… It took me a while to wrap my head around the world and characters. It’s a bit confusing, but the deeper you get the more it works.
Laura Blackstone our main character is a spy. She’s got three identities Laura, Mariel Tate, and Janice Crawford. Her fey ability allows her to create these characters and switch between them when need be. We see that Laura is starting to feel rundown, overwhelmed and that her identities are her only identifies and she no long has lines drawn between them. She’s losing herself. She has no friends, no love life, no one. We see her struggle as she tries to find out who wants one of her identities killed.
Skin Deep is intense, intriguing, and action packed. It’s told in first person POV. Reading other reviews it sounds like this series takes place in the same world as the Connor Grey series. I haven’t read that series, but after reading this, I’m curious about the other series.
This was a great urban fantasy. I was confused, but in a good way. A way that made me dig deeper into the story and devour the book.
Rated: 4.5 Stars
WOW… It took me a while to wrap my head around the world and characters. It’s a bit confusing, but the deeper you get the more it works.
Laura Blackstone our main character is a spy. She’s got three identities Laura, Mariel Tate, and Janice Crawford. Her fey ability allows her to create these characters and switch between them when need be. We see that Laura is starting to feel rundown, overwhelmed and that her identities are her only identifies and she no long has lines drawn between them. She’s losing herself. She has no friends, no love life, no one. We see her struggle as she tries to find out who wants one of her identities killed.
Skin Deep is intense, intriguing, and action packed. It’s told in first person POV. Reading other reviews it sounds like this series takes place in the same world as the Connor Grey series. I haven’t read that series, but after reading this, I’m curious about the other series.
This was a great urban fantasy. I was confused, but in a good way. A way that made me dig deeper into the story and devour the book.
Rated: 4.5 Stars
December 2, 2010
Actual rating 2.5 stars. I picked this up because I've been enjoying the Connor series, but almost put it down. I found the main character's three identities confusing at first and overall unbelievable. Since one identity is a PR agent and another a highly placed fey security druidess, it seems implausible that the identities are long term sustainable, despite the author's attempts to show small work-arounds in identity switching. A major emotional instability is the fact that Laura continually muses on the walls and friendless identity she has, the empty apartment, and yet is "surprised" that (spoiler) one close co-worker had suspicions of her, and a second knows part of her secret. If one identity is truly in the equivalent of the FBI, I would think co-workers would notice her isolation and be suspicious. Although the author spends time on world building, it certainly helps if you have read his other series. The plot is more action and political oriented than mystery--think Jason Bourne set in modern urban mythos. There's quite a bit of police/SWAT team and inter-agency procedure. I have to agree with another reader that the tone of the love interest seemed forced. I'll read the next in the series, but wait until the library has it available.
July 29, 2010
This was a great first book for a series. It totally confused me at the beginning (introducing 6 characters in the first chapter?! Are you kidding me! I could barely keep track of the main character who was actually 3 characters.) but the world building was fantastic, the characters engaging, and the plot excellent.
Laura Blackstone, Mariel Tate, and Janice Crawford are all the same person thanks to Laura's fey ability to create alternate persona's and switch between them when the need calls for it. She can create any persona needed to do her job and in this case avert a complete disaster. I also loved that it hinted at issues that will certainly continue through out the series such as just who is the real Laura Blackstone? When you have immersed yourself in so many different personas for so long for so many reasons what remains of the real you? I don't even think she remembers the real her anymore.
Laura with the help of her other personas, her boss Terryn (a fairy) and a DC SWAT team members Jonathon Sinclair she has to try to thwart a major terrorist attack and solve the murder of a fellow SWAT member. There were so many front lines on the plot since the main character had 3 separate lives with different coworkers and friends. This made for a really intense, sometimes confusing, and surprising plot.
Now I haven't read the Connor Grey series by Del Franco but I intend too, but I am gathering from other reviews that he has a tendency to have slow starts in his book. This book did suffer from that a bit. It took a while to get into, and a bit longer to sort out who the hell everyone was and just what the hell was going on, but once I figured it out I was hooked.
This is a solid urban fantasy with different species, awesome abilities, political intrigues, and intense situations. I really enjoyed it and when I realized I finished this book on the 26th and the second book in the series, Face Off, was coming out on the 27th I went to the book store on my lunch break to pick up a copy.
Laura Blackstone, Mariel Tate, and Janice Crawford are all the same person thanks to Laura's fey ability to create alternate persona's and switch between them when the need calls for it. She can create any persona needed to do her job and in this case avert a complete disaster. I also loved that it hinted at issues that will certainly continue through out the series such as just who is the real Laura Blackstone? When you have immersed yourself in so many different personas for so long for so many reasons what remains of the real you? I don't even think she remembers the real her anymore.
Laura with the help of her other personas, her boss Terryn (a fairy) and a DC SWAT team members Jonathon Sinclair she has to try to thwart a major terrorist attack and solve the murder of a fellow SWAT member. There were so many front lines on the plot since the main character had 3 separate lives with different coworkers and friends. This made for a really intense, sometimes confusing, and surprising plot.
Now I haven't read the Connor Grey series by Del Franco but I intend too, but I am gathering from other reviews that he has a tendency to have slow starts in his book. This book did suffer from that a bit. It took a while to get into, and a bit longer to sort out who the hell everyone was and just what the hell was going on, but once I figured it out I was hooked.
This is a solid urban fantasy with different species, awesome abilities, political intrigues, and intense situations. I really enjoyed it and when I realized I finished this book on the 26th and the second book in the series, Face Off, was coming out on the 27th I went to the book store on my lunch break to pick up a copy.
January 19, 2019
3.5
Skin Deep takes place in the same world as Connor Grey series. That's enough for me to love it.
I don't know what's going on with this author. I've read Connor Grey a long time ago and as far as I can see, unfortunately there aren't any more books set in this world. It's a shame really. From various species of fae to druids, lots of magic and the politics I can actually stand (the fictional one) to murder mysteries and so much more, I'd expect tons of unexplored ideas to write about.
This is an interesting world and, just to be clear, I am rating this book as part of Connor Grey's world.
Skin Deep takes place in the same world as Connor Grey series. That's enough for me to love it.
I don't know what's going on with this author. I've read Connor Grey a long time ago and as far as I can see, unfortunately there aren't any more books set in this world. It's a shame really. From various species of fae to druids, lots of magic and the politics I can actually stand (the fictional one) to murder mysteries and so much more, I'd expect tons of unexplored ideas to write about.
This is an interesting world and, just to be clear, I am rating this book as part of Connor Grey's world.
February 20, 2011
Laura Blackstone is a Druidess who is head of PR for the Fey Guild in Washington DC. She's also well to do Mariel Tate, an operative in the international intelligence agency with enough connections and respect to get high ranking DC officials to give her what she needs. And to help out the DC Swat Team, she's Janice Crawford of InterSec, a Druidess with limited powers struggling to make ends meet.
Laura has always done her best for the Guild and the various Fey agencies that interconnect, often creating a glamour and persona to go undercover and help out the other agencies. Juggling three at a time and keeping them separate is getting difficult and tiring, especially when there are only two people who are aware of it and neither one is her staff.
Janice is called in to take out two brownie guards for a drug operation when SWAT raids a drug house. But they'd purposely been fed misinformation and one of the brownies is actually an Inverni fairy glamoured to look like a brownie, but as powerful as Laura is. The whole thing goes sour and Sanchez, the man teamed up with Janice is shot in the neck. He's trying to tell her something when a bullet grazes her head. She's now got temporary amnesia and can recall everything except for who shot them and what Sanchez was trying to tell her before he died.
While juggling her personas and someone trying multiple times to kill Janice, they uncover something much larger than a drug operation that extends the story beyond this first book. The series is set in the same world as the Connor Grey series where a Convergence took place between the Fey and human realms and we now have the Fey living in this realm. Lots of politics with the different Fey factions.
Told from the first person POV, we don't know a great deal about the other characters, or for that matter, much about Laura, although even she admits she spends so much time in her different personas that she doesn't know who the real person is anymore. This makes for a somewhat uncomfortable read. But there are a number of action scenes that are well written and I couldn't guess where the major underlining mystery leads to.
Laura has always done her best for the Guild and the various Fey agencies that interconnect, often creating a glamour and persona to go undercover and help out the other agencies. Juggling three at a time and keeping them separate is getting difficult and tiring, especially when there are only two people who are aware of it and neither one is her staff.
Janice is called in to take out two brownie guards for a drug operation when SWAT raids a drug house. But they'd purposely been fed misinformation and one of the brownies is actually an Inverni fairy glamoured to look like a brownie, but as powerful as Laura is. The whole thing goes sour and Sanchez, the man teamed up with Janice is shot in the neck. He's trying to tell her something when a bullet grazes her head. She's now got temporary amnesia and can recall everything except for who shot them and what Sanchez was trying to tell her before he died.
While juggling her personas and someone trying multiple times to kill Janice, they uncover something much larger than a drug operation that extends the story beyond this first book. The series is set in the same world as the Connor Grey series where a Convergence took place between the Fey and human realms and we now have the Fey living in this realm. Lots of politics with the different Fey factions.
Told from the first person POV, we don't know a great deal about the other characters, or for that matter, much about Laura, although even she admits she spends so much time in her different personas that she doesn't know who the real person is anymore. This makes for a somewhat uncomfortable read. But there are a number of action scenes that are well written and I couldn't guess where the major underlining mystery leads to.
January 12, 2011
Living multiple separate lives is very draining for the heroine in Mark Del Fraco's new series. In this installment she is juggling three personas: Laura Blackstone public relations, Janice Crawford SWAT, and Mariel Tate InterSec operative. Being a druidess, the main character has a great memory and has little problem living her separate identities, until one case brings them all together.
I almost didn't read Skin Deep due to the negative reviews here. I should know better by now, since I like many of the books that have less than stellar reviews. Our main character has to juggle three lives, which makes her extremely busy. She doesn't have time to go see a movie, or get a cat, or do whatever else heroines in urban fantasy usually do. In this novel, the main character realizes that in juggling her identities she has lost a bit of herself. She realizes that work is starting to take a toll on her. I personally felt for her and understood her plight. Her personality is found in the mixture of her identities. I really fail to see why people think she lacks characterization. Her work is her life, her multiple personas are all a part of her, or who she wishes she could be. I think that having to live multiple lives is extremely draining, and I admire the main character for doing it. I felt that this book was more substantial than some of the straightforward fluff that is out there. It's easy for an author to make a character that lives one life. It's easy to say that she owns fish, likes cats, or enjoys pizza, but I don't care about those things really. I care about strength of character and realism. Our main character has both of those things, and so much more. This is urban fantasy after all, and I felt that Skin Deep succeeded in providing an alternate reality that is believable, real, and exciting. Additional kudos for presenting an intriguing and well written mystery with plenty of action and suspense.
I almost didn't read Skin Deep due to the negative reviews here. I should know better by now, since I like many of the books that have less than stellar reviews. Our main character has to juggle three lives, which makes her extremely busy. She doesn't have time to go see a movie, or get a cat, or do whatever else heroines in urban fantasy usually do. In this novel, the main character realizes that in juggling her identities she has lost a bit of herself. She realizes that work is starting to take a toll on her. I personally felt for her and understood her plight. Her personality is found in the mixture of her identities. I really fail to see why people think she lacks characterization. Her work is her life, her multiple personas are all a part of her, or who she wishes she could be. I think that having to live multiple lives is extremely draining, and I admire the main character for doing it. I felt that this book was more substantial than some of the straightforward fluff that is out there. It's easy for an author to make a character that lives one life. It's easy to say that she owns fish, likes cats, or enjoys pizza, but I don't care about those things really. I care about strength of character and realism. Our main character has both of those things, and so much more. This is urban fantasy after all, and I felt that Skin Deep succeeded in providing an alternate reality that is believable, real, and exciting. Additional kudos for presenting an intriguing and well written mystery with plenty of action and suspense.
February 23, 2010
Completely worth the wait! This was a great UF book about the fey and Druids that also had elements of undercover police work. The main character Laura Blackstone works as a PR agent for one of the fey agencies.. she also works undercover in various jobs and under various names. During this book she alternates between 3 aliases, and all of them are involved in a dangerous situation.
The plot moved really quickly, and it started off with a bang. Laura was undercover as a SWAT member and they were heading to seal off a drug lab. Major fights ensued lol. I liked Laura's character, and I liked that she was tough and not whiny despite her difficult circumstances. I'll definitely read the next in the series whenever it's available!
The plot moved really quickly, and it started off with a bang. Laura was undercover as a SWAT member and they were heading to seal off a drug lab. Major fights ensued lol. I liked Laura's character, and I liked that she was tough and not whiny despite her difficult circumstances. I'll definitely read the next in the series whenever it's available!
July 22, 2018
42 points/100 (2.25 stars/5).
Laura Blackstone is fey, born on earth after the fey world integrated with earth. Earth is all she has ever known. Now she wears many faces, working for the government in many different roles. After a botched SWAT raid, she finds herself in a deep mystery, with people trying to kill her.
I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. That's basically the gist of this review. I'm just utterly disappointed.
Skin Deep started off poorly for me. I had issues with the narration. It made me feel like I was a spectator, a spooky, telepathic ghost viewing events from up high. Typically I don't have any problem with third person when it is done right. This wasn't the case. The style of writing just did not work for third person, first would have worked much better. And, if del Franco was going to use third person, he could have at least done it right. The main character's main trait is she had multiple personalities she resumes for her job. Yet it is always Laura, Laura, Laura. It would have made much more sense, since third person was being used anyway to just use whatever identity Laura was currently assuming.
Laura isn't really a person in this. She is too busy assuming other people and doing things with them. No, that isn't the whole of it. None of her personalities have time to grow into people, because she is spending too much time switching. What little personality traits we can find under all that change isn't exactly pretty. She is a would-be alcoholic barely staving off the desires to lose herself in a bottle. She is a complete workaholic, since she spends exactly 0% of her time on anything but work, because even sleep appears to be optional for her at times, if the need is great enough. And she is lonely enough to latch onto the first pretty person to actually look at her.
The plot is... I have no idea. There is so much going on that nothing actually has any time to develop. It feels as if del Franco is spending so much time trying to create the perfect mystery, he forgot that he actually has to make the readers care what is at the other end. Jumping from one thing to the other with no time to actually explain what happened in the first thing is no way to write a book. Nothing makes sense in this book. Things keep happening, and to the author they may seem connected, but to the reader they aren't. They're just random events that just somehow keep managing to be tied together, or not. The coincidence level is quite high in Skin Deep. Plus, there were odd pauses in the flow of the story where more things happened in the time space allocated by the author than there should have been.
There is little basis in reality in aspects of this story. She gets a head injury, is out of the hospital five minutes after waking up. She has three very important jobs, and there is no time conflicts other than the character constantly working. She has personalities that have to officially meet up, but they never do, and the paperwork to cover that fact up never even gets mentioned. She works for the government, somehow, but has no one who is her boss (I think, one guy might actually be her boss, that is never established. He just feels like a friend that helps out a lot?). She has no official purpose in that job, other than "Be Laura Blackstone". Her political powers are absolutely all over the place, and not just because her personalities are at different ends of the political spectrum. They just have no clearly defined bounds because she has no clearly defined role.
The entire time I was telling myself "I really bet that the mystery at the end of this book isn't worth all this crap". I honestly don't understand if it is or not. There was absolutely zero set up for the end of this book. All book, Laura is running around, unraveling the littlest pieces of data that ultimately have very little to do with the mystery at the end of the book. With the information we got in this book, the ending actually doesn't make any sense because it is based off of information we..never got?
I am aware that this is sort of a spinoff from Mark Del Franco's Connor Grey series. I never read that. I suspect strongly I'm missing data that I "should have" from the Connor Grey series, that I don't actually have. Nowhere is this actually labelled a spinoff of Connor Grey. I'm only aware of this fact because it got brought up randomly someplace I read. I swear the ending of this book relies on the political information between the various fae groups that never actually gets introduced in this book. It is briefly mentioned, but not on the scale necessary to understand the nuance at the end.
There are just so many things wrong with this that I'm disappointed. I can't even be angry. Well, except for maybe that last part.
Laura Blackstone is fey, born on earth after the fey world integrated with earth. Earth is all she has ever known. Now she wears many faces, working for the government in many different roles. After a botched SWAT raid, she finds herself in a deep mystery, with people trying to kill her.
I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. That's basically the gist of this review. I'm just utterly disappointed.
Skin Deep started off poorly for me. I had issues with the narration. It made me feel like I was a spectator, a spooky, telepathic ghost viewing events from up high. Typically I don't have any problem with third person when it is done right. This wasn't the case. The style of writing just did not work for third person, first would have worked much better. And, if del Franco was going to use third person, he could have at least done it right. The main character's main trait is she had multiple personalities she resumes for her job. Yet it is always Laura, Laura, Laura. It would have made much more sense, since third person was being used anyway to just use whatever identity Laura was currently assuming.
Laura isn't really a person in this. She is too busy assuming other people and doing things with them. No, that isn't the whole of it. None of her personalities have time to grow into people, because she is spending too much time switching. What little personality traits we can find under all that change isn't exactly pretty. She is a would-be alcoholic barely staving off the desires to lose herself in a bottle. She is a complete workaholic, since she spends exactly 0% of her time on anything but work, because even sleep appears to be optional for her at times, if the need is great enough. And she is lonely enough to latch onto the first pretty person to actually look at her.
The plot is... I have no idea. There is so much going on that nothing actually has any time to develop. It feels as if del Franco is spending so much time trying to create the perfect mystery, he forgot that he actually has to make the readers care what is at the other end. Jumping from one thing to the other with no time to actually explain what happened in the first thing is no way to write a book. Nothing makes sense in this book. Things keep happening, and to the author they may seem connected, but to the reader they aren't. They're just random events that just somehow keep managing to be tied together, or not. The coincidence level is quite high in Skin Deep. Plus, there were odd pauses in the flow of the story where more things happened in the time space allocated by the author than there should have been.
There is little basis in reality in aspects of this story. She gets a head injury, is out of the hospital five minutes after waking up. She has three very important jobs, and there is no time conflicts other than the character constantly working. She has personalities that have to officially meet up, but they never do, and the paperwork to cover that fact up never even gets mentioned. She works for the government, somehow, but has no one who is her boss (I think, one guy might actually be her boss, that is never established. He just feels like a friend that helps out a lot?). She has no official purpose in that job, other than "Be Laura Blackstone". Her political powers are absolutely all over the place, and not just because her personalities are at different ends of the political spectrum. They just have no clearly defined bounds because she has no clearly defined role.
The entire time I was telling myself "I really bet that the mystery at the end of this book isn't worth all this crap". I honestly don't understand if it is or not. There was absolutely zero set up for the end of this book. All book, Laura is running around, unraveling the littlest pieces of data that ultimately have very little to do with the mystery at the end of the book. With the information we got in this book, the ending actually doesn't make any sense because it is based off of information we..never got?
I am aware that this is sort of a spinoff from Mark Del Franco's Connor Grey series. I never read that. I suspect strongly I'm missing data that I "should have" from the Connor Grey series, that I don't actually have. Nowhere is this actually labelled a spinoff of Connor Grey. I'm only aware of this fact because it got brought up randomly someplace I read. I swear the ending of this book relies on the political information between the various fae groups that never actually gets introduced in this book. It is briefly mentioned, but not on the scale necessary to understand the nuance at the end.
There are just so many things wrong with this that I'm disappointed. I can't even be angry. Well, except for maybe that last part.
January 27, 2014
Synopsis:
She'll need to keep up appearances-if she wants to stay alive...
Being an undercover agent has its occupational hazards, but Laura Blackstone makes it look easy. As a spy for a fey intelligence agency, she uses her magical abilities to create disguises that are skin deepglamours that must never be compromised. But when Laura's worlds collide she'll have more to worry about than retiring an identity; she may just lose her life.
My Thoughts:
I decided to read this book after reading a sample downloaded from Amazon. It wasn't the best that I've ever read, but it was definitely intriguing and kept me pretty interested. I wasn't surprised over who was behind the shooting of Sanchez and Laura's Janice persona. The machinations behind it, though, were a definite surprise. As were the reason behind it all. I never would have suspected that.
I did like Laura despite some of the bad decisions that I felt she made. Seriously, taking that drink from Gianni was just stupid. Otherwise, I think she handled herself pretty well considering everything that she was juggling. I felt for her a bit as she struggled with her identity, but admired her ability to try to figure that out once things settled down a bit. Laura is a busy woman, but she really steps up. I hope she takes the events that happened in this book to realize that she doesn't need to accept every single job that comes her way. She was so tired that she made some messy mistakes. She manages to play a major role in saving the day, anyway, though.
I'm not quite sure how I feel about Jono as her love interest, though. He's a good guy and a good cop, too. He's cute and flirtatious, but I don't really connect with him on a hero level.
I like Terryn and Cress as secondary characters. It'll be interesting to see how Terryn handles what he, Laura and Cress learned at the end of the book. This is something that create not a little bit of strife between the Inverni fae and the Danaans. I'm not sure how much of it I'll get to see play out, though since the series seems to stop at the end of the second book and I didn't get the impression this started out as a two-book series. I'll read the next book, anyway, but probably not right away.
She'll need to keep up appearances-if she wants to stay alive...
Being an undercover agent has its occupational hazards, but Laura Blackstone makes it look easy. As a spy for a fey intelligence agency, she uses her magical abilities to create disguises that are skin deepglamours that must never be compromised. But when Laura's worlds collide she'll have more to worry about than retiring an identity; she may just lose her life.
My Thoughts:
I decided to read this book after reading a sample downloaded from Amazon. It wasn't the best that I've ever read, but it was definitely intriguing and kept me pretty interested. I wasn't surprised over who was behind the shooting of Sanchez and Laura's Janice persona. The machinations behind it, though, were a definite surprise. As were the reason behind it all. I never would have suspected that.
I did like Laura despite some of the bad decisions that I felt she made. Seriously, taking that drink from Gianni was just stupid. Otherwise, I think she handled herself pretty well considering everything that she was juggling. I felt for her a bit as she struggled with her identity, but admired her ability to try to figure that out once things settled down a bit. Laura is a busy woman, but she really steps up. I hope she takes the events that happened in this book to realize that she doesn't need to accept every single job that comes her way. She was so tired that she made some messy mistakes. She manages to play a major role in saving the day, anyway, though.
I'm not quite sure how I feel about Jono as her love interest, though. He's a good guy and a good cop, too. He's cute and flirtatious, but I don't really connect with him on a hero level.
I like Terryn and Cress as secondary characters. It'll be interesting to see how Terryn handles what he, Laura and Cress learned at the end of the book. This is something that create not a little bit of strife between the Inverni fae and the Danaans. I'm not sure how much of it I'll get to see play out, though since the series seems to stop at the end of the second book and I didn't get the impression this started out as a two-book series. I'll read the next book, anyway, but probably not right away.
November 9, 2009
Okay, seriously, five stars just isn't enough for this book. I loved it. It had everything a person could want in a book. There was plenty of danger, mystery, intrigue, action, excitement, complexity, with a huge helping of character development thrown in. Plus, in a world where it seems original ideas have been all used up, Skin Deep is one of the most original books I've read all year.
Like the Connor Grey novels, the world of Laura Blackstone is a world where fairies have been thrust into the human world. Laura Blackstone is a druid with a special talent for creating glamours, which she uses in her work as an agent of InterSec to create personas. She now lives three lives, Laura Blackstone, a public relations director; Mariel Tate, a counterterrorism agent, and Janice Crawford, a druidess-for-hire with the Washington D.C. SWAT team. After a drug raid that almost costs Janice Crawford her life, Laura soon discovers a bigger threat that will put to test her ability to keep the three women's lives separate.
This book has everything I could want in a good urban fantasy. There were times where I didn't want to put the book down, but then again, I wanted to take my time because I didn't want the story to end. Now I have to wait for the next Laura Blackstone book to be realeased, and I don't know how I can stand the wait. Thank god that there's a new Connor Grey novel being released in just a few months.
Like the Connor Grey novels, the world of Laura Blackstone is a world where fairies have been thrust into the human world. Laura Blackstone is a druid with a special talent for creating glamours, which she uses in her work as an agent of InterSec to create personas. She now lives three lives, Laura Blackstone, a public relations director; Mariel Tate, a counterterrorism agent, and Janice Crawford, a druidess-for-hire with the Washington D.C. SWAT team. After a drug raid that almost costs Janice Crawford her life, Laura soon discovers a bigger threat that will put to test her ability to keep the three women's lives separate.
This book has everything I could want in a good urban fantasy. There were times where I didn't want to put the book down, but then again, I wanted to take my time because I didn't want the story to end. Now I have to wait for the next Laura Blackstone book to be realeased, and I don't know how I can stand the wait. Thank god that there's a new Connor Grey novel being released in just a few months.
April 28, 2015
19.12.2014 - 3,5*
Bavilo mě to, obzvláště proto, jak moc mě anotace nezaujala.
Agentka, která pracuje pod několika identitami, používá glamour, aby vypadala jako několik osob. A všechny si musí pamatovat. Všechny musí žít. Musí být věrohodná v každé z nich. Bez toho, aby trpěla rozštěpenou osobností. A nikdo se nesmí dozvědět, že něco takového dělá.
Kniha byla napsaná dobře, poutavě, postavy byly popsané skvěle, a tím myslím i postavu s několika charaktery v jedné. Hlavní postava mi svým chováním celkově sedla. Děj byl napínavý, stále se něco dělo. Více méně. Pozadí bylo také zajímavé, bylo sice jen naznačené, ale byla jsem zvědavá, co více se o světě Franco dozvím. Fajn knížka. :)
Bavilo mě to, obzvláště proto, jak moc mě anotace nezaujala.
Agentka, která pracuje pod několika identitami, používá glamour, aby vypadala jako několik osob. A všechny si musí pamatovat. Všechny musí žít. Musí být věrohodná v každé z nich. Bez toho, aby trpěla rozštěpenou osobností. A nikdo se nesmí dozvědět, že něco takového dělá.
Kniha byla napsaná dobře, poutavě, postavy byly popsané skvěle, a tím myslím i postavu s několika charaktery v jedné. Hlavní postava mi svým chováním celkově sedla. Děj byl napínavý, stále se něco dělo. Více méně. Pozadí bylo také zajímavé, bylo sice jen naznačené, ale byla jsem zvědavá, co více se o světě Franco dozvím. Fajn knížka. :)
August 19, 2011
I enjoyed this book much more than the other reader's reviews suggest. While the three personas were difficult for Laura to juggle, I did not think it was confusing to follow. Leading her life must be a huge PITA and I agree with one reader's assessment that two of her personas were a little too high profile. But the author made it realistic by showing how exhausted Laura became from having to keep up with the triplicate lives, and not really knowing who she was at the end of the day. I thought Jono was very sincere and likable and I hope to read a lot more about him in the next book!
December 29, 2011
Finished but forgettable, this is one of those breed of Urban Fantasy that didn't hook me with either mythology or characters. To be honest, though, the first Kate Daniels wasn't an instant slam dunk for me, and now it's a cannon favorite, so I'll keep on eye on this one to dip back into the series later.
April 9, 2010
Really liked the heroine in this book. The first part of the book was somewhat slow and confusing. However, it picked up and I really enjoyed the conflict and the powers of the fae. The "hero" is hot and complex. Both characters look to be a welcome addition to urban fantasy.
January 7, 2010
Another great urban fantasy by Del Franco. Fans of Jim Butcher or LKH will enjoy this series. A fun quick read...a great companion to his Connor Grey novels.
July 2, 2025
This book is set in the same world as the Connor Grey stories, and I absolutely devoured them when I first discovered the series, so when I found this duology in a local secondhand store, I snapped them up.
Laura Blackstone works for Intersec, Mariel Tate is a highpowered terrorist hunter and Janice Crawford has recently joined the human Police working on a SWAT team.
They are all the same person - Larua Blackstone being the actual person, and the others being glamours that she puts. She has had other personas before, but they have had to be retired for various reasons.
Laura spends so much time being other people, that she is never truly herself. She doesn't allow any of her personas (except Laura herself) to have any deep friendship or relationships with anyone else.
Laura only really has Tarryn and Cress and while they are her friends, they are also her colleagues who are the only people who know about her situation. Her personal living space is a mess, and the living spaces of Mariel and Janice are sparse. Nowhere she goes feels like home, but she doesn't really seem to mind / dwell on it too much until someone tries to kill Janice, and later Mariel. She seems to not think about her personal life until it is all taken away.
Laura is in charge of an upcoming fey exhibition at the National Archive which he fears will be under some kind of attack, but she doesn't know what, or by whom.
Along the way, she develops a crush on Jono Sinclair (who turns out to be the grandson of a fire Jotun and a human - very rare that fey and human unions produce heirs). They both seem to take turns in saving each others lives and flirting too. By the end of the book, Laura concedes to let Sinclair in when she previously dismissed his advances.
It is discovered that a faction of Inveri lead by Alfrey (and old enemy of Terryn) intend to blow up the US President, Rhys and everyone else at the exhibition. They also intend to show everyone that Queen Maeve, the US President at the time and the UK President at the time all lied when they signed the treaty as there is a hidden addition which allows for Maeve to declare anyone that opposes her to be a criminal. If the information got out, there would be war amongst Maeve's subjects.
Laura, Cress, Terryn and Sinclair all race against time to defuse the bomb. Cress nearly loses her life in the process, but is alive at the end.
I loved all of the twists and turns in this story. It was well paced and well developed.
Laura Blackstone works for Intersec, Mariel Tate is a highpowered terrorist hunter and Janice Crawford has recently joined the human Police working on a SWAT team.
They are all the same person - Larua Blackstone being the actual person, and the others being glamours that she puts. She has had other personas before, but they have had to be retired for various reasons.
Laura spends so much time being other people, that she is never truly herself. She doesn't allow any of her personas (except Laura herself) to have any deep friendship or relationships with anyone else.
Laura only really has Tarryn and Cress and while they are her friends, they are also her colleagues who are the only people who know about her situation. Her personal living space is a mess, and the living spaces of Mariel and Janice are sparse. Nowhere she goes feels like home, but she doesn't really seem to mind / dwell on it too much until someone tries to kill Janice, and later Mariel. She seems to not think about her personal life until it is all taken away.
Laura is in charge of an upcoming fey exhibition at the National Archive which he fears will be under some kind of attack, but she doesn't know what, or by whom.
Along the way, she develops a crush on Jono Sinclair (who turns out to be the grandson of a fire Jotun and a human - very rare that fey and human unions produce heirs). They both seem to take turns in saving each others lives and flirting too. By the end of the book, Laura concedes to let Sinclair in when she previously dismissed his advances.
It is discovered that a faction of Inveri lead by Alfrey (and old enemy of Terryn) intend to blow up the US President, Rhys and everyone else at the exhibition. They also intend to show everyone that Queen Maeve, the US President at the time and the UK President at the time all lied when they signed the treaty as there is a hidden addition which allows for Maeve to declare anyone that opposes her to be a criminal. If the information got out, there would be war amongst Maeve's subjects.
Laura, Cress, Terryn and Sinclair all race against time to defuse the bomb. Cress nearly loses her life in the process, but is alive at the end.
I loved all of the twists and turns in this story. It was well paced and well developed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 21, 2018
Laura Blackstone is a secret agent for InterSec (International Security Agency). She has to juggle three different identities. There is the "real" her who is a PR Director for the Guild, her Janice Crawford identity who is an InterSec freelancer that works as the druid team member for the human SWAT team, and her Mariel Tate identity who is a high-level consultant for InterSec.
The book opens by following Janice Crawford on a drug lab bust that goes bad when a fellow SWAT team member is killed. Laura's three identities start to converge. Someone is trying to kill Janice (aka SWAT Laura) because they think the murdered SWAT team member told her something. PR Laura (the real her) has to deal with the potential PR fallout while planning a huge fey exhibition opening. And, Mariel (aka InterSec Laura) has discovered a connection between the drug bust and the exhibition opening.
Laura leads an action packed life trying to juggle the identities. They each have their own unique characteristics but, there seems to be a single connecting thread across the three identities--none of them leads a real life. Her loneliness has been going on for a while, and it's finally starting to catch up with her.
I like this book. Overall, I give this book a good, solid 3 out 5. I would recommend this book to others who like urban/paranormal fiction and are interested in strong female characters.
Click here to read the full review on my blog.
The book opens by following Janice Crawford on a drug lab bust that goes bad when a fellow SWAT team member is killed. Laura's three identities start to converge. Someone is trying to kill Janice (aka SWAT Laura) because they think the murdered SWAT team member told her something. PR Laura (the real her) has to deal with the potential PR fallout while planning a huge fey exhibition opening. And, Mariel (aka InterSec Laura) has discovered a connection between the drug bust and the exhibition opening.
Laura leads an action packed life trying to juggle the identities. They each have their own unique characteristics but, there seems to be a single connecting thread across the three identities--none of them leads a real life. Her loneliness has been going on for a while, and it's finally starting to catch up with her.
I like this book. Overall, I give this book a good, solid 3 out 5. I would recommend this book to others who like urban/paranormal fiction and are interested in strong female characters.
Click here to read the full review on my blog.
September 29, 2019
Laura, goes undercover as Janice Crawford, she is a fey liaison from InterSec helping D.C. SWAT with a drug raid. The routine raid goes wrong, the place is much more heavily defended than they thought. Laura disables the first brownie guard. She and Sanchez go after the other brownie only to find that it was a much more powerful fairy. It escapes, Sanchez is killed and Laura barely escapes with her life. She goes back to the scene for clues. When she leaves she is attacked again. Now she knows something is up.
Laura, as Janice and Mariel Tate, does some investigating into what went wrong at the raid. Meanwhile Laura Blackstone is planning the arrangements for a major event at the Archives. She doesn't get much investigative help from InterSec. Not saying they're useless. They're there for a rescue when she calls for emergency help. Terryn fills in some fey history and identifies a suspect, and she uses Cress's service as a healer many times.
It's an action thriller in a science fiction setting with a heavy dose of detective work. Fun read and a good cast of characters to go along with Laura. The the world building was intriguing, though I wasn't always quite sure of the rules, for instance the brownie in the initial scene wasn't powerful, but in the climax one went boggart and was almost unstoppable. I accept the results.
Laura, as Janice and Mariel Tate, does some investigating into what went wrong at the raid. Meanwhile Laura Blackstone is planning the arrangements for a major event at the Archives. She doesn't get much investigative help from InterSec. Not saying they're useless. They're there for a rescue when she calls for emergency help. Terryn fills in some fey history and identifies a suspect, and she uses Cress's service as a healer many times.
It's an action thriller in a science fiction setting with a heavy dose of detective work. Fun read and a good cast of characters to go along with Laura. The the world building was intriguing, though I wasn't always quite sure of the rules, for instance the brownie in the initial scene wasn't powerful, but in the climax one went boggart and was almost unstoppable. I accept the results.
September 24, 2019
This is the first book in the Laura Blackstone duology by Mark Del Franco. This book is Urban Fiction and Alternate Reality. In this one the land of Faerie merged with our world somewhat over 100 years ago. The many types of Fae found themselves in a new world of humans who wanted nothing to do with them. They eventually gained citizenship in several countries around the world but not very much human trust.
In present time Janice Crawford is a druid working for Washington, D.C. SWAT. Mariel Tate is a high-ranking agent in the security firm InterSec. Laura Blackstone is the PR director for the Fey Guild. The catch is that Janice, Mariel and Laura are all the same woman who keeps her personas separate by magic and sheer willpower.
Laura Blackstone is the only real persona and the other two are for her undercover activities. While juggling her personas and finding out why someone has tried multiple times to kill Janice, she uncovers something much larger than a drug operation. It will take all three of her personas to solve the convoluted politics of both human and Fae and the connection to what at first seemed to be an ordinary drug bust.
In present time Janice Crawford is a druid working for Washington, D.C. SWAT. Mariel Tate is a high-ranking agent in the security firm InterSec. Laura Blackstone is the PR director for the Fey Guild. The catch is that Janice, Mariel and Laura are all the same woman who keeps her personas separate by magic and sheer willpower.
Laura Blackstone is the only real persona and the other two are for her undercover activities. While juggling her personas and finding out why someone has tried multiple times to kill Janice, she uncovers something much larger than a drug operation. It will take all three of her personas to solve the convoluted politics of both human and Fae and the connection to what at first seemed to be an ordinary drug bust.
January 2, 2019
This was first published on my blog " Lecture toute une Aventure"
Hard beginning for sure as we get introduced to many characters right at the beginning, some being the same one in fact, so this can lead to some confusion
However, the more you read the more you get immersed as the mystery and intrigue are really well woven and you can't stop reading to discover what lies behind all the events.
The rhythm is perfect , there are dark moments but perfectly balanced with the touch of humour and little bit of flirting from Sinclair , Saffin is a secondary character we come to really love and Terryn is one i want to learn more about ( like how he met Cress for example). We learn a lot about several kinds of fae.
It's definitively a series i want to continue reading but one that must be read at moment when interruptions are not likely to happen.
Hard beginning for sure as we get introduced to many characters right at the beginning, some being the same one in fact, so this can lead to some confusion
However, the more you read the more you get immersed as the mystery and intrigue are really well woven and you can't stop reading to discover what lies behind all the events.
The rhythm is perfect , there are dark moments but perfectly balanced with the touch of humour and little bit of flirting from Sinclair , Saffin is a secondary character we come to really love and Terryn is one i want to learn more about ( like how he met Cress for example). We learn a lot about several kinds of fae.
It's definitively a series i want to continue reading but one that must be read at moment when interruptions are not likely to happen.
March 23, 2019
I really enjoyed this novel, it was fast paced and the alternate universe where fairies, fey and other races have integrated themselves into society is constructed well. The heroine, referred to as Lauren through the book, is able to construct different personalities and change her appearance to match them. The cast of characters is large, dealing with each of the three personalities that Lauren takes on in the book, but by and large, one is able to keep things straight. Janice, one of Lauren's identities, is almost killed as her SWAT team takes part in a drug raid that goes wrong, an event that leads to more attempts on her life and propels Lauren into an event that could have earth shattering consequences.
For those who like urban fantasy and appreciate a story that does bore with a whole history of the universe, this book is recommended for an action packed good time.
For those who like urban fantasy and appreciate a story that does bore with a whole history of the universe, this book is recommended for an action packed good time.
April 3, 2023
The first Laura Blackstone urban fantasy title introduces a new world where the fey have come out and are playing politics.
Laura Blackstone has a number of identities. She's a PR person for the Guild. She's an undercover agent for the fey intelligence agency. And she's undercover on a human SWAT team as the fey representative.
Keeping all of her personas straight has made her concerned that she might be losing her real self. But she doesn't have time to worry about that because it looks like some disaffected fey want to start a war between fey and humans and Laura in all her personas has to find a way to keep that from happening.
I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this story. It was also filled with action. There was even the possibility of romance with one of the other characters.
It was an engaging story.
Laura Blackstone has a number of identities. She's a PR person for the Guild. She's an undercover agent for the fey intelligence agency. And she's undercover on a human SWAT team as the fey representative.
Keeping all of her personas straight has made her concerned that she might be losing her real self. But she doesn't have time to worry about that because it looks like some disaffected fey want to start a war between fey and humans and Laura in all her personas has to find a way to keep that from happening.
I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this story. It was also filled with action. There was even the possibility of romance with one of the other characters.
It was an engaging story.
June 11, 2018
You know what's the worst thing that can happen in my reader's mind? Getting really into a book and then going to place the next book on hold at the library ONLY TO FIND THAT THERE ARE ONLY TWO IN THE SERIES. [insert crying .gif here]
*spoiler?*
I think there were some inconsistencies in terms of the main character and her use of glamour, however. She says she always stayed out of the line of sight of the security cameras but wouldn't someone notice one girl going in the elevator and one leaving? Or one girl walking down the hallway and then immediately another is in her place? Seems like an inconsistency but it didn't bother me too much.
I've already bought and received the next book from Amazon. Might put it off for a little, however, because once I finish, IT'S OVER :(
*spoiler?*
I think there were some inconsistencies in terms of the main character and her use of glamour, however. She says she always stayed out of the line of sight of the security cameras but wouldn't someone notice one girl going in the elevator and one leaving? Or one girl walking down the hallway and then immediately another is in her place? Seems like an inconsistency but it didn't bother me too much.
I've already bought and received the next book from Amazon. Might put it off for a little, however, because once I finish, IT'S OVER :(
January 27, 2017
Laura Blackstone is the ultimate undercover agent. It helps that she's fey and that she can glamour herself to look like anyone. But it's hard to juggle multiple personalities and lives, and when a SWAT drug bust gone bad spills over into her other covers, Laura is in a race to stop the terrorist... as soon as she figures out who they are and what they want.
Why I started this book: It was a gift, and when I read the blurb I was excited for fey spies in Washington D.C. I love genre-blenders.
Why I finished it: Interesting perspectives about the difficulties of maintaining covers, keeping timelines and plenty of action.
Why I started this book: It was a gift, and when I read the blurb I was excited for fey spies in Washington D.C. I love genre-blenders.
Why I finished it: Interesting perspectives about the difficulties of maintaining covers, keeping timelines and plenty of action.
November 25, 2012
First in the Laura Blackstone urban fantasy series revolving around a druidess operative in Washington D.C.
This is based on the same culture and fey/elvish courts as in Del Franco's Connor Grey series, but not the same characters, and I believe these events take place earlier than the Connor Grey series.
My Take
As political as the Connor Grey series, it has a more personal feel to it. Laura Blackstone is very D.C. political. Rather hands-offish. Her particular schtick is the three characters she has created to cope with all the wheeling and dealing she does in D.C. on behalf of the Guild. Very secret-agentish.
Nice work filling in most of everyone's background history. Del Franco gave me just enough to feel like I have a handle on it and leaving out just enough that I want to read the next story to fill in more background.
While I felt detached from the characters, Del Franco brought some warmth in toward the end and I've already ordered up Face Off .
The Story
As Laura, she's working fast and hard to get ready for a major reception at the Archives exhibit featuring the 1914 Treaty of London along with a number of fey documents, letters, and film footage from the early days. Senator Hornbeck keeps trying to shoehorn Blume into the speaking line-up.
As Janice, she's neck-deep in a botched SWAT operation with the powers-that-be trying to pin the blame on her. The concussion she suffered has impaired her memory, but someone out there isn't taking any chances. They keep trying to kill her.
As Mariel Tate, she can just about go anywhere and do anything she likes.
Laura has been careful about keeping her different identities separate, but just not enough as she experiences several people making connections and InterSec gets a new agent.
It all comes to an explosive start when a hidden paragraph comes to light. It's a betrayal and war may erupt.
The Characters
Laura Blackstone is the public-relations director for the Fey Guild in Washington D.C. Saffrin Corril is her brownie assistant with a truly phenomenal recall of everything in Laura's wardrobe. She's also Janice Crawford, a druidess with some minor powers who is a backup officer for SWAT. She's also Mariel Tate, a hot-looking, very powerful Old Fey. She shares an office space and an assistant, Liam Wilson, with Genda Boone, a Danann fairy.
SWAT includes:
Captain Aaron Foyle, Salvatorre Gianni, Gabrio Sanchez, Jonathan "Jono" Sinclair, a cop with important secrets, and Corman Deegan is the Druid out sick that night.
Lawrence Scales is the FBI supervisor handling Sanchez.
InterSec includes:
Terryn macCullen, Laura's superior and an Inverni fairy who is the unclaimed underKing for his clan. He refuses to accept the crown as it would be seen as his having received it from Maeve. He's living with Cress, a leanansidhe who has control of her essence sucking requirements and works as a medic.
Donor Elfenkonig is the Elvenking in Germany. Guildsmaster Orrin ap Rhys was a part of the team who created the Treaty of 1914. Resha Dunne is a merrow and the Solitary representative on the Guild board of directors. Laura hasn't much respect for him in the beginning, but events along the way start her re-thinking this.
Senator Hornbeck is anti-fey and is on the Fey Relations Committee. Tylo Blume owns a private security firm, Triad Global, and has some questionable allies. He also owns the Vault which hires a number of police officers as security. Simon Alfrey is an Inverni fey with a background of wheeling and dealing.
Convergence is a catastrophic event in the early part of the 1900s that most believe began in Faerie and caused parts of Faerie to merge with our world. The Guild is a diplomatic embassy for High Queen Maeve of the Seelie Court in Tara, Ireland. It's also a working police force for magic-related crimes, including InterSec, the International Global Security Agency which is staffed by the fey and governments of other nations.
The Cover
The background is a colorful sunset behind the Capitol building with Laura in a black suit and a very fitted white blouse, open to below her bra and displaying a generous cleavage as well as a lovely emerald pendant. her blond hair blowing in the breeze, she holds an essence ball in her right hand, ready to throw.
The title encompasses the three personas Laura plays as well as the realization that this is the depth of her life, it's only Skin Deep.
This is based on the same culture and fey/elvish courts as in Del Franco's Connor Grey series, but not the same characters, and I believe these events take place earlier than the Connor Grey series.
My Take
As political as the Connor Grey series, it has a more personal feel to it. Laura Blackstone is very D.C. political. Rather hands-offish. Her particular schtick is the three characters she has created to cope with all the wheeling and dealing she does in D.C. on behalf of the Guild. Very secret-agentish.
Nice work filling in most of everyone's background history. Del Franco gave me just enough to feel like I have a handle on it and leaving out just enough that I want to read the next story to fill in more background.
While I felt detached from the characters, Del Franco brought some warmth in toward the end and I've already ordered up Face Off .
The Story
As Laura, she's working fast and hard to get ready for a major reception at the Archives exhibit featuring the 1914 Treaty of London along with a number of fey documents, letters, and film footage from the early days. Senator Hornbeck keeps trying to shoehorn Blume into the speaking line-up.
As Janice, she's neck-deep in a botched SWAT operation with the powers-that-be trying to pin the blame on her. The concussion she suffered has impaired her memory, but someone out there isn't taking any chances. They keep trying to kill her.
As Mariel Tate, she can just about go anywhere and do anything she likes.
Laura has been careful about keeping her different identities separate, but just not enough as she experiences several people making connections and InterSec gets a new agent.
It all comes to an explosive start when a hidden paragraph comes to light. It's a betrayal and war may erupt.
The Characters
Laura Blackstone is the public-relations director for the Fey Guild in Washington D.C. Saffrin Corril is her brownie assistant with a truly phenomenal recall of everything in Laura's wardrobe. She's also Janice Crawford, a druidess with some minor powers who is a backup officer for SWAT. She's also Mariel Tate, a hot-looking, very powerful Old Fey. She shares an office space and an assistant, Liam Wilson, with Genda Boone, a Danann fairy.
SWAT includes:
Captain Aaron Foyle, Salvatorre Gianni, Gabrio Sanchez, Jonathan "Jono" Sinclair, a cop with important secrets, and Corman Deegan is the Druid out sick that night.
Lawrence Scales is the FBI supervisor handling Sanchez.
InterSec includes:
Terryn macCullen, Laura's superior and an Inverni fairy who is the unclaimed underKing for his clan. He refuses to accept the crown as it would be seen as his having received it from Maeve. He's living with Cress, a leanansidhe who has control of her essence sucking requirements and works as a medic.
Donor Elfenkonig is the Elvenking in Germany. Guildsmaster Orrin ap Rhys was a part of the team who created the Treaty of 1914. Resha Dunne is a merrow and the Solitary representative on the Guild board of directors. Laura hasn't much respect for him in the beginning, but events along the way start her re-thinking this.
Senator Hornbeck is anti-fey and is on the Fey Relations Committee. Tylo Blume owns a private security firm, Triad Global, and has some questionable allies. He also owns the Vault which hires a number of police officers as security. Simon Alfrey is an Inverni fey with a background of wheeling and dealing.
Convergence is a catastrophic event in the early part of the 1900s that most believe began in Faerie and caused parts of Faerie to merge with our world. The Guild is a diplomatic embassy for High Queen Maeve of the Seelie Court in Tara, Ireland. It's also a working police force for magic-related crimes, including InterSec, the International Global Security Agency which is staffed by the fey and governments of other nations.
The Cover
The background is a colorful sunset behind the Capitol building with Laura in a black suit and a very fitted white blouse, open to below her bra and displaying a generous cleavage as well as a lovely emerald pendant. her blond hair blowing in the breeze, she holds an essence ball in her right hand, ready to throw.
The title encompasses the three personas Laura plays as well as the realization that this is the depth of her life, it's only Skin Deep.
September 24, 2020
Set in the same world as the author's Connor Grey series which I really enjoyed. This one was pretty good too, 3 1/2 stars really, just didn't grab me quite as much.
February 4, 2015
Laura Blackstone has the ability to glamour herself to look like anyone else. She could disguise and infiltrate any institution she wants and she is very good at it. Laura Blackstone is currently the public relations officer for the Guild.
Janice Crawford is a back-up officer for the SWAT team. After almost being killed by a bullet to the head, she needs to find out who is after her life.
Mariel Tate is a hot Old fae who works cases in InterSec. No one could push her around, not with all the power she has.
All 3 personas are the one and only Laura Blackstone. However, no matter how good Laura is. It's hard to maintain all 3 of her personas when someone is trying to kill her, when someone is trying to start a war between the faeries and the humans, and when someone finds out who she really is.
I was really intrigued by the story of this book. I was looking through some books in the book store and found this one. It has a really fun story. I mean you don't really encounter a heroine with 3 identities. The story was really refreshing and new.
I like this book. It's more of a political crime type of a story, being under cover and all. I like how great Laura is with her job. Also, she is a major tough ass chick. She can fry you in seconds and spy without really getting caught. There were no dull moment in this book. I'm on the beach right now but I didn't even have a dip in the water because I can't stop reading this book at all. I know it's such a waste to read a book when you're a few feet from the sea but it was just that worth it.
I love the relationship in this book because it's just so cute. The guy is slowly creeping into the girl's life and is not being the I'm going to kiss you so we can sleep together type.
This book is in the 3rd person point of view, giving me a bit of a hard time, but I was able to manage. Also, since this is yet another faery themed book, I didn't really have much trouble with this one. I think I'm slowly warming up to this genre. However, I'm convinced that this is more of a fae book than my last one because they have great powers. The other great part here is the little use of weird words. There were some but manageable. Though, I'm still a bit confused on what the real Laura looks like.
I can't wait to read the next book and find out what happens to their relationship. Also, I hope there will be a new identity for Laura.
Read more of my reviews on: http://kimreadinglounge.blogspot.com/
Janice Crawford is a back-up officer for the SWAT team. After almost being killed by a bullet to the head, she needs to find out who is after her life.
Mariel Tate is a hot Old fae who works cases in InterSec. No one could push her around, not with all the power she has.
All 3 personas are the one and only Laura Blackstone. However, no matter how good Laura is. It's hard to maintain all 3 of her personas when someone is trying to kill her, when someone is trying to start a war between the faeries and the humans, and when someone finds out who she really is.
I was really intrigued by the story of this book. I was looking through some books in the book store and found this one. It has a really fun story. I mean you don't really encounter a heroine with 3 identities. The story was really refreshing and new.
I like this book. It's more of a political crime type of a story, being under cover and all. I like how great Laura is with her job. Also, she is a major tough ass chick. She can fry you in seconds and spy without really getting caught. There were no dull moment in this book. I'm on the beach right now but I didn't even have a dip in the water because I can't stop reading this book at all. I know it's such a waste to read a book when you're a few feet from the sea but it was just that worth it.
I love the relationship in this book because it's just so cute. The guy is slowly creeping into the girl's life and is not being the I'm going to kiss you so we can sleep together type.
This book is in the 3rd person point of view, giving me a bit of a hard time, but I was able to manage. Also, since this is yet another faery themed book, I didn't really have much trouble with this one. I think I'm slowly warming up to this genre. However, I'm convinced that this is more of a fae book than my last one because they have great powers. The other great part here is the little use of weird words. There were some but manageable. Though, I'm still a bit confused on what the real Laura looks like.
I can't wait to read the next book and find out what happens to their relationship. Also, I hope there will be a new identity for Laura.
Read more of my reviews on: http://kimreadinglounge.blogspot.com/
March 12, 2010
After getting four books in on the Connor Grey series, it's both a refreshing and a disconcerting change of pace to jump over into the Laura Blackstones, the new series Del Franco is spinning off. This series is set in the same universe, but featuring a new protagonist, the druidess Laura Blackstone, a covert operative who operates under three, count 'em, three different identities at once for the Guild. And when an op she's on under one of her covers goes horribly, horribly wrong, Laura has to investigate exactly what happened--and run the risk of losing not only that cover identity, but her actual life as well.
Familiar as I am with Del Franco's style after four books of the Connor Greys, this one was a bit of a hard go at first. It's clearly meant to be not only the first book of a new series, but also one geared to pull in readers not already familiar with the Connor Greys. If you are already familiar with them, then a good bit of the beginning is redundant exposition, and this for me was frustrating to slog through. Moreover--and this took me several chapters before I finally realized what was going on--Del Franco's writing this series in third person rather than in first, perhaps to help give it its own voice distinct from the Connor books.
This is both effective and distancing. On the one hand, it does indeed make this feel more like a distinct series, but on the other hand, it makes Laura Blackstone feel less immediate to me as a character. I'm not sure how much of this is simply the third person writing, and how much of it is Del Franco's comfort level with writing a female protagonist. But since there's stuff to like here, including a suitably engaging story and chemistry full of promise between Laura and her love interest (who gets major points for being fey and neither vampire nor werewolf nor even Sidhe), I'll be coming back for more when Book Two is available. Three stars.
Familiar as I am with Del Franco's style after four books of the Connor Greys, this one was a bit of a hard go at first. It's clearly meant to be not only the first book of a new series, but also one geared to pull in readers not already familiar with the Connor Greys. If you are already familiar with them, then a good bit of the beginning is redundant exposition, and this for me was frustrating to slog through. Moreover--and this took me several chapters before I finally realized what was going on--Del Franco's writing this series in third person rather than in first, perhaps to help give it its own voice distinct from the Connor books.
This is both effective and distancing. On the one hand, it does indeed make this feel more like a distinct series, but on the other hand, it makes Laura Blackstone feel less immediate to me as a character. I'm not sure how much of this is simply the third person writing, and how much of it is Del Franco's comfort level with writing a female protagonist. But since there's stuff to like here, including a suitably engaging story and chemistry full of promise between Laura and her love interest (who gets major points for being fey and neither vampire nor werewolf nor even Sidhe), I'll be coming back for more when Book Two is available. Three stars.
November 5, 2010
3.5 stars
Laura Blackstone is the PR director for Fey Guild. She is also Janice Crawford, a druid working for SWAT Team in Washington DC and Mariel Tate, a high-ranking agent within a global security firm, InterSec. Laura keeps her other personas separate by magic. On a mission gone awry, Laura (as Janice) is nearly killed while one other member of her team is shot dead. Using her Mariel persona, Laura tries to get answer on what is wrong with the mission, which leads her into a conspiracy that might invite war among the faeries.
This first book of the Laura Blackstone series worked slightly better for me than the first book of Connor Grey series by the same author. HOWEVER, this is probably because Mark Del Franco uses the same world setting as Connor Grey, thus I'm quite familiar with the terms he uses. I imagine that new readers who never read Connor Grey series before will struggle to grasp this new world.
The story is a bit slow in the beginning ... I do struggle to remember the characters, especially when Laura uses her other personas. There are a lot of names jumbling in the story, and I think I only remember few that have closer relationship to Laura. BUT, it picks up its pace and I totally enjoy her adventure -- as she is going deep to investigate. I love her friends: Terryn macCullen (her superior at Intersec), Cress (a leanansidhe medic who is also Terryn's lover), Saffin (a brownie who is Laura's assistant at the Guild), and Jonathan "Jono" Sinclair (a second generation fire-giant, who seems to become Laura's romantic interest after he joins her in the investigation).
I think this is decent first book of a series, and I might follow the it while waiting for another Connor Grey book. I want to read about Jono again. He's charming *grin*
Laura Blackstone is the PR director for Fey Guild. She is also Janice Crawford, a druid working for SWAT Team in Washington DC and Mariel Tate, a high-ranking agent within a global security firm, InterSec. Laura keeps her other personas separate by magic. On a mission gone awry, Laura (as Janice) is nearly killed while one other member of her team is shot dead. Using her Mariel persona, Laura tries to get answer on what is wrong with the mission, which leads her into a conspiracy that might invite war among the faeries.
This first book of the Laura Blackstone series worked slightly better for me than the first book of Connor Grey series by the same author. HOWEVER, this is probably because Mark Del Franco uses the same world setting as Connor Grey, thus I'm quite familiar with the terms he uses. I imagine that new readers who never read Connor Grey series before will struggle to grasp this new world.
The story is a bit slow in the beginning ... I do struggle to remember the characters, especially when Laura uses her other personas. There are a lot of names jumbling in the story, and I think I only remember few that have closer relationship to Laura. BUT, it picks up its pace and I totally enjoy her adventure -- as she is going deep to investigate. I love her friends: Terryn macCullen (her superior at Intersec), Cress (a leanansidhe medic who is also Terryn's lover), Saffin (a brownie who is Laura's assistant at the Guild), and Jonathan "Jono" Sinclair (a second generation fire-giant, who seems to become Laura's romantic interest after he joins her in the investigation).
I think this is decent first book of a series, and I might follow the it while waiting for another Connor Grey book. I want to read about Jono again. He's charming *grin*
June 1, 2011
Laura Blackstone lives in the same universe as Mark Del Franco's Connor Grey series and both are Druids. But Grey's in Boston and Blackstone's in Washington, D.C. She likes politics and does it well. She is the PR Director for the Fey Guild. And that's where it starts to get complicated, because she is also, under a glamour, Janice Crawford who works with the Washington, DC police as a Druid. And very early on in the book a mission goes south. And she's Mariel Tate, under another glamour, a high mucky muck in Intersec, an international security and counterterrorism agency.
I think I prefer the Connor Grey books, but I am interested in reading the next book in the Laura Blackstone series.
“The years piled up, the missions, the plans, and, every time, she stepped forward. Every time, she did her duty. For the Guild. For InterSec. Sometimes she had provided the means for great things to happen, only a very few knowing about it. Sometimes she had done the great things herself, with even fewer people knowing. Her life had become a cycle of stress, endless games of subterfuge, and feints. Nothing ever truly resolved. Things got worse. Things got better. It didn’t matter which, because there was always something more to do.” (p.228-9)
I think I prefer the Connor Grey books, but I am interested in reading the next book in the Laura Blackstone series.
“The years piled up, the missions, the plans, and, every time, she stepped forward. Every time, she did her duty. For the Guild. For InterSec. Sometimes she had provided the means for great things to happen, only a very few knowing about it. Sometimes she had done the great things herself, with even fewer people knowing. Her life had become a cycle of stress, endless games of subterfuge, and feints. Nothing ever truly resolved. Things got worse. Things got better. It didn’t matter which, because there was always something more to do.” (p.228-9)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews