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    White Tiger: Dark Heavens Book One
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    White Tiger: Dark Heavens Book One
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    White Tiger: Dark Heavens Book One
    Ebook629 pages7 hours

    White Tiger: Dark Heavens Book One

    By Kylie Chan

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “Packed with Chinese mythology, kick-ass action, and sexual tension….A smart, entertaining read.”
    —Australian Specific

    A young woman accepts a position as nanny to the young daughter of a handsome, wealthy, and mysterious Chinese businessman—only to discover her new employer is really a god…and every foul demon in creation is out to destroy him! With a premise like that, fantasy aficionados and die-hard action lovers alike will no doubt be expecting something exceptional—and Australian author Kylie Chan delivers big time! White Tiger is the first book in Chan’s breathtaking trilogy that ingeniously blends magic, martial arts, and urban fantasy with a healthy dollop of paranormal romance thrown in to sweeten the pot. Fans of Hong Kong kung fu movies and the novels of Lilith Saintcrow, Liz Williams, Karen Chance, Devon Monk, and Ilona Andrews will flip over White Tiger, Kylie Chan’s remarkable non-stop martial arts supernatural adventure love story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 30, 2011
    ISBN9780062096180
    Author

    Kylie Chan

    Kylie Chan is the bestselling author of the Dark Heavens and Journey to Wudang trilogies. She married a Hong Kong national in a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony and lived in Hong Kong for many years. She now lives in Queensland, Australia, with her two children.

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    Reviews for White Tiger

    3.5/5

    164 ratings28 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Its a satisfactory, but fairly obvious book. The characters are competent, bordering on stereotypes. We have the Emma Donahoe, a pretty nanny who is hired to take care of Simone, the 6ish year old daughter of John Chen, a mysterious businessman. This is set in Hong Kong, and the mythology in this book is incredibly interesting.Its not without it problems - Emma is perfect, no real faults, easily falls into her new job with no problems. The bodygaurd, Leo, falls into the trying to break stereotypes trope - that is, he's a big black guy, who is gay. And follows the gay stereotype of being a good dresser... John Chen is mysterious, but is very quickly figured out. The plot itself isn't really that deep- typical good vs bad, except that the bad isn't out for world domination. The bad is out to win a contest. And, there's an obvious solution, that is incredibly overlooked, and would have added depth to the story... but its not even suggested (which is having the side of good trying to kill the kid, and solve the demon problem)...Overall, I was hoping for more badass heroines with Chinese ethnicity, rather than a white nanny who has things martial arts come naturally to her. I am also not a fan of the love story. To much "I can't touch you because...", which is a cheap way to create tension in a story. Oh well, its a subpar example of the genre, but I liked the setting, and the author does seem to know Hong Kong.
    • 4/5
      This is a fun, entertaining read which had me hooked from the first chapter. Set in modern Hong Kong, the book combines Chinese mythology, romance, adventure and martial arts in a harmonious whole. Emma is a fabulous heroine and certainly no shrinking violet. She is decisive, humorous, protective and intelligent and is supported by other wonderful characters including Mr Chen, Lady Kwan, the white tiger and Leo, whom I adored. With a fast-paced plot and lots of supernaturla action to keep the pages turning, I am really looking forward to the sequel.
    • 3/5
      Well, how much fun are urban fantasy stories? I like to think that even though it's inevitable that they step on someone's religion, they can give those religions respect and, hopefully, generate new interest in cultures and traditions that readers might not otherwise get exposed to. Kylie Chan has certainly done this. Sure, there are a few places where the characters let me down - why are the Celestials so impressed that she is 'remarkable' to stick around to protect Simone? They are basically demi-gods themselves, but have dedicated their immortal lives to serve her and Mr Chen, haven't they? Some of the dialogue was a bit confusing too - I kept expecting them to go back and explain their mysterious references, but it never happened. Still, I raced through this story and had fun doing it, and really, isn't that the point? I'd much rather that than get bogged down in too much exposition and boring character back stories. Yes, I'm definitely up for book 2.
    • 3/5
      I really liked the concept of this novel: a Chinese god needs a nanny for his half human daughter and Emma moves from part time to full time live in helper. Then she starts noticing that Mr. Chen carries a sword, and the bodyguard Leo can do some pretty amazing stuff. My only quibble is that she's really pushy, asking questions constantly and being outraged when secrets are revealed. She's a boisterous Aussie I guess and that drives her character, but she's my least favourite (even though she's kind and loving and generous and brave and loyal, it gets to be a bit much). The martial arts are written from a place of knowledge and the Chinese gods and immortals and demons really come to life. I'm interested to see if the head of the kindergarden (where Emma previously worked) will become an enemy, she's been threaded throughout the book, but they've got more than enough to handle dealing with the demons trying to kidnap Simone.
    • 5/5
      Great book, interesting theme.
      Enthralling from the beginning non stop reading!
    • 5/5
      Don't get me started on this book. I LOVE it. I picked it up on a whim one day and I couldn't put it down. I've read this book so many times that the binding broke. The story telling is amazing, and so are the characters. I will admit that it is a little hard to get into at first, but once you're in, you're in! It's the perfect mix of romance, Chinese mythology, and awesome fight scenes.
    • 5/5
      Addictive. Very hard to put down. I make that mistake and someone I new took it and read it to its end until she finished it, then I got to finish it. Don't start reading it at night or you won't end up sleeping.
    • 4/5
      I am not quite finished, but I am enjoying this book more than I would have expected. I only read occasional fantasy. I can totally understand why so many reviewers have problems with it. It is an unexpected fantasy that becomes more and more fantastical with every chapter. The book partly reads like an old fashioned 1800s young person's adventure. I describe this book as Jane Eyre meets Journey to the West. The heavy suspension of disbelief required relates to Chinese mythology. Be prepared to read about popularized versions of the Taoist and Buddhist tales and accept them as active and real parts of the story.To enjoy this book, I suspect the reader must be open to a fantasy YA flavored romance of the Twilight genre. The reader will read about Chinese mythology in exhaustive detail. The story has many pages that move through detailed events like shopping. training and life. Those detail parts of life appealed to me. There is martial arts training and Chi control that become important to the story. I am having a great time with this book that slowly sucked me in.
    • 2/5
      I wanted to like this book. I really did. I even made myself finish it because it should have been a pretty decent story.It was not.The author is obviously young and/or inexperienced, certainly in the writing field anyway. There is too much myth-history, too much 'look at me I know some Chinese food/words/names/culture', too much poorly written teen angst minus the angst component, and too much detailing of the daily mundane activities of a household.There is no sense of foreboding, mystery or suspense. There is no sense of romance or angst... we are simply told: 'bad guy coming' or 'expressions of love coming`. Chan really needs to learn how to show, not tell.Oh, and a story outline would have helped the author too - what were these tangents with Emma meeting her friends for tea, and her friend marrying a gang-member all about? And why did Miss Kitty keep calling and Emma not just answer the call and tell her to stop? Maybe these were here to set the groundwork for the next novel?Regardless, Chan should have focused on making this novel suspenseful enough to warrant a second novel... I certainly won't be reading any more of them. Mainly because I simply don't care about any of the characters - other than maybe the one good demon who was already killed - and I don't need to read about how exciting it is for Emma to see Mr. Chen in clothes that aren't black. Like we care (but now that I think about it... might have improved the story if Mr. Chen had a penchant for walking around naked... especially at public events...)
    • 3/5
      I'm guessing this is the author's first book, because it is really awkward. It reads like fan-fiction to the Chinese mythos, and is full of awkward and clunky paragraphs and people who don't make a lot of sense. Plus, the protagonist shows all signs of being a Mary Sue - everyone good falls in love with her, and despite being just-folks, she has amazing powers and so on and so forth and I can't even stand typing all this.What saves this mess is that there is an interesting story buried under it. The gods of the Chinese mythos, who are notoriously protean and complex under the best of circumstances, are engaged in a massive war, and Emma is caught up in the middle of it. Plus, a decent bibliography! So not really recommended, but you could skim it, probably.
    • 4/5
      This was a book I liked, but didn't always enjoy, if that makes any sense. The story was entertaining and right up my alley (Chinese god hires woman to be nanny for his half-god child, woman turns out to be mysteriously gifted at martial arts, demons attack in pretty much every chapter, hijinks ensue) but the execution was a tad lacking. I liked most of the characters, but it really felt like the book needed to have been much more strictly edited. I know that the books were originally published in Australia, so maybe the cultural differences between here and there have something to do with how I perceived it, but the book had a definite tendency to bog down in places. One of my personal pet peeves was how often the author name-dropped places around Hong Kong. Instead of saying "And then we went out for lunch" it was always "And then we got into the black Mercedes and drove down Waterloo Road to Argyle Street before turning off to take the Kai Tak Tunnel out to Kowloon where Mr. Chen knew of a good restaurant for cha siu baau" Overall, I would recommend this to people who are nerds for asian history and mythology, and who are willing (or able) to put up with the occasional misstep in the writing. I liked it well enough that I'm going to continue with the series, so that speaks for itself, I suppose.
    • 2/5
      Having (re)read Gaiman's American Gods and being in Hong Kong where there are shrines to gods both big and small (or rather national and local) every few feet, I was thrilled to find a book that incorporates the idea of Chinese deities as 21st century mortals. That it's set in modern-day Hong Kong is even more of a plus. The writing thus far isn't as spellbinding as Gaiman's, but I can read and understand it even through a noisy HK family dinner party. It also reads more like a YA novel (with the inevitable star-crossed romance), but it's a fast-paced, engaging read *if* you are interested in the Chinese pantheon, Hong Kong or martial arts novels.
    • 1/5
      I had more problems with WHITE TIGER than I could possibly enumerate in a review. It’s not just bad…it’s kind of gross, with the most unappealing heroine I’ve come across in a while.

      The novel takes place over a period of a couple of years. For the most part, we’re subjected to the surprisingly boring day-to-day goings on in the household of Mr. Chen, a god of the Chinese pantheon. For the first quarter of the novel or so, our heroine Emma crushes on Mr. Chen while demanding that she be privy to all his secrets. I’m not sure why it takes her so long, since Kylie Chan spoon-feeds us the information and the members of Mr. Chen’s household are total blabbermouths. Over and over again, someone will slip up and do something supernatural and Emma will demand to know what’s going on, only to be told that she’ll find out eventually, if she’s patient.

      Once Emma knows about Mr. Chen’s true nature, she starts nagging him about starting a sexual relationship. And yes, I do mean nagging. Someone who knows Mr. Chen will warn Emma to back off, that she shouldn’t get her hopes up where he’s concerned, she’ll acknowledge the warning and promise to keep a safe distance, and then within pages she’ll make a pass at him. Her boss! At one point, Mr. Chen threatens to fire her if she throws herself at him again. I guess we’re supposed to believe they’ve got some sort of star-crossed tragic love affair going on, but I was embarrassed for Emma and didn’t feel the romance at all.

      WHITE TIGER ought to be a sort of Jane Eyre story – and wouldn’t that have been cool? – but Kylie Chan is too busy bumping Emma up the social ladder to subject her to the kind of humiliations that Jane suffers. Emma gets a lot of praise for precious little, like when she overhears Mr. Chen in a meeting with his generals. She says, “Why are they giving you their armies? Are you expecting a war?” and Mr. Chen responds, “You are very perceptive.” …. Yeah, it must take a lot of insight to figure out what he needs an army for.

      Or when Emma goes with Mr. Chen to a fancy charity function. One second she sneers at all the women after him for his wealth; the next she has an encounter with her old boss, who wants to maintain a relationship. Emma turns a cold shoulder and then we get this smug bit of internal monologue: “Kitty’s reaction to seeing me was amusing; she was clearly threatened by me. I shook my head. She was the one who’d given Mr. Chen my phone number in the first place. Didn’t she regret it now! I smiled with satisfaction.”

      Emma denies it, but she’s a smug social climber. The novel focuses so much on all the perks of her life with Mr. Chen, trips abroad and visits to the Jockey Club and his yacht and such, while the battles are merely blips on the radar in between. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. The plot gets lost in the endless repetitive scenes; once Emma and Mr. Chen acknowledge their feelings for one another, there must be at least twenty scenes that exist just so someone can bring up their romance and announce, “You two are idiots!”

      All I can say is that I felt like a bit of an idiot for finishing this book. It wasn’t worth the time.
    • 3/5
      Well, I haven't read an adult fantasy romance in a while. This one was pretty interesting and, by and large, I enjoyed it, but I do feel compelled to mention that this is more about the fantasy and less about the romance (in the harlequin, sexy fabio on the cover sense). If you are in this for sexy scenes, you will be woefully disappointed. They have to happen sometime, but not yet.

      The plot of this novel was largely setup, with little actually resolved, although there is a definite narrative arc to it. The characters were interesting, but didn't quite resolve into entirely real people for me, particularly Mr. Chen and, to a lesser degree Emma. Possibly the disconnect is because of the parts of themselves they do not yet know? Whatever the case, I do like pretty much everyone and hope that their story turns out well.

      I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that this story has a lot of Chinese mythology in it, about which I know a grand total of nothing. Reading a story set in a different mythological base was really refreshing, not that I don't dig my Greek myths. I also loved reading about wholly different cultures (Hong Kong and Australia).

      While this one did not blow me away, I am seriously curious to check out the next book/s in the series, because I so want to find out what's going to happen. What's the deal with Emma? Does she have some sort of power or is she just awesome? Will she and John ever be able to be together for real?
    • 4/5
      A young woman accepts a job as the nanny in the household of a chinese businessman and she realises that there are things unspoken that are important. It turns out that the chinese businessman is one of the chinese gods and that demons are looking to kill him. To help she has to embrace this world and learn martial arts.I enjoyed the story, it probably could have done with some severe editing and there were times when things lagged but overall I enjoyed the read. I'm curious to know where things are going to go from here.
    • 3/5
      I happen to be the kind of person who likes slow books. I enjoy descriptions of daily life, and I don't need the action exploding around me. My feelings about White tiger are a bit ambiguous though. The book is slow, albeit for a definition of slow that includes fights with demons, but in some respects it felt too slow even for me, where the aforementioned fights with demons became too repetitive. So how come, even though I think the book was too slow, I still like it? I thought the love affair was too corny, and the main character Emma, the nanny who finds out her employer is a god, too unfazed. Still, I read it in two evenings. The setting is definitely original with a lot of Chinese mythology that was enjoyable and the story is engaging. I liked the descriptions of Emma's martial arts training. And the side characters particularly are vividly described. I hope some of the side story lines (like the ones with Emma's friend) will turn out to have a point in the next books. And I hope there will be a bit more story and a little less repetitiveness in the fighting (yes, I know Emma is getting better and better in these fights, but still) in the next books. But in spite of some flaws, I rather liked this one and I guess I'm going to buy number two soon...
    • 3/5
      This is the first book in the Dark Heavens trilogy. This is a tough review for me to write because I am a bit torn about this book. I loved the idea and the Chinese mythology...but the writing is just sooooo bad. It’s almost like Chan has trouble with her English and didn’t have a decent editor.Emma is a native Australian teaching English as a second language in Hong Kong, she also teaches private lessons after hours. John Chen, a client of hers, wants to hire her to be a full time nanny for his daughter Simone. For Emma it’s the chance of a lifetime, she loves teaching Simone and John is paying her really good money. Then Emma finds out that John isn’t exactly human and that her life may be in more danger than she ever dreamed.Okay let’s start with what I loved about this book. I absolutely loved learning about the Chinese mythology; it was fascinating and super interesting. I loved the characters. Emma is spunky, yet nurturing, and just a neat character. John Chen is amazing; I love that he’s a God yet is so down to earth and love to spend time with his daughter. Simone adds a ton of laughter and fun to the story, she is four years old and an absolute delight to read about. The gods that flit in and out of their lives are fun to read about. John’s predicament of not being able to take True Form until Simone is grown is an interesting one and lends a fascinating aspect to the story. The tension between John and Emma is delightful, and I was really rooting for them to work things out.There are a ton of action scenes and lots of martial arts training both of which I enjoy reading about. I loved the exotic settings that the stories take place in as well.So what’s wrong with this book? Well it is just absolutely horribly written. Hands down it is one of the most awkwardly written books I have ever read. The language and dialogue between characters is very uncomfortable and stilted throughout. Chan repeats herself a lot which causes the story to move slowly. Chan also uses the same descriptors over and over and over again. Emma is constantly described as cold-hearted...which doesn’t really make sense and sounds awkward. John and Emma constantly say they are fools, people around then call them fools....I get it they are fools. These descriptors are just really awkward and uncomfortable to read. The English sounds very broken throughout and there are a lot of things technically wrong with this book...and by I lot I mean pretty much the whole book.I kept reading this book in hopes that Chan would find her stride at some point. She just never does...in fact the book got worse the longer I read it. I just loved the idea behind this story so much, I really wanted to love it.I really really want someone who can actually write to write a book with this idea behind it. Maybe a great urban fantasy writer like Ilona Andrews, Jennifer Estep, or Kim Harrison can cut a deal with Chan and write this awesome story in a way such that it is actually readable.Overall a pretty bad read. There are some great characters and ideas here; I wanted to love this book. I did enjoy the tension between John and Emma, the mythology, and the action scenes. However, the writing is some of the worst I have read this year. The language is broken, awkward, and stilted. Chan repeats herself over and over using the same adjectives over and over and they are awkward sounding adjectives. The pacing is slow because of Chan’s language and writing struggles. Maybe future works by Chan will be better written. Chan has some great ideas, she just can’t quite seem to get them on paper in a way that’s readable. Not recommended. Instead check out other urban fantasy such as books by Ilona Andrews, Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, or Jennifer Estep.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this WAY more than I expected to. Engaging characters, interesting and believable world, great star-crossed romance. I can't wait to see where this series is going. I may even have to buy it...
    • 2/5
      White Tiger by Kylie ChanA twist of fate puts Australian Emma Donahoe, into a prime position in the John Chen household. As a part time teacher of John’s daughter Simone when there is a problem with Mr. Chen’s nanny and he needs a new one, Emma steps into the fray. She should have known things were not what they seemed. Mr. Chen is no ordinary Chinese executive. He is ultra rich, highly secretive, ultra worried about his daughters’ safety, skilled in Martial Arts and various swords and other tools of the Art. He is extremely mysterious, very handsome, rich, single (what more could a young woman want in a boss?) and to ice the cake, his 4 year old daughter has a rather unusual bodyguard.Soon Emma finds she has been drawn into a very rare and unusual world that is populated by Celestial beings, Gods, Demons, magic and danger.This is a 562-page book (paperback edition and allowing for the glossary) and as such should have allowed us ample time to be pulled into what could have been a delightful and rather unique story. Unfortunately, what it did do was to give the author ample time to repeat herself. Unfortunately, we are served up the same dialogue, see the same scenarios, hear the same pleas over and over again chapter after chapter and sometimes page after page. Once this book decided that it was going to be a romance it just got worse. For the heroine Emma and the hero John may not touch each other…ever. In addition, let me tell you this gives the author license to draw out the angst and chest beating on both of the main characters part. It took me 250 pages before I found something I could enjoy. While I really find the mythology interesting, I felt that if I had wanted to learn ‘that’ much about it I would have chosen a different sort of book. A little of that knowledge would have gone a long way; but as we soon learn, this author does not know the meaning of “less is sometimes more”.The second half of the book does become a bit more exciting although there are so many parts where the author introduces something interesting that should have been fleshed out a bit more, and just abandoned it. I understand that this book is a set up novel and perhaps some of the unfinished min-stories may yet be concluded or at least explained in later volumes. I can see where these books are headed and it does sound like the rest of the series may be fun to read, but if the rest of the books are going to be like this one, I think I will have to pass.
    • 3/5
      This urban fantasy is filled with Chinese mythology, gods, demons, magic and ordinary humans, including Emma, an Australian in Hong Kong who after working as a kindergarten teacher and private tutor for four years, accepts the job as full time nanny to four-year old Simone. Emma eventually comes to learn that Simone’s father, John Cheng, is actually Xuan Wu, god of the Northern Heavens and creator of all martial arts. Drained of energy in his human form, he’s only got a few years left to teach his daughter what he can so that she can survive. And knowing he’s weak, members of the household are often under attack from demons.Emma learns martial arts and how to work with energy in order to keep Simone safe, finding out that she’s actually gifted, as if she’d known this stuff before. She easily becomes one of John’s best students ever. She and John find themselves in love but can’t do a thing about it as he could easily drain her energy just by touching her. And when he returns to his True Form, a combination turtle/serpent, he doesn’t know how many years he’d have to be in that form to gain enough energy to come back to her.This is a difficult book to review. The story itself is intriguing and has plenty of fight scenes. There’s also interaction with other gods and I enjoyed these aspects of the book. But I couldn’t connect with Emma and it’s difficult for me to feel empathy for a character without that connection. There were times when she’d either suddenly become upset or start laughing, yet there was no feel for her emotions leading up to that, so her sudden response is startling. Much of the story feels somewhat choppy as a lot is crammed into this rather large book. And yet we don’t know much about Emma or her background. Why did she come to Hong Kong to begin with? We do get a scene where we meet her parents, sister and her sister’s family, but other than them questioning her about her situation, we learn nothing. I can say that overall I enjoyed the book, but I doubt that I would go ahead and read the rest of the series.Reviewed for Amazon Vine Voice
    • 4/5
      Emma is an Australian in Hong Kong. She’s been working as an English teacher at a local Kindergarten as well as taking on private clients. One of these clients is Simone the four year old daughter of a very wealthy Hong Kong businessman. When Emma quits her kindergarten job, Mr. Chen, Simone’s Dad, hires her as Simone’s full-time, live-in, nanny.Upon moving into Mr. Chen’s home, Emma starts to discover strange goings on…Leo, Mr. Chen’s driver is actually more like a body guard, and Mr. Chen’s late wife was murdered on Leo’s watch. Mr. Chen teaches martial arts and basically has a do-go and full complement of very sharp weapons in his home. Mr. Chen always takes a sword with him. His students are not allowed to speak to Emma under any circumstances or face the wrath of Mr. Chen. Emma knows something isn’t quite normal about Mr. Chen, but no one will answer her questions. Meanwhile Mr. Chen is realizing there is something a bit different about Emma, something he can’t quite explain. Gods and Goddesses, demons and kings, might and magic all come into play.I found this book incredibly hard to put down…to the point where I got all of four hours of sleep last night. White Tiger is based on Chinese mythology, which I knew nothing about, and it totally drew me in. Maybe I am just a sucker for these modern re-telling of very old stories.I loved the way Ms. Chan slowly reveals everything, and the frustration that it causes Emma. The stereotypical dance between the man trying to “protection” the woman, and the woman showing the man just what could have gone wrong in his protection scenario. The yin and yang of the situation, basically. I so enjoyed the characters! Simone at 4-5 is delightful and wise beyond her years, but then what do you expect from a child who is half God. Bai Hu gave fantastic comic relief in the most trying of circumstances. Leo, was the uber-man, and ironically gay. I loved the irony, and also was really impressed by the theme of family that runs through the story…how everyone in Mr. Chen’s household is loved as family and accepted for who they are, be it a 6’6” gay bodyguard, or a tame demon trying to gain humanity.I did have some issues with the story. The dialog was a bit choppy and I didn’t understand the purpose of the storyline with April and Andy, it seemed totally pointless. There were a few times during the story where Emma offered something, and was met with abject horror, but this reader never understood what was so wrong with Emma’s offer. Case in point…I believe it was the first time Emma killed a demon with her chi, Mr. Chen was incredibly weak and Emma drew on her chi to offer it to Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen and Leo reacted with great disdain, but for the life of me I couldn’t understand why. Rereading the scene, then the whole chapter, still didn’t answer that question for me.It seems, from other reviews, that people either love this book or they don’t. Put me in the loved it column. I will be waiting for the next book in this trilogy. I understand this was originally released in Australia some time ago? If so, I hope the publishers don’t make me wait too long for book 2.
    • 5/5
      Wow I have never heard anything about the mythology of China. Just a little bits here and there. It was confusing for me to get it straight but sounds like others do to or they mean different things in different regions and different names. I enjoyed reading about them. Emma is a kindergarden teacher in Hong Kong from down under. Emma has one private student she teaches english to Simone. Simone father is Mr. Chen a rich powerful man. The owner of the school Miss Kwok wants Emma to spy on Mr. Chen. Emma resigns and is offered full time nannie position, which is a livein job for 5000 US dollars a month. Emma wants to know what his work is and is it legal. She is told that it is and after you have been here awhile he will tell her. Simone is a 4 yr old girl, who is charming and loving. Who is excited to have Emma full time nannie. Emma has different lessons she is learning,piano, violin,horseback riding, english, martial arts and demon fighting. Leo is called a black Lion he is over 6 foot a big black body gaurd. He will protect Simone with his life he feels quilty he could not save Simone mother life. Mr. Chen you learn about him the whole book a little at a time. He is a shen. He is a general lived on the mountain thats not on this plain. Till he got Married and stayed humane to take care and protect Simone. He is part turtle and snake. He is dark Lord. Because he cant go to the mountain he is getting weaker and weaker thinks he has two more years left before he will have to leave this plain and has no idea how long it will be before he is strong enough to come back to earth. He is god of martial arts infact he invented most of them. Emma fits right in as the nannie but it is driving her crazy not to know who or what John does. Who are the badguys. Why are they trying to kidnap Simmone. About 6 months after she is fulltime she learns the main secrets. She asks to learn martial arts to help protect Simone and herself. She is falling in love with John but can never be with him without killing herself. The story draws you into the world of Chinese gods. They come and visit John and to be trained by him. It feels real and natural how the story unfolds it goes in great detail of life everyday and training of martial arts and demon fighting. It has a lot of love between the characters, family bonds, friends bonds and even romantic love. It has a lot of demon fighting and killing. Rich lifestyle, full of mythology of China. Its a nice size book of 528 pages. Their are two more books in this series cant wait to read them. Would recommend this book. I was given this ebook in exchange of honest review.
    • 3/5
      This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I have to admit it's not one I would have selected myself. I don't know why, but I rarely read books that contain martial arts. Given that this book has a woman performing martial arts on the cover accompanied by Chinese lettering, I never would have picked it up.Having said all of that though, I enjoyed this book by Kylie Chan. What drew me in were the 'supernatural themes' and it was a surprise to me to find that I enjoyed the martial arts segments the most. Good and evil faced off in the form of gods and demons based on Chinese history and I enjoyed this aspect of the novel immensely. I desperately wish Chan hadn't written in a romantic interest between the two main characters, ugh! The romance was unbelievable at times and disrupted the rhythm for me in an otherwise very exciting story.This is the first novel in the Dark Heavens series by Chan, and although I'm very keen to find out what happens in the war, what will happen when Mr Chen takes true form and what happens when the ring 'wakes up', I'm hoping my friend will tell me so I can get on to the next book on my list.
    • 4/5
      I quite enjoyed this book. I was unable to put it down. Although I didn't believe it was well written, the storyline was interesting and had me hooked right until the end. Now I can't wait to read the next two. Very good.
    • 3/5
      I expected a fantasy action novel - certainly there is a war going on amongst the Spirits, Immortals and Demons on the celestial plane and leaking down to the Earth. You’d think that there would be plenty of material for the conflict that is required for an interesting story. You’d be wrong - there is simply no conflict at all in this book. There is action and fighting, certainly and it’s well written and keeps you glued (it was what made it possible for me to get through to page 478) but action is not conflict. Plot-wise the action is mostly training for threats which come few and far between. When at last the real tests come and one of our characters is, of course, mortally wounded - there is always a way to heal or even return from Hell so any real concern for life and limb goes out the window fast. Anything that might possibly add a little conflict/interest/suspense to the story is handled by the author by making her protagonist … how can I put it… just so… ace! Other characters continually point out that Emma is "cold-blooded"* and able to take virtually anything without emotional effect. The heart of a story is the emotional journey taken by the protagonist - what is the point of a protagonist without emotion? I am truly baffled. The closest our protagonist gets to conflict/potential for emotional growth (the whole point of a decent, let alone good, story) comes in the form of a spurious, bodice-ripper, Mills and Boon style love-upon-which-she-must-not-act romantic plot, which becomes the main plot of the book. Yet again the author removes the actual conflict by making the protagonist just too in lerve! Death is nothing if she can be with her man! URGH. She’s 28 for goodness sake and he’s several thousand years old but they act like teenagers (or, as every single character seems to get a chance to say multiple times "Fools" - isn’t it romantic to be foolish boys and girls, even at the expense of the children?)You may have noted by now that I found this book and it's characters exceedingly annoying. I'm sure there will be people who love it but it needs to be marketed to them and put on the romance shelves, not the fantasy shelves. We are given so little of the celestial war that the Gods plotline becomes little more than an explanation of the romantic interest's extraordinary wealth. Similarly, the significance of the very promising, well written action scenes is reduced to an excuse for physical contact between the forbidden lovers and the occasional expression of deep concern and therefore lerve when someone is injured (which we know will be fixed in no time either by a little magic or because Emma is sooo extraordinary). So, how does it fair as a romance novel? Probably very well judging by the novels which sell well (I had to produce many onto audio in my former life and so have read more than I'd have liked). The values in romance novels is almost always "anything for true lerve" and that is certainly the case here, both Emma and her romantic interest show the most appalling character not just in indulging in a nanny-widower relationship but even use the child as a "shield" for physical contact between the two - I won’t explain, it’s just.. yuck. To me, the romance between them has both the intensity and sense of longevity that a teenage crush has - Emma’s willingness to die for him is explained, many teenagers in love feel that strongly - but there is no sense of a foundation that would last - but, again, that's the kind of 'love' romance novels seem to go for and pretend to a "happily ever after" To be fair, this novel may be suffering from "series-itis" - this is book one in a series called "Dark Heavens" and it may be that Chan has been asked by the publisher to pad her story out to make it a trilogy or whatever it will be. It is possible that Chan has a great story over all and it will eventually develop into something interesting beyond just a romance but I am not interested in finding out.
    • 5/5
      A terrific story I, like the above reviewer, was orginally not impressed when I started reading but as soon as I had finshed the first chapter, I was totally hooked. This is a thrilling supernatural adventure story with some love interest thrown in. This is a terrific book from a new AUstralian Author. Every page more exciting than the previous.Emma takes a new job with Mr Chen and notices strnage things happening around her. She finds out Mr Chen is actually the Lord of the Northern Heavens and his friends are the other three winds. She gets sucked into his world in her attempt to be a better nanny to Simon, Mr CHen's Daughter.
    • 5/5
      This was a really good book. It really captured my imagination and her whole world fit together beautifully in my head. It may have helped that I have fond memories of Hong Kong and recognised hte areas mentioned but even without that it would have still been an excellent book. I definitely recommend it!
    • 3/5
      Kylie's first book, and the first book of the trilogy is an action novel set in modern day Hong Kong. When Emma, an Australian living in Hong Kong, accepts a lucrative position as a nanny, she thinks the family is a little odd. She concentrates on her job with the delightful young Simone.She soon realises all is not what it seems, her employer is in fact a god, and demons are after Simone and will stop at nothing to get her.A good first book, I'm looking forward to reading the next one.