Black Sheep: Feathers and Fire, Book 6

Once again, Shayne Silvers, has proven that he is a genius when it comes to writing urban fantasy. His 6th book in the Feather and Fire series, Black Sheep, he takes the reader on a journey that is rich in content and life.A year has passed and every one in Kansas City thinks Callie Penrose is dead. Including her mentor and friend, Roland. In a world of monsters and gods, Callie must fix the misunderstanding so she can save her home and her friends. But, who are her friends and who can she trust? Especially when no one recognizes her, even her best friend can’t see beyond the illusion.We meet new characters that give depth to the story and smile with delight at the ones we’ve met before. Shayne’s use of imagery, dialogue and insightful life philosophy, you sometimes forget you are reading fiction. AS Callie gets to know these new characters, “Freaks”, and learns to call them friend, the reader also falls more in love with the world created around her. As in all his books, we find Shayne’s trademark snark and humor; as well as suspense and surprises. You don’t want the book or story to end.And when you have read the last page, you are unable to pick up another book because it doesn’t come close to the magic of Shayne Silvers’ TempleVerse world. That is why I call Shayne Silvers the Michael Jordan of urban fantasy, in other words, he is the BEST.

And the Nate Temple universe these books about Callie are shining gems for sure! The storyline is both gripping full of drama and action loss, remorse and personal growth that it's hard to put down. Excited to open up the next one and then jump back over to the Nate Temple series as you really have three sets of books you really need to read in the right order for this. All to fit together and make sense and they're all excellent reads

Loved this book, and I can't wait to read the next book. Callie Penrose is a total badass. Don't mess with the White Rose.

Callie Penrose is back to mete out justice in Black Sheep, Book 6 in Shayne Silver’s Feathers and Fire series.Callie returns after a year to Kansas City and finds that all is decidedly NOT well back home! The streets are rife with tension and the possibility of violence exists at every turn. To her confusion, Roland, the same man who’s been a kind of father to her, is apparently responsible for the depravity...But he’s not that man anymore. He’s letting monsters roam the streets to do unspeakable things. Unacceptable things.To make matters worse, Callie has a different homecoming than she expects because no one recognizes her. She suddenly looks and smells like a black-haired demon! “Her kind” definitely aren’t welcome in town by any faction.Callie’s heavenly ties also prevent her from trying to talk sense into Roland. There’s a barrier around her church that only those expressly permitted by Roland may pass, and he’s isolated himself inside. He’s erected a second barrier around the city perimeter to keep meddlers out while essentially keeping everyone else hostage, too.Without being able to turn to her allies in Kansas City, and without being able to leave for help, Callie is forced to grasp at whatever straws she can find. Because Roland, or at least the person he used to be, would want her to.The honorable thing to do is the only choice to make. It’s time to pit student against teacher. Callie is ready and willing to end it. Not to the pain, but likely to the death...Callie has matured and found her purpose, her sense of belonging in the world. Enter this true no holds barred, hilarious-as-it-is-violent story, where we’re gifted with many long-awaited and very satisfying answers. What we’re left with definitely raises some even bigger questions that I can’t wait to explore in Book 7!

He just haaaaaaad to go with that for her full name, good gods. I can no longer associate the name "Shayne Silvers" and "subtlety" in the same galactic zip code.The sixth outing of Callie Penrose is quite notably her strongest installment to date, possibly Silvers' strongest work, full stop.Even with the longer, more developed build-up for Nate Temple and the compressed, rapid development of Quinn MacKenna, neither of the two series have as of yet had an installment that strikes on such a heavy, self-contained plot focus that also manages to loop in multiple longer standing story threads in Callie's personal story and just as much as with the greater universal plot that has been so repeatedly elevated in stakes across all three series. It follows in the wake of the deep introspection and identity crisis of the previous installment with evident carryover of tone, but also drags back into more rapid, overwhelming exterior developments that had been bubbling up in the background for quite some time in the previous books.Time skips can be a tricky thing to manage decently in literature, but managing to completely transpose entire characters and their relationships into such new, blatantly twisted territory that makes the transition feel sudden but also lengthily prolonged and worn out is a considerable feat, possibly one of the best developments Silvers has crafted thus far just in the simple terms of its prose and structure. The entire environment feels warped and wrung out, striking a balance between urban gang warfare and fully fledged post-supernatural apocalypse.The characters and how they engage with this nearly destroyed version of their old world and life bring to bear the stark overlying theme of what despair truly is, how it slowly creeps up and erodes everything inside and out of a person and through them the world around them. Darkness feels heavier, emptiness feels even more hollow, and to those trapped literally and metaphorically between opposing, overwhelming powers seem to have had much of the color and music of their very nature bled out of them to varying degrees. Callie herself is almost a beacon of life and energy by comparison, a virile force contrasting the bleakness that enveloped her home and the people she cares for.Conflict itself is in no greater or lesser supply than the previous book, but now each battle with brawn and magic also seems balanced with battles of clashing emotions and circumstance. Callie's identity crisis has made progress but still no full resolution as even disregarding the weightier questions of her birthrights and her grander purposes crafted before she was even born, the very nature of who she is and who she sees herself to be is still riddled with uncertainty and hesitation. By further contrast though, her actions and the purposes behind said actions strike stronger as she sees the costs and consequences of what her absence has resulted in, and throws herself back into the role of judge, jury and executioner to balance the scales.And as usual for every question we have answered in the Templeverse, three more pop up to replace it. The answers or resolutions however are no small or insignificant things of course. Learning one's life and purpose are supposedly laid out before birth is juxtaposed with the knowledge that choice and free will can rage against the tide of destiny. That trust comes not only in what feels logical, but the things that feel the most illogical of all, as some things are tied not in oaths and motivations, but in bonds of blood.And that suffering unto itself is as significant and necessary as alleviating it, because all things come in balance, that good can lead to evil and evil can lead to good. Even if at first glance the good is more like evil, as to murder Hope is to embrace Despair.Plus there are ninjas now, can't just glance right over that now can we.Overall the book feels like a wild, jarring ride from one catastrophic mess to the next, but in the best of ways and the breathing room it allows in between is just as striking for how heavy and overwhelming the moments can be, peaceful or otherwise. Rather than elevate the stakes of the world itself, the characters now are the ones being elevated, and Silvers makes it clear that their changes herald much more yet to come. As always I await what comes next.

No spoilers: Wow. What a roller coaster ride! No, seriously, this storyline has twists, turns, wicked action, loop-de-loo’s and sometimes makes you scream. Yes. Scream. At the author... Shayne Silvers, where are we going next???? Can’t wait!!!

Du Shayne Silvers à la hauteur de Shayne Silvers.... bref, toujours aussi pleasant à lire.... tous ces livres sont addictifs !

This serie and all the other ones by Shayne Silvers are a great fun read, not really mindblowing but very nice to relex by.

Callie continues to come into her own in an explosive, blood-dripping journey through the streets of Kansas City via the Heavens, Fae and ancient realms. This is book six of an on-going adventure and as such the story does not stand alone, for best effect you must read the earlier books. All of the Templeverse books if you can. Shayne Silvers is THE craftiest of craftsmen, THE "smithiest" of wordsmiths; a storyteller to rival Dahl,Lewis, Tolkien so captivating are his tales. If Rowling inspired a new generation of readers then Silvers is keeping them engaged. He has created an enthralling, extraordinary world of dragons and unicorns, demons and angels, vampires, priests, and strong, really strong, female leads. Silvers' writing is audacious, humorous, shocking and emotive. He gleefully invites expectations with "batter up" then pitches curve-ball after curve-ball, chuckling maniacally as we swing an miss. Tell him I sent you.

I hate work because it gets in the way