Review: BaSatai Outside In by Suzan Battah

Author: Suzan Battah
Title: BaSatai: Outside In
Format: ARC Paperback
Publication: April 14, 2012
Publisher: Createspace
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Rating: 4 out 5
Source: Author
Amazon | Goodreads 
Summary
Seventeen year old, Armani Radnelaq a full blooded BaSatai is plagued by a curse in her blood. A curse created from hate and designed to break the divide between two parallel worlds of Earth and H-trae when Armani's blood is spilled in attack and she dies.

S'teuqoubs have been travelling back and forth across the divide for centuries without trouble. The BaSatai and Guardians monitoring activity and enforcing rules to ensure peace and harmony but if the divide splits and opens, a much greater number of supernatural S’teuqoubs will filter into earth destroying equilibrium which the BaSatai and Guardians will be unable to control. Humanity and the BaSatai will suffer and perish. The parallel divide must remain secure at all costs.

Armani has remained hidden on earth with her adopted father Elijah since her birth. She has been raised in the human way and fights her natural instinct to evolve into a BaSatai. The BaSatai in her requires her to evovle and shift, use her powers and strength. Yet Armani is freaked out by the need to shift. She smokes, has a bad attitude, must deal with aggressive bullies and control her natural BaSatai instinct. Her Guardian with BaSatai Warriors are coming for her. She refuses to accept her fate and doesn't believe any BaSatai should die to protect her.

The blood curse maturing in her veins makes her a target for her enemies. Her Guardian Karhl and an elite BasSatai Warrior Rafael are the first to arrive and prepare her for her crossing over. Her attraction to Rafael complicates her purpose to stay on earth even more. They both insist she fall into line and follow their lead but she is not ready to leave earth just yet...

Review:
Unique and fascinating. Battah has created such an amazing concept with this one. I loved the bond between the characters and the meaning behind them. This book has something for everyone with a tidbit of romance and lots of action. I kinda cringe when I say this but I would love to see this one visually onscreen, as I feel like my "mind" movie just doesn't do it justice. Armani, the female lead has been told she holds a curse though she is quite adamant it is not her the BaSatai should be sacrificing their lives for and she is very vocal about this. It's good that she is a girl of action even though she hasn't mastered her powers yet. Her strentgh comes from her capacity to love, a very human trait it seems she has adopted. Armani can be a bit frustrating at times because she is strong-willed, and very determined to not give in to what the BaSatai want for her. She is more concerned with fitting in and being accepted by the so called Primpers in school, mainly Lily, her former friend turned enemy makes school a very lonely and unpleasant place. Then one day these BaSatai warriors come to take her back to H-trae, so they can work on breaking the curse . It pratically takes her almost being killed to get her to be more willing to at least try to learn more about her heritage. She begins to do things that Karhl, her guardian and Rafael, the love interest are baffled by as she has not fully shifted into her BaSatai form. Everything is not what it seems in this one as there some unexpected surprises that happen. I look forward to reading the next.Great read!


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