The Devil's Kiss - Sarwat Chadda
Sarwat Chadda's The Devil's Kiss is the story of Bilqis SanGreal, a teenage girl who is one of the last members of the Knight's Templar. Some of the others find her presence controversial – not only is she female, but she was raised Muslim (her mother is Pakistani, her father white). But Billi is well capable of holding her own, taking her age into consideration. She has been trained as a fighter, with every weapon imaginable, under pressure from her father, who is Grandmaster of the Order. Arthur is not a good father – harsh, unloving, and without so much as a kind or complimentary word for his daughter.

So it is not surprising that Billi comes to question her role within the Order. But the forces of evil don't care for Billi's teenage angst. The leader of the Gregori has a scheme to cause the death of every firstborn child in London. Even Billi's hatred of her father and the Order will not let her stand aside in this fight.

I read a review The Devil's Kiss today which seemed to put it in with all the vampire novels that are coming out for girls at the moment (and variants such as the werewolves and even zombies – yes, zombies as romantic interests!) It doesn't belong to this particular genre of supernatural book at all. The Devil's Kiss bears more resemblance to Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five series – except without failing on the female protagonist – or to Skulduggery Pleasant, where the girl actually does kick ass. It's an action-adventure, with the addition of Judeo-Christio-Islamic mythology (and definitely all three). Which means it's right up my alley.

There is some romance, yes, but not with a jerk. (Unless you count her short-lived interest in the boy who turns out to be the big baddy.) And Kay's story never subsumes Billi's. In the bittersweet ending, he sacrifices himself for Billi's sake, which is unusual in that the self-sacrificing role is usually given to the female character (even when she's the main character!) And while Billi is a sword-fighter, Kay has the female-coded psychic abilities. It's nice to have a story that can give the female character some romance without letting that overwhelm her character.

The prose itself wasn't anything special, and I think I skimmed a lot of the descriptive parts, but I was gripped by the story, engaged by the world and the characters. There's a sequel coming out, which I'm keen for, but it's also a fully self-contained story (another nice change!) Particularly recommended for teenage girls who like action-adventure and are sick of having their gender relegated to secondary roles!