Tag: Shifters

Renee Rose & Vanessa Vale-Fierce

Fierce is the5th book in the Wolf Ranch series put out by the very talented Renee Rose and Vanessa Vale. In this one, we get to meet Charlie who gets together with part-time ranch hand and acting sheriff, Levi.

So, back at the ranch, the guys are waiting for a vet to bring a mare that is going to be bred to one of the Wolf Ranch studs. Levi is grumpy because the vet is going to be there for 2 weeks, and is going to be staying in the bunkhouse the entire time. Levi isn’t all that thrilled about having to share the bunkhouse with a human for 2 weeks. He had some issues with his human grandparents, and that soured him for humans for the rest of his life. But, Rob is his boss and his alpha, and what Rob says goes, and Rob said that Charlie will stay. Then, the truck hauling Seraphina, the mare, drives up, and all of a sudden things change. You see, Charlie the vet isn’t Charles the vet, she’s Charlotte the vet.

Charlie’s boss wants his best mare bred to the best stud, which would be Eddison at the Wolf Ranch. Because he is so particular, he wants her to stay there and hand breed the mare, and supervise the entire thing. When she pulls up and gets out of the truck, she surprises everyone, since she wasn’t what they were expecting to see. When there is some discussion as to where she will stay, she tells everyone that she will just go back into town and stay at a motel there. But Levi has something to say about that idea, and he says that she will be staying at the bunkhouse, with him, and only him. Johnny, the other ranch hand, gets kicked out to stay with his parents.

Levi is attracted to her, but he isn’t sure that she’s his mate, because he’s only half wolf, and he’s never shifted, so he doesn’t have that instinct, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have plans for Charlie. But Charlie, for as much as she would like to have plans for Levi, also has some problems in CO, and they aren’t going to go away anytime soon.

I love how strong and confident Charlie is. She’s worked hard to get to where she is, she’s good, and she knows it. Of course, with the fact that she’s Black and a woman, she has to be better than good, and has to always be professional just so no one dings her. But, she is good. And she’s funny. She’s also very caring, which you can see when she talks to her Pops and deals with the horses. It’s more than just a job for her. I really like her, and I was mad that she was put in a bad place.

I totally understand why Levi is upset about having humans around. His family history isn’t conducive to liking humans. He’s a very good man too. He just wants to live his life. He hasn’t had any huge burning desire to go into law enforcement, but he seems to be good at it, and I think that he will do good for people, for more than just the fact that it’s a good idea to have someone in the know being part of law enforcement in the area.

I get why Rob did what he did, and it worked, but it was kinda dickish to do.

OK, that’s all for today! Go check it out! Happy reading!

Lee Savino-Tamed by the Berserkers

It’s been a while since we have had the pleasure of a new Berserker book from Lee, and Tamed by the Berserkers was totally worth the wait.

Of all the Berserker books, even my all time favorite, Kidnapped by the Berserkers, none of the books have wrung me out the way that Tamed did. Seriously, Tamed totally destroyed each and every single one of my emotions and left me completely empty. Lee just absolutely killed it when it came to this book.

Sorrel is one of the spaewives who was rescued from the Abbey. She was supposed to be mated to Thorsteinn and Vik and even wore their mating marks, but they dropped her off with the unmated spaewives and then went out on a long patrol. After spending a long while there, she was found off the mountain with an empty sling and another spaewife who was unconscious and had a bloody head. Now, she’s about to go on trial for what she’s done, and she has no mates there to protect her since hers abandoned her. But, just in the very nick of time, up come Thorsteinn and Vik ready to save the day and their mate. The guys come up with a plot and life happens.

Of all the heroes in all the Berserker books, I have never outright and flat out disliked one. At least, not until Tamed. I really didn’t like Vik and Thorsteinn in the beginning, and frankly, it took me a long while to warm up to them. It did eventually happen, but it took them a lot to make me forgive them for everything they did. I think Sorrel forgave them before I did.

I really identified with Sorrel for so many reasons. One is that she never really felt like she fit in with the rest of the spaewives at the Abbey. She’d rather be out in a pair of breeches with her bow, hiking through the woods and hunting. She really feels like no one understands her and like no one is there for her. The majority of the other spaewives make fun of her, especially since her mates abandoned her, and her very few friends are either mated or just can’t be there with her all the time. I can totally relate to feeling like you don’t feel like you connect with anyone and that you don’t belong anywhere. I can also relate to feeling abandoned by the people who are supposed to love you, protect you, and keep you safe for the rest of forever. I mean, can you imagine how hard it is for Sorrel to see all of the other orphans mated off happily to their mates while hers have abandoned her? I can’t imagine how heartbreaking and gutwrenching that is. See why I don’t particularly like them at first?

I can’t wait for the next books in this series. I think the next one is Sister Juliet’s story, and that’s going to be a really interesting one to read.

636644945194563959

When Thorsteinn and Vik told the Alphas that Sorrel wasn’t their mate? Yeah, that right there is what made me really not like them. I was only annoyed when it turned out that they left her in the unmated spaewives house, but that? That moved annoyed to dislike. The fact that they took her out and let her blow up things made me start to like them more. I saw that they actually saw her, and they were trying really hard to tame her but not break her.

OK, that’s all I have to say on this one. Go check out all of the Berserker books. I love them so much. Happy reading!

Raisa Greywood-The Leopard Prince

Before I get to the review, if you want a Christmas card from me, you need to hit up the FB page and sign up. The signup closes tomorrow, so get to that. Now, on to the business of the day.

Today, we’re talking about the next book in Raisa’s Shifter’s Mate series, The Leopard Prince. It came out last week and if you haven’t gone to read the series, why haven’t you? It’s a great series and very well-written, but more than that, it’s the women in this series are the real powerhouses. It’s not like the guys are weak or anything, but it’s just that the women are so strong and determined that they are the real story drivers, if that makes sense. It makes sense in my head, at least. Sometimes it’s hard to translate what I’m thinking in my head into what comes out of my fingers, and since I’m the blogger trying to review, that’s not always great.

So, this one picks up where Mage ended. Dakar and Daiyu have offed his brother, who has been abducting the shifters, and if you remember, Renata tried to eat him. Daiyu would’ve been more than happy to finish the job, but…

Now that he’s out of the way, it’s time to get all the people off the Earth. So, after they have taken off from Tibet and gotten Di’s family and all the monks up to space, they talk to Renata, and find out that there’s a problem. There is a fleet on the way toward Earth and they aren’t going to be helpful to them. And the Ximerans can’t send someone out to get to them before this hostile fleet engages them. There is one warlord coming their way, but that’s because he’s chasing his runaway mate, Soledad, and she happens to be headed their way. Not only is she headed their way, she’s also picking off the fleet as she comes. Soledad has taken out some and captured others, but either way, she’s making it easier for Dakar and Daiyu.

This is where Daiyu shines. She’s not only a warrior, she’s been trained as a general. She’s a strategist. She’s also pretty charismatic, which can be helpful. And the fact that she is not just a snow leopard but she is THE snow leopard, the most powerful one, doesn’t hurt. That’s because she and Dakar decide that it’s better to take the enemies on on the ground, so they land where the largest concentration of people is, and many of them are shifters, and she manages to unite humans and shifters to get them to fight. She’s very good. I’d follow her.

So, again, I love Daiyu. She’s absolutely fantastic. She’s ruthless and practical. She will fuck you up so hard that you will wish that your great-great-great-grandparents never met. Renata, who I still think is the bomb, will go after you on a real personal level, but Daiyu will go after you, your family, your friends, that one person you had a crush on in the first grade, their families, and everyone ever associated with you. Do not fuck with her. There are a lot of people who learn this fact in this book, and she’s glorious about it. So many great things happened in this book. I cannot wait until the next book. Hopefully, Raisa won’t make us wait too long!

eabd12bf9b7c57d4e44589b6d777bed4

All those Ximeran women. That was surprising. There are going to be a lot of women there who are going to be super surprised about how things have changed, especially for anyone who thinks she’s going to get someone who is already mated to a shifter. I can’t wait to see what happens with that.

And Soledad’s ship blew up? Oh no!

OK, that’s all for today. Really, you need to go read this series. Happy reading!

Raisa Greywood-The Leopard Mage

Raisa Greywood has brought out the next book in her Shifter’s Mates series, The Leopard Mage. Then time around, we are getting a new shifter, Chen Daiyu, and a new mate, Dakar. Daiyu is almost as epic as Renata. Renata is scarier up close and personal, but Daiyu is a strategist and tactician. Renata will fuck you up immediately, Daiyu will fuck you, your friends, your family, and the people you knew in 1st grade up.

Daiyu is a snow leopard from high in the Himalayas. For the shifters, snow leopards are revered. They are the mystics, the priests, the wise people, the ones who are in contact with the spirits. Daiyu left her family and people in Tibet and traveled from Tibet all the way over to Canada and then down to Atlanta. It took her YEARS to do that. But, she was going to have to go to Ximera, meet her mate, and help the shifters adjust to their new home. And the migration off Earth has to happen soon, because it only has a couple of more years left when it comes to supporting life. Daiyu got her match, but, just like Renata, she was captured. Daiyu spends the time meditating and pretending to be unconscious. Then, when she gets the chance, she and her leopard escape.

Dakar has been matched to Chen Daiyu. However, he’s sworn to not take a mate because his brother helped with a genocide and is now stealing shifters. But when the First Councillor, his uncle and almost father, and War Mate Renata tell him that he has to go rescue Daiyu and help to head off Soledad, a piratical jaguar shifter who managed to free herself and is now taking her vengeance, he does his duty. He’s just going to do everything he can to make sure that he doesn’t bond in any way to Daiyu.

I like Daiyu. I think that she’s insanely emotionally and mentally strong. She’s been trained by everyone to be mindful and mystical and scholarly, but she’s also a wicked fighter. I mean, she uses two swords and kicks serious butt. And that’s not even what it’s like when she’s a leopard. Big kitties are scary. Dakar is kind of stupid sometimes. OK, more than sometimes. He needs a cluex4 big time. He’s an idiot. But, he’s an honorable idiot, if still an idiot. He made me mad, but Daiyu handled him so well. I have to say, I really love that Raisa has written her heroines to be the badasses in this series. I mean, their guys are no slouches, and they are pretty damn Alpha, but when it comes to Renata and Rakon or Daiyu and Dakar, the women are the BAMFs.

animal-world-attention-branch-267074

I love that when the rescue comes, it’s Daiyu who is making the plan for them to do the rescue and that Dakar just lets her. I also love what his leopard tells him at that point. And I’m wondering if that’s going to be very important in the future. Oh hell, I’m not wondering, I’m pretty damn sure it’s going to be important.

I’m eager to find out the story of the last addition to the book. That’s going to be very interesting. I do love the Dalai Lama. He’s pretty cool. I’d love to see more of him in the next books, and I think that putting him and the First Councillor together would be AWESOME!

I’m so looking forward to Soledad. Raisa promises that she is even more BAMF-ier than Renata.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. You really should go check out the whole series. Happy reading!

 

Katie Douglas-Flame Daddies

Katie Douglas has been having a good month. First she released an Aria Adams book, and now we’re getting a spinoff of her 24th Century Daddies ‘verse. (Her Daddy and Her Master was one of my first daddy books and was my first Katie book) Today, not only are we getting Daddies, we’re getting dragons, and a reverse harem with Flame Daddies.

Alora is a princess. She’s not just A princess, she’s THE princess, the daughter of the Emperor-Paramount of the Interplanetary Alliance, in other words, the ruler of the entire galaxy. So, she’s a pretty important person. Which is why slavers kidnapped her after they blew up the government center on Nidia, which Alora is pretty sure also killed her father. Luckily, she gets rescued.

Argon, a silver dragon, Sharpe, an emerald dragon, Brynn who is gold, and Canavan who is an amethyst dragon are 4 brothers. They have managed to… acquire a spaceship. It’s hard for dragons to own things like spaceships since the elves on Telia II, with whom they share a planet, want to kill them all off. In fact, there are very, very few dragons left any more because of the genocide the elves are committing. Species-cide? Whatever. But, the boys have managed to get one, and they are on their way to Telia I to see if it’s a good planet for dragons when their sensors show that there is dragon DNA on a ship ahead of them. They figure there’s eggs on the ship, so they are going to go rescue them, but when they get there, they find Alora. So, of course, they rescue her.

All the boys are attracted to her, and the funny thing is that they all pretty much have the same thought, which is that they shouldn’t let their brothers know that they are attracted to a humanoid. Hmmm… Didn’t stop them though, now did it? Some of the dragons have cool fire power. Sharpe and his green fire are healing, so when he flames Alora, he heals all her injuries. Canavan’s purple fire is even better. He can adjust the temperature and he can make his flame stoke the feelings of lust, and OMG he does. The guys also have a pouch on their bellies when they are dragons that they can use to carry things, like ginormous, scaly kangaroos. I thought it was just like a built-in Baby Bjorn, since they tuck Alora in there when they are flying. Kind of fits for a Daddy book, even though there isn’t so much age play in this one. Since it’s a Katie book, it’s sweet with a nice bit of funny too. I’m hoping we might run into some old friends as we go through the rest of the series, since we already know one half-elf.

tmp855871500656312321

OK, without going back and checking, I’m wondering if the story that the dragons tell Alora about the reason the war picked back up is about Flin from Her Daddy and Her Master, but I can’t remember right off how old he is. I’m going to have to go back and check to see if I’m right or not.

I’m looking forward to seeing Alora rule with the guys backing her up. I hope that there are still a lot of dragons. I want to know what she’s going to name the planet.

OK, that’s all for today. Go check out all of Katie’s Daddy books. Happy reading!

Renee Rose & Lee Savino-Alpha’s Mission

Renee Rose and Lee Savino have done it again. Once again they have brought us into their shifter world and rocked our world. Today we have Alpha’s Mission, which combines a fun little espionage story along with a paranormal romance. All the good stuff. And oh yeah, there may be some really hot sex along the way.

We have met Charlie Dune before. He’s a superspy who tried to shove himself into an investigation, and then ended up helping Nash, who he knew from before. But while he was helping out Nash and the Tucson pack, he learned something about himself he never knew before. He’s a werewolf. Now, a month later, he’s trying to figure out his life. When he misses a meet with his handler Annabel Gray, he has to go meet her elsewhere, and he realizes that she smells soooooo goooooood, and he can’t control his raging trouser python around her. She sends him out on a job but he gets made and the next agent ends up dead.

Annabel Gray has been handling Charlie for a long time. That’s why when he needed help, she worked her mighty cyber skills and helped him out. Now that she’s investigating something she shouldn’t be into and it starts to come back on her, she knows that Charlie is the place to go. Not just because he owes her, but because he’s the kind of person you take on Naked and Afraid with you. He’s incredibly competent and he makes her feel safe. Plus, he’s mighty damn hot.

OK, I like Charlie, but sometimes he’s a stupid, stubborn man. He is just bound and determined to figure out things on his own and doesn’t want to ask for help. Help that would’ve made a lot of things much easier, and made things easier in his life. Of course, that would’ve caused the book to be shorter, so I guess I can forgive him so that I was able to read the book. When he isn’t being stupid and stubborn, he’s a good man. He’s fiercely loyal and protective. He’s willing to do anything it takes to make sure that Annabel is safe and happy. Anything. I like Annabel too. She’s very smart and is really good at what she does. She’s dedicated and she cares so much for her family and for Charlie. The sex is fucking hot, which goes without saying, as it’s a Renee/Lee book. The adventure part winds really well with the romance, which is always nice.

animal-hunter-nature-2361

I was surprised that it took as long as it did for Annabel to know that Charlie was a werewolf. I was surprised that she didn’t put it together when the same wolf appeared way far away from Charlie’s cabin where she originally saw him. There was only one thing that both those places have one thing in common, and that was the fact that Charlie was there. But, I suppose that if you are stressed and being chased by the CIA, not always figuring things out immediately can be forgiven.

Charlie was really stupid to not take advantage of all of his resources when he was trying to figure out the whole werewolf thing. Why would you not talk to people who are already dealing with what you are? See, stupid male.

OK, go check out the book and give it a good read. Happy reading!

Lili Zander and Lee Savino-Draekon Fever

After an eventful spring filled with lawsuits and new babies, Lili Zander and Lee Savino have been able to get back to the prison planet and bring us a new story to love with Draekon Fever.

So, our major players are Ferix, Rorix, and Sofia. The guys were two of the guys in the drop with Arax, and rescued Sofia and Harper, among others. What Sofia doesn’t know is that right after they saw her, Ferix and Rorix had to run away and turn into dragons. She was their fated mate. However, they didn’t want to completely overwhelm her, so they decided that they would wait a few days and let her settle in. Except there was another problem. The male who caused the crash that stranded the humans on the prison planet is distantly related to them. By law, that makes them as culpable as he is and they can’t benefit from his crime. That means that they can’t claim Sofia as their mate, no matter what their inner dragons and their hearts want. So they end up with a mating fever.

Sofia is a doctor. She worked really hard to get where she is. She’s attracted to and flirted with Ferix and Rorix, but suddenly they turned cold on her. She’s a virgin and she figures that she’s just going to be a virgin forever, because she can’t even give it away on the prison planet. When she finds out they are sick, Sofia knows that she has to go and try to make Ferix and Rorix better. It’s not just because she’s a healer, it’s because she’s still obsessed with them.

When Ferix and Rorix discover how far into their mating fever they are, they know that they are going to have to leave before they completely lose control of their dragons, and grab Sofia and drag her away, so they run. Only once it’s been discovered that they ran, right as the Zorahn invade their prison planet, does Sofia find out that they are her mates, and she’s damned if she’s going to just let them die.

I love the fact that the virgin isn’t the sacrifice to the dragons like you often see in fairy tales, instead, she’s the hero of the story. She’s strong, smart, fiesty, and will take no shit from anyone, no matter who they are. She believes what she’s doing and she believes in her mates. Dariux is really interesting in this book. He’s really interesting and very, very tricksy. It’s like he knows things because he put them in place. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Silver_dragon_-_Lars_Grant-West

I love how the commander at the hidden city got what he wanted and didn’t have to outright defy any orders. That was smart and tricky. I have a feeling that we are going to need to have that quality coming up.

Bryce’s story looks to be really interesting, after everything that has happened in this one. I can’t wait to see what Rahit’vi is going to do right now. I think everything hinges on her and her actions.

So, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check out all the books! Happy reading!

Lee Savino-Owned by the Berserkers

Lee’s back with her Berserkers. They are a bunch of Viking and ancient Celtic warriors who were changed into wolves by magic. They have three forms, the man, the wolf, and the monster. The Berserkers walk a fine line between being sane and crazed. The monster can eat away at their sanity. Because of that, most of the Berserkers have paired up in brother bonds, to help keep their sanity intact. It wasn’t until the Alphas found their woman and found out that she was something called a spaewife that they learned that spaewives can mate with them and can control the beasts. There were originally four sisters, but then the Berserkers found out about an abbey filled with orphans who are spaewives. So, they raided the abbey and took all the orphans with them.

In Owned by the Berserkers (Berserker is a fun word to type), we get the story of another one of the orphans, Fern, and her mates, Svein and Dagg. This book flashes back and forth between the present and the past. We get to see what happened at the raid and what’s currently happening.

At the raid, Svein and Dagg discovered Fern and carried her away. They knew that she was her mate and they decided that they were going to be very careful with her and woo her before they told her. All Fern knew is that she felt safe with them and that being with them held off her visions of the skeletal monster who wanted to have her. She got to spend just a few blissful days with them before that monster, the Corpse King, decided to attack. He managed to make Svein and Dagg crazy and cause them to do things they never would otherwise.

Now, Fern lives with all the other unmated spaewives and orphans. They live in a lodge on the mountain, isolated from all the Berserkers so that they don’t cause any problems. When each of the women goes through the heat that each spaewife goes through, she is mated to the Berserkers who are their mates. The women get to see some of the already mated women from the orphanage, but other than that, they are kept under close guard.

Fern has problems though. One is that her visions of the Corpse King are coming back and they are coming back stronger. All she knows is that she was safe with Svein and Dagg. And there are wolves that are howling around the edge of the mountain. She’s been feeding them on the sly, but she finds out that they are to be driven away after a blizzard. That’s when Fern knows that she has to do something.

Fern, Dagg, and Svein are going to be my second favorite trio, after Sage, Rolf, and Thorbjornn. Fern is an incredibly strong character. She knows that she has to do something and she goes out and does it, even after she’s been warned that the wolves howling at the mountain are monsters with nothing left of their humanity and that there’s a horrible blizzard on its way. She goes out and does it anyway and nearly dies from the weather, but succeeds at her overall goal. I was sad about some things in this story, because, well, they are sad things. I was also worried about some things. But, overall, I was hopeful and knew that Fern would be successful in her goals. She was too determined to win for her to manage to fail. If you haven’t read any of the Berserker books, you could read each as a standalone, I guess, since each is a story in and of itself, but they are all part of a larger story, and you will like them more if you have read the ones before it.

2018-05-15 21.59.01

I’m looking forward to seeing how Fern’s new power is going to fit in with the rest of the story. I do love that the women are powerful and that they are actually powers in their own right, not just because they are mated to a Berserker pair. I think that’s pretty awesome.

I’m looking forward to seeing Juliet’s story. I know that Jarl has something to do with it, so it’s going to be interesting to see. She may be the first Berserker bride without a flower name. Maybe she needs to have a name change.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check out both the Berserker Saga, for how the story began, and the Berserker Brides for how the story is continuing. You won’t be sorry! Happy reading!

Ava Sinclair-War Bride

We’re back in Ava Sinclair’s world of Drakoryans, those hot, hunky dragon shifters. The first two books of the series focused on Lyla and her mates, but now we’re looking at a new bride. We still have hot Alpha dragon shifters, but we have 3 of them now, but we are also in an active war situation, which is different to the last two books. Thus the name, War Bride. See how that works? LOL.

So, our heroine is Isla. In the last book, her village was destroyed by the ShadowFell and Lyla, her mates, and one of the Lords of Za’vol found her in the bottom of the well. She had jumped in there to escape the firey breath of the bad dragons, and hadn’t been able to get out, so if they hadn’t come along, she wouldn’t have lived.

They all took her back to Lyla’s castle so that Isla could be ministered to. While there, news is given that the Drakoryans will now be able to take War Brides, instead of the way that they had been doing it. The Lords of Fa’vol are the first to be given a war bride, Isla.

So, Turin, Zyvis, and Jayx are the Lords of Za’vol and they are pretty jazzed about being able to have a bride. I mean, who doesn’t want to have a mate and who doesn’t want to have a chance to have their bloodline go on? At least in these books. The boys are trying to get Isla to warm up to them because it’s time for them to seal their mating. But first, they must have their big fight so that the order in which they are with Isla for the first time.

There are a lot of really interesting things that go on in the book. One of them is we get to see more into the ways that Drakoryan families can interact, both positively and negatively. I found that to be really interesting because we don’t always see the bad side of heroes and their families, so getting to see the ugly and how it affects a lot of things was refreshing. There are lots of things that have really whetted my appetite for the next books, and hopefully, Ava won’t make us wait for very long.

agriculture-cereal-close-up-540925

Yeah, this may look like it’s a weird thing to go with a story about dragon shifters, but trust me, when you read it, you will get it.

It’s going to be a huge change for the villagers and for the Drakoryans to have the villagers right there.

I think I know who our new grouping is going to be. If I’m right, it’s going to be explosive and I can’t wait for the fireworks to start.

OK, that’s it for this one. Go read the whole series, you won’t be sorry.

Ava Sinclair-Night of the Drakoryans

Ava Sinclair finishes off our Night of… RH grouping. She’s bringing up some more Drakoryans. Since that series is already a reverse harem, it’s not that hard to fit it right into the rest of the group. This one brings us the story of Syrene. We see her a bit in Fire Bride, talking to Lyla, so her book obviously comes before Lyla’s story. Night of the Drakoryans gives us her full story and explains why she is the way that she is in FB. Not that I’m complaining about her, I like Syrene.

So, here’s our story. Syrene lives in one of the tiny villages that is ruled by the Drakoryans, a species of dragon shifters. The Drakoryans burn the fields, limit how much the villagers can grow, and several other things. They also demand a virgin sacrifice every few years.

Syrene’s mother died when she was born. She saw Syrene breathe but three times before she died. Her dad did the best she could, and he married another woman. Syrene’s step-mother is the type that gives evil step-mothers a bad name. I mean, if she had decided to feed Syrene a poisoned apple, it would’ve been nicer. The evil cow has spent years upon years upon years squashing down Syrene as much as she can. She won’t give her clean clothes, she won’t get Syrene a brush to brush her hair, so it ends up looking like a bird’s nest. Since Syrene has raven colored hair, the cow calls it a raven’s nest. Anytime something happens in the village that Syrene’s half-brothers have done, the step-cow makes the villagers believe that Syrene is the one who did it, so no one in the village likes her. Her dad is worse than a limp noodle. He does nothing to protect Syrene at all, even when she’s beaten by her half-brothers. So, when Syrene is chosen for the sacrifice, instead of the normal mournful and somber situation, the village practically throws a party, after all, this worthless, terrible, nasty, horrible young woman is leaving, and their village will be happier. Her step-cow even tells her that with the extra acreage that they are going to get from Syrene being sacrificed is going to go towards getting something useful, a cow.

The only people who have the proper attitude when it comes time for her to leave are the priestesses. They are careful to prepare her and make her look beautiful and try to make her last hours in the village good ones. The only glitch happens when the evil one gets a chance to talk to her. Syrene got to have her say and make the stupid cow cry, so there’s that. As she walks to the Altar Rock, the villagers are like damn, maybe we might’ve done fucked up a little. Syrene though, she just ignores them like the queen that she is, and waits for the dragon. She’s ready for death and has accepted that it is come.

Edrys, Nyron, and Xarsi are the brothers who are the lords of Jo’lyn. It is their time to have a mate, and that mate is Syrene. Edrys is the one who goes to get here, and when she wakes up in his bed, she’s furious at them. She actually attacks him. When the guys don’t understand what’s going on with her, they call for the Oracle, who tells them all about the past and how she was treated. He doesn’t give them all the details, just that she’s been ground down, and hated, and she thinks she’s worthless. He also tells them that if they don’t bond with her immediately, the bloodline of Jo’lyn will die. To give them that chance, instead of each brother having his own night, the Oracle will turn one night into a long night. Their guests will think that it’s only been 1 night, but for Syrene and her boys, it will be 6 days. That will give them the time to figure out how to bond with her.

OK, I’ve looked at this, and realized that I’ve had a lot to say. Of course, this is all stuff that you will get in the first few chapters, so I’m not really spoiling anything. I don’t think, at least. As much as I like Lyla, and I really do, I relate more to Syrene. She’s been so profoundly neglected, abused, and devalued that she barely feels like a person. The long night gives each of the guys their chance to bond with Syrene, and they each go about it differently. And they go about it in a way which will meet a need that Syrene may not even know that she has. But in turn, she makes them better men.

architecture-building-castle-417274

I’ve talked a lot about the story. I think more than I usually do. Mostly that’s because I relate so much to Syrene. She’s a tough, tough woman. She went through so much, but she managed to survive, and now she’s at the point where she can thrive. Having her three mates, each of whom meets something in her and makes that section of her feel better and between the three can make her whole, has given her a place to finally be the amazing person that she is. It’s a great story, and I think it works really well when it comes the rest of the Drakoryan world. The stress in this is all internal, no outside drama or pending war, just a relationship that needs to be formed. That’s something totally different.

I have to say, I love Nyron’s justice. At least, I think it’s Nyron. I’d have to get up and go check my Kindle and I left it in the other room. And his vengeance appears not to be sated any time soon. I’m bloodthirsty enough that I took great joy in that. And so did Syrene.

OK, I’ve gone on and on and one. It’s a relatively quick read, just like the rest of the series, so you should definitely go grab it so that you can read it. Happy reading!

%d bloggers like this: