Posts Tagged ‘urban fantasy’

Ecstasy Unveiled
Excellent read, but I would recommend you read all of the others first. While I’m sure it works as a stand-alone somewhat, the characters in this series are far too connected, and each have a vivid storyline of their own. Not knowing them first (and the hardships they have experienced), would be unfortunate, because you’d be missing out on the maximum effect.

I found myself wanting to be a part of their family (uhhh…not that there’s anything wrong with mine, of course – love you mom! tee hee!). But you know…maybe the author can write me into the next one

Ok so, what I like about this series as it has progressed, is that the author has focused on multiple characters, allowing us to experience different facets of their lives separately from the main story line. The past couple of books have featured a main couple, but also, an extra side story that follows a potential coupling. What I also like is that trouble frequently brews between the couples (hey that’s not very nice of me!). Not just angsty drama, but serious life altering situations (ie: prejudices), and the difficulties overcoming them to satisfy what the heart wants, but keeps denying itself.

This book centers on the life of Lore, the recently discovered half human-half incubus demon ”angry” brother of the Seminus Demon trio (Wraith, Eidolon and Shade – wait-weren’t they all angry?).

Lore has issues. Lots of issues. Oh sure, he’s unbelievably sexy HOT, but despite appearing human, and being raised as a human, he hit a bump in the road when he became an adult. His demon half started showing itself (one he didn’t even know he had). He had no clue what was up. Nobody told him. And unfortunately, Seminus demons have bouts of rage and aggression and a special “ability”. Lore does too, but has no clue how to control it to his advantage. Lore has a special arm/hand thingie. 

Anyone who touched the bare skin of his right arm and hand, marked by the diluted glyphs called a dermoire that snaked from shoulder to fingernail, dropped dead on contact.

While it can restore life, it mostly takes it. Especially during sex. Which he really needs, cause you know, of the incubus thing. But he doesn’t have it much. Ergo, he’s angry. 

Lore also has a full sister (Sin) who is also half Sem demon, meaning she is their sister too (and considering Seminus Demons are strictly males, the whole “sister” thing is about to throw a monkey wrench in their already troubled world). Her side story is just as addictive, and her little fling with a bad boy paramedic (vampire/werewolf mix) leaves her irritated, and us wanting more.

Past circumstances have forced both Lore and his sister (Sin) to be under the control of another demon (Detharu), working as assassins (they are physically marked by his scalding handprint that will snuff them out if they betray him in any way). While they try to kill “morally” (no children), they must submit to their master or be unbearably tortured. Lore has been offered his last job, and will be released from his contract (Yay him! Free at last!).

Unfortunately…there’s a catch. He must kill Kynan (the most protected immortal human, who is his brother’s best friend, a part of his own family, and the key to “world peace” – well…their world, that is).

A sinister smile split Deth’s face wide open. “The target,” he said, “is Kynan Morgan. The very human you brought back to life.”

The ground shifted beneath Lore’s feet. Oh, holy hell. Though Lore had saved Kynan’s life, he hated him and really wouldn’t mind putting him in the ground. But Jesus…if he killed the human, lore would spend the rest of his sorry life looking over his shoulder. He’d have every Aegis Guardian on the planet aiming to gut him with a stang, which would be pleasant compared to what Gem and his brothers would do to him.

Deth leaned in close, so close Lore could feel the ugly demon’s heat on his face. “You have your assignment. You will kill Morgan – using your death touch – and retrieve his amulet within ninety-six hours. And if you refuse or fail, Sin will die.”

Sin, whose favorite saying was not becoming ironic reality.

No good deed shall go unpunished.

Yup, it just keeps getting worse for him…

By sparing his brothers, Lore might have condemned his sister to death.

So a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. Until that man meets the very ass-kicking ”pre-angel” (Idess) sent to protect Kynan from him. If she’s successful in keeping Kynan protected, she gets her long awaited wings, becomes a true angel, but most importantly, mankind continues to be safe. 

If she didn’t succeed in protecting the most important human in existence, the very fate of all mankind, of billions of souls, would be affected when the ultimate battle between good and evil erupted on Earth.

But, he finds himself falling for her…

But never had any female fallen asleep on him. It was a surprising intimacy that gave him some hellacious warm fuzzies in a situation he had no right to feel good about at all.

And yet, he stroked her hair, and tried to be still, because crazily, this was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him.

…and it continues to get even MORE complicated (as Idess’s job suddenly shifts into unchartered territory) .  Wonderfully so!

How is Lore going to manage this debacle?

1.) Kill Kynan, keep his sister alive, free them from their torturous contract…but the angel he’s crushing on doesn’t get her wings, he’d have to face the wrath of his demon family, and well, all mankind pretty much would end up going to hell…

OR

2.) Don’t kill Kynan, everyone’s happy but he loses his adored sister to torture and slavery, and eventual death.

and anyway…who’s behind the hit on Kynan? What’s the big deal? (and it IS a big deal!!). Oh there’s lots to read and lots to take in. In fact, I found myself backtracking through book#3 to piece together some forgotten elements that were quite integral to this continuation. This story too, had my eyes wide as the details started falling into place.

Ok I know I’m missing a ton of good stuff, but that’s probably a good thing! So I’m going to stop here because any more, and I will be giving away stuff I need to leave you the pleasure of discovering. These are not easy stories to review. They are so jam packed full of action, and backstories, side stories and potential twists, and everything always mingles together marvelously, that you’ll have a hard time putting them down. The author is quite clever and has a vivid imagination!

Gentlemen Prefer Succubi
People…I have an announcement to make. There’s a new vampire in my life (and possibly my favorite). Yes, I know, I am fickle, but I just couldn’t choose before.  Well, this book made it easy for me Zane’s the man! He’s all bad boy, with some “good” that keeps peeping through. And those fallen angel wings of his…mmmm…yup, I’ve discovered that I especially like my paranormal men with a few “added” features. Horns, fangs, wings…it’s all good!

But wait, there’s more…the added touch that makes this series extra special. There’s another fallen angel in the mix (and he’s actually the first one I got attached to in this book). Noah, all good boy, all righteous, and beautiful like an angel should be. But fallen, nonetheless (his crime? He simply fell in love with a human female way back when…) Sidenote: That’s “Noah” on the left (see Zane at the end of this post)…

You see, in this series, that’s what makes a fallen angel (also known as a “Serim”). The chosen ones in Heaven that make the mistake of coveting a human, are simply cast out of heaven (immortal, but cursed, and without their wings). Their punishment? To be obliged to satiate their sexual needs (and that of their partner) once a month, during the full moon. Not so bad right?

But it is bad. While the fallen ones struggle to get back into heaven, their lack of wings, and falling from God’s grace has them emotionally distraught, never feeling whole, as they once were. And that is what leads some to make a (twisted) deal with the Devil. Yes, they get their wings back…(blackened), but the curse extends to needing to feed on blood regularly.

I shook my head. “So Noah’s been cast out of Heaven?”

“Him and a few thousand other guys, yeah. Gabriel and the rest that stayed behind were really angry, too, so they cursed the Serim. Since they were so hot for female flesh, they were cursed to crave it and to indulge themselves every full moon. Not so bad, you would think – but then the Archangels went and killed all their women and they were left with nothing. It’s a sad story really. Some of the Serim turned to evil as a result, and that’s why we have vampires. They wanted their wings back, no matter the cost. Lucifer was willing to give them wings, but they had to sell their souls. At least that’s the rumor. All you need to remember is that the Serim can only go out in the daytime, and the vamps can only go out at night. That’s what happens when you mess with the big guns.”

Once they have fallen to that level, they’re all bad, right? I mean, to make a deal with the Devil, there could be no turning back from that. However, Zane, the ultimate bad boy, angry, tortured, and seemingly uncaring, is essentially, still an angel, nonetheless.

He shook his head and the stubble on his chin scraped against my hand. “Why do you distrust me so much, Jackie? Why is it you trust me so little and trust Noah so much?”

“Gee I don’t know,” I said. “Could it be the fact that one of your kind attacked me in a bar and sent me down the path that I’m on right now?”

“I see.” His voice sounded sad, so unlike the urbane, devil-may-care Zane I knew. “Perhaps someday you will learn to trust me.”

And I HEART him. It’s like the author plucked him right out of my head! LOL! Wait wait!! I heart Noah too….this is really complicated (but so deliciously fun!!)

Okay so enough with the sappy mooning, and onto the story, cause you know what? The heroine (Jackie) is awesome too. Totally someone any of us can relate to. An average girl with an average life, who somehow gets mixed up in this underworld. Why exactly? I don’t know yet, but I’m sure someone “fallen”, had a plan, somewhere…

But anyway, one night, she was bitten (and almost drained) by a vampire, and then in her post-bite throes of lust, seeks out a hottie at a local bar (that just happens to be Noah, the fallen angel, only too happy to oblige).

The next thing you know, she’s rising from the dead (in a dumpster, no-less), morphing into a sex-kitten, with barely a memory of that fateful night of debauchery.

He leaned back and his hand went to his thick blonde hair, ruffling it. “Well, ah. We met at the hotel bar. You’d been there all night from the look of things and I offered to call you a cab. The next thing I knew, you were climbing into my lap. I took it as an invitation – a very nice one if I do say so.” He looked over at me, and I could have sworn his eyes had a hint of blue to them. “You can do really amazing things with your mouth.”

I spat coffee all over the table. Good lord, that didn’t sound like me at all.

She’s becoming a succubus (cause that’s what normal people do after a wild night of vampire bites and angel sex). A little bad, combined with a little good, and *poof* you get the perfect mix of both beings! Maker one (fallen angel) requires once-a-month sex to ease his hunger, maker two (fallen angel now vampire) requires daily blood to ease his hunger, and the result is a female that needs sex every two days.

So the book takes us on a wild romp of Jackie’s new life, self re-discovery, and forced partnerships that eventually evolve into relationships. She makes a crazy new best friend “Remy” (who is the only other succubus in NY), that started off as a mentor. However, she has quickly attached herself to Jackie’s hip, thrilled that she finally has someone just like her, after 400 years of being alone. Then there’s Noah, feeling guilty for having “secured” her transition into a Succubus by having sex with her right after the vamp bite (but hey, he didn’t know, and what’s a boy to do when a lusty girl climbs into his lap like that?)

So he follows through with the only thing he can do. Being one of her “masters” (or “makers”), he makes himself available to ease her into her new world, teach her about the ins and outs of succubus-ary and of course, has sex with her at her every whim (I mean, come, he at least owes her that!)

“Jackie,” he warned, his lips brushing against my palm.

“Yes?” my voice sounded more like a moan.

“If your body needs release ” – Noah brought my fingertips to his lips – “I want to be the one you come to. Understand?”

Unfortunately, her inexperience with the “others” in the underworld, lands them all in a whole load of trouble when she makes a deal with another angel. In turn, this forces her to make yet another deal with the most evil of evil, the Queen of vampires (you’ll see how that comes about).

“I’m not working for Gabriel,” I protested, my words sounding weak.

“No? Then who?”

Ashamed at the compulsion I felt to respond to her words, I dropped my gaze to the floor. “Uriel”

Her low chuckle made my skin crawl. “Just as well. He’s been fascinated with our doings for centuries. I just never thought he’d find somebody foolish enough to do his dirty work.”

Yay me for being the biggest fool in millennia.

Basically, both sides want her to retrieve the halo of one of the first fallen angels. Having that halo would allow them to take on his powers, but of course, using them for objectionable plans (neither outcome is very good). Really, she has no choice but to follow through, as they hold a few things near and dear to her over her head (why..like Noah, for instance), and the only way to get him back is to hand over the halo.

Why her, I wondered? I reasoned the obvious – it was because she made the deals, and now had to own up to them, and of course, being a succubus, she had access to both the “dark” and “light” side, but I started to panic in her place! I mean, how does one even find a halo anyway? Can a halo even be held? And how can someone who was a just mere human a few days ago find anything so important and divine?

Who knew? But it was great fun finding out! Luckily, she wasn’t alone. While Noah was no longer at her disposal (being forcibly held and all – his sacrifice simply reinforcing my crush on him), the vampire Queen was gracious enough to give her “Zane” one of her head vampires to help her on her journey (and of course, Remy, her sex-crazed best friend was in tow to make the jaunt that much more complicated).

One of my favorite moments:

“I hope you can look past my nature to see the real me someday, Jackie.” His finger traced my jaw line softly.

I kinda liked the Zane I’d seen so far, despite my first impressions. I leaned into his touch sleepily, my thoughts becoming disjointed. “You’re not like the other vampires.”

“No, I’m not.”

So I’m ending it there. The book’s great! It just is, and now, I want to get on with book#2. Bad stuff”s already happening again, and it was a real struggle putting it down. It’s calling me…I hear it!

By the way…meet Zane——->

Ok, so I’ve been enchanted with the cover of book #1 at my local Walmart for quite some time now…and WOW! This series (well, it’s only two books right now) is amazing. Funny, exciting, and HOT (I mean, it’s even built on a love triangle – how much better could it get?!)

Oh and the book covers….YES!!!!

An excerpt from the author’s website:

After a one-night stand with a fallen angel and a bite from a vampire, forgettable Jackie Brighton has been changed into a succubus.

• Gentlemen Prefer Succubi (Succubus Diaries)
• Succubi Like It Hot (The Succubus Diaries)
• My Fair Succubi (expected release date: Dec 28th 2010)

SOUL SCREAMERS
The last thing you hear before you die…

• My Soul To Lose
• My Soul to Take (Harlequin Teen)
• My Soul to Save (Harlequin Teen)
• My Soul To Keep (release date TBA)
• My Soul To Steal (release date TBA)

An excerpt from the author’s website:

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.
 

• Stray (Shifters, Book 1)
• Rogue
• Pride (Werecats, Book 3)
• Prey (Werecats, Book 4)
• Shift (The Shifters, Book 5)
• Alpha (6th and final Shifter book – release date TBA)

Careful if you haven’t read the series, as Ash’s love interest is revealed towards the end of my review. I will admit I was slightly disappointed that I knew who it was before I got to that part in the book (it was my bad though, I accidentally stumbled on it while searching the web for something else)…

Acheron. To me, he is the dreamiest of all the dreamy heroes (regardless of series). The slow tantalizing build up of his character, from each book in the Dark-Hunter series, comes to a head in a long and detailed narration. We are guided through each step of his existence, from Acheron’s heritage, doomed birth, horrific life as a human, and how he becomes who he is today.

Throughout the series, we were allotted tiny pieces into Acheron’s past, and what his existence might mean to the fate of the world. While in earlier installations, he was introduced as leader of the Dark-Hunters, and the most powerful of the group, we slowly begin to realize that his all-knowing and boundless power is tied to a more intricate and omnipotent destiny.

While I absolutely enjoyed this book and specifically adored the second half (so funny, and extremely romantic), the appalling scenes of his existence, in the first part of the book, unfold relentlessly, and at times, it can get to be too much for the reader. I had to take numerous breaks to get back to the reality of life. There is no way any human could survive this kind of abuse and emotional torture, and yet Acheron does (which, conveniently, can be explained by his godly derivation).

As my friend Toni accurately described the book to me:

…they took his dreams, smashed them, lit them on fire, ground them to dust, force fed the ashes to him and beat him for processing them.

Ohhhh she was so right!

Born of Atlantean gods (his mother, Apollymi, is the goddess of death, destruction and war) and his father Archon (the king of the Atlantean gods), it was prophesied by the three Fates that he would be the end of of the Atlantean gods. His father, determined to change the outcome of the future, demands that his unborn child be destroyed.

How could he do this? For centuries she’d been trying to conceive Archon’s son – it was all she ever wanted.

A babe of her own.

Now due to the prophecy of three small girls – Archon’s jealous bastards, her child was to be sacrificed and killed.

Apollymi, desperate to save her unborn child (whom she has named Apostolos), prematurely births him, binds his godly powers, and sends him to earth to be born as a human to a queen,  and raised as royalty (so that he may be treated as a prince).

“Take him. put him in the belly of a pregnant queen. Do you understand?”

She let go and righted herself. “Um, I can do that. What about the queen’s brat?”

“Merge Apostolos’s life force with that of the queen’s child. Let her know by oracle that if my child dies, so does hers.”  That would protect him more than anything else.

But there was one more thing to be done. Apollymi jerked the white sfora from her neck and held it to Apostolos’s chest. If anyone suspected her was her son or any god detected his presence in the human realm, they would kill him instantly.

His powers would have to be bound and locked away until he was old enough and strong enough to fight back. She placed the orb to his chest and watched as his godhood slid from him to the sfora. His tiny body turned from blue ot the pale skin of humanity.

Now he would be safe. Not even the gods would know what he’d done.

The first part of the book is narrated from Ash’s sister, Ryssa’s perspective. As the queen of Greece births her twin sons, (one of them being Apostolos), the royal family quickly disown him when they notice his strange swirling silver eyes. The King has determined that his Queen has been unfaithful to him by bedding a god resulting in his birth, and refuses to acknowledge the child. The Queen, upset that her fidelity has been questioned, refuses to love and nurse the baby.

“I will not raise a monster,” my father snarled.

“You have no choice.” The wisewoman took the baby from the midwife and offered it to my mother.

Frowning, I saw a note of satisfaction in the midwife’s eyes before the beautiful blond woman made her way through the crowd to vanish from the room.

“He was born of your body, Majesty,” the wisewoman said, drawing my attention back toward her and my mother. “He is your son.”

The baby squalled even louder, reaching again for my mother. His mother. She cringed away from him, clutching her second-born even tighter than before. “I will not suckle it. I will not touch it. get it away from my sight.”

The wisewoman took the child to my father. “And what of you, Majesty? Will you not acknowledge him?”

“Never. That child is no son of mine.”

The wisewoman took a deep breath and presented the infant to the room. Her grip was loose with no lober or compassion evident in her touch.

“Then he will be called Acheron for the River of Woe. Like the river of the Underworld, his journey shall be dark, long and enduring. he will be able to give life and take it. He will walk through his life alone and abandoned – ever seeking kindness and ever finding cruelty.”

The wisewoman looked down at the infant in her hands and uttered the simple truth that would haunt the boy for the rest of his existence. “May the gods have mercy on you, little one,. No one else ever will.”

And such sets the stage and tone of Ash’s life.

Apostolos (aka “Acheron”) is abused and horribly neglected throughout his childhood, while his human twin (Styxx) is treated as the prince he is. While shunned by all who should love him, his only solace is the hidden affection bestowed upon him by his older sister.

As a young boy, he is eventually torn from his sister’s arms, and sent to live in Atantis with his uncle. While his sister is told that her brother is happy and doing well in his new home, she receives an anonymous letter indicating that her brother is in dire need of help. Arriving at her uncle’s home, she realizes that her now teenage brother has been held captive, and is routinely used as a sex slave, and severely beaten regularly. Despondent with life, and unable to understand affection or love, the subservient and fearful Acheron resists her efforts to help him escape, but is eventually “kidnapped” by her and her guard, and secretly taken to a rarely used family summer home.

I clenched my hands into fists to keep from reaching out to touch him. I just wanted to gather him into my arms and hold him until the nightmare that had been his life was completely erased from his memory.

But how? How could I make him understand that he was safe now? That no one would ever touch him without his explicit invitation? That he was free to make his own decisions and that no one would beat him for voicing his opinion?

Helping her brother heal from his physical and even deeper emotional scars, she plots to re-integrate him into their family, theorizing that her father did not know how terribly Acheron was treated, and might accept him back.

sidenote: And over and over again, this pattern is repeated. It got to the point where every time she entered the scene I couldn’t help but cringe and wanted to cry “Run away Ash! You’re going to get in trouble again!”. I truly wanted to throttle her! Always well-intentioned, and looking for a way to make Acheron happy, she insistently revolted at the unfairness of his treatment. Unfortunately, it seemed that at every possible reprieve that Acheron was afforded, his sweet but incredibly naive sister managed to get him into trouble (causing him to be cruelly and abhorrently beaten). It got to the point where I almost couldn’t feel sympathy for Acheron anymore. Despite knowing the consequences of his actions (albeit HIGHLY unfair and ridiculous for him to be treated thusly), he still always managed to follow her into his own doom.

Now hold on!! I’m not saying that he deserved it. I’m not even saying that he brought it upon himself (well, maybe just a little bit – hee hee!). I’m merely affirming that, when you are surrounded by illogical and severely flawed people who hold power over you and others, going against their rules (and being caught), WILL result in punishment…I’m just sayin’…

Well anyway, here is a very sweet and insightful sister/brother bonding moment that touched me (it was moments like these that made it so that I couldn’t hate her):

I closed my hand around his. “I don’t know the will of the gods, Acheron, no one does. But I refuse to believe that it’s their will to hurt you so. You were a precious gift that was scorned by the very ones who should have cherished you. That is a human tragedy that shouldn’t be laid at the feet of divinity. The priests often say that the gifts of the gods are sometimes hard to accept or identify, but I know in my heart that you are special. That you are a gift to humanity. Never doubt that you were placed here with some higher purpose and that purpose was not with malice or to be abused.”

Eventually, Acheron meets the god Artemis, who brings him both a sense of emotional and romantic connection. Falling in love, they spend precious moments together, while she helps heal Acheron’s physical wounds and his scarred soul.

“Have you any friends?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“Why not?”

“I suppose I’m not worthy of any.”

Artemis frowned at his reasoning. “It can’t be that. I haven’t any either and I am more than worthy. Perhaps there is a flaw to us.” She paused as she thought about that. “No, that can’t be right either. I have no flaws and yet I’m as alone as you are.”

While she seems to be genuinely sweet (albeit severely self-centered), things with Artemis never run smoothly. Abusive much? Whoa! She goes from hot to cold within seconds, and can take a healing hand and rip Ash’s heart and body to shreds with a single angry thought.

Acheron staggered back in shock as his cheek burned. Before he could recover himself, Artemis attacked him, slapping and punching. When that didn’t seem to satisfy her, she flung him against the far wall and held him there with her god’s powers.

I will protect you…

Her words rang in his as he stared down at her, waiting for her to finally kill him. Truthfully he’d rather be dead then feel the splintering in his heart over what she was doing.

She’d lied.

Poor Ash, again, he suffers abuse because he is so in love with her and doesn’t know anything else. In fact, it is because he values her love so much, that her dark side manages to inflict even deeper scars onto his psyche then from anyone in his past (as a human, and even when he gets his powers back).

As we continue to get insight into the complicated and twisted and eventually forced bond between them (that whole elaborate part could have been it’s own book in itself, but it was wonderfully laid out here for us), Ash’s book leads us into the present day Dark-Hunters, and his obligation to keep yet another Atlantis seeker off course.

Tory, Geary’s cousin (remember her from “The Dream-Hunter” book?) is determined to continue Geary’s mission where she left off, and Acheron must discourage her so that Apollymi is not released from her imprisonment spell (which would then allow her to unleash her wrath onto the world).

As Ash publicly humiliates Tory during her lectures on her findings, he is eventually forced to protect her, when they realize her crew has stumbled upon something that could lead to her death. Remember how Ash has that certain “je ne sais quoi” that unwittingly incites all to desire him and want to touch him? Well, not only do we find out what that’s all about, but Tory doesn’t seem to react that way to him at all. While she secretly is attracted to him, she finds him more annoying then anything. The funny moments between the two, and within their circle of friends, abound.

Oh hey! Here is one that had me laughing out loud! While Ash is with Tory and her friends (under the guise of protecting her from potential burglars), he is trying to get answers from his mother via his mind. At one frustrating moment, he forgets himself and publically lets loose (in his Atlantean language)

“Dammit to hell, Matera, answer me!” Ash shot off the couch in anger only to realize all three women were staring at him curiously.

Pam cleared her throat. “Any idea what he just said?”

Tory frowned. “Um…not really.”

“Wow,” Kim said with a light laugh, “some Greek the Greek princess can’t understand. I’m impressed.”

Pam arched one brow. “Must be the voices in his head that he was responding to. I just hope they’re not telling him to kill us.”

tee hee! I chuckled out loud as I typed this (it’s still funny, even now).

As their close proximity permits them to get to know one another, Tory’s apparent disinterest to Ash allows him to let his guard down and truly befriend her.

Smiling, she reached up for his glasses. “Can I take these off?”

Ash swallowed as fear tore through him. “I wish you wouldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because they’ll make you uncomfortable. No one likes to look at my eyes.”

She scowled at him. “What are you? Rosemary’s baby?”

“Kind of.”

Ha!! How clever and apropos was that line? LOVED it!

Oh! Ohhhhh!! Another one that just had me giggling while I was flipping through my earmarked pages. Tory, still unaware of Ash’s true self, listens as he and another “Other” discuss some new attackers, and Ash asks:

“These Atlantikoinonia. They’re human?”

Katherine nodded.

Tory was confused by his strange question. “What else would they be? Turnips?”

LOL!!! No but really, the whole second half of the book is equally amusing!

From their initial exchange of hurling insults at one another, to their working together and becoming friends, this book will answer all of your questions, and secure Ash’s place in your heart! There is a sweet spark of romance that let’s us (as well as Tory) into Ash’s heart, and how many of you have been waiting to experience that?!

Ok so one last quote to end off with (one of my favorite romantic parts, and this was hard to choose as there were many moments that had me swooning):

One small tear slid from the corner of his right eye. Slamming them shut, he surrendered himself to her. Right now, this moment, she owned him in a way no one ever had before.

No, she didn’t own him.

He gave himself to her and for the first time, he understood the difference. He understood what it meant to make love. To share his body with someone not out of obligation or fear, but because it made them closer.

In this one heartbeat, he was hers and she was his.

This very book will lead you through a smorgasbord of emotions. From the integral romantic plot, to the sagas of the other characters, you will bond to them all. I’ll even admit, I loved Hades and Apollymi (and since Ash is taken, I think I now have a crush on Urian)… It may begin by emotionally distressing you for hours, but I promise that it will have you laughing and your heart beaming to the very end.

Wow, just realized how long this review is. I guess I got carried away , but that’s easy to do with Acheron.

• The Becoming (The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 1)
• Blood Drive (The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 2)
• The Witch and the Wicked as found in the Many Bloody Returns Anthology
• The Watcher (The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 3)
• Legacy (Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles, Book 4)
• Retribution (Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles, Book 5)