Review: Fantastic beginning to a brand new paranormal series!!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2014
Well, color me surprised! I really liked this book! I have a love/hate relationship with Paranormal romance.I looooove some of them, but eye roll at many of them. I love suspending belief and I love when the rules of the world change so that a whole new world is created. I love the insta love that comes with mating bonds, I love the *idea* of drinking blood, I love the possessiveness that comes with shifter mating or vamp instict, and I love the hierarchies created within groups of paranormal creatures. And guess what? All of that was in this book.So yeah, I really, really enjoyed this story.I'm not one of those people who scoff at insta love. My husband and I felt that instant connection twelve years ago. I absolutely believe in it happening, albeit rarely. The fact that it could be a mystical, chemical connection between these two is a titillating excuse to push them together. Naya is a vampire princess, in line to be queen and of an age that her parents are pushing for a mating with a male of their choosing. She feels eyes upon her one night at a club, and later meets Vaughn, with whom she has some strong and se*y urges and proceeds to act completely out of character with when she brings him home for a one night stand.Naya is an easy character to like. She's not outstandingly dynamic, I don't think, but that's also part of her charm. I could tell right off that she may have been groomed to be queen, but her heart wasn't in it. Not in the way her parents wanted her to be. She volunteers at an animal shelter, likes her alone time, and has a human (gasp!) as a best friend.Vaughn, on the other hand, is such an outstanding guy. He's alpha but not a jerk. I kind of wish he's been a bit more outwardly alpha, but on the other hand, part of what I like about him was that he was quietly powerful. Rarely did he throw his power around. It's that calm, cool demeanor and his decisive actions that make him a fantastic leader. Well done.Why not five stars? I felt like some things were glossed over and I was left very frustrated. The ending in particular. There was this huge build up to a big...something...and I kept looking at my page numbers, watching them dwindling and wondering how the heck they were going to wrap all of this up in so few pages. I finally realized that there was no way they could, and sure enough, that build up was all for the next book. Which is okay, I guess, but I was left wanting. I just wish that was handled differently, or possibly that the next book was out already :D:D Greedy? Of course :D:DFor me, my favorite part about the story was all of the secondary characters and subplots going on. There is a LOT taking place in this story! I see the setup for many more books to come, and I haven't been this excited about a paranormal series since Aline Hunter's Alpha and Omega series or...dare I say it...Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series. In comparison, there is a simply fantastic group of men and women who are already standout characters, already having certain pairings in the works, and have me intrigued enough to be clamoring for the next book.Copy generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.