Review: A Great Sci Fi Romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2014
I really enjoyed this book with a storyline that took me by surprise.  It is always great to find a good storyteller who draws you into a world with different cultures and abilities.  The hero is the ultimate alpha male and warrior who needed to learn how to love and the heroine is a female with an open heart who shows great compassion and human vulnerabilities.The story is centered around Sarah a new guard at a prison for Dems, dangerous creatures with great strength, size, and hatred toward their captors.  Sarah is assigned to Farran, the most violent prisoners and the commander of the Dems, unknown to the humans.  She makes many mistakes and leaves herself vulnerable to being attacked by Farran who is confused by his unwillingness to really hurt her.  During one of their interactions he unintentionally marks her which gives her his protection from other Dems, increases her healing abilities and gives her immortality.There is a history of her family serving as guards through the centuries and their efforts to understand the Dems and their willingness to see them as equals. Sarah was never supposed to be a guard. Her twin John had always planned to follow in his uncle and grandfather's footsteps, until he was left in a coma after a fire.  There is a whole piece of the storyline explaining how this supernatural prison came into being, the corruption of humans in running it and the controls on the humans living in the  isolated human city  in which it was located..Sarah's back story was also important as the author provided the heroine with great depth of character showing her selflessness and innate respect for others even after she suffered childhood neglect.  She had no problem with stepping in time and again to help others in danger.  John even gets a part in the latter story too.Farran and the Dems are another fascinating component to the story.  Who they were, their culture, where they were from and their ability to mark and its side effects.  Violence was a part of their culture and an offense or lack of respect would result in punishment.Sarah and Farran had a lot of  ground to cover.  The first half of the book or so was while the Dems were in prison and rest after their escape.  The marking  of a person was not a romantic action but one bestowed on a worthy advisor or battle companion so the romance that develops happens slowly as these two get to know each other.  It is fun to see Farran stumble when trying to understand his actions toward Sarah and his dealings with the vulnerabilities associated with marking her.  We have multiple villians including humans and Dems which present dangers to overcome before the HEA ending.  Don't look for erotica in this romance.  The one sex scene was powerful without being graphic.I didn't want to give the story away and hope this glimpse at the depth of the storyline will whet your appetite to read it.