Review: Another twist on an old favorite!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2014
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author as part of a R2R in the Lovers of Paranormal Goodreads group. This doesn't affect my review and the following is my honest opinion.I all but dove into Golden Stair after devouring One Bite. I've become quite enamored with Ms. Blackstream's writing and was eager to begin another Blood Prince tale. This one started a tad slower than I'd have liked but it wasn't bad, just a little slow. I enjoyed the prologue as usual and was excited to see more of some of the other princes. But the first parts with Ivy and her mother weren't as interesting to me. But when your heroine is alone in a tower with only her wicked "mother" for the occasional bit of company it's an understandable slow start. Also, there were a few parallels to Tangled at the start that caught me off guard. However Ms. Blackstream has put her own interesting spin on things once more and made them her own.I wasn't expecting  Ivy's powers to be what they were much less Adonis' back story having so many twists and turns. The drama to it all was well done and I appreciated Ms. Blackstream's unique take on a classic tale. Adonis has stood out in the previous Blood Prince prologues and epilogues as a rakish, snarky man and getting to see more than a glimpse of him was wonderful! While he might be a demon, he isn't the stereotypical pointy horns and forked tail and full of fire and brimstone demon. There's a lot of depth to the hero of this tale and I found myself surprised at the man the demon showed us he truly was. It was shocking in the best of ways!And then there was Ivy. Dear, sweet Ivy who has a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome. Ms. Blackstream handled her heroine's trials and background artfully. She never tried to brush away a lifetime of emotional abuse for Ivy with the "power of true love". I appreciate a splash of realism in my romance and while a magical world is a far cry from that, the characters that inhabit it have issues and problems shared by real people. All too often you see a damaged character in a romance novel heal their emotional and mental wounds with a single declaration of love or one passionate tryst. Ms. Blackstream stays far away from that and instead her characters cope with their issues in understandable ways. Human ways. I find it much more endearing than the idea true love will vanquish all and I love that she took that route.Golden Stair is another interesting take on an old tale and for lovers of paranormal romance with unexpected heroes, I highly recommend it.