Review: Ashur's story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2013
POSSESSED BY DESIRE (Firebrand #3) by Elisabeth NaughtonABOUT THE BOOK:  Release January  2013Even desire comes at a price...Imprisonment has taught Ashur, the youngest djinn prince enslaved by a power-hungry sorceress, one thing: life as a pleasure slave has its rewards...if you play by the rules. He's been tortured. He's nearly died protecting a tribe that's forsaken him. But he's also seen life on the other side as an obedient slave. For a shot at revenge against the brothers who abandoned him, he's willing to serve his master, even if it means using passion to corrupt the souls she needs to fuel her immortality. His first assignment, however, turns out to be more than just a woman in need of a little pleasure. Claire is an angel, and angels have the ability to steal djinn powers. No amount of vengeance--not even a ravenous desire he can't seem to control--is worth the loss of his powers. And there's no way he's tangling with a celestial being.Unless, of course, she tangles with him firstREVIEW:  POSSESSED BY DESIRE is the third storyline in Elisabeth Naughton's Firebrand trilogy of novellas. This is Ashur's story.Believing he has been abandoned by his brothers, Ashur is the last of the siblings who remains willingly enslaved by an evil Sorceress.  Imprisoned and trained as a sex slave, Ashur will find himself pulled into another dimension when a human female commands the power of the Firebrand opal. And to the Sorceresses delight, this human female is much more than a mere woman, but a being a supernatural power. With renewed efforts, the Sorceress sends Ashur back to claim the woman's soul but in doing so sets a series of events into motion that involve all of Ashur's brothers and their new found mates.The relationship between Ashur and Claire is one built on want and need.  Ashur believes Claire has used the power of the Firebrand opal to command a slave but Claire soon learns she was being tested.  Ashur and Claire both want something from each other and each believes they need it to survive.To be honest, I did not feel the connection between Ashur and Claire in this particular storyline.  Ashur was duty-bound to the Sorceress to bring back Claire's soul and he knew that Claire had the power to strip him of his own. But there was so much pent up hostility in Ashur directed at his brothers, at the Sorceress and at Claire, that his actions seemed almost stilted and robotic-even in the bedroom.  I did not feel the emotions or the burning desires as in the two other previous storylines.Possessed by Desire is an interesting tale but one that was missing something-it did not grab me like the other two storylines.  There was something different but in the end, it was a welcome addition to the Firebrand series.see all of my reviews at : thereadingcafe(dot)com