Exiled, he finds himself in a new realm with beings he’s never seen before. They’re not important; only his destiny is. Driven to prove his worth, he seeks to rule a realm of his own. Nothing will stand in his way, and no one will change his focus. Or so he thinks.
When a mysterious woman calls out for help through his dreams, he searches her out. When they meet, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever encountered. Can they set aside their beliefs to work together? Can love bloom when their ideals are exact opposites?
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Another highly entertaining read by a great new-ish author. This one will make you want to weep and make you want to fan yourself. Two words on that last part: cave scene. Hot with a capital HAWT ;) Great characters that will have you rooting for them and wanting to smack them by turns. Fans of light PNR will enjoy this one.
We first meet Rhuul as he is being banished from his home realm for no other reason than because he is a half-breed, in particular, a half-breed that is a product of a mating between two races that are sworn enemies. It doesn't help that the king, his grandfather, is an asshole who has taken personal offense at Rhuul's existence because he feels it sullies his bloodline. Because of this banishment, and because of the rather callous way he's been treated all his life, Rhuul is a very angry young man with many violent tendencies. Yes, he has good reason for it all, but still. Not long after arriving in a new realm and vowing to himself that he's going to take over and rule his own realm to show his grandfather that he's not worthless and not someone to be disregarded, Rhuul starts having dream-visions of a woman in trouble and he feels an undeniable pull to go to her aid. Thus, with the help of a fiend named Ghena, and a shapeshifter named Talloc, he heads out into the wilds to find and rescue the damsel in distress.
Avalea is the damsel, and while she is in distress at the moment because her magic has been bound, she is far from defenseless ordinarily. She too is a half-breed between a peaceful, earth-loving race and a fire elemental. Unlike Rhuul, however, she has always known love and acceptance from both of her families and from the community that she grew up in. Largely because of her upbringing among her mother's people, she is a pacifist to the extreme, and though she welcomes Rhuul's aid, and accepts that he is her true mate, she is horrified by his violent tendencies and the way in which he can kill without thinking anything of it. At first glance it hardly seems to be a match made in heaven, but despite Rhuul's initial resistance to becoming involved with Avalea, it doesn't take long for it to become apparent that both of them are too drawn to one another to deny their connection, and that both are willing to find a way to make it work, whether they'll admit it to themselves right away or not.
Shortly after Rhuul and Avalea return to her village, they are thrown into a quest together by the village elders who employ rather ingenious means to force Rhuul and Avalea to learn to work together and not fight one another. You might call it a fantasy version of a "get-along shirt", for that is what it most immediately reminded me of. It's rather amazing how effective it proves to be as well, and it's interesting that the one who fights it the most is not who you'd think. The quest serves to both draw them together and to help them to learn more about themselves in the process. They both learn to temper their behavior, and to reconsider some long-held tenets, and they both emerge from it changed and stronger for it.
One warning: this book ends on a cliffhanger, so if you really don't like such endings you might want to avoid this book until the next one is out. The immediate story here is completed, however, and the cliffhanger mainly serves as an intro into the next chapter of Rhuul and Avalea's story (or so it is to be presumed from how it ends). Personally I felt the book was complete enough that I didn't feel as though I'd only been given part of the story, I just grumbled a bit when it ended because things were just starting to get very intriguing. Certainly the author has laid a lot of groundwork to build upon in future volumes of the series and I'll be interested to see where it goes.
As noted above, I'd recommend this to anyone who likes paranormal romance, particularly those that are a bit lighter in tone and full of humor. That's not to say that there aren't serious situations in here, for there are, but the overall mood of the work is more lighthearted than dark. 4½ stars from me.
Awesome review for an awesome book! :D I can't wait for the next one to come out. And regarding the cave scene... *purrs* One of my favorite parts of the book right after the cliff scene. ;)
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