I enjoy a good romance novel, so when I found an advance copy from Kerrelyn Sparks, a favorite author, I decided to pick it up. This book will be available 27 March 2018.
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This is the first book I have read of this, the third in the Embraced series by Kerrelyn Sparks.
I enjoyed her Dark Hunter series quite a bit, but didn’t realize this book was from a different series until I was several chapters in and missing some of the references. But like her other books, this stands alone well enough.
I generally like when authors create a complete fantasy world, but this world doesn’t feel fleshed out well enough for me to envision a good mental map. I couldn’t get a good feel for how far each realm is from the others, what separates them, why they are wars between them, or what the primary antagonist wants. I think there was a missed opportunity to create a truly unique fantasy world to complement the romance.
While I appreciate how quickly Gwennore made new friends in a strange place, her fear of non-acceptance didn’t seem warranted. The fear of the curse seemed like an arbitrary plot device and really didn’t affect the story or characters all that much. All the characters were likable enough, but lacked depth and were so stereotypical that they didn’t come to life for me.
The romance developed at a decent pace for the length of the book, but the main liaison felt rushed and out of touch with the events surrounding it. To me, the ending was extremely abrupt, and while I understand the underlying plot continues into the next book, Gwennore and Silas’s story wasn’t resolved enough for me.
I would recommend this to readers who tend to focus on the romance, but since I prefer a fully realized story outside the romance, this was just an average read for me. I give this 3.5 stars out of 5.