My rating: 4 of 5 flames
I like the world created in this series, and I so far have really liked the fresh perspective in each book, since each book has a different author.
I think the first chapter (Osborn’s history) and the prologue (Breena’s present) could have been switched to make the story a bit easier to follow. The prologue is Breena running from the attack on her people, the first chapter takes place 10 years prior, then we’re back to Breena a couple days after the kingdom falls.
I was confused a bit, as I thought in Lord of the Vampires Nicolai had been held captive for years…Breena’s story takes place immediately after the king and queen are murdered, and then send their children away with only two things in their minds…avenge and survive.
[btw Jill Monroe told me that the timeline will be cleared up by the 4th book. So where I thought they would all run concurrently, I guess not]
Breena’s memory isn’t fully there when she finds herself in a strange forest. She knows who she is, just not the details of what happened and how she got to be running through the forest with avenge and survive as her mantra. Every time she tries to remember something, she gets a splitting headache, her magic is gone, and she is very afraid. Then she comes upon a cabin in the woods. This is such a cute spin on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
The three “Bears” are actually “bers” or berserkers. In the first chapter we see Osborn getting his pelt-he goes out, finds a bear, and he has to kill the bear, thus merging their spirits (which the story of that, with the bermannen was super cool!). But his people are attacked immediately afterwards. All but his 2 little brothers and himself are slaughtered. It is awful. At 14 he not only is responsible for the care of 2 little boys (think ages 4 and 5), but his people are gone. He hires himself out as a mercenary until he can no longer justify that job-which for a man who feels he has no honor, is a pretty big deal. He then takes his now teenage brothers and retreats to the cabin on Ursa lands.
This is where Breena finds him.
Breena has been dreaming of him, and entering his dreams for a while now, and finding her warrior is not only real, but standing in front of her is just what she needs. She thinks he will help her avenge her family, and fight to get her kingdom back. Breena never expected him to say no. But Osborn will be no one’s mercenary again. Not even Breena’s.
What I liked was watching them grow to love each other. My favorite part in the whole book actually has to do with the cover. I love this cover-this is a case of the artist getting it exactly right-the gown, the armband, the color. All of it! See, Osborn went into the village to get info about her people, to see if any survived, and he sees a gown, a cloak and an armband-he just has to get them for her. And this big tough warrior gives them to Breena like this,
“I uh, got this for you.”
aww…He was so sweet.
But the main thing that makes this book a 4 rather than a 5, is that during that whole time where we see them falling in love, and learning each other, it gets a bit slow. There was one attack, almost immediately, then nothing until the very end. I did like how the end battle played out, but I thought it was over too quick, and I really wanted to scream at Breena for believing Osborn could just walk away like that.
But on the whole, I was hooked instantly, and I think that this book flows a lot better than Gena’s book, I loved the world that these authors have created, and I am not only loading up Lord of the Wolfyn onto my Nook right now, but I really like Jill Monroe’s writing style. I’m looking up Ms. Monroe’s backlist on fictionwise right now 🙂
***ARC supplied by Netgalley.com
