inlibrisveritas
Written on Dec 7, 2017
- ISBN10 1494551713
- ISBN13 9781494551711
- Publish Date 9 June 2014
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Tantor Media, Inc
- Edition Unabridged edition
- Format Audiobook (MP3)
- Duration 9 hours and 59 minutes
- Language English
Reviews
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Apr 23, 2017
Unable to return home since she has been reported both dead and missing, she travels with Adam on a photo shoot. Despite Adam's warnings she decides to explore the city where she meets Justus De Gradi. Justus is tall, dark, arrogant and handsome. In one evening Zoë learns that she is a Mage and that the terrible man who did this to her could claim her. Justus agrees to be her guardian and train her as a Mage, but first, he must present her to the council. Poor Zoë. Her life is uprooted once again as she says goodbye to Adam and goes willingly with Justus. At this point, I am completely hooked!
Dark does an excellent job with the worldbuilding and characters from the Mage hierarchy to their training. Each Mage has a unique gift which explains a lot about Justus. I loved that Zoë is unaffected by his gift and how it totally catches him off guard. They begin training and fall into a routine. Zoë is feeling isolated until Justus' friend Simon arrives and oh lord, I love this charming, sexy and over the top Mage from his accent to his teasing.
Zoë's creator appears before the council to claim her and the tale takes on a suspenseful tone with dark twists. I wanted to scream at the council and cause physical harm to the bastard. Dark delivered intense scenes and twists that kept me fully engaged. I thought Adam was out of the picture, but OMG, the twists, and the ending blew my mind. The suspense and action scenes were well written. I will warn you that the scenes at times were dark and may cause a trigger, for sensitive readers. Heroine is held captive She is physically assaulted, and there is attempted rape. While the scenes are not overly graphic, the tone and fear are.
Is there a romantic thread? In a word, it's complicated. All the men are attracted to Zoë, although I don't think Justus is ready to admit that openly. Regardless of what happens, a tight friendship has formed between this motley crew.
Nichole Pool did such a fantastic job with these characters. She captured their personalities and accents wonderfully. I enjoy her male voices and that she can highlight both Zoë's strength and weaknesses through tone. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer
thebookdisciple
Written on Jul 3, 2016
Melanie
Written on Jun 26, 2014
This book had me going back and forth. There are parts of the story that I really liked and parts that I didn't. We start the story with Zoe going out partying with a friend. There is a decent amount of effort into introducing you to Sunny, Zoe's best friend and even Zoe's cat, Max, only to have them both leave the story in less than twenty minutes into the book. Zoe is attacked and left for dead after leaving the bar. She then wakes up and runs into a guy name Adam.
Adam is probably my favorite secondary character in the book. He helps Zoe after her attack, even though there is something going on with her. She just travels with him and meets Justus, who she learns is like her. Justus explains what she has transformed into, takes her under his wing and offers to train her.
After some time with Justus, the man who transformed Zoe appears and tries to claim her. After some arguments, the council agrees that her maker has a right to her. This does not go over well with Justus or Simon, one of Justus's Magi friends. They plan to get her back.
My problem with the book is we spend time learning about Max, the cat. Then the cat leaves the story. Then we meet Sunny, Zoe's best friend, then she is gone. We meet Adam, who is around much longer, but then he is gone when Justus comes into the picture. Do you see the pattern here? I just felt like there was too much effort spent on details on minor characters that would disappear quickly.
What I enjoyed was the world. I loved this world of magic, even if it a feudal system that these magical being live in. I love the powers that these magical creatures have and the fact that they are created. They are almost like magical vampires in the way that they are turned. I do like the characters and want to learn to more about them. I will be trying book two in the near future to see where things are going for Zoe/Silver.
Narration
Nicole Poole does an okay job. I think her voice worked for the main character. I think her male characters could be more masculine, but they weren't horrible. She did a couple of different accents and they weren't bad.
I like to thank Tantor Audio for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
KitsuneBae
Written on Dec 5, 2013
This review first appeared on Wayward Kitsune
I had a hard time rating this book. I kept going back and forth from 3 to 4 and vice versa. Sterling is my very first Adult, paranormal read and I went into it without a lot of expectations since I am treading on unfamiliar territory. I don’t know how things will work in adult paranormal books because my only experience in the said age group only extends from mystery to erotica to HF to EF. At the end though, I decided to give Sterling a 3.5 star rating.
The story of Sterling revolves around the life of Zoe Merrick who was murdered one night while she’s going home. But for some mysterious reasons, she found herself awake and alive one day. While grateful for a second chance in life, she couldn’t help herself from being horrified at the abnormal changes that’s going on with her body. And it didn’t help that an enigmatic man named, Justus, is suddenly invading her peaceful life.
What drew me in to this book is the fact that the premise is very intriguing and it’s about mages. Perhaps I should mention that I am an online gamer and my avatar of choice is always a mage so it’s kind of a refreshing experience to read stories about them. My excitement, however, didn’t last for long as soon as I’ve been given a clearer picture of Zoe’s personality. Gah, I just hate her for a myriad of reasons. I hate that she immediately trusted Adam after she came back from the dead. Good lord, she was murdered and I expected that she’d be wary of everyone but no, she gave her 100% trust to a total stranger. I hate that she did the same to Justus. I hate that she’s stubborn-bordering-on-lack-of-self-preservation and that she’s an ungrateful bitch. I hate that she made out with Simon and Adam. Heavens, I thought that only teenagers are suffering from raging hormones. You can’t imagine my relief when she spared Justus of her unsatisfied lust. Le sigh.
On the contrary, I loved the guys of Sterling. It’s as if Dannika’s forte lies on creating swoon worthy male characters because let’s face it, her female characters are an utter disappointment including Sunny. Simon, Adam and Justus are all boyfriend materials. You don’t have to choose, either one of them is worth it. Simon is the charmer and the easygoing type. Adam is your average, next-door-neighbour guy. And Justus, my, if you’re into dangerous and enigmatic males then he’s the perfect catch. I am just irritated that they seemed to be pouring all their precious energy on queen bee, Zoe. They deserve someone BETTER.
The plot also delivered albeit predictable. And I was surprised that despite the sexual tension this book is giving off, Sterling is never about romance. It never veered from the path of telling Zoe’s life as a new mage and the challenges that she has to face. The way things played out in this book was very interesting that I was able to ignore Zoe’s b-tch-ness.
Sterling would’ve been really enjoyable if Dannika placed a significant effort in the world building. Sure, the mageri politics was explained but it wasn’t enough to give a clear picture of the Mageri world. I thought that Dannika would build a world that is fully realized. Disappointingly, I was treated to places that are as boring as a slug.
In a nutshell, Sterling was able to hold on its own and managed to catch my interest among all the paranormal books that inundated the genre today. And that ending certainly made a loud impact on me.
Normally, I hate unrealistic stuff but what happened to Adam worked for me because…because I didn’t like the reasoning behind his death. Zoe is not worth it. It’s a total waste that such a wonderful man is dead because he played hero for someone as lame as Zoe.
Linda
Written on Jan 3, 2012
This whole book was amazing! Extremely well written, a completely new world that made sense little by little, and intriguing and very likeable characters!
Zoë was a normal 29-year-old until one night she decided to take a short-cut home, where she was attacked and thought she died. She woke up in a body bag - completely panicked, after getting out of the bag and the ambulance, she ran like the devil was after her, until Adam found her.
Adam and Zoë formed a tentative friendship, although she woke up looking completely different from what she looked before.
There was also a whole lot of great humour, I laughed so hard in many places, I need to go through my status updates to get some of those quotes!
Zoë finds out she's a mage, and Justus takes over her guardianship, until the bastard who made her comes back to claim her - only to use her and abuse her. Luckily, both Justus and his friend Simon were keeping tags on her, and were able to save her again.
Some very detailed fight-scenes, some sexy build-ups and an ending that was mind-blowing!
I completely and utterly loved this book, and really look forward to reading another installment. This world is dark, but still full of hope, and with some of the twists that happened, there is more than enough to let me read more about it all.