Melanie
Written on Nov 12, 2013
I’ve never been a big fan of Aryal, though I’ve been a fan of harpies from other series. Aryal rubs a lot of people the wrong way, both readers and other characters in the book. She also has a way of holding grudges, even if she’s not a hundred percent sure why she has a grudge.
Quentin is part panther Wyr, part Elven and part Dark Fae. He isn’t proud of everything he has done in his past. But, he has fought his way into being a sentinel, the only one not able to fly, and he plans to do nothing to jeopardize his new job. Aryal is convinced that Quentin is hiding something and has burned all her bridges trying to prove it. When a fight between the two of them break out in the tower, Dragos sends the two of them on a mission to Numenlaur, which is a Elven land that was abandoned from during events in previous books. They must solve their issues or they will both lose their sentinel positions.
They start off the beginning of the trip plotting how one can kill the other without making it look like murder. Oh, and they have to be able to pass a supernatural type of lie detector, as well. There is talk of “hate sex” from the beginning, but murder is more likely. When they arrive at the cross over to Numenlaur, they notice that the people who should be guarding the gate aren’t there, so something must be wrong. They go ahead and cross to see what is going on. They find some pretty disturbing things in the Elven land. The land is mostly abandon, but should be completely empty. They are captured by a witch and are taken to the missing guards.
As expected, Aryal and Quentin have chemistry a lot sooner than they would’ve liked, but not sooner than I would’ve expected. They grow even closer with the conflict. As the title suggests, there is some BDSM in the story, but very light compared to what I’m used to. Both characters are very alpha, though I think that they like the idea of give up control to each other for short periods of time, just as much as they like have control of the other. Neither would be willing to give control to anyone else. The BDSM aspect seemed a little forced to me, because that is all the craze right now. While this story wasn’t bad and I ended up liking the characters better than I expected, I still think this is a weaker book in the series.
The narration is great and the best part of this book. I think Ms. Eastlake does a great job for both men and women characters. I love the snarkiness she puts in the voices. I’ve enjoyed the job she has done on all the Elder Races books and this one is no different.
Originally posted at Hotlistens.com
