Reviewed by Melanie on
This is book three in the Eternal Mates series. Vail is our severally tortured hero of this story. We met him in book one where he had spent thousands of years under the control of an evil witch and was forced to be at war with his brother and the rest of the elves. This witch had tortured him and left him without much of his sanity. Needless to say, he doesn't have much use for witches now that he has finally escaped her clutches.
Our heroine was introduced in book two. Rosalind is a witch and a bit of a hermit. She especially avoids elves. It was foretold that she would die at the hands of an elf, so she has refused to spend any time around any elves to make sure she doesn't meet up with the specific elf that is supposed to kill her. Fate has something different in mind for both our hero and heroine.
When they are both captured and held together in a prison and Rosalind is forced to heal Vail, she has no choice but to be around the elf as he is forced to be around the witch. Their time in the prison, which would be enough on its own, is made much more difficult as they both deal with their hatred of the other species.
Rosalind and Vail are fated mates, so they feel a connection from the start. However, Vail doesn't take to this very well. The evil witch trapped him by convincing him that she was his fated mate. So when Rosalind shows up as his actual mate, Vail instantly feels it is another trick. As they work together to escape the prison, along with the help of an incubi, we see their relationship bloom and the mistrust between them dissipate.
This was the darkest story in series so far. Since I like dark stories and tortured heroes or heroines, this was a great story for me. I love the look into Vail's head. Heaton does a great job portraying his forays into and out of his bouts of madness. The worldbuilding is just as good as the previous books, which is wonderful. She really does a great job with the descriptions to make you feel like you are actually their.
The cast of characters in this book is really small. For the most part, the story is just Vail and Rosalind, along with the incubi that was also imprisoned with them. I'm a big fan of secondary characters. They can make or break a story for me. However, the lack of secondary characters in this book didn't make the story suffer at all. Vail is such a complex character, he and Rosalind were able to hold your attention without the extra characters in the story.
If you haven't started this series yet, I highly recommend it. Heaton brings a fresh and darker look into the Paranormal Romance genre with great world building and characters. I have yet to try books from her other series yet, but you can bet I will be trying them soon.
**Book was provided to me by the author. This review is my opinion and was not requested or provoked in anyway by the author.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 9 August, 2014: Finished reading
- 9 August, 2014: Reviewed