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Review

YA paranormal dystopia – WIN! This is a fantastic start to a series that I know I am going to love!

Set 100 years after vampires became tired of living in the shadows and outed themselves in a bloody and brutal war against humans, vampires are now in charge, with the human race enslaved to them. The only humans who don’t serve them are part of a resistance movement, based in the woods and continuing to fight for human freedom. Daughter of the rebel leader, Arianna finds herself captured by vampires during a raid and taken to be either bled out and killed, or worse, taken as a blood slave to the highest bidder to be used in whatever way until her master tires of her.

To her horror, she is claimed by a powerful vampire, Braith, who just happens to be a Prince and next in line for the vampire throne. Assuming she is to be abused and then killed, Arianna is shocked when Braith makes no demands on her, instead installing her within his rooms in the palace, and treating her well.

“She began to shake, unable to understand this strange creature before her. Vampires were monsters, they destroyed humans, used them and abused them before tossing them away, but this creature was an enigma that she couldn’t even begin to fathom.”

Braith has no idea why he claimed Arianna. He has never had a blood slave before, and he doesn’t particularly want one now, he just knows that there is something special about her, and he needs to keep her safe, and keep her close.

From completely opposite worlds, Arianna and Braith each represent everything that the other hates. But as they find their way around each other, and get to know each other, not only do they start to question all they had been raised to believe, but a bond begins to grow, and feelings start to develop.

“She found herself wanting to trust him, wanting to like him even.
And she knew that was a very hazardous thing to do.”

I love Aria – she’s brave, defiant and proud, passionate and deeply caring for her people and their plight. Raised in the woods, and living as a warrior in caves and dressing in rags, she has a deep hatred of the race that has enslaved her people, and even though she is disgusted with her new reality, she still maintains a sense of wonder as she is brought into the vampire world and introduced into a lifestyle she has never known before.

And guiding her along the way is the luscious Braith. God, I love him! A bit of a hardass, he is wary of Aria at the beginning, but he is beautifully protective of her. I love the way he allows her to get to him, and how, despite his harsh upbringing, he is open to her and to his feelings for her.

“Her splendid inner glow had always resided within her, and it was one of the most exquisite things he had ever encountered.”

The romance between them is beautiful!! It develops slowly, and unfolds realistically until it consumes them both.

“She needed this, she needed him. It all felt so right, so perfectly, and astonishingly right! Something inside her was healing and becoming whole. There had always been something missing in her life, something that she’d been searching and hoping for, but she’d never known what it was. Until now.”

But with a relationship strictly forbidden between their races, and with Braith as the king-in-waiting, and Aria hiding her identity as the daughter of the rebellion, there is no way this can be a smooth ride, and things get very intense, leaving us with a particularly nasty cliffhanger that left me almost screaming with frustration.

But fear not! Not only is the second book available, but all four books of the series are available, so there’s no excuse not to dive right in. Especially when this book is available free on Amazon!

Beautifully, descriptively written and full of emotion, I was sucked in from the first page. Stevens has done a great job in creating a dark and intriguing paranormal world, and her characters are all really well developed. It was a little lacking in the dialogue, but with the dual POV, you always know what the characters are thinking, so it wasn’t a major issue.

I loved it, and am diving straight into the next book. 4.5 stars.