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Review
4 stars
Preparations are underway for peace talks between the supernatural races, and it’s time for Caleb and Lily to finally face up to their destiny. And it’s a great ride!
300 years ago, Lily chose duty over love when she agreed to an arranged mating with a prophet of the Realm. It was only a few weeks later when her mate was killed, and his role as prophet was passed on to her. Since that time she has embraced her role and has worked hard to provide guidance, counsel and help to those in need. His death also left her supernaturally bound to a dead vampire and unable to so much as touch another male. Luckily, she contracted Virus 27 which essentially dissolved her mating and she suddenly finds herself a free woman for the first time in three centuries.
I really like Lily. She has always seemed so repressed – like she is stuck in an earlier time, with her conservative dress, her super-politeness and her demure nature. And now we finally get to see the real woman is as she begins to explore who she truly is. And what better time for Caleb to come barging back into her life?
“So. Rumor has it you want to get laid.”
God, I love Caleb! Known as ‘The Realm Rebel’, he is a fierce warrior, and he has lived his life on his own terms. Fate dealt him a blow when he became a prophet against his will, and he has tried to reject the role at every opportunity, instead embracing his life as a soldier, and carrying out his role to protect the king. He has had neither the time nor the inclination to look for companionship in his life as he has been unable to move on from the only woman he has ever loved – Caleb lost Lily when she mated all those years ago, but he has never forgotten her. And now that she’s unexpectedly free of her ties, and he has no intention of letting her go again.
“When you’re in a room, you’re all I see.”
I loved watching Caleb and Lily come together. As expected from this series, their love story is intense – I always love a pairing between a strong, determined alpha male and his feisty female. Lily is determined to make Caleb see her as a real woman and not a delicate doll, and the woman certainly knows how to get her message across! (Hot damn!). And as they open up to each other and embrace their second opportunity they are passionate, swoony and beautifully romantic.
“The last time I felt this desperate for a woman, I was young—barely an adult.”
She hummed and ran a soft hand across his chest. “Lucky woman.”
He started, his heart beating hard enough she had to feel it.
“It was you, Lil. You’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted badly enough to burn.”
But in other news – the peace talks have brought all three of the prophets together to act as mediators for the event, and it is then that they learn that they have each been having disturbing nightmares that point them towards a tragic fate. Where are the dreams coming from? And is there a way that they can resist the directive of the fates when it means a death sentence for somebody that they hold dear?
It’s all very exciting. Things in the Realm are building towards the big battle that we have been anticipating since the first book, and in the middle of it all Caleb and Lily are coming together, Lily is finding her strength and becoming the woman she was meant to be, and when the Kurjans become involved – with their leader wanting Lily for himself – things become dangerously violent. It’s a wild ride and it moves at a great pace with so much happening.
I loved this addition to the series. Again, there’s enough going on to warrant a whole book rather than just a novella, but I’m so damn impatient to get to the next book that it didn’t bother me. Bring on Janie and Zane!
4 stars.
See our Dark Protectors/Realm Enforcers series page for info on the series
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