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Review

3 stars

I’m a fan of Jasinda Wilder’s emotionally intense love stories, and when I saw that she had written a paranormal book, I knew I had to read it. This book was definitely not what I was expecting, but it captured my attention and had me invested, and I enjoyed this one.

Firstly, it’s impossible to review this book without acknowledging that it reads like a sexy Twilight reboot. I’m not sure if it’s intended to be fanfic, but there’s so many similarities, it seems stupid not to mention it. It’s an almost identical storyline, except there’s smut – and a lot of it very surprising.

Maeve Sparrow is living her life with her single mother until she is suddenly and tragically killed. All alone in the world, she packs up her life and moves in with her long-lost father in a small rural town (feeling familiar yet?). At school, she is drawn to a quiet but gorgeous fellow student by the name of Caspian. What she feels for him is not normal, and it’s clear that he’s feeling the same sort of connection right back. But he’s secretive and keeps to himself, with whispers of ‘it’s not safe for you to know me’ (hmmm, imagine that). But their connection cannot be ignored and as Maeve and Caspian get to know each other more, she is drawn into his world where she meets his father figure, Carlisle Alistair, and two ‘brothers’, Emmett and Jasper Finn and Sterling (at this point, it’s just a little bit ridiculous). She knows that the ‘family’ aren’t normal, and she has her suspicions, and her world will change forever when she finds out the truth.

Yep, so you see where the story is going, and despite the near-identical beginning, I was actually invested in Maeve. She’s almost 19, so just that little bit older than naïve Bella, and she’s a really likeable character. Where this book differs from Twilight is that Caspian and his family give of wild sex pheromones, and she descends into raptures of mad lust whenever she’s around any of them. Luckily then, that the vampires in this world have unique views on blood drinking, sex and sharing/open relationships. Yep, it’s anything goes, and the more the merrier is actually expected, and there is a whole lot of heart pounding, stomach churning, moaning and dripping as Maeve’s limits are tested by the new men in her life. But it’s Caspian with whom she shares the most intense connection making it a definite m/f love story, just with some sharing (but no actual sex) on the side. They call it love, to me it felt more like a supernatural bond than actual romantic love, but I could definitely feel their attraction and what they meant to each other and I like Maeve and Caspian together as a couple.

I thought this was a really well-developed world that Wilder has created. The lore is different from other paranormal stories that I have read, I appreciated the originality and I was intrigued by the history and curious how Mave was going to fit into the world, and where the story was heading.

The book does ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and is definitely unfinished, so I’m expecting that there will be more books and I’ll definitely be jumping on those when they are released.

Don’t go expecting anything too serious (this is paranormal romance after all), but this is an enjoyable read… not for young readers.

3 stars.