Runaway Valkyrie mate and her Lykae stalker on an adventure on the Amazon river
Blurb:
A dangerous beauty…
Lucia the Huntress: as mysterious as she is exquisite, she harbors secrets that threaten to destroy her—and those she loves.
An uncontrollable need…
Garreth MacRieve, Prince of the Lykae: the brutal Highland warrior who burns to finally claim this maddeningly sensual creature as his own.
That lead to a pleasure so wicked…
From the shadows, Garreth has long watched over Lucia. Now, the only way to keep the proud huntress safe from harm is to convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do this, Garreth will ruthlessly exploit Lucia’s greatest weakness—her wanton desire for him.
Back in 2012, I stumbled upon this book. It was the first Kresley Cole novel I read. But I stopped in the middle because I loved the Lore so much, I wanted to start from the beginning. So this is the one that made me fall in love, even before I read the entire novel.
It’s still one of my favorites. It has everything – action, adventure, an alpha male who is also super sweet, a kickass female, hot sex scenes, and great writing. The connection between Lucia and Garreth is one of the strongest in the series, perhaps because they can’t have sex immediately.
Lucia almost died when she was just 16 and traded healing and unparalleled skill at archery for a vow of chastity and loyalty to a goddess. So she can’t give Garreth what he wants – her, as his mate.
Understand me, MacRieve, I’m a Valkyrie. I’m not bound by your . . . animalistic needs.”
His voice a low rasp, he said, “After one night with me, Lousha, you will be.”
I’d put in a lot more quotes, but there is so much I don’t want to give away!
Contains graphic sex scenes. Some touching could be seen as non-consent.
Occasional foul language.
3rd person past tense from Lucia and Garreth. We also get a chapter section from Lachlain.
I found 4 errors, wrong punctuation and wrong words.
425 pages. The Kindle version ends at 78% with the rest an excerpt from The Master.
Part Valkyrie, part Icere (Ice Fey) who can’t be touches without pain and the vampire she bloods
This contains two novels. One by Kresley Cole called “Untouchable” and one by Gena Showalter called “Tempt Me Eternally”. This is only a review for “Untouchable”.
Blurb for “Untouchable”:
KRESLEY COLE delivers a breathtaking tale of a brutal vampire soldier about to know love for the first time…and a Valkyrie aching to be touched.
Murdoch Wroth will stop at nothing to claim Daniela the Ice Maiden — the delicate Valkyrie who makes his heart beat for the first time in three hundred years. Yet the exquisite Danii is part ice fey, and her freezing skin can’t be touched by anyone but her own kind without inflicting pain beyond measure. Soon desperate for closeness, in an agony of frustration, Murdoch and Danii will do anything to have each other. Together, can they find the key that will finally allow them to slake the overwhelming desire burning between them?
Murdoch Wroth was the manwhore among the Wroth brothers before they were turned into vampires.
Though he’d once been a rake, bedding a new woman each night, Murdoch hoped it never happened to him. To be mystically tied to a single woman sounded hellish, especially to a woman he didn’t choose, and one who could spurn him, as Myst had Nikolai.
“In my time, taking a virgin meant one risked a sword-point wedding.” Beget no bastards, deflower no maids. As long as he’d followed those two simple rules, he’d always gotten to do as he pleased.
In his mortal life, he’d been considerate in bed. He’d made sure he brought great pleasure to every woman he’d been with. This wasn’t out of selflessness. Quite the opposite. At an early age, he’d learned that the more word got around that he was a skilled lover, the more women dallied with him.
Daniella the Ice Maiden is part Valkyrie and part Icere (Ice Fey). Her body is naturally cold. She thrives in ice and snow, bare-skinned. Overheating is dangerous for her. She can’t touch or be touched by others without extreme pain. But somehow she bloods Murdoch Wroth.
“Vampire, I think you’re afraid to settle down—with anyone. You were single for years and celibate for three hundred more. And now you have bachelor’s panic.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“BP? It’s when a man irrationally fears a woman he especially likes. He gets ascared of said woman’s toothbrush breaching the perimeter of his man cave, et cetera.”
“Panic? I don’t panic,” he sneered the word. “Daniela, you can’t be touched.”
The frigid one. Enough of this. “No, you can’t! Your heart’s colder than mine. You are the untouchable one.”
There is a time lapse of many months, fall to winter to summer to winter again, with Murdoch and Danii living together but unable to have intercourse or touch.
We get bits of other stories from previous books in the series. This starts before Book 1 but ends after all Book 7. We get the endings too, so this should be read in order.
This is one of my favorite couples. Perhaps it’s because they have to wait for actual sex, and they choose to be together even when they can’t touch. I definitely don’t feel like it’s only the Bride connection between them. But I also love the Iceren – ice elves, how I’ve never seen them before, and the answer to how Danii and Murdoch can be together. Cole has an amazing imagination!
Contains graphic sex scenes. No triggers. No non-consent here.
Occasional foul language.
3rd person past tense from Danii and Murdoch.
I found 3 errors, mostly with formatting.
“Untouchable” is 256 pages. The entire book is 444 pages.
$5.99 at Amazon.
The second half is Gena Showalter’s “Tempt Me Eternally”, book 7 of the Alien Huntress Series. I didn’t read it, planning to read it 7th in that series later on. I have read some of Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld series. I don’t remember if I stopped or had read them all. I wasn’t as big a fan of them as I was of Kresley Cole, but I do remember enjoying them. Showalter is an extremely prolific writer, having written almost 100 books so far!
Blurb for “Tempt Me Eternally”:
GENA SHOWALTER puts a daring spin on a tale of huntress and hunted…and concocts a sensual chemistry that is positively explosive.
Aleaha Love can be anyone — literally. With only skin-to-skin contact, she can change her appearance, assume any identity. Her newest identity switch has made her an AIR (alien investigation and removal) agent and sends her on a mission to capture a group of otherworldly warriors. Only she becomes the captured. Breean, a golden-skinned commander known for his iron will who is at once dangerous and soul-shatteringly seductive, threatens her new life. Because for the first time, Aleaha only wants to be herself…. “
Sabine, Sorceress of Illusions: the evil beauty who surrenders her body, but not her heart.
Her downfall…
Rydstrom Woede: the ruthless warrior who vows to keep her at all costs.
They were never supposed to want each other this much…
With each smoldering encounter, their shared hunger only increases. If they can defeat the sinister enemy that stands between them, will Sabine make the ultimate sacrifice for her demon? Or will the proud king lay down his crown and arms to save his sorceress?
Rydstrom is a rage demon, like his brother Cadeon, whom we met in the last novel in the series. Rydstrom was their king before Omort the Deathless stole the crown from him. If you are reading the series in order, you know all about this. You also know that Rydstrom was captured by Sabine.
“I plan,” she began matter-of-factly, “to become pregnant with your heir.”
“With me in control of your heir, the last of the rage demon rebellions will be quelled.”
Rydstrom shook his head hard, even as his mouth went dry. In fifteen hundred years, he’d never felt so attracted to another female. What if she were his? To find his queen after waiting so long? To find her as Omort’s sister? “No, fate isn’t that cruel.”
She quirked a brow at that. “Fate is indifferent.”
“Even if you are fated to be mine, Sabine, I’ll never have you.”
“Oh, you’ll have me.” Her lips curled in a knowing, sexual grin that made his heart pound. “Again and again until this deed is done.”
Again and again. Taking her soft body, learning that perfect pale flesh . . . No! Resist her.
He clenched his jaw, unable to deny what was so obvious. “Of course you’d kill me after our babe is born?”
“Well, I wouldn’t be a very good evil sorceress if I allowed you to live.”
If this female weren’t so evil, she’d be glorious.
In that instant, he decided, I’ll claim her as my war prize when I escape.
And he would use her to get free.
Sabine is Sorceri. And she is Rydstrom’s fated mate.
He tried to remember what he knew about the Sorceri in general. He recalled that they were greedy for wealth, merry hedonists who lived their lives in pursuit of pleasure—and gold. But they were also secretive and paranoid, suspicious of strangers who arrived at their doorstep. Most tended to live in the farthest reaches of the earth.
Yet they weren’t an inherently evil race. You’re just thinking this way because you want her. Maybe, but the fact remained that it was a possibility. Right now, it was the only one that seemed viable.
This is one of my favorite series of all time and this still gets 5 stars, but having said all that, this may be my least favorite in the series. There isn’t as much adventure, and I don’t feel the connection between the characters as much as I usually do. But I’m spoiled here! So this is still great and shouldn’t be skipped.
Contains graphic sex scenes. There are bondage scenes – real bondage, as in chained up to keep from escaping, not pretend stuff with safe words. Some sexual scenes can be seen as non-consent.
Occasional foul language.
3rd person past tense from Rydstrom and Sabine.
I found 5 errors, missing punctuation and misspelled words
413 pages. Stops 77% of the way through. Excerpt from The Master at the end.
V. B. Law 