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Friday, September 16, 2011

Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen (Royal House of Shadows #3, Harlequin Nocturne #123)






Back of the Book Blurb:  Once upon a time…the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden.
To save their children, the queen scattered them to safety and the king filled them with vengeance.
Only a magical timepiece connects the four royal heirs…and time is running out.…
For practical Reda Weston, nothing could explain how reading a sexy version of "Little Red Riding Hood" catapulted her into another realm—face-to-fang with the legendary wolf-creature who seduced women. A wolf who transformed into a dark, virile man….
Dayn cursed the Sorcerer that turned him wolfyn and damned him to a lonely fate. As a beast, he mated with women to gain strength.
Strength he needed to rescue his royal parents. But as a man, he craved Reda's heated, sizzling touch. With little time left, Dayn had to either embrace his wolf to save his kingdom…or fight it to save his woman.

Review:  This is the 3rd book in Harlequin Nocturne's House of Shadows series.  (The first two, Lord of the Vampires and Lord of Rage are also reviewed on this blog.)  The beginning was very promising, as we meet Reda, a former cop traumatized by the shooting death of her partner.  Reda's consumed with guilt, believing that her partner's death was her fault because she was frozen with fear.  She has an emotionally distant military father, a magical and mysterious deceased mother, and brothers who are merely mentioned.  She is soon sucked into the wolfyn realm by a magical vortex, and must fulfill her destiny of guiding Prince Dayn of Elden back to his home realm to defeat the Blood Sorceror.  But while Dayn seems to be the sexy woodsman of her childhood Little Red Riding book, he is also a vampire.  And the wolfyn, who have the frightening ability to enthrall women, are actually shapeshifters involved in a political struggle and pack infighting.

Dayn and Reda have less than 4 days to reach Elden, and spend it hiking to the next vortex, getting to know each other, and shagging.  Which is all well and good, except pretty soon Reda's internal dialogue of analytical self-doubt and second thoughts blends into the narrative voice, and every kiss is analyzed, and every glance is fraught (yes, fraught!) with meaning.  I appreciate the emotions leading to lovemaking as much as the next girl, but this relationship was talked to death.  By the time the plot action heated up, and the evil witch reappeared, a wolfyn pack attacked, and a dragon assassin entered the action, I was frustrated and no longer cared much for Reda.  When she suddenly changed from cowering, catatonic coward to warrior princess, I started skimming (a very rare thing for me) just to get to the end so I would be ready for the fourth and final installment of this series, Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh.
As a stand alone book I can't strongly recommend this, but as part of a 4 book series it's worthwhile to know the backstory of each royal heir of Elden.

For more information about author Jessica Andersen, visit her website at http://www.jessicaandersen.com/.



Lord of the Abyss (Harlequin Nocturne)

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