Well, well, well, my first blog tour of the year. And my first review in over a month. Once again Dave @WriteReadsTours has delivered the book goods, serving up another winner.
Fast paced, sexy, Non stop action
Blurb- Blindsided by an attack that destroys her home and blamed for murder, Karolina Dalca, a half-vampire, escapes, only to plunge into the magical societies from which she was sheltered.
Betrayed by those around her, she abandons her dreams of becoming an investigator and flees, trusting only herself. Her police internship would never prove more useful. Hoofing it through the wilderness, she makes it to her university dorm, dishevelled but delightfully deflowered.
Enter a full vampire: one wielding dark magic and a ride out of Canada. A fugitive from the law, Karo complies with his demands to escape, unsure whether his requests are bewitched. She vows to clear her name and avenge her mother’s death, but Karo’s family secrets aren’t so easily left behind.
What I wanted from this book – A fun adventure with vampires and werewolves.
What I got – A fun, sexy, bloody, adventure with vampires, werewolves, magic and family secrets.
There is a lot of good stuff in Karolina Dalca, Dark Eyes, but first we need to get to something important, the sexual tension… So much sexual tension. I’m not mad, I loved it and there was a certain scene in the woods, that well… Phew… You will know what I’m talking about when you get to it. That in itself makes this book worth reading.
So a big tick for the sexy levels.
And now the less smutty stuff. Dark Eyes weaves magic and myth to bring the fantastical elements to life and gives us an often unseen touch of elemental magic. Tied in with demons, vampire royalty and shady agents, we get to discover all the different aspects of the world as Karo does. Because unfortunately for Karo, she has been deemed to powerful by those who care about her; unable to control her powers, so they keep the majority of her history hidden from her. In usual moronic fashion, they think they know best and think that it will work out for her in the long run.
Side note, it doesn’t matter who you are, friend, family or foe, you don’t get to decide what’s best for other people and keep them in the dark about their abilities or their history.
As often happens, keeping Karo sheltered doesn’t prepare her for life. She is thrown into situations that cause her to act rashly. Because she is naïve about the consequences, she almost gets everyone killed quite a few times, she is easily manipulated.
It does allow for a decent character arc, because she is definitely a changed woman by the end of the book.
Our two male side characters were somewhat typical of the genre, but that doesn’t change the fact I enjoyed them. I liked the way they interacted, the way their relationships with Karo develop and I just know there is going to be some more love triangle action in the next book.
I did have an issue with the final conflict in the book, everything about it was to easy. I don’t think the suspense was built well, it felt as though it was written at exactly the same pace as the rest of the book and I need more than that. And it felt like it was over way to quickly, like hardly any space on the page was dedicated to it. It could have been so much better.
Overall Dark Eyes is a solid read, it’s fun, easy, sexy and it has definitely set up book two well. There are so many elements that have only been briefly touched on that will hopefully be fleshed out in book two and I’m 100% down with Karo’s attitude at the end and her plans for revenge.
Author Bio
M. R. Noble has played a tug of war between science and art her whole life, but the rope broke when she wrote the first line of The Dark Eyes Series. Immersed up to her keyboard in paranormal romance and urban fantasy, she enjoys blending the real with the surreal. The only drawback is she misplaces her mug while dreaming up her next scene, and soon finds herself six cups overpoured.
Keeping to her Lake Simcoe roots, she is a member of the Writers Community of York Region (WCYR), where her muse is made not found . . . over a hefty cup of coffee.
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Author bio – Lee is a musician and writer in Lincolnshire, UK. He lives with his wife Laura and daughters Luna and Anya in the historic cathedral city of Lincoln. Alongside a lifetime of playing guitar and immersing himself in the study of music and history, Lee is also a practitioner and instructor of historic martial arts and swordsmanship. After writing his advanced guitar theory textbook The Guitar Teachers Grimoire, Lee turns his hand to writing fiction. Lee is one of the founders of Bard of the Isles literary magazine and is now also studying a degree in creative writing while working on his debut fantasy series The Dead Sagas, which includes the novels A Ritual of Bone and A Ritual of Flesh, as well as also generally writing speculative fiction and horror.
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Synopsis
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