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Lost Realm #2
Fire & Ice
When the vampire Fenton discovers the hideout of the witches who kidnapped Skye's brother, the fae prince knows that he has to go with him to confront them. It will mean travelling into the unknown corners of the world, but with Fenton by his side, Skye knows that he'll be safe.Ash and his vampire lover Azrael have been safely returned to the Realm, but Ash quickly discovers that fae law forbids their relationship. Changing the law becomes an obsession, but even the king claims that it's unbreakable.The two brothers set off on separate journeys, both trying to do what they think is best for the Realm, but what they discover along the way will profoundly change them, and make them doubt everything that they thought they knew. Old alliances will falter, new enemies will emerge, and they will discover that there is good and bad on both sides. Ash learns that love against the odds isn't easy, and Skye fears that love alone might never be enough.
233 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2011
1 person is currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Kate Aaron
37 books339 followersBorn in Liverpool, Kate Aaron is a bestselling author of the #1 LGBT romances What He Wants, Ace, The Slave, and other works.
Kate swapped the North West for the Midwest in October 2015 and married award-winning author AJ Rose. Together they plan to take over the world.
Kate swapped the North West for the Midwest in October 2015 and married award-winning author AJ Rose. Together they plan to take over the world.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 12, 2012
This book was the second book of a series. I thought the first book was okay enough to make me want to read the second book. One of my complaints about the first book was that one of the characters kept on sobbing, bursting into tears, etc. I know that his character was gay, but did the author find it necessary to have the character constantly crying? I felt these books had a lot of potential to become a really good story, but instead, I think the author just made kind of a mess of things. It almost seemed as though she was making up plot points as she went along. In this book, not only the character Ash is gay and in love with the vampire Azreal, but it turns out that his brother(heir to the kingdom)had apparently become gay. He falls in love with another vampire Fenton, who does love Skye, but seemingly can't show his love in physical terms. Skye falls in love with Fenton in spite of this. And as a result, found himself constantly sobbing, breaking out into tears, etc. I'm not sure why the author had a law where being gay was punishable by death. Only the princes wouldn't be bound by this law. But the reason for this law was that being gay meant that the person wouldn't have any children and since the Fae were dying out(due to some mysterious illness that allowed women to die if they had more than one child). So what sense does it make to have gay Fae put to death when the Fae are losing numbers anyway due to this strange malady that the Fae women have? Both Ash and Skye go on these missions with dubious outcomes. I really can't figure out where the author wants to go with this series. Ash has visions which are either real or brought on by the witch Alyssia. We aren't ever told what these visions mean. And there is a prophesy that Ash will either end the Realm or be the savior of the Realm. Not too many details are given and he doesn't even know about the prophesy until halfway through the book. I thought there was so much potential for a really good story here and came away being so disappointed. I will not read the next book in the series if it ever gets written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2015
I am stunned. I can't believe what has happened to Skye. Fenton was one of my favorite characters and now this?? I don't know if I can wait to find out what has happened to him. He must be devastated.
As you can tell by my rant above, I got very emotionally involved in this story. The love the characters show for each other is so great, it made the tragedy even sharper.
I know I have to wait for the next book, but it is going to be hard.
Maybe I'll recommend that you wait and read the series after it's complete because the suspense will kill you :)
==============================
1st read - Mar 2012
2nd read - Jun 2015
As you can tell by my rant above, I got very emotionally involved in this story. The love the characters show for each other is so great, it made the tragedy even sharper.
I know I have to wait for the next book, but it is going to be hard.
Maybe I'll recommend that you wait and read the series after it's complete because the suspense will kill you :)
==============================
1st read - Mar 2012
2nd read - Jun 2015
August 4, 2013
That's it, I'm done with this series. I have no plans to buy
Storm & Strike
, the book after this one. I bought the first three works all at once because they were cheap and because the second two were tagged “asexual,” which intrigued me. Unfortunately, this was one of those times where taking a risk did not work out for me. I had some of the same problems with Fire & Ice that I had with the first two works in the series.
I disliked Ash at least as much in this story as I did in Blood & Ash . He was childish, selfish, immature, and never thought things through. The only reason I could think of to explain why Azrael continued to stay with him was the sex, and I couldn't believe that their relationship would last very long.
I also came to dislike Skye. He started off all right, at least until he fell in love with Fenton. Then, suddenly, he morphed into a great big ball of lust. He knew from the start that Fenton was asexual – Fenton loved Skye but would never be interested in having sex with him. When Skye began feeling sexually attracted to Fenton, Fenton offered to help out with that (heh) but continued to be uninterested in being on the receiving end of any sexual activities. This drove Skye practically crazy because a big part of him couldn't believe in love unless that love was displayed in a sexual way by both parties. His all-consuming lustful feelings culminated in an OMG ending that made me feel bad for Fenton in so many ways.
Ash and Skye were so focused on their relationships that I often had a hard time remembering the overarching storyline. The Realm was in danger of being invaded and taken over by witches. All its people faced the possibility of being evicted from a land they'd lived in for generations. However, since Ash was selfish and didn't personally care about the fate of the Realm, he was far more interested in devoting all his time and energy to changing his people's anti-homosexuality law. Yes, both things were important, but this was like someone realizing that their house was on fire and that poison had been pumped into their garden for months and choosing to focus all their attention on dealing with the poison. What good is saving the garden if you don't have a house anymore? Or worse, what if the fire gets your garden, too? What if the witches took over the Realm, decided they weren't satisfied with just evicting the fae, and killed them all instead?
Skye was a little more focused than Ash, but like I said earlier, his relationship with Fenton turned him into a giant ball of lust. Thinking about anything other than what was going on in his pants took some effort. And he wasn't always successful at it.
I did not always like what this book (or at least the characters in this book) had to say about relationships. For example, when a Were pack assumes that he and Fenton are sleeping together, Skye has this thought:
Which is stupid, because it assumes that all relationships are given equal weight. We already know that Skye's own people don't view homosexual relationships as being on the same level as heterosexual ones, because people in homosexual relationships are put to death. Also, it's just plain insulting when you consider that 1) not everyone is in a relationship, 2) some people choose not be in relationships, and 3) some relationships are abusive and are therefore not good. And yet Skye is all, “Hurray, I have the super-special badge of honor! I feel great, because everyone can see it.”
Then there's the issue of relationships and sex. Remember, I started this series primarily because I was interested in seeing how it would deal with an asexual relationship. Okay, so Skye and Fenton's relationship was a bit rocky. Balancing a sexual person's needs with an asexual person's needs isn't necessarily easy, especially if one half of the couple (Skye) refuses to sit down and talk about his needs so that problems can be worked out. What bothered me, though, was a discussion Azrael and Ash had about the place of sex in relationships, which, in my opinion, spat on the idea of asexual relationships.
Azrael and Ash are arguing because they haven't been having sex or even touching each other much lately: Ash feels too guilty. He can be with his lover while so many others are killed for the same thing. At one point, Azrael says:
So, in Azrael's words, without sex all you have is friendship. What does that say about Fenton's feelings? This is just part of the reason why I would not recommend this book or what I've read of this series so far to anyone looking for positively-presented asexual romantic relationships.
I'll end with this: the world-building. The law against homosexuality made absolutely no sense to me, no matter how many characters tried to explain it. The population of fae women was shrinking rapidly, because nearly every fae woman died after giving birth to only one child. Ash's mother was a rare exception. The ratio of men to women must have been huge. I suppose I could have understood a law against lesbian couples (although even this assumes that sex can only happen between couples), but why outlaw gay couples?
All in all, this book and this series as a whole did not work for me. The bones of the story were relatively interesting, but they were obscured by Ash and Skye's relationship-related freakouts. Aaron's attempt to include an asexual relationship was nice but ultimately fell flat for me. I enjoyed the scene in which a frazzled Fenton tried to shop for Skye, his first living house-guest since he was turned into a vampire – it was adorable and funny – but that was pretty much it.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
I disliked Ash at least as much in this story as I did in Blood & Ash . He was childish, selfish, immature, and never thought things through. The only reason I could think of to explain why Azrael continued to stay with him was the sex, and I couldn't believe that their relationship would last very long.
I also came to dislike Skye. He started off all right, at least until he fell in love with Fenton. Then, suddenly, he morphed into a great big ball of lust. He knew from the start that Fenton was asexual – Fenton loved Skye but would never be interested in having sex with him. When Skye began feeling sexually attracted to Fenton, Fenton offered to help out with that (heh) but continued to be uninterested in being on the receiving end of any sexual activities. This drove Skye practically crazy because a big part of him couldn't believe in love unless that love was displayed in a sexual way by both parties. His all-consuming lustful feelings culminated in an OMG ending that made me feel bad for Fenton in so many ways.
Ash and Skye were so focused on their relationships that I often had a hard time remembering the overarching storyline. The Realm was in danger of being invaded and taken over by witches. All its people faced the possibility of being evicted from a land they'd lived in for generations. However, since Ash was selfish and didn't personally care about the fate of the Realm, he was far more interested in devoting all his time and energy to changing his people's anti-homosexuality law. Yes, both things were important, but this was like someone realizing that their house was on fire and that poison had been pumped into their garden for months and choosing to focus all their attention on dealing with the poison. What good is saving the garden if you don't have a house anymore? Or worse, what if the fire gets your garden, too? What if the witches took over the Realm, decided they weren't satisfied with just evicting the fae, and killed them all instead?
Skye was a little more focused than Ash, but like I said earlier, his relationship with Fenton turned him into a giant ball of lust. Thinking about anything other than what was going on in his pants took some effort. And he wasn't always successful at it.
I did not always like what this book (or at least the characters in this book) had to say about relationships. For example, when a Were pack assumes that he and Fenton are sleeping together, Skye has this thought:
“People look at you differently when you’re in a relationship: it’s like you’ve passed some secret test, validated yourself as a person. Everyone understands love and respects it. To have it is to inspire good feeling in others.” (40.5%)
Which is stupid, because it assumes that all relationships are given equal weight. We already know that Skye's own people don't view homosexual relationships as being on the same level as heterosexual ones, because people in homosexual relationships are put to death. Also, it's just plain insulting when you consider that 1) not everyone is in a relationship, 2) some people choose not be in relationships, and 3) some relationships are abusive and are therefore not good. And yet Skye is all, “Hurray, I have the super-special badge of honor! I feel great, because everyone can see it.”
Then there's the issue of relationships and sex. Remember, I started this series primarily because I was interested in seeing how it would deal with an asexual relationship. Okay, so Skye and Fenton's relationship was a bit rocky. Balancing a sexual person's needs with an asexual person's needs isn't necessarily easy, especially if one half of the couple (Skye) refuses to sit down and talk about his needs so that problems can be worked out. What bothered me, though, was a discussion Azrael and Ash had about the place of sex in relationships, which, in my opinion, spat on the idea of asexual relationships.
Azrael and Ash are arguing because they haven't been having sex or even touching each other much lately: Ash feels too guilty. He can be with his lover while so many others are killed for the same thing. At one point, Azrael says:
"'We have more than sex binding us—much more—but without sex, our relationship loses everything that makes it special to us.'
'So you don't want me if you can't sleep with me?' Ash asked coldly.
'Of course I do. I want you too much to not sleep with you. I don't want you as a friend—I have dozens of those. I want you as my lover; my only lover.'" (65.5%)
So, in Azrael's words, without sex all you have is friendship. What does that say about Fenton's feelings? This is just part of the reason why I would not recommend this book or what I've read of this series so far to anyone looking for positively-presented asexual romantic relationships.
I'll end with this: the world-building. The law against homosexuality made absolutely no sense to me, no matter how many characters tried to explain it. The population of fae women was shrinking rapidly, because nearly every fae woman died after giving birth to only one child. Ash's mother was a rare exception. The ratio of men to women must have been huge. I suppose I could have understood a law against lesbian couples (although even this assumes that sex can only happen between couples), but why outlaw gay couples?
All in all, this book and this series as a whole did not work for me. The bones of the story were relatively interesting, but they were obscured by Ash and Skye's relationship-related freakouts. Aaron's attempt to include an asexual relationship was nice but ultimately fell flat for me. I enjoyed the scene in which a frazzled Fenton tried to shop for Skye, his first living house-guest since he was turned into a vampire – it was adorable and funny – but that was pretty much it.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
January 29, 2016
**Grammar warning**
Ash is a selfish, useless, spoiled boy, that decides one thing and after seconds he changes his mind. Azrael is a crying baby, and doesnt seem the powerfull old vampire, that the others describe. There are sex scene used only bcs the author needed to put them in the story, but dont make any sense at the time these happen. Skye wasnt gay, but then in ONE DAY u see him thinking sexually about Fenton, a vampire that loves him too, but doesnt think about sex and doesnt get hard when Skye tries to get their relationship to another level, but we read that Fenton "has lust in his eyes", lust? are we reading differente books?, and we also read in the 1.5 book, that Fenton had sex with a male whore, so he can fu***** get hard. Skye passed from general and warrior, to a begging slut. I still dont know what mission those 2 were doing, bcs u pass like 100 pages reading about them changing houses, and eating new food.... really??, what the hell. At this point i didnt know what to think aymore, but i kept reading, bcs in the end i prefer 100000 times Skye and Fentom as a couple than the other pitiful couple.(i should have stopped reading)
I really hate Ash, and how he becomes angry when he understands that Fentom and his brother are together, excuse me useless prince, why Skye cant, but you can?, useless guy this Ash.
Fenton wishes he could change and finally become what Skye needs, a man with desire also for his body. They have said they cant live without the other, and Skye lets the vampire drink his blood, but he doesnt want to ask more then this, and when Fenton wants to give it to him, Skye says no, bcs he knows the vampire is doing it just bcs he knows the prince wants this.
Rowan is an useless best friend.
Almost at the end of the book, i asked myself why i read it. Fenton and Skye, during their mission, become prisoners of Alyssia (the witch they're searching for, and want to kill), there Fenton gets tortured and after that Skye chats with Alyssia, they fight and he is strangling her, and the woman, what she does?, starts to give him an hand job, and Skye doesnt say anything, he has his worst enemy there and he is killing her, but he prefers and hand job and her kisses. Skye has sex with the witch, and while they're doing it, Fenton comes in the room and sees them. WTF? Skye had promised he was only of the vampire, like Fenton had done too, and here we see he is having sex with Alyssia.....
Jealousy clouds the vampire's eyes, and he takes Skye and pushes him to a wall and starts to drink his blood. Fenton asks him why he betrayed him and we see Skye asking for mercy, but is too late. Fenton kills Skye, his lover, and we see Alyssia giving the prince body to the fae and saying what happened and that Fenton is gone. I hate this book, and the end sucks soo much i think no one would be able to write a worst end for a book.
Skye is dead, Fenton his running and hiding, dunno what he is doing really, while Ash and Azrael, knowing that Skye is dead and after they have escaped from the realm, they still have the time to have sex and actually be in the mood too do it. Bah, i really hoped that Fenton and Skye could be happy together and for me all this didnt make any sense.
Dont read this book save yourself.
Now just because i dont leave the thing half, i'll finish this serie.
Ash is a selfish, useless, spoiled boy, that decides one thing and after seconds he changes his mind. Azrael is a crying baby, and doesnt seem the powerfull old vampire, that the others describe. There are sex scene used only bcs the author needed to put them in the story, but dont make any sense at the time these happen. Skye wasnt gay, but then in ONE DAY u see him thinking sexually about Fenton, a vampire that loves him too, but doesnt think about sex and doesnt get hard when Skye tries to get their relationship to another level, but we read that Fenton "has lust in his eyes", lust? are we reading differente books?, and we also read in the 1.5 book, that Fenton had sex with a male whore, so he can fu***** get hard. Skye passed from general and warrior, to a begging slut. I still dont know what mission those 2 were doing, bcs u pass like 100 pages reading about them changing houses, and eating new food.... really??, what the hell. At this point i didnt know what to think aymore, but i kept reading, bcs in the end i prefer 100000 times Skye and Fentom as a couple than the other pitiful couple.(i should have stopped reading)
I really hate Ash, and how he becomes angry when he understands that Fentom and his brother are together, excuse me useless prince, why Skye cant, but you can?, useless guy this Ash.
Fenton wishes he could change and finally become what Skye needs, a man with desire also for his body. They have said they cant live without the other, and Skye lets the vampire drink his blood, but he doesnt want to ask more then this, and when Fenton wants to give it to him, Skye says no, bcs he knows the vampire is doing it just bcs he knows the prince wants this.
Rowan is an useless best friend.
Almost at the end of the book, i asked myself why i read it. Fenton and Skye, during their mission, become prisoners of Alyssia (the witch they're searching for, and want to kill), there Fenton gets tortured and after that Skye chats with Alyssia, they fight and he is strangling her, and the woman, what she does?, starts to give him an hand job, and Skye doesnt say anything, he has his worst enemy there and he is killing her, but he prefers and hand job and her kisses. Skye has sex with the witch, and while they're doing it, Fenton comes in the room and sees them. WTF? Skye had promised he was only of the vampire, like Fenton had done too, and here we see he is having sex with Alyssia.....
Jealousy clouds the vampire's eyes, and he takes Skye and pushes him to a wall and starts to drink his blood. Fenton asks him why he betrayed him and we see Skye asking for mercy, but is too late. Fenton kills Skye, his lover, and we see Alyssia giving the prince body to the fae and saying what happened and that Fenton is gone. I hate this book, and the end sucks soo much i think no one would be able to write a worst end for a book.
Skye is dead, Fenton his running and hiding, dunno what he is doing really, while Ash and Azrael, knowing that Skye is dead and after they have escaped from the realm, they still have the time to have sex and actually be in the mood too do it. Bah, i really hoped that Fenton and Skye could be happy together and for me all this didnt make any sense.
Dont read this book save yourself.
Now just because i dont leave the thing half, i'll finish this serie.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
December 26, 2015Available from Amazon, ARe, and Smashwords
January 25, 2014
I was really sucked in to this story. I had to finish the third book before I could review this one tho bc the end left me so fragile. I really love Skye and Fenton so their fate was heartbreaking. I was so disappointed in Skye. But... After reading the next book, I understood why it needed to happen. Loved it!
January 25, 2014
A very good sequel to the first book, although, do not miss reading book 1.5 about Fenton.
Really liked it, espcially Skye's story. I wish we could see more of him though.
Really liked it, espcially Skye's story. I wish we could see more of him though.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews