Who knew attending the wedding of the Overlord's sister could result in the abduction of High Queen Charlotte's twin daughters, Princess E'Lanna & Preincess Echo. But that's what happened. Taken right in front of their bodyguards disappearing into thin air.
Varrik, Commander of the Shadow Assassins, is duty bound to breed a son in the time honored way of his people and carefully lays out a plan to make that happen. The first step is to kidnap a suitable candidate. Who better than a royal so he sets his sights on Princess E'Lanna. When the time is right he springs into action with his hunters taking both women as, being twins, it's impossible to tell which is which.
Echo knows her fragile sister may not survive the carnal demands Varrick would force on her and ends up with Varrick herself with hopes that her family will find them sooner than later. Never mind that no one has ever been able to locate the Shadow Maze where Varrick and the Shadow Assassins live.
Passion, deception, and political intrigue will test the couple as things are not as they seem and the stakes are higher than anyone can imagine...
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New to me author/series. This was an action adventure science fiction erotic romance that kept to a high octane story line yet the core romance element doesn't suffer from neglect. hehe.
The actual world building gives the reader a full picture of this alternate universe and time. Personally, and this is only my personal reading preference, those facts, figures, and details were a little much, but that's me. Others will probably enjoy all that info. The author does also go to fade black scenes that leave it up to the reader to fill in the blanks. Or. These sorts of scene cuts may come back to be picked up in follow up installments. I guess we'll see.
The core romance between Varrick and Echo is BDSM slanted but with more of a sugarkink quality. Personally, while totally HAWT and did result in some panty changing on my part, I would have enjoyed Varrick taking more control of Echo than he did. Capture fantasy style control.
The secondary cast of characters were a hit/miss for me. Supposedly E'Lanna was the eldest daughter and therefore her mother's heir. It was hard for me to grasp the fragile delicate damsel persona. Charlotte & Tal. Pity they didn't have a prequel. They're that good. Best line of this whole book came from one of them (guess who. lol) "I'm her father. It's my job to make him squirm."
I seriously enjoyed this story. Had a few glitches but overall worked.