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Otherworlders #1
Branded
Draven has spent centuries on this earth: most of it alone, full of anger and wishing to rain down his vengeful fury on the people who wronged him in his life. But all that matters to him right now is finding the next mortal to stick his fangs into, take his fill and exist. He didn't realise how much that was about to change.
Aliyah, a young, fiery woman full of sass and spunk, cannonballs into Draven's world like a wrecking ball and shatters his stoic facade. With her comes a new way of life for the both of them and a war they never knew existed. Somehow, her presence places him and everyone she loves in the crossfire.
The battle between dark and light wages on, drawing them into the atramentous world where ominous and malevolent beings lurk in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to snatch Aliyah away because she is the key they require. Will the light overcome the darkness or will they forever be plunged into the caliginous nothingness threatening to engulf them.
Aliyah, a young, fiery woman full of sass and spunk, cannonballs into Draven's world like a wrecking ball and shatters his stoic facade. With her comes a new way of life for the both of them and a war they never knew existed. Somehow, her presence places him and everyone she loves in the crossfire.
The battle between dark and light wages on, drawing them into the atramentous world where ominous and malevolent beings lurk in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to snatch Aliyah away because she is the key they require. Will the light overcome the darkness or will they forever be plunged into the caliginous nothingness threatening to engulf them.
- GenresVampiresParanormal
358 pages, Paperback
Published December 14, 2023
27 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Lena Moore
11 books51 followersLena Moore is an Australian based author who writes multiple genres such as Dark Romance, Erotic Romance, Romantic Suspense and Paranormal Romance just to name a few.
Lena is also a loving and annoying wife and a mother of three boys with her qualification in Counselling, and is a certified birth and postnatal doula. She loves listening, singing and headbanging to metal music and spending time with her family.
When not writing you'll find her brainstorming more sinfully twisted stories with inked up alphas or in the downward dog position getting her yoga on, reading or cooking for the village.
"I try and focus my writing on deep, dark and all things taboo, because hey, we all have a little darkness lurking.”
Lena is also a loving and annoying wife and a mother of three boys with her qualification in Counselling, and is a certified birth and postnatal doula. She loves listening, singing and headbanging to metal music and spending time with her family.
When not writing you'll find her brainstorming more sinfully twisted stories with inked up alphas or in the downward dog position getting her yoga on, reading or cooking for the village.
"I try and focus my writing on deep, dark and all things taboo, because hey, we all have a little darkness lurking.”
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 22, 2020
EROTIC and exciting
I was supposed to be reading another book instead, but I just couldn't drag myself out of Branded. Usually I won't read a book in a series, but, again, I couldn't help myself. NOW I GET TO READ THE NEXT ONE, because I'm hooked.
I was supposed to be reading another book instead, but I just couldn't drag myself out of Branded. Usually I won't read a book in a series, but, again, I couldn't help myself. NOW I GET TO READ THE NEXT ONE, because I'm hooked.
September 5, 2023
Dark. Erotic and captivating!! I had sooo much fun reading this book and stepping into this world. These characters were fire!!
June 23, 2021
Lena has done it again! *insert happy dance* we actually only read two authors when it comes to vampire/ paranormal books. If you’re thinking we’re literary snobs, you’re absolutely correct! *hair-flip* I cannot do vampires that resemble me after I try on my beauty box highlighter, and Em can’t do novels where the male lead acts like our nephew after we tell him he ate all the Oreo’s(emotionally unstable and whining for a good thirty minutes). But oh my f-word plus “Ing” god. *bounces up and down* where do I start? I read the book first then anxiously waited for Em to finish because I needed to talk to someone about how good this book was.
We absolutely love Lena’s books, she has a way with words, and is able to draw you in from start to finish— this book is no exception. I originally wanted to compare the story to Dark Lover, and Em wanted to compare it to Lover Awakened. But, it is sooo much more. It’s like the entire series had a book baby with Interview With a Vampire. Sidebar: I’m obsessed with Louie so this is a compliment in its highest form. We’d give this book 6 stars, however; that’s not an option. *growls* Five stars plus one.
We absolutely love Lena’s books, she has a way with words, and is able to draw you in from start to finish— this book is no exception. I originally wanted to compare the story to Dark Lover, and Em wanted to compare it to Lover Awakened. But, it is sooo much more. It’s like the entire series had a book baby with Interview With a Vampire. Sidebar: I’m obsessed with Louie so this is a compliment in its highest form. We’d give this book 6 stars, however; that’s not an option. *growls* Five stars plus one.
December 2, 2020
Left needing more...
Branded is like goth Twilight meets True Blood! Supernatural beings, love, action and filth, what more could.you ask for?! Lena Moore has smashed it!
Branded is like goth Twilight meets True Blood! Supernatural beings, love, action and filth, what more could.you ask for?! Lena Moore has smashed it!
February 24, 2024
Long story short, it was a good idea, good pacing, poor execution.
I love reading books set in America but written by Aussies or native English speakers from other continents, because they get the funniest little things wrong sometimes. Like calling the MMC’s locs “dreadies” or calling the road/pavement “bitumen.” Or calling FMC’s mother “mum.”
At times, I did want to take this author’s thesaurus away for saying “aphotic” and “caliginous” instead of “dark,” “crepitating” instead of “crackling,” “fallacy” instead of “lie”, “sporadic” instead of “random”, “poignant” instead of “sad”, “culpability” instead of “guilt”, often in contexts where the dressier words just didn’t fit.
The book needed an editor, or if there was one, it needed a better one. I caught So many typos; my favorite one was “dextrose fingers” instead of “dexterous.”
I wanted to send the author to comedy jail for using the “d**k so big it needs its own zip code” joke three times in one book, and then I wanted to send her to history prison for the flashbacks of the MMC when he was 100 years old (in the 1790s) with him and his ex-fiancé talking slang like “where you at?” and “that turns me on” and the most egregious: “getting your hands in my […] panties” like come on!!! “Getting under my petticoats” would have worked so good here!
I hated the MC’s nicknames for one another: “Shrek” and “Snowflake”. I wished the FMC was older; even 21 would’ve been better. It’s actually weird that she has when she’s only five days past 18 when MMC meets her, since she couldn’t have gotten them done without her parent’s permission, and her mom freaked out at her when she thought she When they go into a club and FMC mentions she can’t drink because she’s underage, I literally cringed. Author, if you love me, plz retcon this out of my brain.
Honestly, not a lot of the spicy scenes in this book are all that good, and there are a whole heck of a lot of them. The MMC has a very bad habit of skipping foreplay with women he doesn’t respect. (Which is all of them save for the FMC. And sometimes her as well.)
Their BDSM scenes were obviously written by someone with no experience, who isn’t sure why certain things are done, for example, the MMC insists on a made-up safeword when they’re not doing a CNC scene. (In case you didn’t realize, “stop” and “no” and “that kinda hurts actually” are already perfectly functional safewords, unless you’re actually doing a scene where you’re saying those things but don’t mean them.) Then he introduces a red-yellow-green color check-in system in the middle of the scene—so now I guess “red” is the safeword and not the FMC’s made-up one OR the obvious option of “stop”/“no”. MMC never asks FMC what she is actually into, and basically just grabs a variety of implements and goes to town.
I love reading books set in America but written by Aussies or native English speakers from other continents, because they get the funniest little things wrong sometimes. Like calling the MMC’s locs “dreadies” or calling the road/pavement “bitumen.” Or calling FMC’s mother “mum.”
At times, I did want to take this author’s thesaurus away for saying “aphotic” and “caliginous” instead of “dark,” “crepitating” instead of “crackling,” “fallacy” instead of “lie”, “sporadic” instead of “random”, “poignant” instead of “sad”, “culpability” instead of “guilt”, often in contexts where the dressier words just didn’t fit.
The book needed an editor, or if there was one, it needed a better one. I caught So many typos; my favorite one was “dextrose fingers” instead of “dexterous.”
I wanted to send the author to comedy jail for using the “d**k so big it needs its own zip code” joke three times in one book, and then I wanted to send her to history prison for the flashbacks of the MMC when he was 100 years old (in the 1790s) with him and his ex-fiancé talking slang like “where you at?” and “that turns me on” and the most egregious: “getting your hands in my […] panties” like come on!!! “Getting under my petticoats” would have worked so good here!
I hated the MC’s nicknames for one another: “Shrek” and “Snowflake”. I wished the FMC was older; even 21 would’ve been better. It’s actually weird that she has when she’s only five days past 18 when MMC meets her, since she couldn’t have gotten them done without her parent’s permission, and her mom freaked out at her when she thought she When they go into a club and FMC mentions she can’t drink because she’s underage, I literally cringed. Author, if you love me, plz retcon this out of my brain.
Honestly, not a lot of the spicy scenes in this book are all that good, and there are a whole heck of a lot of them. The MMC has a very bad habit of skipping foreplay with women he doesn’t respect. (Which is all of them save for the FMC. And sometimes her as well.)
Their BDSM scenes were obviously written by someone with no experience, who isn’t sure why certain things are done, for example, the MMC insists on a made-up safeword when they’re not doing a CNC scene. (In case you didn’t realize, “stop” and “no” and “that kinda hurts actually” are already perfectly functional safewords, unless you’re actually doing a scene where you’re saying those things but don’t mean them.) Then he introduces a red-yellow-green color check-in system in the middle of the scene—so now I guess “red” is the safeword and not the FMC’s made-up one OR the obvious option of “stop”/“no”. MMC never asks FMC what she is actually into, and basically just grabs a variety of implements and goes to town.
January 13, 2024
Book1 of a three part series and boy does it end on a cliffhanger... Vampires, demons, witches, wolves all set in New Orleans. I wouldn't care if he was 300 years older than me if he did those things to my body.. oh yeah it's smutty 🥵🥵
May 3, 2021
Did not finish
I love a good vampire story, and this had all the makings for a good, steamy story, but it was mostly telling and backstory. The male protagonist was a hypocrite - not wanting to use his vampire powers to seduce a woman into having sex with him, but more than willing to have sex with a woman who was sloppy drunk and high (and insulting her vagina by referring to it as "gapey"). He's a vampire and a self-proclaimed jerk, so I drudge through hoping it will pick up when we meet the heroine. But, when the female protagonist's reactions to her home getting broken into are completely unrealistic, I gave up. That was a time when I could have related to the character. If I could have felt her worry and fear... Nope. It was a paragraph, Oh no, what happened And, This sexy vampire is so as he seats my butt to move me along as I gather my things to stay with him. That's it! Next scene. The story had potential. The writing was good but the story would have been better if it wasn't bogged down in the beginning with back story, telling, and unrealistic reactions which lead to unrelatable characters.
I love a good vampire story, and this had all the makings for a good, steamy story, but it was mostly telling and backstory. The male protagonist was a hypocrite - not wanting to use his vampire powers to seduce a woman into having sex with him, but more than willing to have sex with a woman who was sloppy drunk and high (and insulting her vagina by referring to it as "gapey"). He's a vampire and a self-proclaimed jerk, so I drudge through hoping it will pick up when we meet the heroine. But, when the female protagonist's reactions to her home getting broken into are completely unrealistic, I gave up. That was a time when I could have related to the character. If I could have felt her worry and fear... Nope. It was a paragraph, Oh no, what happened And, This sexy vampire is so as he seats my butt to move me along as I gather my things to stay with him. That's it! Next scene. The story had potential. The writing was good but the story would have been better if it wasn't bogged down in the beginning with back story, telling, and unrealistic reactions which lead to unrelatable characters.
March 18, 2021
Dark and twisty
This is my first book by the author and I am not disappointed. The plot is dark and twisty with several paranormal factions to keep your head spinning. Draven is half vampire, half ... you get to discover that later. He finds himself obsessed with a scent of a stranger. Who knew finding her would be the catalyst for everything. There are multiple love stories going on and multi layered plots of betrayal, revenge and evilness. Mixed in among the drama and emotions is some hot dirty heat. There is ally going on in the book that requires remembering details so reading it while your kids are home maybe a challenge. This ends on cliffhanger of sorts and the battle will continue in the next book.
This is my first book by the author and I am not disappointed. The plot is dark and twisty with several paranormal factions to keep your head spinning. Draven is half vampire, half ... you get to discover that later. He finds himself obsessed with a scent of a stranger. Who knew finding her would be the catalyst for everything. There are multiple love stories going on and multi layered plots of betrayal, revenge and evilness. Mixed in among the drama and emotions is some hot dirty heat. There is ally going on in the book that requires remembering details so reading it while your kids are home maybe a challenge. This ends on cliffhanger of sorts and the battle will continue in the next book.
December 10, 2022
Most definitely a good read! Spiciness 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️, Following: Decent, Characters: Some I just want to ring haha! Aliyah and Draven, Aliyah's banter with her bff Dany love it! She is an Amazing author and Friend! Keep on Rocking it Out with Awesome Books! 🥰🥰🥰 Reading Book 2 Deceived 😏
Want to read
December 17, 2023Amz Prch. Dec. 17, 2023
May 27, 2022
This was only the second paranormal/Vampire romance I have read and it surely didn't disappoint.
I loved the way the Vampires were written in this book, no fairy tale, sparkling vamps over here! They were hot, hot, hot!! 🥵
This book was full of angst, action, love and lots and lots of extra spicy scenes! 🔥
An amazing start to this series and I can't wait to move on to book #2. 🖤
I loved the way the Vampires were written in this book, no fairy tale, sparkling vamps over here! They were hot, hot, hot!! 🥵
This book was full of angst, action, love and lots and lots of extra spicy scenes! 🔥
An amazing start to this series and I can't wait to move on to book #2. 🖤
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews