Seven years ago, I ran from my fate—from my enemies, my crimes, and the mate I loved more than life itself. Leaving Rowan Forge was the only way to save him, to save everyone. Now the High Council of Vampires has dragged me back to face the king I rejected, his brother who despises me, and my best friend who no longer trusts me.
With ancient enemies closing in and a blood feud threatening to ignite a deadly war, I'm forced into a political marriage with Rowan, both of us compelled to play the council's dangerous game.
In a moment of weakness, I make a desperate deal with a savage Elder vampire, trading one nightmare for another.
Now I'm caught between the males I abandoned and the vicious vampire who only wants to use me—Nikolai, my most treacherous enemy and the one vampire dangerous enough to claim my heart. As my deepest secret threatens to surface, I'm walking a razor's edge between salvation and destruction.
The Elders want to control me. The Council wants to use me. My enemies want me dead.
But these four ruthless, fiercely possessive vampires?
They want something far more precious—my heart, my body, my very soul.
And they won't stop until they own every piece of me.
This collection ✦ Fated mates & forbidden love ✦ Enemies to lovers tension ✦ Second chance romance ✦ Rejected mates ✦ Arranged marriage ✦ Deal with the devil vibes ✦ Morally gray vampires & hot villains ✦ One curvy heroine & multiple (obsessed) men ✦ Found family
Fueled by black coffee, ice cream and bad nineties music, L.A. McGinnis spends her days writing best-selling steamy fantasies filled with damaged heroes who long to be whole and smart, authentic heroines. A life-long fascination with storytelling inspired her to weave these contemporary tales of legendary fated mates where the princess never needs rescuing, but sometimes the hero does.
This is an action-packed series with strong characters, a good plot and plenty of steamy scenes. The violence may be off-putting for some readers, but it is a vampire series after all. Recommended for fans of the genre.
4.5⭐️. I debated giving the series 5⭐️ because the story was very engaging, well written and believable. I believe this is the second (or third) in-world series so references are made to characters and prior events that shaped the lore, but were not fully developed. This is fine because the world building we do get allows us to fill in the gaps (and maybe go back and read the other series without being completely spoiled).
There were however a few nitpicks that got annoying enough for me to not give this the full 5⭐️, although those mostly came through in the last book, book and a half (more on that later).
This series is a 4 book, RH Vampire series that kicks off when Aisling (Ash), who has been in hiding for seven years, disguised as a human, is found and dragged back to the clan to complete the mating bond she ran from. At one time Rowan, Ash, Finn and Darrow were thick as thieves, but when Ash ran from Rowan, humiliating him and breaking his heart, she broke them all. Now she's back in the fold, but they want nothing to do with her. All is not what it seems and most secrets she's been hiding are revealed by half-way throught the first book. We get the feeling that those secrets are why Nikolai, the Elder who brought her back, is still hanging around watching everything. Things proceeded so well I thought we'd get a HEA in the first book and that the series was actually an omnibus of interconnected stand alones.
Throughout the series we find out that Ash has magic, more about her lineage and her bond with all four males. At the same time, a war is raging for the survival of all Vampires and Ash is smack in the middle of it, central to the conflict. Deals are made, promises and trust broken, alliances forged and sundered. Villains and motives are unmasked and nothing is as it seems.
Overall the story flows really well, with twists and suspense, passion and heartfelt moments. There really are only a few issues that keep this from being a 5 stars. It could be that the real issue is that I read the whole series in one "sitting", with no breaks or other books read, and so the things that might just mildly irk when read at a leisurely pace became major irritants when binged.
I am interested in reading more from this author/in this universe because I really enjoyed it. I just might not read the whole series in one go.
*** Mild Spoilers Ahead ***
Some issues I had that prevented this from being a true 5⭐️:
- The miscommunication is real and persistent. Or maybe I should say lack of communication. I don't mean the lies and deceit, those are intentional. I mean the "I'm going to keep secrets and when they get revealed promise never again - while still keeping secrets". This is all mostly on Ash's side. And they always let it slide. Because she believes she's protecting them and doing it for their own good. She's always justified in everything she does. And since she was in hiding for seven years, her belief that she needs to do it all herself is understandable. But she never grows out of it or tries to evolve. As much as she harps about trust, when push comes to shove, she'll go rogue, without letting anyone know or without any real plan. On the other hand, any secrets that are kept from her - even unintentionally - are the gravest betrayal. They must all grovel for forgiveness, and if they show a spark of anger or defiance, well not only are they wrong but borderline misogynists. Plus, only one man can be wrong at a time, so that the others can gang up on him and freeze him out as they comfort her - until he's grovelled enough. If the men try to protect her, it's because they think she's a weak female and has nothing to do with her reasons for protecting them. She lies, makes unilateral decisions that affect them all, requiring the males to come save her at great cost, and then turns around and gets mad at someone else lying/not telling her the full truth.
- Ash's hypocrisy knows no bounds. Especially when it come to Nik (and Wolf and Dravin). She has a holier than thou attitude regarding anyone that kills. In a war. She wants them around when there is fighting to be done, when they need more power for defense, but once the battle is over they're back to being vicious monsters who cannot be trusted. Because they are too good at killing. The same thing she wanted them around for in the first place. She's horrified that males who are over 1000 years old, and who lived most of that time without souls and/or imprisoned, don't have her modern values. That they were *le gasp* "barbaric" in a time when barbarians were an actual thing... There was an actual scene where she's horrified by Nik's violence and starts pushing him away, only to turn right back around and beg him to save Rowan. All in the space of 10 seconds.
- When Ash finds out that Dar became an Assassin while she was gone and overreacts to the extreme, we get hints that what Finn did during that time (and to a lesser extent Rowan) was much worse. But we're never really told. For the most part, the men are only there for Ash, their backstories and trauma only matter as far as they affect Ash. I wish they were a bit more rounded out and their own people, separate from their relationship to Ash.
- By the end of book 2, Ash is with Rowan (her bonded mate), Finn and Darrow. Since their group is complete, it is now time to focus on her bond with Nik. Since Rowan is her mate, he also gets billing, but Finn and Dar disappear for all intents and purposes (unless the plot calls for one of them to be injured/missing or for them to seduce her). The problem is that their relationships repaired too quickly, while simultaneously making Nik the main antagonist for 2-3 books. So now we need to focus on his "redemption" and everyone else fades into the background. We spend a lot of time on the RH and relationship building in the first 2-3 books, so by the 4th book we need to focus on wrapping up the plot, and the romance is a distant second or third. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it means that the plot/romance ratio is pretty unbalanced throughout.
It's been a while since I read this author's work - that was a mistake on my part as I completely lost myself in the text, to the cost of all mundane life around me.
It's all good; I didn't really want clean laundry anyway.
The book starts relatively quickly, with a sarcastic, strong young female hiding a secret. The world building is strong, making it easy to envision the scenes and locations vividly.
It's a multiple POV book, which often is difficult as every character reads and feels the same - not here, they're all fully developed, unique beings.
This world merges with other works by the same author, and I forgot how much I loved Deston until he appeared, thank you SO much for that. I swoon.
For it being a 4 book collection, I devoured (ha! get it?) it too quickly, leaving me wanting more.
It's a world ripe with magic, paranormal creations, and yet the found family is the strongest aspect, and my favorite.
Smut level? The feeding scenes alone are more erotic than most romance novels, sheer perfection.
This is the first book(s) that I have read by this author and I found them quite entertaining. If you are looking for a good book and enjoy vampires, witches and mages, then this is the series for you. You not only get one book, you get the whole Shadowsend Series. Enjoy
dnf at 21% just can't wade through all of the machinations. Characters constantly having to recover from horrendous injuries/torture is not enough for me. Maybe I'll give it another shot in the future.