Ruby Smoke is a new author, Veiled is the first book in her Concealed in Myths series, and holy crap! Ms. Smoke has hit out of the park, sex, violence, and magic what's not to love. This is a multiple point-of-view paranormal reverse harem set in two different worlds and is filled with interesting characters and has a very compelling and fun story that is filled with plot twists. This book just speaks to me as a reader, it was one of those stories that I highly enjoyed.
The story follows Hudson who is a magic wielder who has been under her father's thump for years and is finally getting her freedom by going to college. Hudson grew up secluded which made her a loner but she flourishes in college, grows into a confident woman. She already had strength and wits that were hard to match but the confidence and don't give a shit attitude made her into a force to be reckoned with. I love that Hudson has no shame, is a little crazy (like seriously), wields her power responsibility, is caring, funny, loves pop culture, and is a book fanatic, she is kinda my spirit animal.
In college, she meets a few familiar faces, the boys from her past are all grown-up and have their sights set on Hudson. There are four of them, Zane, Greyson, Hunter, and Ryder, and I want them all. These guys are something else, they are all caring, attentive (to her) but let a girl handle her business, they also have this weird combination of bad boy and good guy thing going on that just adds to the allure. I love how they laugh with Hudson, support her decisions (like they had a choice, haha) and overall just have a great bond with her and each other. I absolutely love that the book is told from multiple people, seeing what's going on in the guys' heads just adds to the story, I love when an author does this. Another one of my favorite things in this book was the group chats. Seriously this book had a bunch of funny moments but those group chats had me cracking up, all of them feeding off of each other's ridiculousness, the batter in this book is excellent.
There are a bunch of other characters that are important to the story and I love all of them, especially Kalen who is Hudson's trainer and is just the gruff lovable guy who is someone who cares for Hudson when she needs it the most. I won't mention the other because I think they need to be experienced first hand, but they also hold a piece of my heart.
I had a couple of problems with the book but nothing that would detour me from giving a high rating. This is a fae book but that doesn't really explain who the magic users were on Earth, what their history was, or if humans knew about them. On the other hand, I like the magic system, how things were explained in detail and almost had a science behind it was great. The use of magic was quite impressive especially with the combat classes and other action scenes. The bit of history we got behind the fae was quite interesting, I kinda wish we had a little more.
The plot was great, the steamy scenes were intense (might not be everyone's cup of tea) but the connection that everyone obviously had was so sweet, I could feel the bond between all of them and it was great. Things happen pretty quickly in the book and I don't mind that at all but I loved the flow, how all the pieces fit together. Add in powers and trying to figure out what the heck was going on, I was totally immersed in the story, got invested in everyone, and couldn't wait to see what happened next.
Veiled was freaking awesome, I loved every single second of it, the steam, action, humor and so much more. It was filled with surprises and plot twist after plot twist, like seriously. Then add in the emotional cliffhanger at the end, I was gutted, you gotta read it. Veiled was unbelievable and I don't know how I'm gonna survive waiting for the second book in the series.