Written by Miranda Bridges, this Elemental Mates series follows elemental aliens and their human female mates. (The series used to have a co-author, but she stopped contributing in book 6) It takes place on Earth during a post-apocalyptic event where a fire wiped out most of humanity and burned the planet, leaving its remaining population starved and desperate. Earth wasn’t just dying; it was also full of people who had gone insane. Everyone resorted to a primitive state and they only cared about survival, doing whatever was necessary to ensure that. That involved murder, rape, theft, and copious amounts of violence. People scavenged for food and took refuge inside compounds against threats from other humans. The Koraxians came to Earth in search of females that were capable of unlocking their elemental potential. Nanobots swept over the Koraxian females, leaving the remaining immortal males unable to access their elemental powers and on the brink of extinction. Their desperation to find compatible alternatives led them to Earth, where they successfully found more than what they were looking for.
Written in first person, Amethyst is book 7 and final in the series, and follows Commander Ashryn of the Aetherbloods and his human mate Cora. Cora (stage name Gem) was an accomplished circus performer before the planet went to shit and she was abducted in book 1 by the Torags. To stay alive, she found herself a job as a stripper at a nightclub where she was saving her money to escape. Ashryn had a meeting inside that same nightclub with a scientist named Evren Tully, who was the creator of the androids that Eldar Xennith purchased and sent to kill Ash and his brethren at the colony on Eylarus. Ash needed access to Tully’s heavily secured lab to get the robot blueprints so blaze could hack into them during their attack on Xennith. After learning about Tully’s obsession with Cora, Ash blackmailed her into helping him break into Tully’s lab. He also learned about Cora being his fated mate.
We know Ashryn from prior books as the master of the zoo who imprisoned Blaze and the one who captured Maxim, threatening to take his mate from him, all in the name of his fraction. He was firstborn of Nireth and Gildra, a member of the Aetherblood Faction, and rightful heir to Eldar Xennith, the current and only eldar. Members of his family served on the revered council of Koraxia for millennia until the assassination of Tresdul, which Ash was innocently blamed for. Tresdul had warned the other council members about the addictive properties of elyxim and how their faction was heading toward destruction by way of insanity in their quest for more power, which Xennith didn’t like, so he killed him.
As a reminder from previous books, Xennith was behind the killings of the Aetherbloods and other Elders, and he was the one who released the nanobots that killed the Koraxian females, in order to gain ultimate power. He also intended to eliminate the humans in order to prevent his kind from gaining their true potential or procreate because he wanted to be the only one of his kind with powers.
The two had baggage from their pasts that hindered their ability to accept one another. Cora resorted to prostitution to survive and didn’t offer people her real name. Ashryn also preferred the life of anonymity, choosing to hide his identity behind a mask. He was selfish in his pursuit of vengeance but selfless when it came to his faction.
The couple had their first intercourse in chapter 13, at the 48% mark. The buildup was balanced and kept the reader hooked. The raunchy scenes are the only reason I read this genre of books, so I’m glad the author didn’t hold back. Ashryn was a virgin before Cora, and I found everything about their coming together perfect. Ashryn’s full potential was unlocked, but there was a side effect (or bonus depending on your perspective); Cora was transformed into a Koraxian mate, gaining air powers herself, adapting his hair color and birth marks, along with immortality.
There was a LOT going on in this book. So much so, that I am sure I missed some important highlights. They did end up defeating Xennith (finally) at the cost of Cora’s life force.
This series was good. Plenty of lust-filled raunch and I like how the authors incorporated magic into an alien romance. Each book caught my attention and kept me hooked on the overall storyline. I recommend the read.