by Kylie Griffin
published by Berkley Trade
genre: Adult, Debut
Summary (full available @Goodreads): There is no mercy in the demon realm. No escape. In this place of desperation and conflict, anyone who is not pure bred is virtually powerless. Until an unlikely champion is born...
Annika, half-blood daughter of the Na'Reish King, longs for more than her tormented life among her father's people. Conceived in hatred and bred as a tool of retribution, she's gifted with a special talent that can heal as well as destroy...
My Thoughts: I really enjoyed the world that the author created. The demons (Na' Reish) and the humans are only separated by a river but there is so much more between the two. The hatred and animosity jumps off the page and it was easy to get drawn into the turmoil.
Annika and Kalan are the main focus of this HEA. While I liked Kalan, Annika was the reason I kept reading. There was something about her story that made your heart break for her while at the same time you wanted her to finally catch a break. From the hatred and ridicule she received from her father and the rest of the Na'Reish just for being a half blood (Na'Chi) to the hatred from the humans it would have been easy for her to be bitter. Instead she took the time to learn and become a healer for the humans that were slaves in her father's lands.
My favorite character was Rissa. She is a young human who has the common sense of childhood. She becomes friends with Annika and doesn't see why she should hate Annika when she has done nothing to her. The scenes with these two were some of my favorite. I also like both Varian and Kymora. It was obvious as soon as they were on the page that they would be an HEA in this series. I found myself more interested in them than the main couple.
Overall, I enjoyed both the world and characters the author created. It was a nice beginning to a new adult series. With all the changes and surprises that were found towards the end of the book it will be interesting where things go. We didn't really get much about the Na'Reish except what we learned from Annika and Varian and I'm interested to see if the author delves more into this side of the war.
Rating: 4
Kristina, thank you so much for reading and posting your thoughts on VENGEANCE BORN.
ReplyDeleteI love that you liked Rissa as a character. She is such a sweetie and I had a lot of fun writing her scenes with Annika.
If you enjoyed the interaction between Kymora and Varian, then you'll be happy to know their story is next. ALLIANCE FORGED comes out on July 3rd. :-)
And as for the war between the humans and demons, you'll get some insight into it in ALLIANCE FORGED, but ALLEGIANCE SWORN (Bk#3) ventures into demon territory. The blurb is up on my website (finally!).
Thank you again for a wonderful insightful review! I really appreciate you taking the time to write and post it. :-)
Thanks, I read the blurb for #2 after I posted this and will go find #3 now!
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