I recently read the first story in this series, The Revelation of Light and Dark, and didn’t realize there was an introductory novella to the series. Of course, loving this author and being intrigued by her crack at writing paranormal fantasy, I picked the short story up as soon as I found out. Let me say, you definitely don’t need to read this story in order to read the rest of the series…at least not that I can tell so far. I’m thinking these characters may come into play in later books, though.

While the first book in this series was pretty PG rated when it came to sex or intimacy, this one is off-the-charts steamy. In fact, the “relationship” between Eliana and Ronan starts as hate screwing. In the first few chapters, I felt Ronan was quite terrible and made note of his blasé attitude toward a dangerous situation Eliana was in at the bar. Eliana came across as a bit egotistical and didn’t inspire me to like her much, either.

As the story progresses, I found that I started to understand Ronan’s indifference to any danger Eliana may have been in at the bar. I still don’t agree with his initial actions, but even Eliana didn’t hold him accountable for not caring. That’s because the animosity between their clans runs old and deep. It’s just the way things are for their culture and nobody things anything of hating a total stranger if they’re from the rival clan.

There tends to be a high bar I set for this author, among others that are favorites of mine. While this story is entertaining enough and super steamy, it also wasn’t of the caliber I expect from Sawyer Bennett. I was definitely more into the story for the last third or so of the book as it was went from the two characters making excuses as to why they would possibly want to spend time together to admitting there was more than sex going on between them.

You can find more of my reviews at All In Good Time.