by Lynn Viehl
This is the first novel of her Kyndred series, which is an off shoot of her Darkyn series and even tends to have a few character overlaps. This story focuses primarily on Jessa Bellamy, an entrepreneur who has caught the attention of a pharmaceutical company, GenHance that has been paying special attention to how she uses her extra set of skills and Matthias, whose history is shrouded in mystery and seems to be a man of action and little words.
They are forced together when Matthias has to act fast in order to save Jessa from GenHance who would like nothing better than to take her back to their lab and harvest her DNA. Forced to live in close contact with Matthias, she fights both her need to open up to another person like herself and her desire for him. With a madman on their tail, she struggles to overcome her desires and the need to protect the others who are like herself.
This novel was a blast to read, although at times it dragged a little, but I plowed through anyway as I knew she wouldn't be providing information unless it was essential to her storyline, and thankfully it was. Since half this story takes place in a cellar with only a few people Jessa comes in contact with, some of the conversations tended to get a bit repetitive. I wasn't quit sure how long Jessa was held, but her thread of the storyline moved very little while the outside world continued to move at its fast pace.
The storyline started out with a big boom of sexual tension about three chapters in, then nothing really happened on that side of things till the last quarter of the story. I do understand that there is a fine line between natural attraction and Stockholm syndrome, but in this retrospect of the story I had hoped for a little more. I will say that most of her stories, although they do focus around a couples growing emotional involvement, this story was more on par to her normal style of writing, although she does throw a few more sexually charged stories in from time to time.
There was one part of this storyline that she could have elaborated on, especially given who the characters were and what they were obsessed about, but that thread wasn't picked up (I don't want to elaborate any more as it will give away part of the story). Maybe it will in the last book she has released (4th in this series) that I haven't read yet.
I give this novel a 4 out of 5 for storyline/romance and a 3 out of 5 for bedroom steaminess.
If you'd like to read more about Lynn Viehl, please check out her website by clicking here.
Upcoming book reviews
Darkness Undone by Jessa Slade
The Mate Attraction by Shelly Laurenston
Dire Needs by Stephanie Tyler
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