Book Review: Nightborn by Lynn Viehl

Nightborn
by: Lynn Viehl

The latest in the Lords of the Darkyn series, this novel packs a punch.

When the high lord's most loyal servant Korvel is sent to retrieve a mysterious scroll which has been guarded by the the high lords most trusted servant. Korvel has no idea what he's in for.

Simone Derien knows the terrible power of the scrolls and its her duty to ensure the curse doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Tasked with killing Korvel after they retrieve the stolen scroll, Simone has to decide if she'll follower her heart or her duty.

With a crazed assassian on their trial, Korvel and Simone must navigate the dangers that follow them and keep the passion they feel for each other under warps.

This was an interesting novel with a complex plot line and even had several of the characters from previous novels cameo in the storyline. The attraction felt between Korvel and Simone was realistic and complex.

What I enjoyed about this novel:
The strong female and male characters
The ominous relic/s
Believable evil characters

What I didn't enjoy:
Simone kept slipping/running away from Korvel (the same scenario repeated again and again)
The only difference between the bad character and Simone was that she wasn't as willing to kill
Korvel didn't seem to be as emotionally involved as he acted in the end of the book
I didn't like how the villain died

I give this story a 4 out of 5 for bedroom steaminess and a 4 out of 5 for storyline/romance.

If you'd like to find out more about Lynn Viehl and her other novels, click here.

Book Review- Shadowlight

Shadowlight
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

If you have any suggestions/requests for book reviews, please leave a comment!

Book Review- Frostfire

Frostfire
by Lynn Viehl

This novel of the Kyndred is focused on Lilah, a genetically enhanced Kyndred that can control the minds of animals and Walker, a wounded soldier who will do anything to protect her. They are forced together and must fight together in order to escape their captors. That bond continues when they are snowed in at a small town located in the middle of nowhere.

I really enjoyed reading this novel and had a hard time putting it down. This book did what I was hoping it would do and connected Lynn's two story lines (the Kyndred and the Darkyn series) together and left me really excited to see where these series is going.

Her characters were believable and a pleasure to read. Her secondary characters were a great accompaniment to her main characters and helped move the plot along in an effective and pleasurable way. She provided a depth of character and a fear of the past that kept me on my proverbial toes as I waited to see what would happen next.

My one complaint is that her love scenes were short and extremely fast. I would have liked them a bit longer or more descriptive.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 for storyline/romance and a 3 out of 5 for bedroom steaminess.

If you'd like to find out more information on Lynn Viehl and her novels please click here.

Book Review- Dreamveil

Dreamveil
by Lynn Viehl

This book is an offshoot of her Darkyn series and involves Rowan Dietrich whose lived a hard life involving abusive parents and a love of man meant for another and Jean-Marc a renowned chief who takes her in when she winds up on his restaurants back door scraped and bruised after she drops her bike and Meriden, a bounty hunter who causes nothing but trouble. Jean-Marc is a man with many secrets and is instantly attracted to Rowan. He wants her and sets out to seduce her. He invites her to live in one of the vacant rooms above the restaurant which happens to be across the hall from Meriden, a grouchy man who whose so rough around the edges she gets friction burns.

As she struggles to fight her attraction to both Jean-Marc and Meriden, the past catches up to her and forces her to come to a dangerous conclusion.

This was an enjoyable read, as all of her other novels, and I can't wait to read her next novel in this series. Rowan was an enjoyable female character who was strong, dealt extremely well with her past issues and handled everything with her tough wit and rough humor. Jean-Marc was suave, intelligent and such a romantic. Meriden was rough, sexual and hot as hell.

Lynn has created an excellent world and her character match ups are extremely enjoyable and riveting to read.

I give this a 5 out of 5 for storyline/romance and a 5 out or 5 for bedroom steaminess.

If you'd like to find out more about this author and her other series, you can check out her blog here.