Friday, September 9, 2011

{Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Redemption

Eleri Stone  will read just about anything - horror, science fiction, young adult, historical and contemporary fiction. But my favorite genres are fantasy, romance and especially paranormal romance!  She likes the mystery of the hidden, the forgotten and the unknown, and  quietly strong heroines and honorable men, real conflict and people who are smart, strong and brave enough to meet it head on.
She believes  in love. The kind of love that can bind people together and that has the power to redeem.

She loves  stories that remind you even in boring or stressful times that you never really know what might happen next. Sometimes life is waiting rooms and deadlines but sometimes life can be marvelously strange.
Redemption, Book #2 of the Yaguara saga
Author:  Eleri Stone

Synopsis:  Blamed for a heinous crime and banished from his tribe of Jaguar shifters, Adriano will do anything to buy back his rightful place—even steal a priceless artifact.  First, he’ll have to seduce Sophie Martin, an archaeologist researching the temple ruins and the one person who stands in his way.

Sophie wants to uncover the artifact as well—not to sell it, but to study it.  It could unlock the secrets of an ancient and mysterious civilization.  But it’s hard to focus on her work when the distractingly sexy Adriano is nearby.

What begins as a seduction quickly turns into mutual passion as Adriano’s touch awakens a side of Sophie she’s kept hidden—and arouses his Jaguar instincts.  To preserve his people’s secret and earn his redemption, Adriano needs the artifact.  But when a rival thief kidnaps Sophie, Adriano will be forced to choose—between the people who rejected him in the past, or the woman who could be his future…

Our Review [by LITERAL ADDICTION’s Guest Reviewer – Michelle McMichael]: 
Adriano is a Jaguar shifter who was exiled from the Yaguara world, after he was set up to take the fall as a political tactic in the ongoing war. Feeling guilt for his actions and his inability to change what happened he continues to protect the secrets of his people and their history from the archaeologists who are getting a little close to the truth. It is his belief that by doing this and stealing the relic he will get his exile lifted and he can return to where he belongs. Amongst the archaeologists is Sophie, a grad student who is determined to unlock all the secrets of the ruins, while protecting her own. After she is kidnapped, Sophie discovers the truth about what is going on and she doesn't accept it easily.

I loved the setting of this story, I do feel it would have benefited from a little more description of the surroundings to help set the scene better. At the beginning we where led to believe that Sophie was an academic, putting all her energy into her studies in order to run from the pain of her past and Adriano is running from the choices he made that inadvertently led to his exile. In Sophie's case it almost feels like an afterthought, I did like that she had a negative response when she discovers her lover spends time prowling the jungle as a Jaguar. It's not a common occurrence in Paranormal Romance. The addition of the mercenary shifters to the mix, kidnapping Sophie and attempting to get the stone for themselves was a nice touch. I would have liked this part of the story to be a little longer & I did get a little confused as to who was on what side. A couple of extra scenes would have avoided this.
Although being book 2 in the series I don't feel as if I missed anything by not reading Mercy (book 1) but I do feel as if too many questions where left unanswered by this book.

All-in-all, LITERAL ADDICTION Paranormal Book Club gives Redemption 3 Skulls.  It had a good premise – Indiana Jones meets Paranormal Romance – but the bulk fell just a tiny bit flat for us to give it more than a 3 Skull review.     

Redemption:  




No comments:

Post a Comment