Hello everyone!
This doesn't happen often anymore, I'll admit.
I'm a much pickier reader now than I used to be even up to ten years ago, but that doesn't mean it can't happen, as clearly evidenced in this current situation of mine haha.
And the best part of it is that all the books came from BookSirens so I basically got them for free.
How cool is that???
I'm SO happy to have been invited along for the ride, and I honestly can't wait for the next installment, because I've had a look on the author's blog just what's coming next, and hooo boy, let me tell you, it will be AWESOME.
Until then however, we need to play catch-up.
It's time to have a look at Asherwick.
Sarah Westill has somehow managed to take the rather cliché trope of 'alternate universe' and 'dystopia' and not only turn it upside down, but also make it fun, readable, and intensely interesting at the same time.
See, some time in this timeline's past, there came a cataclysmic event that literally wiped out a lot of Earth's population, tossing the rest into basically the Dark Ages while they struggled for any chance of survival. Against an incredibly harsh, colder climate, several nations finally emerged and started slowly building themselves up again, so now the society is sort of ... Victorian England like? With very little technology the way we know it today, but they have something else,
They have Gen-Heirs, people whose strong talents and abilities are now passed down genetically and are highly sought after in every country. And we've been following a special ops team of these for a bit now as they work to uncover a world-spanning conspiracy and crime, though the focus today isn't on one of them.
It's on the man that's been helping them for some time now, Jonathon, who happens to hold the Asherwick family seat. He's been trying to make heads and tails out of these murders that have been popping up - including but unfortunately not limited to the woman who kept on teasing him and he was actually rather fond of - and he's also broken off an engagement about six months ago.
But Sylphine - erstwhile fiancée - needs his help.
See in HER country, someone can file with the government that they've just sort of decided to make a motion of marriage with someone else, and if those documents are served to this other person, they HAVE to marry, no matter what they want. It's a hold-out from the olden days when the nation was struggling, but no one's taken the time to amend it, and so to save her, her parents send her to Sziveria and Jonathon ... who, well, initially doesn't know what to think.
She also doesn't really tell him, not from the start, though his sister Ramsey keeps encouraging her to do so. ESPECIALLY as what's legitimately a bounty hunter comes to try and take her back, and they end up attacking an officer in a bookstore so they can be locked up until Jonathon comes and gets them.
But Jonathon is not only a man of honour, he's been in love with Sylphine for who knows how long, and he's beginning to understand her particular Gen-Heir gift that she herself doesn't - but it happens to be the one Sean Blackbain has as well. She's a Sympath who can read other people's emotions, most strongly when they're touching skin-on-skin through her hands.
It's also conveniently why she and Jonathon originally broke up, because she couldn't bear to have him touch her (little backstory, she's been overwhelmed by the lust of others before so she's wary about whose emotions it is she actually feels). But he's nothing if not persistent, and he tells her point-blank that they're doing this his way or it's the highway, but marrying him WOULD definitely help her in the long run.
And so she does end up marrying him, though their problems are only just beginning then, because she's almost kidnapped AGAIN - but this time the bounty hunter from before actually defends her, because now she's married to a Guardian, even if her country doesn't yet recognize their union since they need to file there.
In the process, however, Jonathon and Sylphine learn that Ramsey is a Gen-Heir since she can practically recite things from memory after seeing or hearing or reading them once, and they both know just how dangerous that is and how complicated it could be for her, so they keep it quiet - and Jonathon asks Voklane (remember him? The handler for our spec ops?) not to make it public knowledge, though HE can use her for help if he so chooses.
Jonathon also has Sylphine help him during a case and they end up adopting a little boy in the process - also uncovering that it's so, so easy to make people disappear in Sziveria if they're all alone and have no one to fight for them, which is beginning to unveil more and more darkness in this conspiracy, as if a separate, shadow nation is forming in the background.
The worst part? Sean Blackbain's brother, who was incarcerated because of sexual assault, has also been transferred and is in the wind, something that poses more problems than it solves as he's ruthless, intelligent, and probably on the warpath.
And Ramsey was the one who helped put him in prison, at that.
So naturally it's in all their best interests to find this guy, and finally find out WHAT's been going on, though they're only making mild progress, but they do know that the guy who so desperately wanted Sylphine wanted her family's shipping operation so they'd be able to move people and materials more efficiently - and they make one last bid for her when she, Jonathon, Sean and his wife Katria (sharpshooter extraordinaire) make it to Sylphine's country.
They get shot at, and Jonathon is wounded while protecting his wife, though he does eventually make a full recovery and they can actually enjoy their time by the Mediterranean for a bit.
We also learn that, not only are Kevin and Raina pregnant with their second child, but Sean and Katria are expecting, too, so it looks like the team's going to be disbanding and serving out of Sziveria proper - they still have to figure out what's what, after all!
And Ramsey - who's being given a more prominent role - has a secret of her own. The reason why she doesn't really want to marry anyone ... it's because she's promised to someone else, someone we don't know about yet, and someone whose whereabouts are currently unknown.
Add to that someone grabbing a young, teenaged, budding sharpshooter to try and be able to counter Katria, and we have a massive problem on our hands.
Tune in for more soon!
I nabbed this book pretty much as soon as the ARC became available, and boy, it did NOT disappoint!
Listen, I've been a fan of Jonathon's from around the second time he shows up - he annoyed me the first time around, but he's the type of character who definitely grows on you, and his arrangement with Sylphine also intrigued me because she very clearly had some sort of Gen-Heir gift that was worth exploring.
(Side-note: well, no, not really, we get all we need about it in Sean Blackbain's book BUT the interesting thing is how she's so untrained in it).
The two characters are very much capable of standing on their own, and bring scorching heat when they're together, which is basically ALL you need in a romantic mystery novel.
See here's the thing: in the end, we're FINALLY starting to pull back some of the curtains of this world-wide mystery when we realize the people so desperate to marry Sylphine into their family for the shipping empire her own has built are definitely working with the ones who've been complicating things for everybody since the beginning.
And one particular convict is probably going to come back to haunt us in future books too, which, I'm starting to wonder where all the roads will lead. I cannot WAIT to have the entire series before me one day and be able to read from start to finish without pause to make better sense of this all!
Witty, charming, passionate, heartwarming, also heartbreaking, this story has it all in spades, and the best part is that we aren't even done yet. Jonathon's sister also has a secret of her own, plus it looks like someone REALLY wants a sharp-shooter that can stand against Katria Blackbain if need be, so things are definitely becoming more complicated.
However, there's also the matter of family, children, future, and while it's going to eventually be bitter-sweet, I think the author is doing a fantastic job at making sure the transition goes smoothly - while always keeping us on our toes.
Listen, I've been a fan of Jonathon's from around the second time he shows up - he annoyed me the first time around, but he's the type of character who definitely grows on you, and his arrangement with Sylphine also intrigued me because she very clearly had some sort of Gen-Heir gift that was worth exploring.
(Side-note: well, no, not really, we get all we need about it in Sean Blackbain's book BUT the interesting thing is how she's so untrained in it).
The two characters are very much capable of standing on their own, and bring scorching heat when they're together, which is basically ALL you need in a romantic mystery novel.
See here's the thing: in the end, we're FINALLY starting to pull back some of the curtains of this world-wide mystery when we realize the people so desperate to marry Sylphine into their family for the shipping empire her own has built are definitely working with the ones who've been complicating things for everybody since the beginning.
And one particular convict is probably going to come back to haunt us in future books too, which, I'm starting to wonder where all the roads will lead. I cannot WAIT to have the entire series before me one day and be able to read from start to finish without pause to make better sense of this all!
Witty, charming, passionate, heartwarming, also heartbreaking, this story has it all in spades, and the best part is that we aren't even done yet. Jonathon's sister also has a secret of her own, plus it looks like someone REALLY wants a sharp-shooter that can stand against Katria Blackbain if need be, so things are definitely becoming more complicated.
However, there's also the matter of family, children, future, and while it's going to eventually be bitter-sweet, I think the author is doing a fantastic job at making sure the transition goes smoothly - while always keeping us on our toes.
And I mean, who doesn't like a couple sitting down to actually DISCUSS the problems they're facing in their marriage?
10/10 recommend!
10/10 recommend!
xx
*image not mine
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