Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Review: Soulfire (Nightwing #1) by Juliette Cross

Soulfire (Nightwing, #1)Soulfire (Nightwing #1) by Juliette Cross
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

In a world divided by prejudice and hatred, only love can bridge the chasm.

Tensions are rising in the Gladium Province. The boundary between humans and Morgons has begun to blur. While the human aristocracy strives to maintain distance between their daughters and the dragon-hybrid race, fate has other plans.

As the daughter of the corporate king, Jessen Cade is duty-bound to honor her arranged marriage to a man she detests. Feeling trapped by family duty and a loveless future, she longs for more, straying to the Morgon side of the city.

Lucius Nightwing is the eldest son of the powerful Morgon clan, and the greatest enemy of Jessen’s father. When a bar-room brawl thrusts Jessen into his arms, his dragon roars to the surface, craving to sate his carnal hunger in the brown-eyed beauty. The beast in Lucius recognizes her as his own, even if the man refuses to admit the truth.
Source

When I read the blurb for this book, I thought, "Oooh, dragon! Must read!" which is pretty much the reaction that I get every time I see a dragon themed book. If I see a book with a dragon, dragon shifter or any kind of dragon hero in it, I'm in. This book was no different. I snapped it up right away.
 
I liked the concept of "soulfire" and how it bound the couple together. In fact, I waited rather impatiently as I was reading through the book to get to that point where the "soulfire" moment actually took place. Along the way, it's a good story about the division between species, racial hatred, unjust prejudice and politics, with a bit of familial manipulation thrown in.

Jessen is a headstrong young woman who knows her own mind and her own self-worth. I really liked that about her. While I'm not the sort of reader who likes to "be" the heroine and needs to identify with her, I liked her a lot. I liked her strength, her independence and the fact that she knew her own mind and was willing to fight for what she loved and believed in. She didn't cave when she was being forced to do something that went against how she felt and was able to make some hard choices that were right for her. I really admired that in her.

Lucius, of course, is delicious as a hero. Tall, dark, handsome and strong, but tender and gentle with Jessen. The prefect alpha male, right? He initially resisted his attraction to her because of the prejudices surrounding their circumstances and finally coming to the conclusion no matter their species difference (which really, is no different from the interracial prejudices that were experienced between the whites and African Americans in the past), he could not live without her.

I love stories where mates are fated, chosen by a force greater than themselves and this is the relationship that Lucius and Jessen have.

And then the bad guys ... it saddens me when your own family works against you and is blind to your desires or best interests, and that happens so often in family. Often the ones closest to us are the most blind to who we are and most prejudiced towards their own selfish desires. Jessen's father and her so-called fiance Aron were excellent antoganists. There was a scene in the book where I really just wanted to reach in and punch Pritchard Cade and Aron Grayson in the face, which basically means, as the bad guys, they were excellently written.

While I was positively predisposed towards this book to begin with (Dragons! Dragons! Dragons!), it helps that it is a well written and enjoyable book. I'll definitely be looking at getting the other books in the series as they come out.

View all my reviews


About the Author:

Juliette CrossJuliette calls lush, moss-laden Louisiana home where the landscape curls into her imagination, creating mystical settings for her stories. She has a B.A. in creative writing from Louisiana State University, a M.Ed. in gifted education, and was privileged to study under the award-winning author Ernest J. Gaines in grad school. Her love of mythology, legends, and art serve as constant inspiration for her works. From the moment she read JANE EYRE as a teenager, she fell in love with the Gothic romance--brooding characters, mysterious settings, persevering heroines, and dark, sexy heroes. Even then, she not only longed to read more novels set in Gothic worlds, she wanted to create her own.

Author links: Website - Amazon Author PageFacebook - Twitter - Pinterest - Goodreads - Newsletter




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