Genre: Fantasy
A Stand-Alone Novel
ISBN: 9780505527547
Releasedate: March 1, 2008
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing
Format owned: e-Book
For sale at: The Book Depository Store

Synopsis
ONE PROTECTOR

When dragon power flows through your veins, when dragon thoughts burn in your mind, you can accomplish anything. Natiya knows, for she carries one of the last eggs in the land disguised as a jewel in her navel. Day by day the Unhatched grows, and when at last it births they will be joined in a sacred and eternal bond. Gone will be the barmaid forced to dance for pennies; born will be Dag Natiya, revered Queen. Take her body or her soul, nothing will stop them.

ONE SLAYER
When dragon power flows through your veins, when dragon emotions trample your soul, you become a monster. So knows Kiril, for one destroyed his cousin. No matter how kind or joyful, all beings must succumb to the power of the wyrm. That is why Kiril vowed to destroy dragonkind—and he has almost succeeded. Only one egg remains. But there is an obstacle he did not foresee: love.

REVIEW
When the dragonhunter meets the tavern-dancer he knows there’s more to their connection than lust. Even though she’s reluctant to go with him, there’s no choice left for her once she was captured and imprisoned. In doing this, the secret she is carrying is jeopardized. Will their connection stand strong through the threat that linger’s on their trail….


It all starts with a smashing prologue making me hunger for more. In those first few pages the base of the story is set, instantly making me have a love-hate relationship with Kiril. Love because of his fiery temperament, determination and loyalty to his cause no matter how difficult it was to him. And hate because.... well Dragon-slaying isn't on top of the list I want my heroes to do as a profession. But in the first pages you actually feel him struggling with it. So needless to say I was intrigued and eager to read on and see what Jade Lee had in store with his character.

Natiya, a girl who's forced to work in a bar and dance for some cash, is the last person, who carries a dragon-egg, awaiting its hatching and becoming one with its mind, body and soul. Not just any egg, but the Queen-egg and nothing will come between her knowledge that Dragons are good; nothing will make her doubt this. Equally passionate about her destiny, as Kiril is of his, and even more determined to make it through. She will not be brought down from her cause by anyone.

When these two characters meet in this story you just feel there's this underlying connection between them. There is doubt about what they feel, lust in their doings and both heading the same way for different purposes. Jade Lee has a strong writing skill. Even though most of this novel is written like it’s one big scene between Kiril and Natiya; she is able to put together an underlying story, making it an intense, emotional and wonderful read. Usually, when you are in the middle of reading such a story, you read it as quickly as possible to hold on to the feeling for the characters because of the build up. Jade Lee was able to write every scene so that you can put it away for a day, start reading again and get straight back into feeling the same intense emotions. So throughout the whole story you are able to hold on to the feeling you had when you put it down for awhile.

The build up of the story and the dragon world is not a new thing within the fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal genre. Despite the fact the focus of this story was not mainly on the world, but more a balance of the world entwined within an epic love story. The world surrounding the two of them on their journey just added more to their love story and brought along the tragedy and some thrill to their connection.

Because the focus was more on the emotions both characters were going through, your imagination was completely able to create the world around them. Sometimes you just long to read this type of story and sometimes you don’t, but this time it fell right in place for me. So I had an absolutely superb time reading this novel, making this world visual for me and sighed when the story ended.

If as an author you are able to write a great story mainly about two terrific characters, to me you are a fantastic writer! In my opinion, this is great fantasy romance novel and it actually made me put Jade Lee’s other novels in my priority list of buying.

Jade Lee writes in her own unique way bringing something new to my bookshelves!

4 Stars

Genre: Erotica

Book 2 in the Lords of Satyr series
ISBN: 0-7582-2040-5
Releasedate: March 2008
Publisher: Kensington Publishing
Format owned: TPB
For sale at: The Book Depository Store

Synopsis
As A Lover, His Skills Are Legendary...

The middle brother, Raine, is both sensual and stoic. Scarred by once taking a wife who could not accept his carnal needs, he wants no part in another marriage. But duty commands that he fulfill his promise to wed King Feydon's second daughter, Jordan...

But In Matters Of The Heart, He Has Much To Learn...
The loyal satyr begins a search that leads him from Tuscany to romantic Venice, where his beautiful bride awaits, unaware of what passionate delights fate has planned for her. Raine is careful not to reveal his powerful satyr sexuality, for fear of driving yet another woman away. But unbeknownst to him, Jordan is no ordinary woman and was born with an insatiable appetite for love. And as Raine's heart begins to melt for her, how long will he be able to hide his true nature when Jordan seems to want him so fiercely?

When Raine was ordered to take an offspring of Fae-king Feydon as his wife, he was reluctant in getting married again. But once he spotted Jordan, his body betrayed him tremendously… Will his heart follow?

As the middle of the Satyr brothers he is the second one to locate the Fae-daughter, whom he is ordered to take as his wife. His past experience with his first wife made him realize he never wants to marry again. That, combined with his past, makes him a tortured hero – as so longingly beloved amongst readers.

The beginning of this story is a bit difficult to get into, but once you read on, you see it is not due to the way it is written. It emphasizes Raine’s character formidably. He is regal, distance, aristocratic, annoyingly organized and reluctant to share his inner self, due to the hurt that is done to him in the past.

Jordan is a totally different character altogether. Split into two beings, because her mother needed a son, but is very much feminine inside. She’s a heroine to my heart. Strong-minded, funny, stubborn and set to make Raine laugh and enjoy life a bit more. She’s got the capability to make Raine walk a step out of pace from his organized life, bringing organized chaos into it.

I am amazed by Elizabeth Amber’s ability to bring three brothers to life, whom are very different from each other but work superbly well together. She is able to write their stories so, that you really feel their character throughout the whole length of their journey. Once one of the others are mentioned in the scenes, you straight away feel what their character is like, bringing such a change in scenery.

In this novel, the emphasis is not on the plotlines, even though things were surprising in the end. It was focused on getting to know Raine and Jordan, seeing them bloom to life and growing towards each other. That combined, ofcourse, with amazing passionate love making, which require a bit of an open mind. It made me realize I am more open minded than I thought I was. When introduced in the way Elizabeth Amber did, working really well within the story, it adds to it a lot. It fits within this story because it’s part of who Jordan really is and adds to the reading experience of getting to know her inner turmoil and creating her “new” identity for herself.

Despite the fact Nick and Raine really caught my attention and affection; my body, mind and soul belong to Lyon. He and his way of life make butterflies flutter in my belly. Nicholas’ and Raine’s stories are the base and the mix to the cake, but Lyon is the chocolate glazing and cherry to finish it off.

Needing to wait for the next story in line is a pleasant torture I’m willing to undergo – but having to say eagerly waiting what Lyon will bring to the mix! The Lords of Satyr is a trilogy that should not be missed on your bookshelves!

4 stars

Genre: Fantasy Romance
Book 2 in the Tairen Soul series
ISBN: 0-8439-5977-0
Releasedate: October 30, 2007
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing
Format owned: MMPB / HC Rhapsody
For sale at: The Book Depository Store

Synopsis
Since her earliest memories, Ellysetta Baristani has feared magic, even as she has been inexorably drawn to all things Fey, especially the poetry and legends of Rain Tairen Soul. Now claimed as Rain’s truemate and no longer able to deny her own magic, Ellysetta is swept into the very center of a struggle filled with the magic and darkness she has always feared. The High Mage of Eld wants to capture her. The most murderous dahl’reisen who ever lived wants her dead. And her enemies will corrupt even the people she loves most in their quest to claim her magic for themselves.

REVIEW
The courtship of Rain and Ellysetta take further progression, they grow towards each other and long to be with each other more with each passing hour. Unfortunately the High Mage of the Eld has other plans, what will happen when the truth comes to life? Will they be able to overcome the threat that seemingly is out to doom the rest of the world?

I have a profound respect for people who are able to write a 5-star novel, but to do so on their debut and have a follow up novel with again a 5-star quality is admirable and herewith I speak out loud my admiring respect for the writing abilities and qualities of CL Wilson. Not only was she able to baffle and amaze me with her smashing start of the Tairen Soul series – Lord of the Fading Lands – but even more so, she was able to captivate me and leave me in awe with the follow up in this series – Lady of Light and Shadow.

Where the first part was filled with an innocent blooming love between Rain and Elly, this book was overflowing with passion and strength. Plot wise it was so solid and enormously well written that I’m left with a ferocious hungering need for reading on. I’m very VERY happy I’m able to dive straight into King of Sword and Sky. Not often am I impatient in waiting for a book to be released but I know this series has me fully addicted. It’s all I wanted and so much more!

Ms Wilson is able to write a compelling story, create characters that make you cry in joy, immense pain and in longing desire. There was a built up plot wise that left me with a wholesome feeling throughout the entire novel. It touched me on every level to see the fey-warriors grow. To experience Rain in his courtship for Ellysetta whilst being more in doubt about certain events. Seeing Elly grow from this woodcarvers daughter to a woman who is on her way to become the truemate of the only living Tairen Soul and Queen of the Fading Lands, left me in awe.

In this story The Dark Lord surfaces and events surrounding this plotline happen that give a totally new light to where things might lead. An amazing weave is threaded in between the storylines that makes me, as a reader, purr in ecstasy.

The courtship between Elly and Rain is getting more passionate and stronger, the darkness that was hinted towards in Lord of the Fading Lands is getting more dark and mysterious. When reading this novel you really feel the light and shadows vibrating off the pages, every page you turn consumes you and brings you further and deeper in touch with the characters and plotlines.

It all relates, it all works, it’s stunningly perfect! CL Wilson is a master-weaver of the written word and I admire her for keeping the warriors at bay. It’s books like in this series that makes me realize why it is I love reading so much, it’s for books like these where I feel the want and need to speak out as a reviewer. It’s books like these I NEED in hardcover because they are top-notch Keepers on my Shelves!!!!

5 stars

Genre: Fantasy Romance
Book 1 in the Tairen Soul series
ISBN: 0-8439-5977-0
Releasedate: October 2, 2007
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing
Format owned: MMPB / HC Rhapsody
For sale at: The Book Depository Store

Synopsis
Long ago, in the magical holocaust known as the Mage Wars, the immortal Fey and their allies fought to defeat the grasping evil of the Elden Mages and their dark-gifted supporters. During those wars, in a fit of grief-induced madness caused by the death of his mate, Fey shapeshifter Rain Tairen Soul nearly destroyed the world in a blaze of tairen fire.

Now, a thousand years later, the fierce Fey king must fight to save his race from the brink of extinction and once again stop the evil rising in the homeland of his enemies, the Eld. The key to his success lies in the mortal city of Celieria, where the Mage Wars began, and with a young woman whose soul sings to him in ways no woman’s ever has, whose presence reawakens the primal fury of the tairen within his soul, and whose vast, untapped power can either save or destroy him and his people.

REVIEW
I’m absolutely awestruck and almost barren for words.

To write a novel that stands out in a series making readers buy the rest is outstanding but to write a novel - a debut-novel nonetheless! - making readers interested in a new genre and opening up to the possibilities of exploring it further is exquisite!!! That is what C.L. Wilson did to me with Lord of the Fading Lands.

She has written a smashing debut-novel. The first book in a new series, creating a unique world with such strong main- and side characters that I’m spoiled for life! She pulls of that, without overshadowing the main-characters, her side-characters are just as involved and important as the main-characters: Rain and Elly.

The emotions described in this novel are so intense, the feelings Rain and Elly experience so strongly putt to paper that it in fact fills your own heart, warming you from the inside out.

I had to get used to the language a bit but because every sentence written in the “fantasy-language” is also translated in English to explain to Elly it was superb!

From the moment when Rain first feels her, till they meet and thereafter their courtship; there is not a single moment I look back on and feel less baffled! Once I read the first chapter and got into the story I straight away got sucked into a story which you just cannot put down. In the way it is written it is easy to read but it’s not a light read. Sometimes I just needed to take a break from reading the story, thinking things through, making a cup of tea and sorting myself out only to find myself automatically being pulled back towards it again to read on!

The courtship between Elly and Rain, the way they are linked together and “feel” eachother; in fact are entwined on all levels is so much better described than the hottest love-scene in most best-selling novels.

CL Wilson has a way of writing that stun me and do I have to say how much I love the fey warriors protecting Ellie. Both quintets!!!! The first ofcourse for the obvious reasons but the second as well. Eventhough they have the same purpose - to protect Ellie - you can feel the difference of their vibe, the way they are, but still to the core are the same. And because most side-characters are intensely linked with Rain and Elly, they become important in the story and added so much onto the storylines, making me hunger for the follow-up novels in this series!!!

Even now, days after reading this story I’m still enchanted by it, it stays with you in a lot of ways. It stirred me emotionally and on many more levels.

Scenes, chapters, this novel in fact, is so well written, put together in such a way that it fits amazingly. The story actually flows through your mind like a river that it seems quiet on the surface, but you know that it’s vibrates and stirs things below the line of sight.

CL Wilson has got a bestselling series on her hands and a lot can be expected of her hands in the future I’m sure. If you haven’t read this novel yet, take a shot you’ll be amazed!!! Beware a new star-author has risen!!!!

QUOTE

Rain when he felt Elly being in danger….

He flung himself from the ground into the sky, flashing instantly into tairen-form. Flames scorched the night sky and his roar of fury rent the air as he followed the path of the mind that called out to him in fear….

5 stars

Genre: Historical
Standalone novel
ISBN: 0-980-17800-2
Releasedate: January 2008
Publisher: Helm Publishing
Format owned: TPB signed
For sale at: The Book Depository Store

Synopsis
...When a chauvinistic knight lands in a castle full of women, somebody has to change…

Soldier of fortune, Garrick of Hawkwood is ill prepared for the women of Castle Ladyslipper, especially its hostile mistress, Emma d’Arcy. Garrick is haunted by the spirit of Emma’s great-great grandmother Rose. Her actions caused the curse plaguing Emma and her female relatives. Though clearly at odds, Emma and Garrick cannot deny the sultry heat rising between them.

Liberally laced with humor, Castle Ladyslipper resonates with a timeless theme: Love can flourish even when sown in the rocky soil of misunderstanding.

REVIEW
When Garrick gets the assignment to go to Fairfield and marry Helene, the Lady of the land, he is determined to do so. He however did not anticipate that she was not there, but her stepdaughter was. And the spitfiry Emma was not going to tell this beast of a man where her stepmother was residing. But when King Henry decides to pay Castle Ladyslipper a visit, destiny unfolds and Emma and Garrick get awestruck with his new order!

This is just one of those stories that give you such a pleasant read. No heavy-set emotions to go through, no struggling mating rituals, no new world to discover. Most stories make you feel like you go through it all yourself, but this story just give you a glimpse in the lives of Emma and Garrick. It makes you feel you’re allowed to just come along on their journey in life.

Garrick is a typical historical sexy hero, who goes by the orders of the King and sticks to them no matter what. But when he comes across stubborn, feisty and reluctant Emma, from then on he starts having trouble to do what was ordered. He stands for what he feels is right and is willing to do whatever necessary to get it done. Emma, however, has a mind of her own. Bound by a “magical curse”, brought upon the ladies in the castle by one of her ancestors, she is now the one to keep hold of the amulet and wears it as an everyday reminder.

What captured me most in this story is not the paranormal influence, even though it is there, it is not dominant, I loved that. It is telling a story of life in 1089-just life as it is. It is not always spectacular and Lee Grantier describes that in a great way. She writes with such humour in her writing as well as a flair that just has you chuckle a lot and giggle as well. If you want to get away from the stress from nowadays living, this is a great novel to do so. Most of the story is about Emma and Garrick even though the characters surrounding them do play a certain role in their whole involvement as well.

There were many characters coming to scene, but Lee Grantier handled it very well and was able to give them all their own characters while they were mentioned. I just fell in love with the aunties and William, who with their own unique ways are an addition to it all and just as much a red thread in the story as Garrick and Emma (so on a personal note I’m hoping to be able to read a bit more about them in the future ;-) hopefully in the form of a trilogy or series!). I just loved the fact that the women of Fairfield were independent and did not sit around and wait for the men to lead; they took matters in their own hands and stood behind their lord and lady!

The plot was surprising, I had not seen it coming and the fact that this novel tells a story in a timeframe of about a year makes that it stands out next to other novels. The centre stage of this story is the love that from the first pages on sizzle between the two main characters and the emotions that go with that. It takes guts to write a story like this describing everyday feelings – really well – to simply say how it is and use the emotions like doubt and hurt as the reason why things happen the way they do.

It is very difficult to tell a story around two main characters who both have self-doubt, similar “issues” to go through and then make it towards a smashing ending while remaining close to themselves, it was superb to see that in the end there was still a fire between the main characters that sparkled from the pages. I thought it was the icing to the cake when the second half of the story unfolded into the climax.

Sometimes simplicity in a story is the way to go and if you can write it down like Lee Grantier did, to me, which deserves praises.

It’s a heart-warming story that can best be described as giving you the feeling of seeing a falling star. A sweetness that stays with you and fills your heart – this is a medieval romance that really deserves the title romance. It’s a love story as many should be and I will most definitely cherish it and re-read it many times!

4 Stars