Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Review and Giveaway: Night's Honor

Night's Honor (Elder Races - Book 7) by Thea Harrison

Publication Date: 09/02/2014
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley Sensation
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 304
ISBN-10: 0425274365
ISBN-13: 978-0425274361

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Sensation)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Indiebound

Thea Harrison on the WEB: website, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads

Books in the series

Elder Races

1. Dragon Bound
2. Storm's Heart
3. Serpent's Kiss
4. Oracle's Moon
5. Lord's Fall
6. Kinked
7. Night's Honor

Coverart: Click the Image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.




Excerpt from, Night's Honor, courtesy of Amazon's Look Inside feature.

Synopsis:

From the author of Kinked and Oracle's Moon...In the USA Today bestselling author's latest Novel of the Elder Races, a woman finds herself in need of protection—and seduced by honor…

On the run from her former employer, Tess knows that she’s vulnerable on her own amongst the Elder Races. That’s why she decides to audition to become the human attendant of a powerful Vampyre of the Nightkind demesne. But while her position affords her the safety she seeks, her protector turns out to be more than she bargained for.

The right-hand man of the Nightkind King, Xavier del Torro is both terrifying and alluring. While his true nature frightens Tess, she can’t ignore the appeal of his innate sense of integrity and self-restraint. Thrown into Xavier’s world, Tess must quickly learn to navigate the dangers—both to her life and to her heart. But the biggest threat comes from her own past…


Thoughts:

Thea Harrison continues the Elder Races series, with her seventh book, Night's Honor. This series has given the reader everything from dragons to fae and in this book readers travel to the vampire corner of Harrison's world. Xavier is an elegant, but deadly, vampire assassin and Tess is on the run from a Djinn that wants to do her in. The sexual tension is high and world building is exceptional. Harrison once again thrills readers with a slow burning romance and enough action to light up the night! A great addition to the series.

What I liked:

Thea Harrison is one of those writers that makes paranormal readers stand up and take notice. Her books embrace the supernatural in such a way that the reader can almost feel kinship with her characters. She gets down to the nitty-gritty of what makes these dragons, vampires, fae... tick. In her latest novel, Night's Honor readers get to see the inner workings of a vampire household. They get to see what all the fuss is about when it comes to the Nightkind. I loved the way Harrison chose to portray her vampires. 

These vampires are old. Most of them in this story anyway. Harrison does a fantastic job of allowing the reader to 'feel' the age of these characters. Xavier, the hero, was a former priest during the Spanish Inquisition. The reader not only sees the brutal and dangerous side of his character, but also his cultured and elegant side. He has such a quiet and controlled, yet passionate demeanor. He is probably one of my favorite vampire characters ever. There is just something about him that seems so fundamentally real. 

Tess, the heroine, is on the run. She has gotten herself into a bit of spot with Djinn. Not a supernatural you want to mess with. She might be scared to death of vampires, but she's more scared of what hunts her. I liked her brutal honesty. Her will to survive and determined manner in everything she did. Once she became Xavier's human attendant, she immerses herself in his culture, in his household and in his life. Seeing her ideas of what it meant to be among the vampires change and grow was an exceptional part of this book.

The romance is what I would call a slow burn. As a reader you have to consider the fact that this is a vampire you are reading about. He is immortal and has all the time in the world. There is no reason to rush. I loved the fact that Harrison let Tess dictate the pace of this relationship and that Xavier was willing to wait until that perfect moment when Tess was open and ready to be a part of him. It might be toward the latter part of the book before readers see passion between these two, but it is soooooo worth the wait!

Bottom Line:

Night's Honor was a great lead in to more vampire books in this series. It appears that King Julian may get his happy ending in the next book. Just when I think there are no more new ways for authors to show us their ideas of vampires, I am yet again surprised. Harrison's world building skills are unarguably some of the best in the business. If you are a paranormal fan of anything, this book will make you glad you are!

Night's Honor is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!




About the Author:


A debut author at the age of nineteen, Thea Harrison had sixteen romances published under another name before she took a break to collect a couple of graduate degrees and a grown child. She’s back with the Novels of the Elder Races, a new paranormal romance series. 


Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Night's Honor by Thea Harrison.

~ You must be an email subscriber to participate.
~ US addresses only.
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, October 1st.

1. Please leave a comment about what you think draws a heroine or anyone for that matter to a bad boy or a bad girl. What is the allure?

2. Please fill out the FORM.

9 comments:

traveler said...

the risk and change of pace. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

lag123 said...

A walk on the wild side...

lag110 at mchsi dot com

NoraA said...

They are drawn to the dark side where they get to leave their safe and boring lives behind for a while.

NoraAdrienne(at)gmail(dot)com

justpeachy36 said...

I think bad boys and bad girls don't give a "crap" about what other people think and I think that's attractive to people who do give a "crap". They want that for themselves and of course there is that living on the wild side thing.

Texas Book Lover said...

It's the adrenaline rush of doing something wild and a little dangerous. Very thrilling!

jmcgaugh said...

I think it's the danger and excitement that draws a lot of people to the bad boy or girl. For some, too, there's the thought that they can, with love, "save" this person.

bn100 said...

their attitude

Unknown said...

I love traditional vampires, but I don't think of them as bad. I think the attraction is all the history they've seen and experienced. As for the attraction of bad boys, I've dated one really bad guy and the attraction was the fun we had. He wasn't afraid to go out on a limb and ask for more or do things that other guys just won't do because guys don't do that. But I definitely paid for all that so it really isn't worth it unless the "bad" is just image.

Anita Yancey said...

I think it's the danger, mystery, and not knowing what's going to happen. Thanks for having the giveaway.

ayancey1974(at)gmail(dot)com