4.5 stars

I thought this book was just as good as The Sun Witch, but I didn't like Juliet and Ryn as much. I thought Juliet was a prude and her insistence on denying her destiny got annoying really fast. Ryn had a cave-man mentality that made sense for the story, but was equally annoying.

Even though Liane and Sebestyen are the "villains", I think they are very interesting characters and I hope they get a HEA. ( )

A young witch is kidnapped from her cottage by the king but is soon after kidnapped again by a mountain man who claims her to be his mate and takes her to his city. The heroine spends half the trip adamantly denying being his wife and mate but the male is calm, soft spoken and more so adamant about the fact that she is. Finally the girl begins to lose some of her fear and embraces the physical act of love with him. Turns out she's the long awaited queen of the males race and this brings a new set of troubles. She's no longer his mate, instead he's her consort-a fact that kills him inside especially given the prophecy that she's to sire a baby with another male. But is all turns out in the end. The best thing about this story was the males character. He was a study is opposites. Strong and gentle, savage and cultured. He spoke only when he had sometime meaningful to say and treated his female with tenderness and love-though he doesn't recognize the emotion until much later. This was a lovely book. ( )

So, book #2 was a bit of a let down. The sister is a pansy. And the "hero" of the story is just the big strong man without any real additional interesting bits. Now, I don't mind a feminine character, but this sister was set up to be a strong woman and she just kind of fell flat. Also, the peripheral characters weren't quite as necessary to this story, so a bit too much time was spent on them. I think this definitely suffered from being the arc in the larger story that had to be gotten through before the third book. ( )

Middle Fyne sister Juliet is kidnapped by the Emperor's men--only to be rescued by a man whose animal instincts tell him he's found the only woman to call his own.

Juliet Fyne is the middle sister, or so she thought. She's always had less magical ability then her sisters. Where her sisters were strikingly beautiful, Juliet felt she was plain and unremarkable. However when she and her eldest sister Isadora are kidnapped by the emperor's armies, her life gets interesting.

She is kidnapped from the soldiers by Ryn. Ryn is of a different race... part human, part wolf; his life is subject to the phases of the moon. For as long as he can remember, he's dreamed of a red-haired woman who was meant to be his. When he finds her in the hands of her captors, he rescues her, only to make her his own captive as he took her to his home.

Along the way they find middle ground, growing closer and closer to each other as Juliet accepts she is to be Ryn's mate. That is, until the day they arrive and she finds that fate is not done with her yet. Ancient prophecy foretold of the coming of a new leader of his people, but can Juliet and Ryn overcome the beliefs of his people to find their own happiness? And what of her powers that have grown remarkably throughout her journey. What does that mean for their newfound love? ( )