Radiance: Volume 1 (Wraith Kings)

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I really couldn’t have said it any better. Ildiko and Brishen don’t have insta-love, they have insta-friendship and I don’t know about you, but for me this was a great approach. They respect each other and their cultures and they try their best to learn what it means to be human or Kai. Still, I’ve to admit that Ildiko has all my respect for putting up with the tradition of eating scarpatine. *shudders* I probably would have screamed and jumped on a chair. *LOL* Also I’m sure I couldn’t have eaten it ... not even if my life would have depended on it. XD With that off my chest, let me talk about how much I loved this book. It follows a predictable structure—this is a romance, after all, and no slight is intended because I’m 100% here for it—in which members of two warring kingdoms are forced to marry as a way to ensure peace. They develop feelings for each other over time and survive multiple dangerous situations to live happily ever after. I’ve read several books with this exact pattern, but this one stands out because both the romance and the fantasy are fully developed and deeply intertwined, then wrapped in a layer of lush prose that is as swoon-worthy as the budding love between Idilko and Brishen. The way she said wedding—in the same way someone might have said execution or torture session—made him sputter with laughter. He had no doubt he’d uttered the same word in the exact same tone recently. Today was Ildiko’s wedding day, and if she managed not to retch on herself or a guest, she’d consider the entire event a resounding success. They first meet just before their wedding, and recognizing this kinship in each other, form an alliance based on mutual respect and honesty.

A soft rap on the receiving room door drew the queen’s attention away from her. Enter, she called out. If you are looking for a great love story with minimal drama but enough action, this book is ideal. Get to enjoy a well-written story with lovable characters. Even though theirs is not the perfect romance story, Ildiko and Brishen make the best of what fate hands to them. The plot here is mostly romance, but there are unique and intriguing fantasy elements in the story as well. Overall a great romance story told by a very talented writer. The thought scraped across her mind. Saliva flooded her mouth as the nausea roiling in her belly threatened to surge into her throat. Ildiko closed her eyes and swayed where she stood on the tailoring stool. A hand gripped her leg to steady her, and she opened her eyes to stare down at the royal dressmaker.Welcome to Paranormal Romance! This group is for the discussion and recommendation of paranormal romances and paranormal erotic romance, along with ur Welcome to Paranormal Romance! This group is for the discussion and recommendation of paranormal romances and paranormal erotic romance, along with urban fantasy, science fiction, futuristic, and fantasy romance. If you love vampires, werewolves, and hot faery men, this is the group for you. Join up and discuss your favorite books! His companion’s eyebrows rose. Her lips closed over her teeth, and she smiled archly. She pointed to his face and then to his hands. I think the Kai, with their teeth and claws, have the advantage over the Gauri in that contest.

Worry lines gathered even more wrinkles into the woman’s face. She spat the pins clamped between her lips into her free hand. Are you all right, my lady? They laughed together then until the woman’s features turned somber. Thank you for not lying about what you thought of my appearance. You might have a face to turn my hair white, but your honesty is handsome. Had you crawled out from under my bed when I was a child, I would have bludgeoned you to death with my father’s mace.” The above takes place between our two main characters, Brishen Khaskem, a Kai prince with gray skin, solid yellow eyes, razor claws for fingernails, and teeth meant for tearing flesh, and Ildiko, a human woman who happens to be the niece of a king. Their guest of honor didn’t share their dislike of either food. As deft as any Kai, Serovek made short work of the scarpatine and its whipping tail, cleaved open the shell with his knife and took a generous bite of the steaming gray meat.

Publication Order of Dragon Shifter Books

The story of Ildiko and Brishen has everything an epic romance of this type requires…It all adds up to a perfect combination of fantasy and romance I have not seen since her masterpiece Master of Crows. They realized they loved each other and the sex was awesome! Lord have mercy! Well.. they couldn't kiss proper or he would have sliced her face into little pieces but they figured some stuff out :) The premise of the book is nothing new: royalty of different nations must wed to bring an alliance to each of their nations and eventually they fall in love. Even with the differences in cultures (because, well, one is human and the other is not – which I thought would be way cooler than it was) this story isn’t new, exciting, or different. The girl was too perfect: beautiful but humble, selfless, loyal, funny, empathetic, trusting, and generally just good. The guy was too perfect: handsome, kind, honest, tender, funny, loyal, understanding, and selfless. The evil mother-in-law that the girl is of course brave enough to not be cowed by. The instant connection between the main characters. The humor that only served to play into the perfectness that is our couple.

Her maids refused to meet her gaze while they laced her into her gown and twitched the train into perfect folds, but she’d caught their looks of pity mixed with horror from the corner of her eye. Ildiko told herself to ignore them. Arranged marriages were the fate of nearly all aristocratic Gauri women, each one made for power, for trade, for good of country. His Majesty, Sangur the Lame, had married off both his daughters to princes of foreign lands as part of the negotiations for access to ports and allies in war. The Gauri king’s niece was no exception to the protocol, and Ildiko had always expected a similar fate. The only question was when—not if—it happened. My only complaint is that I wish there were more to this. I wish Draven delved deeper into this world. I wish there were more descriptions of journeys, surroundings, and cities. She strolled leisurely along a winding path that meandered past bubbling ponds filled with large goldfish as tame as dogs, regiments of poisonous foxglove in every color and hue, and clusters of orange butterfly vine draped over trellises and swarmed by hummingbirds. Willow trees hugged the shores of the larger ponds, creating canopies of green shade that sheltered ferns and silver-leafed lungwort. Ildiko had spent many a quiet hour as a child hidden behind a willow’s drape, reading a pilfered book in the dappled light that spilled through the branches. Hardly,” she replied, keeping a wary eye on the pie closest to her. The golden top crust, with its sprinkle of sparkling salt, pitched in a lazy undulation. “But I’m starving, and I have no intention of filling up on that abomination.” Had you crawled out form under my bed when I was a child, I would have bludgeoned you to death with my father’s mace.”Radiance by Grace Draven is a near-perfect fantasy romance that hits all the right tropes while creating something new and beautiful. It does a great job balancing light and dark both literally and figuratively, though a few moments are so dark I went looking to see if I’d missed content warnings because they are both things I prefer to avoid, or at least be aware of before jumping in. There are no such warnings in the book, so I’ll offer them to you here:

They're destined to marry, and for that, everyone pities them. The two races find each other physically repulsive, and as you can tell, that extends to our MCs. Brishen is a Kai prince and Ildiko is royalty of the Gauri, and they are to be wed. The problem- they’re not just from a different place, they’re a whole different breed of people. Ildiko is human, and Brishen isn’t. It’s a political alliance, but these two become the best of friends. I love how they find each other so unattractive at first, but they adore each other nonetheless. With time, their inner beauty shines and they fall helplessly in love with one another. Sigh. As the book goes on, these two ugly creatures fall in love, and it's a romantic tale of finding the inner beauty of your one true love. Voices in the distance carried across the green lawn and into the oak’s shaded sanctuary. The woman rose and scraped her hands across the imaginary wrinkles in her skirts. I have to go. I am missed.

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Thank you for not lying about what you thought of my appearance. You might have a face to turn my hair white, but your honesty is handsome”