"Carina's beauty and willfulness intrigue Marek, and he's determined to have her. When his enemies try to come between them, he discovers just how much he will endure to protect her. Together, they can unlock a love that binds their souls, but only if they find the strength to follow their hearts."
Pages: 252 pages
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press on Nov 2012
Form: E-book (from the author for an honest review)
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Amazon: Buy / $5.99 (Kindle)
( EU price, click to see yours )Barnes & Noble: Buy / $5.99 (Nook)
All Romance E-books: Buy / $5.99 (E-book)
Excerpt: Second meeting
"Carina McKay is an outsider. With one parent of royal blood, she's not nobility, yet not a servant either. The only comfort in her mundane existence is her love of Critons, the large fire-breathing creatures that protect the border of her homeland. But her destiny changes forever the day she catches the eye of King Marek Duncan.
Marek's heart is closed to love. After an arranged marriage withers to a bitter end, he dedicates his energy to protecting his kingdom. Yet he's searching for something more--the Caller of Light, the one who summons Critons.
Carina's beauty and willfulness intrigue Marek, and he's determined to have her. When his enemies try to come between them, he discovers just how much he will endure to protect her. Together, they can unlock a love that binds their souls, but only if they find the strength to follow their hearts." ~ From Goodreads
I absolutely love fantasy, Tolkien, Martin and Eddings to name few faves! Which is why I'm probably bit harsher in reviewing Caller of Light.
I liked the story for Caller of Light, I have always loved the story of the underdog proving their strength and importance, especially when they are put down in the beginning. What I found somewhat distracting was that even though there was a great story idea it sprouted around and that dispersed the story too much to keep a clean line. I often though what happened with that idea or why did something happen to begin with. But really that wasn't way too distracting and I was enjoying reading this book.
I found Carina's character charming, her quiet demeanor with her family, the bullies, and her bravery when she wasn't under their scrutiny. I loved her consistent nature through out the book, she was strong but still doubted people because of how her family had treated her. She was very reletable Marek was bit selfish and was doubting Carina in the beginning, which I did not like, but also loved as a story line! It reminded me of those medieval historical romances where the nobility marries a commoner and all the package that come with that. I was left wanting something stronger from Marek, he showed strength at some pivotal points and more of that would have been nice.
The romance was in good focus, but it moved weirdly, like I mentioned at the very top the plot and story flow wasn't compact. So when it came to sex the intensity had waned and as nicely as T.J. Shaw had written it it wasn't as powerful a point in the story. I did often find myself lost in what happened at the time as T.J. Shaw has great writing skills and many parts were great reading! With a strong, tight plot I would have been hooked.
Now the cover, there is way too much going on the eyeball, the glowing key, the tree, the arrows, the castle, two many colors and fonts in the text, also too saturated with yellow and texture for clean and viewer friendly look. I give careful consideration for covers before I accept a book for review, and this was right on the line.
Even all this said I really did enjoy reading Caller of Light, and probably if I didn't have such powerful Fantasy reading background I might have not got caught up in all the details. If you love strong heroine's with vulnerable, shy side and hot hunky men who ride "dragons" in medieval setting then give this book a shot!
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