A hundred years ago, General Amris saved the world from the inexorable advances of the dark sorcerer Thyran’s horrifying army of monstrous constructs and undead soldiers by using a spell created by his lover Gerant to freeze both Amris and Thyran in time.
Now, Amris has been awakened from his long sleep by Dayna, a Sentinel warrior hunting a cockatrice through the ruined city. But Thyran is already gone, unfrozen from time and free to wreak havoc once more. It’s a race against time for Amris and Dayna to get warning out, to try and prepare their people for the horrors that will soon be descending on them.
There’s an added complication in that the soul inside the soulsword bonded to Dayna belongs to none other than Gerant - Amris’ lost love. Both Dayna and Amris are battling against an attraction to each other from the beginning, both convinced they’d be wronging Gerant by acting on it - until Gerant intervenes in a rather amusing and unexpected way. You’ll find a couple of fairly explicit sex scenes here which might be unexpected if you were just expecting ‘fantasy’ rather than ‘fantasy romance’. The series looks like it will have a different couple as the focus of each even as the overarching plot focuses on the battle against Thyran and his minions.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. The worldbuilding is excellent and we are plunged right into the action from the first moment, riding along with Amris as he goes without hesitation into a battle he knows he cannot win. Both he and Dayna are intriguing characters, with a lot of backstory to explore. Battle scenes in particular are very well done, with steadily escalating foes and stakes until a climactic confrontation which sets up nicely for the next in the series while still giving this one a good completion point. No doubt if you follow along with the series, you’ll be seeing Amris and Dayna again as I’m sure they’ll both have big parts to play before it’s all over.
Five stars for a tremendous start to a fascinating new fantasy romance series. I’m looking forward to Book 2.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.