Desire in His Blood: Brides of the Kylorr, Book 1

Christine Garam

Absolutely Spectacular, and spicy as sin! (TW's here if you don't wanna go find on author website)

"Tl;Dr = Stop what you're doing and read it, it's awesome. Zoey Draven absolutely killed it with her Horde Kings series and she's already amazing me again with this first installment of Brides of the Kylorr. I was pleasantly surprised that this plot had significant differences from the Horde King plots, because a lot of times authors seem to get stuck in one type or kind of story. But the story here is as different as the central alien species. The world building, as always with Zoey was incredible and didn't feel like a Tolkeinesque trudging through details; this author is excellent at show don't tell, seeming to know exactly how much detail to give to allow your imagination to take it from there. The characters are all believable and 3 dimensional and most importantly INTERESTING. Even side characters who are given very little page time have me interested to know more about them, and that is a feat of good writing that's monumentally difficult to achieve. Our MMC and FMC experience true believable character growth and while they did sometimes surprise, all of their actions and reactions to situations and words make sense for them, something that's very important to me. I'll straight up DNF a book if characters start to behave in ways contrary to what makes sense for their personality, but these guys were spot on without being too predictable. And finally, the plot was new, fresh, interesting, and made sense. It's not heavy on action, but while I cannot name the cause, it's still one you won't be able able put down. Zoey makes up for the fact that the action is primarily historical by weaving a fantastic inner world for both her main characters as well as her excellent environment descriptions and smooth segues between locations. *Trigger Warnings* Now, I won't deduct stars for the triggers, that's why warnings exist, but I am frustrated when authors don't include them in the kindle description or within the book opening pages , instead demanding readers go to their website and find them 9 clicks later. So I thought I'd be helpful and outline them here. 1. "Dubious consent" is what the authors website calls some of this activity, but I'm gonna go ahead and say we have some non consent here. What's dubious about it is whether it's sexual assault or general assault. I will caveat that to say, however, that this book handles it well, and that it did not trigger me the way some truly dubious consent scenes in books can. So good on the author for handling it well and with nuance respected. 2. Familial death is mentioned repeatedly, parental loss and extended family loss. 3. Alcoholism and perhaps gambling addiction (its not explicit what to call it) is insidiously tied into a great deal of the history and actions of one of the side characters in the book, but as with the rest, the author handles it well and respectfully. And as a personally appealing kudos, Zoey also really works that nuance and describes the conflict of those who love people with addictions and problems so very tenderly and well. If this is something that triggers you, I would honestly say it's safer to power through it here because of how genuinely beautifully it is handled. I walked away feeling understood by the author, a complete stranger to me. ["

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December 5, 2022 Verified Purchase

Lovemybooks.

4,5 stars Fantastic story

"I was hesitant, don’t ask me why because after reading this book that hesitation and the reason behind it was lost in the sands of time. Some say that this book is a slow burn, but I don’t agree, while there was some time until they do the dirty 😁🤷‍♀️, there was enough fire to burn up the pages, the build up, conflict, mystery passion, all that you would want in a good romance, it all added up to beautiful character development and engaging story. At first I worried about Gemma, her character seemed, at first, to be hard and uncompromising. However she turned out to be a true valiant and brave heroine. No TSTL moments, high five for that. Our hero, wow now he was scary, but his story was beautifully written and as it progressed I fell in love with his character. It would take spoilers to give more information and I don’t do spoilers, sorry, not really 🤷‍♀️. There is one disappointment…………………………………………….………………………………………………… BOOK TWO IS NOT OUT UNTIL EARLY 2023! What does that mean?, January? February? Sigh. I do recommend this book, now onward time to dig in the authors library and find another series to tide me over. ["

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November 23, 2022 Verified Purchase

Naomi

Absolutely brilliant. One of my favorite read of this year! Zoey never misses.

"DESIRE IN HIS BLOOD is the first book in Zoey Draven’s brand new adult fantasy/sci-fi romance series—Brides of the Kylorr—and it was nothing short of brilliant. I discovered Zoey with her Horde Kings of Dakkar series and immediately fell in love with her story-telling. I devoured that series and I have been obsessed with her writing ever since. DESIRE IN HIS BLOOD was absolutely everything I wanted it to be. I read it in one sitting, I was just unable to stop reading. I think Zoey’s writing is amazing, the way she is able to bring these characters and world to life is unparalleled, the way she makes me feel while reading is something I don’t often come across. I have a few favorite authors that I love and would literally read anything they publish, Zoey is now one of them. I absolutely loved the story of this book, it’s not your typical “human-woman-gets-abducted-by-aliens-and-sold-to-the-mysterious-alien-king” — not that there is anything wrong with these stories, it’s just not what this book is about. What I love with this book and Zoey’s Horde Kings series, is that humans already live out of space among other alien species, they’ve lived there for centuries and this has always been their life. It’s refreshing and, for me, makes the story much more interesting. DESIRE IN HIS BLOOD is the story of human woman Gemma, who in order to save her sisters from her father’s never-ending debts, decides to marry a Kylorr, berserker-like aliens who survive on blood, have grey skin, horns, and giant wings. I know, it’s hot. Just please read the blurb. It explains the story way better than I ever could. I loved the heroine, Gemma. She is thirty, would do anything to protect her family, but isn’t a pushover either. She is full of compassion, brave and extremely smart. I loved everything about her. I loved how even when she was scared shitless, she always put on a brave face, I loved how compassionate and kind she could be, but also fierce and unyielding when needed. It’s rare for me to love the heroines as much as I usually love the heroes, I know, it’s not my best trait, but I can’t help it. I often find them annoying. I have never felt this way while reading Zoey’s books. She always manages to write such amazing and nuanced heroines, almost like I could put myself in their shoes and make the same decisions. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it makes sense to me. Azur, the hero, was just as you would expect a big bad alien to be. At first, he is not the nicest, but that’s kind of how I like them. Okay, okay, I need therapy, whatever. But you quickly discover another side of him, and not everything is how it seems. He is strong, and hot, like seriously hot, I think it’s very important to mention that. But he’s also very smart, and compassionate, and bossy, and hot, did I say hot already? Anyway, I don’t want to reveal too much, so you’ll have to read the book to fully enjoy the magnificence that is Azur of House Kaalium, the High Lord of Laras. Zoey wrote these characters to perfection, the way their relationship evolved felt so organic and so real. I loved them together. The pacing of this whole book was perfect, I wouldn’t change a thing. I loved how we got to explore their relationship at the same time as them, how we got to see it evolve from being an arranged marriage, to companionship, and finally love. One thing I love as a reader is being able to enjoy the couple actually together for a little while, and not have them get together just at the end. To me that’s frustrating because I always end up wanting more, to see them happy as a couple, to read about it some more, and Zoey gave me that. I absolutely adore that in a story and this one didn’t disappoint. As for the storyline itself, once again, Zoey didn’t miss. I love a good romance, of course, but I also enjoy a good plot. As I’ve said, I was hooked from the start, be it for the romance or the storyline. I thought it was super interesting, from the way Zoey describes the Four Quadrants and how everything works, to why Gemma has to marry, and why the Kylorr is interested in her in the first place. And when she gets to Laras, Azur’s home, I was done for. Zoey describes everything so vividly without it being too much, and I could picture myself there. As you can probably tell from this never-ending review, I really really loved this book. And something I haven’t talked about, is how freaking hot it was. Like, blood-sucking-while-having-sex-hot. Anyway, it was HOT, the angst, the sexual tension, the world building, everything, I loved everything and can’t recommend it enough. Please, go read it and thank me later. ["

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November 1, 2022 Verified Purchase

Peggy M

A great start of a new series!

"4,5 stars I loved the ‘Horde Kings of Dakkar’ series of this writer so I was very curious and excited about her new book series. It took me some time to get into the story, I found the beginning a bit complicated with all the new names, characters and new alien species to remember. (Which is normal when you start a new series). Yet once I got into the story, it really held my attention and at the end I was very sorry when the story was finished. I can’t wait to read the next one! Gemma Hara is a 30 year old human woman. She’s the eldest of three daughters. Since the dead of her mother a few years back, her father is losing himself in alcohol and gambling so Gemma had to take over the business part of their mines, the household and handle the many debts of her father. She wants to protect her sisters so she has kept all their problems a secret from them. But no matter how hard she tries, Gemma can’t stop her father from gambling and losing more money. To save them all from the debt collectors Gemma makes a deal to marriage a stranger, a Kylorr, to save her younger sisters and their home. The Kylorrs are one of the most feared alien races, nobody knows a lot of them except that they drink blood and they are dangerous warriors. Once you go to their planet you never come back. So Gemma doesn’t really know what to expect of her new husband and her new home. However, soon after the wedding it becomes clear that her new husband married her for revenge! Still Gemma tries to make the best of a bad situation and slowly she’s making friends. She loves her new home but she also worries a lot about her sisters and father. And then there’s her new husband who makes her tremble with need every time he drinks of her blood. With each day that passes she gets to know him better and something special is growing between them. Can they make their marriage real or will the past and Azur’s thirst for revenge destroy everything? I enjoyed ‘Desire in his blood’ although the story was a bit of a contradiction. After reading the blurb I expected a more ‘dark’ story but although it started that way, the story slowly changed into a ‘sweet’ read. I liked it but because of the many references during the story that the Kylorr were a race of dangerous warriors I expected a bit more fighting in the story. And there weren’t any except one fight. I expected more action in the story. The main characters Gemma and Azur were wonderful. Azur is a Kylorr (he has grey skin, black wings, horns and fangs). He’s the eldest and has 4 younger brothers (Kythel, Lucen, Thaine and Kaldur) and one sister Kalia. He married Gemma out of revenge (you will have to read the story to know more about it) so in the beginning he was very cold and distant towards Gemma. As the head of the house Kaalium, he had a lot of responsibility, especially now there was tension at the borders. The last thing that Azur expected was to fall for his new wife. You could really feel his inner fight between his feelings for Gemma and his big plan for revenge. The fact that they were blood mates made the situation worse for him. That made their bond more special and turned him from a distant husband into a very possessive one. I loved it! I loved Gemma! She was such a great character. She was mature, intelligent, responsible and strong. I really appreciated that she didn’t make a drama of her bad situation but instead she tried to make the best of it. She was always positive and a really hard worker. Although the sexual chemistry between Gemma and Azur was present from the beginning of their marriage, the story was a bit of a slow burn. It took some time to get to the first sex scene but once they had sex, the story became very hot and steamy. But don’t worry, Azur made sure that the biting scenes during the story were intense too. In the story you got both POV’s. The secondary characters were interesting too. Azur’s sister Kalia was a great character. She had a big heart and although she tried not to, she became a great friend to Gemma. The people of Azur’s household were wonderful too. I hope some of them will get their own story too. We also got to meet Gemma’s sisters Piper and Mira and Azur’s brothers. I can’t wait to read their stories! Azur’s home planet was fascinating and I can’t wait to learn more about it. There was a little suspense in the story but it was more in the background. What really is going on is still a mystery. The writer Zoey Draven gave us a new fascinating alien series to enjoy. I can’t wait to read the next story. ["

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November 16, 2022 Verified Purchase