“Of course” and many other bridges are inconsistently punctuated, sometimes with commas sometimes without. But the weak story is combined weak, unpolished writing. The romance is very familiar and jumps from hate to lust to love quickly even for this lengthy novella. The major story arc concerns Gerrod’s softening not just toward Abigail but toward life in general.

Seeing him fight the wraiths stirs something in her. Abigail has always thought Gerrod has disliked her and she has tried to stay away from him.

Gerrod does not want to respond to her for she is too weak to survive in his realm and his people would not accept him taking her as a mate. It is akin to taking forest gremlins to bed, but Abigail is able to speak telepathically to Gerrod she can tune into his frequency and stir his mating frenzy. Vampires aren’t supposed to mate with humans. I think this is billed as an erotic romance but it wasn’t any spicier or more explicit that the traditionally published works (or kinkier because what could be kinkier than a vampire who tongues the flesh of tangerines pretending it is his mate’s sex, see for exampleWings of Fire) At one point, Gerrod mentions that Abigail tastes like rosemary (the characters all have smells in the Ascension series which practically translates into “by their smell you shall know them”). Mastyr Vampire Gerrod is the ruler of Merhaine, one of the Nine Realms and he has an attraction for Abigail Kirkland, a human baker. The wraith pairs are the evil that the faeries, vampires, trolls and other paranormal creatures fight. The second realm is the paranormal one with wraith pairs that wreak havoc on the Nine Realms of North America. There are two parallel realms as in the Ascension series.

While not a part of the Ascension world, this story borrows heavily from elements contained in the Ascension world (as if it is almost Ascension fan fiction) There is a combination of poor copyediting along with poor content editing which made for a confusing and stuttering read. Unfortunately, the quality of the writing in this self published novella (or published with the help of an agency) is just not as strong as it is in the traditionally published series. I am a big fan of the Guardians of Ascension series and I was excited to see another volume from you despite it being in a different world. Jane D Reviews Paranormal / self-published / vampires 4 Comments

Wings of fire by caris roane