The Colubrii: Awakening Stories From the Mist
Paranormal Romance
Createspace
November 26, 2012
664
Malandra Trent is a woman trapped in a life that is not her own. The ward of the powerful Joseph Weston, every aspect of her life is monitored and controlled. She longs for a normal life, a normal relationship. She feels there is no way out until an accident at an animal shelter changes everything...and what she gets is far from normal…including what she is. A dark, sensual man enters her life and learns she is so much more than she could have ever suspected. He becomes her teacher, her lover, and her world.
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Malandra Trent, known to her friends as Mally, lost both of her parents when she was an infant and has been raised by her guardian, Joseph Weston a very rich, very powerful man who controls every aspect of Mally’s life. She has not known what it is to be loved or hugged since Joseph is as cold as he is rich. She works in his company, wears the clothes he wants, and when she finally demands to live in her own apartment, it is picked out for her, by him. Like any woman who has been abused, she is afraid to displease him; when she apologizes it is on her hands and knees. Little by little Joseph has broken Mally’s spirit not with physical abuse, but with control.
Dating is something Mally gave up, since Joseph and his son Vincent manage to destroy any chance she has for a relationship. But, the one thing that keeps her going is her job at a local animal shelter run by her friend Nibbs. The day that Mally looked in the shelter’s windows and asked about working there was the day that would change her life. Although Joseph does not like her working at the shelter, he gives her that little bit of freedom. The day Malloy is bitten by a snake and shows no ill effects, Nibbs and her boyfriend realize that she is more than what she seems, she is one of them, a Colubra. Not just a Colubra, which is a species of part human and part serpent but the Chosen One. She is the one chosen to be their leader’s mate, the only one that he could touch without causing death.
When Venom, the leader of the Colubra meets Mally he knows instantly that she is his, she wears his mark. Venom has searched for her for two hundred years. She is way past the time of her awakening, and shows no signs of change. Joseph has had her tested every three months for years, has something been done to her? Can Venom and Nibbs get Mally to accept her role as Venom’s mate, and, in doing so, leave Joseph behind? How did Joseph become her guardian? How did he get her away from her parents?
We learn that Joseph is also more than he seems, he is a shifter, a Colubrii’s only known enemy. As a shifter, why has he kept Mally alive all these years? What are his plans for her? What are the shifters? What do they turn into?
This is a six hundred-page novel, and not once did I become bored or feel it was dragging. I have read many long novels but usually at some point, you run into a moment or two in the story that is boring; that is definitely not the case with this book. This is the second in the series, but they do not have to be read in any order. Now that I have finished this book, I can’t wait to read the first one and the rest to come. The author’s character development is amazing; the story revolves around Mally and her awakening. I enjoyed watching the relationship between Venom and Mally develop and reading about a species I never read about before.
I am sure there are those that could really do justice to a review about this series explain it in words I may not have but what I can say without hesitation is: I loved it and would give it more stars if I could.
*Honorable Mention: Best Paranormal Romance – PRG 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards
