Stolen From A Dream LGBT, Fantasy, Religion
September 16th 2023
Kindle
276
Amazon
Amazon Link: amazon
“The Gods of Belteros were not a kindly lot; they were petty, jealous and cruel.”
All his life, Pelthiel and his sister, Leithia, had steered clear of the gods, the secrets of their bloodline as well as the warning uttered by their mother prompting their decision. The last thing they need is for the Gods to discover their truth and the extent of their magic.
However, when Pelthiel and Leithia save a stranger from drowning, they are forced to reveal their magic. Even worse, Pel develops feelings for Belthin who is no ordinary man. He is the chosen sacrifice of Utfer, one of the Gods, and the city of Nagir and its warriors would kill anyone who keeps him from them.
Even worse, Leithia and Pelthiel discover something about Belthin that could tear their entire world apart. Something far worse than the armies of Nagir and the wrath of Utfer is coming for them. The Gods have seen them, and they are coming.
But sometimes, even the Gods are powerless against one man.
Review By Xanthe
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Amazon Link: amazon
So, it’s hard to write a review when there is nothing wrong with a book, but it’s also not one that I enjoyed. You know, ‘ I’ve gotten this far, I need to see how it ends’.
We start with Pethiel and his older sister, Leithia, living together on an island, away from the mainland to stay out of sight of the gods as warned by their mother who passed away. This is working well for them until they rescue Belthin from drowning. This turns their quiet life on its head with no choice but to face what is coming, head on.
The romance of the story felt quite flat to me. Intimacy and declarations of love happened pretty much immediately, with little interaction between Pethiel and Belthin. I did like the strong sibling bond that Pethiel and Leithia shared, having relied on each other for so long. The gods that come into the story are awful people and the more we interact with them across the story, my view of them only gets worse as they cannot seem to learn from anything that happens to or around them
Now, the prologue of the story starts quite intensely with an escape and a sacrifice, so I was expecting more from the story overall but we seem to get that maybe once or twice per section. Yes, there are two interludes that break the story up into three sections. The time between the first and second is around five years, I think, whereas the third follows straight on from the second. Section one ends on quite a literal bang before moving along to find Pethiel living on a different island, alone except for five others he has stopped from leaving for reasons only known to him. He lives with guilt and grief and an enormous amount of power that the gods do not trust but also want to end him in revenge.
We get to know one of those stuck on the island with Pethiel quite well and he has his own stuff to deal with, apart from not being able to leave. I understand the fantasy/god aspect of the story but it all got a little complicated in dealing with one person who takes on aspects of a god. More betrayal, loss and anger follows as section two fades into three.
Without giving much away, how do people move on from such life changing experiences? How do they interact with those who didn’t go through all of those intense highs and lows with you? This part I enjoyed as I am always interested to read an epilogue to see how characters get on with their life after ‘The End’, which this feels a little bit like. We do get an ending to the story and for Pethiel, which I believe is a HEA for him.
The author has done well at world building. Creating this world that has a new set of gods with people who have different types of magic. It does relate a little to the real world in that some blindly follow religion and use their god as the reason for their actions but a human sacrifice, to me, is not a good enough reason for that on any level. There is also a lot of strong emotions felt by the MC’s through the story, especially Pethiel, which was written well.
I always believe that everyone should always at least give a story a go, unless it has trigger/content that’s not for you or is a no go trope, and I think the same for Stolen From A Dream. It may have worked out to be a book for me but it may be for you or someone you know.