Review: Storm Born by Richelle Mead

Storm Born by Richelle Mead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants...

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy—one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her...

I loved loved LOVED this book! After reading Mead's Vampire Academy series and Bloodlines books, I wanted to get straight into one of her adult series. And Storm Born (Dark Swan #1) did not disappoint me in anyway.

What made me choose this book over her succubus series was the blurb; it's compelling and it grabbed me straight away.

The characters were brilliant. They all had flaws which made them seem so realistic--something which is hugely important!

I must admit that the Fairy King was one of my favourite characters, even though, initially, I didn't want to like him. Guess I just couldn't help it...

The first page had me hooked. Seriously, read it! That is one hilarious opening, very unusual and it basically made me think: 'Woah. I've GOT to read this.'

And this book had plenty of subtle humour in it too. The writing dropped with personality, and with it being written from Eugenie's perspective, by the end, I just felt like I knew this character SO well.

For me, Richelle Mead proved herself to be brilliant at characterisation with her YA novels, and it appears that's she is just as good with characterisation in adult novels too. I can't stress this enough: her characterisation skills are just amazing.

One thing I will just say (having just mentioned her YA books) is that this novel is aimed at adults. There's adult content in here. And lots of it. But, although it revealed stuff and moved the plot on, the story doesn't really revolve around sex.

Well, actually, it does, seeing as how nearly every male character wants to sleep with the main character and father her first child, due to the prophecy... I suppose, what I mean is is that sex in this novel is only used where it's necessary, and this novel doesn't only revolve around sex. It's still an action-packed fantasy novel, just with sex in it too. I suppose, in relation to the action, there aren't really that many sexually-explicit scenes, but sex is still a big part of this novel, so not for younger readers.

The plot was well thought-out, with sub plots and twists cleverly woven in, just as with all of the Richelle Mead novels that I've read.

This was one of those books that I just HAD to finish. I literally could not put it down, and I NEED to get the next book!

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