Series: THE AMOVEO LEGEND SERIES
Plot Type: SMR
Ratings: V4; S4; H3
Publisher and Titles: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Unleashed (10/2011)
Untouched (4/2012)
"Undenied" (e-short story, 10/2012)
Untamed (11/2012)
Undone (5/2013)
Unclaimed (12/2013)
This post was revised and updated on 12/4/12 to include a review of the first short story and the third novel in the series: "Undenied" and Untamed. Those reviews appear first, followed by an overview of the world-building and a review of books 1 and 2:
PROTOCOL FOR VILLAINS: In order to prevent spoilers, every time I mention the villain in each of these books, I will use the gender-neutral pronoun "it" or "that" rather than "he" or "she" in order to keep the identity a complete secret. In some of the books, if you know the gender of the villain you can easily guess the identity. (I hate spoilers!)
E-Short Story: "Undenied"
As of the date of this posting (12/4/12), you can click HERE for a free download of this story at amazon.com. This is the mating story of Boris Zankoff, an Amoveo Bengal tiger and Lillian Cordero, a psychic human palm reader. When Lillian arrives in New Orleans without a place to stay, someone recommends Boris, who rents her a room behind his bar. (Boris is the brother of the female tiger shifter who was killed in book 2.) Lillian has dreamed about tigers all her life (she even has a tiger tattoo on her back), and when she sees the snarling tiger picture over the door of Boris's bar, she feels like she has come home. When Lillian meets Boris, his voice sounds like the voice of her dream tiger. Then, she reads Boris's palm and sees visions of shape-shifting tigers, and when she touches him, they both are overcome by the usual waves of lust felt by Amoveo mates. To top things off, she hears his voice in her mind. This is all a big shock to Lillian, since she doesn't yet know anything about the Amoveo or the mating destiny. But it doesn't take her long to sort things out, and before they have known each other for 24 hours, the two have officially mated. (I believe that this is the fastest true-mating I've come across so far in all my reading of paranormal romances.)
Of course, there is a villain in the story to make sure that the road to love isn't totally smooth. This villain is a purist who wants Boris to join their side in the coming civil war within the Amoveo, and that villain is not happy to discover that Boris's mate is a human. This is a very short story with an HEA for the happy couple but no resolution to the conflict with the Purist. If you want to get a taste for the series, this is a good—and free—way to do it.
BOOK 3: Untamed
The third book tells the love story of the peevish and pretentious gyrfalcon shifter, William Fleury, who is a friend of Malcolm and Dante. In the first two books, the buttoned-down William was a constant thorn in the sides of the soul-mate couples as he disdainfully looked down on his friends for behaving so foolishly around their mates. Now it's time for William to be humbled by a mate of his own—a sassy and independent hybrid (human mother, Amoveo father) who takes one look at what she calls William's "bossy pants" ways and runs as fast as she can in the other direction.
The bulk of the book follows William and his destined mate, Layla Nickelsen, along the extremely rocky road to their eventual HEA. Layla was the photographer on Kerry's photo-shoot in New Orleans in the previous book, and as soon as she and William met, that old familiar soul-mate electricity started simmering between them. Since then, William has been pursuing Layla in the dream realm, but she has been hiding from him, refusing to face him. As the story opens, William has had enough of Layla's blocking him in her dreams, and he decides to face her down in person at her childhood home, where she thinks she has hidden herself away from him.
Layla was raised on a rural farm by Rosie, a human, who also raised two other Amoveo hybrids, twins Raife and Tatiana. Layla is a cheetah, and Raife and Tatiana are timber wolves. The twins have been able to shift since they hit puberty, but Layla has not yet been able to shift yet and it makes her feel inferior. All three feel abandoned by their parents and have been told little about Amoveo history and culture. One thing they have been warned about, though, is that they will each probably succumb to the Amoveos' predestined-mate tradition, and that scares Layla. She wants to be in complete control of her own life, and she doesn't need any snooty pureblood grabbing her up and trying to control her. Layla holds on to this attitude almost to the very end of the story, even though William does his best to get her to understand that's not what mating is all about. I have to say that even though I could understand Layla's initial reticence, I got sick of her anguished interior monologues (all very self-centered) and her constant whining that "I have to be me." William is actually a pretty nice guy in this story, without all the sneering and posturing we saw in the first two books. He is very patient and understanding with Layla, trying not to push her into anything and keeping her protected in the least alpha-ish way that he can manage.
The villain doesn't show up until well into the story, and it's fairly obvious who it is. Needless to say, the Amoveo boys kick into action and protect Layla and her family, so all's well there. The real conflict in this book goes back to the series story arc with the good-guy Amoveos squaring off against the intensely bigoted Purists. The situation gets tense and then explodes in this book, changing everything for all of the clans and forcing each clan member to take a side in the dispute, which is turning into a civil war.
This plot runs its course in much the same way that as the first two books, with the building of the angst-filled romance and the interference by various villains who try to make life difficult for the starring couple. At least in this book the heroine already knows that she is a hybrid Amoveo, so we don't have to deal with the shock and awe that we had with heroines 1 and 2 when they found out that they were shifters. This heroine, though, is so obnoxious in her self-centeredness, that her bad attitude gives all her scenes an uncomfortable, caustic edge.
Book 4 will tell the love story of pure-blooded Amoveo bear-shifter Marianna Coltari (Dante's sister) and Pete Castor, a human retired police officer who works for Dante's security firm.
WORLD-BUILDING
In this world, the Amoveo are a species of shape shifters divided into ten animal clans (e.g., eagle, bear, fox, coyote, lion, tiger) who live in the mortal world, but are mostly unknown to humans. Only two groups of humans are aware of their existence: the Caedo, fanatic bigots who want to kill all Amoveo, and members of the Vasullus family, who have protected the Amoveo from harm and discovery for centuries. The Caedo are all descendants of Victor Caedo, a human man who was in love with an Amoveo woman. When that woman spurned him for her Amoveo mate, Caedo followed them and saw them shift into their animal forms. His love turned to hate, and the Caedo have been hunting down the Amoveo ever since.
The Amoveo are led by their Prince, Richard Muldavi, and by their Council, which is made up of one representative from each clan and two members of the Vasullus family. For the most part, the Amoveo find their mates within their own species, but their are exceptions to this, and the focus of the first book is on one of these exceptions.
The Amoveo believed that each one of them has a predestined mate. Generally, the mates find one another in the dream realm first and then get together physically after that. An Amoveo who doesn't complete the mating destiny by his or her thirtieth birthday begins to lose his or her powers, including the ability to shift. Eventually, all powers fade away and the Amoveo becomes human—a fate worse than death.
Along with the Caedo fanatics, another villainous group emerges in book 1 and continues to threaten our heroes and heroines: the Purists. These folks are as bigoted as the Caedo, but what they are opposed to is intermarriage between the Amoveo and humans. Apparently, some of the Amoveo males have been impregnating human women over the years, unknown to the rest of their clans. Many of those children—called hybrids—are now growing up and having mating dreams with pure-blood Amoveo. The Purists want to put an end to all of these hybrid offspring.
BOOK 1: Unleashed
As the story begins begins, Samantha Logan is leaving New York City and heading back to her childhood home on the oceanfront in small-town Rhode Island. Samantha tried to make it as an artist in NYC, but she hasn't had much success, and now she has started to have dreams of home—dreams that include a sexy man whose face she cannot see. So...off she goes, leaving an angry ex-boyfriend in her wake. Waiting for her in Rhode Island is Malcolm Drew, who knows that Samantha is his one true mate. He also knows that Samantha has never heard of the Amoveo and that she has absolutely no idea that she herself has latent shape-shifting abilities. Here is yet another paranormal fiction heroine who was orphaned early in life and is totally unaware that both of her parents had supernatural powers. In this case, Samantha's father was an Amoveo wolf, and her mother was a powerful human psychic, so Samantha is a hybrid who has not yet manifested her powers—always a prime target for the villains of paranormal fiction.
E-Short Story: "Undenied"
Of course, there is a villain in the story to make sure that the road to love isn't totally smooth. This villain is a purist who wants Boris to join their side in the coming civil war within the Amoveo, and that villain is not happy to discover that Boris's mate is a human. This is a very short story with an HEA for the happy couple but no resolution to the conflict with the Purist. If you want to get a taste for the series, this is a good—and free—way to do it.
BOOK 3: Untamed
The bulk of the book follows William and his destined mate, Layla Nickelsen, along the extremely rocky road to their eventual HEA. Layla was the photographer on Kerry's photo-shoot in New Orleans in the previous book, and as soon as she and William met, that old familiar soul-mate electricity started simmering between them. Since then, William has been pursuing Layla in the dream realm, but she has been hiding from him, refusing to face him. As the story opens, William has had enough of Layla's blocking him in her dreams, and he decides to face her down in person at her childhood home, where she thinks she has hidden herself away from him.
Layla was raised on a rural farm by Rosie, a human, who also raised two other Amoveo hybrids, twins Raife and Tatiana. Layla is a cheetah, and Raife and Tatiana are timber wolves. The twins have been able to shift since they hit puberty, but Layla has not yet been able to shift yet and it makes her feel inferior. All three feel abandoned by their parents and have been told little about Amoveo history and culture. One thing they have been warned about, though, is that they will each probably succumb to the Amoveos' predestined-mate tradition, and that scares Layla. She wants to be in complete control of her own life, and she doesn't need any snooty pureblood grabbing her up and trying to control her. Layla holds on to this attitude almost to the very end of the story, even though William does his best to get her to understand that's not what mating is all about. I have to say that even though I could understand Layla's initial reticence, I got sick of her anguished interior monologues (all very self-centered) and her constant whining that "I have to be me." William is actually a pretty nice guy in this story, without all the sneering and posturing we saw in the first two books. He is very patient and understanding with Layla, trying not to push her into anything and keeping her protected in the least alpha-ish way that he can manage.
The villain doesn't show up until well into the story, and it's fairly obvious who it is. Needless to say, the Amoveo boys kick into action and protect Layla and her family, so all's well there. The real conflict in this book goes back to the series story arc with the good-guy Amoveos squaring off against the intensely bigoted Purists. The situation gets tense and then explodes in this book, changing everything for all of the clans and forcing each clan member to take a side in the dispute, which is turning into a civil war.
This plot runs its course in much the same way that as the first two books, with the building of the angst-filled romance and the interference by various villains who try to make life difficult for the starring couple. At least in this book the heroine already knows that she is a hybrid Amoveo, so we don't have to deal with the shock and awe that we had with heroines 1 and 2 when they found out that they were shifters. This heroine, though, is so obnoxious in her self-centeredness, that her bad attitude gives all her scenes an uncomfortable, caustic edge.
Book 4 will tell the love story of pure-blooded Amoveo bear-shifter Marianna Coltari (Dante's sister) and Pete Castor, a human retired police officer who works for Dante's security firm.
In this world, the Amoveo are a species of shape shifters divided into ten animal clans (e.g., eagle, bear, fox, coyote, lion, tiger) who live in the mortal world, but are mostly unknown to humans. Only two groups of humans are aware of their existence: the Caedo, fanatic bigots who want to kill all Amoveo, and members of the Vasullus family, who have protected the Amoveo from harm and discovery for centuries. The Caedo are all descendants of Victor Caedo, a human man who was in love with an Amoveo woman. When that woman spurned him for her Amoveo mate, Caedo followed them and saw them shift into their animal forms. His love turned to hate, and the Caedo have been hunting down the Amoveo ever since.
The Amoveo believed that each one of them has a predestined mate. Generally, the mates find one another in the dream realm first and then get together physically after that. An Amoveo who doesn't complete the mating destiny by his or her thirtieth birthday begins to lose his or her powers, including the ability to shift. Eventually, all powers fade away and the Amoveo becomes human—a fate worse than death.
As the story begins begins, Samantha Logan is leaving New York City and heading back to her childhood home on the oceanfront in small-town Rhode Island. Samantha tried to make it as an artist in NYC, but she hasn't had much success, and now she has started to have dreams of home—dreams that include a sexy man whose face she cannot see. So...off she goes, leaving an angry ex-boyfriend in her wake. Waiting for her in Rhode Island is Malcolm Drew, who knows that Samantha is his one true mate. He also knows that Samantha has never heard of the Amoveo and that she has absolutely no idea that she herself has latent shape-shifting abilities. Here is yet another paranormal fiction heroine who was orphaned early in life and is totally unaware that both of her parents had supernatural powers. In this case, Samantha's father was an Amoveo wolf, and her mother was a powerful human psychic, so Samantha is a hybrid who has not yet manifested her powers—always a prime target for the villains of paranormal fiction.
The plot has the usual two strands: the romance, first and foremost, and, secondarily, the threats to the heroine by various villains, not all of them Caedo fanatics. The identities of the real villains are telegraphed early on in the story, but the author throws in a red herring to try to throw us off the track. Unfortunately, this story line follows an entirely predictable path, from beginning to end, so I doubt that you will be fooled. The hero and heroine are the stereotypical paranormal romance leads: strong, handsome, arrogant male and feisty but fragile, heroine with really low self-esteem. The villains are also stereotypical—bad-to-the-core bigots who have no redeeming qualities. Here is one of them as it admires its big black crossbow and plots its next move: "This was a graceful weapon. Exactly the kind of weapon one of God's chosen would wield...He was a chosen one. He was sent to save the earth and save the humans from annihilation. He knew that one arrow in the wing wouldn't kill it...Best thing of all, it would suffer. A smile spread across his face at the very thought of it." (p. 197) You can almost hear it laughing to itself, "Bwaaah, Haah, Haah," like a cartoon villain. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Unleashed.
The mythology for the series is inventive, but the plot and the characters (at least in book 1) are genre retreads.
BOOK 2: Untouched
The heroine of this book is Kerry Smithson, Samantha's BFF from childhood (from book 1). Kerry is a gorgeous super-model who can't bear to touch anyone because her raw psychic abilities would force her to read their emotions. As the story opens, the only person she can touch without pain is Samantha, and when they touch, Kerry visualizes a gray wolf—but she doesn't tell Samantha about that and she doesn't have any idea what it means. When Kerry heads to New Orleans on a modeling assignment, Malcolm and Samantha hire a bodyguard to accompany her because Kerry's crazy cousin (from book 1) is still lurking around somewhere. That bodyguard is Malcolm's sexy cousin, Dante Coltari, a fox shifter who has been giving Kerry hot shivers ever since she first laid eyes on him. When Kerry discovers that she can touch Dante painlessly and that his touch actually feels good, she can hardly believe it. The story follows the quick development of their romance and mating, along with Kerry's introduction to her Amoveo heritage. The secondary story line involves a mysterious villain that calls itself "the Punisher." Humphreys uses an old horror story device here as the Punisher always refers to itself by that term—never by name—so we don't know who it is until the big climactic scene. I have to say that I was surprised by the Punisher's identity, but I was disappointed at the stereotypical creep that Humphreys created. Just as in book 1, it had the cardboard quality of a cartoon villain.
The falling-in-love part of the story happens too quickly, with little or no angst, and the couple's lovey-dovey behavior gets to be cloying. Once again, the heroine accepts the whole idea of Oh-my-God-I'm-an-animal-shifter without much fuss. So no drama there, either. The only drama in the book is really melodrama, with the overblown antics of the over-the-top villain and with huge family secrets coming out of the woodwork at the very last moment. All in all, this is a mostly predictable story, except for the identity of the villain.
BOOK 2: Untouched
Thanks for taking the time to review Unleashed. I hope you'll find Untouched more to your liking.
ReplyDeleteAll the Best,
Sara