by Linsey Hall
Series: Mythean Arcana #1
Pub. Date: Nov. 10, 2014
Publisher: Bonnie Doon Press
Pages: 345
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Sultry Scale:
As chaos looms, a warrior queen is reborn
Bookish academic Diana Laughton has been having terrible dreams. Dreams of battle, dreams of blood... dreams so vivid she's living them day and night. When demons invade her quiet life, she wonders if she's going mad. Or if perhaps she's remembering a past life she had no idea existed...
In the midst of betrayal, he must protect her
Mythean Guardian Cadan Trinovante loved and betrayed Britain's warrior queen Boudica two millennia ago. Now he's tasked with protecting mortals whose lives affect the fate of humanity. His latest assignment is Boudica herself, reincarnated as a woman with no idea of her past or her fated future. Though in the irresistible form of Diana Laughton, it's possible Cadan has once again met his match...
To succumb to seduction could prove fatal
Thrown together in a shadowy world that exists alongside our own, Diana and Cadan must fight not only the demonic forces that want Diana dead, but a past and a passion that have lasted centuries. Their desire could be deadly. But as evil from the underworld unites against them, their only hope could be each other.
So this was an original storyline, you don't see many books that feature Boudica, Celtic Warrior Queen, especially as the main character. So I was excited for this story, as I am a big fan of mythology-based books.
The book starts off in Central England, AD 60, on the eve of the Roman conquest of Britain. This gives us the backstory so we know who our main characters will be. We get to see a little of Boudica to jog our memory as to who she was as I don't recall that we spent any amount of time learning about her when I was in school. (Though I did know who she was, so I must have learned it somewhere. The only other book I can remember her character appearing in was The White Mare, but I knew of her before I read that one.) As this is the first book of the series, it has some world building, but not overly much. Basically we learn the bare minimum about the characters we meet and the Praesidium, a university for the mytheans that is located at the base of Arthur's Seat in Scotland.
Okay so once we have our backstory, we jump ahead nearly 2,000 years and meet Cadan (again) who has been made an immortal mythean guard. He is a downtrodden soul, feeling like he failed his family and Boudica because he was unable to protect them during the war. I liked Cadan, but he used the word "lassie" way too much. It came off as weird when I don't recall that he spoke with any heavy Scottish/Irish dialect. Cadan is given a new assignment by Walter (head of the Praesidium?), to guard Boudica reincarnated while she completes the task for which she has been reincarnated. Boudica was reincarnated as Diana, but she does not have the knowledge of her prior life. This must be triggered by some event, which gives us the first part of the story. Then she must complete her task, and then she will die. Sounds fun, huh?
Unfortunately, I was in a bit of a reading slump while I was reading this one and it was not holding my attention. It took me 4 days to finish it, and that is unheard of for me. I am a 1 book per day type person. I just couldn't get swept up in the plot like I wanted to. I think part of the reason is that I really didn't care for Diana. She was hard-headed, reckless and bitchy. And once Diana was paired with Esha, a soulceress, the dislike grew even more. These two just rubbed me the wrong way. But I like the mythological theme, and the story was original, so I'm not gonna say that I didn't like it. I did - I just wish I could've focused on it a bit more. This was the author's debut novel, so I think the series will get better as she goes along.
Mythean Arcana Series
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| My Review | TBR | TBR | TBR | Review Coming June 6 |
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