Wounded, Volume 1, Amy Lane Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews Genre: Sci-fi and Fantasy Strangely, although this is book one, you really need to read the earlier book Vulnerable to understand all that goes on. I’d seen this one for review and when looking up info came across Vulnerable, read the sample and was so blown away by the story I had to buy it ( wow – with my own money - even though I’d a slew of books to read!), and read it before starting this! Its a fabulous series, full of the best of the supernatural world, vampires, shape changers, elves and all sorts of strange people living hidden in plain sight in the “normal” world. I love the way Fae in a book lets in so much beautiful fantasy, the way it can be so magical and unexpected. Cory has now become part of it, very unexpectedly, and is in a kind of limbo. At the end of the last book her lover Adrian died – I was gutted, heartbroken for her. I hate when things like that happen and yet...I also love it, it shows that there’s going to be unexpected events, that the author isn’t scared to kill off major characters and makes the books unpredictable. I have read series where it didn’t work, where I was put off the stories that followed, but here Cory also has Green, and that keeps that continuity going. There both grieving, along with others of Green’s people, for Adrian and for others that died in Vulnerable. Now they need to move on, life continued despite all the grief in the world and there are people depending on them as leaders. Cory goes off to college with Renny, returning when breaks allow. Then something huge happens, and they need to regroup, to get back together, to defeat yet another enemy, but away from home territory. Their grief shows, they’re thought weak, and to an extent it had weakened them. Green and his seconds have always welcomed everyone, unlike the other Sidhe leaders, and it makes them stronger when those they’ve so long supported are now able to support them.
Its another great read, taking in battles and dangers, learning more about Green and Adrian's past, bringing in more people to the protection Green offers. I love the way that the dangers are worked in, caught in to the everyday lives of Green and his group, so the personal touches and personalities can really shine. I don’t want to watch from afar but get right into the story, and knowing the characters and their issues brings me into it best. I feel I’m there with them, scared and wanting things to go right, happy and elated when they do. There’s sex here – lots of it. Its not graphic, but it is frequent and its not just m/f but m/m too and ménage. That’s fine by me but I know some people don’t like it. I feel it works well in the story, that without it things wouldn’t have such clean explanations. Sometimes sex comes into a story just for titillation it feels, but here its integral, a needed part of the story. I love too the way that Officer Max has been drawn somewhat reluctantly into the group, even though he’s human. It ends on a natural point, but showing that way for the next book ( s) I just wish they were out now!
Stars: Five, a fabulous read for fantasy lovers. ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers