I was rooting for them the whole time and I understand why things turned out this way, even though it hurts. And, of course, this book relies heavily on my Least Favorite Writing Technique of All Time: having characters keep secrets from one another for no reason except ~drama. I’ve been allowing myself to be distracted by all of this because it keeps me from thinking about Elora. Let me start by saying that there is absolutely no way that I could have possibly guessed that this was her first novel.

I really wanted to like this book, specially after so many amazing reviews, but unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. Not to mention, these characters can't seem to keep their mouths closed and are airing dirty laundry to each other behind the scenes. His character is so well written, you could feel his emotions right on the surface, simmering under all those powerful, sword wielding, horseback riding, warrior muscles. The jerk lied by omission to the mc early on about something extremely, extremely important thus proving himself to be manipulative trash, imo. This should have been right up my alley: a fantasy romance featuring a heroine who is 30+ woman with a child and the hero is a second chance romance type situation.I especially loved seeing Dewalt, he was just a great character and I hope to see more of him in the future books. It didn’t seem to grip me at all and I feel like her trying to save her daughter was kind of overruled by her relationship with Rain. If my kid was kidnapped by an opposing party, in (almost) the beginning of a possible war, you bet your ass I'll be doing everything in my power to get her back.

I wish we had some more moments of them all together interacting, but hey, this is slated for a 5/6 book series so I’m assuming we’ll get more.

Now, Emmeline and Rainier must work together to find the Beloved—to save the girl from the Folterrans and fulfill the prophecy of peace—while they both battle feelings of remorse, grief, and heartbreak, trying to ignore the heated desire and simmering attraction between them that never left. Pages upon pages of over explaining, over killing and repeating herself to the point where I mostly skimmed this book and still understood the plot perfectly. I understand she needed to heal and accept the love that was surrounding her and I love that journey for her.