Fury’s Kiss by Nicola R White
Released: August 1, 2015
Paranormal Romance
Self Published
Reviewed by May
Hanging out with her bartender friend on an eerily quiet night, everything was business as usual for Tara until Jackson Byrne walked in the door. Immediately attracted to the handsome man, Tara is stung when he has no interest in her and blows her off. Not one to be discouraged for long, she strikes up a conversation with a random stranger on her way out the door. When that conversation turns into a physical threat, Tara discovers that she’s a lot stronger than she ever knew.
There’s an ancient Fury living in her head and changes in her life are coming fast and furious. She’s got new growing capabilities, a burning lust for Jackson, and a mystery to solve as well.
Being a Fury meant I had responsibilities to live up to, whether I wanted them or not. And I owed it to myself and to the little girl who was depending on me, to figure out who was after us.
I really liked the set-up for this book and when starting a new series like this I love walking with the main character through their changes and discovery as they figure out that magic exists, that mythical beasts could be real, and so forth. The big problem here is that this felt like two different approaches cobbled into one book. Is this a PNR or a UF? It was both, and yet it was neither. The other problem for me was Jackson. He didn’t work for me at all and I found his constant judgement and negativity really hard to overcome in such a short period. In short, I didn’t believe he could go from such a hater to true love as he did here.
Back to the story- on the one side you had the urban fantasy focus where we have a Fury (the spirit of the fury + human host) learning her power, adjusting to a new reality, and solving a mystery that has many people dead and her being stalked.
On the other you have Jackson who really wants nothing to do with Tara or her weirdness yet is totally attracted to her. There could be a romance here, but for most of the book he is oddly resentful and angry with her… for being who she is. Then he seems angry that they have a lusty connection but he can’t seem to help himself. In other words the romance was well, not romantic.
This book would have been better off if more attention was given to the mystery/mythical elements of the story and growth for Tara, and the romance either a minor role or a “hea-for now” type ending. As it was the romance element felt like it was getting in the way of this character finding her true amazing potential. Every time she could have been developing as a strong female Jackson would pop in threatening to call the police or being in the way. I really would have liked her to have more space – or to have found either a knowledgeable or more supportive leading man.
I did really enjoy the writer’s overall style, and I really liked the cast of supporting characters from the bartender friend to the roommate and the elderly neighbor. There were a lot of strong females present, and I would have liked to see that aspect be the real focus as well as getting more into what it means to be a Fury, and having more of an adventure and not such a simple and mostly lackluster adventure.
This was still an interesting read and I look forward to checking out book #2 in this series. I hope to see more character development and better leading men as well.
Grade: C+
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