Review: Awakening by K. K. Gould

Reviewer's Rating: 4

4.0Overall score

Awakening new powers and old loves

Awakening By K. K. Gould

Paranormal Romantic Suspense

Released July 30, 2015

Self-Published

Series: Immortal Savior, Book 2

Reviewed by Jean

Sparks fly when Jace Waylen finds Adara Helios, the woman who broke his heart, locked in the cell of a dungeon.

Liza and Brax have completed their Mate Bond. She feels like she can start moving forward with her life. She decides to reconnect with Jonah, her stepfather, but destiny has other plans for the Immortal Savior. Jace and Jonah need her help, but she must learn to accept and control the new abilities awakening within her.

Kallai is the tyrant in charge of Adara’s former village. He has become more unstable than anyone realizes. With the help of Jace and Liza, a mission is underway to unseat Kallai and restore peace between Jonah’s pack and the Phoenix clans of the East Coast.

Awakening new powers and old loves

Expectations can be a funny thing. Having read Vengeance, I guess I was expecting the next in the series to be more of a sequel. After all the series is entitled Immortal Savior and Eliza is the savior. I guess I had the expectation that the series would be all about Liza saving the immortal world and her romance with Brax. Well, guess what? Someone forgot to talk to me about my expectations before writing Awakening. Awakening is not all about Liza and Brax. It is about the world that Ms. Gould created, Liza’s awakening powers, the struggle of the Savior’s group of immortal friends to preserve their anonymity from humans and their ongoing war against evil. Awakening is also about the reunion and romance of Liza’s personal savior, Jace, and his mate Adara. Not to worry, though, Awakening will keep you up to date with Liza and Brax and even introduce you to some minor romances in the secondary arcs of the story. If you read Vengeance then you already know Jace Waylen, if not, you’ll get to know him. Awakening is a stand-alone. Sure, it’s better to read them in order but it isn’t truly necessary to enjoy this story.

Jace Waylen is a witty alpha wolf. He is second to his pack alpha, Shane. He has an air of melancholy about him when it comes to the subject of romance and you just know there is something in his past that haunts him. Well that something or rather someone that haunts him just happens to be his former special ops teammate, Adara aka as Torch. Adara also just happens to be the one that got away for Jace. After a rather hot and steamy affair that he felt was developing into a love relationship, Adara just up and left the team and him in the process. To say there is some residual anger and bitterness, as a result, would be to put it mildly. I mean after all she just up and left him, no excuses, no nothing. What Jace doesn’t realize is that Adara had feelings for him as well, but she had orders from her parents that demanded she return home. So, when Awakening begins you find Jace transporting the villain of Vengeance, Hahn back to his estate in Vermont. What he finds is a bit of a shock.

Adara “Torch” Helios didn’t leave her team and Jace because she wanted to. Adara was called home by her father to stop a conflict. Unfortunately, he didn’t tell her that his solution was to mate her to the rival clan’s son, Kallai. He also didn’t expect to end up murdered and her mother captured and imprisoned. Adara was forced into a marriage with Kallai in order to insure her mother’s safety. However, bad has a habit of getting worse before it gets better and when Adara refused to submissively accept the repeated rapes and attempts to impregnate her, Kallai drugged, beat and killed her. Then he sold her ashes. So, you might be wondering how this story can go any further than that. Did I forget to mention that Adara is a phoenix? And, what do phoenixes do? They rise from their ashes. When Adara rose, she found herself in the not so lovely company of Hahn, where she has remained imprisoned for a number of years. Her imprisonment has fed her need for revenge against those that betrayed her including the man she loved and felt abandoned her. If not for the iron cell she was ensconced in, she’d have the power to burn the place to the ground and kick a little ass in the process. Because if there is one thing Adara is, she is a kick ass heroine. Her years in special ops have honed a fierce warrior and that nickname of Torch is oh so appropriate.

So while I’ve introduced the main characters and what motivates them I’ve left the plot alone. Awakening begins with Jace’s discovery of Adara in bowels of Hahn’s estate. Their reunion isn’t all-loving and perfect. There is plenty of resentment for these two to get past, but boy is there enough heat to keep things interesting. Ultimately, we hope these two will get past their differences and find their HEA. In the meantime, Adara has a bit of revenge to seek, the rescue of her mother to oversee and the safety of her people to insure. Kallai is proving to be a nasty piece of work. Liza and Brax continue to build their relationship and hone her new skills. We get a glimpse of just where and how the prophecy came about. Liza is reunited with her stepfather, Jonah, and her old pack. As luck or fate would have it, the pack is the target of Kallai’s evil machinations. So, Awakening is a tale of how they all go about defeating their newest villain in the war against evil while romance blossoms and grows between the main characters. As a bonus, we also get a small romance arc for secondary characters Adeus and Chloe.

Awakening has plenty of heat whether you’re talking flames or hot steamy passion. However, I have to admit I liked Vengeance better. I’m going to have to say that while I loved all the hot steamy romance between the couples in Awakening, I liked the concentration on just the main characters in Vengeance better. I’m just not sure though how the author could have kept the series arc going and accomplished that at the same time. All in all, this was a great read and I’d certainly recommend it to those who like their paranormal with plenty of tragedy, angst, suspense, humor, passion and love. Awakening is sure to please.

Review copy received from Candid Book Reviews in exchange for an honest review.