Dai’s Dark Valentine By Dariel Raye
Paranormal Time-Travel Romance
Released February 14, 2015
Zaidi Books
Reviewed by Jean
What happens when a sheltered cat-shifter and a dark fey come together?
Three-hundred years is a long time, but left to its own devices, what began as the vendetta of one man can grow to encompass even more formidable hatred.
Daitre Salons is a beautiful but naïve heiress whose true heritage has been kept secret even from her. Now, her abilities are emerging and her father’s enemies want her dead, but what bothers her most is that her new husband “in name only” insists on treating her like a child.
Joban Beaucoup, professional guard to the Salons family, and dark fey (alternate spelling from Vodouin origin), has chosen to leave the quaint yet suffocating French town of his orphan-childhood and venture to the Americas, but he needs one thing he cannot concoct, despite his magical abilities – a wife.
When Joban agrees to marry Daitre and take her to the Americas with him, he carries her three-thousand miles away, then whisks her three-hundred years into the future to assure her safety, but while Daitre struggles to adjust to this strange new world, manage her newfound powers, and make peace with her feelings for Joban, Joban learns that even here, their enemies have followed them, now more deadly than ever.
I really enjoyed this otherworldly tale of shifters and fey where the hero, Joban bends time and fights his dark nature while the heroine, Daitre comes to terms with the discovery that she is far from the human she always believed herself to be. Both are challenged to accept their own natures. At the same time they must put aside their preconceived notions of each other. Complicating matters is one family’s unreasonable pursuit of revenge that spans centuries spawning a nasty case of racism against those with fey or shifter heritages.
In an effort to protect Daitre from his enemies, her father, Alain announces her betrothal to his Captain of the Guards, Joban. Joban has protected Daitre for years, standing by stoically and aloof as she works in the local orphanage. Feeling resentful at his apparent lack of tender emotions towards her and with little choice, Daitre marries Joban before being whisked to present day New Orleans 300 years into their future. The underlying tone of the book even in the modern day has the feel of an historical. The book’s pace is fairly even gradually increasing as the suspense and action pick up. Towards the end the pace moves much more quickly as conflicts come to a head and resolutions are made. Over time Daitre comes to recognize that Joban’s actions speak louder than the words she longs to hear. Joban finds Daitre is all he needs to be grounded in the here and now. Overall this was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a bit a magic in their reading. Review copy provided via Reading Alley in exchange for an honest review.
♥♥♥♥
Dai’s Dark Valentine
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