Is there anything better than a book recommendation via Twitter? I love it when people are enthusiastic about a book. Thanks to Lillie, I saw her tellIs there anything better than a book recommendation via Twitter? I love it when people are enthusiastic about a book. Thanks to Lillie, I saw her telling everyone to read this, and I hopped on that train. I didn’t even read the blurb – so imagine my surprise when this turned out to be a male/female/male HEA. And a believable one at that. Let me also say, it starts a bit as a love triangle, but if love triangles turn you off, don’t let that sway you away from this one. The angst level and fighting between the men and our heroine is pretty low.
Contessa Dahl, or Tess, has led a hard life. Growing up in foster care, she has had no one to protect her, but herself. Now at twenty-eight, the unthinkable happens. She sees a man named Harvey, who she knew as a kid on the streets. They were close for a while before they lost contact with each other. He pulls up in a dark vehicle, and seeing his familiar face, she rushes to greet him. Then gets stabbed in the neck with a needle and it’s night-night time.
But don’t fret for Tess – these are the good guys. Unknown to Tess, she is descended from Norsemen royalty. She is the long-lost Queen of the Afótama, a group of people descended from the Vikings who have been shunned and hunted due to their telepathic abilities. Now that her family has found her, her abilities come to light. She is the Queen they have been searching for and Tess now has to learn a new life. One where she has to control the chaos from the people she now leads, as their thoughts all enter her head. She is in some shock:
“Wait—can we rewind here?” Tess asked. “I think I’m holding up admirably given the circumstances, but there’s only so much disbelief I can suspend all at once. Just today, I’ve been reunited with family I didn’t know I had, told that I have some tenuous association to Vikings—did I hear that correctly, Harvey? I was doped up at the moment.”
He grunted.
“That was correct.” “Okay. I’ve also been informed I may have some undefined power, and now you’re bandying around the word queen as if it were just a nickname. As much as I like the idea of being something greater than a cocktail waitress, I’m not sure if I’m qualified to be anyone’s ruler.”
In this world, women rule:
It’d be different if he were king, but the Afótama didn’t have kings. They hadn’t in at least a thousand years. Yet another reason their Viking peers had ostracized them. Ancestors of the Afótama let woman rule them, and their fellow Northmen believed that made them weak.
Not so. The Afótama knew their strength was with their mothers: the queen and the matriarch. The queen bound them together, and the matriarch soothed their hurts.
Harvey (the man who found her and was a childhood friend) and Tess have an instant connection. Harvey is also part of the Afótama clan and knows that Tess is his mate. He is alpha, and demanding – but not an asshole and also knows his place because she is queen. But there is a catch.
There is a man named Oliver, or Ollie, who doesn’t live with the rest of the Afótama, choosing to live away from the rule of the clan. He has been having dreams that star Tess – and once she is announced Queen, he can’t believe his eyes. He knows for certain this woman is his destined mate, and he travels to her and makes a claim. Harvey is none too thrilled.
The three of them not only work out their romance, but the two heroes, along with some of Tess’s family help her navigate her new life. They are all funny, and vibrant and just full of life. It’s such an engaging cast of characters.
I absolutely adored Tess. Her induction into her new life is believable as she struggles with her new abilities. She asks for help when needed, and learns to rule as the queen she is. She doesn’t let the two alpha men in her life run the ship. She puts them in their place when need be and allows them to pleasure her when the time comes. It’s super sexy.
My one complaint is that I wish we had gotten to see the world outside of Tess’s little circle. I wanted to see outside of her room and get a better feeling for the world around her. But this series continues with Tess, Harvey and Ollie in the next book, so I hope to get a better glimpse then.