Fearless LoveAuthor: Stacey Espino
Release Date: November 2, 2010
Publisher: Siren Publishing
Immortal Love Series Book #2
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format(s): e-book
I received a copy of this book from the author for the purposes of an honest review.
From the author’s website:
Javen Highland is the most ruthless Fear Demon and has the reputation to back it up. He keeps away from love, seeing it as a vulnerability. When a breathtakingly beautiful vampire steals his blood, she also captures his heart.
Javen’s new mission is to convince the blonde beauty that her bite is erotic, not painful. If he doesn’t succeed, he could lose her forever. Emma doesn’t realize just how persuasive Javen can be. He’ll have to show her over and over exactly how good it feels to sustain her with his blood.
What I’m talking about:
Javen and his brothers are Fear Demons – they look human, but are immortal and feed off human fear energy. Javen is a proud member of his race and seeks to keep it pure, especially after two of his brothers mate with Lust Demons (see Fearless Desires). He has sacrificed a lot for his race and has mixed emotions when he finds that he is attracted to Emma, an ER nurse. She isn’t a Demon, but she isn’t human, either. Javen makes it his mission to discover exactly what Emma is and if she’s a threat to his race.
Emma has lived her whole life in the dark. She and her twin brother seem to be the only of their kind – they live off human blood and cannot be in the sunlight. Emma is convinced she is a mythical vampire, but her brother disagrees and travels the world in hopes of discovering an answer (leaving Emma alone for months at a time). Emma is a weak soul and she refuses to feed off humans — opting to steal donated blood or feed from her brother, when he’s around. One night when Emma is close to death, she finds herself with Javen, who just happens to be in the right place at the wrong time. She takes one taste of his blood and knows she cannot go back to her solitary life.
And so the dance between Emma and Javen begins. He needs to know the truth about Emma. Emma just needs. Their passion builds and it is hot! But Emma is a needy, weak heroine. She constantly is waiting for someone else to take care of her. And Javen goes from hate to lust to hate to love so quickly, it made my head spin. I felt that the characters both became wishy-washy and neither could figure out exactly what they wanted.
Although I really enjoyed large parts of this book and I honestly couldn’t put it down, there were a couple things that bothered me. One was Emma’s weakness. She could have been such a kick-ass heroine, but she chose to wait for others to take care of her throughout most of the book. When she finally took matters into her own hands I was so excited and enjoyed the story – but it just took too long for my tastes.
The second issue is a major pet peeve of mine (in stories)… The whole “I’m going to leave my mate for his/her own good – I’m no good for him/her and he/she will be better off without me.” I want to scream when that happens. One time, I can deal with – the couple learns and moves on. But in Fearless Love, it happened too often. Emma and Javen have SERIOUS trust issues and it bothered me. I felt like they were a mismatch for most of the book – even down to the fact that they didn’t want the same things out of life at points.
But even with those frustrating issues, I still enjoyed the book. Ms. Espino has created an exciting, sexy world, and I can’t wait to read the next story (which should be a hoot based on hints of the next coupling). Although Emma and Javen aren’t the ideal couple, they have several touching moments together. I love how Emma helps Javen face his past and move towards a brighter future. I guess sometimes true love (in books) isn’t perfect, and I’ve learned that it’s okay!
My Rating:
Liked it, there were a few issues – recommend (B)
Even with the pros and cons it sounds like an entertaining read Jen 🙂
I have never heard of this author before and as I love to lurk on the net I’m going to wander over to her website!
This sounds like a nice series..but the leaving your mate for their own good gets under my skin too!
Nice review 🙂
That is one of my biggest pet peeves in books as well! It never fails to drive me batty, I just want one half of the couple to be like “no, you’re stuck with me and I’m not giving you up.” I would like that:) Too bad Emma’s not a strong heroine, based on your review I feel like she would start to irritate me with her weakness. Thanks for the honest review Jen!
This sounds like it has the potential to be a good series. I’m going to have to give this book a try. The “I’m leaving you because..” storyline bugs the crap out of me as well-especially when it happens throughout the book.
I have this on the to-be-reviewed pile too, so I skipped some of your review. I hope your pro’s will be mine too but your con’s won’t! 😉