Monday, April 16, 2007
Atlantis Rising
****½ Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day. Contemporary paranormal romance.
Ooooh, what a fun book! Atlantis Rising is the first in the Warriors of Poseidon series by Alyssa Day (aka Alesia Holliday, though this book is vastly different from her
Atlantean prince Conlan has returned after seven years of torture at the hands of Anubisa, the vampire goddess. Nobody has escaped her torture still mentally sound--until now--and there were those who believed him dead, and of those who know he's alive, quite a few believe he must be damaged, despite the fact that the high priest has said he's not.
The perceived void in the succession has caused a pretender to rise up, and he's stolen Poseidon's trident. Conlan and his men have to travel to the human world to get it back.
There he meets Riley Dawson, a human social worker and empath. Actually, he feels her emotions before he meets her, and feels compelled to seek her out. Such a connection has been long thought a myth, and to experience it with a human is unbelievable.
That's the set-up, and the story moves at a rapid pace from there. Searching for and rescuing the trident, deciding what to do about Riley, Atlantean court intrigue, and human/vampire/shapeshifter intrigue all combine to form an adventure that kept me turning the pages as quickly as I could.
Conlan's dilemma between love and duty is a classic one--an Atlantean prince and a human woman is just impossible, despite their soul-mate-like bond--but it felt believable. An even more impossible dilemma promises to arise in future books, since there appears to be a bond between Riley's sister, who's also an empath, and the celibate high priest.
There's so much going on that it's dizzying at times, but I was never completely asea (geddit? Atlantis? asea? Okay, I know--I'll go get more caffeine.). It's a small price to pay for a complex world that will hopefully host a nice long series.
And--OH!--good timing. The Cherry Book Club discussion of Atlantis Rising starts today and continues to the end of the month. Stop by and say hi.
...more
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, ParanormalRomance
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, ParanormalRomance
