Reviewer: Holly Seven Years by Dannika Dark
Series: Seven Series #1
Also in this series: Six Months, Five Weeks (Seven Series #3)
Publication Date: September 4th 2014
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 331
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating:
Paranormal Romance: Book 1. USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Seven years ago, my world ended.Seven years later, my new life began.
It's been seven years since Lexi Knight lost her brother in a tragic accident. On the anniversary of his death, her brother's best friend shows up unexpectedly - a man she hasn't seen since the funeral. He is no longer the boy Lexi once knew, but a dangerous-looking man with tattoos and dark secrets. He broke her trust and abandoned her family, yet what he reveals makes it impossible to stay angry. Lexi has been secretly infatuated with Austin since childhood, so finding out he's a Shifter just makes him sexier. Dammit.
Austin Cole has returned to the city where he grew up, and just in time. He's lived a hard life these past seven years, and the shadows of his past are threatening to destroy Lexi's family. It's time that she learned the truth about her brother, but there is a shocking twist that Austin never saw coming. Now he must protect her family when her mother and sister wind up in mortal danger. Will Lexi learn to accept the truth about who he is, and can Austin salvage a relationship from the ruins of their past?
18+Full-length novelCliffhanger-freeHEA
SEVEN SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Seven Years (Seven Series #1)Book 2 - Six Months (Seven Series #2)Book 3 - Five Weeks (Seven Series #3)Book 4 - Four Days (Seven Series #4)Book 5 - Three Hours (Seven Series #5)Book 6: Two Minutes (Seven Series #6)
MAGERI SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Sterling (Mageri Series: Book 1) USA Today Bestseller!Book 2 - Twist (Mageri Series: Book 2)Book 3 - Impulse (Mageri Series: Book 3)Book 4 - Gravity (Mageri Series: Book 4)Book 5 - Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5) Final Installment!
OTHER BOOKS:Closer: A Novella
Keywords:
alpha male, hero, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, urban fantasy, wolf, wolves, werewolf, shifters, pack, supernatural, alpha, biker, rocker, rock star, native american, sweethearts, best friends, hea, no cliffhanger, series, family, brothers, romance, heroine, action, adventure, vampires, mages, fantasy, novel, series, mageri, sexy, steamy, brilliant, southern, texas, bestseller, lad, bloke, naughty, mage, vampire, realistic love story, tattoos, tatted, hot cars, fairy tale, thriller, new adult, interracial, coming of age, suspense, comedy, humor, bad boy, motorcycle, rock star, tattoos, protagonist, heroine, family, dangerous, action, unrequited, love hate relationships, stripper, pole dancer, prince, billionaire,
Seven years ago, Lexi’s older brother died in a motorcycle accident and her world imploded. Her mother got pregnant and her father left. Since then she’s been struggling to deal with the pain of her loss, helping her mother raise her younger sister, and working a dead end job at a candy shop. When her brother’s best friend suddenly returns on the eve of his death, Lexi is angry and hurt. She hasn’t seen Austin since the night her brother died. Since they were just as close and she and her brother were, and since her mother considered him a second son, his disappearing act hurt all of them.
Austin had a good reason for disappearing seven years ago, though he wasn’t able to share it with Lexi or her family. He’s actually Breed, a shapeshifter that takes the form of a wolf. He was born an alpha, and he adopted Lexi’s family as his pack to sort of practice on (his family’s explanation for his connection to them). To protect them, he had to leave after Lexi’s brother died. He didn’t accidentally die in a motorcycle accident as Austin let Lexi believe; he was actually murdered because he was working for a powerful Mage with the hope of being turned into an immortal.
Now Austin and his brothers have returned to town permanently, and he can’t keep away from Lexi. Especially when it’s revealed that Lexi is a Shifter, too. She had no idea and neither did Austin. Now she needs protection from the local packs who want to claim her and her brother’s old enemies.
I liked the story and the world. The Shifters were different in that once the animal took over, the human was no longer present. It was actually like they blacked out. They remembered nothing of their time as a wolf (except Alphas who sometimes remembered and sometimes didn’t).
I struggled a bit with how accepting the heroine was of her new situation. I wanted her to demand answers, but a lot of the time she brushed it aside when someone refused to answer her questions or the subject was changed. She’d ask a question, get blown off, and just go on her merry way. That’s not to say I didn’t like the story. I just wish there’d been a bit more skepticism on her part, and a little more force in getting answers.
The romance was pretty good, though I thought the hero read as a bit young and hotheaded at times. I’d have liked to see him as a more mature alpha, which is one of the reasons I marked this as New Adult. He has a long way to go. I liked them together and thought they had good chemistry, but they both need some maturity. Actually, the entire pack needs maturity, even those who were centuries old.
The writing is pretty inconsistent. Sometimes flowery and meandering, other times choppy and disjointed. I was pulled out of the story several times because of minor continuity issues, and others because of major plot holes, typos and grammar issues. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading, but the story needed a good edit.
3.25 out of 5
Leave a Reply