Customer Reviews

The Awakening (Immortals, Book 3)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Getting past the first few chapters of The Awakening was difficult for me. Pure erotica makes me extremely uncomfortable (okay, it just plain embarrasses the heck out of me), and I was pretty sure that's where this book was heading. Not a promising start.

A few more chapters in, and I found myself hooked on a very engaging storyline. Our heroine, Christine, is a water witch with her magical powers linked to all things of beauty; art, music, sensual love. When she gives, she gives so completely, she loses herself in the magic. In many ways it makes her a bit naïve and vulnerable, she knows it, and has been hurt by it before. Regardless of her own traumatic experiences, she has agreed to help the Coven of Light find one of the Immortal warriors, Kalen, and bring him into the fight of good vs evil, light vs dark. Find him she does, in a lonely castle in Scotland, in the arms of a beautiful, cold and manipulative, half-sidhe.

Sparks fly from the beginning when Christine meets Kalen, the lust is instant, and when they first make love, Christine, true to her magical nature, holds nothing back, giving Kalen everything she is, and pretty much shatters everything he has ever believed in. She becomes his emotional muse, giving him the ability to put his own heart and soul into his art. Kalen can't, and won't, let Christine go, and is determined to keep her with him always.

Quite simply, as a love story, it is terrific.

Naturally, true love is never without problems. There is "The Calling", which Kalen has (for his own reasons) no intention of answering, Christine's promise to the Coven of Light to bring Kalen to them, and finally, Kalen's former lover, the vindictive and nasty Leanna, using death magic against both Christine and Kalen to further her own agenda. Add Demons, the insane Immortal Tain (in a continuing role), some vicious Unseelie hordes, and some selfish and apathetic Gods to the mix, just to complicate things further.

Good writing, great action, no loose threads to drive you nuts.

To sum it all up "The Awakening" has it all. A terrific love story, an emotional awakening, a glorious adventure, heroic fight scenes, sacrifice, redemption, a strong ending. I am very, very glad I plowed past those first few embarrassing chapters (my issues might not be yours, so take that with a grain of salt).

NC-17 for strong sexual content. No torture scenes this time (thank you).

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

A CK2S Recommended Read!

Death magic is spreading across the world and it's time for the return of the Immortals...

Christine Lachlan is water witch and an artist who has joined the Coven of Light, a force against the evil sweeping across the land. She must seek out Kalen, one of the five goddess-born Immortals, who has long been in hiding from the modern world. She will do whatever it takes to convince Kalen to assist them in defeating the force behind this evil, Kalen's own brother, the youngest Immortal, Tain.

Kalen has long since withdrawn from the world after a grave act on his part that will condemn him should he ever lose control again. Now his solace is his art, or it would be if he could only grasp the talent he once had. Even taking a leannan-Sidhe muse to his bed does not help him master his talent. When Christine enters his world, insisting he is needed to go to war, his art suddenly takes new form and his talent soars once more.

Kalen will do almost anything to keep Christine at his side as his muse. If only it were that easy. His former lover is vindictive and will do anything to get rid of Christine so she can steal Kalen's power. Kalen refuses to pick up his spear once again and cannot reveal his dark secret to Christine. Can these two reluctant lovers come together in time to defeat the newest and most pressing danger and accept The Awakening?

I love the whole premise of the Immortals series and have been eagerly anticipating the series since I first heard about it. The third book, The Awakening by Joy Nash is the first I've read and let me tell you this story packs a magical punch! What we have here is a compelling combination of loveable characters, a strong storyline, old secrets, and more magic then you can shake a spear at. Even not having read the books in order did not affect my enjoyment of this story. Yes there is an underlying story that arcs through the entire series but each one stands alone as well and I loved reading about Kalen and Christine. Joy Nash gives enough back story to fill in the blanks so I don't feel like I missed anything crucial.

Christine's gift is enhanced by water but is still not as strong as many others in her coven. This is partially due to a tragedy in her recent past that has scarred her emotionally and magically, making it harder for her to maintain her faith in her powers. But she tries very hard to overcome past events and focus on her current mission... finding Kalen and convincing him to aid the Coven of Light in defeating Death Magic. Kalen is weary of life in these modern times, preferring to live without all the modern benefits technology provides. He also suffers in his own private hell over events in his past which, if he isn't careful, can condemn him once more. When these two tortured souls come together, nothing can keep them apart, even the very embodiment of greatest evil.

The secondary cast of characters also makes an imprint on the story. From the beautifully seductive but vindictive and cruel Leanna to loveable teenaged (or is he really?) Mac, gruff and odd-looking but kind housekeeper Pearl to a whole passel of brownie servants. And these are just a few of the assorted magical creatures we encounter on the adventure of The Awakening.

In short, Joy Nash has written another beautifully told story of love and magic. You will not be disappointed. I can promise you that!

© Kelley A. Hartsell, June 2007. All rights reserved.

Joy Nash has outdone herself with Immortals: The Awakening. A great addition to the series. The characters are complete and the story will keep you reading long after you should have gone to bed.

If you've been reading Nash's Druid series, this is different, an urban fantasy set in present time but in an alternate universe where chaos and evil threaten to rule.

I'm not a big fan of urban fantasy, but Joy's books are an auto-buy for me. The Awakening did not disappoint. It has the same strong writing and tight plotting that makes Nash's other works (Celtic Fire, The Grail King) so compelling.

Couldn't put it down!

The Immortals Series:

The Calling (Jennifer Ashley)

The Darkening (Robin T. Popp)

The Awakening (Joy Nash)

The Gathering (Jennifer Ashley)

The Redeeming (Jennifer Ashley) Due for release in Sept. 2008

The Crossing (Joy Nash) Due for release in Sept/ Oct 2008


This series needs to be read in order. Start from the beginning to follow the unfolding story. Personally, I've enjoyed books 1 and 3 far more than book 2. But 2 does have a role in the series, so it's worth reading.
The authors of books 1 and 3 are continuing the series for the next few books. I'm looking forward to reading them.


Christine is a powerful witch with gifts she has yet to discover. After helping to perform The Calling spell with her coven, she is heading to Scotland to find the one brother whom they completely failed to reach. Kalen has not been seen or heard from in over 700 years. Christine finds him with a sex muse who has talked him into giving her a child. Kalen doesn't recognize that the spells the muse is performing are death magic. Christine has seen the spells before. Risking her own life, Christine attacks the muse to save Kalen.

Kalen is shocked when a witch interrupts the spell that his lover is performing. He saw Christine in a vision days before. He doesn't know who she is, or why she is here, but he knows he can't let the muse harm her. Kalen grabs the witch and transports her to his castle where she will be safe behind his magically protected walls.

Kalen and Christine share a love of art. Kalen has been trying for centuries to create beautiful pieces. Something is leashing his abilities. After one night with Christine, his talent is astonishing. Realizing that it is Christine's magic that has freed his talent, he resolves to keep her forever.

Christine can't convince Kalen to join Adrian's army in Seattle. She will spend some days with him trying to change his mind, but she knows she has to leave soon to join the army of light magic. Death magic beings are multiplying at an alarming rate. Humans and light magic creatures are being slaughtered. If the death magic leader is not stopped soon, earth will become the new hell.

It has been centuries since Kalen last fought in his role as a protector of innocent beings. A spell holds his fate in limbo. If he takes a life, he will be imprisoned in silent darkness for eternity. He has made a new life as an art dealer, forcing himself to become a man of peace. When Christine's life is threatened, he has to make a choice. Allow her to be enslaved and slowly tortured to death by a demon, or kill the beast and spend eternity imprisoned in torment himself.

Why 4 stars instead of 5? The story took a bit too long to get moving. Once it caught fire, the action was great.



Here are the links for the rest of the series so far:

The Calling (Immortals, Book 1)

The Darkening (Immortals, Book 2)

The Gathering (Immortals, Book 4)

Book 5: The Redeeming is due for release in Sept 2008

Book 6: The Crossing is due for release in Sept/ Oct 2008

Joy Nash's latest release grabs you and doesn't let go. From the first page, I was completely invested in Christine's mission to find the jaded and withdrawn Immortal, Kalen, and enlist him in the fight against Death Magic.

Despite the dark nature of the book, the romance between Christine and Kalen is often sweet and always emotional, and the reader can feel the need of the hero and heroine not only to stop the dark forces that are overtaking the world, but to save themselves, as well.

Great read!

The world is in trouble as demons and unseelie are coming in increasing numbers using death magic at every possible moment. Water witch Christine Lachlan worries that mankind's reign is through unless the Immortals take an active interest. She searches for missing Immortal Kalen, who has taken refuge in a secret castle in Scotland.

Christine finds his hiding place, but also realizes that the deadly demon Culsu has plans to destroy Kalen. She saves his life, but though attracted to his rescuer, he rebuffs her plea to help save humanity from the demon horde. Outraged though also wanting him, Christine vows to learn why this Immortal refuses to participate. Sometimes knowing the truth fails to set you free as Christine will have to choose between love and duty.

The third Immortals tale (see Jennifer Ashley's THE CALLING and Robin T. Popp's THE DARKENING) lives up to its delightful predecessors as Joy Nash expands the threat to the magical and human races. The Kalen vs. Christine battle is terrific as she enters his lair to force him to act, but though attracted to her eh refuses. Her sleuthing leads her to the stunning truth about the man she loves. Romantic fantasy fans will joyfully appreciate this fine entry in the Immortals saga.

Harriet Klausner

The first in this series, The Calling, was a lukewarm entry for me, but it introduced us to the premise and characters of what was clearly a larger story, so I was intrigued enough to get another. I am glad I did!

This story is a much stronger entry than the first. The writing style is fluid and a pleasure to read - the author carries you along effortlessly. The characters are well developed and interesting, you quickly find yourself rooting for the main characters and disliking the antagonists, just as you should.

One of the extremely well executed aspects of this book is how the author integrated her love scenes into the story. Even in a very good book, a steamy sex scene will often sort of pause the story. Usually, we enjoy them enough to allow the intrusion into the main story without complaint. But this author managed to make her love scenes actually progress the story itself, not just provide some entertainment on the side (for us and the characters!).

I didn't realize this until I had finished the book, then realized that the entire story flows seamlessly from beginning to end. No uncomfortable laggy parts, no pointless scenes and no side trips into the bedroom. Instead, when entering the bedroom, the story followed along - characters continued to change and evolve even during, and sometimes because of, those scenes.

Brava! An excellent entry in this series that makes me much more interested in seeing where the finale will take me.

THE AWAKENING is the third book in the multi-author Immortals series. Each author has laid their own personal stamp on this series. Unlike book 2 where Tain and the demon constantly interrupted Darius and Lexi's attempts to get together, Christine and Kalen's romance gels as soon as they meet and though the demon is wreaking havoc throughout their story, Tain doesn't make a significant appearance until the book has nearly ended. Once again however, it seems to work. Each installment just makes you want to read the next. THE AWAKENING is no exception.

A balance of life and death magic must be maintained, for if one became more powerful than the other, the world would be unmade. The Immortals, five sons each born of an aspect of the Mother Goddess and a mortal man, were charged with maintaining that balance at a time when human kind was new and struggling to take their hold on the world. The fragile creatures had been given the words to call the Immortals forth in times when that balance was disturbed. Over the years however, mankind had grown more self sufficient and the words to the Calling had been lost.

But now in the modern world death magic was growing stronger thanks to a demonic "Old One" and its captive, the youngest Immortal Tain, who had gone rogue after seven centuries of the demon's sadistic brand of torture. Tain wanted to end his pain, to die and to take the world with him. The demon had promised it would be so.

Amber Silverthorne is a hereditary witch whose sister had been killed by the demon starting a chain of events that had brought Tain's eldest brother Adrian to her side. Amber and Adrian alone could not defeat the demon or rescue Tain. But there was hope if only they could somehow recover the words of the ancient Calling before Beltane and bring all the Immortals together. Amber had put out a call to the world wide Coven of Light.

In Rome a solitary water witch and artist, Christine Lachlan, had finally found what was necessary. The Calling had taken place on that night of power, but the demon was strong and the summoning had been disrupted before Adrian's brothers could answer the Call.

The following night a sky-clad Christine implores the Etruscan Mother Goddess Uni to help her find her son, the immortal Kalen. The scrying shows her Kalen who is currently making love to his beautiful half-Sidhe muse Leanna. For just a moment Christine finds herself in his lover's place giving her such bliss that she becomes even more determined to find him. The clues from the vision send her packing to Scotland. She must convince Kalen to join with the others in Seattle to defeat the demon.

Meanwhile over in Inverness: Kalen wasn't Leanna's only lover. A leannan-sidhe muse, she inspired many a human musician, absorbing their life essence in return for her gifts. Kalen however was Immortal and couldn't die in this manner. Leanna, was a child of infidelity, denied by her royal mother (Queen of the Sidhe) and forbidden to enter her realm of Annwyn. She envied Kalen's immortality and wanted it for herself. The "Old One" had shown her the way, if only she could convince Kalen to allow her to bear his child.

Christine has reached the UK but she is not exactly sure where to find Kalen. Fortunately, she runs into Mac a young demigod (legitimate son of the Sidhe Queen and the Celtic Sea God, Lir) who points her in the right direction. (Mac as we learn later is practically Kalen's ward). When she reaches Inverness she finds that the local Coven of Light members there had all been killed by a "paranormal disturbance". She knows what this means.

Leanna makes a living conducting sex tours and has convinced Kalen to participate and during the revelry to give her his child. Christine had seen her flyer and had recognized her as Kalen's lover. Hoping to learn something of Kalen she buys a ticket for the tour. Imagine her shock when Kalen is there and is about to participate in what she recognizes from experience as a fertility ritual. She recognizes something else too, an act of betrayal exactly like the one committed by the man she herself had loved. Leanna was a demon-whore! In an effort to save Kalen, Christine disrupts the ritual.

Kalen recognizes Christine from the dream he'd shared with her. She relates her tale and is shocked when he refuses to go to Seattle and join the cause. He tells her that he had never been subject to the Calling. Instead Uni had charged him with protecting his own Etruscan people. But one by one they had died off until only one had remained. What he doesn't tell her is his shameful secret, that he'd tried to manipulate the man and he in turn had betrayed Kalen. In his rage Kalen had destroyed the last remnant of his people. In her fury Uni had sentenced her son to a hundred years of sensory deprivation. It had nearly driven him mad. He'd been freed on the condition that he learn from his mistake and was forbidden to kill a living being for the next thousand years or he would return to that state for eternity. His sentence had not yet passed and he was helpless to assist Christine even had he been so inclined.

However he finds Christine so very beautiful and somehow the two cannot resist each other. When they make love it is even more splendid than in their waking dream. It is then that Adrian discovers that Christine is also a muse, and unlike Leanna she inspires him to greatness. But this is another secret he chooses to keep from her. Leanna is soon forgotten, but like they say hell has no fury like that of a woman scorned, especially one controlled by a demon!

Mac is a definite bonus. With him comes all kind of new complications. There is much humor as he contends with his overprotective mother who has doomed him to appear perpetually sixteen due to her vanity and who calls him day and night on his cell phone to check up on him. Naturally this drives him crazy but he has also seen what her neglect has done to his half sister Leanna. He pities Leanna and will try to divert her from her path if he can. But if he cannot he will do what his has to do. His role aside from helping Christine find Kalen and creating beautiful music is to gather all the Celtic magical creatures and shepherd them into Annwyn before all the life magic is sucked out of the world. Of course he isn't about to follow them, much to his mother's dismay. And yes, he does get his own story in Book 6: THE CROSSING. Meanwhile enjoy Kalen's adventure. The resolution of his romance is sure to warm the reader's hearts.

As with the other books there is a good bit of angst. The world is going to hell in a hand basket. There is the relational obstacle. Christine is now on the evil being's radar and they will stop at nothing to destroy her. Will Kalen break his pact with Uni for the woman he loves? And of course the big question, will the Immortals finally assemble and can Tain be saved? All will be revealed in Book 4, aptly named THE GATHERING. It is also Hunter and Leda's story. ~ for PNR Reviews

This book, the 3rd book of 4, is action packed,romantic and fun all rolled into one. It follows the first two books extremely well and has me chomping at the bit for the 4th book to come out!

I also love the whole premise of the Immortals series. The first two books were great. When I started reading this one, I don't know, maybe I was expecting too much. I've never read anything by this author and I probably never will after reading this book. I'm more than half way through with it after days of trying to get into it with no luck. Every time I start reading it again I feel like I'm reading a bad erotica novel. Starting out with the heroine all but having sex with a bowl of water, and then the author, trying to clean it up by using a word like phallus (several times more then she should have) instead of what it is. She also gives us an art education (if you want one) about the only thing she hasn't given us so far is the next part of the immortals story. It's very boring so far especially after you've read the first two books and enjoyed them. I will probably finish it as I'm hoping it will somehow connect with the other books. I'm looking forward to the final book written by Jennifer Ashley. I'm giving it two stars because I haven't finished yet and there is still hope.