Customer Reviews

Driven (SHOMI)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Each new Shomi novel I read convinces me more and more that this new line is one of the best things to happen to romance in a very long time.

Raina is a strong woman, smart, driven and on the run from a diabolical man who threatens her very existence. She's thrown into a situation where she ends up taking on a mysterious and sexy stranger who challenges her control.

Wizard is sexy and strong and utterly not what he seems and Kenin (Eve Silver) draws out his story with a fine hand. As well as she does the emotion between these two characters.

I'm not always a fan of the big reveal of original intent where the heroine finds something out, feels betrayed, runs off and the hero saves her sort of thing - but again, in the right hands, it works like it does here.

Nail biting action, a very well developed world and great characters make Driven an absolute must read.

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Raina Bowen is a survivor. In the aftermath of a World War that decimated the population and left the northern realm a frozen wasteland, Raina makes her living as a truck driver delivering supplies to the northern population. Her latest trip has her competing against the maddest, baddest, toughest lot of fellow truckers a girl can meet - the Janson crew - in a competition to be the first to cross the finish line with their truckload of goods. Raina desperately needs the winnings she'd earn to protect her young sister she just recently discovered existed from a fate like Raina's own past. Additionally she wants desperately to take down the man responsible for her brutal past... Duncan Bane, the most powerful business man in the world and personal advisor to the President. But she needs the help of mystery man Wizard to succeed. Unfortunately she may have put her trust in the wrong guy...

Now Raina finds herself bailing Wizard out of a truckers' brawl where the odds are stacked against him. Then she discovers that the one job she needs from him he failed at miserably. Don't forget that pesky attraction to her mystery man that has her wishing to engage in a few more exciting ways to warm up a cold night in a frozen wasteland. Through Wizard's blundered attempt to get Raina the document she needed to win the race and her own unfortunate luck to have an enemy like Bane, they are being chased by the entire Janson crew... and a band of ice pirates who want the goods Raina is carrying. Wizard is anything but what Raina needs... or is he?

Wow! What a ride you'll find in Driven by Eve Kenin! Already a fan of Eve through her Gothic romances written under the name Eve Silver, I was quite excited about the opportunity to see what kind of story she could provide in a post-apocalyptic speculative fiction romance. I was most definitely not disappointed! All of the trademarks I've come to expect from her writing, under any name, were in evidence here. Action is unstoppable, the romance is hot enough to melt the entire Northern Waste, and the suspense of events unfolding made me unable to put Driven down!

Raina has had a rough life, rougher than most women could even dream about. But rather than let circumstances beat her into submission, Raina uses them to make her stronger and braver, determined to never be so helpless again. The more we learn about her past, the more remarkable of a woman she becomes. As past secrets of which even Raina had no idea about come unraveled, spilling their truths, I was totally awed by Raina's spirit.

Wizard is quite the enigma and makes what seems to be an odd choice for a male protagonist. After all how could someone who, as Raina puts it "didn't have much in the way of gray matter" be a very impressive hero? It's hard to put a finger on just who he is until he begins to tell his own story. Well appearances, and sometimes behavior, can be deceiving as we discover where Wizard is concerned. As little bits and pieces of his history and personality are revealed, Raina's opinion of him grows, and in turn, ours.

One might think that two people so steeped in history and the resulting baggage could never find there way out of the dark. However, Eve Kenin shows her remarkable talent for character development by giving us two such strong and memorable players. I was cheering them on from the moment I met Raina in all her glory at the truck stop in the very first paragraph and later Wizard when he shows up after having made enemies of just about every person you don't want to tick off. What could have been a dark story if the back story is anything to go on, was kept from being overwhelming by the dry and sarcastic humor, and even a little slapstick comedy once or twice, tossed in to the mix.

Eve Kenin's star is on the rise, no matter what name she writes under, as is proven in Driven. And if this novel is any indication, the new Shomi line from Dorchester Publishing is going to be a huge hit with fans of romance and science fiction alike.

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

When I picked up this book, I was a little in unsure how I would feel about it. Even though I loved her writing as Eve Silver (Gothic romance) I knew futuristic books mostly held little appeal to me.
But was I in for a surprise!
Raina got to me the minute I met her. She's hard, strong and a woman with a mind of her own. After her mother died her father changed and started drinking and pushing her to the limit physical and emotional. When she was 12 she was in the hands of Duncan Bane and that moment made both her future and gave Bane a life mission to hunt her down. Now she's all alone, rough on the outside en determined to rescue her sister. She can do without someone like Wizard.
Wizard is a mercenary. A lethal killer. He was the result of an experiment and raised by a computer. When discovered his skills were put to the test by Duncan Bane. So now Wizard sees a change to get even with him. But for the first time in his life he feels emotions he can't just put aside.
I loved this book. Raina and Wizard are both people that been through so much one can hardly imagine they still have the force to go on. Still they do... Step by step they open up, but never putting themselves in a position that makes them vulnarable.
We have the dark past, the passion and the action... And emotions... Lots and lots of emotions even if the two main characters claim to have none.
This is the first book Eve writes as Eve Kenin and I must say it's a wonderful story! I could see the 18 wheels thundering by on the icy décor. This story was so enthralling it left me yearning for more... Will we get the story of Yuriko and Tatiana?
Like I said, I'm not really into futuristic stories, but for this one I can tell you to make an exception.
Kenzo

Dorchester's Shomi line is turning out to be a lot of fun reading. First there was Wired by Liz Maverick and now we have Driven by Eve Kenin. Both are very original in content and written wonderfully well.

In Driven, Raina Bowen is about to have a really bad day. She's a trucker. First, when waiting for the person her late father made arrangements with for her to acquire a special license to allow her to participate in a race that will net her more money than she's ever seen, money needed to keep the sister she never knew she had safe. That was a deathbed confession of her father. A father who turned into a man she no longer knew after her mother died. A father who had given her, when she was only 12, to the man who was now hunting her down, looking for vengeance. Next her contact is late, and when he finally shows up, he promptly gets into a fight with big-time truckers, he has a stolen license for her that she cannot use, and even though he thinks and acts like a computer, he's also the most handsome and sexiest man she's ever seen. But she's a loner, independent, and isn't about to change her ways now.

Wizard is a mercenary. An assassin. He and his sisters were experiments that ended up being raised by a computer when the head of the lab died and left them on their own. That's where Duncan Bane came in. He found the siblings and decided to continue the experiements, testing their "gifts" and when one sister died, Wizard would take more. He is now on a mission for Bane, to track down Raina Bowen and deliver her into Bane's hands for a slow and painful demise.

I enjoyed these main characters so much. Raina has always been on her own, even when her father was alive, and he constantly pushed her to be better, faster, stronger but that was only when he was around, which wasn't often. She's afraid of making friends and falling in love. Those are complications she just doesn't need. Wizard is a man who compartmentalizes his emotions to the point that he doesn't show any at all, but when he meeets Raina, things begin to change, including his feelings, but by that time it's a little too late. Raina finds out that Wizard has betrayed her and she's right back where she started. And the having the story written in a setting like a Siberian iceberg and 18-wheelers ramrodding their way across the ice is loads of fun. After these first two books in this line, I'm anxiously awaiting the next one!

DRIVEN, the third book of Dorchester's new Shomi line - which has an anime look and promises fast action and hot romance, delivers a fast read guaranteed to take the reader out of this world. The novel is a concoction of action/adventure and romance whose roots are definitely in the pulp arena.

This is Eve Kenin's first book, but new fans need not worry. She's also writing novels under her real name, Eve Silver.

DRIVEN begins with a bang in a futuristic frozen world where truckers and runners are the lifeblood of far-flung outposts of humanity. A large portion of the world's population has been depleted and the environment has turned toward the Ice Age. It's not quite there, but arable lands are few and far between, and there are communities stuck in the harshest circumstances while providing materials other than food to communities. Trucking remains the least expensive and surest means of transportation for cargo.

I loved the world. Images filled my head, triggered by the beautiful cover, and enhanced by Kenin's terrific prose. The thing that really pulled me in was the action, though. I'm a guy. I read romances. I enjoy writers that know how to mix action, suspense, mystery, and love stories. There are a lot of good writers out there. Eve Kenin (Eve Silver) is going to be one of those, and she's going to be read a lot.

The main character is Raina Bowen, daughter of a military father who taught her everything he knew about surviving in the harsh world they've inherited. She's a trucker, roving across the Northern Waste as an independent hauler, working when and where she can.

When the book opens, she's signed up for a race against the Janson Company, a group of truckers that are essentially pirates that will kill drivers and hijack their cargoes. In the opening chapter, Raina gets into a fight with a trucker and beats him down with her martial arts prowess. She's exactly the kind of rough-and-tumble woman that I love to root for. She's capable and deadly, plenty able to hold her own ground in physical battles, and clever enough to overpower opponents that outnumber her.

She's paired up with Wizard, a cipher of a man at first that demonstrates strange abilities and way of thinking that gets explained. Then I liked him even more.

In the beginning, it's hard to say who saved whom more. Raina seems to pull Wizard's butt out of the fire when he goes up against the Janson truckers, but when they talk later, he tells her everything was going according to his plan. And he makes perfect sense.

A sizeable chunk of the novel's opening is devoted to a road trip. Raina and Wizard fight their mutual foes and their attraction to each other. Then Raina figures out that Wizard is actually an assassin, one of the most cold-blooded killers in the frozen world they inhabit. Not only that, but it looks like he was going to kill her when he found out she was running guns, not grain like she thought. Her innocence is apparent to him, though, but he reveals the fact that the book's villain, Duncan Bane, set her up and is using the race as a means to his own ends.

The sexual tension matches the action, though. And when Kenin brings her characters together, the pages heat up and the sizzle is a tangible thing.

I really enjoyed the book. The idea of a bleak future, survivalists that live in fully-equipped trucks that roll across a deadly, icy landscape, sharply-drawn characters, and plenty of action kept me turning pages till I reached the end. The author's grasp of dialogue and character development is great, and she doesn't keep you hanging in limbo while she works out her plot. Things happen in this novel, then they keep happening.

This is the first of the Shomi titles I've read, and the first Eve Silver/Kenin book as well, but it definitely won't be the last.

I have read all 3 Shomi books out on the market so far and have found I like Driven the best. The story was very original and perfectly executed, with wonderful characters. Raina is a strong and independent character without being annoying. Wizard is cold and emotionless but is the perfect hero for breaking down Raina's barriers. Furthermore, Kenin did a great job of letting the characters evolve through the book. Wizard slowly grows with emotions and feelings that he sometimes finds hard to cope with but is strong enough to handle. Raina starts out as someone who prefers being alone and not having to rely on anyone, but over the course of the book she realizes that she does need Wizard and friends if not for her sanity than for her own simple happiness. Overall I really enjoyed this book. I was slightly disappointed Driven is not 1st person like the first two Shomi books, but think the writing style fits perfectly. I really hope Eve Kenin (aka Eve Silver) will be writing another book centered in this very imaginative world.

One of the problems I did have with this book is that a thread was left hanging that the reader can only assume turns out well, as nothing is ever mentioned otherwise. The second problem I had (along with all the Shomi books) is the HORRIBLE artwork. I just hope it doesn't turn away possible readers from this great new series that every romance fan should read.

Driven is a kick butt Mad Max type of book. Fans of futuristic Sci-Fi stories with a nice touch of romance should run and get this book. Eve Kenin also known as Eve Silver to the historical romance sect will be blown away by this story that I can only compare to an apocalyptic world of the likes of "Children of Men". This is portrayed as a bleak future where global warming is more on the colder scale then the scorching heat some foresee the future to be.
Raina Bowen is an intriguing and lonely woman who works as a underground "trucker". She is stuck in a barren and ice cold world of the Northern Waste. She is on the run from a rich depraved man who wants to rule the world. He is obsessed with having Raina. Her father has died and she needs as much money as she can to keep her sister safe, which she only has just found out about.
But things become even more complicated for her as a strange but handsome stranger by the name of Wizard comes into her life.Wizard shows no true emotion, never smiles and talks in overall polite and blunt ways, which annoys Raina to no end. He drives Raina crazy, but in good ways since she is beginning to feel emotions for this man that she refuses to acknowledge. She wants to be as cold as the wasteland she drives.
There are ice pirates and rebels that have overrun this land. Raina doesn't know who to trust, including that of Wizard who may have been ordered to kill her to keep her silence.
WOW, is the only word to describe this action packed book. Both Raina and Wizard are very complicated characters and when they finally come together, their happiness is not promised. That conventional happily ever after that we all look forward to is not here.
A very welcomed read for the futuristic fiction genre!

Katiebabs

I was somewhat apprehensive when I began this read once realizing it took place in the future, and not a very pretty future either; however as I continued on I was hooked. Raina Bowen is a trucker, but not the kind we know, for her journey takes her on harsh Northern Waste lands that no woman or man should travel. Her father dead, and having only a sister left she struggles to survive in a frozen hell. Her life is hard enough but becomes almost unbearable when she is thrown together with a man called Wizard. Raina is a loner, now she battles the pull that she feels towards this man, a man whose very essence seeps mystery. Just who is Wizard and why did he suddenly appear in her life? Before she finds out the answer she finds herself battling for her life, Wizard's life and any hope of a better tomorrow.
Driven is a strong novel, with stronger characters that make you sit-up and take notice. The storyline is laced with evil, corrupt men, starving children, rebels of honor and ice-pirates that kill for the joy of killing. It is the story of hidden hurt, unbraided love, and commitment and honor that runs deep right to the end, whether it be for evil or good. You will take a journey with a woman whose strength is challenged and a man who learns the meaning of love all set in a world of frozen darkness that you pray they will escape, but know they are facing the impossible. Tight knit, gripping tale you do not want to miss.

I just finished 'Driven' by Eve Kenin and WHOA, it was fantasticalisious.... LOVED.IT. At first I read the back and was thinking....'A woman trucker in the middle of an arctic wasteland, so not my thing' but, on the advice of several friends I started it anyway and NEVER PUT IT DOWN AGAIN. I adored the heroine Reina, who may be one of the strongest female characters I've seen in a good long while, and then there's Wizard who went from making me kind of doubt his ability to be the 'hero' in the first few pages to taking my breath away by the last page. The world building is excellent and the action scenes are riveting. This is one of the best books I have read this year and I will happily recommend it to anyone.

Shomi Publishing, a new line from Dorchester, is advertising itself as innovative, new and unique. In fact, they are holding a contest, and if you read the editorial guidelines it insists on a very structured, formulaic plot. It lays out everything from what the heroine's age must be, to how the story must be told, to what position the hero must be in. Reading that, it's pretty clear that Shomi has no interest in doing anything new; rather, they are re-packaging old, tired romance novels in a new format.

"Driven" is no exception. If you've read other popular romance novels, you've read this: everything from the spunky heroine, to the hero who needs to learn how to love, to the villain with no personality or motivation beyond being evil is stock. So is the plot; the hero and heroine are deeply damaged individuals, but of course with a few days and each others love, they can be totally healed of horrible, scarring trauma! You have to laugh at how ridiculous the whole thing is, and how terribly shallow and unrealistic the characters are.

But of course that is the point; a book like "Driven" is not meant to be challenging or even very interesting. It's only made to be entertaining for a short time in a way that we've all seen before, and are thus comfortable with, before being given or thrown away. There is nothing wrong with this, as we are all entertained by something like this occasionally. It's just a bit irritating that Shomi is trying to talk about how rebellious and innovative their line is when there wasn't a single plot detail or character involved that I couldn't predict about thirty pages in.

On the positive end, Eve Kenin's writing is very readable; she is a very talented lady and unlike Shomi's other offering, "Moongazer", I was actually involved enough to reach the end of the book (I couldn't get past fifty pages of Moongazer).

"Driven" is what it was meant to be: entertaining schlock. Go for romance, action and the happy end you've seen eighty million times and still love. But don't come looking for innovation. There is none.