Customer Reviews

Serenity (Gezane Universe Novels)

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

 

 

REVIEWER'S OPINION WITH HINTS OF SPOILERS:
If you're looking for a traditional romance novel with a guy to swoon over, you won't want this one. He is rude and insensitive. He demeans and humiliates her in public. He is married but takes a lover in front of his wife. He won't sleep with his wife, but he refuses to allow her to sleep with anyone else. He also refuses to see certain truths.

However, there are beautiful, romantic, loving and nonsexual relationships between Serenity and her guards. I enjoyed seeing how assassins came to kill Serenity and ended up being her teachers and guards. The guards were bhresyas (a type of demon - tall humans with horns). I enjoyed the name she gave to them, the Hell Hounds. The name was an insult to others of their race, but the guards were proud of it. I also enjoyed reading about Serenity and Lorcan, her guard dog/creature. I liked this story. It was different.

STORY BRIEF:
There had been war between the humans and the bhresyas. Melchior is king of the bhresyas. Rhiannon is queen of the humans. Rhiannon is pregnant with triplets (2 boys and 1 girl). As part of a peace treaty, Melchior wants the girl child to be his wife in 19 years. Rhiannon agrees. The child is named Serenity. Serenity spends her entire 19 years preparing to be Melchior's wife. She looks forward to it. There are many assassination attempts on Serenity's life by those wanting to restart the war. After they marry, she realizes that Melchior does not love her, respect her or want an heir with her. He plans to wait until she dies and then marry a bhresya woman to have children. Serenity is not allowed to do things she was prepared for and planning to do. She is not allowed to do other things that she wants to do. She is miserable, but she has her Hell Hounds who are with her at almost all times. The big questions are: What will happen with Serenity and Melchior? Will they stay together? Will they ever love each other?

DATA:
Story length: 236 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: 1, six pages long. Setting: Cheslav and Nexeu, two kingdoms on an unspecified planet. Copyright: 2009. Genre: fantasy sci-fi romance.

OTHER BOOKS:
To date, I've read one other book by D. Renee Bagby. My 4.5 star review of "Adrienne" copyright 2008 was posted 7-26-09.

Melchoir is King of the Bhresyas, a demon-looking group of humanoids, who come in many colors and with many different horn placements. They live longer than regular humans and he has tired of the wars that are taking place between his race and the humans on a constant basis. So he proposes a truce. To do this, the daughter of the Queen will become his bride upon her eighteenth birthday.

Serenity, the Queen's daughter, has spent her entire life preparing for her role as Melchoir's Queen. She has attended special classes to help her not only learn about ruling, but also about the history and ways of the Bhresyas people. Many might be frightened by this prospect, but Serenity has always embraced her future and is looking forward to it.

But Melchoir is convinced that his marriage should be in name only. He is convinced that his people will never truly accept her as their Queen and they definitely would not accept any of their offspring. This becomes a huge problem as Serenity has fallen in love with hum. In the end, will he push her away? Will their enemies take advantage of their separation? More importantly, will Mechoir admit his love before it is too late and all is lost?

Serenity was a very intriguing story and view of the author's newly created universe. In this realm, both humans and other species live and interact together. I thoroughly enjoyed D. Renee's writing and look forward to seeing more stories in this series in the future. There is humor as well as devotion and ultimately love in this story. The story intrigued me from the synopsis through the final pages. I kept wondering if Melchoir would stay a jerk or if he would finally see the real Serenity and his feelings. If you are a big fan of fantasy romances, then Serenity might just be the next book you want to pick up.

Tanya
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

This was a very interesting book. I enjoyed it. Author is writting a sequel, for those of you that didn't think it had enough romance, Read Eris. She does not write a lot of every two page sex scenes but I can do without all of that. I like to read a good story about good characters. She does touch on the romantic side with taste.

Read Adrienne as well. Her concepts are so different in each book. You never get a same version rewritte with name changes. I think I will put her on my Author to buy list.

I had already read one other of this author's works and it was good enough to entice me to this one. First off, I didn't put the book down until I had finished it, and I enjoyed the writier's voice and style. But this is definitely not a traditional romance. Still, that being said, it was good enough to keep me going.

The tone of the tale was dark. This author can definitely provoke strong emotions with her writing, which means that you instantly connect with her characters. I was angry and hurt for Serentity, and as another stated, I was saddened that Chigaru, her most loyal Blood Hound guard, would be doomed to unrequited, or at the least, unfullfilled love.

From the other story I read by Ms Bagby, I recognize that she creates strong heroines who can stand on their own. But she also creates strong heroes with a bit of a dark streak within them. For that matter, her heroines possess this same dark taste for swift retribution and even revenge. Even so, I recommend this book to anyone looking for something different, something intriguing, and something not in line with your usual tradional romance. I look forward to reading more of this author's works.

GA Lanham
author An Unlikely Place

I have read this book multiple times. I love the emotions that the story has you feeling. The jealousy twists a knot in your stomach and the love and loyalty from the Hell Hounds are warming. I only wish that Chigaru could have gotten some lovin' from somewhere. Would have been better if it came from Serenity. This is the book I read when I want to ride an emotional roller coaster and it still gets to me every time.

Not much to be added to the other positive reviews except that I enjoyed this book more than I expected (not my usual genre).

This story was unique in that the "hero" is not all that romantic and at times is unlikable, the "heroine" is complex, smart and strong. I especially love the relationship the heroine has with her personal guard. The book is fairly well written, fast paced and the characters and plot are engaging and entertaining throughout the book. The only flaw is the fact that it was very easy to figure out the identity of villain, but I still wanted to know the outcome so this is a very small flaw.

I gave this book 5 stars because it was such a pleasant surprise, I expected it to be mildly entertaining and instead I found a gem that I know I will read again.

this read was not bad at all and the sory plot was interesting, a bit much when it came to the cat and mouse game but the catch in the end was oh so sweet and filling......thanks

Why chigaru couldn't get any love?

I liked the story, it pulled me into the plots. It was kind of obvious who wanted her dead on her wedding day and there after, but it didn't stop me from wanting to read.

My only complaint is I was annoyed cause Chigaru couldn't get any love from the queen, because of the kings jealousy when he well deserved it.

I had been looking at this book for months before I finally purchased it. It wasn't my usual type of book to read, but I gave it a try.

Overall, it was a great story, but I thought it was written badly. The dialogue wasn't so bad but the actual writing of the book was juvenile and lame. It read as if a high schooler wrote the book and that bothered me the whole way through. The story pulls you in and you definitely want to keep reading til the end but in the end, I feel like I wasted five bucks when I could have only wasted 2.