Customer Reviews

A Storm of Passion

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

 

 

Storm of Passion is a paranormal romance that works on many levels but the story does have a tendency to drag in the middle. The leads have a scorching relationship but not necessarily a romantic one until the last part of the novel.

When she was a teenager, Moira saw her family slaughtered. She survived by hiding and overheard the marauders say that the Seer had shown them where to find her village. Moira is filled with hatred and revenge and makes it her life mission to find the Seer and kill him. Moira is unlike many romance heroines, she is no maiden. She has quite literally used her body to discover the whereabouts of the Seer. She has no qualms about doing so either.

The Seer is named Conner and he resides in a castle with a violent, angry Lord who uses his skill to enhance his own power. Conner is tormented by his visions and one way he escapes is through sexual encounters. This is in fact, how Moira and he first meet, when he mistakenly believes her to be a strumpet sent by the castle Lord.

Moira and Conner have a very very passionate interlude. Moira though still harbors great hatred toward Conner and he perceives this but is unaware of its source. Their physical chemistry is undeniable but Moira distrusts Conner and blames him totally for her families' deaths. Her assassination attempt fails and lands her at his mercy.

The tension in this book really comes from two sources; someone besides Moira wants Conner dead and Moira's struggle between hatred and compassion for the Seer. Moira is cold and almost emotionless at first. Her feelings tend to be dark and destructive and repetitive.

Conner's feelings are well described, better than Moira's actually. Conner knows that Moira is unlike any other female he has bedded. Also he longs for his visions to cease as he realizes that they take a terrible toll on him physically and emotionally.

The beginning and ending portions of this book move swiftly and are well paced but the middle sections slowed considerably. This was, I imagine, to allow the reader new insights into the characters outside of a quickly moving plot and it worked for Conner but not so much for Moira as her emotions tended to be exposed in high action scenes. The ending is good though and left an opening for sequels to follow.

The seer sent killers to murder her and her family. The only survivor of the massacre, Moira swore vengeance and six years later her quest takes her to the camp of the Lord of the Isles Diarmid. His Counselor guiding the lord, Connor has visions that disturb him as he sees himself jailed in a luxurious prison yet also spending nights with an unknown beautiful female.

Moira plans to sleep with the seer before killing him. However, the night proves incredible and she fumbles her attempt to kill the seer. Instead only wounded Connor enslaves Moira. Over time she learns the secret price her captor pays for visions and begins to feel for Connor, but is it enough to overcome her loathing in order to forgive him and help him.

This is a super paranormal romance that grips the audience the moment Connor sees the beautiful Moira for the first time and makes a bad assumption that his liege sent her. The story line is fast-paced as she uses him but fails to kill him so she becomes his prisoner instead. As their relationship changes the key remains constant throughout the exhilarating story line: readers and the hero wonder whether Moira can leave her hatred behind for her love of him.

Harriet Klausner

I decided to read this book because it was a christmas present. Thinking it would be good, it wasn't.

The book had way to much sex. Most of the book was either sex or was talking about sex. I like books where the books talk about other things besides sex.

The book starts out explaining how Moira wants to avenge the Seer. This all came down to Connor (the Seer) ordered her family and villager's death. This caused her to have a tortured soul and pretty much wanted to kill Connor. Then came some sex scenes meant to explain that Connor could have any women he wanted when giving off this scent. During this time he had Moira who originally went to go to his room to get the way of the land. He then went into a frenzy to find her because she took away his pain. 2 months later, she comes back to his life by trying to kill him. She then is captured is almost tortured to death and comes back to him as his slave. Then it goes on with how he is able to gain her forgiveness, how the pain affects him, learning about himself through her, many sex scenes, the attempts on his life, the highlord using him for power, etc

Overall, this book was not very good, and had to much sex!

I read romance novels as a source of stress relief, especially now with the world in chaos and the changes within our own country...ebooks are wonderful and cheaper than a psychiatrist couch, healthier than drinking. I have enjoyed other novels that Terri Brisbin has written and though the books in this series were more expensive; the subject seemed intriguing, so I purchased the first two of the trilogy.

The author has combined historical romance with the paranormal. Hannah Howell has begun a series using the same combination with a family that has been blessed or cursed with special gifts and the plots and characters are well done. Unfortunately, I can not say the same about A Storm of Passion which is about a "Seerer" named Connor and a young woman, Moira. Moira is seeking revenge for the death of her family and clan because of information that he provided during one of his first episodes of clairvoyance. Conner unwittingly caused the attack six years earlier that changed Moira's life.

It is a simple plot; but, I began to dislike the characters and by half way through, the novel was uninteresting. I found the "romance" to be too explicit, from the beginning and then repeated throughout the book. Conner's second sight was used by a wealthy and powerful lord in order to increase the man's power. Before the episodes of "seeing" he has enormous sexual drive with the ability to bring women to him with the willingness to do what ever he desires.

If you enjoy historical romance with detailed information about a time period and a more gentle approach between the characters with a plot that is interesting; I suggest that you read one of this author's earlier books.

I nearly stopped reading this after the first couple of chapters, because it felt a little dark to me. But I love Terri Brisbin's work and decided to trust her in this new direction she was following. So glad I did. This book was about the characters and she did a masterful job in developing them, I thought. At times, I felt confined by the lack of "action" yet I came to realize that it was an important part of the experience. I was as much a captive as Conner and Moira and, because of that, I was able to feel what they were feeling. Rather than being merely an observer, I came to feel as though I was interacting with the characters here.

Meanwhile, the sex scenes were spot on, in my opinion. I loved her use of real words that we all use, instead of the usual euphemisms so prevalent in romance novels (although a couple of "manhoods" did creep in) and her descriptions are lush, realistic and erotically sensual - a must for me. She also kept me in suspense as to how the plot would play out. Although I was hoping for a HAE ending, I had no idea whether it would happen, which I found compelling - and because she had developed so many lovely people in this book, it came not to matter. And she did not disappoint - I loved the unexpected ending.

I highly recommend this book. It's a little different from the usual "alpha male/quivering maid/much ado about nothing" romance (which I love, BTW) and brings a sense of depth to the genre which I found enormously gratifying. Few books have me reaching for the kleenex box - this one did.

As a young girl Moira saw her family horrifically murdered on the orders of The Seer. Ever since she has sworn to hunt him down and seek her revenge by killing him. When she finally meets The Seer, she is swept away by lust and passion and ends up in his bed for a night. When she slips away, The Seer hunts for her as she is the only woman who is able to stop his pain. Months later she gets her chance to kill him but only injures him. She is tortured nearly to the point of death but The Seer saves her to be his prisoner. Over the weeks and months Moira comes to see The Seer as a vulnerable man, Conner, who has his own demons to conquer and desperately wants her forgiveness in order to make sense of his life. But as Moira comes to realise that she loves Conner, the paranormal powers that gives him second sight are set to end his life.

Terri Brisban has taken a quite a turn in her writing, moving away from her usual "straight" historical romances that she write so well, such as The King's Mistress: A Novel and The Dumont bride. This book has strong paranormal and erotic elements, and was pretty bleak at times. I didn't think this book would be my cup of tea because I like my romances with nothing added. But I really enjoyed the main characters. Both Moira and Conner were prisoners of their past and faced tremendous adversity. But the way they overcame their distrust and hate of each other was very touching.

I still didn't like the paranormal elements of the book because Brisbin used it to give the story a cliché ending, and I thought the sex was a bit overdone. But the connection between Conner and Moira made this a good read.