Title: Divine Scales
Author: Jennifer Blackstream
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
A warrior with a hunger for sin . . .
Driven by a terrible hunger for the black souls of evil men, Patricio, divine executioner of the gods, patrols the kingdom with blood on his hands and ice in his heart. The families of his victims sing his praises–the result of a witch’s cruel curse that condemns him to be forever surrounded by false adulation. When the curse sours the first hint at romance Patricio has had since becoming the king’s heir, his rage is all consuming. Disgusted, he leaves the mermaid in the sea and returns to the palace…only to be shocked when she bargains for the legs to follow him.A mermaid out of her element . . .
Marcela’s world has been turned upside-down–literally. Once a proud member of her father King Triton’s royal guard, she’s now the victim of an angel’s curse. Enchanted into false adoration bordering on obsession, she traded her tail–and her voice–to the sea witch for the legs she needed to pursue the object of her desire. In a cruel twist of fate, the very magic that gave her the means to pursue her passion also broke the spell that caused it. Now she’s in the angel’s arms, but how can either of them trust the desire churning inside them when so much magic has muddied the waters?
Trust isn’t easy when nothing is as it seems . . .
A mermaid with legs and no singing voice. An angel with a curse. A witch with a chip on her shoulder. The world is full of magic and mayhem, and for an angel and a mermaid, it will take more than a kiss to balance…the Divine Scales.
In Divine Scales, Patricio might be an angel, but he’s definitely not angel. He yearns for the souls of evil-doers, but the families of his victims sing his praises because of a witch’s curse. The story offers an intriguing spin on the Little Mermaid fairytale, intriguing characters and a well-executed premise. Patricio is a complicated character, hard to connect with at first, but once you get to know him better, he turns out to be not as bad as one would think.
Marcela starts out as your typical love-struck heroine, but once you figure out that her over-the-top obsession is due to a spell, it turns all the more intriguing. Kind of like in the Little Mermaid, she trades her tail and voice to the sea witch, in exchange for the legs she needs to walk on land. But this magic also caused the witch’s curse that enchanted her in the first place, to be broken.
I can honestly say this book has one of the most original premises I’ve ever read. Angels and mermaids? That’s a first. And then the whole spin on the Little Mermaid, one of my all-time favorite fairytales (although the original always makes me cry). The writing is sublime. Both main characters are equally complex and intriguing, and the romance between them is sizzling. The drama is real here, not over-the-top exaggerated like in some romance novels. The character’s feelings sound realistic. The plot offered quite a few surprises.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good romance story with plenty of fantasy elements thrown in, and heaps of creativity.
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