A Fantastic Read!

This is the third book in the Eternal Guardians series. I loved it!

My sister recommended this series to me as she had read them all (that have been released so far) and thought I would enjoy it, and she was right! I downloaded this as an audiobook, as I had previously enjoyed listening to the first two books in the series in audiobook too. Tempted is again narrated by Elizabeth Wiley. She does another fantastic job in telling the story. Her narration is crystal clear and her interpretation of the characters brought them to life.

Demetrius is a rather intriguing character. I didn't know much about him, even from the glimpses I had of him from the first two books. I am extremely glad to be able to get to know him a little better. He is a very dark and mysterious person, who keeps to himself and even holds his fellow Guardians' at arms length. He has a secret or two that he would prefer to remain hidden but, when Isadora goes missing, he realises that he will have to embrace the darkness within to be able to save her.

Isadora is a character that surprised me when I first met her in Marked (the first book in the series). I was originally intrigued with Isadora, who, although a princess, seemed to have a very weak character and let herself get pushed around, especially by her father King Leonidas. However, as this series has progressed, she has impressed me with her inner strength and steely determination. Now, she has my respect and admiration.

This series seems to be getting better and better as it goes along; I am completely hooked! The story continues from the end of the second book and see's Isadora being kidnapped by a witch, who has been given the task by Apophis, a warlock determined to gain power using Isadora's powers of the Hora to thwart Atalanta. What follows is a fast paced, action packed story that had me sitting on the edge of my seat! The story is told through various points of view, which I really liked. Not only do we meet all of the Guardians, as well as Callia and Acacia (Casey) - Isadora's half-sisters' - again, Max is still very much in the story, though in a more minor role. We also get to meet Orphius more. He's Isadora's friend and, even though he is part daemon (though none of the Guardians know this), he has a playful sense of humour that I like. Demetrius's secrets, once revealed, made me understand him a little more. I can see why he would keep himself apart from the other Guardians' though, but this made me feel sad for him. He hasn't had an easy childhood and, finding out who his mother is, made me realise why he would do this. Meanwhile, Atalanta is plotting and scheming as always, and is determined to find the Orb of Chronos that Max had stolen from her. She is one of those villainous characters you love to hate; she's perfectly evil!

One thing I will say about this story (and series as a whole) is the world building is excellent. The characters are well developed and extremely lifelike. The story arc is beginning to take shape and I am getting excited to see where it leads! The story ends on cliffhanger, which has me looking forward to continuing with this series and I will (hopefully) get to read/listen to Enraptured as soon as I can.

Elisabeth Naughton has written an exciting paranormal romance series. I love her fast paced writing style and the flow is wonderful. She has definitely found a fan in me!

Due to scenes of a sexual nature that are on the explicit side, I do not recommend this book for younger readers. However, I highly recommend this book if you love erotic paranormal romances with sexy heroes and strong female characters. - Lynn Worton

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Love and hate!

Would you consider the audio edition of Tempted to be better than the print version?

I have read the first book as a print. The story itself was very enjoyable, with great imagination, characters and story building. However, I found that at times it became unbearably soppy/mushy dragging out the angst, and ruining the overall affect for me. I love romance but when you drown it in incessant 'I love you's but a can't have you (blah d' blah)' makes me cringe and roll my eyes with disdain. Just bone and get it over with already!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tempted?

Nookie in the caves. Nom, nom, nom... :)

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was quite good, but to me all the woman sounded whiny/timid and pitiful.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I think after a while I was just waiting to get to the conclusion to the story itself. The lovey dovey overkill and whining got too much for me. I might just read the rest myself...

Any additional comments?

Good story base and imagination of this fantasy world with some good characters. But tone it down on the placid, timid, screeching woman and insipid loving.

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Thank goodness it was included with membership

I think I am in the minority. I didn't like the story or most of the characters. So much of the story depended on stupid actions on part of the characters to move along. There isn't a lot I can say without giving away big spoilers but I'll try to say a couple of things which rely on minor spoilers, please read further at your own discretion.

Demetrius was extremely cruel to Isadora even at times when he didn't need to be. He could have kept his ultimate secret and told her that they can not be together because she has been put under a spell by the witches and that they are 'in that place, under those circumstances' because the main villain is scheming something. That would have kept things civil and they could have worked together to get out of the situation.

This is a slightly bigger spoiler. Demetrius's so-called friends were very quick to believe certain things about him, Even though 'the room' they found was iffy, he had served with them for around 200 years and definitely had better and extremely easy opportunities in the past to do what they thought he had done. Heck the king chose him first and he said no.

There is much more wrong with the story including over dramatisation of certain scenes which I didn't care for.

The only character I liked was Orpheus and the next story is his and is included with the membership. I'll therefore try to listen to it and hope it's better than this one.

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