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Thursday, July 2, 2015

Review of Valan's Bondmate (Zarronian Warriors Book 1) by Mardi Maxwell @MardiMaxwellRom


A Warrior with a Grudge… 
At thirty-one Valan Erikson is a fierce and relentless warrior. He's never lost a battle but he's losing the war with the mating fever raging in his body. He's accepted that his death is imminent until he's told a compatible race of females has been found. When he discovers they're Wrothian he refuses to take one as a mate until the Council threatens to strip him of his warrior status and let him die in dishonor. 

A Female Who Wants to Escape Her Fate… 
Lia ad-San's Wrothian sire has arranged to trade her to, Gorm ad-Jai, a man she despises. Before she can escape she's abducted by a fierce warrior. Unaware that her sire caused the deaths of the Zarronian females, including Valan's mother and twin sister, she reveals her identity and demands to be freed. 

A Complication They Didn't Expect… 
Enraged to be bonded to the daughter of his most hated enemy, Valan treats Lia as a prisoner rather than a beloved bondmate. When the Zarronians learn her identity they demand she be punished for her sire's war crimes. Valan realizes too late that he's endangered his mate's life. The fever they share will keep them together but only love can make them want each other.





Overall Rating:  3 Rockin’ ★★★

A dying race of warriors searching the universe for compatible bondmates, I'm not sure what I was expecting when I purchased Valan's Bondmate by Mardi Maxwell, but what I read surely wasn't it.  This science fiction romance has its own definitions and the beginning paints the picture of the history between the Wrothians and Zarronian warrior races. It’s brutal and unsettling at times, but this allows the reader to understand the storyline.  The battle for dominance and survival is prevalent between the two races.  When a chemical weapon kills the females of the Zarronian race, it causes them to seek female bondmates for their dying race elsewhere.  They find that they must look towards their enemy, the Wrothians, who are genetically capable of carrying their young.  This is Valan and Lia's journey and the first book in the series.

Valan is commander of the Invisible and from the royal bloodline.  His mother and twin sister were murdered during the war with the Wrothians and his vengeance knows no limits even for his bondmate, Lia.  She was stolen from her bed during the raid to serve as Valan's mate.  Left with no choice but to obey or face punishment, she learns to survive in the new world thrust upon her.

At times this book seemed one-sided, total male dominance over females, and it was disconcerting, but even as the heroine seemed to have no control over her future she learned a way around the tough and strict rules set before her.  Her cunning ability to adapt developed the plot and the rising of a new era to begin.


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