Review: Storm Born by Richelle Mead

Title:  Storm Born
Author:  Richelle Mead
Series:  Dark Swan, #1
Publisher:  Zebra
Release Date:  August 1, 2008
Pages:  361
Rating:  ★★★★★

Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants...
Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy--one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her...

Richelle Mead is amazing, simply amazing. Not only is her Vampire Academy Series a favorite of mine, but also I may have found a love in her adult urban fantasy series, Dark Swan. I was about to give up on fae books. I have only read a few, but Storm Born turned out to be a real page turner.

We have the main character, Eugenie who is really just like all my favorite urban fantasy heroines. They basically all have one trait in common. They kick some serious ass. I found Euguine quite funny too. Her life isn't easy either. She recently finds out she is the daughter of the deceased fae king, The Storm King and there is a prophecy going around that his daughters son will rule the world and every fae is trying to rape her and be the father of that son. Yea. Eugenie has a lot on her plate.

"Oh, God. I’m trapped in the fucking Chronicles of Narnia."
"I’m sure that would be an amusing reference, if I understood it."  

We have two hot love interests, which means, yea, you guessed it. A love triangle! Kiyo is the hot shape shifting fox her steps into Eugenie's life and he makes it known that he is interested in her. To be honest I hate Kiyo. At the beginning I thought I would be the one cheering Kiyo on, but boy was I wrong. Part of it has to do with this huge secret and it's not one of those secrets where the girl says, yea, okay, whatever. It's a secret where it can damage the relationship for him keeping it in the first place.

And we have the sexy Dorian. Ooohhhh. I love this guy. He is king, of course and he is really funny and I always have a huge smile on my face when we have a scene with Dorian. He wants the Storm King's prophecy to come true, but he's not going to rape her to make it happen. I think Dorian has his own agenda, but to me he is real and a heart a good man and honest unlike Kiyo.

"That’s the last time you’re going to kiss me,” I warned when it ended.
He smiled knowingly, and in his eyes, I could see his own memories of that night. “So you say."   

I just love how Richelle Mead is able to get me so worked up with these characters that this book has been all I've been thinking about. I think Storm Born was a great start to the Dark Swan Series and I am looking forward to the next book, Thorn Queen.