A stranger from another world brings a bit of color to this monochromatic world.
What’s it About?
Candy endeavors to understand the monochromatic ‘beige-world’ she landed in, while trying not to drool over the deliciously tempting pheromone-laden hunter who found her—neither being an easy task. The color deficient land/realm/whatever presents environs she finds mysterious to comprehend and leaves a plethora of questions unanswered. Such as gods and goddesses, and what dangers she will face with the ‘needing moon’?
When an accident scrambles Candy’s blonde-brain, it makes life even more puzzling than that distracting ‘Pheromone-Man’. Next thing Candy knows, she’s told she must embark on a journey, via horseback, with a group of muscular warriors. Now that scenario shouldn’t sound too awful, except Candy is a city girl and it’s going to be a lengthy outing. One that requires outdoorsy accommodations, such as camping (ick), and other unsavory things—likely creepy-crawly things!
During the convoluted journey there are times she’s forced to face daunting terrors, and at those times Thorne intervenes with strength (sigh worthy muscles) and surprising gentleness. But the next minute . . . he ignores her as if she’s ‘Typhoid-Candy’!
Thorne, the epitome of an alpha-male, harbors a past filled with pain and feelings of guilt that haunt him—as does the unique, troublesome, and beautiful, green-eyed female he found while hunting. Just when he thinks to have found a woman he could love, an accident robs her of all memory of him. At the same time, Thorne can no longer ignore the growing violence between two villages, and then there are those maundering murdering renegades . . . Now Thorne faces a new dilemma—what to do with Candy during his absence, fearing to leave her behind.
Except, can this delicate, clumsy, foreign, female endure a long grueling journey through the wilds? More essential, will she ever remember what they shared?
Ripple is a brutally honest dwarf and Thorne’s truest friend. As he tires of the games between the two would-be-lovers he tries to set them right, and finds the perfect night to do so. However, it’s the Moon Goddess’ domain to govern over men that very night, and Luna has her own agenda. During the telling of the fable of the ‘Blood Moon’, the Moon Goddess’ own sorrowful past is revealed.
First Impressions
While this second book was not without its faults, it was vastly superior to book one in the series. With this sequel we finally see Candy land in and attempt to assimilate into this bizarre world which is only beige in color. Her interactions with King Thorne, or as she likes to refer to him “Pheromone Man”, will practically leave you with a case of heat stroke they’re so steamy. We are also introduced to a slew of new characters, some of whom are a pure delight, whereas others are downright villainous. Considering that most of the characters from book one fell into the latter category, the fact we finally get to see some fun and engaging personalities was definitely a welcome improvement. Even though it was entertaining at times to explore this new world with its intriguing characters, one of whom practically oozes sex appeal, there were a number of misses to the plot which hindered the enjoyability factor.
Ebb and Flow
The primary hindrance to this series so far as a whole has been the flow and pace of the story. These first two books are labeled as Part 1 and 2 of the “Blood Moon”, and this second book also felt as though it was divided into two parts, all of which felt unnecessarily complicated. Essentially the entirety of book 1 took place in the world we know of Savannah, and was meant to be an intro of what Candy’s life and relationships were like before traveling into this fantasy realm. Honestly, it should have been 2-3 chapters max rather than a full-length novel. With this second book, the novel opens on Candy arriving in Thorne’s kingdom on the cusp of the “needing moon”, which is basically a time each month when folks get super randy and all manner of sexual delights ensue. Unsurprisingly, Candy and Thorne come together on this night and engage in some intense and exhausting fornicating that leaves them both physically spent, yet also starting to consider having a possible future with each other. Then things get a bit wonky when Candy suffers a blow to the head and loses all memory of how she came to be in this world, as well as her special night with Thorne. This is what resulted in the the feeling of this book being divided in two: everything pre- and post-accident.
A Journey to Nowhere
Following this loss of memory, Thorne receives word that there is some fighting going on between neighboring villages which he must go and put to rest. Rather than leave Candy in the safety of his castle to recover following her injury, he decides to bring her along on this journey to ensure none of his subjects can make a move on her, or harm her in any way. Mkay, here are my thoughts. This entire novel should have been told in reverse. Rather than starting off with countless hours of them coupling in the bedroom followed by Candy’s accident, the first part of this book should have been a longer journey to Thorne’s kingdom following his discovery of Candy having fallen into his world.
Their trek could have involved the same instances of Candy’s shenanigans struggling to adapt and fit into this bizarre landscape in an attempt to lend moments of comedic relief to the plot. Both characters were clearly frustrated with the other throughout this time, yet neither could ignore the underlying hum of attraction pulling them together. They want to keep their distance, but can’t. This then could have culminated in an arrival at their destination on the needing moon with plenty of sex-filled chapters between them, and ultimately a more logical progression of their relationship. Instead we see them start at the max, then fall to rock-bottom, then there are these moments on the journey where Thorne seems so turned off by who Candy is as a person, followed by him intensely desiring her body. It left me feeling like their primary connection was physical more than anything else, and it was difficult to root for these two as a couple.
*A copy of this book was provided for an honest review*
Series: Chroma Crossing Chronicles, book 2. I had no idea there were another two books still to come following this sequel, and I think I may have reached my stopping point.
Final Impressions: Throughout the read I kept thinking, boy they’re taking a while to get to the actual plot. Then after the 3/4 point I wondered, wait are we just never going to learn about what is causing this village disruption, what the heck ever happened to Thorne’s psychotic brother, or why his sister wants to have sex with him? Then when the book ended, and I realized there were yet another two books to come I couldn’t help but feel disappointed at the lack of progress we’ve made so far after two full-length books. We aren’t seemingly any closer to getting to the crux of what this world is all about, and I was really hoping this second book would end with the beige world exploding into color following Candy’s choice to be with Thorne. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. The plethora of grammatical errors also made this a rather difficult road to traverse.
Smut Level: This book certainly has plenty of steam, though I question if there was too much focus on their time in the bedroom which ultimately resulted in a lack of forward movement to the actual plot.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $2.99 Kindle Price. 361 Pages.
Romance Novels for the Beach 