emmelnie's review
4.0
Claimed is a book that’s both soft and harsh. The harsh part is the beginning, where our heroine Lara is kidnapped by slavers and awakens from interstellar statis travel to a brutal fate as a source of blood for a vampiric race. Grayson and Winter don’t cut any corners in the first fifth of Claimed; we experience the cruelty inflicted on Lara as everything is told from her POV. So many times in SF romance we come in at the tail end of a period of slavery for a main character, where things are just alluded to. Here we go through it all, and it can be tough to read.
But once Lara crash-lands on a planet featuring a number of races including the Mosaurans of earlier books by Grayson, we almost get a reward for getting through those bleak passages. Our Mosauran hero Markus is a model of kindness and gentility to Lara, and the plot then centers around their mutual discovery of their fated attachment as well as trying to find out what happened to all the other slaves who crash-landed in escape pods on the ice planet as Lara did.
I can clearly see future books about the other slaves, and I really look forward to how they interact with the different races from Grayson and Winter’s previous books (who were all sucked into the same wormhole that made them crash on this planet). There’s almost a sense of a new, blended society being formed in this fierce, cold world, and that looks like a fascinating idea to explore.
Lara and Markus are interesting and generous characters, and reading their slide into love is a wonderful counterpart to the tough beginnings of this book. It will be interesting to see how future books unfold as they focus on this brutal planet they’re all trying to survive.
Claimed is a great start to a new series, and one that sets up a really intriguing premise. Can’t wait to see more in this world!
But once Lara crash-lands on a planet featuring a number of races including the Mosaurans of earlier books by Grayson, we almost get a reward for getting through those bleak passages. Our Mosauran hero Markus is a model of kindness and gentility to Lara, and the plot then centers around their mutual discovery of their fated attachment as well as trying to find out what happened to all the other slaves who crash-landed in escape pods on the ice planet as Lara did.
I can clearly see future books about the other slaves, and I really look forward to how they interact with the different races from Grayson and Winter’s previous books (who were all sucked into the same wormhole that made them crash on this planet). There’s almost a sense of a new, blended society being formed in this fierce, cold world, and that looks like a fascinating idea to explore.
Lara and Markus are interesting and generous characters, and reading their slide into love is a wonderful counterpart to the tough beginnings of this book. It will be interesting to see how future books unfold as they focus on this brutal planet they’re all trying to survive.
Claimed is a great start to a new series, and one that sets up a really intriguing premise. Can’t wait to see more in this world!
lemonysnicket's review
3.0
Fairly good book
It was interesting and Markus was such a gentleman. I hope everyone is rescued from those vile creatures. I'll be trying the next book and I must say Jessica Grayson is a great writer in my opinion.
It was interesting and Markus was such a gentleman. I hope everyone is rescued from those vile creatures. I'll be trying the next book and I must say Jessica Grayson is a great writer in my opinion.
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