Nature of the Beast – Outside the City, Book 1 by Amylea Lyn

Title: Outside the City 01 – Nature of the Beast

Author: Amylea Lyn

Genre: Fantasy/Alternate World/Paranormal

Length: Novel

Publisher: Silver Publishing

Heat Level: Moderate

Rating:  ♥♥♥♥4Hearts

Reviewer: Adrienne

 Blurb:  The City is a cold, sterile place. What lies Outside it?

Raine O’Kelly has a gift. The very power of nature is his to command. When his gift lands him in trouble with the government, Raine find himself thrown into The Prison; one of the most feared punishment for those citizens who wont conform to The City’s ideals.

Abused, scared, and slowly dying of deprivation from the one thing his body truly needs, an accident lands him in the infirmary, which leads him to be given to The Prison’s most feared inmate… The Beast.

When The Beast defends him from the guards, Raine finds himself inexplicably drawn to the misunderstood man. A man with unique abilities of his own, the Beast’s animalistic desires forms a connection between them that cannot be denied. When he learns The Beast comes from Outside the City, is Raine willing to take the chance on escape with the mysterious man?

Escape wont be easy, and there are dangers waiting for them on The Outside, ready to strike at the fragile relationship between the two men. When The Beast’s past come’s to light, will Raine be able to put aside his own fears in order to fight for the life the two of them could have together? Or will he fold under the pressure?

Will he get his happily ever after?

Or will he become just another victim of the Nature of the Beast.

Review:  Amylea Lyn’s first installment in her new Outside the City series, Nature of the Beast, is set in a world where the City is completely under the control of the government that insists nothing exists beyond the City- a claim they can make since the City is covered by a dome, separating it from the Outside.  The government controls and monitors everything, including the ban on plant life within the City.

Raine is an outcast in the City, he has different coloring than most of the citizens, is gay, and has an unheard of ability to communicate with plants.  Feeling his differences keenly, his sense of isolation and loneliness is deep.

Ash was betrayed by somebody he should have been able to trust, and shoved away in the City prison.  Unable to remember much about his past, and stuck in a dank prison cell for years, he has become The Beast- a man-like creature with animalistic characteristics.

The two meet after Raine is imprisoned for his illegal horde of plants, and is thrown to The Beast.  Under unusual and difficult circumstances, Raine and Ash have to work together to escape their captors, seek a new home, find acceptance, and outwit the traitor from Ash’s past.

Told mainly from Raine’s perspective, Ms. Lyn has created a comprehensive world with events that are plausible within that context.  The ups-and-downs that Raine and Ash experience, the secondary characters, and complexities of the City’s society complete this rather interesting story.  While there are unanswered questions (When and why did the City separate from the Outside?  Why and how is Raine so connected to plants?  Whatever happened with the peripheral characters?) I’m rather certain these will be addressed in future books.  Explaining everything in the first book wouldn’t make too much sense, now would it?