Night of Ceremony by M. Raiya

nightofceremonyTitle: Night of Ceremony

Series: Notice #4

Author: M. Raiya

Genre: MM / Fantasy

Length: Novella

Publisher: Torquere Press (March 10th, 2013)

Heat Level: Low

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5~3 Hearts

Reviewer: Thommie

Blurb: Night of danger.

Night of choices.

Night when everything will change.

That is, if Varian and Josh survive the Night of Ceremony.

Varian and Josh first appeared in the novel Notice.

Product Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78_85&products_id=3861

Review: This book is part of the Notice series best read in order.

This is book four for Josh and Varian and their story keeps going after they are married. In this novella they are having not one, but two ceremonies.

The first ceremony is a big and formal one so that Varian’s clan will accept Jenny, their daughter as their own.

The second is a more private one and the consequences will affect only Varian, Josh and Huntington, Varian’s brother. Their decision to adopt and be fathers and family to Jenny means they need to be immortals as well. And Justin wanting to bond with them through blood could mean lots of thing. They will either survive the blood sharing or they will not be strong enough and lose their life.

But that is not the only danger in the future for them. First they must survive the first ceremony and that proves a bit challenging.

Well, I am a dragon lover for life, have been since a child, but truth is that this book didn’t hold much interest in me. Yes, the lore is somehow fascinating. Varian is a dragon clan leader and their diversity and powers are very cool, loved ‘em all. The fact that dragons aren’t born immortals is also a very enticing part of the story as well.

My issues were with the narration mostly. This book is told from Varian’s point of view, yet it felt too impersonal to me. As if Varian was detached from himself while living the story. The plot while it had many opportunities to arise emotions and tension failed to do so. It started as almost a boring tale and while it slowly built up the feeling that something is about to happen, it didn’t reach the goal of making your heart beat faster and get engrossed in the story when that “bad thing” did in fact happen. It was perhaps the fact that there was no space for the proper development, or there could be many reasons why it failed to grip me, but so it did.

For the second part of the story and therefore the second ceremony Varian was a bit more approachable, but still the enormity of what that meant was quite lost, too. It just happened so fast. as if the fact that three people turned immortals was an everyday issue, and right after that they jumped into doing the noble thing and that was quite the cliché that had me simply reading without ever falling in the story head first or feeling involved with it.

Bottom end, this was a nice book, with a nice story and if you’ve followed the series then you’ll probably love the turn of things. If not, then you probably should and give yourself some time with the characters to know them and get attached with them, while learning about this enticing world of dragons.