Lord of Rage & Primal Instincts (Royal House of Shadows)

This is the second book in a new series called Royal House of Shadows with each book being written by a different author. The series is based in another world where the Kingdom of Elden has been destroyed by the Blood Sorcerer. The Queen and King of Elden have scattered their four children (Nicolai, Breena, Dayn and Micah)to safety and filled them with vengeance to avenge their deaths just before they die at the hands of the Blood Sorcerer.This second book Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe features the Princess Breena who has inherited magic from her mother but can't always control or summon it when needed. Breena has been having passionate dreams about a mystery warrior lover for a while however his face has always been blurred to her and she can never recall his facial features when she wakes up. The book starts at the time of the attacks on the Kingdom of Elden with Breena being whisked away by her parents magic and thrown into a strange and dangerous realm which turns out to be the land of the Ursa warriors.The Ursa warriors were a race of berserkers and all were destroyed ten years ago by vampires suspected to be from the Kingdom of Elden, all except for Osborn and his two younger brothers who have made their home deep in the woods of Ursa where no-one else will venture. Breena stumbles upon their home, tired, hungry and with most of her memory lost so she cannot recall exactly what has happened to her home Kingdom or to her parents. In scenes straight out of Goldilocks she eats their food and sleeps in their bed only to awaken to find this huge man looming over her who she recognises as her dream warrior lover. Osborn instantly recognises Breena as the woman of his dreams but he only wants her for his carnal needs while she wants him to help her and become her warrior to help avenge her parents. Will Osborn help Breena and can she help her Kingdom?I enjoyed this section of the series and the inclusion of the Berserker's which don't seem to appear all that much in the normal paranormal romance books. I'm looking forward to reading the third and fourth books in this series out now and at the end of this month.The first book in the series is called Lord of the Vampires (Nicolai's story) by one of my favourite authors Gena Showalter, the third book is called Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Anderson (Dayn's story) and the fourth book is called Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh (Micah's story).1.  Lord of the Vampires (Mills & Boon Nocturne) 3.  Lord of the Wolfyn (Harlequin Nocturne) 4.  Lord of the Abyss (Harlequin Nocturne)

i bought this because it is book two in a set of four, and it is the weakest of the four, it's so obviously goldilocks & the three bears, even down to the food beds etc. There are good things about this story and you get the impression it could have been a much better book if the author had not got so hung up on including the full fairy story as part of her plotline. The hero characters are not badly written you are just given the impression that everything is secondary but you never find out to what.

Read better than the Vampire's and Wolfyn's stories, but frankly, I got bored, and never finished it. Which tells you all you need to know about the quality of the storyline.

I was really curious about the Royal House of Shadows series, 4 books written by 4 different authors and all based on a different fairytale - whats not to like about that? Especially when one of the authors is Nalini Singh and another is Gena Showalter - both authors who have written books I have enjoyed in the past. I hadn't read anything by Jill Monroe or Jessica Anderson before so I thought this would be a great way to try their work too. Lord of Rage is the second book and Jill Monroe's contribution to the series.Lord of Rage is based on the tale of Goldilocks and is the tale of Nicolai's younger sister Breena. Raised as a princess Breena always knew it would be her duty to marry a man chosen by her father to make an alliance between kingdoms. Everything changes when Elden comes under attack and her parents are killed by the blood sorcerer. On their death beds the king and queen used the last of their magic to send their 4 children to safety. Breena finds herself alone in the forest - lost, terrified and grieving for her family she is tired and hungry when she stumbles across the isolated cottage that Osborn shares with his brothers Bernt and Torben. Osborn is the last of the Ursan beserkers, his village was destroyed in a vampire attack that only his 2 young brothers survived. After years working as a mercenary to provide for them all Osborn wants now is a quiet life and to eventually get revenge on the vampires that took everything from them. The last thing he needs is a beautiful stranger invading his space, particularly one who has been invading his dreams to share passionate kisses. Breena is determined to trace her brothers and discover what happened to their kingdom and she will do whatever it takes to get Osborn to help her achieve her goals.I have to admit I wasn't a huge fan of the first book in this series which surprised me because I'm a fan of Gena Showalter. This is the first book that I've read by Jill Monroe so I wasn't too sure what to expect when I picked up Lord of Rage but I found I enjoyed it more than the first book. There seemed to be more humour to the story and I laughed several times while I was reading it. I liked the fact that the comparison to Goldilocks was more obvious and I did find it amusing when Breena steals the beserker's porridge, breaks their chair and falls asleep in his bed!I wasn't the biggest fan of Breena to begin with though, she comes across as pretty useless and there were several times when she listed her top skill as being good at brushing her hair. Now I know she was a princess who'd led a very sheltered life but I like my heroines to have a bit more spunk to them than that and I was worried she was going to be a complete doormat. She did change quite a bit as Osborn started training her though and I was pleased to see her start to gain confidence and grow up a bit. Osborn was a tortured hero with a difficult past who has spent years focused on getting revenge. I actually loved his brothers more than I loved him but he did grow on me as I got to know him better. I was annoyed by the way he kept pawing at Breena every chance he got but would then push her away and be incredible rude to her though. He seemed to change his mind about what he wanted so often that I was almost left with whiplash! Considering how young and innocent she was supposed to be I also felt that she accepted his attitude and attentions a bit too eagerly.Overall I enjoyed this more than the first book in the series and I will read on to find out what happened to Breena's other brothers and to see if Nicolai can manage to regain his kingdom but unfortunately I don't think this is a series I'll want to re-read in the future.