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Marked by Temptation (eBook)
| Marked by Temptation | |
|---|---|
 Marked by Temptation eBook Cover, written by Deanna Chase | |
| Author(s) | Deanna Chase |
| Publisher | Bayou Moon Press |
| Publication date | April 29, 2014 |
| Media type | eBook |
| Length | 144 Pages |
| ASIN | B00K1MNB0I |
| Followed by | Kissed by Temptation |
For other uses of the word Incubus, see Incubus (disambiguation).
Marked by Temptation is an eBook written by Deanna Chase. It is the first work in the Coven Pointe series by this author. In this work the character Vaughn is an Incubus.
Overview
- Title: Marked by Temptation
- Author: Deanna Chase
- Published By: Bayou Moon Press
- Length: 144 Pages
- Format: eBook
- ASIN: B00K1MNB0I
- Publishing Date: April 29, 2014
Other Works in this Series on SuccuWiki
Plot Summary
Mati Ballintine is a sex witch looking for a hot one-night stand to bolster her power, and sexy Vaughn Paxton is cocky enough to make her work for it. But when their one night turns into more than they bargained for, one life is changed, another threatened, and suddenly there's a whole lot more than lust at stake.
Book Review
The following review was originally published by Tera on her Blog, A Succubi's Tale on October 14, 2016
Mati’s powers as a sex witch are fuelled by sex. Quite a lot of it in fact, if she didn’t know better she might think she was a succubus. An encounter with Vaughn leads towards something more, and when that turns unexpected, neither of them will escape unscathed.
Overall I liked the story, the characters and the overall themes in this work. Both of the main characters, Mati and Vaughn are complex, interesting, and they do mesh together so very well as the story unfolds. There’s some delicious erotica mixed into the telling of an overarching series of mysteries that didn’t overcome the story to be told.
Some of the minor characters are quite unlikeable however, that being part of the plots of course, and one particular instant where Vaughn comes in contact with a group was, at least for me, rather uneven, odd, and confusing. More so was Mati’s family, there reactions to Vaughn and the seemingly single mindedness of many of the minor characters and how that drives a wedge between them.
What’s more confusing, at least to me, is that the author seems to assume that someone picking up this work will be familiar with their other series Bourbon Street and thus simply know what’s going on with other characters from that series that drop into this one. As much as I liked this work, that for me was where the story lost me entirely. There’s little in the way of explaining about how things work, who certain groups are, why this universe is shaped as it is. Events unfold and I couldn’t quite understand some of the references made, which matter it seemed to the characters themselves.
Getting back to this work in isolation, the questions that came up from Vaughn’s true nature, the questions about what incubi are, and how all of things links together really isn’t expanded on. For example, a character is said to have opened a portal, but not much more. Mati is said to have quite a lot of power, but not really how that works. There are moments when I felt I was groping around for answers and I didn’t quite find them.
While it is explained that Vaughn is an incubus, at least partly so, and Mati is responsible for his transformation, that event is difficult to sort out, not the least of which comes from a group rushing in to pull the two lovers apart. What follows from that moment was, for me, the weakest part of the work. The work moved from a hot, passionate story about two soulmates into what I can only describe as in-fighting within a family, misunderstanding all around, and a horrid lack of trying to find answers.
This all leads into a bit of a train wreck for Mati, and then, suddenly, with the help of a certain character from the author’s other series, everything gets straightened out and the work resolves in a lovely way. It’s a bit too pat, too quick however and considering all that came before, and Mati’s personality, I expected more from the ending.
Written well, the main characters are wonderful, the plot is complex and interesting. The need to lean on a reader having read the author’s other series and being familiar with this universe is a bit of a problem and perhaps the author needs to give more background to things than they did here. The heat is delicious, Mati and Vaughn as a couple seem almost a perfect match. But this series needs to stand on its own, to bring new readers into a new series.
Four out of five pitchforks.
I rather liked with work as a whole, how the characters intermixed and how things came together and fell apart. There’s quite a lot of plot and atmosphere to build on, but really this work is an adjunct to the author’s main series. That seems to come out in the second work which was released almost two years after this one and, like this work, has one important thing missing. Understanding. Save that point in this work, I would have liked this a lot more than I do.