House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1) by Jaymin Eve

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Title: House of Darken (Secret Keepers, #1)
Author: Jaymin Eve
Series: Secret Keepers #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: May 30, 2018
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 338
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Reading Challenges: CC's Goodreads Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

When Emma moves to Astoria, Oregon, she is given two rules:

#1 – Don’t cross to “their” side of the street.#2 – Don’t mess with the elites, especially Lexen Darken, top elite and resident bad boy.While she finds this both weird and insulting, Emma has no actual intention of breaking these rules - until her guardians go missing. Now all bets are off. Only a single line separates her side of the street from the elites', and she's crossing it.

Captured and held by Lexen and his brothers, she learns the rules are in place for a very good reason. There's a secret world hidden in this small town which goes far beyond the one she knows and understands.A world not for humans.

** This is a full length (105,000 words) fantasy/paranormal romance story. It's Upper YA, with cursing and some non-detailed sex scenes/references.

My Review:

Favorite Quotes:

Our side of the street. Their side of the street. What crap was this? Did they segregate people here? Because I was not cool with any sort of segregation. Except for assholes – they could walk straight off a cliff.

Sure, they were rich, probably famous, judging by the ten-foot-high fences, but we were all people. Different but the same. Money shouldn’t make anyone think they were better than anyone else.

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This wasn’t what I was expecting from a shifter romance.  In fact, I don’t even know if I would call it a shifter book at all.  It was more along the lines of an alien romance, but the aliens shifted.  Whatever you want to call it, I liked it. And it jumped right onto the action, while sometimes I hate how there is no back story or how we don’t get a chance to know the characters before the story jumps off, this time it didn’t feel rushed or plagued by info dumps.

I liked how Lexen and Emma fought their attraction to one another. And how cold he seemed to her to get her to back off. Yet, he contradicted himself in his actions by making sure she was safe and comfortable at the same time, which just made her more intrigued by his intense demeanor.

Emma was cool, she could be hard and soft which I enjoyed, no one wants a one dimensional character.  And I liked how determined she was to find her guardians, even while recognizing that she wasn’t the easiest to get along with.  Even with her tragic past, she was still trying to look out for others when she had every right to be selfish with her attention.  She was just a kind person, with the same fears that effect all of us.  And I reallly liked that she didn’t try to be so strong all the time.  She allowed others to see her when she was vulnerable and she wasn’t too proud ot ask for help.

The world building was awesome, and only gets better as you read more of the series. (I’m on the third one)  I found it highly original and singularly unique in its description.  And the way the worlds were symbiotic towards one another was intriguing and a lovely layer to the why’s of their connection.  I love when loose ends you weren’t even looking for are tied up.

The story had a good deal of detailed background to cover but I don’t think it was too difficult to sift through. It was one of those just right ones, not too much details, but not too little either.