Tempted By A Rogue Prince (Eternal Mates #3) by Felicity Heaton-Review, Interview and Giveaway
Tempted by a Rogue Prince
Eternal Mates #3
by Felicity Heaton
Genre: adult, paranormal, fantasy, romance
Release Date: August 9, 2014
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release date August 9, 2014
An elf prince on the verge of losing himself to the darkness, Vail is maddened by the forty-two centuries he was under the control of a witch and forced to war with his brother. Now, he roams Hell seeking an escape from his terrible past and the heads of all who bear magic. When demons of the Fifth Realm capture him, he sees a chance to end his existence, but when he wakes in a cell to a beautiful female, he finds not death but his only shot at salvation—his true fated mate.
Captured by the enemy of the Third Realm when the war ended, Rosalind has spent months in the cells of the Fifth Realm with her magic bound, forced to heal the new king’s demon warriors, and haunted by the lives she has taken. When she’s brought to heal an unconscious man, she discovers her only hope of escape has come in the form of her worst nightmare and the first part of a prediction that might spell her doom—a devastatingly handsome and dangerous dark elf prince.
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REVIEW: TEMPTED BY A ROGUE PRINCE is the third instalment in Felicity Heaton’s Eternal Mates paranormal romance series. This is demonic elf prince Vail and light witch Rosalind’s storyline.
Vail had been held captive and controlled by a dark witch for over four thousand years and the atrocities he has committed have left a black mark so dark upon his soul that he prayed for death. Imprisoned by the new king of the Fifth Realm, Vail fights against the torture and pain only to be healed by a woman he feels the need to both soothe and destroy. With each encounter Rosalind and Vail’s connection to one another grows stronger but it is Vail’s emotional turmoil about the past that both frightens and attracts Rosalind like a moth to a flame.
TEMPTED BY A ROGUE PRINCE follows the imprisonment, torture and eventual escape of three people whose lives have crossed paths once before. Rosalind is Vail’s fated mate but she is also a reminder of the woman who destroyed Vail’s humanity and his ability to distinguish between right and wrong. It is a story that is graphically violent and emotionally heartbreaking. Vail has been betrayed time and again, and the memories of the people whose lives he has destroyed will be carried with him for all times.
A good portion of the storyline is told through the internal dialogue of each of our leading characters. Vail is torn between wanting to kill Rosalind and protecting her from harm while Rosalind hopes to heal the mind of a man whose belief in himself has been damaged beyond repair. The nature of these thoughts was slightly repetitive reminding the reader about the hell that our characters had endured.
Felicity Heaton’s storylines are imaginative, passionate, heartbreaking and intense. TEMPTED BY A ROGUE PRINCE is a little darker with its graphic imagery of one man’s suffering and slide into hell. Vail and Rosalind’s escape will force them to depend on one another for survival but also force them to take a deeper look within their heart and soul.
Copy supplied by the author
Reviewed by Sandy
Rosalind kept some distance between them as she rounded the slab, her gaze fixed on him the whole time, monitoring him for a sign he might attack her. He began writhing again, fitful jerking movements that rattled the chains that held him pinned to the slab with his arms above his head, stretched out like a piece of meat on a butcher’s block.
Bastard demons.
The male snarled low in his throat, as if he knew her thoughts and seconded them. He looked so savage coated in dried blood and dirt, and felt more dangerous than ever. She flicked a glance at the bent steel bar and the grooves in the solid stone. More dangerous than she had thought possible.
Rosalind kneeled beside him on the stone flags.
He snarled again, his eyes rolling back in his head as he sniffed, inhaling deeply. He rocked his hips and her cheeks heated. He was growing hard in his wrecked black trousers. She averted her eyes, pretending she hadn’t noticed, and diligently kept her eyes away from that area of his anatomy, not wanting to ponder why he had reacted in such a way to her scent.
She reached out to touch his bloodstained hands. He growled and grew more restless, twisting on the stone slab and pulling at his restraints.
“Shh,” she whispered, unsure whether he could hear her and whether speaking to him was wise when he was in this condition.
Would her presence and the sound of her voice make him better, or worse?
He hated witches. He had looked at her with murder in his eyes.
She couldn’t leave him though or let him continue to suffer, and it wasn’t because she was a captive in this cell with him or the orders the demon had given her. The sight of him suffering, lost in whatever strange place had hold of him, caused an ache in her chest that compelled her to help him.
“I won’t hurt you. I swear it.” She reached out to touch his hands and he hissed at her, flashing fangs. She barely dodged his attack, falling backwards as he launched his head forwards, his teeth clacking as they struck each other and not her flesh.
He grew wild, bucking off the slab and yanking on the manacles that bound his wrists. She wanted to reach for him but instinct held her back, warned her to let him wear himself out. He had tried to bite her. Mother earth. She covered her mouth with her hand and stared at him, her heart developing a new ache. What dark power gripped him that he would attack her when she was only trying to help him?
He began to settle again, his movements becoming less frantic, weaker as his strength faded.
“I will not hurt you. I know you can hear me. I am only going to heal you.” Rosalind moved back to her knees beside him and swallowed hard.
He slumped onto the bench, the tangled threads of his black hair sticking to the sweat on his brow.
He looked fragile, but she wasn’t going to let that deceive her. This man was deranged.
What sort of male could have not only moved with her healing spell ricocheting through his body and all the injuries that had remained, but managed to find the strength to bend thick steel bars and rake deep grooves into solid stone with only his nails?
Not a sane one.
Many of the dungeon’s residents had been here long enough to have gone mad and were normally noisy at night, but last night they had been silent while this man had raged.
They had feared he would escape. The guards had feared too, exchanging meaningful glances as they punished her.
She had feared too.
This male had come here insane.
What was he?
She had thought vampire before, but now she wasn’t so sure.
Rosalind reached slowly towards him. His lips were bloodstained too, a dark spot of it gathered by the corner of his hard mouth. Had he tried to bite the bars, or had the guards struck him to subdue him?
His eyes flicked open and locked on her.
She tensed, her heart pounding, fear pressing her to withdraw her hand before he attacked her. She kept it hovering in the air between them, refusing to let him bully her into shrinking away from him.
“Hello again,” she whispered, keeping still and giving him time to adjust to her presence. He continued to stare at her, deep into her eyes, his blue-grey ones flat and dull. Lifeless. “They brought me to heal you. It seems you, um, hurt yourself.”
He exhaled softly and blinked. A good sign? Mother earth, she hoped so.
She hadn’t expected him to remain calm on hearing her voice. She had expected another replay of him attempting to break free of his bonds, most likely so he could kill her.
“I need to touch you to heal you.”
No response.
During her time alone in her cell after her punishment, she had mulled over their entire first encounter, and had concluded that he hated anyone touching him. She had been entertaining theories about it all day. It wasn’t because she was a witch. He hadn’t known that at the time.
“Can I touch you?” She wasn’t willing to risk her limbs by attempting to do such a thing without his consent.
He clenched his fists and gave a curt nod.
Rosalind took it as a green light, noting that he had steeled himself, mentally preparing for her touch.
She shuffled closer, biting down on her tongue when her ribs protested and each mark on her back burned beneath her black dress.
“Harmed you?” he croaked, his voice gravelly and deep. His eyes searched hers. “Heard you… cry. You hurt?”
The stilted manner of his speech spoke to her of the incredible pain he endured, agony that she could see in his eyes, yet he was asking about her instead.
She swallowed the lump in her throat, stifling the memories of her punishment, and forced a shrug. “No worse than usual.”
“Usual?” Black eyebrows dipped low, narrowing eyes rapidly gaining a dark edge and obsidian blotches amidst the stormy blue-grey of his irises. What was he? “Beat… often?”
He grated the words out from between clenched teeth and she saw his fangs were down. Maybe he was a vampire, or another form of fae. There were many in the world and a lot of them could take on a human appearance.
“It no longer bothers me.” She plastered on a false smile, one she hoped would stop him from asking about it. “But… they do it often.”
He growled so low that she only felt it as a rumble through her chest and then strained against his manacles, becoming so agitated that she feared he would hurt himself again. His face screwed up, his enormous fangs on display, and he threw his head back and roared as he arched off the dark stone slab.
“You need to calm down.” Rosalind reached for him.
She froze when his eyes snapped open.
Purple.
Her breathing accelerated.
She shook her head.
He couldn’t be.
He stared at her, vivid purple eyes flashing wildly as his lips peeled away from his fangs again. Fangs. Purple. Mother earth, she was going to hyperventilate.
His overlong black hair parted to reveal the pointed tips of his ears and she almost passed out.
Elf.
Rosalind shot backwards away from him. Pain erupted in her side, searing her ribs and stealing her breath together with him. Not a damn elf. He couldn’t be a bloody elf.
She shook her head and huddled into the corner, holding her knees and staring at him as he wrestled with his manacles.
Anything but an elf. Why couldn’t he be anything but an elf?
She went back seventy years, to a magical summer’s day when she had been having tea in the garden with her grandmother. It had all been so peaceful and perfect. Endless blue skies. Flowers in full bloom. Butterflies and bees going about their business. A perfect moment.
Until her grandmother had turned sombre, staring at her in silence and worrying her. Rosalind had asked her what was wrong and her grandmother had looked right into her eyes with ones that swirled like a silver storm and had spoken words that had changed her forever.
In Rosalind’s future would be an elven prince, and after meeting him, she would die.
TRC: Hi Felicity and welcome back to The Reading Café. Congratulations on a successful 2014. We have a few questions that will hopefully catch us up with what’s happening in your world of writing.
TRC: TEMPTED BY A ROGUE PRINCE is the latest and third release in your Eternal Mates paranormal romance series. Would you please tell us something about the premise?
Felicity: Tempted by a Rogue Prince is the third book in my Eternal Mates series and follows on from the second book in the series, Claimed by a Demon King. We are still in Hell, but this time we are following Vail, an elf prince who is wandering through the demon realms, maddened by the things that have happened to him and searching for an escape from it. Vail ends up captured by the warriors of the Fifth Realm, and dragged unconscious into the cells where he meets his destiny in the form of a beautiful female born of the same species as the woman who held him spellbound and tormented him for over four thousand years.
Rosalind took part in the war between the Third Realm and the Fifth Realm, fighting on the side of the third. During the war, she was captured by the Fifth Realm, and has been held in the cells of the castle ever since, forced to heal anyone that the demon king commands her to heal, including a handsome unconscious male in one of the cells. When Rosalind realises that he’s not only an elf but an elf prince, and that the prediction she was given by her grandmother might be about to come true, a prediction she’s tried to avoid triggering, she isn’t sure what to do but one thing is for certain—she needs his help to escape the demons.
TRC: How many books do you have planned for the series?
Click HERE for our review of KISSED BY A DARK PRINCE
Click HERE for our review of CLAIMED BY A DEMON KING
Felicity: At the moment, I have plans to write another seven novels for the series and some novellas. The deeper I delve into this world, the more characters come to me with stories I really want to tell. I want to keep exploring this world non-stop, but unfortunately other series demand my attention and I have to keep stepping away from it to play in those worlds instead.
TRC: What or who was the inspiration behind the Eternal Mates series? Was there a moment that you knew you had an entire new series ready for pen and paper?
Felicity: The inspiration behind the series was really my other series, Vampire Erotic Theatre, and not only my readers’ fantastic responses to that series but the world I was playing in there. It’s actually the same world as the Eternal Mates series. I had built up a place filled with vampires, werewolves, and other paranormal creatures I hadn’t played with before, like fae. The Vampire Erotic Theatre series was slated to end at book 6, once every hero at the theatre had had his story told, but I didn’t want to step away from that world. I wasn’t ready yet. I wanted to delve deeper into it and I also wanted to bring dark elves into the world of paranormal romance. There was a distinct absence of elves in the PNR world when I was working on the series and when I released the first book. Desire to continue exploring the Vampire Erotic Theatre world and to write elves as paranormal romance heroes… that’s how the Eternal Mates series was born.
TRC: When last we spoke (October 2013) you had just released HER WICKED ANGEL and had revealed that NEVAR’s storyline is next. Would you please tell us something about the premise of HER AVENGING ANGEL (Her Angel #7) set to release in October 2014?
Felicity: It’s really hard to actually say much about Her Avenging Angel without giving away events that happen in Her Wicked Angel. I hate spoilers, so I don’t want to ruin that book for any who haven’t read it. All I can really say is Nevar is still a very bad, very dark and somewhat broken angel, as we’ve seen him in the Interludes series of short flash fiction pieces I’ve been writing for him (they’re available on my website) charting his life between the end of Her Demonic Angel and the start of Her Wicked Angel in the Her Angel series. In Her Avenging Angel, he’s struggling to overcome that darkness and the evil within him, and on top of that he might just be the one angel who can save the world from destruction. Our fate rests in his hands, and needless to say a few of the characters in the series are a little worried about that!
In Her Avenging Angel, we’ll bring the whole gang back together, and meet some new angels who will be the focus of the next big story arc in the series, which will be the Angels of the Apocalypse series set in the Her Angel series world.
TRC: On what are you currently working?
Felicity: I’m editing Her Avenging Angel right now, and then I will be writing the first draft of Hunted by a Jaguar, which is the fourth book in the Eternal Mates series. One of the series bachelors, Kyter, is about to find himself in hot pursuit of his mate. Once I have the first draft of that book wrapped up, I’ll be working on the second draft of the first Guardians of Hades story, Ares, for release next year.
TRC: What’s in store for the remainder of 2014?
Felicity: At the moment, I have only one more planned release for 2014, which is Her Avenging Angel, but it might change. My schedule after October is pretty crazy, so I didn’t want to slate any releases for that period, and wanted to focus on getting Hunted by a Jaguar out in January.
TRC: Would you like to add anything else?
Felicity: Thanks for reading this interview! If you’re a reader of mine, I hope you’ve been enjoying my books and playing in my worlds, and that you’ll continue to read the stories I write.
If you’re new to me, then be sure to pick up the first books in some of my series, which are free in ebook. You can find them by searching Felicity Heaton at your favourite online ebook retailer like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo or Google Play.
TRC: Thank you Felicity for taking the time to update your readers . We wish you all the best.
Follow Felicity:
Website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
Blog: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/blog/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/felicityheaton
Twitter: http://twitter.com/felicityheaton
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/felicityheaton
Tempted by a Rogue Prince, the third book in New York Times best-seller Felicity Heaton’s hot new paranormal romance series, Eternal Mates, is now available in ebook and paperback. To celebrate the release, she’s holding a FANTASTIC GIVEAWAY at her website.
Find out how to enter the Tempted by a Rogue Prince international giveaway (ends August 24th) and be in with a shot of winning a $75, $50 or $25 gift certificate at her website, where you can also download a 6 chapter sample of the novel: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/tempted-by-a-rogue-prince-paranormal-romance-novel.php
Felicity is hosting a Facebook release party for Tempted by a Rogue Prince on August 17th, so join her then for amazing giveaways, Q&A, teasers and more. All the details at: https://www.facebook.com/events/532238736898993/
Felicity is happy to offer an ecopy of KISSED BY A DARK PRINCE or CLAIMED BY A DEMON KING (Winner’s choice) to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.
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8. Giveaway open Internationally
9. Giveaway runs from August 18 to August 22, 2014
