I thoroughly enjoyed the places this story goes to explore the bonds of family and clan. He carries the burden of a terrible secret and is resigned to never find happiness. In spite of being continuously pummeled her spirit finds wings in this story of evolving strength that takes the story in unexpected and exciting directions! Erik's journey is very different from Hollen's. On the contrary, from the very beginning Tysha's inner strength shines through the muck of her life. This series just gets better! It would be easy for a series like this to not have strong female characters given the way the bride's are found. While Dokiri men won’t let anything keep them from the woman they love, even that woman herself, all love scenes between the hero and heroine are consensual. This novel plays on the trope of abduction. Soon, Erik and Tysha will discover both the reward and cost of unconditional love.  But loving her comes with a great price: his family, his home, his purpose. With each passing day, Erik realizes his timid bride conceals the heart of a lion and finds it harder to turn from her sweet touch and haunting green eyes. However, fate brings him an unexpected bride, as nervous as she is lovely. Any woman will do, so long as he can easily say good-bye. Obligated to choose a bride for himself, Erik has spent weeks in half-hearted pursuit of a woman. With him, Tysha’s long-dormant heart awakens, helplessly drawn to the quiet, enigmatic man who seems content to keep his distance.  For once in her life, the gods show mercy and deliver her to Erik the Tempered, a man as wild as he is noble. Sold to whoremasters by her own husband, Tysha flees into the night with pursuers hot on her trail.

Hollen the Soulless by Denali Day

They had a sizzling sexual tension from the start and it translated vividly on page *fans self*. Why? Mainly because they both overcame their initial impressions of each other to actually understand the other person, and when they did, it was evident that they deeply cared for each other. I'm usually sceptical about the chance of a real HEA if its founded on lust (no matter how hot) but I was mostly sold on Luke's and Shay's HEA. I was a little surprised at the end when I realized that everything in StDoF had only occurred in four days the mystery is solved, the bad guys captured, and of course, the h/h fall in love. But when suspicion falls on her own brother, and her attraction to Luke rages into a full-on erotic affair, can Shay quell the fires inside her long enough to uncover the truth? Now, together with the town’s newly arrived sheriff, Luke Meza-a Las Vegas city boy with his own dark secrets-Shay must navigate a dangerous valley filled with angry ex-lovers, unfaithful spouses, and poisonous snakes in a desperate search for the killer. As an expert on mountain lions, Shay is skeptical when a local prostitute turns up mauled without a drop of blood near the body. And with a hormonally charged teenage brother to raise-and an admitted weakness for the wrong kind of man-they’re giving her plenty of trouble these days. It’s humans who usually give her the most trouble. She’s handy with a gun and can track a wild animal with the best of them.  Shay Phillips knows her way around Dark Canyon. In a southern California town ablaze with sordid secrets, a free-spirited biologist and a straitlaced sheriff join forces to investigate a suspicious killing-and find themselves getting a little too close to the flames…

The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss