The Battle Sylph by L.J. McDonald

He is one of many: a creature of magic, unrelentingly male. He is lured through the portal by pure female beauty, a virgin sacrifice. She is killed, and he is silenced and enslaved.

Such a dark ritual is necessary. Unlike their elemental cousins—those gentler sylphs of wind and fire—battlers find no joy in everyday labor. Their magic can destroy an army or demolish a castle, and each has but one goal: find his queen, then protect and pleasure her at any cost. What would a maiden do if she were given such a servant? What would befall that kingdom foolish enough to allow a battler to escape? Young Solie and the people of Eferem are about to find out.

I really enjoyed this book. Romance, action, fight, lots and lots of stuff :).

I am afraid I am a bit of a sucker for the kind of stories that centre on soul mates and books where the guy spends most of the story trying to convince the girl that they belong together. Love it!

So here we have two worlds…dimensions…(?). Let’s call them our world and fairyland.

Solie has been kidnapped to be offered as a sacrifice so that the king’s son can be bonded to a battle sylph (from fairyland). Needless to say this does not work as planned. Solie survives and finds herself bonded to the battle sylph as his queen.

And soeth begins the story.

Now the blurb – ‘protect and pleasure here at any cost’, does make it seem like there will be nothing but ummmm frolicking in the hedgerows from page one. I am pleased to say that this is not the case. There is frolicking (I love that word) but not as much as the blurb would perhaps suggest. Well that’s my opinion anyway.

Solie is a young girl – I think she is about 17 – but her immaturity at some points did grate on me. But not to the same degree as some heroines have. Thank fully she does mature as a character and begins to step up to the challenges she is made to face.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable read with great characters that made the story that much more alive and readable.

I think those of you who like Gena Showalter will like this book.

*I received this book in e-book form from NetGalley*