Review // Pure Rapture by Aja James

“Love is a fearsome thing. It lays us naked and vulnerable at another’s feet. Hate is an addictive drug. It protects us with weapons and armor difficult to beat. To love, it takes incredible courage; to hate, only its mirage.” —From the Ecliptic Prophesies, buried and forgotten

Pure Rapture by Aja James

Pure/Dark Ones #5
Release - August 15, 2018
Genre - Paranormal Romance / fated mates
Multiple POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5 / several scenes
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Page Count - 353
Publisher - Indie

Their love is outlawed by both their Kinds…

Tal-Telal, the legendary General who led the Pure Ones to freedom, paid the ultimate price for his people: breaking the heart of his one True Love.

Her shattered heart continues to yearn…

Ishtar Anshar, once royalty reigning over a vast, ancient empire, lost everything she held dear. Deceived by those she trusted the most, she blamed the one male who sacrificed all to protect her.

No matter the distance and time, love is a renegade that cannot be ruled…

Now Fate has reunited them in this modern time to combat a burgeoning threat. Can they put the darkness behind them and forge a brighter future together?

Buy it here: Amazon
(free to read with Kindle Unlimited)

The General already owned my heart before I started Pure Rapture and now he has devastated it. In the best of ways!

I don't tend to get weak when I'm reading romance, but you see... I have an achilles heel when it comes to certain stories. Give me a beautiful, broken, but hopeful warrior of a hero and I become a gelatinous mess. And Tal had everything I love in spades!

This was probably the most heartbreaking story of the series. Each flashback to Tal's past left me reeling. I approached each scene with fear and trepidation. The author did such an incredible job of weaving the history, struggle, romance, and odds of what became of Tal and Ishtar.

I'm declaring here and now... Tal is MINE and I will claw the face (and eyeballs) of anyone who dares to think to take him from me! 😂🤣😂🤣

⊱ ──────────── 🐾 🐾 🐾 ──────────── ⊰

And then there were all of the answers I got (or could guess at)!! If you don't want spoilers, stop reading this review now!!

★ Medusa (or I should say Anunit)... this chick was insanely evil! She claimed to love her sister, Ishtar, but this female had no clue how to love. Enlil was devoted to her and she treated him as a slave. She made him her blood mate, but didn't even tie herself to him in return. Then because her sister had the audacity to find someone to love that wasn't her, she manipulated her and events to ruin everyone's lives. Some sister!

★ From Tal and Ishtar's first precarious meeting through to the sacrifices Tal had to make, all in the name of love... all of it had my heart pounding in anticipation because it knew that the day of reckoning was coming. These two would finally get to the truth of it all. Ishtar would finally see how true Tal has always been. I lived for every tension-filled, remorseful, sensual, and emotional scene between these two. Nothing made me happier than seeing all of Ishtar's feelings of bitterness, betrayal and vengeance faded away in the face of all that was Tal.

★ Did anyone else scream with joy when Ishtar made Anu submit the first time? How about when she took off half her face and clawed out her eyeballs when they battled a second time? That second fight scene had me rolling!

★ Seriously, every flashback to Tal's past made me want to cry.

One day, he wished his people could be free. To live without fear. To live for themselves.

★ When will Inanna being the Light-Bringer become relevant in this series? Will the fact that her mother is also a product of Light and Dark Ones be relevant?

★ Where the heck is Dalair? And why is it that, other than a casual mention in Sophie's mind, no one seems to be concerned with his absence? Why is no one saying where he is? Why is no one worried?

★ I still believe that the Creature and Ere are one and the same, now more than ever. Ishtar is a shapeshifter Dark One who gave birth to twins. One is Inanna. The twin boy may be alive out there somewhere. And the Creature is a shapeshifter. Makes sense, right?

★ I checked into the next book and found out it is about Enlil, which is great, because aside from knowing that he stabbed himself in the heart, destroyed his blood bond with Anu/Medusa, and forgot who he was, I need to know more. Will he remember his past? Will he continue on the path of Light? Will he reunite with Ryu and build some kind of relationship with his son? I've never really seen him as a villain, but more of an anti-hero, and I think I'll continue to like him (I hope).

~ Great Quotes ~

Who are we truly? The one we are born or the one we are made? Where does our path lead? The one with footprints behind us or the one that Destiny laid?

What is written cannot be unwritten, what is said cannot be unsaid. What is remembered can be a vision; Fate can be unwoven by pulling a single thread.

The past is written but incomplete, each story a footprint amongst countless feet. The truth is revealed but only a grain, a speck of sand amongst a vast desert plain.

Check out the previous books:

Aja James just completed the Pure/ Dark Ones paranormal-fantasy romance series in 2020. If you want your heart battered, bruised, shattered and skewered, then put back together in the most glorious ways, check out the series below. Every couple gets an HEA, but they fight like hell for it on the way.

Aja is now working on her new series, Dragon Tails, because dragons are her favorite shifters of all!

Visit https://aja-james.blog/ for more information!