Tempt Me Eternally by Gena Showalter

Narrated by Justine Eyre

I’ve read romances featuring vampires, witches, and various kinds of shifters. Up until Tempt Me Eternally, I’ve never experienced one dealing with aliens. At first, I wasn’t sure it would be something I enjoyed but it didn’t take me long to become totally engrossed.

Aleaha Love has a unique gift. If she touches someone, she can assume their identity. This has proven useful on more than one occasion, as Aleaha has hidden her own identity for years. Currently, she’s Macy, a member of the AIR, a group responsible for the investigation and removal of aliens. Now, she’s on a mission that is very likely to get her killed.

Breean and his people are looking for a place to call home. After a plague ravished their home world, these aliens decide Earth will do nicely. Of course, AIR will make things difficult for them, but Breean, an iron-willed warrior, is sure he can eliminate that problem with very little difficulty. He doesn’t count on meeting and subsequently falling for Aleaha, who becomes his captive.

I’m quite familiar with Justine Eyre’s narrations, and enjoy them quite a bit. Initially, I found her voice distracting, as it possesses a gravelly quality at times. I’m now at the point where I don’t even notice it, but, if you’ve never listened to her, you could be distracted or even annoyed by it.

I found it easy to differentiate the characters. Eyre performs each distinctly and I especially enjoyed her depictions of Aleaha and Breean.

Aleaha has learned to be very resourceful over the years. She’s intelligent, tough, and compassionate. Eyre allows the listener to see all of these qualities. When she comes together with Breean, we are also able to see a certain longing and vulnerability Aleaha has kept hidden up until that point. For the first time in a long time, she wants to stop hiding behind someone else’s identity. Breean loves her for herself, and she desperately wants to be that person again.

Breean is known for being somewhat of a hardass. He has lost everything but his life and the small band of men who accompanied him to Earth. He’s fiercely loyal to these men. Soon, that loyalty expands to include Aleaha, the woman Breean wants to make his own. At first, I found Breean difficult to like. He’s somewhat of an alpha male, and I find those difficult to deal with. However, we learn a lot about him, and what motivates him which made it easier to like him. Eyre deepens her voice slightly when speaking for him. She also adopts a certain brusqueness which isn’t used for any other character. The hardness fades when Breean and Aleaha are together.

The relationship between Aleaha and Breean is very believable, and definitely hot. Some of the scenes actually made me squirm. Eyre kept her cool though, never falling out of character. I admire her for not sounding flustered or bothered by the graphic nature of the sex shared by our hero and heroine.

Tempt Me Eternally is a novella in Gena Showalter’s Alien Huntress series. The story stands pretty well on its own, although I think I might have understood some of the supporting characters a little better if I had read the previous books in the series. Also, the setting was a little baffling. It’s a place called New Chicago, and I got the distinct impression it was somewhat futuristic, but I couldn’t tell how far into the future Showalter traveled.

Overall, I recommend this book if you want something short and hot, with likable characters and an action-packed plot. I’d advise you start at the beginning of the series though. In fact, after reading this, I went to Audible, and picked up Awaken Me Darkly, which is Book 1. Justine Eyre narrates the entire series, a definite plus in this listener’s opinion.

Shannon

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Narration:  A

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  Graphic

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Publisher:  Simon and Schuster

 

Tempt Me Eternally was provided to AudioGals by Simon and Schuster for review.

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