Book: Heaven's Tempest by K.J. West
Reviewed by NIN freak
Rating: 5/5
This is a wonderful story with well fleshed out characters and world building. You get a real feeling for their reasoning behind the reactions they have to each other and others around them. Thus, we are introduced to the world of Kahzia:
First we come upon Willow, who is a himmel and the last of her kind on Kahzia. Himmels are wind elementals that have snake-like bodies covered in fur, jackal-like faces and long ears. She shares her body with her sister Nyadwynn. One day she finds some humans encroaching on her ancestral territory, and laying out traps for her. She goes to the camp that night and kills them all, more come and capture her the next day in her den.
Next we meet Carrick and Octan, they are the leaders of the group sent to hunt down and capture the himmel. After her capture she is taken to town and imprisoned in a cage of metal surrounded by stone and earth to dampen her elemental powers. Octan is a normal Kahzian, but Carrick is from another world. He is what is known as a Lykodine Rider, they are bonded to a lykodine at a young age and are blood magic users. Lykodines are a reptilian wolf-like creature with red scales instead of fur and hollow spines for a mane. Carrick and Leith, his lykodine, were banished to Kahzia and when they arrived they fell from the sky and Leith died.
Octan contacts the person who hired them to capture Willow. Eiropus, an onogri, and his boss, Tseren, who is also a Rider, show up and Carrick realizes what Tseren wants Willow for. He has to save her from that fate. They escape and she takes them not to her old den but to a Behndiga city. The Behndiga used to bond to himmels not unlike Riders, Willow starts to feel the beginnings of a bond between her and Carrick forming. Carrick tries to deny it because he still feels guilty about Leith and is also afraid.
Tseren finds them, a fight ensues and he uses blood magic to somehow separate Willow from Nyadwynn. Carrick finds her and she is transformed into a human-like body. Now the adventure to save Nyadwynn and stop Tseren from enacting his plan to escape the planet begins....
There is strong will they tension between Carrick and Willow over the bond as well as sexually. There are gods/Elders not interfering but not really helping, more nudging in the right direction. Great book, decently paced, would recommend. I will definitely read again.