Assassin's Touch (Iron Portal, #1) by Laurie London #Review

Pages: 183 

Devices: Unlimited

Published: January 18, 2014

Series: 1 of 4

Author Website: www.LaurieLondonBooks.com

ASIN: B009ZOZLPG

Sexual Content: 4/5
Genre: Paranormal Novella Romance

Blurb

Haunted by loss, Cascadian assassin Rickert D'Angelus is on a mission of vengeance. Determined to stop the Pacifican army from finding a portal to his world, he leads a group of warriors into New Seattle with one goal--to kill all Pacifican soldiers. 

Agent Neyla Trihorn had the perfect life until a deadly accident revealed her latent para-abilities. Now, the former fashion designer is the Pacifican army's hottest commodity in their fight against the invaders. 

When Rickert discovers a beautiful, unconscious soldier on a cold mountain ledge near the portal, he realizes she's a Protection-Talent and cannot be killed. To prevent the army from using her skills again, he takes her as his prisoner instead. 

But when he pulls her into his arms, a sexy and compelling vision appears, awakening something inside him. Something he can't ignore. 

Torn between duty and passion, Rickert must decide if the vision is a Talent trick designed to foil the enemy or the answer to his deepest desires... 

Author's Note

ASSASSIN'S TOUCH, the first book in the Iron Portal paranormal romance series. Enter a darkly sensual world where secret portals separate modern and ancient realms, band-of-brother heroes fight evil together, and sworn enemies dare to become passionate lovers. 

All of the Iron Portal books are standalone titles with no cliffhangers. Each one has a new couple and story-arc. They are hot paranormal romances with band-of-brother heroes, strong heroines, lots of suspense and danger, and plenty of sexy times. I hope you enjoy them! 

Review

This was offered for Free on Amazon via BookBub.

A delightful read with hardly any GPS issues to speak of, I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading the rest of the series.

The other characters were introduced, and this was the first in the series, but the author claims that all four are standalone.

It was an interesting story about a girl being tugged and pulled through life in New Seattle, on the Pacifican side of things when she's called to duty and expected to help keep safe with her Protection-Talent ability the other soldiers who are about to locate an iron portal to the other side.

She gets into a scuffle with one of those soldiers, a man who treats her pretty badly, when he pushes her over a ledge and she falls hard onto the edge of a cliff directly in front of a man from the other side -- Rickert, their enemy.

Rickert witnesses the abuse by this soldier and does the unexpected yet chivalrous thing, which helped to make the reader like him and want to know more.

Once he touches her, he sees a risqué vision that unnerves him, and from there, he struggles to remember who he is and why he hates all Pacifican soldiers, including her.

He takes her through the iron portal, to his side of the same planet, as a prisoner, but with the sexy visions continuing, and with her now conscious and able to attempt to fight for her freedom, Rickert becomes more enamored until he's torn between duty and heart.

She is instantly attracted as well, and it isn't long before the steamy romance ensues, and then truths are revealed while the two of them together make for one powerful team against anyone who dares mess with her . . . or him, as the case may be.

It has a happy ending (of sorts) and not too many plot holes or twists to be concerned about, along with a teaser for the 2nd in the series of four.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give Rickert a hearty 8 for hunk, manly, semi-alpha and a huge wang.

;-)

Issues

As most novella's go, I find it a bit disconcerting to have the two leads fall in love based solely on looks and not compatibility -- without their being given the chance to get to know one another a bit more.

Due to length restrictions in the novella category, it leaves the author little to work with. There is usually less personality displayed and a whole lot of physique/appearance as the basis for love, and I find it difficult to swallow.

Not for sexual encounters, of course, but when the word LOVE enters the picture, followed closely by marriage, family, and offspring, then it just becomes irrational to my mind.

Their story is worth reading, but maybe like me, you might feel slightly gypped when you're finished; thinking that you wanted to read more and discover more about them.

Second: I was thrown off near the end, when we discover why the Pacificans are constantly threatening the Cascadians. Throughout the novella, we are told that if you carry any type of metal through the iron portal, that you'll be destroyed, and yet the 'baskets' that the Pacificans use to do their awful deed are made of iron.

I didn't get that part.

Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. -- Wikipedia

IRON PORTAL SERIES 

Book 1: Assassin's Touch - Rickert and Neyla

Book 2: Rogue's Passion - Asher and Olivia

Book 3: Warrior's Heart - Vince and Zara

Book 4: Rebel's Desire - Toryn and Keely

Iron Portal Boxed Set, Books 1-3